" our model modern penitentiaries are a hundred-fold more abominable than the dungeons of the middle ages. Finally, consider what corruption, depravity of mind, is kept up amongst men by idea of obedience, the very essence of law; of chastisement; of authority having the right to punish, to judge irrespective of our conscience and the esteem of our friends ; of the nece,ssity for executioners, gaolers and informers--in a word, by all the attributes of law and authority. Consider all this, and you - will assuredly agree with us in saying that a law inflicting penalties is an abomination which should cease to exist. Peoples without political organisation, and therefore less depraved than !jurselves, have perfectly understood that the man who is called "criminal" is simply unfortunate; that' the remedy is not t<Yfiog him, to chain him up, or to kill him on the scaffold or in prison, but to relieve him by the most brotherly ea.re, by treatment based on equality, by the usages of life amongst honest men. In the next revolution we hope that this cry will go forth : " Burn the- guillotines; demolish the prisons; drive aw~y the judges, policemen and informers-the impurest race upon the face of the earth; treat as a brother the .man who has been led by passion to do ill to his fellow; above all take from the ignoble products of middle-olass idleness the possibility of displaying their vices in attractive colours; and be, sure that but few crimes will mar our society." The main supports of crime are idlen~, law and authority; laws about property, laws about government, laws about penalties and misdemeanours; and authority, which takes upon itself to manufacture these la.ws and to apply them. No more laws! No more judges! Liberty, equality, and practical human sympathy are the only effectual barriers we can oppose to the anti-8Q<?ialinstincts of certain a.mongst us. --·-·--- - -. -... ----- - P:a.un•;» nr 'l'uE NEw 'fr.l1PLt P1u-:ssN, oBBUR·Y·ca1:sc1-;~rN~oilatrRr, s.,v. Biblioteca Gino Bianco
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy MTExMDY2NQ==