PHI LOS 0 P H Y . - Classic Works of Apologetics Online

Of Crimes and Punishmentl.
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of his j\lt!gments, by carrying this law into strict ex.
ecution. But when the care of the public safety is
intrusted to men, whose authority
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over their fellow
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creatures is limited by defects of power and know).
edge; from whose utmost' vigilance and sagacity the
greatest offenders often lie hid; whose wisest precaution
~ and speediest pursuit may be eluded by artifice
or concealment ;-a diffetent necessity, a new rule
of proceeding results from the ,'ery imperfection of
their faculties. In their hands, the uncertainty of
punishment must be compensated by the severity.
The ease with which crimes are committed or con,'l
cealed, mu~t be counteracted by additional penaltietV
and increased terrors. The very end for which hUe
man government is established, requires that its reg;.
u lations be adapted to the suppres:sion of' crlmes~
This end, whatever it may do in the plans of infinite
wisdom, does not, in the de~ignation of temporal
penalties, always coincide with the proportionate
punishment of guilt.
. There are two methods of administering penal
• •
JustIce.
(The first method assigns capital punishments to
few offences, and inflicts it illvariabIy. . .
{ The second method assigns capita! punishments to
many kinds of offences, but inflicts it only upon a
few examples of each kind.
{ The latter of whkh two methods has been long
ad~pted in this country, where, of those: who receive
sentence of death, scarcely one in ten is executed. J
And the preference of this to the former method
seems to be founded ill the consideration. that the
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selection of proper objects for capital punishment
principally depend~ upon circumstances, which, however
easy to perceive in each particular case after the
GJime is con1mitted, it is impossible to enumerate or
define beforrhand; or to ascertain, however, with
that exactness, which is requisite in legal descriptions ..
Hence, although it be necessary to fix, by precise rules
of law, the boundary on one side, that is, the !imit
to which the punishment may be extended, and also
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