to justice? Whereas a criminal who is an involuntary agent, (as for instance, a man who has kill’d another in a chance medly or while in a fever, or the like) cannot serve for an example to deter any others from doing the same; he being no more an intelligent agent in doing the crime, than a house is, which kills a man by its fall: and by consequence the punishment of such an involuntary agent would be unjust. When therefore a man does a crime voluntarily, and his punishment will serve to deter others from doing the same, he is justly punished for doing what (thro’ strength of temptation, ill habits, or other causes) he could not avoid doing.
It may not be improper to add this farther consideration from the law of our country. There is one case, wherein our law is so far from requiring, that the persons punish’d should be free-agents, that it does not consider them as voluntary agents, or even as guilty of the crime for which they suffer: so little is free-agency requisite to make punishments just. The children of rebel-parents suffer in their fortunes for the guilt of their pa-
