A Treatise on the Police of the Metropolis Part 7

45. Breaking Quarantine, &c. By a Military Court of and fabricating false bills of Justice.

health.

46. Actions prejudicial to Condemnation to the public health, or nuisance, where the works, with or without fetters; necessary precautions prescribed either from 1 day to a month, or by the laws of health are from 1 month to a year.

neglected in cases of dead animals, distempers among cattle, &c. &c.

_Civil Offences that affect the Fortunes and Rights of Citizens._

47. Stealing to the value of Confinement, corporal correction, 25 crowns of any moveable, and the augmentation of when not accompanied with the punishment if requisite.

aggravating circ.u.mstances: _Stealing Wood in a Forest--Poaching by an unqualified person--Stealing Fruit from Trees--or earth from open Fields_--though beyond the value of 25 crowns.

(See ante, No. 38, 39.)

48. Using Frauds in playing The pillory and condemnation at Games allowed by Law. to the public works, in atrocious cases; also imprisonment, from 1 day to a month, and rest.i.tution.--In case of foreigners, the pillory and banishment.

49. _Accomplices_ Imprisonment from 1 day to a co-operating in such Frauds. month.

50. _Playing at prohibited A fine of 300 ducats, or Games._ imprisonment.

51. _Persons selling Imprisonment from 1 day to a Merchandize_ at higher prices month, which may be augmented.

than fixed by the Police, or by false weight or measure.

52. _Adultery._ Corporal correction, or imprisonment from 1 day to a month.

53. _Contracting illegal Imprisonment from 1 day to a Marriages._ (See ante, No. month, and condemnation to the 42.) public works.

54. _Servants_ receiving Corporal correction or earnest, and engaging to serve imprisonment from 1 day to a more masters than one, or month.

otherwise misbehaving.

55. _Masters_ giving Imprisonment from 1 day to a servants a false character. month.

56. _Libels_ on another by Condemnation to the public writings or disgraceful prints works; reserving the right to or drawings, causing injury to recompence to the party wronged.

another. (See ante, No. 28.)

57. Distributing or publishing Condemnation to the public Libels. works; reserving the right of recompence to the party wronged.

58. _Actions_ by which Corporal correction.

danger by fire may be occasioned; such as smoking tobacco in a stable, timber-yard, &c.

59. Acts of hasty petulance, Imprisonment various, or leading to quarrels, a.s.saults, condemnation to the public works.

and damages.

_Civil Offences that tend to the Corruption of Morals._

60. Wickedly insulting the Detention in the hospital destined Supreme Being by words, deeds, for madmen; where the offender or actions, in a public place, is to be treated like a man or in the presence of another out of his senses, until his person. amendment be perfect and a.s.sured.

61. Disturbing the exercise Imprisonment from 1 day to a of Public Worship, &c. month; to be augmented by fasting and corporal correction.

62. Writing or Preaching Pillory and Imprisonment, against the Christian Religion, from 1 day to a month, or to a and Catholick Faith, &c. &c. year.

Heresies, &c.

63. Committing indecencies Imprisonment from 1 day to a in any public street or place. month, augmented by fasting.

64. Attempting to seduce or Imprisonment from 1 day to a insult women of reputation, by month.

shameful debauchery, and using gestures, or discourses, tending to that purpose.

65. Carnal Commerce by Corporal Correction, and Man with Beast, or with a condemnation to the public works; person of the same and banishment from the place s.e.x,--_Sodomy_. where the offence has been publicly scandalous.

66. Consenting to shameful Condemnation to the public debauchery in his house; works, from 1 month to 1 year; Keeping a _Bawdy House_. to be augmented when an innocent person has been seduced; second offence, the pillory.

67. Any person, man or woman, Imprisonment from 1 month making a business of to a year; second offence, prost.i.tution, and deriving punishment double, and augmented profit from thence. by fasting and corporal correction.

68. Dealing in Books, Pictures, Imprisonment from 1 day to 1 or Prints which represent month.

indecent actions.

69. Disguising in masks, and The same.

obtaining admission into societies, and secret fraternities not notified to the Magistrate.

70. Harbouring in dwellings The same.

persons not known to have an honest mean of living.

71. Banished persons, from Corporal correction, to be the whole of the Austrian doubled at each successive return; Dominions--returning, &c. and the offender to be banished from the Hereditary Dominions.

[Footnote 15: In cases where a criminal appears to be remarkably depraved, and that the apprehensions he may excite require such precautions, he shall be branded on each cheek with the mark of a gallows, so visibly and strongly impressed as not to be effaced either by time or any other means whatever.]

[Footnote 16: This punishment is different from the pillory in England. In the German Language it signifies an exposure on the public theatre of shame. The Criminal is chained and guarded on an elevated scaffold, and exposed an hour at a time, with a paper on his breast denoting his offence.]

[Footnote 17: When a criminal is condemned to severe imprisonment, he has no bed but the floor, no nourishment but bread and water, and all communication with relations, or even strangers, is refused him. When condemned to milder imprisonment, better nourishment is allowed; but he has nothing to drink but water.]

[Footnote 18: Corporal punishment is inflicted with a whip, rod, or stick, publicly, on the criminal; the degree of punishment (within 100 lashes or strokes at one time) depends on the sound prudence of the Judge.]

[Footnote 19: The punishment of the Chain is inflicted in the following manner. The criminal suffers severe imprisonment, and is so closely chained, that he has no more liberty than serves for the indispensable motion of his body.--Chained criminals suffer a corporal punishment once a year, as an example to the Public.]

In contemplating the various component parts of this Code, it is easy to discover that although some features of it may be worthy of imitation, upon the whole it is not suited either to the English const.i.tution or the genius of our people. It is, however, a curious and interesting doc.u.ment, from which considerable information may be drawn; if ever that period shall arrive when a revision of our own criminal Code (in many respects more excellent than this) shall become an object of consideration with the Legislature.--At all events it strongly evinces the necessity of adapting the laws to the circ.u.mstances and situation of the Government; and of the people whose vices are to be restrained.

The total abolition of the Punishment of death (excepting in military offences cognizable by Courts Martial) is a very prominent feature in this Code; which appears to have been founded in a great measure on the principles laid down by the Marquis Beccaria, in his Essay on Crimes and Punishments: That able writer establishes it as a maxim, which indeed will scarcely be controverted--"That the severity of Punishment should just be sufficient to excite compa.s.sion in the spectators, as it is intended more for them than the criminal.--A punishment, to be just, should have only that degree of severity which is sufficient to deter others, and no more"--This authour further a.s.serts, "That perpetual labour has in it all that is necessary to deter the most hardened and determined, as much as the punishment of death, _where every example supposes a new crime_:--perpetual labour on the other hand, affords a frequent and lasting example."[20]

[Footnote 20: The punishment of death is not authorized by any right.--If it were so, how could it be reconciled to the maxim, that a man has no right to kill himself?

The punishment of death is a war of a whole nation against a citizen, whose destruction is considered as necessary or useful to the public good.--If I can demonstrate that it is neither necessary nor useful, I shall have gained the cause of humanity.--If the experience of all ages be not sufficient to prove that the punishment of death has never prevented determined men from injuring society--if the example of the Romans--if twenty years' reign of Elizabeth, Empress of Russia, be not sufficient, let us consult human nature in proof of my a.s.sertion.

The death of a criminal is a terrible, but momentary spectacle; and therefore a less efficacious method of deterring others, than the continued example of a man deprived of his liberty, and condemned to repair by his labour, the injury done to Society. A condition so miserable is a much more powerful preventive than the fear of death, which men always behold in distant obscurity.

BECCARIA, cap. 28.]

Doubtless, the fundamental principle of good legislation is, rather to prevent crimes than to punish.--If a mathematical expression may be made use of, relative to the good and evil of human life, it is the art of conducting men to the _maximum_ of happiness and the _minimum_ of misery.