Crime & punishment > Essay on crimes and punishments

iv PREFACE.
third of which was printed within fix
months after its firft appearance. It hath
been tranflated into French ; that tranf-
lation hath alfo been feveral times reprint¬
ed, and perhaps no book, on any fubjeft,
was ever received with more avidity,
more generally read, or more univerfally
applauded.
The author is the Marquis Beccaria,.
of Milan. Upon confidering the nature
of the religion and government under
which he lives, the reafons for conceal¬
ing his name are obvious. The whole
was read, at different times, in a fociety
of learned men in that city, and was pub-
lifhed at their defire. As to the tranfla-
tion, I have preferved the order of the
original, except in a paragraph or two,
which I have taken the liberty to reftore
to the chapters to which they evidently be¬
long, and from which they rnuft have been
Accidentally detached. The French tranf-
lator hath gone much farther ; he hath
not only tranfpofed every chapter, but
every