Having said thus much on the subject of severe and sanguinary Punishments, it may not be improper to mention a very recent and modern authority, for the total abolition of the Punishment of death. This occurred in the Imperial Dominion, where a new code of criminal law was promulgated by the late Emperor, JOSEPH II. and legalised by his edict in 1787. This Code, formed in an enlightened age, by Princes, Civilians, and Men of Learning, who sat down to the deliberation assisted by the wisdom and experience of former ages, and by all the information possible with regard to the practice of civilized modern nations; with an impression also upon their minds, that sanguinary punishments, by death, torture, or dismemberment are not necessary, and ought to be abolished; becomes an interesting circumstance in the annals of the world. "THE EMPEROR _in his edict signed at Vienna the 13th of January, 1787, declares his intention to have been to give a precise and invariable form to Criminal Judicature; to prevent arbitrary interpretations; to draw a due line between criminal and civil offences, and those against the state; to observe a just proportion between offences and punishments, and to determine the latter in such a manner as that they may make more than merely a transient impression.--Having promulgated this new code, he abrogates, annuls, and declares void all the ancient laws which formerly existed in his dominions_.--Forbidding at the same time every criminal Judge to exercise the functions of his office, on any but those who shall be brought before him, accused of a criminal offence expressed in the new code." This system of criminal law is so concise as to be comprehended in less than one hundred octavo pages. It commences with laying down certain general principles, favourable in their nature both to humanity and public liberty.--In determining the Punishments (which will hereafter be very shortly detailed) the following rules are laid down for the Judges. "_The criminal Judge should be intent on observing the just proportion between a criminal Offence and the punishment assigned it, and carefully to compare every circumstance.--With respect to the_ Offence, _his principal attention should be directed to the degree of malignity accompanying the bad action,--to the importance of the circumstance connected with the Offence,--to the degree of damage which may result from it,--to the possibility or impossibility of the precautions which might have been made use of to prevent it.--With respect to the_ Criminal, _the attention of the Judge should be directed to his youth,--to the temptation or imprudence attending it,--to the punishment which has been inflicted for the same Offence, and to the danger of a relapse_."