Page:Essay on Crimes and Punishments (1775).djvu/162

150 question, until laws more conformable to the necessities and rights of humanity, and until milder punishments, and the abolition of the arbitrary power of opinion, shall afford security to virtue and innocence when oppressed; and until tyranny shall be confined to the plains of Asia, and Europe acknowledge the universal empire of reason, by which the interests of sovereigns and subjects are best united. {{center|{{larger|CHAP. XXXVI.}}

{{c|Of Rewards for apprehending, or killing Criminals.}}

{{dropinitial|L}}ET us now inquire, whether it be advantageous to society, to set a price on the head of a criminal, and so to make of every citizen an executioner. If the offender hath taken refuge in another state, the sovereign encourages his subjects to commit a crime, and to expose themselves to a just punishment; he insults that {{Hyphenated word start|na|nation}} {{right|tion}}