Britton faith, Soit inquife de ceux qui felonioufment en tems de pace aient autres blees, au autres meafon arfes, et ceux que fur de ceo attaint, foient arses, iffent que ils foient punis per même le chofe dont ils pacherent. It appears from this paffage in Britton, that he who felonioufly fet fire to another's corn or house was to be burnt, to the intent that he might suffer in the fame manner he offended.

Fleta faith, Si quis ædes alienas nequiter ob inimicitiam, vel preda caufa, tempore pacis combufferit, et inde convictus fuerit per apellum, vel fine, capitali debet fententia puniri.

de

According to the Mirrour, Ardours font que ardent citie, ville, maifon, homme, bete, ou autres cateux, de leur felonie, en temps pace, pour fame au vengeance; and the Mirrour further fays, that if a man is put into the fire, whereby he is burnt or hurt, it is a Capital Crime; but it is a fufficient plea that the mischief came by mifchance, and was not premeditated.

So

So heinous was this offence, that in Anno 3 Edw. I. it was declared by parliament, Que ceux que font prises pour arfon felonioufment fait, ne foient en aucune maniere replevifable. Adjudicantur fufpendi, qui ex malitia præcogitata combufferunt magnam partem de Lynne in Com. Norf.

The difperfing of bills threatening to burn houfes, &c. was made made High Treafon by Hen. VI. but that act is repealed by I Edw. VI. chap. 12. and I Mar.

The offence of Arfonry ought, undoubtedly, to be moft feverely punished; and where death enfues in confequence of it, the punishment ought to be capital, But where no death enfues, and wherever by fparing the life of the delinquent reparation can be made, however flowly and imperfectly, it feems bad policy to execute the offender.

There are other private felonies immediately hurtful to the fubject, which are made capital by the Statute Law, and which are not properly reducible under the heads of felonies against the life, body, goods, or habitation,

These chiefly relate to Records, Cattle, Ships, Bankrupts, and Forgery. Stealing and defacing of Records is felony. Killing, &c. of Cattle is death: Destroying of Ships is capital. Bankrupts not furrendering themselves, or concealing their effects, are felons, without benefit of Clergy. Forgery, of which there are various kinds, is capital. By the Law of Egypt, Forgery of all forts was punished by cutting off the offending parts; that is, both the hands.

CHAP.

CHAP. XII.

Reflections on the foregoing Heads.

FROM the above brief enumeration of

Capital Offences, we may fee in what

but the ne

a vaft variety of inftances Criminals may forfeit their lives. They are indeed fo numerous, that the infrequency of executions is rather matter of furprize ceffity, if any there is, of putting offenders to death in fuch a number of cafes, rather ariíes from an original defect in our Criminal Laws, than from the nature of the crimes themselves.

It does not appear that any of these Capital Offences, except fome fpecies of Treafon, and alfo Murder and Mayhem, and, in fome cafes, Arfonry, ought to be punished with fuch indifcriminate rigour. Ff

By

By punishing a petty Theft, above the value of twelve-pence, with the fame severity as Murder, and other atrocious Crimes, the Laws do, in fact, break through the boundaries of Morality, and take away those diftinctions which Reafon and Nature fuggeft to every intelligent mind.

Cruelty in Punishment often renders offenders defperate, and makes them inhuman where they would otherwife be only unjuft. Thus the Laws, which ought to foften the ferocity of obdurate minds, tend to corrupt and harden them.

It is univerfally allowed, that men's dif pofitions are, in a great measure, formed by education; and what education is to every individual, the Laws are to fociety.

Where the Laws are fanguinary, delinquents will be hard-hearted and barbarous. As the right of Punishment is now taken from private hands, and vested in the public Magistrate, why fhould the rigour

of