storms, I sought to transfer them to an
elevated and temperate region, convinced that by that course alone my
ideas and words would acquire any permanent efficacy. They obtained the
sanction of a much more potent ally than myself. The Court of Peers,
which at that time had assumed the place assigned to it by the Charter,
in judgment on political prosecutions, immediately began to exercise
sound policy and true discrimination. It was a rare and imposing sight,
to behold a great assembly, essentially political in origin and
composition,--a faithful supporter of authority; and at the same time
sedulously watchful, not only to elevate justice above the passions of
the moment, and to administer it with perfect independence, but also to
apply, in the appreciation and punishment of political offences, that
intelligent equity which alone could satisfy the reason of the
philosopher and the charity of the Christian. A part of the honour due
to this grand exhibition belongs to the authorities the time, who not
only made no attempt to interfere with the unshackled impartiality of
the Court of Peers, but refrained even from objection or complaint.
Next to the merit of being themselves, and through their own
convictions, just and wise, it is a real act of wisdom on the part of
the great ones of the earth, when they adopt without murmur or
hesitation the good which has not originated with themselves.

I have lived in an age of political plots and outrages, directed
alternately against the authorities to whom I was in opposition and
those I supported with ardour. I have seen conspiracies occasionally
unpunished, and at other times visited by the utmost rigour of the law.
I feel thoroughly convinced that in the existing state of feelings,
minds, and manners, the punishment of death in such cases is an
injurious weapon which heavily wounds the power that uses it for safety.
It is not that this penalty is without denunciatory and preventive
efficacy; it terrifies and holds back from conspiracies many who would
otherwise be tempted to engage in them. But by the side of this salutary
consequence, it engenders others which are most injurious. Drawing no
line of distinction between the motives and dispositions which have
incited men to the acts it punishes, it stifles in the same manner the
reprobate and the dreamer, the criminal and the enthusiast, the wildly
ambitious and the devotedly fanatical. By this gross indifference, it
offends more