JB/047/113/001

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9 August 1806
Evidence

But here the proper remedy is not
a standing bad rule of evidence, but an occasional
pardon.

In the this first case there will not in general be any weighing
to be performed of mischief against mischief – of the mischief consisting
in the vexation, against the mischief from misdecision or failure
of justice. The law being by supposition bad, the vexation in all shapes of all kinds
attenda flowing from it, vexation of obedience where obeyed,
vexation of execution where not obeyed transgressed disobeyed, and upon the bulk of
the transgressor executed, will be so much neat mischief pure evil,
nothing to set against it in the scale. The case where mischief
being admitted to lie on both sides, the one each mass requires
to be weighed against the other its opposite mass, will be a new and
rather an extraordinary case.

Though extraordinary, this case however This case how extraordinary soever may not be altogether without
example. It will may be exemplified as ofen as from the nature of
the transgression, the multitude of the transgressors may be expected
to be such, that were all they all of them to be
punished, the mischief of the punishment might come to equal or exceed
that of the crime. For Take one example, where in consequence
of a disputed title to the Sovereignty, one half of the people became
traitors one day, the other half the next. Render punishment
co-extensive with transgression, the stage is cleared altogether, as
in the tragedy of Tom Thumb.

Take another example, where the law of libels stands in
the failing, in which it stands at present in this the land of liberty.
So many publishers, readers and hearers of newspapers, that is
so many pairs of eyes and ears, so many persons punishable
as libellers: so many persons not hanged indeed and embowelled
as in the other case, if transgression and execution went marched with a regular step
one after the other together, but fined, pilloried, imprisoned or all three.

Identifier: | JB/047/113/001 "JB/" can not be assigned to a declared number type with value 47.
Date_1	1806-08-09	Marginal Summary Numbering	15-16
Box	047	Main Headings	evidence
Folio number	113	Info in main headings field	evidence
Image	001	Titles
Category	text sheet	Number of Pages	1
Recto/Verso	recto	Page Numbering	e6
Penner	jeremy bentham	Watermarks	iping 1804
Marginals	jeremy bentham	Paper Producer	bernardino rivadavia
Corrections		Paper Produced in Year	1804
Notes public		ID Number	14981
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