Three Criminal Law Reformers: Beccaria, Bentham, Romilly |
Common terms and phrases
¹ Ibid Abbé Morellet abolished abuses accused afterwards barbarous Baron d'Holbach Beccaria Bentham bill capital punishment chap character condemned constitution conviction courts criminal law criticism cruelty death penalty Delitti Diderot doctrines Dumont effect emphasised Encyclopædists England English evil execution existing favour France Francis Place French greatest happiness Helvétius honour House of Commons human ideas imprisonment inflicted influence injury innocent J. S. Mill judges jurisprudence jury justice labour legislation less letter liberty London Lord Lord Lansdowne magistrates measures Memoirs ment mind Montesquieu moral Morellet nations nature object observes offences opinion pain Paley Panopticon Paris parliament penal law persons philosophers Pietro Verri political practice prevailing prevent crimes principles prisoners published reason reform regard religious rigour Romilly Romilly's says sentence severity society Speeches spirit thought tion torture treatise truth utilitarian utility Verri Voltaire writings
Popular passages
Page 239 - Of all the celebrated persons whom, in my life, I have chanced to see, Dr. Franklin, both from his appearance and his conversation, seemed to me the most remarkable. His venerable patriarchal appearance, the simplicity of his manner and language, and the novelty of his observations, at least the novelty of them at that time to me, impressed me with an opinion of him as of one of the most extraordinary men that ever existed.
Page 252 - Ed. lived through the times and was mixed up, heart and soul, in the matters he speaks of, 'if any person be desirous of having an adequate idea of the mischievous effects which have been produced in this country by the French Revolution and all its attendant horrors, he should attempt some reforms on humane and liberal principles.
Page 280 - They ought rather to reflect, that he who falls by a mistaken sentence, may be considered as falling for his country ; whilst he suffers under the operation of those rules, by the general effect and tendency of which the welfare of the community is maintained and upholden. CHAPTER X. OF RELIGIOUS ESTABLISHMENTS, AND OF TOLERATION. ' A RELIGIOUS establishment is no part of Christianity ; it is only the means of inculcating it.
Page 118 - Natural rights is simple nonsense : natural and imprescriptible rights, rhetorical nonsense — nonsense upon stilts.
Page 120 - Morals reformed — health preserved — industry invigorated— instruction diffused— public burthens lightened- Economy seated, as it were, upon a rock - the gordian knot of the Poor-Laws not cut, but untied - all by a simple idea in architecture!
Page 122 - Never was any one worse used than Bentham. I have seen the tears run down the cheeks of that strong-minded man through vexation at the pressing importunity of creditors, and the insolence of official underlings, when, day after day, he was begging at the Treasury for what was indeed a mere matter of right.
Page 300 - I confess, however, that to myself it seems absolutely impossible, even if it were to be wished (of which I am not quite sure), to omit death in the catalogue of human punishments ; for if the criminal will not submit to the punishment inflicted on him, if he escapes from his prison, refuses to perform the labour prescribed to him, or commits new crimes, he must, at last, be punished with death. So it is, at least, in the
Page 320 - He was bred to the law, which is, in my opinion, one of the first and noblest of human sciences ; a science which does more to quicken and invigorate the understanding, than all the other kinds of learning put to- 30 gether; but it is not apt, except in persons very happily born, to open and to liberalize the mind exactly in the same proportion.
Page 163 - That he be hanged by the neck, and then cut down alive. 3. That his entrails be taken out and burned while he is yet alive. 4. That his head be cut off. 5. That his body be divided into four parts. 6. That his head and quarters be at the king's disposal.
Page 42 - I may use such a ludicrous figure of speech, am a sort of gadfly, given to the state by God ; and the state is a great and noble steed who is tardy in his motions owing to his very size, and requires to be stirred into life. I am that gadfly which God has attached to the state, and all day long and in all places am always fastening upon you, arousing and persuading and reproaching you.