Page:William Blackstone, Commentaries on the Laws of England (4th ed, 1770, vol IV).djvu/44

32 " and lhall give all the fubftance of his houfe :" which was the ordinary punifhment for theft in that kingdom. And this is founded upon the higheft reaibn : for men's properties would be under a ftrange infecurity, if liable to be invaded according to the wants of others ; of which wants no man can pofTibly be an adequate judge, but the party himfelf who pleads them. In this country eipecially, there would be a peculiar impro- priety in admitting ib dubious an excufe : for by our laws iuch fufticient provifion is made for the poor by the power of the civil magiftrate, that it is impoffible that the moil needy ftranger fliould ever be reduced to the neceffity of thieving to fupport nature. This cafe of a ftranger is, by the way, the ftrongeft inftance put by baron Puftendorf, and whereon he builds his principal arguments : which, however they may hold upon the continent, where the parfimonious induftry of the natives orders every one to work or ftarve, yet muft lofe all their weight and efficacy in England, where charity is reduced to a fyftem, and interwoven in our very conftitution. Therefore our laws ought by no means to be taxed with being unmerciful, for denying this privilege to the neceffitous ; efpecially when we confider, that the king, on the reprefentation of his minifters of juftice, hath a power to foften the law, and to extend mercy in cafes of peculiar hardfhip. An advantage which is wanting in many- Hates, particularly thofe which are democratical : and thefe have in it's ftead introduced and adopted, in the body of the law itfelf, a multitude of circumftances tending to alleviate it's ri- gour. But the founders of our conftitution thought it better to veft in the crown the power of pardoning particular objedls of compaffion, than to countenance and eftablifh theft by one ge- jjeral undiftinguifhing law. VII. IN the feveral cafes before-mentioned, the incapacity of committing crimes arifes from a deficiency of the will. To thefe we may add one more, in which the law fuppofes an incapacity of doing wrong, from the excellence and perfection of the per- fon >