There are many other felonies which have been made capital (particularly within the present century) which do not properly fall within the class above discussed;--for an account of these the reader is referred to the general Catalogue of offences specified in a subsequent Chapter. The number of these various capital Offences upon which the judgment of death must be pronounced, if the party is found guilty, has been already stated to amount to above one _hundred and sixty_.--And yet if a full consideration shall be given to the subject, it is believed that (excepting in cases of _Treason_, _Murder_, _Mayhem_, and some aggravated instances of Arsonry) it would be found that the punishment of death is neither politic nor expedient. At any rate, it must be obvious to every reasoning mind, that such _indiscriminate rigour_, by punishing the petty pilferer with the same severity as the atrocious murderer, cannot easily be reconciled to the rights of nature or to the principles of morality. It is indeed true, in point of practice, that in most cases of a slight nature, the mercy of Judges, of Juries, or of the Sovereign, saves the delinquent; but is not the exercise of this mercy rendered so necessary on every occasion, "_a tacit disapprobation of the laws_?"[14] [Footnote 14: Beccaria. _See ante page_ 45.] Cruelty, in punishment for slight Offences, often induces Offenders to pass on from the trifling to the most atrocious crime.--Thus are these our miserable fellow-mortals rendered desperate; whilst the laws, which ought to soften the ferocity of obdurate minds, tend to corrupt and harden them. What education is to an individual, the Laws are to Society. Wherever they are sanguinary, delinquents will be hard-hearted, desperate, and even barbarous. However much our ancestors were considered as behind us in civilization, yet their laws were infinitely milder, in many instances, than in the present age of refinement. The real good of the State, however, unquestionably requires that not only adequate punishments should be impartially inflicted, but that the injured should obtain a reparation for their wrongs. Instead of such reparation, it has been already stated, and indeed it is much to be lamented, that many are induced to desist from prosecutions, and even to conceal injuries, because nothing but expence and trouble is to be their lot: as all the fruits of the conviction, where the criminal has any property, go to the State.--That the State should be the only immediate gainer by the fines and forfeitures of criminals, while the injured party suffers, seems not wholly consonant to the principles either of _justice_, _equity_, or _sound policy_.