PUNISHMENT. 



men from injuring fociety ; if the example of the Romans ; 

 if twenty years reign of Elizabeth, emprefs of Ruffia, in 

 which (he gave the fathers of their country an example more 

 illuilrious than many conquells bought with blood ; if, fays 

 Beccaria, all this be not fufficieut to perfnade mankind, 

 who always fufpeft the voice of reafon, and who chufe rather 

 to be led by authority, let us confult human nature in proof 

 of this alTertion. 



It is not the intenfenefs of the pain that has the greateft 

 effeft on the mind, but its continuance ; for onr fenfibility 

 is more eafily and more powerfully affefted by weak but re- 

 peated imprefhonSithan by a violent, but momentary, impulfe. 

 The power of habit is univerfal over every fenfible being. 

 As it is by that we learn to fpeak, to walk, and to fatisfy 

 our necefilties, fo the ideas of morality are Itamped on our 

 minds by repeated impreilions. The death of a criminal is 

 a terrible but momentary fpeftacle, and therefore a leis effica- 

 cious method of deterring others, than the continued example 

 of a man deprived of his liberty, condemned, as a bealt of 

 burthen, to repair, by his labour, the injury he has done to 

 fociety. " If I commit fuch a crime," fays the Speftator 

 to himfelf, " I (hall be reduced to that miferable condition 

 for the red of my life." A much more powerful preventive 

 than the fear of death, which men always behold in diftant 

 obfcurity. 



The terrors of death make fo flight an imprefiion, that it 

 has not force enough to withitand the forgetfulncfs natural to 

 mankind, even in the moft elfential things ; elpecially wlien 

 affiited by the paffions. Violent impreilions furprife us, but 

 their elfetl is momentary ; they are fit to produce thofe 

 revolutions which inftantly transform a common man into a 

 Lacedemonian or a Perfian ; but in a free and quiet govern- 

 ment they ought to be rather frequent than llrong. 



The execution of a criminal is, to the multitude, a fpec- 

 tacle, which in fome excites compaflion mixed with inditjna- 

 tion. Thefe fentiments occupy the nund much more than that 

 falutary terror which the laws endeavour to infpire ; but in the 

 contemplation of continued fuflering, terror is the only, or 

 at leail predominant fenfation. The feverity of a punifh- 

 ment (hould be jult fufficient to excite compaflion in the 

 fpeftators, as it is intended more for them than for the 

 triminal. 



A punilhment, tobejuft, (hould have only that degree of 

 feverity which is fufficient to deter others. Now there is no 

 man, who, upon the leaft refleftion, would put in competi- 

 tion the .total and perpetual lofs of his liberty, with the 

 greated advantages he could poflibly obtain in confequence 

 of a crime. Perpetual flaverv, then, has in it all that is 

 neceifary to deter the moft hardened and determined, as much 

 as tlie pumfhment of death : —it has even more. There 

 are many who can look upon death with intrepidity and firm- 

 nefs ;. fome through fanaticifm, and others through vanity, 

 which attends us even to the grave ; others from a defperate 

 refolution, either to get rid of their mifery, or ceafe to live : 

 but fanaticifm and vanity forfake the criminal in flavery, in 

 chains and fetters, in an iron cage ; and defpair feems rather 

 the beginning than the end of their mifery. The mind, by 

 collecting itfelf and uniting all its force, can, for a moment, 

 repel aflailing grief ; but its moft vigorous elForts are infufii- 

 cient to refift perpetual wretchednefs. 



In all nations, where death is ufed as a puni(hment, every 

 example fuppofes a new crime committed. Whereas in per- 

 petual flavery, every criminal affords a frequent and lafting 

 example ; and if it be neceflary that men fliould often be 

 witnefles of the power of the laws, criminals (hould often 

 be put to death ; but this fuppofes a frequency of crimes ; 



and from Iiciice this puni(hment will ceafe to have its effect, 

 fo that it mull be ufefnl and ufelefs at the fame time. 



We fliall be told, that pcrpelnal flavery is as painful a pu- 

 nifliment as death, aud therefore as cruel. To which we 

 anfwer, that if all the miferable moments in the life of a 

 flave were coUefted into one point, it would be a more cruel 

 puniihment than any other ; but thefe are icattered through 

 his whole life, whiltt the pain of death exerts all its force 

 in a moment. There is alfo another advantage in the punilh- 

 ment of flavery, which is, that it is more terrible to the 

 fpedtator than to the fuft'erer liimfelf ; for the fpedlator 

 confiders the fum of all his wretched moments, whilft the 

 fulferer, by the mifery of the prefent, is prevented from 

 thinking of the future. All evils are increafed by the ima- 

 gination, and the fufferer finds refources and confolations, 

 of which the fpeftators are ignorant; who judge by their 

 own fenfibility of what pafles in a mind, by habit grown 

 callous to misfortune. 



He wiio forefees that he mull pal's a great number of years, 

 even his whole hfe, in pain and flavery ; a flave to thofe laws 

 by which he was protefted ; in fight of his fellow citizens, 

 with whom he lives in freedom and fociety ; makes an ufeful 

 compariion between thofe evils, the uncertainty of his fuc- 

 cefs, and the fliortnefs of the time in which he fliall enjoy the 

 fruits of his tranfgreflion. The example of thofe wretches 

 continually before his eyes, makes a much greater imprefiion 

 on him than a punilhment, which, inftead of correfting, 

 makes him more obdurate. 



The punifliment of death is pernicious to fociety, from the 

 example of barbarity it afl'ords. If the paflions, or the ne- 

 ceflity of war, have taught men to filed the blood of their 

 fellow creatures, the laws, which are intended to moderate 

 the ferocity of mankind, Ihould not increafe it by examples 

 of barbarity, the more horrible, as this punilhment is ufually 

 attended with formal pageantry. Is it not abfurd, that the 

 laws, which deteil and punifli homicide, fiiould, in order to 

 prevent murder, publicly commit murder themielves ? What 

 are the true and moft ufeful laws ? Thofe compafts and condi- 

 tions which all would propofe and obferve, in thofe moments 

 when private intereft is filent, or combined with that of the 

 public. What are the natural fentiments of every perfon 

 concerning the punilhment of deatli ? We may read them in 

 the contempt and indignation with which every one looks on 

 the executioner, who is neverthelefs an innocent executor of 

 the public will ; a good citizen, who contributes to the ad- 

 vantage of fociety ; the inftrument of the general fecurity 

 vithin, as good foldiers are without. What then is the origin 

 of this contradiftion ? Why is this fentiment of mankind 

 indehble, to the fcandal of reafon ? It is, that in a fecret 

 corner of the mind, in which the original imprefiions of na- 

 ture are ftill preferved, men difcover a fentiment which tells 

 them, that their lives are not lawfully in the power of any 

 one, but of that neceflity only, which with its irou fceptre 

 rules the univerfe. 



What mull men think, when they fee wife magiftratesand 

 grave minifters of juftice, with indifl'erence and tranquiUity, 

 dragging a criminal to death, and wliilft a wretch trembles 

 with agony, expefting the fatal ftroke, the judge, who has 

 condemned him, with the coldeft infenfibihty, and perhaps 

 with no fmall gratification from the exertion of his authority, 

 quits his tribunal to enjoy the comforts and pleafures of life ? 

 They will fay, ' Ah ! thofe cruel form.alities of juftice are 

 a cloak to tyranny, they are a fecret language, a folemn veil, 

 intended to conceal the fword by which we are facrificed to 

 the infatiableidol of deipotifm. Murder, which they would 

 reprefent to us as an horrible crime, we fee praftifed by them 

 without repugnance, or remorfe. Let us follow their ex- 

 B 2 amole. 



