PROPORTION AS TO REWARDS.Conferring reward, the observance of exact rules of proportion is not nearly of the same importance, as in the infliction of punishment.These rules cannot, however, be neglected with impunity.If too great a reward be held out for a given service, competitors will be attracted from more useful pursuits.If too little, the desired service will either not be rendered, or will not be rendered in perfection.
Rule I.The aggregate value of the natural and factitious reward ought not to be less than sufficient to outweigh the burthen of the service.
Rule II.Factitious rewards may be diminished, in proportion as natural rewards are increased.
These two rules present three subjects to our observation:---1.
The natural burthens attached to the service;---2.The natural rewards which either do or do not require factitious reward to supply their deficiency;---3.
The drawback, more or less hidden, which in a variety of cases alters the apparent value of the reward.
1.The natural burthens of any particular service, may be comprised under the following heads :---The intensity of labour required in its performance,---the ulterior uneasiness which may arise from its particular character, ---the physical danger attending it,---the expenses or other sacrifices necessary made previously to its exercise,---the discredit attached to it,---the peculiar enmities it produces.
The wages of labour in different branches of trade, are regulated in exact proportion to the combination of these several circumstances.To the legislator, however, except in cases where it may be necessary to add factitious to natural reward, considerations of this sort are in general subjects only of speculation.
That any particular service is more or less highly priced, is of little importance: it affects the individuals only who stand in need of it.The competition between those who want and those who can supply, fixes the price of all services in the most fitting manner.It is sufficient that the demand be public and free.To assist, if necessary, in giving publicity to the demand, and in maintaining reciprocal liberty in such transactions, is all that the legislator ought do do.
2.Natural rewards are liable to be insufficient, in relation to services, whose utility extends to the whole community, without producing particular advantage to any one individual more than another.Of this nature are public employments.It is true, many public employments are attended by natural rewards in the shape of honour, power, the means of serving one's connexions, and deserving the public gratitude;and when these rewards are sufficient, factitious rewards are superfluous.
To their ambassadors, and many others of their great officers of state, the Venetians never gave any pecuniary reward.In Eng1and, the public functions of sheriffs and justices of the peace are generally discharged by opulent and independent individuals, whose only reward consists in the respect and power attached to those offices.
3.There are many circumstances which may diminish the value of a reward, without being generally known beforehand, but against all of which it is proper to guard.Does the reward consist of money? Its value may be diminished by a burthen of the same nature, or by a burthen in the shape of honour.Honour and money may even be seen at strife with one another, as well as with themselves By these means, the value of a reward may sometimes be reduced to nothing, and even become negative.
In this country, where, properly speaking, there is no public prosecutor, many offences, which no individual has any peculiar interest in prosecuting, are liable to remain unpunished.In the way of remedy, the law offers from £ 10 to £ 20, to be levied upon the goods of the offender, to whoever will successfully undertake this function: sometimes it is added, that the expenses will be repaid in case of conviction: sometimes this is not promised.These expenses may amount to thirty, fifty, and even one hundred pounds; it is seldom they are so little as twenty pounds.After this, can we be surprised that the laws are imperfectly obeyed?
It may be added, that it is considered dishonourable to attend to this summons of the laws.An individual who in this manner endeavours to serve his country, is called an informer; and lest public opinion should not be sufficient to brand him with infamy, the servants of the law, and even the laws themselves, have on some occasions endeavoured to fix the stain.The number of private prosecutors would be much more numerous, if, instead of the insidious offer of a reward, an indemnification were substituted.The dishonourable offer being suppressed, the dishonour itself would cease.And who can say, when by such an arrangement the circumstance which offends it is removed, whether honour itself may not be pressed into the service of the laws?
