examples of it in the laws of the Roman empire. The true principle of punishment is laid down in an edict of the Emperors Arcadius and Honorius (a). "San"cimus, ibi effe pœnam, ubi et noxia "eft. Propinquos, notos, familiares, pro"cul a calumnia fubmovemus, quos reos "fceleris focietas non facit. Nec enim 66 adfinitas vel amicitia nefarium crimen "admittunt. Peccata igitur fuos teneant auctores: nec ulterius progrediatur metus quam reperiatur delictum. Hoc fingulis quibufque judicibus intime*"" tur These very Emperors, with refpect to treason, which touched them nearer than other crimes, talk a very different language. After obferving, that will and purpose alone without an ouvert act, is treason, subjecting the criminal to capital.

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*"We ordain, that the punishment of the crime "fhall extend to the criminal alone. We hold his "relations, his friends, and his acquaintances, un"fufpected; for intimacy, friendship, or connec→ ❝tion, are no proof or argument of guilt. The "confequences of the crime fhall purfue only its 66 perpetrator. Let this ftatute be intimated to all "our judges."

(a) 1. 22. Cod. De pœnis.

punishment

punishment and to forfeiture of all that belongs to him, they proceed in the following words (a). "Filii vero ejus, qui"bus vitam Imperatoria fpecialiter lenitate concedimus, (paterno enim debe

rent perire fupplicio, in quibus paterni, "hoc eft, hereditarii criminis exempla ડર્ડ metuuntur), a materna, vel avita, om"nium etiam proximorum hereditate ac "fucceffione, habeantur alieni: teftamen"tis extraneorum nihil capeant: capeant: fint per66 petuo egentes et pauperes, infamia eos paterna femper comitetur, ad nullos prorfus honores, ad nulla facramenta perveniant: fint poftremo tales, ut his, perpetua egestate fordentibus, fit et mors "folatium et vita fupplicium *"

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(a) 1. 5. Cod. ad leg. Jul. majeft.

Human

*By a fpecial extenfion of our imperial cle"mency, we allow the fons of the criminal to live; "altho' in ftrict juftice, being tainted with heredi"tary guilt, they ought to fuffer the punishment of "their father. But it is our will, that they fhall be "incapable of all inheritance, either from the mother, "the grandfather, or any of their kindred; that they "fhall be deprived of the power of inheriting by the "teftament of a stranger; that they fhall be aban"doned to the extreme of poverty and perpetual "indigence; that the infamy of their father fhall ever attend them, incapable of honours, and ex

T 2

"cluded

1

Human nature is not fo perverse, as without veil or disguise to punish a person acknowledged to be innocent. An irregular bias of imagination, which extends the qualities of the principal to its acceffories, paves the way to that unjust practice (a). That bias, ftrengthened by indignation against an atrocious criminal, leads the mind haftily to conclude, that all his connections are partakers of his guilt. In an enlightened age, the clearness of moral principles fetters the imagination from confounding the innocent with the guilty. There remain traces however of that bias, tho' not carried fo far as murder. The fentence pronounced against Ravilliac for affaffinating Henry IV. of France, ordains, "That his house be e"razed to the ground, and that no other "building be ever erected upon that "fpot." Was not this in imagination punishing a houfe for the proprietor's crime?

«cluded from the participation of religious rites; "that fuch, in fine, fhall be the mifery of their "condition, that life fhall be a punishment, and death a comfort."

(a) Elements of Criticifm, chap. 2. fect. 5.

Murder

Murder and affaffination are not only deftructive in themfelves, but, if poffible, ftill more deftructive in their confequences. The practice of fhedding blood unjustly and often wantonly, blunts confcience, and paves the way to every crime. This obfervation is verified in the ancient Greeks: their cruel and fanguinary character, rendered them little regardful of the strict rules of juftice. Right was held to depend on power, among men as among wild beasts: it was conceived to be the will of the gods, that fuperior, force fhould be a lawful title to dominion ;

for what right can the weak have to " what they cannot defend?" Were that maxim to obtain, a weak man would have no right to liberty nor to life. That impious doctrine was avowed by the Athenians, and publicly afferted by their ambaffadors in a conference with the Melians, reported by Thucydides (a). Many perfons act as if force and right were the fame; but a barefac'd profeffion of such a doctrine is uncommon. In the Eumenides, a tragedy of Efchylus, Oreftes is arraigned in the Areopagus for killing his (a) Lib. 5.

mother.

mother. Minerva, prefident of the court, decrees in favour of Oreftes and for what reafon? "Having no mother my

self, the murder of a mother toucheth not me * In the tragedy of Electra, Oreftes, confulting the Delphic oracle about means to avenge his father's murder, was enjoined by Apollo to forbear force, but to employ fraud and guile. Obedient to that injunction, Oreftes commands his tutor to spread in Argos the news of his death, and to confirm the fame with a folemn oath. In Homer, even the great Jupiter makes no difficulty to fend a lying dream to Agamemnon, chief of the Greeks. Diffimulation is recommended by the goddess Minerva (a). Ulyffes de

* Athens, from the nature of its government, as established by Solon, was rendered uncapable of any regular or confiftent body of laws.. In every cafe, civil and criminal, the whole people were judges in the laft refort. And what fort of judges will an ignorant multitude make, who have no guide but paffion and prejudice? It is vain to make good laws, when fuch judges are the interpreters. Anacharfis, the Scythian, being prefent at an affembly of the people, faid, " It was fingular, that in Athens, wife men pleaded caufes, and fools deter"mined them." "

(a) Odyffey, book 13.

clares