Part 3 (2/2)

7. ----------------- to Revenue and Trade, &c.

We consider as comprehended under _Private Felonies_ the following crimes committed, 1. _Against the Life_, 2. _the Body_, 3. _The Goods_, 4. _The Habitation of the Subject_.

Against 1. By Murder.

Life. 2. By Man-slaughter.

3. By Misadventure.

4. By Necessity.

Against the 1. Sodomy.

Body. 2. Rape.

3. Forcible Marriage.

4. Polygamy.

5. Mayhem.

Against 1. Simple Larceny.

Goods. 2. Mixt Larceny.

3. Piracy.

Against the 1. Arson.

Dwelling or 2. Burglary.

Habitation.

Those Crimes which we have denominated _Public Felonies_ being merely of a political nature, it would seem that the ends of justice would be far better answered, than at present, and convictions oftener obtained, by different degrees of Punishment short of Death.

With regard to _Private Felonies_, it may be necessary to make some specific observations----

The first, in point of enormity, is _Murder_, which may be committed in two Ways:--first, upon _one's self_, in which case the offender is denominated _Felo de se_ or a _Self-murderer_;--secondly, by killing another person.

The Athenian Law ordained, that persons guilty of Self-murder should have the hand cut off which did the murder, and buried in a place separate from the body; but this seems of little consequence.--When such a calamity happens, it is a deplorable misfortune; and there seems to be a great cruelty in adding to the distress of the wife, children, or nearest kin of the deceased, by the forfeiture of his whole property; which is at present confiscated by Law.

By the Law of England, the judgment in case of Murder is, that the person convicted shall suffer death and that his body shall be dissected.

The Laws of most civilized nations, both ancient and modern, have justly punished this atrocious offence with death. It was so by the Laws of Athens, and also by the Jewish and Roman Laws.--By the Persian Law Murderers were pressed to death between two stones; and in China, persons guilty of this offence are beheaded, except where a person kills his adversary in a duel, in which case he is strangled.--Decapitation, by the Laws of China, is considered the most dishonourable mode of execution.

In the ruder ages of the world, and before the manners of mankind were softened by the arts of peace and civilization, Murder was not a capital crime: Hence it is that the barbarous nations which over-ran the Western Empire, either expiated this crime by private revenge, or by a pecuniary composition.--Our Saxon ancestors punished this high offence with a fine; and they too countenanced the exercise of that horrid principle of revenge, by which they added blood to blood.--But in the progress of civilization and Society, the nature of this crime became better understood; private revenge was submitted to the power of the Law; and the good King Alfred first made Murder a capital offence in England.

In this case, as in that of Self-murder, the property of the murderer goes to the State; without any regard to the unhappy circ.u.mstances of the families either of the murdered or the guilty person, who may be completely ruined by this fatal accident.--A provision which seems not well to accord with either the justice or mildness of our Laws.

Man-slaughter is defined to be _The killing another without malice, either express or implied: which may be either, voluntarily, upon a sudden heat; or involuntarily, but in the commission of some unlawful Act_. And the Punishment is, _that the person convicted shall be burnt in the hand, and his goods forfeited_.--And offenders are usually detained in prison for a time not exceeding one year, under the Statutes regulating the Benefit of Clergy.

Homicide by _Misadventure_ is, when _one is doing a lawful act, without intent to hurt another_, and _death ensues_.--For this offence a pardon is allowed of course; but in strictness of Law the property of the person convicted is forfeited; the rigour of which, however, is obviated by a Writ of Rest.i.tution of his goods, to which the party is now, by long usage, ent.i.tled of right; only paying for suing out the same.

Homicide _by necessity_ or in _Self-defence_, is another shade of Murder, upon which no punishment is inflicted: and in this is included what the Law expresses by the word _Chance-medley_: which is properly applied to such killing as happens in self-defence upon a sudden rencounter. Yet, still by strictness of Law, the goods and chattels of the person charged and convicted are forfeited to the Crown; contrary, as it seems to many, to the principles of Reason and Justice.

It should be recollected that in all cases where the Homicide does not amount to Murder or Man-slaughter, the Judges permit, nay even direct, a verdict of acquittal.--But it appears more consonant with the sound principles of Justice, that the Law itself should be precise, than that the property of a man should, in cases of _Misadventure_, _Chance-medley_, and _Self-defence_ depend upon the construction of a Judge, or the lenity of a Jury: Some alteration therefore, in the existing Laws, seems called for in this particular.

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