decency to thoſe, whoſe abilities and ſtations enable them to apply the remedy. Having therefore premiſed this apology for ſome of the enſuing remarks, which might otherwiſe ſeem to ſavour of arrogance, I proceed now to conſider (in the firſt place) the general nature of crimes.
I. A crime, or miſdemeſnor, is an act committed, or omitted, in violation of a public law, either forbidding or commanding it. This general definition comprehends both crimes and miſdemeſnors ; which, properly ſpeaking, are mere ſynonymous terms : though, in common uſage, the word “crimes” is made to denote ſuch offences as are of a deeper and more atrocious dye ; while ſmaller faults, and omiſſions of leſs conſequence, are comprized under the gentler name of “miſdemeſnors” only.
The diſtinction of public wrongs from private, of crimes and miſdemeſnors from civil injuries, ſeems principally to conſiſt in this : that private wrongs, or civil injuries, are an infringement or privation of the civil rights which belong to individuals, conſidered merely as individuals ; public wrongs, or crimes and miſdemeſnors, are a breach and violation of the public rights and duties, due to the whole community, conſidered as a community, in it's ſocial aggregate capacity. As if I detain a field from another man, to which the law has given him a right, this is a civil injury, and not a crime; for here only the right of an individual is concerned, and it is immaterial to the public, which of us is in poſſeſſion of the land : but treaſon, murder, and robbery are properly ranked among crimes ; ſince, beſides the injury done to individuals, they ſtrike at the very being of ſociety ; which cannot poſſibly ſubſiſt, where actions of this ſort are ſuffered to eſcape with impunity.
In all caſes the crime includes an injury: every public offence is alſo a private wrong, and ſomewhat more ; it affects the individual, and it likewiſe affects the community. Thus
