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Punishment loses its proper nature if it be not calculated both to reform the offender and to reduc ^ the number of offences : it loses its' jUSt effect if it be inflicted so long after the commission of the crime that the connexion
between them is forgotten . These and many other considerations surely call for a new and more accurate scale of punishments , in which that of death shall either not exist , or be assigned to as few crimes as possible , * Among ourselves the experiment of punishment nominally capital but really
indefinite , has long been made : with what ill success , we canot be ignorant . We know that among us the hope of mitigated or remitted punishment has even cherished guilt ; while in countries where death is never or very rarely the penalty exacted by public justice , in countries where the malefactor is
compelled to make some retribution by his labour to the civil society which he has injured , and where there are fewer checks upon population than in our own , crime is diminished , instead of advancing .
In the opinion of Mr . Eardley-Wilmot , the uncertainty of punishments and the blind severity of our laws € C have tended more to swell the catalogue of offenders than any one
circumstance resulting from the artificial fabrication of society , the offender knowing that if ever the rigid enactment of the statute is enforced , it will nfot be above once in a hundred
instances * * * * gambles with his life on any adventure which his wickedness or his necessities may offer to him . "Pp . 7 , 8 . . One of the most fruitful sources of those outrages against the laws that we deplore ; is the association of young with old offenders in our prisons . Seldom is it that these two classes of
transgressors are separated , or , indeed , that provision is made for the purpose : and the consequences have been ascertained to be beyond imagination dreadful . Thus transgression tends to multiply itself almost indefinitely . Most of our gaote ® te schools of vice : for the number of exceptions is deplorably small .
* $ JKL" ^' tW ^!^ 'Mssaff oh Crimes and f ^ m ^ mm pH wk ™* ? Wer , in tsvlm JL . atffl P <> 8 be ; M * f MMchfeater . V ( <
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Tfr the examination and correction of this enormous evil public attention has recently been directed . It ^ a topic of the first practical imjiidrtlaice , a topic in which patriotiep ^^^ ilionaL safety , morals and religion , are deeply interested : it stands perfectly distinct from party views and feelings , and calls for the unanimous exertions of
all who have the means of information and improvement in their power . By Mr . Eardley-Wilmot €€ our prisons" are styled t € receptacles of vice and depravity : " he is convinced too that b y the intercourse of " juvenile offenders" with " hardened
villains , " and " by the want of separation of prisoners , " incalculable mischiefs are produced . —Pp . 11 , 12 . We are apprehensive that an additional cause of the increase of crime
will be discovered in that relaxation of parental discipline tvhich characterizes our age and country . Youthful insubordination is , in the view of many candid and intelligent observers , one
among the vices of the times : the ties of the authority of fathers and mothers , and of those who occupy their place , are in several instances loosened ; and the independence of the man is affected ,
claimed and even exercised by those who have scarcely passed the term of childhood . Thus , by a natural , an easy and a rapid process , the number of young offenders against the laws is considerably augmented .
Endeavours to stem the torrent of crime , may however be made with great advantage . Not , perhaps , to the extent which pure benevolence desires
and hopes , but still to no small extent , and in a degree which is not a little animating . There are remedies which may be adapted to the respective symptoms of the diseases , and to most , if
not to all , of its proximate causes . Associated and persevering exertions , wise and dutiful representations , with the view of interesting the Legislature and the Public in measures for the correction of juvenile delinquency , the construction and discipline of prisons and the revision ox our penal code , will surely awaken some zeal and produce some benefit ! Nor caji it b , e supposed that a nation so characterized as ours * is by deeds of hi | iri | i « ity arid I VlW f * i */?\ ' i U ^ 1 Ufgw ^ HHb * ^^ flft iff T 1 \ " W ^ ^^ m * r itf ^^ l ' Jii i ^^ fc ^ JIi ^^^^ h JK ~ lm ' m mf ^^ U ^ i ^ \ 9 t * J * ' w ^ 'I OP f
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418 Review ^ Eardley- fFilmofs Letter offith e Increase of Criihe in geheraL
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), July 2, 1820, page 418, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2490/page/38/
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