commit) for theſe an infant, above the age of fourteen, is equally liable to ſuffer, as a perſbn of the full age of twenty one.
With regard to capital crimes, the law is ſtill more minute and circumſpect; diſtinguiſhing with greater nicety the ſeveral degrees of age and diſcretion. By the antient Saxon law, the age of twelve years was eſtabliſhed for the age of poſſible diſcretion, when firſt the underſtanding might open[1]: and from thence till the offender was fourteen, it was aetas pubertati proxma, in which he might, or might not, be guilty of a crime, according to his natural capacity or incapacity. This was the dubious ſtage of diſcretion : but, under twelve, it was held that he could not be guilty in will, neither after fourteen could he be ſuppoſed innocent, of any capital crime which he in fact committed. But by the law, as it now ſtands, and has ſtood at leaſt ever ſince the time of Edward the third, the capacity of doing ill, or contracting guilt, is not so much meaſured by years and days, as by the ſtrength of the delinquent's underſtanding and judgment. For one lad of eleven years old may have as much cunning as another of fourteen; and in theſe cafes our maxim is, that "malitia ſupplet aetatem."Under ſeven years of age indeed an infant cannot be guilty of felony[2]; for then a felonious diſcretion is almoſt an impoſſibility in nature : but at eight years old he may be guilty of felony[3] . Alſo, under fourteen, though an infant ſhall be prima facie adjudged to be doli incapax; yet if it appear to the court and jury, that he was doli capax, and could diſcern between good and evil, he may be convicted and ſuffer death. Thus a girl of thirteen has been burnt for killing her miſtreſs: and one boy of ten, and another of nine years old, who had killed their companions, have been ſentenced to death, and he of ten years actually hanged; becauſe it appeared upon their trials, that the one hid himſelf, and the other hid the body he had killed; which hiding manifeſted a conſciouſneſs of guilt, and a diſcretion to diſcern be
