13411

BENTHAM'S

INTRODUCTION TO THE PRINCIPLES

OF

MORALS AND LEGISLATION.

INTRODUCTION

TO THE

PRINCIPLES

OF

MORALS AND LEGISLATION.

BY

JEREMY BENTHAM, ESQ.

BENCHER OF LINCOLN'S INN; and late or
QUEEN'S COLLEGE, oxford, M. A.

IN TWO VOLUMES.

A NEW EDITION, CORRECTED BY THE AUTHOR.

VOL. II.

LONDON:

PRINTED FOR W. PICKERING,

LINCOLN'S-INN FIELDS;

AND

E. WILSON, ROYAL EXCHANGE.

1823.

THE FIRST EDITION OF THIS WORK WAS PRINTED

IN THE YEAR 1780;

AND FIRST PUBLISHED IN 1789.

B. Bensley, Bolt Court, Fleet Street.

CONTENTS.

CHAP. XIII.

Cases unmeet for punishment.

§ 1. General view of cases unmeet for punishment.

Page

What concerns the end, and several other topics, relative

§ 2. Cases in which punishment is groundless.

1. Where there has never been any mischief: as in the case of consent ib.
2. Where the mischief was outweighed as in precaution against

3.

calamity, and the exercise of powers

:

-or will, for a certainty, be cured by compensation

Hence the favours shown to the offences of responsible
offenders such as simple mercantile frauds

:

§ 3. Cases in which punishment must be inefficacious.

1. Where the penal provision comes too late as in 1.An ex-post-facto
law.-2. An ultra-legal sentence...

4

ib.

ib.

2. Or is not made known as in a law not sufficiently promulgated.. 6
3. Where the will cannot be deterred from any act, as in, [a] Infancy ib.
[b] Insanity

....

ib.

[c] Intoxication

ib.

In infancy and intoxication the case can hardly be proved to
come under the rule ...

7

The reason for not punishing in these three cases is com-
monly put upon a wrong footing.

ib.