C R I 
duke of Mahon, dedined to perpetuate the remembrance 
of his victories, has palled to the younged of liis tons by 
a third marriage. The two eldeft fons of the duke de 
Crillon were both members of the condiment alfembly 
of France. 
CRIM-TAR'TARY. See Crimea. 
CRIME, f. [crimen , Lat. crime , Fr.] An aft contrary 
to right; an offence ; a great fault; an act of wickednefs: 
Undergo with me one guilt, one crime, 
Qf tailing. Milton. 
No crime was thine, if ’tis no crime to love. Pope. 
The cognizance and admeafurement of crimes and 
punifhments form in every country the code of criminal 
law; or, as it is more ufually denominated in England, 
the dobtrine of the pleas of the crown : fo called, becaufe 
the king, in whom centers the majefty of the whole com¬ 
munity, is fuppofed by the law to be the perfon injured 
by every infraction of the public rights belonging to that 
community; and is therefore in all cafes the proper pro- 
fecutor for every public offence. The knowledge of 
this branch of jurifprudence, which teaches the nature, 
extent, and degrees, of every crime, and adjufts to it its 
adequate and neceffary penalty, is of the utmoft import¬ 
ance to every individual in the date. For no rank or 
elevation in life, no uprightneis of heart, no prudence or 
circumfpeCtion of conduit, fhould tempt a man to con¬ 
clude, that lie may not at fume time or other be deeply 
intereded in thefe refearches. The-infirmities of the belt 
among us, the vices and ungovernable padions of others, 
the indability of all human affairs, and the numberlefs 
unforefeen events which the compafs of a day may bring 
forth,--will teach us, upon a moment’s reflection, that 
to know with precifion what the laws of our country 
have forbidden, and the deplorable confequences to 
which a wilful difobedience may expofe us, is a matter 
of univerfal concern. 
In proportion to tire importance of the criminal law, 
ought alio to be the care and attention of the legiflature 
in properly forming and enforcing it. It fnould be founded 
upon principles that are permanent, uniform, and uni¬ 
verfal ; and always conformable to the dictates of truth 
and juftice, the feelings of humanity, and the indelible 
rights of mankind : though it fometimes (provided there 
be no tranfgreflion of thefe eternal boundaries) may be 
modified, narrowed, or enlarged, according to the local 
or occafional neceflities of the date which fit is meant to 
govern. And yet, either from a want of attention to 
thefe principles in the firft connection of the laws, and 
adopting in their dead the impetuous dictates of avarice, 
ambition, and revenge ; from retaining the difcordant 
political regulations, which fucceiiive conquerors or fac¬ 
tions havh edabliffied, in the various revolutions of go¬ 
vernment ; from giving a lading efficacy to fanctions that 
were intended to be temporary, and made (as lord Bacon 
cxpreifes it) merely upon the fpurof the occaiion ; or 
from, ladly, too haftily employing fuch means as are 
greatly difproportionate to their end, in order to check 
the progrefs of fome very prevalent offence: from forne, 
or from all, of thefe caufeS it hath happened, that the 
criminal law is in every country of Europe more rude 
and imperfeCt than the civil. We Ihall not here enter 
into any minute enquiries concerning the local conditu- 
tions of other nations ; the inhumanity and rnidaken po¬ 
licy of which have been diffidently pointed out by Mon- 
tefquieu, Beccaria, and other ingenious writers of their 
own. But even with us in Britain, where our crown-law 
is with juftice fuppofed to be more nearly advanced to 
perfection ; where crimes are more accurately defined, 
and penalties lefs uncertain and arbitrary ; where all our 
accufations are public, and our trials in the face of the 
world ; where torture is unknown, and every delinquent 
is judged by thole of his equals, againd whom he can 
form no exception, nor even a perfonal diliike; even here 
Vol. V. No. 279. 
0 R I lit) 1 
we fltall occafionally find room to remark many particu¬ 
lars that feem to want revifion and amendment. • 
Although in various indances we may glory in the 
wifdom of our laws, we diall find it fomewhat difficult 
to judify the frequency of capital punifliment inflicted 
(perhaps incondderately) by the multitude of fuccefiive 
independent datutes, upon crimes very different in their 
natures. It is a melancholy truth, that among the ya- 
riety of actions which men are daily liable to commit, 
not lefs than one hundred and fixty have been declared 
by aCt of parliament to.be felonies without benefit of clergy, 
or, in other words, to be worthy of indant death. So 
dreadful a lid, indead of diminifliing, increafes the num¬ 
ber of offenders. The injured, through compaflion, will 
often forbear to profecute ; juries, through companion, 
will fometimes forget their oaths, and either acquit the 
guilty, or mitigate the nature of the offence; and judges, 
through compaflion, will refpite more than half the con¬ 
victs, and recommend them to the royal mercy. Among 
fo many chances of efcaping, the hardened offender over¬ 
looks the multitude that fuffer: he boldly engages in 
fome defperate attempt to relieve his wants orfupply his 
vices; and if, unexpectedly, the hand of juftice over¬ 
takes him, he deems himfelf peculiarly unfortunate in 
falling at lad a facrifice to thole laws which long impu¬ 
nity has taught him to contemn. On this defeCt in our 
laws, the virtuous fir Thomas More, the eloquent Dr. 
Johnfon, the learned fir William Blackdone, and the 
experienced and benevolent Mr. Colquhoun, have pa¬ 
thetically written : but, as yet, written in vain! In tire 
wife lenate of ancient Rome, commiffions were often de¬ 
creed to inquire into the abufes of their laws, and to re¬ 
form them. Our legiflature could never be employed 
with greater dignity and honour to itfelf, nor with greater 
advantage to thole from whom it derives its power, than 
in appointing a commiflion to revile and to amend the 
penal laws of this kingdom ; of which the feverity and 
the multitude, according to lord Bacon, expound the 
curie of the prophet, “ pluetfuper eos laqucos and which 
are worfe than lhowers of hail or tempeds upon cattle, 
for they fall upon men. 
CRIME,/! Imputation of wrong; [a Latinifm.]—To 
undergo myfielf the total crime. Miltcn. 
Which having got, he ufed without crime 
Or blamefull blot. Spenfcr. 
CRIME'A, alfo called Crim-Tarta ry, anciently the 
Cherfonefus Taurica , a peninfula of Europe, lituated be¬ 
tween the 51ft and 55th degrees of latitude, and in the 
46th degree of longitude. Its fouthern and weftern coads 
lie on the Euxine or Black Sea; its northern and eaflern 
on the Pal us Maeotis. It is joined to the continent on 
the north by a fmall neck of land not more than fix miles 
broad. The mountainous parts were inhabited by the 
Tauri, probably a colony of Scythians ; and its coads on 
the wed, the ealt, and the foutlv, by Greeks. The Scy¬ 
thians were driven out by Mithridates; the Greeks by 
the Sarmatians ; and thefe again by the Alani and Goths, 
a northern horde of Scythians. The Hungarians, the 
Colfacks, and Tartars, lucceeded in their turn; while 
the Genoefe, in the twelfth century, held a temporary 
and precarious pofleflion of the lea-ports, which they 
were obliged to yield to the Turks in 1475. At the peace 
of 1774, the Crim-Tartars were declared independent ; 
and in 1783 this peninfula was united to the Ruffian em¬ 
pire ; and further fecured to it in 1791, by the ceflion of 
the fortrefs of Oczakow, on the part of the Turks; when 
it was united to the government of Ekaterinoflau, or New 
Ruflia. From the ilthinus, on which is built the fortrefs 
of Or-kapi or Perekop, to the fil'd riling of the hill at 
Karafubafar, the country is one continued flat: elevating 
itfelf, by an eafy gradation, to the fummit of the hill, 
which forms the fouth fide of the peninfula, and the lliore 
of the Black Sea. On being added to the Ruffian domi- 
4 ^ nions a 
