to be completely convinced that one great cause of the progreffive increase of crimes and criminal delinquents, arifes from the fingle circumftance of fuch a multitude of flighter offences being liable to the punishment of death.

The Roman empire never flourished fo much as during the æra of the Portian law, which abrogated the punishment of death for all offences whatfoever.When fevere punishments and an incorrect police were afterwards revived, as we before obferved, the empire fell.

It is not meant, however, to be infinuated that this would be, altogether, a proper fyftem of criminal jurif prudence to be adopted in modern times..

1. Discharged by proclamation and gaol-deliveries; having been com mitted in confequence of being charged with various offences, for which bills were not found by the grand jury, or where the profecutors did not appear to maintain and support the charges,

2. Discharged by acquittals, in the different courts; (frequently from
having availed themselves of the defects of the law,-from frauds
in keeping back evidence, and other devices),
3. Convicts difcharged from the different gaols, after suffering the
punishment of imprisonment, &c. inflicted on them for their feve-
ral offences,

4. Convicts discharged and escaped from the Hulks at Woolwich,
Portsmouth, and Langston,

5592

2962

2484

896

Total 11,934

In the present state of fociety it may be thought indif penfably necessary, that offences, which in their nature are highly injurious to the public, and where no mode of prevention can be established, should be punished by the forfeiture of life; but these dreadful examples should be exhibited as feldom as poffible; for while on the one hand, such punishments often defeat the ends of justice, by their not being carried into execution: fo on the other, by being often repeated, they lose their effect upon the minds of the people.

If it were poffible to form a fcale of offences with a corresponding punishment applicable to each, ascending from the flightest misdemeanor, in progreffive gradation to the highest crimes of forgery, arson, murder, and treason, the guilty would not fo frequently escape the punishment of the law; and the numerous hordes of thieves and cheats who are daily committed for flighter offences, would not, as at present, be fet at liberty either by goal-deliveries or by acquittals.

This idea has been already suggested by an author of the highest reputation *, and certainly merits attention; as it is hoped those fuggeftions do which will be fubmitted to the confideration of the public, for the improveBACCARIA, cap. 6.

ment

ment of the police of the metropolis, and of the country at large, in the next fection.-For certain it is, that however much we glory (and we ought to glory) in the excellence of our conftitution, yet there is no truth more clear and obvious than this;-" That our code "exhibits too much the appearance of a heterogeneous "mafs, concocted too often on the spur of the occafion "(as Lord BACON expreffes it),-And frequently with

out that degree of accuracy which is the refult of "able and minute difcuffion, or a due attention to the "revifion of the exifting laws, or how far their pro"visions bear upon new and accumulated ftatutes in"troduced into parliament, often without either con"fideration or knowledge; and without those precau"tions which are always neceffary, when laws are to "be made which may affect the property, the liberty, "and perhaps even the lives of thoufands."

Were the exifting laws, which form our prefent criminal code (according to the fuggeftions of Lord BACON, and an eminent crown lawyer of our own times), to be referred to able and intelligent men to revife, confolidate, and adjust the whole, in a manner best suited to the present state of society and manners, the inveftigation would unquestionably excite wonder and aftonish

VOL. II.

LI

ment;

ment; and those concerned in it could not fail to lament that so many laws, inflicting severe penalties and punishments for flight offences, at present fill the statutebook; while several crimes, highly injurious to fociety, are not liable to any punishment whatever.

Penal laws, which are either obfolete or abfurd, or which have arifen from an adherence to rules of common law, when the reasons have ceafed upon which these rules are founded; and in fhort, all laws which appear not to be founded on the dictates of truth and justice, the feelings of humanity, and the indelible rights of mankind, fhould be abrogated and repealed *.

The method of inflicting punishment ought always to be proportioned to the end it is meant to ferve.-That boundary fhould never be exceeded, and where death does not attach to the crime, the reformation, and future ufefulness of the culprit to the state, should conftantly form a leading feature in all criminal jurisprudence.

By compelling perfons convicted of offences to be useful and industrious, a repetition of crimes would be prevented; and instead of being injured by reiterated depredations, as is the cafe at prefent, fociety would enjoy, not only the benefits arising from the protection of

BLACKSTONE,

life and property, but alfo from productive labour, increafing and enlarging the refources of the state through the medium of its worst members.

Prevention of crimes and mifdemeanors, it cannot be too often repeated, is the true effence of police ;-and this is only to be attained by a fyftem of energy directed by fuch wife and legiflative arrangements, as shall enable the civil magistrate to throw every poffible difficulty in the way of offenders.

This indeed is very different from what is faid to have prevailed in the capital, when criminals were generally permitted to ripen from the first stage of depravity until they were worth forty pounds.-This is not the fyftem which fubjected the public to the intermediate depredations of every villain from his first starting, till he could be clearly convicted of a capital offence.-Neither is it the fyftem which encouraged public houses of rendezvous for thieves, for the purpose of knowing where to apprehend them, when they became ripe for the punithment of death.

The fyftem now fuggefted, is calculated to prevent, if poffible, the feeds of villainy from being fown;-or if fown, to check their growth in the bud, and never permit them to ripen at all.