the place, the company wherein it was committed ; all theſe, and a thouſand other incidents, may aggravate or extenuate the crime[1].
Farther : as puniſhments are chiefly intended for the prevention of future crimes, it is but reaſonable that among crimes of different natures thoſe mould be moſt ſeverely puniſhed, which are the moſt deſtructive of the public ſafety and happineſs[2] : and, among crimes of an equal malignity, thoſe which a man has the moſt frequent and eaſy opportunities of committing, which cannot be ſo eaſily guarded againſt as others, and which therefore the offender has the ſtrongeſt inducement to commit : according to what Cicero obſerves[3], “ ea ſunt animadvertenda peccata maxime, quae difficillime praecaventur. ” Hence it is, that for a ſervant to rob his maſter is in more caſes capital, than for a ſtranger : if a ſervant kills his maſter, it is a ſpecies of treaſon ; in another it is only murder : to ſteal a handkerchief, or other trifle of above the value of twelvepence, privately from one's perſon, is made capital; but to carry off a load of corn from an open field, though of fifty times greater value, is puniſhed with tranſportation only. And, in the iſland of Man, this rule was formerly carried ſo far, that to take away an horſe or an ox was there no felony, but a treſpaſs ; becauſe of the difficulty in that little territory to conceal them or carry them off: but to ſteal a pig or a fowl, which is eaſily done, was a capital miſdemeſnor, and the offender was puniſhed with death[4].
Lastly, as a concluſion to the whole, we may obſerve that puniſhments of unreaſonable ſeverity, eſpecially when indiſcriminately inflicted, have leſs effect in preventing crimes, and amending the manners of a people, than ſuch as are more merciful in general, yet properly intermixed with due distinctions
- ↑ Thus Demoſthenes (in his oration againſt Midias) finely works up the aggravations of the inſult hee had received. “I was abuſed, ſays he, by my enemy, in cold blood, out of malice, not by heat of wine, in the morning, publicly, before ſtrangrs as well as citizens ; and that in the temple, whither the duty of my office called me.”
- ↑ Beccar. c. 6.
- ↑ pro Sexto Roſcio, 40.
- ↑ 4 Inſt. 285.
