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3 RS6
The Title of an Indemnity Act 4 G.2.c.6. supposes the neglects
against the consequences of which it indemnifies to have
been incurred through "ignorance of Law" - The way to
cure ignorance is to communicate give bestow information instruction.
At . . . . Assizes ....Circuit . . .
A.D. 176 . . a Man was convicted on the . . .
. . . . . for . . . . . . . . .
At that very time there was no such Act in being, it having
been repealed by .. .. . . . . . . .
Is it the Judge on whom we ought to cast the blame
of this misfortune, or the Jurisprudence? This the Public
will be the better enabled to decide when they consider
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that the Parties, Attorneys, Council on both sides acted
for a series of months under the same ignorance, and
when they are informed that this Judge was [the late]
Sr Joseph Yates.
The very possibility of an event like this would be taken away, if, according to the plan here proposed, there were to be never any more than one Law upon any one subject at any one time - The Law on which a man could be convicted would not be this or that Law but the Law.
A similar case happened in 17.J.1. Piescase Hutton 35.
The Deft. had been convicted on the Statute then
expired 35 El:7. made for limitting the number of buildings
about London a statute which was then expired.
From the Laws as at present promulgated & composed
all that the bulk of the People can collect concerning
the greater Crimes, is that if a man is guilty of any of
PROMULGATION. Persons punished on expired Statutes.
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the greater Crimes it is a great chance but what he is either
transported for it or hanged for it. I will appeal to the
experience and reflection of their Jurymen whether this
is not a fair summing up of all the knowledge they
can well possess generally speaking about the matter. But a man may be
hanged or transported for 50 causes reasons as which he never
could have thought of: I say not that men are punishable in this manner for crimes for which they would not imagine themselves liable to suffer at all, but for which they would not think themselves liable to suffer in this manner it is the overplus only of punishment that is useless. which he is never told of: and
the hanging or transporting him for which answers no
other purpose but the bringing so much useless misery loading of so much useless misery upon
into the world the State.
A Law, be it never so good in itself, becomes not only useless
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but mischievous for want of Notriety: that is not for
being absolutely not known, (for that is scarce possible)
and in that case indeed it would not be mischievous,
but for Being known to but a few, known to those who
are to punish for disobedience, and not to those who should
obey: mischievous it is & purely mischievous because the
unhappiness produced by the infliction of the penalty,
stands uncompensated by the cessation of the mischief.
This is one of those Truths so obvious when proposed
for consideration,
& yet so seldom taken so little into consideration
as one would should expect the due sense of it should give birth to. to judge from the extreme penury of such as to require provisions as one should expect
rather to be inculcated than proved. to be established from this persuasion of it.
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Identifier: | JB/079/074/001 "JB/" can not be assigned to a declared number type with value 79.
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074 |
promulgation persons punished on expired statutes |
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001 |
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copy/fair copy sheet |
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recto |
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[[watermarks::gr [crown motif] [britannia with shield motif]]] |
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25516 |
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