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Show 82 ON TilE SLAVERY AND CoMMERCI': no crime has been committed, no ihadow of a crime devifed, that has not immediately been puni!hed with Jervitude. But for what purpofe is the puni!hment applied? Is it appl ied to amend the manners of tl:e criminal, and thus render him a Getter fubjea I No, for if you banilh him, he can no longer be a fubjea, and you can no longer therefore be folicitous for his morals. Add to this, that if you banilh him to a place, where he is to experience the hard!hips of want and hunger (fo powerfully does hunger compel men to the per- ' petration of crimes) you force him rather to corrupt, than amend his manners, and to be wicked, when he might otherwife be jufl:. Is it applied then, that others may be deterred from the li1me proceedings, and that crimes may become lefs frequent ? No, but that avarice may be gratified; that the prince may experience the emoluments of the £~le: for, horrid and melancholy thought! the more crimes his fubjeas commit, the richer is he made; the more OF THE H UMAN SPECIES. more abandoned the fubjea, the happier is the prince! Neither can we allow that the punilhment thus applied, tends in any degree to anfwer the publick happinifs; for if men can be fentenced to llavery, right or wrong; if lhadows can be turned into fubll:ances, and vii"tues into crimes; it is evident that none can be happy, becau(e none can be fecure. But if the punil11111ent is infinitely greater than the offence, (which has been l11cwn before) and if it is inlliaed, neither to amend the criminal, nor to deter others from the fame proceedings, nor to advance, i 11 any degree, the happinefs of the publick, it is fcarcc necclt~ry to obfcrve, that it is totally unjull:, Iince it is repugnant to reafln, the diaates of nature, and the very principles o~ government. C H A P. VII. Vve come now to the fourth and !all: order of llavcs, to prifoner-s if 1var. As the .fillers lay a particular ll:refs on this order of men, and infer much, from its antirp1ity, in fupport F 2 of |
