"And lesser outbreaks of violence," said I, "how do you deal with
them? for hitherto we have been talking of great tragedies, I
suppose?"

Said Hammond: "If the ill-doer is not sick or mad (in which case he
must be restrained till his sickness or madness is cured) it is clear
that grief and humiliation must follow the ill-deed; and society in
general will make that pretty clear to the ill-doer if he should
chance to be dull to it; and again, some kind of atonement will
follow,--at the least, an open acknowledgement of the grief and
humiliation. Is it so hard to say, I ask your pardon, neighbour?--
Well, sometimes it is hard--and let it be."

"You think that enough?" said I.

"Yes," said he, "and moreover it is all that we CAN do. If in
addition we torture the man, we turn his grief into anger, and the
humiliation he would otherwise feel for HIS wrong-doing is swallowed
up by a hope of revenge for OUR wrong-doing to him. He has paid the
legal penalty, and can 'go and sin again' with comfort. Shall we
commit such a folly, then? Remember Jesus had got the legal penalty
remitted before he said 'Go and sin no more.' Let alone that in a
society of equals you will not find any one to play the part of
torturer or jailer, though many to act as nurse or doctor."

"So," said I, "you consider crime a mere spasmodic disease, which
requires no body of criminal law to deal with it?"

"Pretty much so," said he; "and since, as I have told you, we are a
healthy people generally, so we are not likely to be much troubled