offence, as to afford an additional proof of its
injustice. We shall add now, as a second argument, its disproportion
from its _continuance:_ and we shall derive a third from the
consideration, that, in civil society, every violation of the laws of
the community is an offence against the _state_[050].

Let us suppose then an African prince, disdaining for once the idea of
emolument: let us suppose him for once inflamed with the love of his
country, and resolving to punish from this principle alone, "that by
exhibiting an example of terrour, he may preserve that _happiness of
the publick_, which he is bound to secure and defend by the very
nature of his contract; or, in other words, that he may answer the end
of government." If actuated then by this principle, he should adjudge
slavery to an offender, as a just punishment for his offence, for whose
benefit must the convict labour? If it be answered, "for the benefit of
the state," we allow that the punishment, in whatever light it is
considered, will be found to be equitable: but if it be answered, "for
the benefit of any _individual whom he pleases to appoint_," we
deny it to be just. The state[051] alone is considered to have been
injured, and as _injuries cannot possibly be transferred_, the
state alone can justly receive the advantages of his labour. But if the
African prince, when he thus condemns him to labour for the benefit of
an _unoffended individual_, should at the same time sentence him to
become his _property_; that is, if he should make the person and
life of the convict at the absolute disposal of him, for whom he has
sentenced him to labour; it is evident that, in addition to his former
injustice, he is usurping a power, which no ruler or rulers of a state
can possess, and which the great Creator of the universe never yet gave
to any order whatever of created beings.

That this reasoning is true, and that civilized nations have considered
it as such, will be best testified by their practice. We may appeal here
to that _slavery_, which is now adjudged to delinquents, as a
punishment, among many of the states of Europe. These delinquents are
sentenced to labour at the _oar_, to work in _mines_, and on
_fortifications_, to cut and clear _rivers_, to make and
repair _roads_, and to perform other works of national utility.
They are employed, in short, in the _publick_ work; because, as the
crimes they have committed are considered to have been crimes against