Page:Essay on Crimes and Punishments (1775).djvu/80

 Torture is used to discover, whether the criminal be guilty of other crimes besides those of which he is accused; which is equivalent to the following reasoning. ''Thou art guilty of one crime, therefore it is possible that thou mayst have committed a thousand others; but the affair being doubtful, I must try it by my criterion of truth. The laws order thee to be tormented, because thou art guilty, because thou mayst be guilty, and because I chuse thou shouldst be guilty''.

Torture is used to make the criminal discover his accomplices; but if it has been demonstrated that it is not a proper means of discovering truth, how can it serve to discover the accomplices, which is one of the truths required. Will not the man who accuses himself, yet more readily accuse others? Besides, is it just to torment one man for the crime of another? May not the accomplices be found out by the examination of the witnesses, or of the criminal; from the evidence, or from the nature of the crime itself; in short, by all the means that have been used to prove