date

Evidence 2 June 1805 Introd
Evidence

2 June 1805

Introd

Ch. False [...?] & [...?]

. Profit channels

5. The emolument received by a subordinate officer on account of the Judge may be received either openly in his name, or in the name of some other person or persons acting as his trustee or trustees: number two has on these occasions the advantage in some respects of number one.

In case of this kind, should the legality or propriety /respectableness/ in other respects become matter of doubt /apprehension/ he has a choice to make. Receiving the emolument in his own name attracts attention, but puts a good face on the matter, by proclaiming innocence receiving it by trustees eludes attention, but should attention unhappily stray that way, betrays consciousness of guilt.

AS the receipt of the corruptive profit may be masked so may the act of patronage: on the hand through which the money finds its way into the pocket of the Judge may be concealed /covered up/ /secured from observation/, so may the lips by which that hand is nominated. The nomination to the office is performed - not by the Judge, but by somebody else! - The recommendation of the person to be nominated is whispered by the Judge to that somebody else.

The thicker the darkness in which the channels are enveloped through which the matter of corruption flows, the more baleful the corruption on his accounts: men are less upon their guard against its influence, /and it being the more difficult to discover/ and the cause of the disease and convince the public of its existence in that character the disease itself is the more difficult to cure.

Crimes the eternal enemies to the peace of society that are continually waging war with human happiness, call into action all the noxious energies of the human mind. Some employ violence other have recourse to strategies they assume an endless variety of appearances and every where are provided with secret information. If they have been attacked without having been subdued, if this revolt perpetually exists, it must be attributed almost exclusively to the simplification of this branch of legislation and of the means that have hitherto been employed. It is perfectly [...?] that the intelligence act + prudence that is employed in the commission of crimes is infinitely greater than that employed in their prevention.

To ascertain where a penal Code is severe observe whether it punishes with severity the most common class of offences - viz. offences against property. In all countries an excess of severity has been prevalent in this respect, because punishments being ill-chosen and badly applied - what has been wanting in respect of justness has been attempted to be compensated for by severity. Prudence dictates the [...?] as little punishment as possible for offences against property yet there may be the greater quantity in [...?] and capable of being applied to offence against the person. l The first are susceptible of compensation the last admitt not of compensation of the same description. The mischief of offences against property may be reduced to an almost imperceptible quantity by means of Insurance offices, which all the gold of Po... could not restore to life a man of [...?] murdered, nor clam the alarm excited by offences. The question however here is not where a penal code is more or less severe: this would be regarding the subject in an incorrect point of view. The true consideration is whether the severity prescribed the code is necessary or not.
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