The National Quarterly Review, Vol. 8
December, 1863, and March, 1864 (Classic Reprint)

Excerpt from The National Quarterly Review, Vol. 8: December, 1863, and March, 1864<br><br>The jurisprudence of all nations contains evidence of the difficulty experienced by their greatest statesmen in establishing a system of punishment which would be best calculated to protect society and reform the criminal. Both the Greeks and Romans failed to solve the problem; nor is it by any means a universally recognized fact that it has been fully solved in modern times. It is pretty generally admitted, however, that the nearest approach yet made to a perfect system of prison discipline practically originated in this country. Those unwilling to give us credit for anything else that is great or good, are constrained to acknowledge that we have succeeded better than any other nation of ancient or modern times, in accomplishing the results which punishment is designed to produce. In order to appreciate this, it is necessary to examine the penal laws of other countries; those of Greece and Rome alone would show that it requires less philosophy and a less familiar acquaintance with the human heart, its motives and its impulses, to legislate on any other subject than on the punishment of crime. Not that there is any difficulty in punishing the criminal after his arrest has been effected and his guilt proved. Nothing is easier than to inflict pain; the most ignorant and most barbarous are those who inflict it most effectually.<br><br>It is equally true that society has a right to protect itself from every violent attempt against its safety and peace; this is nothing more than the right of self-preservation, which forms the basis of all human law. The only question then is, as to the means by which this preservation is to be best effected without unnecessary cruelty. And in considering this we should remember that it is only mob law that punishes in a revengeful spirit. That punishment should not be vindictive, but precautionary or preventive, was the recognized precept among all the enlightened nations of antiquity.<br><br>About the Publisher<br><br>Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com<br><br>This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.