THE llENTED MANOIJ. 47 



foro, prove that tlicy did not sJioot a partridcje,'^^ 

 This perjury failed ; yet in this case, as in many 

 otliers, perjury was allowed to go unpunished ; 

 and things have now come to such a pass, that 

 old Mr. Weller's advice to his son Samuel to 

 induce Mr. Pickwick to prove an '^ alibi," in the 

 action of ^^Bardell v. Pickwick," has been adopted by 

 every scoundrel who has become amenable to the law. 



It is perfectly clear to me that punishment should 

 not only follow close upon the heels of detected 

 crime, but that, upon the first offence j the highest 

 and most severe penalties should be awarded. I 

 am not by any means sure that any good result 

 is obtained by a light punishment for a first 

 offence, for the punishment is often so light that 

 it brings contempt upon the sentence, and hardens, 

 rather than deters, a first offender. The law has 

 very often to deal with juvenile offenders who 

 think a gaol is a fine place, and committal thereto 

 a feather in their caps, — ^making them, so to 

 speak, as good a man as their father, or equal to 

 their brothers, wlio liave been, perhaps, many 

 times under lock and key. 



As we have seen that whipping deters from 

 murder more than lian<2cinf>' bv the neck, and 



