252 AN AMERICAN FARMER IX ENGLAND. 



necessity is one of the awful results of crime or sin. God 

 knows if we are right. If not, we are terribly wrong. 



The principles or rules with regard to punishment, to which I 

 refer, are these : that it should not be vindictive or revengeful, 

 for it is not the business of human jurisprudence to satisfy the 

 abstract claims of justice, " Vengeance is mine, saith the Lord." 

 That, on the other hand, it should be our purpose, in the treat- 

 ment of criminals, so far as may be consistent with the good of 

 society, to do them good, to make them better, stronger and hap- 

 pier. This also is a corollary of the second principle, which I 

 would recall to mind, namely : That the great end of criminal 

 law is to prevent, discourage and lessen crime. 



Yet, practically, among the mass of our community, the pun- 

 ishment of criminals is engaged in as if it were the satisfaction of 

 a vindictive feeling against an enemy of society, a satisfaction 

 that the law makes him pay in the inconvenience and suffering 

 of his confinement and hard labor, for the injury he has done so- 

 ciety or some member of society. Practically, the criminal has 

 the counterpart of this feeling, considering that society looks upon 

 him as its enemy, and, when it catches him, vindictively makes 

 him suffer for his crime, as if it were a match between him and 

 the law, in which he was the loser ; and the effect of looking 

 upon it in this way is to aggravate and intensify the evil which 

 we theoretically propose to cure by his imprisonment. 



It is true, that in accordance with the purpose of improving 

 the character of criminals during (I cannot say by) their impris- 

 onment, we employ chaplains to preach and counsel them, and 

 give them books, which, it is supposed, in the absence of any 

 other employment of the mind, may engage their attention. And 

 these are the only means employed at present for the purpose of 

 training them to be active, efficient, industrious and well-disposed 

 members of society, upon their release. Few will be inclined 



