fences and designating their correspondent punishment, regulating the mode of procedure for preventing crimes and prosecuting offenders, and giving precise rules for the government and discipline of prisons.

With such a system it may reasonably be expected, not that offences will be eradicated, but that their recurrence will be much less frequent, and that the rare spectacle will be witnessed of a retrograde movement in vice and crime. But the desultory attempts which have been made. and are daily making, to carry some of its detached parts into execu tion, do but retard the progress and endanger the success of reform they are troublesome, they are expensive; the false reliance that is place upon them by their advocates, excites high expectations, which m be disappointed, because a disease pervading the system cannot be cu by topical remedies; and the disappointment produces despair of f success, an abandonment of the plan of reformation, and an inclina to return to the old sanguinary system.

The code now submitted completes the System of Penal Law, w is respectfully offered for consideration.

The task was undertaken with an unfeigned distrust of my powers, which nothing could have conquered but the conviction a simple enumeration and development of the principles on whi system is founded, would force a conviction of their truth.

It has been prosecuted with laborious and unremitted applica several years, with a respectful attention to the opinions of ot a close observation of practical results.

Its conclusion was attended with the gratifying conscio. having taken every precaution to guard against the pride of and neglected no means that could be suggested by the dec of its importance, and a religious desire that it might advan happiness, by establishing the true principles of public justi

It is now respectfully offered for consideration, in the after legislative wisdom shall have supplied the omissions, a the errors of the work, it may be made the basis of a syste instruction may be promoted, idleness and vice represse minished, and the sum of human happiness increased.

EDWARD LIVE

INTRODUCTORY TITLE.

CHAPTER I.

Preamble.

No act of legislation can be, or ought to be immutable. Changes are required by the alteration of circumstances; amendments, by the imperfection of all human institutions; but laws ought never to be changed without great deliberation, and a due consideration as well of the reasons on which they were founded, as of the circumstances under which they were enacted. It is therefore proper, in the formation of new laws, to state clearly the motives for making them, and the principles by which the framers were governed in their enactment. Without a knowledge of these, future legislatures cannot perform the task of amendment, and there can be neither consistency in legislation, nor uniformity in the interpretation of laws.

For these reasons the general assembly of the state of Louisiana declare, that their objects in establishing the following code, are→

To remove doubts relative to the authority of any parts of the penal law of the different nations by which this state, before its independence, was governed.

To embody into one law and to arrange into system such of the various prohibitions enacted by different statutes as are proper to be retained in the penal code.

To include in the class of offences, acts injurious to the state and its inhabitants, which are not now forbidden by law.

To abrogate the reference, which now exits, to a foreign law for the definition of offences and the mode of prosecuting them.

To organize a connected system for the prevention as well as for the prosecution and punishment of offences.

To collect into written codes, and to express in plain language, all the rules which it may be necessary to establish, for the protection of the government of the country, and the person, property, condition, and reputation of individuals; the penalties and punishments attached to a breach of those rules; the legal means of preventing offences, and the forms of prosecuting them when committed; the rules of evidence, by which the truth of accusations are to be tested; and the duties of executive and judicial officers, jurors and individuals, in preventing, prosecuting, and punishing offences: to the end that no one need be ignorant of any branch of criminal jurisprudence, which it concerns all to

know.

And to change the present penal laws, in all those points in which they contravene the following principles, which the general assembly consider as fundamental truths, and which they have made the basis of their legislation on this subject, to wit:

Vengeance is unknown to the law. The only object of punishment is to prevent the commission of offences: it should be calculated to operate.

First, on the delinquent, so as by seclusion to deprive him of the present means, and by habits of industry and temperance, of any future desire, to repeat the offence.

Secondly, on the rest of the community, so as to deter them by the example, from a like contravention of the laws. No punishments, greater than are necessary to effect these ends, ought to be inflicted.

No acts or omissions should be declared to be offences, but such as are injurious to the state, to societies permitted by the laws, or to individuals.

But penal laws should not be multiplied without evident necessity; therefore acts, although injurious to individuals or societies, should not be made liable to public prosecution, when they may be sufficiently repressed by private suit.

From the imperfection of all human institutions, and the inevitable errors of those who manage them, it sometimes happens, that the innocent are condemned to suffer the punishment due to the guilty. Punishments should, therefore, be of such a nature that they may be remitted, and as far as possible compensated, in cases where the injustice of the sentence becomes apparent.

Where guilt is ascertained, the punishment should be speedily inflicted.

Penal laws should be written in plain language, clearly and unequivocally expressed, that they may neither be misunderstood nor perverted; they should be so concise, as to be remembered with ease; and all technical phrases, or words they contain, should be clearly defined. They should be promulgated in such a manner as to force a knowledge of their provisions upon the people; to this end, they should not only be published, but taught in the schools; and publicly read on stated occasions.

The law should never command more than it can enforce. Therefore, whenever, from public opinion, or any other cause, a penal law cannot be carried into execution, it should be repealed.

The accused, in all cases, should be entitled to a public trial, conducted by known rules, before impartial judges and an unbiassed jury; to a copy of the act of accusation against him; to the delay necessary to prepare for his trial; to process to enforce the attendance of his own witnesses; and to an opportunity of seeing, hearing, and examining those who are produced against him; to the assistance of counsel for his defence; to free communication with such counsel, if in confinement, and to be bailed in all cases, except those particularly specified by law. No presumption of guilt, however violent, can justify the infliction of any punishment before conviction, or of any bodily restraint greater than is necessary to prevent escape; and the nature and extent of this restraint should be determined by law.

Perfect liberty should be secured of hearing and publishing a true account of the proceedings of criminal courts, limited only by such re