pairing the injuries they have formerly done to society. Nor is there any hazard of their falling back to their old customs: and so little do travellers apprehend mischief from them, that they generally make use of them for guides, from one jurisdiction to another; for there is nothing left them by which they can rob, or be the better for it; since as they are disarmed, so the very having of money is a sufficient conviction: and as they are certainly punished if discovered, so they cannot hope to escape; for their habit being in all the parts of it different from what is commonly worn, they cannot fly away, unless they would go naked, and even then their cropped ear would betray them. The only danger to be feared from them, is their conspiring against the government: but those of one division and neighbourhood can do nothing to any purpose, unless a general conspiracy was laid amongst all the slaves of the several jurisdictions, which cannot be done, since they cannot meet or talk together; nor will any venture on a design, where the concealment would be so dangerous, and the discovery so profitable. None are quite hopeless of recovering their freedom, since by their obedience and patience, and by giving good grounds to believe that they will change their manner of life for the future, they may expect at last to obtain their liberty: and some are every year restored to it, upon the good character that is given of them. When I had related all this, I added, that I did not see why such a method might not be followed with more advantage, than could ever be expected from that severe justice which the counsellor magnified so much. To this he answered, that it could never take place in England, without endangering the whole nation. As he said this, he shook his head, made some grimaces, and held his peace, while all the company seemed of his opinion, except the Cardinal, who said, that it was not easy to form a judgment of its success, since it was a method that never yet had been tried; but if, said he, when the sentence of death was passed upon a thief, the Prince would reprieve him for a while, and make the

experiment upon him, denying him the privilege of a sanctuary; and then, if it had a good effect upon him, it might take place; and if it did not succeed, the worst would be, to execute the sentence on the condemned person at last. And I do not see, added he, why it would be either unjust, if convenient, or at all dangerous, to admit of such a delay; in my opinion, the vagabonds ought to be treated in the same manner; against whom, though we have made many laws, yet we have not been able to gain our end. When the Cardinal had done, they all commended the motion, though they had despised it when it came from me; but more particularly commended what related to the vagabonds, because it was his own observation.

Utopia.

ERASMUS.

PUBLISHED ABOUT THE YEAR 1520.

"THE civil magistrate, likewise, would act more judiciously, by employing upon public works criminals convicted of certain kinds of theft, or other offences, (which, though in themselves heinous, are too light-especially in countries professing Christianity to be punished with death) than by subjecting them to ignominious stigmas or mutilations. As, of old, debtors in bonds served their creditors; others dug, chained, in the fields, or hewed timber; and a third class, accustomed to sedentary occupations, were confined to labour in workhouses. Punishments

of this description are attended with a double advantage: for, while they correct, without crushing the offender, they promote the interests either of the public, or of the individual injured by his delinquency *”

Quamquam profanus etiam magistratus consultius faceret, si operis in usum reipublicæ indictis castigaret quædam furtorum genera, aut alia facinora gravia quidem illa, sed leviora quam ut capite plecti debeant, præsertim apud Christianos, quam si reos, inurant aut mutilent. Velut olim nexi præstabant operam creditoribus, et alii vincti fodiebant in agris, cædebant materiam, et sunt ex his qui norunt artem sedentariam, his ergastula conveniebant. Hoc pœnæ genus duplicem habet utilitatem, et emendat nocentes, non exstinguit, et conducit reipublicæ, vel ei qui maleficio læsus est.-Erasmi Exomologesis, seu Modus Confitendi.-Erasmi Opera, Edit le Clerc, tom. v. p. 167.

LORD BACON.

PUBLISHED ABOUT THE YEAR 1620.

CERTAINTY is so essential to a law, as without it a law cannot be just; Si enim incertam vocem det tuba, quis se parabit ad bellum? So if the law give an uncertain sound, who shall prepare himself to obey? A law then ought to give warning before it strike: and it is a good rule, that is the best law which gives least liberty to the arbitrage of the judge, which is that, the certainty thereof affecteth.

Let there be courts and jurisdictions, which may define according to arbitrement of some good man, and according to sound judgment: for the law (as is observed before) cannot provide for all cases; but is fitted to such occurrences as commonly fall out; and time (as was said by the ancients) is a most wise thing, and daily the author and inventor of new cases.

New cases fall out both in matters criminal, which have need of penalty, and in matters civil, which have need of relief: the courts which respect the former, we call censorian; which respect the latter, prætorian.

Let the censorian courts of justice have jurisdiction and power not only of punishing new offences; but also of increasing penalties assigned by the laws for old crimes, if the cases be heinous and enormous, so they be not capital.

Let there be no rubrics of bloud; neither define of capital crimes in what court soever, but from a known and certain law; for God himself first denounced death, afterwards inflicted it. Nor is any man to be put to death, but he that knew before-hand that he sinned against his own life.

In censorian courts let the first aggressions, and the middle acts of great offences, and wicked attempts be punished; yea although they were never perfectly accomplished; and let that be the chiefest use of those courts; seeing it appertains to severity, to punish the first approaches of wicked enterprizes; and to mercy to intercept the perpetration of them by correcting middle acts.

The prophet saith, pluet super eos laqueos; now there are no worse snares than the snares of laws, especially penal; if they

be immense for number; and through the alterations of times unprofitable; they do not present a torch, but spread a net to our feet.

It was a custom in the state of Athens, to delegate six persons to revise and examine every year the contrary titles of law, which they called Anti-nomies; and such as could not be reconciled, were propounded to the people, that some certainty might be defined touching them. After this example, let such in every state, as have the power of making laws, review Antinomies every third or fifth year, or as they see cause. And these may be first searched into, and prepared by committees assigned thereto, and after that exhibited to assemblies: that so what shall be approved, may by suffrages be established and settled.

Obsolete Laws, and such as are grown out of use, as well as Anti-nomies, should be propounded by delegates, as a part of their charge to be repealed: for seeing express statute cannot regularly be avoided by disuse; it falls out that through a disestimation of Obsolete Laws, the authority of the rest is somewhat embased and Mezentius torture ensues; that laws alive are killed with the embracements of laws dead.

From his Aphorisms upon Universal Justice.

In his certificate to his majesty touching the projects of Sir Stephen Proctor, relating to the penal laws, he says:

For that part, therefore, of these projects which concerneth penal laws, I do find the purpose and scope to be, not to press a greater rigour or severity in the execution of penal laws; but to repress the abuses in common informers, and some clerks and under ministers that, for common gain, partake with them: for, if it had tended to the other point, I for my part should be