make ample ſatisfaction, as well for the private injury, as for the public wrong.
Upon the whole we may obſerve, that in taking cognizance of all wrongs, or unlawful acts, the law has a double view : viz. not only to redreſs the party injured, by either reſtoring to him his right, if poſſible ; or by giving him an equivalent ; the manner of doing which was the object of our enquiries in the preceding book of theſe commentaries : but alſo to ſecure to the public the benefit of ſociety, by preventing or puniſhing every breach and violation of thoſe laws, which the ſovereign power has thought proper to eſtabliſh, for the government and tranquillity of the whole. What thoſe breaches are, and how prevented or puniſhed, are to be conſidered in the preſent book.
II. The nature of crimes and miſdemeſnors in general being thus aſcertained and diſtinguiſhed, I proceed in the next place to conſider the general nature of puniſhments : which are evils or inconveniencies conſequent upon crimes and miſdemeſnors ; being deviſed, denounced, and inflicted by human laws, in conſequence of diſobedience or miſbehaviour in thoſe, to regulate whoſe conduct ſuch laws were reſpectively made. And herein we will briefly conſider the power, the end, and the meaſure of human puniſhment.
1. As to the power of human puniſhment, or the right of the temporal legiſlator to inflict diſcretionary penalties for crimes and miſdemeſnors[1]. It is clear, that the right of puniſhing crimes againſt the law of nature, as murder and the like, is in a ſtate of mere nature veſted in every individual. For it muſt be veſted in ſomebody ; otherwiſe the laws of nature would be vain and fruitleſs, if none were empowered to put them in execution : and if that power is veſted in any one, it muſt alſo be veſted in all mankind ; ſince all are by nature equal. Whereof
- ↑ See Grotius, de j. b. & p. l. 2. c. 20. Puffendorf, L. of Nat. and N. b. 8. c. 3.
