Crime & punishment > Essay on crimes and punishments

Crimes and Punishments. 131
point of the circumference, or how will you
guard the guards themfelves? Befides, this
crime, once committed, cannot be puniflied;
and to punilh it before hand, would be to pu-
nilh the intention and not the adtion; the will,
which is entirely out of' the power of human
laws. To punifh the abfent by confifcating his
effedts, befides the facility of collufion, which
would inevitably be the cafe, and which, with¬
out tyranny, could not be prevented, would put
a flop to all commerce with other nations. To
punilh the criminal when he returns, would be
to prevent him from repairing the evil he had
already done to fociety, by making his abfence
perpetual. Befides, any prohibition would in-
creafe the defire of removing, and would in¬
fallibly prevent ft rangers from fettling in the
country.
What muft we think of a government which
lias no means, but fear, to keep its fubjefts in
their own country; to which, by the firft im-
prelfions of their infancy, they are fo ftrongly
attached. The moft certain method of keeping
men at home, is, to make them happy; and it
is the intereft of every ftate to turn the balance,
not only of commerce, but of felicity, in favour
of its fubjects. The pleafures of luxury are not
the principal fources of this happinefs; though,