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Under Homicide may be consider'd - 1st the
intention. 2dly The subject circumstances of the party slain
subject or person slain 3d The manner means 8. the Instrument - as a Weapon. Poison. 6. The degree of reflection accompanying the act. 7. The consent or non-consent of the party slain.
3dly the 4thly The cause or motive. 5th
The pain of sufferance concomitant upon it.
All these make a difference on the mischief. Why so many? because any of these either do make a difference in the mischief: or or have been thought to make a difference in the malignity, of the action. Why no more? because no others do or have been thought to make any such difference; or if any have been thought to do so, it is become so plain at this time of day that they do not, that it is not worth while to mention them.
The mischief of the 1st order is the same in
all-cases [the 5th excepted] — What difference
they make must therefore be exemplified in
the 2d & 3d orders.
Let us begin with intention — Where there is
absolutely no intention has absolutely no place,
there is no place for punishment, for the
reasons that have been given in the Chapter
of Exemptions.
Where there is intention it may have been directed
to one or other of these purposes — that is
2d Simply To do the act, eventually fatal to the party
killed: but without any intention of its having
an effect of any kind upon him as the object
In this use the act may be said to be intentional in the 1st degree
3dly An intention to do the act, accompanied with
an intention of producing an a certain effect upon
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the party killed, as the object: but not a penal painful
effect — In this case the act may be said to be
intentional in the 2d degree. In the cases hitherto mentioned, the act may be indeed be said to have been intentional: but incompleatly so.
4dly An intention to do the act, accompanied with
an intention to produce an a certain effect on the
party killed, & that a penal painful one; but not
penal painful to that degree. In this case, the act may
be said to be intentional in the 3d last degree; or compleatly
intentional. The question then occurs — to what degree?
II. As to the subject or party slain It may be either the slayer himself, or some other — The
differences observable with respect to the subject, are
differences circumstances either of age or of condition.
differences circumstances of condition may be such either
as respect the slayer more particularly
differences circumstances relative to the slayer. + + under a particular description
or such as respect the slayer no otherwise
than as a member of the community
differences circumstances of condition respecting the community
With respect to his or her condition in a more peculiar manner respecting relative to the slayer
the party slain may have been stood in the natural relation
of Parent & or Child — Husband & or Wife: or in
the [peculiar] civil ones of Guardian or Ward
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Master or Servant — Diocesan or Suffragan
With respect to the community — he may have
stood in the relation of Sovereign or of a person participating to such a degree of the privileges of Sovereignty as to have had his life taken under the like peculiar protection. or Subject
With respect to his age, he may have been
Infant or adult.
From the circumstance of age joined to that
of the a certain relation viz: that of to
the party slain,viz: that of Paternity we obtain that modification
of the Offence + + obnoxious act we see frequently characterized by the
term of Child-murder. This will demand
a particular consideration.
The absence of intention in any of the 3 first senses,
totally dispenses one with from all enquiries concerning
the other particulars.
If the nature of the thing were such that this
every head were susceptible of branching out
under the varieties noticeable observable under every other,
The number of distinct cases that would result
from such reciprocal multiplication would be
prodigious: immense any one let us who cast it up, & he will
find it to amount to a x b x c. x d. x e x f x g =
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Happily we are dispensed from engaging in
such a Labyrinth of enquiries.
III As to the means — Those [The means by which event may
the court has been brought about] those may have
been either 1st Direct or 2d Indirect
By di "means direct" I mean the exertion
of corporal energy of any kind — This as it is the most direct, is also the most natural natural,
that is, the obvious & most usual way of producing in the event — The
event is produced by corporal energy: for corporal
energy is the only means that can be
at all depended upon of producing it: + + Terror is a means by which it has been known in here & there an instance to have been produced: but the means ( need scarce necessary to observe) too precarious for any one ever to have depended on. and the
corporal energy is the energy of him who wills
it.
By means indirect I mean the exertion of
mental energy viz: on the will in the way of influence over
some other being by whose corporal energy it
is effected. It is still produced by corporal
energy: but that energy is the energy of another a being
other than that which wills it.
This other being may have been either rational or
irrational: or in other words, he it may be in-
HOMICIDE. Division. [BR][15]
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Identifier: | JB/096/215/001 "JB/" can not be assigned to a declared number type with value 96.
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jeremy bentham |
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