[Footnote 9: Beccaria, or Crimes and Punishments, Cap. 6.] It is the triumph of Liberty, says the great Montesquieu, when the criminal laws proportion punishments to the particular nature of each offence.--It may be further added, that when this is the case, it is also the triumph of Reason. In order to ascertain in what degree the Public is injured or endangered by any crime, it is necessary to weigh well and dispassionately the nature of the offence, as it affects the Community.--It is through this medium, that Treason and Rebellion are discovered to be higher and more dangerous offences than breaches of the peace by riotous assemblies; as such riotous meetings are in like manner considered as more criminal than a private assault. In punishing delinquents, two objects ought to be invariably kept in view.-- 1. The Amendment of the Delinquent. 2. The Example afforded to others. _To which may be added, in certain cases_, 3. Retribution to the party injured. If we attend to Reason, the _Mistress of all Law_, she will convince us that it is both unjust and injurious to Society to inflict Death, except for the highest offences, and in cases where the offender appears to be incorrigible. Wherever the amendment of a delinquent is in view, it is clear that his punishment cannot extend to death: If expiating an offence by the loss of life is to be (as it certainly is at present) justified by the necessity of making examples for the purpose of preventing crimes, it is evident that the present System has not had that effect, since they are by no means diminished; and since even the dread of this Punishment, has, under present circumstances, so little effect upon guilty associates, that it is no uncommon thing for these hardened offenders to be engaged in new acts of theft, at the very moment their companions in iniquity are launching in their very presence into eternity. The minds of offenders, long inured to the practice of criminal pursuits, are by no means beneficially affected by the punishment of Death, which they are taught to consider as nothing but a momentary paroxysm which ends all their distress at once; nay even as a relief, which many of them, grown desperate, look upon with a species of indifference, bordering on a desire to meet that fate, which puts an end to the various distresses and anxieties attendant on a life of criminality. The effect of capital punishments, in the manner they are now conducted, therefore, as relates to example, appears to be much less than has been generally imagined.