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[22] [1822 Jan. 5]

to those, who live by preying upon the honest and industrious to choose how they shall be punished for their crimes; but it is believed that as much mildness as is consistent with the object of punishment is not unwise. The certainty of punishment has much more influence in deterring from crimes than its severity. The more sanguinary the law, the less is the probability that its penalties will be generally enforced. The citizens are less ready to prosecute, and juries more reluctant to convict, and the culprit, calculating on the humane feelings of society, is often more influenced by the chances of escaping with impunity, than by the severity of the penalty. Nor are these observations without the sanction of experience.

I have gone more fully into this subject, inasmuch as the attention of the Legislature must necessarily be soon directed to the consideration, whether punishment of the more aggravated offences shall be inflicted by confinement in the county prisons, or to hard labour, or solitary imprisonment, or both in a State prison.

At present the convicts cannot be punished by solitary imprisonment, the gaols in many counties being insufficient in size to afford the requisite number of apartments; neither can they be punished by confinement to hard labor within the limits of the county prisons. The wisdom of the Legislature will determine, whether any further provision on this subject be at this time necessary; and if founded to be so, in devising a system, will, I have no doubt, keep steadily in view the saving of expense to the State, and the great objects reforming offenders and preventing crime. Connected with the subject of the punishment of convicts, permit me to call your attention to the expenses of their prosecution. These are now a charge on the Treasury of the State, and of such an amount as to constitute a very considerable item in the annual expenditure. It is worthy the consideration of the Legislature whether these expenses may not be diminished.

On examination I find that the law of Massachusetts, establishing a Circuit Court of Common Pleas, has not been revised,