A comparative view of the punishments annexed to crime in the United States of America and in England / by J. Sydney Taylor.

  • Taylor, J. Sydney (John Sydney), 1795-1841.
Date:
1831
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: A comparative view of the punishments annexed to crime in the United States of America and in England / by J. Sydney Taylor. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by Royal College of Physicians, London. The original may be consulted at Royal College of Physicians, London.

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    ^44 UNITED STATES, (Burglary.) ENGLAND. In New Hampshire—solitary cmjlnement for six months, and imprisonment to hard labor for life. In Vermont—• i?wj37*2SO»mewf in the state prison, not exceeding fifteen years, and fine not ex- ceeding 1000 dollars; or eithsr of said punishments. In Connecticut—imprison- ment not exceeding three years, —or if attended with personal violence^ or if the offender be armed with a dangerous weaponj, —imprisonment for life, or for a term of years not less than seven. IuPennsylvania—imprison- ment for the first offence, not less than two, nor more than ten years. Seco7id offence not more than fifteen years. In Maryland—restitution of property, or payment of the value, —and imprisonment in the peni- tentiary not less than three, nor more than ten years, with occa- sional solitary confinement. In Virginia—restitution, or payment—and imprisonment in the penitentiary not less than five, nor more than ten years. By the code for Louisiana— imprisonment for not less than ■ten, nor more than fifteen years. JgousesIbreafeittS. In Maine—breaking and en- iering the dwelling-house in the day-time with felonious intent— solitary confinement not exceeding one year—and hard labor not ex- ceeding fifteen years. The same punishment is annexed to the offence of entering the dwelling-house in the m^^^-time, Ao commit larceny without break- ing. In New Hampshire—solitary confinement, to hard labor not less said to consist in—the forcible violation of the right of habitation in the darkness of night, and the terror thereby inspired.—Origin- ally there should have been to constitute the offence, a forcible breaking and an actual entry:—now there may be both a constructive entry and—constructive breaking, —for, ^fraudulent entry has been construed to be aforcible breaking and entry,—and the putting in a hand, or an instrument, through a window to steal goods, has been construed to be an actual entry. Hence it frequently happens that children who break a pane of glass at night in a shop window, and put in the hand to steal a cake, or a hook to abstract some other property, are condemned to death at the Old-Bailey sessions as Burglars.—It would be difficult to say what terror such acts of petty theft inspire which are thus dignified with the name of Bur- glary, only to make the sentence of death contemptible, and the law ridiculous. Punishment, however small the value taken—deaths This offence is distinguished from burglary by the latter always taking place in the night-time, or between the twilight of the even- ing and the twilight of the morn- ing. There is also this further distinction, that to constitute the crime of house-breaking—some property must be actually stolen, whereas the unexecuted felonious intent, connected with the breaking