2.In every case where every extensive mischief may be produced by a single act, and particularly in the case of such acts as may be performed at any time, punishment is the only restraint to be depended on: such is the case of crimes in general.When the act endeavoured to be produced is in an eminent degree beneficial, it is proper to employ reward alone, or to combine punishment with reward, that the power of the governing motive may be doubled.
3.Considering the abundance of the one, and scarcity of the other, punishment is the only eligible means of regulating the conduct of people in general: reward ought to be reserved for directing the actions of particular individuals.By punishment, mischievous propensities are subdued; by reward, valuable qualifications are improved.Punishment is an instrument for the extirpation of noxious weeds: reward is a hotbed for raising fruit, which would not otherwise be produced.
4.Necessity compels the employment of punishment:
reward is a luxury.Discard the first, and society is dissolved: discard the other, and it still continues to subsist, though deprived of a portion of its amenity and elegance.
5.In every case where the service is of such a nature as that no individual possessed of the qualifications requisite for its performance can with certainty be selected, the denunciation of punishment would only produce apprehension and misery, and its application be but so much injury inflicted in wanton waste.
In every such case, offer a reward, and it travels forth in quest of hidden or unknown talents: even if it fail in its search, it produces no evil---not an atom of it is lost: it is given only when the service is performed, when the advantage obtained either equals or surpasses the expense.
By the help of these observations, we shall be enabled to appreciate the opinion of those politicians who, after a superficial examination of this subject, condemn legislators in general for the sparing use made of the matter of reward.
The author of The Wealth of Nations , who has displayed such extraordinary sagacity in all his researches, has upon this point been led away by mistaken notions of humanity.`` Fear '', says he, `` is in almost all cases a miserable instrument of government.''
( Wealth of Nations , B.V.ch.16.) It is an instrument which has often times been much perverted from its proper use; but it is a necessary instrument, and the only one applicable to the ordinary purposes of society.
A young king, in the first ardour for improvement, having resolved to purge his kingdom from all crimes, was not satisfied with this alone.His natural gentleness was shocked at the idea of employing punishment.He determined to abolish it altogether, and to effect everything by reward.He began with the crime of theft: but in a short time, all his subjects were entitled to reward; all of them were honest.Every day they were entitled to new rewards; their honesty remained inviolate.A scheme for preventing smuggling was proposed to him.``Wise king'', it was said, ``for every penny that ought to be paid into your treasury, give two, and the hydra is vanquished.'' The victory was certain; but he perceived that, like that of Pyrrhus, it would be somewhat costly.
A distinction which exists between domestic and political government may be bere worth noticing.No sovereign is so rich as to be able to effect everything by reward.There is no parent who may not.At Sparta, a bit of black bread was the reward of skill.The stock of pleasures and of wants is an inexhaustible fund of reward in the hands of those parents who know how to employ it.
