SECT. II. Of the Effects of Paffion in the Legislature. P ERHAPS the great feverity of our Laws has been in fome degree owing to their having been made flagrante ira, on fome fudden occafion, when a combination of atrocious, circumftances, attending fome particular offence, inflamed the legislature. Men, in the warmth of refentment, naturally endeavour to inflict thofe penalties on delinquents which are most terrible to their own imaginations; and as nothing is more terrible than death to those who poffefs ease and affluence, they therefore deem Capital Punishments to be univerfally the ftrongest objects of terror. But it is wrong, in such cases, to judge from our own feelings, unless we could put ourfelves in the place of the criminals who are are the objects of our confideration. Men, who are capitally guilty, are fuch as are generally tired of life in the manner they hold it; and who therefore commit crimes to better their condition, or put an end to their being. They generally make their advances to the wickedness they intend to perpetrate, with the view of this alternative before their eyes; and confequently the terror of death hath not fufficient influence to deter them from their defperate refolution. Shakespear, that excellent judge of human nature, describes the fituation of fuch wretches in the following fpeeches of the two murderers in Macbeth. The firft fays, I am one Whom the vile blows and buffets of the world Have fo incens'd, that I am reckless what I do, to fpite the world. The fecond adds, And I, another, So weary with disasters, tugg'd with fortune, To mend it, or be rid on't. Again, in his Play of Meafure for Mea Jure, he has reprefented the hardened crimi nal, as "a man that apprehends death no more dreadfully than as a drunken sleep; "careless, reckless, and fearless of what is paft, prefent, and to come; infenfible of "mortality, and mortally defperate." It is well observed by the Author of Principles of Penal Law, that the crimes of fuch a man may perhaps have made him unfit to live, but he is certainly unfit to die. The fafety of the community, and the prefervation of individuals, may call for his execution; but the bofom of Humanity will heave in agony at the idea, the eye of Religion will turn with horror from the spectacle. We learn from experience, that, in those countries where punishments are mild, the minds of the people are more affected by them, than they are in other places by more fevere ones. This leffon alone is L'experience fait remarquer, que dans les pays ou les peines font douces, l'Esprit de Citoyen en eft frappé, comme il' eft ailleurs par les grandes. L'Efprit des Loix. fufficient fufficient to teach us, that we gain no other end by the severity of punishments, than that of hardening the minds of the people, and adding defperation to depravity. But in order to prove more effectually that rigorous and fanguinary laws are inconfiftent with our free and moderate conftitution, it will be proper to take a view of our Criminal Laws in all their different relations. CHA P. VII. SECT. I. Of the different Relations of our Criminal Laws. THE HE Baron de Montefquieu obferves, that all laws fhould be relative to the principles of the government, to the nature of the climate, to the morals, manners, and religion of the people; and, R laftly, 1 laftly, to the number of inhabitants. Let ús therefore proceed to examine our Criminal Laws in thefe various refpects. SECT. II. Of Criminal Laws with relation to the Principles of our Government. TH HAT all Laws fhould be framed correspondent with the Principles of the Government where they are obligatory, is a political axiom not to be controverted. Severe Laws, it will be allowed, are beft calculated for the fupport of defpotic power; but moderate Governments are to be maintained by a milder fystem. It would be eafy to prove, fays the writer above quoted, that in all, or - most of the states in Europe, the rigour of punishment has diminished, or augmented, |