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NOTORIETY COMPOS.. Unexecutable not to be placed for notification in the neighbourhood of executable.
The insertion of such Laws as of their nature
cannot or are not fit to be executed, behove to be perpetually transgressed with impunity is a sure
way of bringing those that can & are, into
non-observance & contempt. This is to be applied to the extravagant & impracticable restriction laid on Alehouses by the 1.J.1.c.9 for the prevention of Drunkenness. — Some will be apt to say of them, that tho' they are not fit to be executed the fear of them will serve to keep men in order
The party concerned learns from thence to
form to himself these general axioms, such as these That
Punishment does not follow threatning: that the
Law is a dead letter: axioms which the
& habit of presumption & self-deceit natural to man <add>some natures</add> prompts him to apply
to those articles not to those articles only which gave them birth but to others whereof the execution of which is fit
& feasible —
It may be said, that the execution of these
which upon by the supposition is feasible, will soon
bring him from his mistake: Seeing that unquestionably some Articles that perpetually infringed are never executed they will be feeding themselves with reasons, why this that & tother [should] would according to them probably not be executed but it must be
consider'd, that there are few species of offences but what may
repeated many times before conviction; few, the chance
of suffering for which is really so great more as it is thought appears
by him, even to him on whom it operates as a prevention.
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Beginn
I must on this occasion once more call to mind the mischief evil influence of
unexecutable Laws upon those that are executable: this mischief will be exasperated in a tenfold degree
by placing them contiguous
to [in the same
with] as the
latter
That the same causes which contributed to form
those axioms in his imagination will form them
also in the imagination of those others; That those
whose concurrence diligence might otherwise have been
expected afforded towards the bringing him to punishment executing the Law upon him
by there being dishabituated from the execution of it, will be
[used to] sitting still & looking on they learn that the word of the Legislation is not to be taken; that what it prophesieth shall not come to pass. If they learn to make a distinction of Laws into executable & not into dead & living — executive & the habit of presumption used to sitting &c & self-flattery natural to some minds will dispose them to fill give to the fatter division more than it's due share Others on the other hand of a more scrupulous & timid temperaments at the sight of
Threaten not more than your able & willing & ready
to perform — I have not either command or prohibition which you are not ready to support enforce to the
utmost they read importance in the very face of it
I would venture to refer myself it to such of my
readers as may be Parents to determine, what
sort of obedience a man is likely to have from
his children who should begin to with in a threatening
aspect with putting into their hands will be a harmed & harrassed with perpetual anxiety
PROMULGAT. Partic: Codes. Mischief of placing inexecutable [I [Xii] Laws by the Side of executable.
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promulgat. partic: codes - mischief of placing inexecutable laws by the side of executable |
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jeremy bentham |
[[watermarks::[lion with vryheyt motif]]] |
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