I by no means admit the two principal objections of MM.
Kirchenheim and Wach, that the conditional sentence is repugnant
to the principle of absolute justice, according to which every
offence should be visited by a corresponding punishment, and that
short terms of imprisonment, if they have not always produced a
good result, ought not to be abolished, but only applied in a more
suitable and efficacious manner.
The first objection will not weigh much with those who are guided
by the principles and method of the positive school. As M.
Gautier says, it is absolutely useless to dispute about
consequences when we start from premisses so opposed to each other
as retributive justice, according to which every fault demands a
proportional punishment--``fiat justitia pereat mundus''--and
social defence, according to which a justice without social
advantage is an unjust justice, afflicted with metaphysical
degeneracy.
The second objection appears to me to have no better foundation,
for the disadvantages of punishments by short terms of
imprisonment are organic and inevitable defects. There is no
chance of their practical amelioration, for they have all been
tried, from the system of association to that of absolute
isolation, from the most inflexible vigour to the mildest
treatment.
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