.

Strange and fatal symbol! Justice is represented as blind, bearing in
one hand a sword to punish, and in the other scales in which she weighs
accusation and defence. This is not the image of Justice. This is the
image of Law, or, rather, of the man who condemns or acquits according
to his conscience. Justice should hold in one hand a sword, and in the
other a crown,--one to strike the wicked, and the other to recompense
the good. The people would then see that, if there is a terrible
punishment for evil, there is a brilliant recompense for good; whilst as
it is, in their plain and simple sense, the people seek in vain for the
contrary side of tribunals, gaols, galleys, and scaffolds. The people
see plainly a criminal justice, consisting of upright, inflexible,
enlightened men, always employed in searching out, detecting, and
punishing the evil-doers. They do not see the virtuous justice,
consisting of upright, inflexible, and enlightened men, always searching
out and rewarding the honest man. All says to him, Tremble! Nothing says
to him, Hope! All threatens him; nothing consoles him!

The state annually expends many millions for the sterile punishment of
crimes. With this enormous sum it keeps prisoners and gaolers,
galley-slaves and galley-sergeants, scaffolds and executioners. This is
necessary? Agreed. But how much does the state disburse for the rewards
(so salutary, so fruitful) for honest men? Nothing. And this is not all,
as we shall demonstrate when the course of this recital shall conduct us
to the state prison; how many artisans of irreproachable honesty would
attain the summit of their wishes if they were assured of enjoying one
day the bodily comforts of prisoners, always certain of good food, good
bed, and good shelter? And yet, in the name of their dignity, as honest
men, long and painfully tried, have they not a right to claim the same
care and comforts as criminals,--such, for instance, as Morel, the
lapidary, who had toiled for twenty years, industrious, honest, and
resigned, in the midst of bitter misery and sore temptations? Do not
such men deserve sufficiently well of society, that society should try
and find them out, and if not recompense them, for the honour of
humanity, at least support them in the painful and difficult path which
they tread so courageously? Is the man of worth so modest that he finds
greater security than the thief or assassin? and are not these always
detected by criminal