Our sex can never be exposed to such a misfortune; and if we, the legislators, think that it is not expedient to require satisfaction from the seducer, and if we fear to be unjust against perfidy, why do we fear to be indulgent and humane, towards the frail and disappointed female? It is even conceivable, that such an unfortunate mother may continually think of the ingratitude and perfidy of the father of her child; that she may consider how he has deceived her in the most infamous manner; how he is the cause of her ignominy and misery; how he, perhaps in the arms of another person, forgets his forfeit, whilst, in some countries, the laws do not afford her any protection against him; and how his stratagems are styled merely love intrigues. May not indignation trouble her understanding, and excite derangement of her mind?

Indeed, if it were not so difficult for a mother to take such a desperate resolution, infanticide, the result of illegitimate pregnancies and of perfidy on the side of seducers, would be much more frequent. Hence it is but just to take into consideration the internal conflict which may have deranged the senses of a child murderess, and to appreciate all extenuating motives. The ideas on infanticide, which Dr. HUNTER has detailed in a

letter to the Royal Society of London, deserve the attention of every criminal legislator. I agree that it must be punished as murder, when it is committed with premeditation, with mature reflection, in the complete use of moral liberty, without an urgent provocation, and through mere depravity of morals. In this case, the legislator deserves all thanks for protecting the child who is without support and defence. But it is important to know how to distinguish the different circumstances which accompany this action, and there can be no doubt that very often infanticide admits of many extenuating motives.

Lying-in hospitals, where every woman with child is taken in and brought to bed, without being obliged to say who she is and whence she came, and foundling-hospitals, often prevent infanticide. In countries where such establishments are wanting, child-murder is more frequent than in others where they exist. These institutions, however, tend so much to weaken the motives to moral restraint furnished by the obligation to support and to cherish offspring, that it may be fairly questioned whether the evils they produce in this point of view, are not greater than those they prevent in the other.

In order to prevent child-murder, there is a law in certain countries, which obliges pregnant girls to discover their situation to some accoucheur or midwife. If they do not fulfil this formality, they are supposed to have the intention of committing infanticide. In other countries, the proprietors of houses are answerable for pregnant girls who live in them. They are thus required to know the state of their locatories.

Unfortunately legislators are often in the same situation as physicians who attend incurable diseases. They try uncertain means, rather than do nothing. The law which obliges women to intimate their state of pregnancy, is in contradiction to nature. It is not necessary to mention, that there is no need of such a law with respect to girls of the town. These have lost their bashfulness, and will go to the lying-in hospitals to be delivered. Such a regulation, therefore, must be intended for timorous, bashful, and decent women, who have been seduced. Now, the feeling of honour and bashfulness is considered as the best safeguard of female virtue, and is constantly cherished accordingly; nevertheless, when such a girl falls, she is required, under pain of punishment, to make her shame known. There are men

of mature age who, with the greatest reluctance, would confess certain diseases to their most intimate friends. How, then, can the law be so severe on females, for not confessing a circumstance which they are taught to look upon as more disgraceful than any disease? Besides, when we consider that such unfortunate girls are frequently actuated by a strong feeling of the ignominy and misfortune they bring on their family by their misconduct, we ought to recollect, that their obstinacy in concealing their state, may, in truth, be allied more nearly to virtue than to crime.

Thus, if extenuating motives are in any circumstances to be admitted, in no cases will they be more truly applicable than in those of infanticide.

In my work on Insanity, I have shown, that suicide in many cases is the effect of a corporeal disease. It then admits extenuating motives. Criminal legislators, if better acquainted with it than they commonly are, certainly will modify the laws upon the subject. These very rarely are of much efficacy in deterring those who wish to end their days, and are no punishment for

them after death; but it is not a matter of indifference to whole families, to have the stigma of alliance with a malefactor forced upon them, when in fact they have only had the misfortune to be connected with a diseased individual. For details on this subject I refer to my work on Insanity.

CONCLUSION.

THE considerations, examined in the Appendix of this work, tend to show, that legislation in every branch ought to have only one aim, viz. the general, happiness of mankind, and that of each individual, as far as it is compatible with the former; that penal legislation, in particular, ought to be corrective; that in prisons, the inhabitants of which are to be sent back into society, all possible means of correction should be employed; that capital punishment might be abolished, and the crimes for which it is inflicted prevented, by proper establishments. As punish