Full resolution (TIFF) - On this page / på denna sida - I. Chapter. On Punishments
<< prev. page << föreg. sida << >> nästa sida >> next page >>
Below is the raw OCR text
from the above scanned image.
Do you see an error? Proofread the page now!
Här nedan syns maskintolkade texten från faksimilbilden ovan.
Ser du något fel? Korrekturläs sidan nu!
This page has been proofread at least once.
(diff)
(history)
Denna sida har korrekturlästs minst en gång.
(skillnad)
(historik)
by fire? No, it will be answered, that would be
cruel and inhuman; justice should be appeased by
some other serious punishment. But then we are
immediately brought upon quite other grounds,
viz, that the punishment can not absolutely
correspond to the crime, but must become a kind of
conventional approximation; and in that case the
principles of justice, founded on strict retaliation,
must fall to the ground.
Another difficulty, and a no less dangerous
one, attached to punishments so repulsive to
humanity, is, that if they are applied without mercy,
the highest power must bear the reproach of
extreme severity; should pardon often be granted,
disrespect for the law and a less degree of fear
for its precepts are encouraged. We have seen,
that Sweden is, next to Spain, the country in which
capital-punishment has been most common, and,
nevertheless, during the last seven years, of the
criminals condemned to death, a medium of 43
annually have been pardoned.
The right of pardon rests upon a great and
sacred thought, and forms the last refuge of
persecuted innocence here on earth; it can also be
considered as the perfecting of the law, when the
letter is not satisfactory. The law interprets the
inflexible demands of justice, and the cold
calculations of the understanding; pardon, on the
contrary, is a voice raised from the inmost feelings of
society; it is the inspiration of the heart. But this
<< prev. page << föreg. sida << >> nästa sida >> next page >>
