OLIVER GOLDSMITH'S LIFE AND TIMES. (BOOK m.
of the World raised Ms voice against the penal laws which
then, with wanton severity, disgraced the statute book;
insisted that the sole means of making death an efficient,
was to make it an infrequent, punishment; and warned
society of the crime of disregarding human life and the
temptations of the miserable, by visiting petty thefts with
penalties of blood,* .
He who does not read for amusement only, may also
find in these delightful letters, thus published from week
to week, a comment of special worth on casual incidents
of the time. There was. in this year a city-campaign of
peculiar cruelty. A mob has indiscriminate tastes for blood,
" ' administration of justice; but all the world will grant, that the more time there
'' ' is taken up in considering any subject, the better it will be understood. Besides,
" ' it is the boast of an Englishman, that his property is secure, and all the world
" ' will grant that a deliberate administration of justice is the best way to secure his
" ' property. Why have we so many lawyers, but to secure our property ? why so
" ' many formalities, but to secure our property ? Not less than one hundred
" ' thousand families live in opulence, elegance, and ease, merely by securing our
" ' property.' . . J 'But bless me,'returned I, 'what numbers do I see here—
" ' all in black—how is it possible that half this multitude find employment ?'
" — 'Nothing so easily conceived,' returned my companion, ' they live by watching
" ' each other. For instance, the catchpole watches the man in debt, the attorney
" ' watches the catchpole, the counsellor watches the attorney, • the solicitor the
'' ' counsellor, and all find sufficient employment.'—' I conceive you,' interrupted
" I, 'they watch each other : but it is the client that pays them all for watching.'"
Letter xcviii. The reader is to remember that this was written a hundred years
ago, and that we are only at this hour bestirring ourselves to provide something of
* Gould anything be better reasoned than this, which indeed anticipates the
closest arguments of Bentham ? "When a law, enacted to make theft punishable
" with death, happens to be equitably executed, it can at best only guard our
" possessions; but when, by favour or ignorance, justice pronounces a wrong
"verdict, it then attacks our lives, since in such a case the whole community
" suffers with the innocent victim : if, therefore, in order to secure the effects of
" one man, I should make a law which may take away the life of another, in such
" a case, to attain a smaller good, I am guilty of a greater evil; to secure society
" in the possession of a bauble, I render a real and valuable possession precarious.
"... Since punishments are sometimes necessary, let them at least be rendered
" terrible, by being executed but seldom, and let Justice lift her sword rather to
" terrify than revenge." Letter Ixxx.