Book VI.
Chap. 16.A stag one day having taken hold of him by the girdle with his horn, one of his retinue drew his sword, cut the girdle, and saved him; upon which he ordered that person's head to be cut off, for having, said he, drawn his sword against his sovereign." Who could imagine that the same prince could ever have passed two such different judgments?
It is a great abuse amongst us to condemn to the same punishment a person that only robs on the high-way, and another that robs and murders. Surely for the public security some difference should be made in the punishment.
In China those who add murder to robbery, are cut in pieces[1]; but not so the others: to this difference it is owing that though they rob in that country, yet they never murder.
In Russia where the punishment of robbery and murder is the same, they always murder[2]. The dead, say they, tell no tales.
When there is no difference in the punishment, there should be some in the expectation of pardon. In England they never murder on the high-way, because robbers have some hopes of transportation, which is never the case in respect to those that commit murder.
Letters of grace are of excellent use in moderate governments. This power which the prince has of pardoning, exercised with prudence, is capable of producing admirable effects. The principle of despotic government, which neither grants nor receives any pardon, deprives it of these advantages.
