THE NEW YORK 183703 ASTOR, LENOX AND TILDEN FOUNDATIONS. 1900. CHISWICK: PRINTED BY C. WHITTINGHAM. I T has been acknowledged for a considerable time, that our criminal laws require revision, and many changes have been made in them with a view to the more effectual suppression of crime, as well as to satisfy the more humane spirit which increasing civilization never fails to generate. Yet these amendments have been more of the nature of a patch on an old garment, or a lean-to against an old building, than what it was natural to wish for-namely, a taking away of useless parts, or a reconstruction of them on the plan of the original fabric. Law, like other things, has its fundamental principles, and he who would construct or amend a code must first make himself well acquainted with those principles, otherwise he runs the risk of as signal a failure as would be experienced by the architect or mechanician who should form his plans without a due regard to the fundamental rules of his science: which are themselves derived from the great laws by which B 2 matter is regulated. The mechanician knows that the tendency of matter is to repose, and that if motion is to be communicated to it, friction, gravitation, the pressure of the atmosphere, and various other causes must be taken into account, and accurately calculated, ere he can judge of the exterior force required to overcome both the original vis inertiæ and the numerous interrupting causes. He does so, and if he calculates well, he succeeds in producing the most beautiful results. The legislator has to deal with a subject of a more difficult nature, he has not merely to study the laws of inert matter and to calculate accordingly but a fresh element is introduced, whose tendency is not to repose, but action; and the well being of society depends on the giving a right direction to this restless tendency. Laws, it is true, have relation only to the actions which immediately affect the present state of things; but the actions which come under the jurisdiction of law, arise from deeper sources, and have relation frequently to more distant objects than law can take cognizance of. The legislator therefore must study the nature of man must investigate those deep sources of action; those ulterior objects which frequently set all legislation at defiance; and must make these impelling forces as much a part of his calculation as the mechanician would do the retarding power of friction, gravitation, &c. They are laws of a nature perfectly different, but they are nevertheless laws of each nature respectively; and cannot be disregarded without more than a risk of failure. He who should calculate the force of an organized being upon the same principles as that of a machine would deceive himself: he who calculates the actions of an intellectual being on the same principles as those of an animal will be equally deceived :—in each there is a fresh element, and if this be overlooked, the calculation is worth nothing. The regulations required for a nation of baboons would be very different from those required for a nation of human beings. When complaining of, and seeking remedies for the increase of crime, it would be well if we asked ourselves whether, in our legislation, these conditions have been sufficiently attended to?— whether the element of man's intellectual nature has entered sufficiently into the calculation ?— whether, in fact, our laws have not been more fitted to the baboon nation already alluded to, than to a set of beings acting from impulses which |