fent evil as it arofe. It was therefore impoffible that those combinations could then be made which were neceffary to accomplish this in a proper manner. The various infringements which in procefs of time have been made upon the order of fociety, or the crimes committed against it, were not foreseen in the, first establishment of focial compacts, and therefore not guarded againft. Thefe evils have arifen unforeseen, and one after another; it is no wonder then that the firft people who were obliged to inftitute penal laws, fhould have committed fuch mistakes in determining the proportions between the mischief and the interefts of mankind.

But their mistakes, however confiderable, were certainly not fo much to be apprehended, as a fatal inattention to the interefts of fociety. It therefore became neceffary for the prefervation of fociety once formed, that the punishment of crimes fhould be inftituted; otherwife the paffions of men thus affembled, being excited by a multitude of different objects, confufion and diforder would have prevailed on all fides, and the new establishment would foon have been annihilated in its infancy.

The fecond chapter treats of the feverity of penal laws in the origin of fociety.

The author traces the penal laws inftituted in the origin of most nations; from which it appears that they were extremely fevere. Adultery, theft, and acts of violence, were the first crimes that were punished. Death inflicted with more or less cruelty, and mutilation were in general the only punishments. The penal laws of Japan were extremely cruel; Montefquieu quotes one of them which punithes a man with death for rifking money at play.

The republic of Tlafcala, the firft form of government which the Spaniards met with in America, feem to have inftituted their penal laws in a manner very different from thole of other nations. Falfhood, want of refpect from a fon to his father, and fodomy, were punished with death; while banishment only was awarded against theft, adultery, and drunkennefs.

The reafon of this feverity in the firft penal laws, according to our author, is that they were made by perfons who had no other idea than that of fecuring to themfelves the quiet enjoyment of their own privileges; the feverity of the penalty therefore could not affect them; as they could not imagine that they fhould ever fubject themselves to it; and it appeared the moft likely way of reftraining the incroachments of others.

The third chapter treats of the degeneracy of the penal laws.

This extreme feverity of the firft penal laws could not be of long duration; accordingly, we find that the relaxation of them which foon fucceeded, was carried to the other extreme. The punishment of the lex talionis, as well as other capital punithments was changed into pecuniary penalties and confifcations to government: a cuftom eftablished and maintained with infinite art in Greece; a cuftom which implied" an abfolute relaxation with refpect to the punishment of crimes; by fecuring the perfon of the offender, upon the furrender of his property. The licentioufnefs introduced by this custom made it neceffary to have recourfe again to feverity; which was again carried to excefs; the legislature thus proceeding from one extremity to another, which muft ever be the cafe, till a juft medium be fettled between too much cruelty and too great remiffinefs.

In the fourth chapter on confifcation, the author ftates very properly the ill effects of the prefent received modes of confifcation; and then points out in what manner, and in what cafes this penalty may be inflicted.

This confifcation muft either be for the whole, or for part of the offerer's property.

After having obferved that confifcation of the whole property fhould not be ufed except in cafes of great enormity, which would render it improper to let fuch a criminal loofe upon fociety; and which confequently imply his perpetual imprifonment; the writer proceeds thus. The offender* is the perfon on whom the confifcation is levied; and not his children; because he is to be punifhed and not they; for as they are not in the leaft guilty, their condition cannot be changed, without palpable injuftice.

Confifcation therefore fhould only extend to the income arifing from the property of the condemned perfon, during his life.'

But in order that the condition of the children fhould not be altered, a certain fum must be referved from this in-, come for their ufe, fo as to fupply the neceffary expences of their education and maintenance, according to the fituation of their parents.

Total confifcation fhould therefore be the fame thing as a royal truft, and the fentence of confifcation fhould appoint guardians to the children, if they be minors, and fhould allot penfions to thofe who are of age.

Confifcation of part of a man's property, may be a part of his inheritance, which must be divided among the heirs after the death of the offender.' .

In the fifth chapter on imprisonment, the author fuggefts that there should be two kinds of prifons; one merely for

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the detention of the accufed perfon before trial; the other for the punishment of certain crimes.-The former fhould be commodious habitations, very well fecured, but of such a nature as almoft to make the confined perfon forget the lofs of his liberty, as we are told the prifons in China are. The latter fhould have different degrees of inconveniences or horror, proportioned to the nature of the crime; fo as in all inftances to make a material diftinction between the prifon deftined for mere detention, and that for punishment.

The fixth chapter treats of exile; the feventh of condemnation to public labours, which the writer thinks might be multiplied, by applying it to an infinite number of other labours; the eighth of tranfportation, which he approves of when adjudged by a legal fentence; the ninth of admonition and cenfure; and the tenth of infamy, a fpecies of punifhment which the writer wishes to be morè rigourously and more frequently adopted.

The eleventh chapter fpeaks of the punishment of death; which the author agreeing with Beccaria, totally rejects, as directly contrary to the maxims by which focial inftitutions ought to be guided. The antiquity of this punishment by no means establishes the juftice of it; and as there are fome exceptions to its univerfality, these are an invincible argument against the neceffity of it. The impropriety of it is next to be confidered; and this the author deduces from confidering man in an unconnected state as prone to good, and that his crimes are the refult of connections and affociation. The laws of government being therefore inftitutions of fociety, cannot properly take from a man that which they cannot beftow. The public fecurity is the only end which the laws ought to have in view, by example and by punishment; and even fuppofing a man to be irretrievably wicked, a circumstance scarce poffible for mortals to afcertain, ftill the public fafety does not require him to be put to death.

This is a very flight sketch of the author's reasoning upon the fubject; which deferves to be read with attention. The laft argument against inflicting the pain of death, is deduced from the neceffary imperfection of proofs in afcertaining the guilt, and the offender. Dreadful indeed it is to think of condemning an innocent man to death; and yet there are inftances of this having happened even in the cautious modes of proceeding adopted in our courts of judicature in England.

The twelfth chapter fpeaks of the punishments that might be fubftituted for that of death.

The author fhews the neceffity of adding corporal punishment to the privation of property in cafes of great criminality, Eng. Rev. vol. V.Mar. 1785.

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and when the offender is fuppofed to be irretrievably wicked. Perpetual imprisonment occurs as the method to prevent the future attempts of the wicked man to disturb fociety. But this appears to be a deficient punithment. It is a fecret one, and therefore befides that it is not an example of terror to others, it becomes an object of mistrust to the citizens in general, who are readily apt to fappofe that many unknown acts of injuftice may be executed in a dark inclofure.

The writer proceeds thus, To keep the wicked in fafe cuftody is therefore neceffary, but this alone is infufficient. The cafe is altered, if to this imprifonment we add, condemnation to public labours. This kind of penalty hath none but equitable and falutary views, and fulfills entirely the intention which the fovereign propofes in punishing the guilty. It is as fevere as it is neceffary to be for the fake of example; it is always prefented publickly to the citizens; whom it penetrates with the useful idea, that government is entirely employed in making public utility refult from private and ordinary events. By this punishment, the fafety of fociety is fecured for the prefent; while the wicked man who readily accommodates himself to the idea of dying a little fooner, upon condition of living more happily than he could have done by prolonging his life; does not so easily reconcile himself to the idea of becoming ftill more wretched, without hope of relief. This punishment is therefore more effectual than death itself, in producing public fafety and tranquillity in future; it has not, as the pain of death, the terrible inconvenience of turning the mind towards cruelty, and of habituating to the effufion of human blood, &c. ・・・

In a word, the penalty of condemnation to public labours, makes it eafy to repair the injury done to an innocent perfon falfely condemned. The reparation may also be as notorious as the punishment, which is just and neceffary, fince the miftake was a public one."

The reft of the work is chiefly employed in confidering the different relations of the penal laws to one another, and in giving sketches for conftructing tables of these laws.

In the conftruction of these tables the author has been directed by the divifion made in the beginning of the work, of crimes into claffes, genera, and fpecies. At the head of each table, he places the fundamental punishment which he thinks appropriated to each clafs of crimes, and in the fubdivifions of this clafs, exliibiting the different degrees of enormity, he modifies this fundamental punishment in various ways, fuitable to thefe different degrees, fometimes combining it with other fundamental punishments, at other times relaxing it by various modes of alleviation.

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The fundamental punishments are confined chiefly to eight, with a few modifications. These are perpetual banifhment from the ftate.-Imprifonment-Infamy-Condemnation to public labours, or perpetual feclufion from fociety-Exile -Transportation-Confifcation and cenfure.

This code of penal laws therefore excludes, and perhaps with reafon, every idea of inflicting the pain of death. With respect to the other arrangements, it is difficult to pronounce upon a fubject fo intricate, and which may be viewed in fuch different lights. The author has taken a great deal of pains, and entered deeply into it; but it is fcarce poffible for one man to foretee all the objections that may be raised against different parts of a fyftem neceffa by fo complicated, not in the mode of treating it, but in its nature. The penal laws of all countries certainly require reformation, and thofe of fome countries call ftill more loudly for it. To awaken and excite the minds of able men to attend feriously to this reformation, is of itself a matter of great public utility. But our author has certainly done more than this.

MONTHLY CATALOGUE.

MISCELLANIES.

Art. 13. Obfervations on the Tea and Window Act, and on the Tea Trade. By Richard Twining, 8vo. 1s. 6d. Cadell 1784.

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HERE is one question, upon which, as it will probably occur to most of our readers, we will beg leave to animadvert for a moment. What was the great and momentous object, which drew Mr. Twining from behind his counter, and taught a tea-dealer to become an author? The purpofe of ferving a political party he totally dif claims. His pamphlet is not the production of indolence and leifure. "To the horæ fubfecive of the day," as he pedantically expreffes it, he has long been a ftranger." The plain inference is, that, though the profeffed delign of his publication be, “to point out the methods which are most likely to correct the prefent failure of the tea act, to remove the objections that are made to it, and to render it productive of the good purpotes for which it was framed:" yet its covert object is to vindicate himfelf and his brethren from the fuppofed accufations that have been brought against them. For ourfelves we have no fufpicions of the tea-dealers more than of any other body of men, and we believe Mr. Twining to be perfonally refpectable. But we cannot avoid remarking, that we perceived nothing formidable in the vague and idle, rumours, that were propagated at their expence; and that we always imagined it to be one characteriftic of confcious integrity, to defpife the difcontents of the principled, and the cavils of the uniformed.

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