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the calamity.
No such distinction occurs in Edward the alt code of Edw. 1st, commonly known by the
title of Britton † † Wing. Ed. §.44
Written if we may believe
J Prysot Qu — in the his 5th
year — v. Y. Book Hils
35 Hen. 6th pl. 2. p.42.
a Book much superior to any at
the rest in point of order "A man (we find in the Chapter of Homicides) may say, by way of Plea" (amongst other things pleas) that he
killed the person by misadventure without felony propense, which case being proven
we will that he be acquitted.
In the Book called the Mirror of Justice written a few years afterwards # # But it appears plainly from
internal evidence the body of it to have
been written some time
after 13 Edw. 1st — Statute
a Stat. of that date concerning
Rape, not in the form of
a note which by the chicanery
of transcribers might have
crept into the context, but
& in the same imperative
& like the King speaking in
his own person which is
perceived throughout.
The Mirror It's date is determined by of Justice
By it's mentioning another
Stat. of the same year as
recent. is determined to the
same time we meet with it again
But here in this place, we must with a small distinction clearly marked out between the
punishment for the real perpetuated an undisguised mischief upon an unlawful act, and this same mischief
designed — "But you ought to distinguish, where the Slayer does a thing which
"may by Al right, & then he does not sin : & when he does a thing which "he
"ought not to do, & yet bestows all the diligence he can crying out & "
warnings & then he does not sin greatly, but if he does, then he sins
The same difficulty still encompasses us, [that] of knowing whether this was
the practice or this Author's Theory: a difficulty that is in vain to to thing of curing
in regard to this Author wherever he lay down the Law who in his division of offences or sins as he calls
them fumbling Ecclesiastical with civil imaginary with real speaks of the criminality
of fornication which we know was never punished with death [except durin in the Civil Wars] in the same terms with that of Murder & high Treason. ||
If there be any Historical proposition of which we can be absolutely certain, it is, that
this Sin never was punished with Death in this country either by express Law
or usage both that the short-lived & frenetic of the last Century.
The most portable account that can be given seems to be he, that [properly speaking
as there was no express Law, so neither was there any usage about the matter:
The few suits of this sort distributed among Courts of Criminal Jurisdiction,
much more numerous than at present, insulated from one another & happening
at distant intervals were not collected together into images sufficiently large
to form an usage — In an age where little was committed to writing &
was, was that little still less communicated: The meaning of what was done in this behalf
in one small district behoved to expire before another of the same kind happened
in the same district or any an adjoining one; especially if we consider that these accidents
are not very numerous, that from their nature they are the Lot of chiefly of the
laboring class, that the Crown would want a motive for preservation where there was nothing.
[To make an observation by the bye]
of all compositions in any language
which I ever set my eyes on,
this is beyond comparison in any respect the
most vitious and deformed shapeless.
The absurdity in question is
but one out of a thousand.
It is fact it should be known instructive to observe
that it is to such an writer 'Tis to this writer this
than in whom the utter absence
of every thing that can be called
discretion never was more conspicuous
that Sr Edw Coke has hasten'd
the Epithets of learned & discreet
Prof to 10th Rep.
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Identifier: | JB/063/132/002 "JB/" can not be assigned to a declared number type with value 63.
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law in general |
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jeremy bentham |
[[watermarks::[gr with crown motif] [britannia with shield motif]]] |
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