exaggerated on account of the grave consequences of his act; and the result is that he is punished not only for the fault of his will, but for his bad luck as well. Sir James Stephen seems to admit this, when saying that the shock which the offence gives to the public feeling requires that the offender should himself suffer "a full equivalent for what he has inflicted," from which "he ought to be excused only on grounds capable of being understood by the commonest and most vulgar minds."[136] Though thoroughly dissenting from the opinion that criminal law should try to gratify the feelings of "the commonest and most vulgar minds," I think that, as a matter of fact, it is not much above their standard of justice, being in the main an expression of public sentiments. [Footnote 135: Stephen, _op. cit._ iii. 91 _sq._] [Footnote 136: _Ibid._ iii. 91.] * * * * * In the cases which we have hitherto considered the external event which a person brings about involuntarily, either makes him liable to punishment though he really is free from guilt, or increases his punishment beyond the limits of his guilt. But the influence of chance also shows {241} itself in the opposite way. A person who is guilty of carelessness generally escapes all punishment if no injurious result follows, and an unsuccessful attempt to commit a criminal act, if punished at all, is, as a rule, punished much less severely than the accomplished act. The Hottentots nowadays punish attempt, but only leniently.[137] The Wadshagga punish it less severely than the accomplished act.[138] Among some of the Marshall Islanders it is not punished at all.[139] The same holds good of the Ossetes[140] and Swanetians[141] of the Caucasus, as also of ancient Russian law.[142] The Teutons, as a general rule, had no punishment for him who tried to do harm, but failed; and if they did punish an unsuccessful attempt, the penalty was out of proportion lenient.[143] This feature of ancient Teutonic law has had a lasting effect upon European legislation, largely through the influence it exercised upon the Italian jurists of the Middle Ages,[144] whose theories laid the foundation of modern laws and doctrines on attempt. In conformity with the Roman law, they held attempts to commit crimes to be punishable, and in atrocious cases they even admitted that the attempt might be subject to the same punishment as the accomplished crime. But their general theory was that it should be punished less severely, and that the penalty should be lenient in proportion as the actual deed was remote from the act intended.[145] These views were generally adopted by the later legislation. Among present European lawbooks, the French Code Pénal[146] is almost the only one that punishes an attempt {242} with the same severity as the finished crime.[147] And the French law on the subject is of modern origin; before the year IV. the present rule