God
alone. To his eye, all secrets are known, and all degrees of guilt
perfectly apparent; and to him alone belongs the vengeance which is due
for moral ill-desert. His law extends over the state of nature as well
as over the state of civil society, and calls all men to account for
their evil deeds. It is evident that, in so far as the intrinsic demerit
of actions is concerned, it makes no difference whether they be punished
here or hereafter. And beside, if the individual had possessed such a
right in a state of nature, he has not transferred it to society; for
society neither has nor claims any such right. Blackstone but utters the
voice of the law when he says: "The end or final cause of human
punishment is not by way of atonement or expiation, for that must be
left to the just determination of the supreme Being, but a precaution
against future offenses of the same kind." The exercise of retributive
justice belongs exclusively to the infallible Ruler of the world, and
not to frail, erring man, who himself so greatly stands in need of
mercy. Hence, the right to punish a transgressor on the ground that such
punishment is deserved, has not been transferred from the individual to
civil society: first, because he had no such natural right to transfer;
and, secondly, because society possesses no such right.

In the second place, if we consider the other ground of punishment, it
will likewise appear that the right to punish never belonged to the
individual, and consequently could not have been transferred by him to
society. For, by the law of nature, the individual has no right to
punish an offense against himself _in order to prevent further offences
of the same kind_. If the object of human punishment be, as indeed it
is, to prevent the commission of crime, by holding up examples of terror
to evil-doers, then, it is evidently no more the natural right of the
party injured to redress the wrong, than it is the right of others. All
men are interested in the prevention of wrongs, and hence all men should
unite to redress them. All men are endowed by their Creator with a sense
of justice, in order to impel them to secure its claims, and throw the
shield of its protection around the weak and oppressed.

The prevention of wrong, then, is clearly the natural duty, and
consequently the natural right, of all men.

This duty should be discharged by others, rather than by the party
aggrieved. For it is contrary to the law of nature