ted by the royal mercy, and (it is to be hoped) will never again be practised. How the punishment of confining in fetters came to be arranged under this head we cannot comprehend. That of the pillory also seems to belong rather to the former class than to the present, the legal punishment, in itself, being merely temporary. The possibly lasting consequences of popular fury, (which we must always consider as a disgrace to a well-regulated government) are merely an adventitious circumstance, unauthorized, any further than that it is connived at, by the law, and very variable in its degree and extent of duration. Considered with reference to general principles, such punishments as affix a mark of perpetual infamy on the person, (as branding with a hot iron, discolouring the skin, &c. &c.) are objectionable on account of the indefinite duration of the ignominy and other evil consequences which attend them, and which are found by experience to be little conducive to the reformation of the individual. A man so marked, is, in a manner, outlawed from society, and the too probable consequence is that he will act as an outlaw, and endeavour to revenge on the community the injury which he thinks he has sustained from it. A much less severe, but in all probability a more efficacious, punishment, is that adopted in some foreign countries, of distinguishing the culprit by his garment. The ignominy of this is of a limited nature, but capable of discretional extension, according to the nature of the offence. The punishment of mutilation is much more objectionable. It is expensive; for it tends to deprive individuals of their means of subsistence. It is irremissible: it is unequal; for what is the loss of a hand when suffered by a gentleman in comparison to the same evil when endured by a mechanic? It is far from tending to reformation; for the sense of perpetual disgrace only tends to harden the offender. Its only general advantage is in the way of public example.

The next class of punishments is that which is here called Restrictive,' and consists of imprisonment, quasiimprisonment, relegation, local interdiction, banishment; besides such other punishments as are distinguished by the title of simplement restrictives, or, more intelligibly, interdictions.

Imprisonment, when intended only for the securing an individual's person, ought to be confined to the simple purpose for which it is employed. But penal imprisonment, with which only we have here to do, may be ren

dered more or less severe, according to the offence; and principally by the operation of diet, solitude, and darkness. Severity is more efficacious than length of imprisonment. The mind may become so habituated to simple confinement within walls, as to be indifferent to it. Make the punishment more severe in order to render it shorter; the sum total of evil will be less."

The evils either necessarily or ordinarily concomitant with imprisonment are reckoned up; and modes pointed out for the prevention of such as are merely the result of abuses. These are subjects which have been so often and so ably discussed within the last thirty years, that we think it unnecessary to dwell on them at present. We therefore hasten to the next chapter, entitled Examen de l'Emprisonment;' the examination of this mode of pu nishment with reference to the principles already established.

Imprisonment, so long as it lasts, is effectual as to incapacitation. As administered at the time when Mr. B. wrote, it was wholly unprofitable; but this defect is remedied by the plan of the Panopticon, which has of late years been adopted in numerous instances, and is at present (we are most happy in believing) likely to be extended by degrees to all the prisons in the kingdom. It is very unequal in its effects on different classes and ranks of individuals. It is almost infinitely divisible in point of duration. Adopting the plan of the panopticon, it is eminently exemplary; but, without it, by no means tending to that sort of advantage. The same may be said of its tendency to reformation. Simply considered, it has no such tendency; but by the prudent and temporary administering of such helps as solitude, darkness, and privation of food, (and, more than all, by the addition of hard labour, which is here made the subject of distinct subsequent consideration) it is more conducive than any other mode of punishment that can be named to the desired effect,

Amendment depends less on the greatness of the punishment than on the association which is formed between the idea of the punishment and that of the offence. In this respect, ail the advantage' (that is, over corporal punishment) is on the 'side of solitary imprisonment. Sharp pains, like those of the Scourge, while in the course of being inflicted, admit no time for reflection. The actual suffering absorbs all the attention. If any mental emotion were mingled with the physical sensation, it would more probably be that of resentment against the

informer, the executioner, or the judge. As soon as the torture is over, and the patient free, he seeks eagerly, for every thing that may make him forget what he has endured; and every surrounding object contributes to drive away those salutary reflections on which his reformation depends. In short, the pain is over, and this idea is accompanied with a sentiment of lively joy, very little favourable to repentance.

But, in a state of solitude, man left to himself experiences none of those emotions of friendship or enmity which society inspires; or that variety of ideas which results from the conver sation of his fellows, from the sight of external objects, from the pursuit of business or pleasure..

By the privation of light, the number of impressions is still considerably lessened: the mind of the prisoner is, as it were, reduced to a state of vacuity, in internal obscurity which de prives it of all the support of the passions and makes it feel its own weakness. Abstinence, (moderate abstinence), completes the mortification of active spirits, and induces a state of languor favourable to moral impressions. The punishment is not so sharp as to occupy the whole mind and deprive it of the power of reflection; on the contrary, he feels more than ever the necessity of calling up to his relief all the ideas which his situation presents to him; and the most natural of all, is the retracing the events, the bad advice, the first errors, by which he has been led to the commission of the crime for which he is punished; that crime, of which all the pleasure is past and nothing left behind but its mournful consequences. He recals to his remembrance the days, of innocence and security he formerly enjoyed, which assume to his eyes, a more brilliant colouring by contrast with his present misery. Then, how deep his regret for his subsequent misconduct; and, if he has a wife, children, or near relations, old sentiments of affection may revive in his heart, accompanied by remorse for all the evils which he has occasioned them.

Another advantage of this situation is, that it is singularly favourable to the influence of religion. In this total absence of external pleasures and impressions, religious sentiments obtain a new dominion over him. Still struck with his misfortune and with the singular, or ill-understood, chain of circumstances which have led to his detection, the more he combines them together, the more he seems to perceive a providence which has conducted him by mysterious ways and caused the failure of all his measures. If it is God who punishes, God also is willing to save; and from henceforward he begins to entertain a deeper concern about his promises and threats, promises, which open

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scription consist in the denial of some common right, or of a right before exercised, and are classed in this book under the title of Peines simplement restrictives.' These punishments are very unequal, and moreover very difficult of application. We have few, if any, examples of them in this country. Those laws against the Catholics which are called penal are not strictly such upon principle. Mr. B. however thinks that some restraints of this nature may be added, with effect, to other punishments on his favourite principle of analogy; and he also proposes, for injuries committed against honour or reputation, banishment from the presence of the party injured. One of the French parliaments condemned a person of the name of Aujay, for having insulted a lady of quality, to withdraw himself from all places in which she should appear, under pain of some severer chastisement; and Madame de Montbason, for having in like manner offended the Princess of Condé, received from Queen Ann of Austria a similar sentence. This mode of punishment, we must confess, somewhat pleases us, notwithstanding its apparent oddity. Some bloody duels and many foolish actions at law may be prevented by its adoption.

Compulsory labour is a species of banishment which necessarily involves restraint, but it differs from all other punishments, our author observes, in one remarkable circumstance, that the delinquent is obliged to become the inflictor of his own chastisement from dread of some severer evil. Galleys, mines, fortifications, roads, &c. have been made, in different countries, the subjects of this involuntary species of occupation-they are all accompanied with imprisonment, either absolute, or what Mr. B. terms quasi-imprisonment. Among us the beating of hemp seems to have been the principal, if not the only, occupation of prisoners confined in houses of correction at the time when this treatise was written. But, since that time, a variety of laborious punishments have been introduced into our prisons. Mr. B. distinguishes servitude into indeter minate and specific. Our works on the Thames he considers as of the latter, our transportation to Botany Bay of the former class.

Pursuing the Examen des Peines actives on the same principles as the former modes of punishment reviewed by him, Mr. Bentham finds that they answer extremely well the requisites of economy and convertibility into profit→→→ that they are less unequal in their effects than most other modes of punishment already examined that they are

capable of division almost ad infinitum-that they may be rendered very exemplary by the adoption of fit measures→→ that their tendency to reformation is unquestionable and that, in some degree, they even embrace the author's favourite principle of analogy.

Labour on public works ought, however, to have been excluded by Mr. Bentham, in speaking of the tendency to reformation; since, immediately afterwards, when he estimates the comparative utility of les travaux publics,' and 'les travaux sédentaires,' he acknowledges that the former tend, in an eminent degree, to the corruption and depravation of manners by reason of the promiscuous assemblage of criminals.

At Berne, one class of delinquents is employed in cleaning the streets and other public works, a second, in in-door occupations. The latter, after their liberation, seldom fall again into the hands of justice: the former are hardly let loose before they recommence their depredations on society. p. 176.

Mr. B. does not, however, take notice of a counterbalancing weight in this scale of comparison-public punishment is certainly more exemplary than private; and we hardly think that the adoption of any measures for that purpose can altogether supply this defect in the class of travaux sedentaires.'

Another strong objection, however, to the trayaux publics,' consists in their inequality. Public labour is generally of so rude and painful a nature that age, sex, condition, constitution, must make a wonderful difference in the degree of evil inflicted, a difference, which the undistinguishing overseer will never estimate properly. Besides,

Such labours as require great efforts ought to be sustained by free men. That which is forced by the effect of fear can over be equal to what is obtained by the hope of remuneration. Constrained labour is always inferior to voluntary labour, not only because it is the slave's interest to conceal his real strength, but because he wants that energy of soul on which muscular vigour greatly depends. This is a principle very fruitful in its consequences. Let those sovereigns, whose people are in a state of bondage, calculate the loss which they sustain by this inferiority of workmanship; they will soon feel that gradual operations of enfranchisement will contribute to their greatness more than the most extensive conquests.' p. 177.

From the date of the composition of this work, we infer that this latter piece of advice was intended by the author for the use of the royal partitioners of Poland. It is capa ble, however, of much more extensive application. CRIT. REV. Vol. 1, January, 1812.

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