_Of Punishments in general.--The mode of ascertaining the degrees of Punishment.--The objects to be considered in inflicting Punishments--namely, Amendment--Example--and Retribution.--The Punishment of Death has little effect on hardened Offenders.--Examples of convicts exhibited in servile employments would make a greater impression.--Towards the rendering criminal laws perfect, Prevention ought to be the great object of the Legislature.--General Rules suggested for attaining this object, with illustrations.--The severity of our laws with respect to Punishments--not reconcileable to the principles of morality, and a free government--calculated in their operation to debase the human character.--General Reflections on the Punishments authorised by the English Law.--The disproportion of Punishments, exemplified in the case of an assault, opposed to a larceny.--In seduction and adultery, which are not punishable as criminal offences.--The laws severe in the extreme in political offences, while they are lax and defective with regard to moral Crimes.--The necessity of enforcing the observance of religious and moral Virtue by lesser Punishments.--General Reflections applicable to public and private Crimes.--The dangers arising from the progress of immorality to the safety of the State.--The leading offences made capital by the laws of England considered, with the Punishment allotted to each; compared with, and illustrated by, the custom of other countries, in similar cases, both ancient and modern: namely, High Treason--Petit Treason:--Felonies against Life, viz. Murder, Manslaughter, Misadventure, and Self-defence:--against the Body, comprehending Sodomy, Rape, Forcible Marriage, Polygamy, and Mayhem.--Against Goods or Property, comprehending Simple Larceny, Mixt Larceny, and Piracy,--and against the Habitation, comprehending Arson and Burglary.--Concluding Reflections relative to the severity of the Laws, and their imperfections with regard to Punishment--The new Code of the_ Emperor JOSEPH the Second, _shortly detailed.--Reflections thereon._ Punishment, (says a learned and respectable author) _is an evil which a delinquent suffers, unwillingly, by the order of a Judge or Magistrate; on account of some act done which the Law prohibits, or something omitted which the Law enjoins._ All Punishment should be proportioned to the nature of the offence committed; and the Legislature, in adjusting Punishment with a view to the public good, ought, according to the dictates of sound reason, to act on a comparison of the Crime under consideration, with other offences injurious to Society: and thus by comparing one offence with another, to form a scale, or gradation, of Punishments, as nearly as possible consistent with the strict rules of distributive justice.[9]