SIR,--III your article on corporal punishment I can agree with
but one statement : that the Homicide Law is 'nonsensical.' There my agreement ends, for its main theme is that corporal punishment is no
deterrent. You are by no means alone in this—indeed, the argument now generally is whether it is a deter- rent or not. Yet to my simple mind the question is whether the culprit deserves such punishment. If he deserves it, he should have it—let the punishment fit the crime.
If a man is fined five shillings for some slight offence, no one can say that that fine would serve as a deterrent; it is a slight punishment for a slight crime. I always thought that judges and magistrates do not pass their sentences primarily to deter the criminal from any future crime they may be tempted to commit, but rather to punish him for the crime he has committed.—Yours faithfully,
S Harrington Gardens, SW7
LAMBERT FOXEI.I.
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