ibid. — Cf. Blaekstone, IV Comm

27. Tltoughts on Executive Justice. Dans ce curieux ouvrage, qui exerce (v. les mémoires de Romillv, Narrative ofhk i/arly life, 1785; vol. I, p. 89) de l'influence, Madan veut démontrer 1° que la peine pour être efficace doit être certaine; 2° qu'il se commet plus de crimes en Angleterre que dans aucun autre pays civilisé; 3° que cette fréquence des crimes a pour cause 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, tins is matter wholly for the considération of the législature : I shall therefore dismiss it, with my hearty good wishes, that, if ever it be done, it may be productive of ail that benefit to the public, wïrich the warmest advocates for such a measure can expect or désire : at the same time expressing my own doubts, whether 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 intérr-?ant surtout pour avoir provoqué une réplique de Romillv, 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 tochastisecriminals; that that object cannot possibly be attained by the mère terror of punishment; and that unless a just proportion beobserved between the various degrees of crimes, in the penalties appointed for them, the law must serve to excite, rather than repress guilt ; are truths so generally received, that

they are corne to be considered almost as axioins of crirninal law. — p. 32 : Ail punishment 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 notoriety, those who incur its penalties do it voluntarily, and hâve therefore no reason to complain... It is true, that every year an immense volume of statutes is printed and publicly sold ; but it might as well not exist, for the multitudes throughout the kingdom, who hâve not money to purchase it, time to peruse it, or capacities to understand the technical and mysterious language in which it is composeJ.