Page:SermonsFromTheLatins.djvu/414

 right of  kings,  the  New  World  evolved  the  idea  of  a sovereign  people  and  a  government  vested  with popular arbitrary  power. Hence come  the  axioms that all  men  are  born  free  and  equal,  and  that  government exists  by  consent  of  the  governed — principles questionable  enough  in  the  light  of  experience, and productive,  for  conquerors  and  expansionists,  of much  embarrassment  and  seeming  inconsistency. The ship  of  State  in  shunning  Scylla  goes  smash upon Charybdis. The middle  course  is  safest,  viz., that the  people  have  a  right  indeed  to  choose  the  administration, but  that  the  duly  elected  are  thereupon clothed with  power  directly  from  on  high. The State's right,  therefore,  to  inflict  capital  punishment, neither comes  from  the  people,  nor  can  it  be  abrogated by  them,  though  its  exercise  may  by  common consent be  suspended. So inherent,  so  necessary  to civil  authority  is  this  power,  that  not  even  the  State itself can  renounce  it. The inalienable  right  of  self-defence  belongs  to  the  State  as  well  as  to  the  individual, and  obedience  to  law  and  order  is  the  very life of  the  State. Now, love  and  fear  are  the  motives of obedience,  but  of  the  two  fear  is  the  stronger. It is the  duty  of  the  government,  therefore,  to  fit  the  punishment to  the  crime — to  preserve  evenly  balanced the scales  in  the  hands  of  justice — and  so  violently  is that  balance  disturbed  by  certain  species  of  murder, that equilibrium  can  be  restored  only  by  weighing  a life  against  a  life. For, whether  the  object  of  punishment be  to  reclaim  the  criminal,  deter  the  vicious, or satisfy  the  outraged  majesty  of  the  law,  its  propor-