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Untitled Article
more easily obtained . Offences would thus multiply in fncfportion as \ the law would lose its power to teach them . No . If the law is to "be' magnified and made honourable , it must proceed in an even , undeviating course , and be so . impartially administered , that even the highest person in the State shall not be above its reach ; nor the meanest individual below its protection .
A . Your observations imply that I cannot take Fauntleroy ' s crime upon myself ? O . Precisely so . If it be Fauntleroy ' s crime , how can it be yours ?
A . May it not be imputed to me ? O . Imputed to you ! Who would or can impute it to you ? Nobody suspects you . Fauntleroy has been found guilty ; he denies not the charge , and acknowledges the justice of his sentence . A . But may I not impute his crime to myself ?
O . Are you guilty then , or not guilty ? A . Guilty . O . Guilty !! A . Yes ; by imputation , but not in reality . O . That is to say guilty , but innocent ; and innocent , but guilty . Was there ever a more palpable contradiction ? A . Though guilt and innocence are not to be confounded , yet it must be allowed , that , according to the established usages of mankind , one person may give satisfaction for the defaults of another . For instance , suppose Fauntleroy incarcerated for debt to the amount of his forgery , and that from his want of finances , and the determination of his creditor , he has no hope of release , and suppose that I advance for him to the amount of his debt , and defray other incidental charges , do you imagine that there would be any further claim on that account to detain him in prison ? O . None whatever .
A . Then I may impute Fauntleroy's debt to myself , and the imputation be accepted , but not his crime . W hat is the reason of this ? I no more incurred his debt , than I committed his forgery , and yet I am allowed to compensate for the one , but not for the other . O . You are not allowed to give satisfaction for his crime , because you cannot , not being capable , by any construction whatever consistent with truth , of being accounted guilty . Neither had his creditor any claim upon
you for payment of the debt , but you yourself voluntarily came forward and paid it . He accepted , because his claim was for money alone , which you could give to or for Fauntleroy to any extent that your will and fortune permitted . Now , observe the difference between crime and money . Whilst you must now allow that it is not possible to transfer crime from one to another , on the contrary money was made for the very purpose of transferrence ,
" 'Twaa mine , ' tis his , and has been slave to thousands . " A . But though crime may not be transferred , may not the punishment , as in the case of Damon ; the executioner being on the very point of doing his office , when Pythias appeared to relieve him ? O . I am glad you have brought forward that far-famed instance of heroic friendship , to mark to you the distinction that is to be observed between law that is founded on the unchangeable principles of right And wrong , and that which proceeds from the will of a capricious tyrant . Under an arbi * trary government the Prince may dispense with the laws , because he is under
Untitled Article
490 FieariQU * Punishment .
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), July 2, 1827, page 490, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1798/page/18/
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