1821. April 17.

First Lines

Penal Law.

Exacted at the expence of the evil doer

, compensation necessitates suffering: exacted in

consideration of, and in proportion to, the evil done by him, that

suffering, by the whole amount of it, operates as punishment.

In the first place, Compensation for the party injured; in the next

place, over and above compensation, punishment for the benefit of the

public — punishment for appeasement of the wrath of the offended and

exasperated wrathful monarch — such is the arithmetic

of tyranny. Punishment including,

to the profit of the monarch, the exaction of the

whole of that matter by which compensation to the individual injured might

have been afforded; after that, compensation or no compensation to the

individual injured.

Such is the order, the method of tyranny. Compensation by one course of

procedure; punishment by another and a different course of procedure;

reformation, by health given to the soul by a third and different course of

procedure — such is the arithmetic of lawyercraft —

confededrate partner and instrument of tyranny; of

lawyercraft in its most rapacious character, and elaborated part —

the character and goal of the English lawyer.

Compensation and satisfaction are synonymous. Of the word compensation the

psychological

import has its root in the physical idea of

weight: compensation is weight for weight: satisfaction is giving enough

for what has been suffered: enough of good for the evil that has been

suffered: in such sort that the weight of the

good in the seale of enjoyment shall be equal to

the weight of the evil in the seale of suffering.