JB/141/018/002

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Proportion
Measure

he will begin with the rules that tend to
fix the limits to it on the minus side. Then
1. the Profit, meaning the real profit of the offence
2d. the apparent profit of it.

Rule 1. The value of the punishment ought must not to be be less in any case than
what is sufficient to outweigh that of the profit (meaning the real profit) of the crime offence.

The real profit of the crime, when understood, is
the force which urges a man todelinquency: the
pain of the punishment is that which is to
restrain fro him from it. If in his estimation the first of these
forces be the greater he will committ the crime:
if the second he will not committ it. If then
a man having reaped the profit of a crime, &
undergone the punishment, finds the former more
than equivalent to the latter, he will go on
offending ad infinitum; there is nothing to
restrain him. Whatever punishment he undergoes
in this case is just so much mor worse than nothing:
it is expence without profit: as it cannot have
the effect of preventing any mischief, it is so
much misery in waste. It is therefore plain
to demonstration that with respect to the particular delinquent an inadequate punishment
is worse than none at all. With respect to others in the way of examp
example, it operates rather as an encouragement
than as a restraint. If a man, after having
undergone the punishment, is seen to repeat
the offence, it is an invitation to others to pursue
the same profitable career.*

Note

* Our Saxon ancestors were not altogether ignorant
of the necessity of establishing a proportion between
punishments & offences but were not very remarkably dextrous
in the management of such tools: the fee value
in money of each persons life was fixt. For 200 shillings
you might have killed a peasant: for 6 times as much
a

Identifier: | JB/141/018/002 "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	018	Info in main headings field
Image	002	Titles	equability
Category	copy/fair copy sheet	Number of Pages	2
Recto/Verso	recto	Page Numbering	f2 / f2
Penner	richard smith	Watermarks	dusautoy & rump 1809
Marginals		Paper Producer	edward collins
Corrections		Paper Produced in Year	1809
Notes public		ID Number	48235
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