the party injuring of the power to do future miſchief ; which is effected by either putting him to death, or condemning him to perpetual confinement, ſlavery, or exile. The ſame one end, of preventing future crimes, is endeavoured to be anſwered by each of theſe three ſpecies of puniſhment. The public gains equal ſecurity, whether the offender himſelf be amended by wholſome correction, or whether he be diſabled from doing any farther harm : and if the penalty fails of both theſe effects, as it may do, ſtill the terror of his example remains as a warning to other citizens. The method however of inflicting puniſhment ought always to be proportioned to the particular purpoſe it is meant to ſerve, and by no means to exceed it : therefore the pains of death, and perpetual diſability by exile, ſlavery, or impriſonment, ought never to be inflicted, but when the offender appears incorrigible : which may be collected either from a repetition of minuter offences ; or from the perpetration of ſome one crime of deep malignity, which of itſelf demonſtrates a diſpoſition without hope or probability of amendment : and in ſuch caſes it would be cruelty to the public, to defer the puniſhment of ſuch a criminal, till he had an opportunity of repeating perhaps the worſt of villanies.
3. As to the meaſure of human puniſhments. From what has been obierved in the former articles we may collect, that the quantity of puniſhment can never be abſolutely determined by any ſtanding invariable rule ; but it muſt be left to the arbitration of the legiſlature to inflict ſuch penalties as are warranted by the laws of nature and ſociety, and ſuch as appear to be the beſt calculated to anſwer the end of precaution againſt future offences.
Hence it will be evident, that what ſome have ſo highly extolled for its equity, the lex talionis or law of retaliation, can never be in all caſes an adequate or permanent rule of puniſhment. In ſome caſes indeed it ſeems to be dictated by natural reaſon ; as in the caſe of conſpiracies to do an injury, or falſe
