L,' O U r S I A N A. 325 



Beaudrot the inhabitant, for guiding the mur- 

 derers of the governor of Cats IJle^ was fenten- 

 ced to be broke upon the wheel, and his corpfe 

 to be thrown into the river ; which was accord- 

 ingly executed j a foldier fuffered the fame pu- 

 nilhment, and a Swifs was fawed alive through 

 the middle of his body. 



When one refledls upon the fate of the unhap- 

 py Beaudrot^ it is eafily perceived that he was 

 judged contrary to form, and by military men, 

 who were ignorant of civil and criminal laws, as 

 he could not have deferved the cruel punilhment 

 which he underwent. If politics require that 

 for preferving public fafety, no crime Ihould be 

 left unnunifhed, juflice demands in favour of 

 humanity, that the judge fhould always be more 

 afraid of punifliing too much than too little, 

 according to the axiom. It is better to let an hun- 

 dred guilty men efcape^ than to punijh one Jingle in- 

 nocent man. 



If the man ought to be punlfhed in order to 

 ferve as an example, according to this law, the 

 punifliment might have been mitigated in fa- 

 vour of his wife and four children, whom his 

 death threw into the greateft defolation ; among 

 the four children was a girl of an admirable 



Y 3 figure, 



