Page:Willich, A. F. M. - The Domestic Encyclopædia (Vol. 4, 1802).djvu/189

Rh  to its relative purity, the latter acquire a brown, yellow, or white colour. Sugar-candy is chiefly used in a pounded state, for sweetening coffee, and by persons labouring under hoarseness and coughs; the violence of which it contributes to relieve, by lubricating the membranes, and promoting expectoration. Brown Sugar-candy pays, on importation, the sum of 3l. 6d. per cwt.; and the white sort is subject to the charge of 4l. 10s. 9d. per cwt.  SUICIDE, is a term expressing either the crime of self-murder; or it is applied to the person committing such unnatural deed.

It is remarkable, that this violation of divine and human law, has prevailed chiefly among the most civilized nations; and that it occurs more frequently among the wealthy, than the indigent classes of society. A combination of circumstances generally co-operates, to induce an unsettled mind to commit such unjustifiable crime: thus, it has been urged, that the copious use of ', ', , and the sulphureous exhalations of pit-coal, in a variable climate, instigate to suicide; because they uniformly tend to depress and enervate the human constitution. It would exceed our limits, to refute the absurdity of such notions; and, though the perpetration of this rash act may sometimes originate from insanity, yet we may confidently maintain, that it is more frequently the result of a defective education furnishing no fixed moral principles, and consequently laying the foundation of vicious habits; such as gaming, and dissipation followed by disappointed ambition, or the desire of avoiding public disgrace; than the consequence of ennui, or a weary life. Hence, various punishments have been devised in different countries, to be inflicted on the bodies of those who thus outrageously terminate their existence.

With a view to deter unprincipled individuals from the commission of suicide, the British legislature has enacted, that all the personal property of a felo de se shall be confiscated to the Crown, while the body is not only excluded from interment in consecrated ground, but also directed by the coroner's warrant to be buried in a public highway; being pierced with an iron stake, to add to the ignominy. Although the utmost rigour of the law is, in later times, seldom exerted on those occasions; yet we humbly conceive, that the present lenity is not compatible with the frequency of the offence; nor does it appear on critical investigation, that a posthumous corporal punishment is likely to produce the desired effect on profligate characters. Hence, we are of opinion, that preventive measures are, in this respect, the only means left to the power of the State; because, after the crime is committed, neither confiscation of property (which seems to involve open injustice to the distressed relations of the deceased), nor public exposure of the body, are calculated to give the least reparation to the injured community. On the contrary, such spectacles of executions after death, cannot fail to make a very unfavourable impression on the attending populace; to steel their hearts against refined moral feelings; and to render them in a manner indifferent, respecting the consequences of good and bad actions.