Page:Essay on Crimes and Punishments (1775).djvu/157

 directly as the injury to the publick, and inversely as the difficulty of proof.

It will be necessary to distinguish fraud, attended with aggravating circumstances, from simple fraud, and that from perfect innocence. For the first, let there be ordained the same punishment as for forgery; for the second, a less punishment, but with the loss of liberty; and if perfectly honest, let the bankrupt himself chuse the method of re-establishing himself, and of satisfying his creditors; or if he should appear not to have been strictly honest, let that be determined by his creditors. But these distinctions should be fixed by the laws, which alone are impartial, and not by the arbitrary and dangerous prudence of judges.