1879.] 
The Criminal Law of the Future. 
593 
great ability and weight consider heredity scarcely compa- 
tible with the doctrine of personal responsibility. If a man 
is born a murderer, how, they ask, can he be justly punished 
for murder ? 
We will first address ourselves to this latter class of ob- 
jectors, as being apparently the more sincere and the more 
candid. They seem to consider that morally, if not intel- 
lectually and physically, every man is born alike. They do 
not, of course, deny the glaring, palpable faCt that crime 
has run in certain families, but they contend that this result 
is due not to any transmitted innate peculiarities, but rather 
to evil example and bad training. These views are forcibly 
expressed by Dr. J. Mortimer Granville, in a paper on the 
“ Physical Theory of Sin,” recently published in “ Good 
Words.” None of the advocates of heredity, of course, are 
likely to deny that example and training in early life and 
companionship in later years are real and potent factors in 
the formation of character. Nor can it be questioned that 
the children of professional criminals are placed under very 
unfavourable circumstances. If not systematically misled, 
they are left to their own guidance, and to the contaminating 
influences around them. Still these post-natal circum- 
stances are, we hold, far from explaining the whole of the 
case. Instances maybe found where children of a criminal 
strain have been withdrawn from their parents at too early 
an age to have been corrupted either by bad precept or 
worse example, have been placed in virtuous society, and 
surrounded by the best moral influences; yet as they 
reached maturity their inborn criminal tendencies were 
manifested on the earliest opportunity. The writer may 
here be permitted to bring forward a case which happened 
within the scope of his personal observation, and for which 
he is prepared to vouch : — G. J. C., a young man of good 
family, was not certainly a criminal, but was what is known 
in America as a loafer. He was thoroughly idle, shiftless, 
intemperate, and profligate when he had money at com- 
mand, and at other times ready to sponge upon his friends. 
Unfortunately he prevailed upon a young lady, ignorant of 
his character and position, to become his wife. After a 
short and unhappy married life he left her, went to Canada, 
and died there. The lady thus forsaken brought up her two 
sons — the elder of whom was not three years and the 
younger about ten months of age at the time of their 
father’s departure — most carefully. That his example or 
conversation could have had any effecT upon them is im- 
possible. All influences for good which could be brought 
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