JB/141/009/001

Click Here To Edit

3
B.1 Ch.5.

The same mistake is made error is committed whenever
a punishment is established which reaches only
to a certain fixed point, whilst which the advantage of
the crime may surpass.

Advocates Authors of celebrity have been
found who would desirous of establishing a Rule
precisely the reverse: they have said that the
greatness of the temptation is a reason for lessening
the punishment; because it lessens the fault ; because
the more powerful the seduction, the less reason is thereç for concluding that the offender is depraved. Those
therefore who are overcome in this case naturally
inspire us with commiseration.(1)

This may all be very true and yet
afford no reason for departing from the rule.
That it may prove effectual the punishment
must be more to be dreaded than the profit of the Crime
desired. – Besides an inefficacious punishment
is doubly mischievous – Mischievous to the
public since it permits the crime to be
committed, – Mischievous to the delinquent, since
the punishment inflicted upon him is useless just
so much misery in waste. What should we say

(1) One is astonished that a writer of such consummate
genius as Adam Smith, should have fallen into this
mistake. peaking of smuggling, he says: "The law contrary
"to all the ordinary principles of justice, first creates the
"temptation and then punishes those who yield to it; and it
"commonly enhances the punishment, too, in proportion to the
"very circumstance which ought certainly to alleviate it, the
"temptation to commit the crime ."
Wealth of Nations, B 5. ch. 2.

Identifier: | JB/141/009/001 "JB/" can not be assigned to a declared number type with value 141.
Date_1		Marginal Summary Numbering
Box	141	Main Headings	rationale of punishment
Folio number	009	Info in main headings field
Image	001	Titles
Category	copy/fair copy sheet	Number of Pages	4
Recto/Verso	recto	Page Numbering	f3 / f2 / f4 / f1
Penner	richard smith	Watermarks	[[watermarks::dusautoy & rump 1809 [britannia with shield emblem]]]
Marginals		Paper Producer	edward collins
Corrections		Paper Produced in Year	1809
Notes public		ID Number	48226
Box Contents