Laws are to be made for the mass of cases.
The object of a convention then, in other cases, would be, that the
fugitive might not avoid the difference between exile and the legal
punishment of the case. Now in what case would this difference be so
important, as to overweigh even the single inconvenience of multiplying
compacts?
1. _Treason_. This, when real, merits the highest punishment. But most
codes extend their definitions of treason to acts not really against
one's country. They do not distinguish between acts against the
government and acts against the oppressions of the government: the
latter are virtues; yet have furnished more victims to the executioner
than the former; because real treasons are rare, oppressions frequent.
The unsuccessful strugglers against tyranny have been the chief martyrs
of treason-laws in all countries.
Reformation of government with our neighbors; being as much wanted now
as reformation of religion is, or ever was any where, we should not wish
then, to give up to the executioner, the patriot who fails, and flees to
us. Treasons then, taking the simulated with the real, are sufficiently
punished by exile.
2. Crimes against _property_; the punishment in most countries,
immensely disproportionate to the crime.
In England, and probably in Canada, to steal a horse is death, the first
offence; to steal above the value of twelve pence is death, the second
offence.
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