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AESTIMATION. Mischief of the 2 Order greatest [BR][ ]
The actual direct mischief of most offences, after the Ballance is struck between the pain to the
sufferer and the pleasure to if the Malefactor is often nothing & never very considerable. commonly but a It is therefore
in the contingent in Offences of the third class & the actual reflex mischief pain in offences than of the first, that the ill- mischief of a Crime
principally resides. If in Theft, when the subject of that offence, happens to be among the
necessaries, or most vulgar accommodations of life, the pain of the loser behoves to exceed surpass that the pleasure of the acquirer, because
after having had a thing, then to lose it is worse than to have had it never; on the other
hand when the subject is among the less indispensible conveniences or the elegancies of life,
it can hardly happen, but that the pain of the opulent loser must yield to the pleasure of the indigent acquirer. must exceed the
pain of the Or to transfer the example from the differences of the subject to those
of the person, it can hardly be supposed that the uneasiness of a Nobleman
at losing a pair of Shoes or Stockings can be equal to the joy of of acquisition
to a miserable vagrant who has none.
Nay In some as of a Will, where neither party Crimes the pleasure of acquisition may be capable of being multiplied
beyond measure above the sufferance of losing — If instead of a Will bequeathing a
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Legacy of 10,000 £ to some rich friend of the deceased whose annual income
may be to that amount already, another be forged which distributes that Sum among
a hundred Beggars who had nothing, who does not see how much the Sum of their joy
must exceed the other's pain? Fortunes equal, the pain of the loser by an theft act of rapine, exceeds the pleasure of the gainer. but Fortunes must be so very unequal, it may as that it shal be otherwise.when one considers especially that to the rich man legitimate
Devisee it is not in fact any positive pain, but only the loss of so much pleasure.
Tis in the general apprehension of insecurity for their property, which such a transaction
to undergo when discover'd fails not to spread among the people, and the contingency of and which were the pressure
of the punishment once removed would immediately swell to an enormous height, that the real
mischief of this the Crime is to be looked for.
The direct reflex however takes it's proportion from the direct; that is from what the
direct is before those the deductions are made which in for the purpose of an accurate aestimation of it we are obliged
to make, but which are never made by the body of the People. Thus the reflex
Mischief of Murder is to be looked upon as greater than that of Battery, because
to be killed is worse & more apprehended than to be beaten. The deduction that is to
be made from in aestimating the direct mischief, viz: the consideration that if the man killed had not
been put to death in the (manner in question he would certainly have died of himself
some time or other & probably in a more painful manner, is not to be made: no more than
is the joy of which the malefactor reaps in the gratification of his passions of Avarice or Revenge:
because these are considerations which are never attended to by the people. Besides that the Joy of Malefactors is only occasional, as the crimes are committed: & the apprehension is perpetual & unremitting
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Identifier: | JB/096/148/001 "JB/" can not be assigned to a declared number type with value 96.
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096 |
legislation |
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148 |
aestimation mischief of the 2o order greatest |
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001 |
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recto |
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jeremy bentham |
[[watermarks::l v g propatria [britannia motif]]] |
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caroline vernon |
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31152 |
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