Domestic Encyclopædia (1802)/Punishment

PUNISHMENT, or the penalty which a person incurs on the commission of a crime, or trespass.

The necessity of adopting rigorous measures, in cases where either natural or public law is violated, has been acknowledged by all civilized nations; among whom various modes of inflicting punishment prevail, according to the nature of the offence; or the peculiarly aggravating circumstances that attended its perpetration. It would be equally invidious and foreign to our plan, to enter into any delail respecting the criminal code; yet we are of opinion, that much benefit to the public might result from a different system of coercion in this country, such as would be more adapted to the spirit of the times.—And, though we readily admit, that the present modes and degrees of punishment have been wisely calculated for particular crimes; yet, while so little distinction is made between the robber and the murderer, it is to be feared, nay, daily experience proves, that public examples tend but little to check the progress of vice and immorality. Hence, solitary confinement, and incessant labour, appear to be better means of reformation than the transient terrors of death.