Traités. Principes de législation, cliap. XIII

3. Bowring, vol. X, p. 69 : Sundrv Memoranda of Bentham, made in 1773-1774. — Punishment. — Origin of the Vindictive Principle. Cf. Mss. Univ. Coll. n° 96. — Punishment, Its End. With respect to the Progress of Society, we may conceive three Kpochs : distinguisliable in idea, tlio1 running into one another imperceptibly in fact. — Tlie lirst, whiefa is past, in winch every inan actuated by the vindictive principe, intlieting an

(Pp. 96-98) NOTES. 311

arbitrary punishment for a received offence, more or less intense aceording tu the gréa ter or less violence of his passion. — The second, which is présent, in which the Idea of a Public being formed and established, the suprême power in the State, taking the rod of vengeance out of the hand of the Individual, uses it aceording to settled rules still governed however in great measure by the same principle. — The third. which. is yet to corne, in which ail traces of the vindictive principle being entirely obliterated, Prévention shall be the sole end and object of a Pénal Législation. — Bentham ajoute, entre crochets, cette observation irreligieuse : « In which vengeance will be left to that Sovereign to whom it belongs, and tohimonly ». — Les plus anciens manuscrits de Bentham que nous possédions, et qui semblent remonter à 1772 Miss Univ. Coll. n° 73), contiennent, sous la rubrique Xoncon, diverses réfutations du principe de sympathie et d'antipathie; Bentham y critique les sentiments d'horreur irraisonnée qu'inspirent certains délits, tels que le Suicide, l'Infanticide, la Pédérastie: « To produce the reasoo which sways their opinion, to proportion the strength of their attachment toan opinion to the force of the reasons produced is a strain of candor and fair dealing not very common among men, I mean even of those who are not conscious of being swayed by any corrupt motives, and of whom the worst that can be said is, that they are carried away by their préjudice ». Cf. Mss. Univ. Coll. n° 96 : sous le titre Punishment [After End] Right of — Death. — Various persons at varioustimes haveentertaineddoubts, concerning the right of societies to inflict capital punishment. — A situation full of unhappiness, when people are agitated with doubts which are of such a nature as to admit of no solution : which is the case which happens in ail instances, where, as hère, the terms in which they conceive them hâve in reality no meaning ; the word « right » where disjoined both from positive Law and from expediency is of that sort : he who persists in seeking a third sensé for it mustexpect onlyto plunge himself more and more into darkness and distraction.