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

Of Crimes and Punishments. 41 ]
to fear from yielding a~ the f;.)rmer. The in~tant and
almost irresistible de~ire of relief may draw from one
sufferer false accusations of himself or (ltl-ters, as it
may sometimes extract the truth out f)f another.
This ambiguity rendel s the use of torture, a .. a means)
of procuring information in criminal ?receedings,Ii-J
able to the risk of grievous and irrepafailJe injusticel
For which reasol'~ though recommenri~ed by ancient
and general example, it has been properly exr·loded
from the mild and cautious system of penal jurispnldence
e~tabljshed in tllis country.
Barbarous spectacles of human agony are justlYI
found fault \vlrh, as tending to harden and deprave!
the public feelillgs, and to destroy that sympathy_
with which the sufferings of our fello\v creatures
ought always to be seen; or, if no eflect of this kind
foHow from them, they counteract in some measure
their own de~ign, by sinking men's abhorrence of the
crime in tileir CGnlnliseration of the criminal. But if
a m Jde of execution cOuld be d~vised, \vhich \vould
.augmeIlt tIle horror of tl1e puni~hlnent, \vithout offending
or impa~rip.g the public sensibility by cruel or
unseemly exhibitiorls of Leath) it nlight add something
to the effiCac)7 of the exa~~iple; ,lnd by being reserved
for a few atroci()us crinles, 111ight also enlarge the scale
of punishll1ent;· an addition to \vhich seenlS ",-anting;
for, as the matter remains at present, you hang a malefactor
for a simple robbery, and can do no more to
the villian \\J ho h2S poi~oned Ilis father. Some\vha
()f the sort \\?e havt~ been de'cribing \vas the propo~a
not tong since sug~ested, of casting murderers into a
den of wild bea:-,ts, where they would perish in a
manner dreadful to the imagination, yet concrale
frolil the vic\v.
Infamous punishments are mismanaged in this cou~
I
try) \\Tith respect l)oth to the crimes and tIle crimi.
naIs. In the first place, they ought to be confined to
otfenct·s, which are held in undi~puted and universal !
detestation. To condemn to the pillory the author
or editor of a libel against the state, who has rendered
himself the favourite of a party, if not of the peepiC',
by the very act for which he stands there, isto I