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

OJ Crimes and Punishments. 407
with which these liberties are watched, and by which
they are preserved, permit not those precautions and
restr~.!nts, that inspectioll, scrutiny, and contr()I,
which are exercised with succesc in arbitrary governnlen£s.
F 0r example, neither the spirit of the
laws, nor of the people, will suffer the detention ~r
confinement of suspected persons, without proof" of
their guilt, \vhich it is often impossibl~ to obtain;
n()r \\'ill .they allow that masters of fam!lies be obliged
to record and rellder up a description of tIle stra~gers
or inmates w hanl they enfertain; nor that an
account be demanded, at the pleasure of the magistrate,
of each man's time, employment and means of
subsistence; nor securities to be required when these
accounts appear un ~.,atisfactory or dubious; nor men
to be apprehended upon the mere suggestion of idle­
De.,s -or vagrancy; nor to be confined to certain districts
;' nor the inhabitants of each district to be
made l·e~ponsible for one another's behilviour; nOlpassports
to be exacted from an persons entering or
leaving the kingdom: least of all w!ll they tolerate
the appearance of an armed force, or of military
la w; or suffer the streets and public roads to be
guarded ~nd patrolled by soldiers; OJ, lastly, intrust
the, police \vi tIl such discretiunary po\vers, as may
make sure of the guilty, ho\vever they involve tIle
ill11ocent. The'le expedients, althougll arbitrary and
rigorous, are many of them effectual; and in proportion
as they rellder the cOll1mission or concealtnent
of crim~s more difficult, they subtract from the.
necessity of severe puni ... hm~nt. Great citiei multiply ~
crimes by present.jng easier opportunities and more
incentives to libertinism, which in Ie \',. ljfe is COlnmonly
the .troductory stage to other enormities;
by collecting thieves and robbers into the same neigh.
bOiJrIl~J(Jd, \Vl1icll enables thel1i ::0 form communications
and confederacies, t11at i:~crcase their art and
(:()ura~e, as v-~ell a~ stre11gth ,ll1d \\'ic,l~edness; but
~)riHcipally by the refuge they arford to villany, ill
· he mean;; of concealment, and of subsi.sting in secre ..
I ~., .~l.. 1~~~.·:~ '.'~.. ,~ ..,r~J:I.~(l to\,\rrlS stIppl}' to Illen of every del'
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