[Footnote 135: As punishments became more mild, clemency and pardons became less necessary.--Clemency is a virtue that ought to shine in the code, and not in the private judgment.--The Prince in pardoning gives up the Public Security in favour of an individual; and by the exercise of this species of benevolence proclaims a public act of impunity.--Let the Executors of the Laws be inexorable; but let the Legislature be tender, indulgent and humane. BECCARIA, cap. 46.] Hence it is, that, calculating on all the different chances, encouragements to commit crimes actually arise out of the System intended for their prevention:--_first, from the hope of avoiding detection and apprehension;--secondly, of escaping conviction, from the means used to vitiate and suborn the evidence;--thirdly, from the mercy of the Jury, in considering the punishment too severe;--and fourthly, from the interest of persons of rank or consideration, applying (under circumstances where humanity becomes the friend of every person doomed to die), for the interference of Royal Mercy, by Pardons_. God forbid that the Author of these pages should do so much violence to his own feelings, as to convey an idea hostile to the extension of that amiable Prerogative vested in the Sovereign; and which His Majesty has exercised with a benevolent regard to the feelings of Humanity, and a merciful disposition truly characteristic of the mind of a great and good King. These animadversions are by no means pointed against the exercise of a privilege so benign, and even so necessary, in the present state of the Criminal Law;--they regard only the impositions which have been practised upon so many well-intentioned, respectable, and amiable Characters, who have, from motives of humanity, interested themselves in obtaining _free pardons for Convicts_, or _pardons on condition of going into the Army or Navy_. If these humane individuals, who exert themselves in applications of this sort, were to be made acquainted with one half of the gross impositions practised upon their credulity, or the evil consequences arising to Society from such pardons, (particularly unconditional pardons) they would shudder at the extent of the cruelty exercised towards the Public, and even, in many instances, to the Convicts themselves, by this false humanity. In a Country, where, from the great caution which mingles in that part of the Criminal Jurisprudence which relates to the trial of Offenders,--it is scarcely possible that an honest or an innocent person can be convicted of a capital offence.[136]--It would seem to be a good criterion, that the Royal Mercy should only be extended on two indispensable conditions. [Footnote 136: It is not here meant to say there have not been some instances, and even one of a recent date, where an innocent man may be convicted; but they are certainly very rare, and when discovered, the Royal mercy, of course, relieves the unfortunate person.]