JB/159/119/002

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6

Measure of Punishment
Ins.

the mischief for of any of those offences which
have an individual for their object.

Let an act of fornication be supposed mischievous. It is
not prevented by the Laws punishment in being. Would
it be right to combat it with the punishment
of a lingering death, for instance with breaking
upon the wheel. I suppose there is no man but
what will be ready to answer in the negative.
Why so? For this reason for I can find no other.
Because the desire on the one hand the mischief of the offence
what ever it be is so small, on the other hand
the desire that prompts a man to committ it
is so impervious and so blind, that if whether the law
were carried more or less into execution, the
sum of the mischiefs inflicted produced by the punishment
would in either event be greater than the sum more than equivalent to the
benefit produced by the partial suppression
of the offence. There The number would be fewer acts of
fornication committed would be lessened, but so little fewer lessened
that the mischief thereby prevented would be
less than the mischief it cost to prevent them.
If the Law were well executed, there would be
more acts of fornication saved, but then there
would be more people put to death: if the ill-executed,
there would be fewer people put to death
but then there would be fewer acts of fornication
saved.

Identifier: | JB/159/119/002 "JB/" can not be assigned to a declared number type with value 159.
Date_1		Marginal Summary Numbering
Box	159	Main Headings	punishment
Folio number	119	Info in main headings field	measure of punishment
Image	002	Titles
Category	text sheet	Number of Pages	4
Recto/Verso	recto	Page Numbering	f5 / f6 / f7 / f8
Penner	jeremy bentham	Watermarks	[[watermarks::l v g propatria [britannia motif]]]
Marginals		Paper Producer	caroline vernon
Corrections		Paper Produced in Year
Notes public		ID Number	53942
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