An Enquiry into the Causes of the late Increase of Robbers/Section 8

SECT. VIII.

Of the Difficulties which attend Proecutions.

I Now come to a fourth Encouragement which greatly holds up to the Spirits of Robbers, and which they often find to afford no deceitful Conolation; and this is drawn from the Remisnes of Proecutors, who are often,

1. Fearful, and to be intimidated by the Threats of the Gang; or,

2. Delicate, and cannot appear in a public Court; or,

3. Indolent, and will not give themelves the Trouble of a Proecution; or,

4. Avaricious, and will not undergo the Expence of it; nay perhaps find their Account in compounding the Matter; or,

5. Tender-hearted, and cannot take away the Life of a Man; or,

Latly, Necesitous, and cannot really afford the Cot, however mall, together with the Los of Time which attends it.

The firt and econd of thee are too aburd, and the third and fourth too infamous to be reaoned with. But the two lat deerve more particular Notice, as the fifth is an Error pringing originally out of a good Principle in the Mind, and the ixth is a Fault in the Contitution very eaily to be remedied.

With Regard to the former of thee, it is certain, that a tender-hearted and compasionate Dipoition, which inclines Men to pity and feel the Mifortunes of others, and which is, even for its own Sake, incapable of involving any Man in Ruin and Miery, is of all Tempers of Mind the mot amiable; and tho' it eldom receives much Honour, is worthy of the highet. The natural Energies of this Temper are indeed the very Virtues principally inculcated in our excellent Religion; and thoe, who becaue they are natural, have denied them the Name of Virtues, eem not, I think, to be aware of the direct and impious Tendency of a Doctrine that denies all Merit to a Mind which is naturally, I may ay necesarily, good.

Indeed the Pasion of Love or Benevolence whence this admirable Dipoition aries, eems to be the only human Pasion that is in itelf imply and abolutely good; and in Plato's Commonwealth or (which is more) in a Society acting up to the Rules of Chritianity, no Danger could arie from the highet Exces of this Virtue; nay the more liberally it was indulged, and the more extenively it was expanded, the more would it contribute to the Honour of the Individual, and to the Happines of the whole.

But as it hath pleaed God to permit human Societies to be contituted in a different Manner, and Knaves to form a Part, (a very coniderable one, I am afraid) of every Community, who are ever lying in wait to detroy and ennare the honet Part of Mankind, and to betray them by means of their own Goodnes, it becomes the good-natured and tender-hearted Man to be watchful over his own Temper; to retrain the Impetuouity of his Benevolence, carefully to elect the Objects of this Pasion, and not by too unbounded and indicriminate an Indulgence to give the Reins to a Courer, which will infallibly carry him into the Ambucade of the Enemy.

Our Saviour himelf inculcates this Prudence among his Diciples, telling them, that he ent them forth like Sheep among Wolves: Be ye therefore, ays he, wie as Serpents, but innocent as Doves.

For Want of this Widom, a benevolence and tender-hearted Temper very often betrays Men into Errors not only hurtful to themelves, but highly prejudicial to the Society. Hence Men of invincible Courage, and incorruptible Integrity, have ometimes falified their Trut; and thoe, whom no other Temptation could way, have paid too little Regard to the Sanction of an Oath, from this Inducement alone. Hence likewie the Michief which I here endeavour to obviate, hath often arien; and notorious Robbers have lived to perpetrate future Acts of Violence, through the ill-judging Tendernes and Compasion of thoe who could and ought to have proecuted them.

To uch a Peron I would ugget thee Coniderations:

Firt, As he is a good Man, he hould conider, that the principal Duty which every Man owes, is to his Country, for the Safety and Good of which all Laws are etablihed; and therefore his Country requires of him to contribute all that in him lies to the due Execution of thoe Laws. Robbery is an Offence not only againt the Party robbed, but againt the Public, who are therefore entitled to Proecution; and he who prevents or tifles uch the Proecution, is no longer an innocent Man, but guilty of a high Offence againt the Public Good.

Secondly, As he is a good-natured Man, he will behold all Injuries done by one Man to another with Indignation. What Cicero ays of a Pirate, is as true of a Robber, that he is hotis humani generis; and if o, I am ure every good-natured Man mut be an Enemy to him. To deire to ave thee Wolves in Society, may arie from Benevolence; but it mut be the Benevolence of a Child or a Fool, who, from Want of ufficient Reaon, mitakes the true Objects of his Pasion, as a Child doth when a Bugbear appears to him to be the Object of Fear. Such Tenderheartednes is indeed Barbarity, and reembles the meek Spirit of him who would not asit in blowing up his Neighbour's Houe, to ave a whole City from the Flames. 'It is true,' aid a late learned Chief Jutice, in a Trial for Treaon, 'here is the Life of a Man in the Cae, but then you' (speaking to the Jury) 'mut conider likewie the Miery and Deolation, the Blood and Confuion, that mut have happened, had this taken Effect; and put one againt the other, I believe that Conideration which is on Behalf of the King will be much the tronger.' Here likewie is the Life of a Man concerned; but of what Man? Why, of one who being too lazy to get his Bread by Labour, or too voluptuous to content himelf with the Produce of that Labour, declares War againt the Properties, and often againt the Perons of his Fellow Subjects; who deprives his Countrymen of the Pleaure of travelling with Safety, and of the Liberty of carrying their Money or their ordinary Conveniencies with them; by whom the Innocent are put in Terror, affronted and alarmed with Threats and Execrations, endangered with loaded Pitols, beat with Bludgeons and hacked with Cutlases, of which the Los of Health, of Limbs, and often of Life, is the Conequence; and all this without any Repect to Age, or Dignity, or Sex. Let the good-natured Man, who hath any Undertanding, place this Picture before his Eyes, and then ee what Figure in it will be the Object of his Compasion.

I come now to the lat Difficulty which obtructs the Proecution of Offenders; namely, the extreme Poverty of the Proecutor. This I have known to be o abolutely the Cae, that the poor Wretch who hath been bound to proecute, was under more Concern than the Prioner himelf. It is true that the necesary Cot on thee Occaions is extremely mall; two Shillings, which are appointed by an Act of Parliament for drawing the Indictment, being, I think, the whole which the Law requires; but when the Expence of Attendance, generally with everal Witneses, ometimes during everal Days together, and often at a great Ditance from the Proecutor's Home; I ay, when thee Articles are ummed up, and the Los of Time added to the Account, the whole amounts to an Expence which a very poor Peron, already plundered by the Thief, mut look on with uch Horrour (if he hould not be abolutely incapable of the Expence) that he mut be a Miracle of Public Spirit, if he doth not rather chooe to conceal the Felony, and it down atified with his preent Los; but what hall we ay, when (as is very common in this Town) he may not only receive his own again, but be farther rewarded, if he will agree to compound it?

Now how very inconiderable would be the whole Cot of this Suit either to the County or the Nation; If the Public, to whom the Jutice of Peace gives his whole Labour on this Head gratis, was to defray the Cot of uch Trials (by a kind of forma pauperis Admision) the Sum would be o trivial, that nothing would be felt but the good Conequences ariing from uch a Regulation?

I hall conclude this Head with the Words of my Lord Hale: 'It is,' ays he, 'a great Defect in the Law, to give Courts of Jutice no Power to allow Witneses againt Criminals their Charges; whereby,' ays he, 'many poor Perons grow weary of their Attendance, or bear their own Charges therein, to their great Hindrance and Los.'