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    ^ Bu t not if I be willing to suffer , O . That does not alter the case ; for where there is no crime there can be no punishment . A . But cannot I take both his crime and punishment upon myself ? O . What ! pass for the counterfeit 6 f Fauntleroy ! A . No . To counterfeit implies deceit and imposition : but in this arrangement there is an open avowal to the world .

    O . An avowal ! Of what ? Of a mutual collusion to deceive the world , I do not merely say b y $ mock representation of justice , but by a legal murder . A . I must beg leave to view it in a different light . Instead of a collusion , it appears to me to be a most ingenious contrivance and expedient to— O . Do what ? A . To save the life of a fellow-creature .

    O . I thought you were about to say to evade the ends of justice . A . No , Sir , that is not my intention , but to mingle mercy with juJgroent . O . Your motive may be charitable in the extreme ; but if your schemes and plans cannot be adopted without a gross violation both of the letter and spirit of the law , and a total disregard to all the ends of justice , these are too momentous considerations to be foregone for the indulgence of your fantastic mode of exercising your charity .

    Fiat justitia—ruat coelum . A . I own to you that my device may not altogether coincide with the letter , but I do not see that it is contrary to the spirit of the law . For iri my person the law holds a victim . In this hold , so far from justice being only satisfied in respect of my innocence , more is given than she could

    require . All the ends of justice are thus amply secured . For in my death the utmost displeasure of the law is expressed against crime . Mercy is extended to a guilty individual , and a warning and example afforded , to deter others in future from similar transgression . So that while this is a measure for which the law does not provide , yet it is hot contrary to the law , but above it . The law is thus magnified and made honourable .

    O . I must say that your proposal is altogether in direct violation both of the letter and spirit of the law . In your person the law holds no victim . She neither dare nor can conceive you as such . So long as you have com- * mitted no crime , she cannot withdraw from you her protecting hand . There is then no satisfaction for you to make . And as for the law being magnified and made honourable by your death as an innocent person , so far from this being ( he case , such a transaction , could she possibly connive at it , would

    only enfeeble and degrade her . A . How so ? O . Because instead of reaching her object in conformity , to the plain and obvious meaning of her statutes , by setting them aside ana listening to your visionary schemes , she proceeds out of her own beateri track ; sne enters

    upon a course of speculations and experiments , the mischievous result of which is not matter of doubt . For observe , that even in listening to your plan she vacillates between the innocent and the guilty—in adopting it she mistakes her object , dfld thereb y becomes exposed to the ridicule and contempt of mankind . ' Besides , what would be the effect of such a precedent ? If in such an extreme case as this a substitute could be accepted , it certainly could not be refused in cases of minor importance when substitutes could be

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    Vicarious Punuhment . 389

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    VOL . I . ' I K

• Citation
  • Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), July 2, 1827, page 489, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1798/page/17/