INTRODUCTION. I N the rude ftate of nature, when power was thought to confer right, every man muft have been under apprehenfions from his neighbour. To remove. thofe apprehenfions, and to provide fome fecurity for the weak and timid, against thofe of fuperior ftrength and intrepidity, was certainly the end of all focial confederacies. While focieties however were merely federative, mankind retained their rational right of private revenge; but when they became legislative, it was abfolutely neceffary for the order and fupport of government, that certain offences fhould have their ftated measure of punishment. It was requifite, for this purpofe, to frame certain established rules, or laws, by which the members of the community were to regulate their conduct with respect to each other; and thofe rules, or laws, were made with the confent, either tacit or expreft, of the whole body. In the infant condition of legislation, the laws by which different states were regulated, were few and simple. Mankind, at firft, had more to apprehend from violence than from deceit, and confequently to protect the lives, liberties, and property of the fubject from open force, muft have been a concern antecedent to the thought of fecuring him againft cir cumvention. In the maturer ftate of fociety, as mankind grew more polifhed and refined, artifice took place of force, and evil and defigning men studied to accomplish those ends by fubtlety, which they were prohibited from attempting by violence. As As laws multiply with offences, thofe of a criminal nature muft neceffarily have increafed with the growing craft and perfidy of men. The fame fubdolous difpofition in mankind, likewise, gave birth to that variety of Civil Laws, which have been framed to bind men to the rules of honesty and equity, in the course of their focial commerce with each other. In the forming thefe laws or rules of action, men had only to confult the dictates of nature, which immediately pointed out to them what was juft and what was unjuft. But inftead of being directed by that unerring guide, the Light of Nature, (which Solomon emphatically calls, the candle of Almighty God) many ftates have framed their fyftems of government in fuch a manner as to induce the neceflity of fupporting fuch fyftems by laws, to which the natural rights of mankind are facrificed. The The Britons, the Romans, the Saxons, the Danes, and the Normans, all contributed in their turns to form our original code of laws. The increase of commerce and riches, and the various revolutions of government, made it expedient, at different periods, that the laws fhould be varied, mo dified and improved for the public good But many of thofe alterations and intended improvements, especially in our Criminal Laws, were made (as lord Bacon expresses it) on the fpur of the occafion, and were therefore not fufficiently attended to in their original formation. The obvious difproportion and severity in our Criminal Laws, have long called for the calm and deliberate revifal and confideration of the legif lature. The lovers of their country, and friends of human nature, muft all with for fuch alterations in this branch of our laws, as may, confiftent with reafon, juftice, and the principles of the conftitution, moderate their rigour, and reform the morals of the people by wife regulations, à priori; for laws which only take effect & pofteriori, and propofe the prevention of crimes, by cutting |