THE 
MONTHLY MAGAZINE. 
No. 186. ] 
JUV I,. 1809. 
[6 of Vou. 97. 
wae 
= SoD 
“® As long as thofe who write are ambitious of making’ Converrs, and of giving fo their Opinions a Maximum of 
** Influence and Celebrity, the mow extenfively circulated Mifcellany will repay with the grearek Effect the 
** Curiofity of thofe who read either for Amufement or Infruction.”—— JOHNSON, 
ee 
ORIGINAL COMMUNICATIONS. 
to the Editor of the Monthly Magazixe. 
SIR, 
| AM not surprised at the countenance 
given, by various high legal au- 
thorities, to the novel practice of. the 
Court of King’s-Bench, of banishing per- 
sons, convicted of misdemeanors, to 
strange and rémote places of confine- 
ment. Public men, and particularly 
‘colleagues in power, cannot well avoid 
sacrificing truth at the shrine of polite- 
ness, and Compromising their principles, 
from the regard which they feel for their 
personal comfort and convenience, — 
Hence it is, that the errors, or crimes 
of power, are constantly kept in coun- 
tenance; that truth seldom obtains effec- 
tive votaries; and that the follies of every 
/age remain to be exposed by the dispas- 
sionate voice of history. 
On this universally prevailing rule of 
conduct, we may account, without a 
libel, for the perversion of human reason, 
which takes place in the discussion of 
almost every political topic, ‘The errors 
and passions of men in power are flat- 
tered by the slaves of interest, of pre- 
judice, or politeness; and thus, a nuni- 
ber of enormities are practised in an 
enlightened age, in the most enlightened 
country in the world ; and even law itself, 
which professes to be the perfection of 
‘human reason, is often perverted to the 
worst purposes, and made subservient to 
the basest passions. 
Else how can it be gravely maintained, 
in this free country, that the Court of 
King’s-Bench possesses, by the custom or 
common law of England, aright to send 
persons, convicted of misdemeanors, to 
any remote prison in England, subject to 
an arbitrary or capricious election of its 
own? . 
_The common law of England is 
founded on sound reason and common 
Sense. 
What say these? 
_ 4. That the object of all punishment 
is example. 
2. That example should be made 
where the crime was committed, 
3. That secret punishments, or pu- 
Monturxy Mac, No, 186. 
nishments inflicted at a distance from 
the seat of crime, were never in the con- 
templation of the law. 
4. Hence, every punishment should 
have relation, in regard to its locality, 
to the place where the crime was coni- 
mitted. 
What could be so prepesterous, as to 
order a man to be whipped at Durham, 
for a crime committed at Falmouth? 
Reason, and therefore common law, 
are obviously at variance with the novel 
practices of the Court of King’s-Bench, 
and I have heard of no statute to jus- 
tify these novelties; and I defy the 
lawyers to produce one. 
What says history? Our legislative 
authorities quote the precedents of past 
ages, I beleve no such precedents 
exist in their modern interpretation. 
If a man had committed a crime at 
Lancaster, or at Exeter, it is reason- 
able, that the Court of King’s-Bench 
should have referred bim back to Lane 
caster, or Exeter, respectively, for pu- 
nishment; and in this sense, and this 
sense only, the Court of King’s-Benchhas 
jurisdiction over every prison in the 
kingdom. 
The principle of punishing in the 
place where the crime was committed 
is anterior and universal, and cannot be 
counteracted by the ulterior and partial 
rights of any Court, which acts only 
under the authority of common law, 
Precedents affarded by times of rebel- 
lion, or insurrection, or by the tyran- 
nical usurpation of power, are excepe 
tions, which afford no general rule, 
But the domestic historian will tell us, 
that such cases of remote imprisonment, 
in former ages, except of Kirgs, and other 
such personages, were rendered impos- 
sible, ABSOLUTELY IMPOSSIBLE and in 
PRACTICABLE, by defect of ready inter- 
course between one part of the kingdom 
and the other, by the difficulty of convey- 
ing a petty offender to distant places, and 
even by the wretched condition of the 
prisons themselves. . 
No man can gravely contend, that in 
the state of the roads, and of communi. 
AA Ration 
