Page:Essay on Crimes and Punishments (1775).djvu/194

This page has been proofread, but needs to be validated.
ii
A COMMENTARY ON

accomplished, and of a very reputable family.

SHE was culpable of having suffered herself to be got with child, and also, of having abandoned her infant. This unfortunate girl, flying from her father’s house, is taken in labour, and, without assistance, is delivered of her burden by the side of a wood. Shame, which in the sex is a powerful passion, gave her strength to return home, and to conceal her situation. She left her child exposed; it is found the next morning; the mother is discovered, condemned and executed.

THE first fault of this unhappy victim ought to have been concealed by the family, or rather claims the protection of the laws, because it was incumbent on her seducer to repair the injury he had done; because weakness hath a right to indulgence; because concealing her pregnancy may endanger her life; because declaring her condition destroys her reputation, and because