1818 Aug. 28.

Parl. Reform Bill

Text Note ult o

§.14. Penal Securities

8

{In the one case the misdeed can not have place without the existence of a correspondent and strong desire: in the other case it may have existence without any such desire.

In the case of forgery, fraudulent personation and perjury this distinction is observed in practice: for without persuasion of the existence of the consciousness in question /this evil/ no man would concurr in /give his concurrence to/ a conviction: in the case of forgery and personation it is implied; in the case of perjury it is, to wit by the word wilful directly asserted in direct terms. But with these exceptions, the disregard paid to it is general: the consequence is that while many a man who ought to suffer is exempted, many a man who ought not to suffer suffers.}

{For this distinction pregnant as it is with such important consequences, the demand runs through the whole field of penal law. Generally speaking, the eyes of the lawyers of the Roman School have been open to it, generally speaking the eyes of the lawyers of the English School have been closed /shut against/ blind to it: and to this blindness may be traced many of those enormities /atrocities/ with which all eyes that are not closed by sinister interest interest-begotten prejudice, authority-begotten prejudice or indigenous weakness, are afflicted.}