forming and enforcing it. It ſhould be founded upon principles that are permanent, uniform, and univerſal ; and always conformable to the dictates of truth and juſtice, the feelings of humanity, and the indelible rights of mankind : though it ſometimes (provided there be no tranſgreſſion of theſe eternal boundaries) may be modified, narrowed, or enlarged, according to the local or occasional neceſſities of the ſtate which it is meant to govern. And yet, either from a want of attention to theſe principles in the firſt concoction of the laws, and adopting in their ſtead the impetuous dictates of avarice, ambition, and revenge ; from retaining the diſcordant political regulations, which ſucceſſive conquerors or factions have eſtabliſhed, in the various revolutions of government ; from giving a laſting efficacy to ſanctions that were intended to be temporary, and made (as lord Bacon expreſſes it) merely upon the ſpur of the occaſion ; or from, laſtly, too haſtily employing ſuch means as are greatly diſproportionate to their end, in order to check the progreſs of ſome very prevalent offence ; from ſome, or from all, of theſe cauſes it hath happened, that the criminal law is in every country of Europe more rude and imperfect than the civil. I ſhall not here enter into any minute enquiries concerning the local conſtitutions of other nations ; the inhumanity and miſtaken policy of which have been ſufficiently pointed out by ingenious writers of their own[1]. But even with us in England, where our crown-law is with juſtice ſuppoſed to be more nearly advanced to perfection; where crimes are more accurately defined, and penalties leſs uncertain and arbitrary ; where all our accuſations are public, and our trials in the face of the world, where torture is unknown, and every delinquent is judged by ſuch of his equals, againſt whom he can form no exception nor even a perſonal diſlike ;—even here we ſhall occaſionally find room to remark ſome particulars, that ſeem to want reviſion and amendment. Theſe have chiefly ariſen from too ſcrupulous an adherence to ſome rules of the antient common law, when the reaſons have ceaſed upon which thoſe rules were founded ; from not repeal-
- ↑ Baron Monteſquieu, marquis Beccaria, &c.
