Page:New penal code of Siam (Masao T, 1908).pdf/4

 this year, has also discarded it. The Indian Penal Code is also on the side of those Codes that do not divide offences into classes.

One good result of the discarding of the conventional division of offences into crimes, delicts and contraventions by the new Siamese Penal Code is that it has simplified the names of punishments to a great extent. Under this Code there are only six punishments, viz.:

(1)Death,

(2)Imprisonment,

(3)Fine,

(4)Restriction of residence,

(5)Forfeiture of property, and

(6)Security for keeping the peace.

Some idea of the simplicity attained in this respect will be had when it is remembered that under the French Penal Code there are fifteen punishments and under the old Penal Code of Japan no less than eighteen. It might be suggested that it is very well to reduce the number of punishments but it would be disastrous to do so at the cost of losing some modes of it which are necessary. There is absolutely no need for apprehension on that score. The fact is that in the case of the French Penal Code, the old Japanese Penal Code, and the other Penal Codes following the conventional method of dividing offences into crimes, delicts and contraventions, it is found necessary to multiply and complicate the names of punishments in order to make them fit in with the different classes of offences, although as a matter of fact there may be no substantial difference between one mode of punishment, passing under one name, and another mode, passing under a different name. For instance, under the old Japanese Penal Code, imprisonment alone has no less than eleven different names, viz.:

(1)Forced labour for life,

(2)Forced labour for a limited period,

(3)Perpetual deportation,

(4)Temporary deportation,

(5)Major reclusion,