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6
C
Preface
alike. I am not here either a republican or a partizan of monarchy: not because I have not any preference, but that because here there was no need I should be the one man than the other. To p. 14. at top Nor even under this limitation is the
it has to range in a very narrow one, it
will be found to be wider I believe, than at first
sight one would imagine: insomuch that
were it but once well settled what is proper
to be done in such universal cases, the legislator
later would not comparatively speaking find any
very great difficulty in determining during what further
might be proper to be done in the particular
community entrusted to his care . I am not here a Jew Mahometan, a Jew, a Christian , a Catholic a Protestant, a a Deist or an Atheist : not that I have not any cried : but because here then could be no use in neither any necessity nor any use in publishing it . What I note here is not what is true in Religion (since the bringing Religion upon the carpet is unfortunately not to be dispensed with) but what is useful: useful I mean in a political view: useful for the purposes of the present life. Eternity is certainly of more importance than a moment: perfect happiness & perfect misery than a fillie or a flea bite: but with eternity I have nothing here to do. All I look to is that measure of duration which may be the lot if the human race upon this material Globe.. It has been
long ago observed that in the main, human
nature and the several failings and misfortunes
incident to it are every where the
same. Murder, theft, robbery and so forth, are
the growth of every : the means of committing
such offences enormities, the effects of
them when committed, the motives which
may induce a man to committ them, and
the considerations which together with the force of the laws: may contribute to may restrain him
admitt if but little difference. So far then
as this is the case the enacting part which
is designed to represent the tenor of the law
may be carried on. On the other hand where may
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7 C Pefatce
any local intervensi circumstances intervene, which
make a difference in the consequences of an act
in the opportunitites of committing it or, on
that or any other ground, in the demand for punishment,
there immediately the enacting part
must of; and all that can be done is
to give [+] [+] under the form of instructions to the legislator a general law idea of what the manner in which may be proper
to be done treat the case, allowance being made for the peculiar [in different countries] under the
form of instructions to the legislator. circumstances of each country.
It may be asked, why be at the pains
of giving the law in terminus, and entering
minutia of language: the rather as
the one application of such details could hardly be as
universal extensive as the design of the work,
but must be confined in some measure to the
language in which it is written? The case is
that in matters of law every thing depends upon
the choice of terms. The one regularity of the whole
plan, the correspondence of the several parts of it,
the description of the several offences as contained
in the definition given of them, every
thing in short depends upon the wording. The very practicability
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Identifier: | JB/027/045/002 "JB/" can not be assigned to a declared number type with value 27.
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penal code |
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preface |
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jeremy bentham |
[[watermarks::r williams [britannia with shield motif]]] |
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c. hamilton |
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