JB/147/494/001

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2 August 1811
Hulks &c

When a man The man that on false pretences obtains 12s once
paid is hanged(a): the man who in pretence equally
and much more notoriously false obtains £17,000 a year for life is honoured.
The different thus made is it proper or improper.
By Between The fate of the two different sets of persons one is
it right that it should be different there should exist that same difference as it is
which exists at present, or no difference at all,
or that the difference their fate should be reversed?

In short in what way ought they respectively to be
dealt with by the law.

To these questions the answer will be different according
to the principle on which it is grounded.
I speak of the theoretical principle which is taken for the
ground of legislative practice.

Under the principle of sympathy and antipathy
alias the principle of sentimentalism or
sentimentality the answer would be – whatever
be the punishment allotted to the swindler upon the
small scale, that allotted to the swindler upon
the large scale ought to be the heavier. If for
example the petty swindler is transported, the punishment
of hanging ought to be the portion of
him whose operations in the same line have been
carried on upon the so much larger scale.

(a) [hanged] or else transported. In some cases hanged
in others only transported: he who knows the difference between
the cases in which the one fate and those in
which the other fate awaits a man, let him declare it. If there
be any such person, I give him joy. It is more than the Judges know
or desire that anybody else should know. If they did, they and it is not possible they should be
have to be not be at a loss. They would but have to do copy and carry into effect what Ld Keeper
Guildford when he was Lord Chief Justice began, viz take notes of the
imperfections of the laws
as they come to be presented
to view by the cases
that called for judgment
and upon those notes
former Bills to be passed
into Acts. The be For the purpose
in which
here in
question would would be
requisite is a set of difficulties
comprehending all the genera of punishable offences. Had there ever been any such head of the law as that best of all Lord Keepers been seen seated
on that Bench, with intention such as those entertained and begun to be pursued as above, some 30 years ago the hand that wrote that note⊞
⊞ would have submitted to him a proposed an attempt of that sort of which a specimen may be seen
in the Book on Legislation published in French, for want of English encouragement for the which by Mr Dumont.

Identifier: | JB/147/494/001 "JB/" can not be assigned to a declared number type with value 147.
Date_1	1811-08-02	Marginal Summary Numbering	1-2, 2a
Box	147	Main Headings	Sinecures
Folio number	494	Info in main headings field	Hulks &c
Image	001	Titles
Category	Text sheet	Number of Pages	1
Recto/Verso	recto	Page Numbering	C1
Penner		Watermarks	TH 1806
Marginals	Jeremy Bentham	Paper Producer	Andre Morellet
Corrections		Paper Produced in Year	1806
Notes public		ID Number	49719
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