Moral philosophy, or the duties of man considered in his individual, domestic, and social capacities / by George Combe.

  • George Combe
Date:
1846
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Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Moral philosophy, or the duties of man considered in his individual, domestic, and social capacities / by George Combe. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The Royal College of Surgeons of England. The original may be consulted at The Royal College of Surgeons of England.

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    gtill lingering barbarism, than in the treatment of criminals In almost no other institutions of society lire there more glaring indications of an utter want of the philosophy of mind, than in the prisons of Britain.* But let us descend to particulars. 'SVe have seen that men of the middle class of cerebral development (and most criminals belong to it) are led into crime in consequence of the ascend- ency, for the time, of their animal propensities ; but that, nevertheless, they possess, to a considerable extent, also moral sentiments and intellect. In treating them as criminals, we may have various objects in view. First, our object may be revenge, or the desire to inflict sutfering on them because they have made society suffer. This is the feeling of savages, and of all rude and naturally cruel minds : and if we avow this as our principle of action, and carry it consistently into effect, we should employ instruments of torture, and put our criminals to a cruel and lingering death. But the national mind is humanized beyond the toleration of this practice. I humbly think, however, that as we pro- fess to be humane, we should entirely discard the principle of vengeance from our treatment, as un- christian, unphilosophical, and inexpedient, and not allow it to mingle even covertly, as I fear it still does, with our system of criminal legislation. Or, secondly, our object may be, by inflicting suf- fering on criminals, to deter other men from offend- ing. This is the general and popular notion of the great end of punishment; and when applied to men of the middle class of faculties, it is not without foundation. Individuals who are strongly solicited by their animal propensities, and have a very great deficiency of the moral and intellectual faculties,— that is to say, criminals of the lowest grade of brain, are not alive even to the fear of punishment. You will find them committing capital felonies, while they are attending the execution of their previous associates for similar offences. Their moral and in- tellectual organs are so deficient, that they possess no adequate controlling power over their propensities to enable them to profit by example. The terror of punishment, therefore, scarcely produces an appreci- able effect on their conduct; and some persons, driiw- ing their observations from this class alone, have concluded, as a general rule, that suffering inflicted on one offender does not deter any other individual from committing crime. But I respectfully differ from this opinion. Wherever the organs of the mo- ral and reflecting faculties possess considerable de- velopment, example does produce some effect; and the higher the moral and intellectual faculties rise in power, the more completely efficacious does it be- come. What one of us would not feel it as an enor- mous evil, to be dragged to prison ; to be locked up, night and day, in the society of the basest of man- kind ; to be publicly tried at the bar of a criminal court, and subsequently transported as a felon to a distant colony ? Most of us instinctively feel that death itself, iu an honourable form, would be perfect bliss, compared with such a fate. If, therefore, any of ns ever felt, for a moment, tempted to infringe the criminal law, unquestionably the contemplation of such appalling consequences of guilt would ope- rate, to a considerable extent, in steadying our steps in virtue. But the error is very great, of supposing * The text was written in 1835-6, and an improvement (las since taken place in the management of British prisons. A prison act has been passed, appointing Boards for the direction of prisons in Scotland, and Mr Frederick Hill, a gentleman distinguished for humanity and intelligence, has been named Inspector of them. 1841. The improvement of prisons in both sections of the Island •tcadily proceeds; but still the true philosophy of prison discipline is little uuderstood. 1846. that all men are constituted with such nice moral sensibilities as these. Superior minds feel in this manner, solely because their moral and intellectual organs are large; and the same feelings do not ope- rate to the same extent in the case of men possessing inferior brains. Laws have been enacted, in general, by men pos- sessing the best class of brains, and they have erro- neously imagined that punishment would have tlie same effect on all other individuals which it would have on themselves. While, therefore, I consider it certain that the fear of punishment doet operate bene- ficially on the waverers, I regard its influence as much more limited than is generally believed. A man who has a tendency to commit crime, will be capable of anticipating the consequences of offend- ing, with a degree of precision corresponding to the extent of his intellectual endowments; but in the same proportion will his capacity for eluding them, by superior address, increase; whence there is a counteracting influence, even in the possession of in- tellect. The faculty chiefly addressed by the pros- pect of punishment, is Fear, or Cautiousness; and although, in some men, this is a powerful sentiment, yet, in many, the organ is deficient, and there is little consciousness of the feeling. On the whole, therefore, the conclusion at which I arrive on this point is, that the condition of con- victed criminals should be such as should be felt to be a very serious abridgment of the enjoyments of moral and industrious men ; and this it must neces- sarily be, even under the most improved method of treating them; but I do not consider it advisable that one pang of suffering should be added to their lot for the sake of deterring others, if that pang be not calculated to prove beneficial to themselves. In- deed, it is a questionable point in morals, whether society is at all warranted in inflicting on one of its members suffering which can do him no good, solely with a view to benefit itself by deterring others, at his expense, from committing crime. It appears to me that this is unjust, and, therefore, inadmissible ; and it is still less defensible, because it is unnecessary. Thirdly, our object in criminal legislation may be, at once to protect society by example, and to reform the offenders themselves. This appears to me to be the only real and legitimate object of criminal law in a Christian country, and the question arises, How may it best be accomplished ? A condemned criminal is necessarily an individual who has been convicted of abusing his animal pro- pensities, and thereby inflicting evil on society. He has proved by his conduct, that his moral and intel- lectual powers do not possess sufficient energy, in all circumstances, to restrain his propensities. Restraint, therefore, mnst be supplied by external means; in other words, he must, both for his own sake and for that of society, be taken possession of, and prevented from doing mischief; he must be confined. Now, this first step of discipline itself affords a strong induce- ment to waverers to avoid crime; because, to the idle and dissolute, the lovers of ease and pleasure, confinement is a sore evil; one which they dread more than a severe but shorter infliction of pain. This measure is recommended, therefore, by three important considerations,—that it serves to protect society, to reform the criminal, and to deter other men from offending. The next question is. How should the criminal be treated under confinement ? The moment we under- stand his mental constitution and condition, the an- swer becomes obvious. Our object is to abate the activity of his animal propensities, and to increase the energy of his moral and intellectual faculties. The first step in allaying the activity of the propen- sities, is to withdraw every object and communica-
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