C R I 



343 



C R I 



•rimes 



Criticism. 



portant in its influence upon the ultimate result of the 

 trial, as nearly to supersede the original subject of en- 

 quiry. The prisoner may turn out to be a person of 

 abandoned character, generally ; he may prove to have 

 been frequently tried before for a similar offence ; he 

 may have attempted to defend himself by suborning 

 perjured evidence. These circumstances decide the 

 sentence ; and the prisoner is condemned to suffer death, 

 not evidently because the law makes the crime charged 

 a capital felony, but because he has been found, or sup- 

 posed, to be guilty of that for which he never was 

 tried, and which no law ever made capital, — of having 

 a bad character, which is not punishable at all, — or of 

 suborning perjury, which is punishable as a misde- 

 mesnor. 



All these evils, and many more, must necessarily 

 arise from a system of criminal jurisprudence, which 

 is not regulated according to fixed and known princi- 

 ples ; and in which the penal enactments are left to an 

 uncertain and arbitrary execution. For these reasons, 

 it were certainly most desirable, that the English pe- 

 nal statutes should be submitted to a thorough revi- 

 sion ; that due regard should be paid to the classifica- 

 tion of crimes, and the distribution of punishments ; and 

 that as little uncertainty as possible should be allowed 

 in the execution of the laws. Much credit is due to the 

 humane exertions of that distinguished lawyer, Sir Sa- 

 muel Romilly, in this department of legislation ; and 

 it is to be hoped, that these exertions may be ultimate- 

 ly crowned with all the success which they merit. To 

 conclude with the words of Sir William Blackstone : 

 " In proportion to the importance of the criminal law, 

 ought also to be the care and attention of the legisla- 

 ture in properly forming and enforcing it. It should 

 be founded upon principles that are permanent, uni- 

 form, and universal ; and always conformable to the 

 dictates of truth and justice, the feelings of humanity, 

 and the indelible rights of mankind." See Blackstone's 

 Comment, b. iv. ch. 1 . and 2 ; Montesquieu, liv. xii. ; 

 Beccaria, Essay on Crimes and Punishments ; Jeremy 

 Bentham, Train's de Legislation Civile et Penale, 8fc. par 

 Dumont ; Sir Samuel Romilly, Observations on the Cri- 

 minal Law of England, as it relates to capital punish- 

 ments, and on the mode in which it is administered : E- 

 dinburgh Review, vol. xviii. ; and M. Dumont, Sur les 

 feints et les recompenses, (z) 



CRIMSON. See Dyeing. 



CRINODENDRUM a genus of plants of the class 

 Monadelphia, and order Decandria. See Botany, page 

 267. 



CRINUM, a genus of plants of the class Hexandria, 

 and order Monogynia. See Botany, p. 185. 



CRISTARIA, a genus of plants of the class Mona- 

 delphia, and order Polyandria. See Botany, p. 272. 



CRITHMUM, a genus of plants of the class Pentan- 

 dria, and order Digynia. See Botany, p. 165. 



CRITICISM, in its most extended sense, is the act 

 of judging, and of expressing our judgment on the ex- 

 cellencies or defects of any object to which our atten- 

 tion is directed. In this sense, we speak of a critic in 

 war, a critic in wine, and even of a critic in natural 

 beauty. But as the conceptions of others, and the man- 

 ner in which they are communicated, by engaging the 

 greatest and most interesting portion of our thoughts, 

 present the most frequent opportunities for the exercise 

 of this faculty, the term, from its constant recurrence in 

 a limited sense, has been employed, when no other limi- 

 tation is expressed, to signify the act of pronouncing 

 judgment in the fine arts, and particularly in the vari- 



ous species of literary composition. As soon as men 

 began to impart their ideas for the purpose of instruc- 

 tion or amusement, criticism would also begin. The 

 mind is naturally jealous of a teacher, in whom there 

 must always be some pretension to superiority, and is 

 disposed to ascertain his title to that character, by exa- 

 mining the value of his information. Though pleasure 

 alone be the object of a communication, we are equally 

 jealous of a superior in the power of pleasing ; nor is 

 there wanting in the most uneducated understanding, 

 philosophy enough to prompt an investigation into the 

 causes to which the success or failure of the attempt 

 may be ascribed. Even in conversation, we are grati- 

 fied to find any extraordinary claim on our attention, 

 sifted by one who is qualified for the task, and to whom 

 a consciousness of the qualification is generally a suffi- 

 cient incitement. Identity of interest rendering us his 

 tacit allies, we encourage him to put forth his power 

 against the challenger for the prevention of an unmerit- 

 ed triumph ; and as literary composition is little else 

 than conversation on a larger scale, the process of feel- 

 ing will be similar in those to whom it is addressed. 

 Such, indeed, is human nature, as in all periods to ve- 

 rify the adage, nunquam eminentia mvidia caret ; or 

 to make 



Criticism. 



• Each little wit 



Chuckle, to see the greater hit ; 



and therefore the more obvious the excellence of any 

 effort, and the increase of reputation which it produced, 

 the more certainly would some of those, who feel them- 

 selves depressed when others are exalted, dispute the 

 superiority of its author, or seize the opportunity to 

 claim an acknowledgment of their own, by confirming 

 or correcting the impression which he had made. From 

 various motives such attempts are generally favoured. 

 Those who took delight in the original sound, welcome 

 its repetition in the echo of the critic ; and those, whose 

 envy had exceeded their admiration, turn a ready ear 

 to any thing by which that uneasy feeling can be aUe- 

 viated. Both have the additional gratification of seeing 

 the energies of human nature exerted ; for conflicts of 

 the understanding, like those of the body, are alwaya 

 interesting to spectators, who are proud of partaking 

 the faculties of the combatants. 



Criticism, therefore, naturally grew with encourage- 

 ment ; and after the invention of writing, which both 

 augmented the number of authors, and offered a better 

 opportunity of deliberately studying their merits, the 

 number of critics was augmented in proportion. This 

 invention, also, gave rise to a new order of critics, whose 

 aim was more humble, though at the same time more 

 necessary, than that of the aspiring arbiters of literary 

 distinction. These were verbal, or emettdatory critics, 

 who laboured rather to determine exactly what an au- 

 thor had said, than to pronounce in what degree his 

 sayings were to be esteemed. They confined them- 

 selves to the task of separating the spurious from the 

 genuine ore ; but to ascertain the weight and fineness of 

 the latter, was, in the subdivision of labour, generally 

 reserved for others. Before the discovery of printing, 

 the eiTors of transcribers, and after that discovery, their 

 repetition from the press, rendered verbal criticism a 

 work of difficulty and importance. The requisite qua- 

 lifications for its discharge were extensive learning, pe- 

 netrating judgment, habitual familiarity with the turn 

 of thought and phrase peculiar to the writer, and a 

 nicety of idiomatic tact, which practice alone could 

 confer. The exercise of these qualities, stimulated by 



