eginning of
the riots here (which suffered the leaders to proceed, until very many,
as it were by the contagion of a sort of fashion, were carried to these
excesses) might make these people think that there was something in the
case which induced government to wink at the irregularity of the
proceedings.

The conduct and condition of the Lord Mayor ought, in my opinion, to be
considered. His answers to Lord Beauchamp, to Mr. Malo, and to Mr.
Langdale make him appear rather an accomplice in the crimes than guilty
of negligence as a magistrate. Such an example set to the mob by the
first magistrate of the city tends greatly to palliate their offence.

The license, and complete impunity too, of the publications which from
the beginning instigated the people to such actions, and in the midst of
trials and executions still continues, does in a great degree render
these creatures an object of compassion. In the Public Advertiser of
this morning there are two or three paragraphs strongly recommending
such outrages, and stimulating the people to violence against the houses
and persons of Roman Catholics, and even against the chapels of the
foreign ministers.

I would not go so far as to adopt the maxim, _Quicquid multis peccatur
inultum_; but certainly offences committed by vast multitudes are
somewhat palliated in the _individuals_, who, when so many escape, are
always looked upon rather as unlucky than criminal. All our loose ideas
of justice, as it affects any individual, have in them something of
comparison to the situation of others; and no systematic reasoning can
wholly free us from such impressions.

Phil. de Comines says our English civil wars were less destructive than
others, because the cry of the conqueror always was, "Spare the common
people." This principle of war should be at least as prevalent in the
execution of justice. The appetite of justice is easily satisfied, and
it is best nourished with the least possible blood. We may, too,
recollect that between capital punishment and total impunity there are
many stages.

On the whole, every circumstance of mercy, and of comparative justice,
does, in my opinion, plead in favor of such low, untaught, or ill-taught
wretches. But above all, the policy of government is deeply interested
that the punishments should appear _one_, solemn, deliberate act, aimed
not at random, and at particular offences, but done with a relation to
the general spirit of the tumults; an