and into the different modes of puniihment for criminal offences
: my engaging in this employment was principally
owing to a cafual meeting I had at Vienna with the benevolent
Mr. Howard, whofe humane attention to the outcafts of
fociety has reflected fo much honour on himfelf and his
country. Informing him that I was proceeding to the
Northern kingdoms, I intimated an intention to examine the
ft ate of the prifons and penal laws in thofe countries ; and
profeffed a readinefs to lay before him the refult of my ob-
fervations. Mr. Howard approved my defign, fuggefted
feveral ufeful hints, and even dictated fome fpecific quef-
tions tending greatly to facilitate my inquiries.
I fhall hot enter upon a defcription of the prifons in War-
faw, as they afforded fcarcely any thing worthy of particular
obfervation ; 1 fhall therefore confine myfelf to the
general adminiftration of juftice.
Atrocious crimes, fuch as murder, &c. are puniihed by
beheading or hanging ; leffer delinquencies by whipping,
hard labour, and imprifonment: the nobles never fuffer any
corporal puniihment; but are liable only to imprifonment
and death.
Torture was aboliihed in 17 76 , by an edi£t of the diet,
introduced by the influence of the king ; a regulation as
expreflive of his majefty’s judgement as of his benevolence-
It is an infinite fatisfadtion to fee the rights of humanity extending
themfelves in countries, where they had been but
little known ; a circumftance that muft caft a great reflection
on thofe nations which, like France, have attained the high-
eft pitch of civilization, and yet retain the ufelefs and barbarous
cuftom of torture *.
* Laquefiionpreparatoire^otihtin^x^ioix been lately aboliihed in France j but the
o f torture, for forcing the confeffron o f a torture ufed for the difcovery of accooi-
crime frcm an accufed perfon, has indeed plices is ilill retained*
2 • The
The defeCts of the police in this country are by no cir- cffAP'
cumftances fo ftrongly evinced, as by the frequent impunity >— ,— 1
of the moft atrocious crimes : this abufe may be traced
from the following caufes.
1. The greateft criminals find at times little difficulty
in engaging the protection of fome of the principal nobles,
who occafionally affemble their vaffals and retainers in arms,
and drive the officers of juftice from their lands. This anarchy
refembles the ftate of Europe in the 14th century, during
the prevalence of the feudal laws, when every great
baron poffefled territorial jurifdiCtion, and .was almoft equal
in authority to the king.
2. The law, efteemed by the Polifh gentry the great bulwark
of their liberty, which ehaCts *, that no gentleman can
be arrefted for mifdemeanors until he is convicted of them,
notwithftanding the ftrongeft degree of prefumptive proof:
the offender, of courfe, if likely to be found guilty, takes
care to withdraw himfelf before the completion of the pro-
cefs. Murder indeed, and robbery on the highway, and a
few other capital crimes, are excluded from this privilege :
but even in thofe flagrant enormities no gentleman can be
taken into cuftody, unlefs actually apprehended in the com-
miflion of the offence ; and when the crime is thus pofi-
tively afcertained, which in the nature of things can feldom
occur, the culprit cannot be fentenced to capital puniihment
by any other tribunal than a diet.
3. The right which every town pofleffes of having its
own criminal courts of juftice, with judges feledted folely
from the inhabitants. Many o f thefe towns are at prefent
reduced to fuch a low ftate, as fcarcely td deferve the name
* Neminem captivabimus nifi jure vi£him,