and unneceffary punishments. When the Law, trusting to the integrity and difcretion of its officer, permits him to felect from feveral penalties that which he fhall deem, in the peculiar circumstances of the cafe under confideration, most conducive to the public welfare; he will faithfully attend in the exercise of this power to the purpofe for which it was committed to him; and fhun the equally mischievous extremes of rendering the administration of juftice odious by immoderate feverity, and of encouraging guilt by injudicious lenity and forbearance. He " will not (o) respect the per"fon of the poor, nor honour the perfon "of the mighty." He will neither act with unfairness towards thofe in an humble station, nor be betrayed by pity (p) into groundless prejudices in their favour. And he will difcard all improper deference to rank or fortune; and will rather teach those in the upper

(0) Levit. xix. 15.

(p) Thus in another part of Scripture (Exod. xxiii. 3.) it is faid, "Thou shalt not countenance a poor man in "his caufe;" that is, improperly, and out of blind compaffion for his poverty. On the other hand, partiality towards the rich and powerful is condemned in a great variety of paffages in holy writ. Dd

VOL. I.

claffes

claffes of fociety to expect their crimes to be chaftifed with more than ufual ftrictness, than to hope that the circumftances, which render the example of their guilt doubly pernicious, will operate in diminishing its punishment. Whatever be the nature of the cafe, or the fituation of the convict, he will never fuffer himfelf to be induced by fatigue, by preffure of bufinefs, or by the importunity of others, to pronounce a final decifion, which has not been previously matured by fufficient deliberation. He will reflect on the importance of a juft fentence, not only in its immediate effects on the perfon on whofe property, freedom, or life it attaches, but likewife in its future and indefinable operation as a precedent. He will weigh the moral effects likely to refult from it, whether they relate to the culprit, or to the community at large; and in every case, as far as is confiftent with the general good, that predominant object to which the private advantage of the individual offender muft unqueftionably be poftponed, he will adapt the nature of the penalty to the probable reformation of him who is to fuffer it. He will not

fpontaneously refort to pecuniary fines in punishing

nishing the rich and prodigal. He will not seek to correct the fhameless villain by expofing him on the pillory. He will not confign to the lash the fturdy criminal, who, though he laughs at tranfient pain, might have been deterred at least from repeating his offence, and perhaps weaned from all inclination to repeat it, by the irksomeness of folitude and labour. He will not affix a chastisement difproportioned to the tranfgreffion immediately before him, by way of wreaking vengeance on the prifoner for fome former act of mifconduct. On all occafions, and particularly on the folemn decifions of life and death, he will rejoice when mercy may be allowed to prevail against juftice.

When he communicates in civil cafes, for the information of the Jury, his opinion respecting the quantum of damages to be affigned, let him not overlook any confideration arifing either from the nature of the cafe, or from the fituation and circumftances of the parties concerned, which ought to have an influence on their mind, or on his own. In exercifing his Dd 2

dif

discretionary power (9) of granting or refufing cofts, it is not fufficient that the Judge fhould conduct himself with perfect fairness. Let him guard against a failing far more likely to be displayed than want of integrity, the want of adequate deliberation. And let him fteadily withhold the neceffary certificate from perfons, who have evidently resorted to a court of law from the impulfe of malice; or who have ftudied to confound the party accused by the irrelevancy and prolixity of the indictment; or by fummoning a special jury, or by any other artifices and manoeuvres, to load their opponents with expence, and to procrastinate the moment of decifion.

In paffing judgement on a convicted pri

(q) In the cafe of trefpafies, when the damages affeffed by the Jury are under forty fhillings, cofts are not allowed by law, unless the Judge certifies the action to have been wilful and malicious. In the cafe of affaults alfo, when the damages do not amount to forty fhillings, the Judge has a power of giving costs. In Courts of Equity it is univerfally in the option of the Judge, whether costs shall be granted or not. The cofts of a Special Jury are not allowed, unless the Judge will certify that there was a proper caufe for fummoning one.

foner,

foner, and particularly on a prifoner convicted of a capital offence, an opportunity frequently presents itself, of making a deep and falutary impreffion on the mind both of the unhappy victim of the law, and of all who are witnesses of his condemnation (r). A wife and conscientious Judge will never neglect so favourable an occafion of inculcating the enormity of vice, and the fatal confequences to which it leads. He will point out to his hearers the several causes, when they are fufficiently marked to admit of defcription and application, which have conducted step by step the wretched object before them through the feveral fhades and degrees of guilt to a tranfgreffion unpar donable on earth. He will dwell with peculiar force on fuch of those causes as appear to him the most likely, either from the general principles of human nature, or from local circumftances, to exert their contagious influ

(r) Much offence has fometimes been taken, and with reafon, by confiderate men, at the conduct of Judges, who, after pronouncing in Court the fatal fentence of the law against unhappy criminals, have appeared in the evening among the thoughtless crowd at the ball-room. Affizes are indeed seasons unfitly chofen for the display of feftivity and public amusements.