Theorists!
For Less Formidable Criminals There Exists That Wondrous Institution Of
Domicilio Coatto, Which I Have Studied In The Islands Of Lipari And
Ponza.
These evil-doers seldom try to escape; life is far too
comfortable, and the wine good and cheap; often, on completing their
sentences, they get themselves condemned anew, in order to return.
The
hard-working man may well envy their lot, for they recuve free lodging
from the Government, a daily allowance of money, and two new suits of
clothes a year - they are not asked to do a stroke of work in return, but
may lie in bed all day long, if so disposed. The law-abiding citizen,
meanwhile, pays for the upkeep of this horde of malefactors, as well as
for the army of officials who are deputed to attend to their wants. This
institution of domicilio coatto is one of those things which would be
incredible, were it not actually in existence. It is a school, a
State-fostered school, for the promotion of criminality.
But what shall be expected? Where judges sob like children, and jurors
swoon away with emotionalism; where floods of bombast - go to the courts,
and listen! - take the place of cross-examination and duly-sworn
affidavits; where perjury is a humanly venial and almost praiseworthy
failing - how shall the code, defective as it is, be administered?
Rhetoric, and rhetoric alone, sways the decision of the courts. Scholars
are only now beginning to realize to what an extent the ancient sense of
veracity was tainted with this vice - how deeply all classical history is
permeated with elegant partisan non-truth.
Enter page number
PreviousNext
Page 417 of 488
Words from 112122 to 112392
of 131203
