Responsibility of Drunkards.

PennyMagazine_Drunkards_9June1932.jpg

Title

Responsibility of Drunkards.

Subject

Magazine illustration--19th century.
Education--Great Britain--Periodicals.

Description

Excerpt from page 104 of the Penny Magazine for June 9, 1832.

Creator

Society for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge (Great Britain)

Source

The Penny magazine of the Society for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge.

Publisher

London : Charles Knight ; New York : William Jackson.

Date

1832

Contributor

Knight, Charles.

Rights

Please contact the Special Collections and Archives Department of DePaul University Library regarding rights and any reproduction.

Language

English

Type

Text

Identifier

SpC 051 P416j

Text

Responsibility of Drunkards. --It is a maxim in legal practice, that those who presume to commit crimes when drunk must submit to punishment when sober. This state of the law is not peculiar to modern times. In ancient Greece, it was decreed by Pittacus, that he who committed a crime when intoxicated should receive a double punishment, viz., one for the crime itself, and the other for the ebriety which prompted him to commit it. The Athenians not only punished offences done in drunkenness with increased severity, but, by an enactment of Solon, inebriation in a magistrate was made capital. In our own country, at the present time, acts of violence committed under its influence, are held to be aggravated, rather than otherwise; nor can the person bring it forward as an extenuation of any folly or misdemeanour which he may chance to commit. A bond signed in intoxication holds in law, and is perfectly binding unless it can be shown that the person who signed it was inebriated by the collusion or contrivance of those to whom the bond was given. --Anatomy of Drunkenness.