Martin Madan

Review from Ben Franklin's LT Page:

BF to Benjamin Vaughan, 5 March 1785, acknowledging receipt of "a Pacquet of Books and Pamphlets" of which he had "as yet only had time to run over the Thoughts on Executive Justice" (P 42: u695).
Note: Samuel Romilly appended to Observations on a late publication, intituled, thoughts on executive justice (London, 1786), a "Letter from a gentleman abroad to his friend in England," which BF wrote on 14 March 1785 to Benjamin Vaughan, who had sent him a copy of Madan's work. Much of BF's epistle refutes Madan: "That it is better 100 guilty Persons should escape, than that one innocent Person should suffer, is a Maxim that has been long and generally approv'd, never that I know of controverted. Even the sanguinary author of the Thoughts agrees to it page 163, adding well, that 'the very Thought of injured Innocence, and much more that of suffering Innocence, must awaken all our tenderest and most compassionate Feelings, and at the same time raise our highest Indignation against the Instruments of it. But,' he adds, 'there is no Danger of either from a strict Adherence to the Laws.' Really? Is it then impossible to make an unjust law? and if the Law it self be unjust, may it not be the very 'Instrument' which ought to 'raise the Author's, and everybody's, highest Indignation'?"

BF added "But it seems to have been thought that this kind of Innocence may be punish'd by way of preventing Crimes. I have read indeed of a cruel Turk in Barbary, who whenever he bought a new Christian Slave, ordered him immediately to be hung up by their Legs and to receive an 100 Blows of a Cudgel on the Soles of his Feet, that the severe Sense of the Punishment, and Fear of incurring it thereafter, might prevent the Faults that should merit it. Our Author himself would hardly approve entirely of this Turk's Conduct in the Government of Slaves, and yet he appears to recommend something like it for the government of English Subjects, when he applauds, Page 105, the Reply of Judge Burnet to the convict Horsestealer, who being ask'd what he had to say why Judgment of Death should not pass against him, and answering that it was hard to hang a Man for only stealing a Horse, was told by the Judge: 'Man thou are not to be hang'd only for stealing a Horse, but that Horses may not be stolen'" (P 42: u712). May 31, 2008… (plus d'informations)

"That it is better 100 guilty Persons should escape, than that one innocent Person should suffer, is a Maxim that has been long and generally approv'd, never that I know of controverted. Even the sanguinary author of the Thoughts agrees to it page 163, adding well, that 'the very Thought of injured Innocence, and much more that of suffering Innocence, must awaken all our tenderest and most compassionate Feelings, and at the same time raise our highest Indignation against the Instruments of it. But,' he adds, 'there is no Danger of either from a strict Adherence to the Laws.' Really? Is it then impossible to make an unjust law? and if the Law it self be unjust, may it not be the very 'Instrument' which ought to 'raise the Author's, and everybody's, highest Indignation'?

"But it seems to have been thought that this kind of Innocence may be punish'd by way of preventing Crimes. I have read indeed of a cruel Turk in Barbary, who whenever he bought a new Christian Slave, ordered him immediately to be hung up by their Legs and to receive an 100 Blows of a Cudgel on the Soles of his Feet, that the severe Sense of the Punishment, and Fear of incurring it thereafter, might prevent the Faults that should merit it. Our Author himself would hardly approve entirely of this Turk's Conduct in the Government of Slaves, and yet he appears to recommend something like it for the government of English Subjects, when he applauds, Page 105, the Reply of Judge Burnet to the convict Horsestealer, who being ask'd what he had to say why Judgment of Death should not pass against him, and answering that it was hard to hang a Man for only stealing a Horse, was told by the Judge: 'Man thou are not to be hang'd only for stealing a Horse, but that Horses may not be stolen.'" - BF to Benjamin Vaughan, 14 March 1785.… (plus d'informations)