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ened and religious part , who judge of humaft laws by a higher and more exalted standard than mere feeling- of transitory opinion , and bring the decisions of fallible men to the tribunal of Reason aad of Scripture . The views of this class are founded on a
consideration of the attributes of the Deity himself , as the great source of all moral knowledge , and on the spirit and evidence of Revelation , as connected with the subject of penal jurisprudence . To them ( a * they believe to be the case with their merciful
Creator ) benevolence is the only end of punishment , nor would they inflict one moment of pain or evil which they did not believe to be for the production of greater good than could
otherwise be obtained . In endeavouring to serve the public , they do not cast out the sinner from their compassion and consideration , but taking all the unfortunate circumstances of the case
into view , they remember that he is a man and a fellow-creature , and they endeavour to da what is wisest and l > est for the benefit and security of all . They bear ever in mind that as God has set no bounds to his mercy , but has opened a provision for every sinner that lives to return to him , even from the extremes of vice and
wretchedness , so it becomes them to temper punishment with humanity , and to beware lest , by excessive severity or cruel sentences , the execution of the laws does-not become as bloody and as unjustifiable at the bar of heaven as perhaps the crime itself 5 for they tremble to remember that a thirst of
vengeance and of human blood may be as offensive in the impartial eye of the Deity as a desire of plunder , or even murder itself . To minds like these , no circumstances , and no seeming necessity , can palliate the inconsistency of the infliction of the punishment of death with the revealed
character of God , the precepts of Christ , and the whole tenor of Christianity . It appears to them to have originated in the former ignorance and vindictive passions of men , and to be continued through that ratal indifference to our
l > est interests , which , combined with other formidable obstacles to a change in legislative measures , form a sort of moral bulwark against all future and progressive improvement . They believe that there will be a time when
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the accounts of executions , now common , shall be read with abhorrence , and they shall be regarded in the light of legal murders ; when no man shall be called to the loathsome and dread *
ftil office of destroying a fellow » being , and breaking through all the holiest and most sacred feelings of his own nature . They anticipate ( surely not too confidently ) a period when the lives of human being's shall no longer be shortened , or their health ruined , by the slow decay of damp , unwholesome abodes , and the effects of secret
privations , not the less cruel beeause they are brought before no human tribunal . They believe that there will be a time when solitary confinement shall not be injudiciously or inhumanly prolonged till it produce disease or insanity , and that there inay arise philanthropists in the far distant future who will shudder to learn that
prisoners , having been first deprived of the power of self-support , have perished for want of food , and of the coarsest and most simple necessaries of life . There is even now abroad a noble spirit of enlarged and compassionate reform . Something has been effected , and there is reason to hope
that more will be done ; but it is greatly to be lamented that the good hitherto contemplated is so partial and limited , and that on very solemn and important subjects , most nearly affecting the welfare of human society , the world still sits in darkness , and it may emphatically and truly be said under the shadow of death . We see and feel daily that our laws , our executions , and many of our public
proceedings , are entirely opposed to the whole spirit and tenor of Christianity ; that they are in fact heathenish and barbarous in their origin , cruel in their nature , and not unfrequently defeat the very intention for which they were first framed : tliat their effect on
public character and public virtue is extremely injurious , and that the spectacles of bloodshed and wretchedness continually exhibited before the eyes of the people , are searing their consciences and hardening their
feelings . We may , indeed , be 4 ; old that it is better all punishment should be open and public before the eyes and judgments of the nation ; but have we yet to learn that revengeful and cruel deeds do not really change their
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Thoughts an the Punishment of Death . 69
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Feb. 2, 1826, page 69, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2545/page/5/
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