ibid, — Cf. Blackstone, IV Comm

27. ThoughU on ExecutixHi Jmlice. Dans ce corieax ouvrage, qui exerce (v. les mémoires de RomiUy, Narrative ofhis early lifa, 1785; vol. I, p. 89) de l'influence, Madan veut démontrer 1* que la p^e pour être efficace doit être certaine ; 2* qu'il se commet plus de crimes on Angleterre que dans aucun autre pa^'s civilisé ; 3* que cette fréquence des crimes a pour ^'atise l'incertitude de la peine ; 4» que cette incertitude de la peine a pour cause l'indulgence maladroite des juges et des jurys; 5* que les lois anglaises ne sont pas sévères. — Il admet d'ailleurs en finissant (pp. 133-4), que, si les lois ne sont pas exécutées, parce qu'elles sont jugées trop sanguinaires, il faut les adoucir, mais il ajoute : However, this is matter wholly for the considération of tlic législature : I shall therefbre dismîss it, with my hearty good wishes, that, if evcr it be donc, it may be productive of ail that bcnefit to the public, which the warmest advocates fbr such a measurc can expcct or désire : at the same time expressing ray own doubts, yrhethcr any other human System could equal the présent, for the suppression of public injury supposing the law as it now stands were punctually executed. — L^ouvrage de Madan est intéressant surtout pour avoir provoqué une réplique de RomiUy, où nous croyons reconnaître déjà l'influence de Bentham. V. p. 5 : That criminal prosecution ought always to be carried on for the sake of the public and never to gratify the passions of individuals; that the primary object, of the législature should be to prevent crimes, and not to chastii»e criminals ; that that object cannot poesibly be attaincd by the mère terror of punishment; and that unless a just proportion bc observed bctween the various degrees of crimes, in the penalties appointed for them, the law must serve to excite, rather than repress guilt ; arc truths so generally received, that

328 NOTES. (Pp. 142-146)

they are corne to be considered almost as axioms of cri minai la w. — p. 32: AU puDishment is an evil, but is yet necessary to prevent crimes, which are a greater evil. • p. 35. We are told that, the law being of public ootoricty, those who incur its penalties do it Toluntarily, and bave therefonî no reason to complain... It is true, that every yearan immense yolume of slatutes is printed and publicly sold ; but it might as well not eiist^ for the multitudes throughout the kingdom, who bave not money to purehase it, time to peruse it, or capacîties to understand the technical and mysteriouB language in which it is composed.