the most unhappy
influence on the prosperity, the morals, and the safety of that country;
that this influence is not accidental, but has flowed as the necessary
and direct consequence of the laws themselves, first on account of the
object which they affect, and next by the quality of the greatest part
of the instruments they employ. Upon all these points, first upon the
general, and then on the particular, this question will be considered
with as much order as can be followed in a matter of itself as involved
and intricate as it is important.

* * * * *

The first and most capital consideration with regard to this, as to
every object, is the extent of it. And here it is necessary to premise,
this system of penalty and incapacity has for its object no small sect
or obscure party, but a very numerous body of men,--a body which
comprehends at least two thirds of that whole nation: it amounts to
2,800,000 souls, a number sufficient for the materials constituent of a
great people. Now it is well worthy of a serious and dispassionate
examination, whether such a system, respecting such an object, be in
reality agreeable to any sound principles of legislation or any
authorized definition of law; for if our reasons or practices differ
from the general informed sense of mankind, it is very moderate to say
that they are at least suspicious.

This consideration of the magnitude of the object ought to attend us
through the whole inquiry: if it does not always affect the reason, it
is always decisive on the importance of the question. It not only makes
in itself a more leading point, but complicates itself with every other
part of the matter, giving every error, minute in itself, a character
and significance from its application. It is therefore not to be
wondered at, if we perpetually recur to it in the course of this essay.

In the making of a new law it is undoubtedly the duty of the legislator
to see that no injustice be done even to an individual: for there is
then nothing to be unsettled, and the matter is under his hands to mould
it as he pleases; and if he finds it untractable in the working, he may
abandon it without incurring any new inconvenience. But in the question
concerning the repeal of an old one, the work is of more difficulty;
because laws, like houses, lean on one another, and the operation is
delicate, and should be necessary: the objection, in such a case, ought
not to arise fr