was infenfible to the needle, and did not cry out. She was inftantly condemned to be burnt; but the world beginning at this time to be a little more civilized, she was previously ftrangled. At this period every tribunal in Europe refounded with fuch judgments, and fire and faggot were univerfally employed against witchcraft as well as herefy. The Turks were reproached with having amongst them neither forcerers, witches, nor demoniacs; and the want of the latter was confidered as an infallible proof of the falfity of their religion. A zealous friend to the public welfare, to humanity, and to true religion, in one of his writings in favour of innocence, informs us, that there have been above a hundred thoufand witches condemned to die by Christian tribunals. If, to these lawful massacres, we add the much fuperior number of heretics facrificed, our part of the globe will appear one vaft fcaffold covered with executioners and victims, and furrounded by judges, guards, and fpectators. СНАР. СНАР. Х. On the Punishment of Death. It hath long fince been obferved, that a man after he is hanged is good for nothing, and that punishments invented for the good of fociety, ought to be useful to fociety. It is evident, that a score of ftout robbers, condemned for life to fome public work, would ferve the ftate in their punishment, and that hanging them is a benefit to nobody but the executioner. Thieves, in England, are feldom punished with death, but are transported to the colonies. This is alfo practifed in Ruffia, where not one criminal was executed during the whole reign of the autocratical Elifabeth. Catherine II. who hath fucceeded her, with much more genius, follows her example; yet crimes are not multiplied by this humanity; and it generally happens that the criminals fent to Siberia in time become honest people. The fame is obferved in the English colonies. We are aftonished at the change, and yet nothing can be more natural. The condemned are forced to continual labour for a livelihood. The opportunities of vice are want ing. ing. They marry and multiply. Oblige men to work, and you certainly make them honeft. It is well known, that atrocious crimes are not committed in the country, unlefs when there is too much holiday, and confequently too much idlenefs, and confequently too much debauchery. The Romans never condemned a citizen to death, unlefs for crimes which concerned the fafety of the state. Thefe our masters, our first legiflators, were careful of the blood of their fellow-citizens; but we are extravagant with the blood of ours. The question hath been frequently debated, whether a judge ought to have the power to punish with death, when the punishment is undetermined by the law? This question was fo lemnly agitated in the presence of the Emperor Henry VII. who decreed that no judge should have fuch a power *. There are fome criminal cafes which are either fo new, fo complicated, and fo unaccountable as to have escaped the provision of the laws, and which, therefore, in fome countries are left to the discretion of the judge. But for one cafe in which the laws permit the death of a criminal Boudin de Republica, lib. iii. c. 5. whom whom they have not condemned, there are a thousand wherein humanity fhould fave whom the laws have condemned to fuffer. The fword of juftice is in our hands, but we ought rather to blunt than to fharpen its edge. It remains within its fheath in the prefence of kings, to inform us that it ought feldom to be drawn. ⚫ There have been fome judges who were paffionately fond of spilling human blood; fuch was Jefferies in England, and such in France was the man whom they called Coupe-tete. Nature never intended fuch men for magiftrates, but for executioners. СНАР. CHAP. XI. On Death Warrants. MUST we go to the end of the world, muft we have recourfe to the laws of China, to learn how frugal we ought to be of human blood? It is now more than four thousand years that the tribunals of that empire have exifted; and it is alfo more than four thousand years that the meanest subject, at the extremity of the empire, hath not been executed without first tranfmitting his cafe to the emperor, who caufes it to be thrice examined by one of his tribunals; after which he signs the death warrant, alters the fentence, or entirely acquits. But it is unneceffary to travel fo far for examples of this nature; Europe will abundantly fupply us. In England, no criminal is put to death, whofe death warrant is not figned by the king. It is alfo practised in Germany, and in most parts of the north. Such likewife was formerly the custom in France, and fuch it ought to be in all polished nations. A fentence, at a distance from the throne, may be dictated by cabal, prejudice, or ignorance. Such little in trigues |