is abuse of a sacred trust neither is it
without instances of the Divine interference expressed in the
destruction of a community which had offended after this manner. This
responsibility must be acknowledged firstly--in the end to be attained;
and, secondly or subsequently--in the means by which it is attained. We
are generally informed that our penal systems exist for the purpose of
repressing crime, and that punishment is thus inflicted upon the
criminal in order that others may be deterred from following his
example. Reformation is sometimes suggested. The public, however,
concerns itself very little about its criminals and much less about the
objects which its penal system is supposed to secure for it. The
attitude of the general public towards the criminal is undoubtedly a
vindictive one. His sentence is discussed from this point of view only,
viz.:--will the suffering that he will have to undergo be sufficient to
accord with the enormity of the crime he committed? The end which is
understood is simply suffering, expiatory suffering; suffering which
neither man nor society has any right whatever to inflict upon a human
being. The old principle of an eye for an eye, while in accord with
abstract justice, was often made the occasion for abuse, and the largely
prevailing conception of justice amongst us to-day is precisely the
abuse of that same principle. Society does well in returning upon its
criminals the consequences of their acts, but the consequences should be
a natural return and not an artificial one. The criminal should see that
by his attack upon society he is excluded from all the benefits of its
system. He has isolated himself and this isolation is of itself
miserable, and will, if persisted in, become intolerable. Its final
state is Hell, a state in which society is destroyed while the social
instinct remains and craves in its unquenched agony. It is perfectly
right to show the wrong-doer the ultimate end of his chosen course, but
there is no warrant for the strenuous effort which is made to force him
towards it. A criminal's punishment should be made purgatorial and not
internal. The old penology regarded him as a hopeless individual and
proceeded with its hellish tortures without undue delay. Beneath its
system no reforms were possible, and the fact that none were ever made,
was pointed to in order to justify its horrors. Society took no interest
in them whatever while they were being pushed lower and l