The National Register. — London, England, 1819-02-15 00:00:00

..... ~' w ~~ r~ No. 575.—V0L. XII. I'ULITLCAL DIbQUISI f lON. ON OUR CRIMINAL LW. (IFONTINUED FRUNI QUIZ LAST.] • IN war last number we examined the doctrine of Dr. Paley in defence of tke discretion, which by the law of England (es it is practised) is vested in the LAOS of the Judges, of punishing a vast number et ()Ganes in general with transportation, but in many instances with death, and the consequent severity of the i.Av in some cases, as well as its uncertainty in all ; and we e ndeavoured to controvert the reasonings of the learned Divine. We have shewn the fievent dispro.. portion of the punishment to the offences, sad the neral uncertainty of what the punishment will be in each case. Now this disproportion and this uncer tainty are, we conceive, two fundamental defects in the criminal code of this country. Let us hear what Mon tennieu says—' Experience proves, that in countries where punishments are mild, men's minds me at much • Meted by them, as they are hi other countries where • the penalties of the law are severe. Is any crime • more particularly prevalent in a state ? a violent government is anxious to remedy this immediately ; mid, instead of enforcing the existing laws with great ' cr vigilance and activity, they enact some severe punishment, which, may be, • Stops the evil at once. • But the springs of government am strained : the imagination soon becomes accustomed to the new punishment, as much as it had been to the old; and • the dread of the former sentence is thus diminished h. is soots found necessary to have recourse to the new coal more violent remedy in all eases.—Highway rob ' beries were become very common in several countries ; governments were anxious to put a stop to them: • the punis .went of the wheel was invented, which suspended their frequency for some time; since that • time,. however, highway robberies have become as common as ever. In fact, mankind are not to be governed by extreme rnoa!tares, and it is necessary for their governors to :nisband the means which nature has entrusted to them. If we examine the causes which have made ' the laws at different times insufficient to suppress offences, we shall find that they consist in the im punity crimes by reason of the lax administration 3f the laws; and not insufficiency of the punishment— . We should follow nature, who has assigned shame as the severest infliction on mankind, and has made the heaviest weight. of punishment consist in the infamy of undergoing it.—lf in any country disgrace is not • the necessary accompaniment of suffering under ' the sentence of the law, a tyrannical government • is the cause, which has inflicted the same punish ' meats on rascals and on honest men. If in mother. ' country men are not restrained except by the in ' diction of severe anA cruel penalties, the caul*. in a great measure is the violence of thegovernmant which ' Nis had recourse to such punishments for minor of ' fences. A lawgiver,. who, ddsires to correct an evil, too often thinks of that correction alone to this object 'his eyes are open,—to. all other inconveniencies they ' are s'iut. When the evil has Leen cured, men see ' only Cie severity of the legislator ; but there remains a new evil which this severity has itself genertoed : • the tone of feeling in men's minds is spoilt, for they have been accustomed' to despotism ' 6 These last observations are peculiarly applicable to the criminal law of this country ; for, if we look into the history of many of oar mast severe statutes, we shall find that they originate in these very motives of esgerness to suppress temporary evils. The cause, the motives have passed away, but the bloods , statute has remained ; and, worse than that, the indite . rence oftbe legislature to the infliction of capital punishments, and of the nation to the apprehension of them. 13,y these ational ArlicAtiOUT+ tiing, (frontitution anTi MONDAY, FEBRUARY 15, 1819• means, with the greatest expenos of Immo' lives our criminal law produces the least effect in the way of preventing crime. Fromthis remark of Montesquien's, an amply justi feed as it is by the penal code of England, will bo seen the justice of that of lleccaria, in his celebrated Essay nu Crimes and Punishments. ' Whocier,* says he, , • reads with a philosophic eye the laws and histories of nations, will continually find the names of vice and virtue, of patriot and criminal, changing places daring • the revolutions of successive ages, nut regulated, how ' ever, by the altered circumstances and s tuations of the several states, but according to the diffaent pas ' ions and mistakes of Luccessive legislators. Thus it is, that the pa, , sions of one age form the basis of the morals and laws of the next, and thus originate the most tmcertain and erroneous notions of honour and virtuet.' Thus too, we may add, have arisen many , of those absurd or cruel laws t!hich disgrace our statute book ; and it' we wish for a stilling instance, we need only look to the present proceedings in Parliament, where we shall we the Attorney General proposing to repeal a law, that of trial by battle, which once was deemed a sacred appeal to Heaven, am; which, even till this day, has been sugefed to disgrace our legislation. The luaus writer (Becoaria), agrueing with Paley, that the sole object of punishments by human laws is the pre vention of crimes, lays it dews, that all punishments which go beyond this object, ate in their nature unjust because they do net tend to,preserve the bends of society: but militate against the iery object of the social con • tract, the welAxing of the contracting parties, W e have before seen the insufficiency of disproportioned punishments se their object of preventing crimes, and this consideration shews their absolute injustice. flow then can we justify that scale, which assigns to parricide and to stealing - frombleachinggrounds the same punish. ment? not by alleflging that the sentence is not always inflicted for the latter offence, for that cannot he a jus tification in those instances where it is but rather an aggravation of the injustice, by adding that uncertainty which encouraged the criminal to commit the offNlce, and thus proved a snare to him. The parricide, when he commits his crime, knows that his only chance of saving his life, is by evading detection - -a chance, which doubtless is the hope by which he is en:ranted but human laws cannot prevent that. Eat the man who is hanged for stealimg from the bleaching growth, had the hope, that, if even detected and convicted, he , might still escape capital punishment, for many had before him ; this chance proves a snare to hint, and it is a snare which the law itself has laid under his feet. The injustice, therefore, of this disproportioned panish went is increased by its uncertainty. Such are the impolicy, the injustice, and the lump tainty, of our penal enactments—there defects, so ra dically vicious, that (independently of the faults of eur prison discipline) wo cannot be surprised at the natural effects ensuing of an increased number of erintos. 'fh3 rein*, however, is in our own hands; and, if any thing Could console us on this *abject in particular for the loss of Sir Samna P.omilly, it woull be. that the pursuit of•this important object has been talon up by the benevolent and pLrscvoring Mr. Wilberforce ; who, if he dives to attain it, will deserve the glorious title of the Father of his Country. • flpirita Laws, bank si. chap. IC. + On C% imcs and Punishments, § 15. A considerable part of the surface of the mountains of Filllybazoban, belonging to Niapr Purdon, in the county of Clare, were washed away by the late goods and exposed to a great extent an ore strongly resenabl. ng i'R 9,1 d. STATE OFTHE POLL. ?WO O'CLOCK, THIS DAY. I4.3!)iinuge Laud> Canwrii : Oit . . . .'.21 CONSPIRACY AT VALENCIA. A full statement has been made public of the pt.:. ticulars of this plot, with the names of the conspirators and An amount of their execution. Col. Vidal, diet: leader, had raised themselves from the ranks. Twenty titr hours were allowed the prisonera to make their de fence, which is a mere matter of form, for no defence is ever listened to; and the day after, all the thirtts—, were condemned to be hanged ; but the esecutionet who is u poor slim fellow, with too much feeliitg tsar his employment, gave notice he was ill ; in consequetc:e • of his having strangled a Either, son, son-in law, and two cousins, the same week. Ile was asked if he could bang one? He answered is; so Vidal was fixed 11:0I', be hanged np by the side of their fellow conspiratoi.. Tlhe mode of execution in Spain is as barbarous as it, is 1 fatiguing to the executioner. He places the head of the culprit between his own thighs, and on the signal's bei n g given, they both swing off together, the former sitting a califoarc'hon, on the shoulders of the latter— ha then twis:s the body round and mind with the utmost velocity, at the sttme time -kicking violently with Ili; heat on the breast and lungs of the criminal, and raising himself tip anti down (as one does in attar,' trot) to increase the weight of the hanging man. All this the Spaniards as: is to put the unhappy wretch. - the sooner out of his misery. The moment the hangman throws himself off with the criminal, an the speetaturs take off their hats, and begin saving Ave Alarias for tho soul - of the dying man, which continue all the while that the executioner is v.visting rnd twirling, and swinging and jumping. Vidal, when brought out is his execution, was so emaciated by fever, as to be scarcely wide to support himself; but just before he was turned off; being called a traitor to his country by • I the Monk who attended him, he started, raised hi/ head with a sort of eouvulsive effin-t, and looking this Moult in the face, sternly exclaimed, " Traitor to rat • country—Never, never—l have been too loyal taker, •• for that I die." LAW INTELLIGENCE. COURT OF KING's BENCH, Feb. 3. CONSPIRACY. THE KMG V. J. F. BURKE, BOOLE FRENCH, & WELCH.. The defendants were this morning brought up again, pursuant to an order of the Court to that effect. Mr. Gurney again addressed the Court in suppert of the prosecutioa, and Mr. Scarlett and others for the defendants. Mr. Justice Bayley then proceeded to pass the jade. wont of the Court, and addreased the defendants at • , very considerable length. In the course of his address he commented in strong terms on the enormity of the offence committed by the defendants; after which ite pronounced the judgment of the Court ; which was that J. F. Burke should be impriboned for three ye.irs in Neweate, and the other two defendants one year and a half in Cold-bath.lields Prison. Soule doubts havz arisen as to the hest sititsfrm which to place the masterly cast of the fine C.,1,.: , 5a1 Statue, by sent as a present from Rome to Prince Regent. Waterloo-Ace was at first fixed upon ; but it has since been suggested, that the centre of the new Circus, in Piccadilly, will display this ad nirtat4 work of art to the best advi.ata;;e. Tvnittrsotscs.—Ha'erisi was the riehost albs. Arabia= anti at the same time the most liberal MI every day wade I , rre applied at the gate for rel, Oa.• of his friends praising his liberality said, " 1 think there never am a% a 01 ~t noble a " I beg vont pat said Recta a; " not bin` silica met a poor ft llow stiitlgeting tinder a bundle of thorn. which he bad been t i„. w „pd. his pave' iy, I asked htm i n stead of Is:inuring an basil, lie lid nut go the gale ut Ilaienstai fir relief. lle answered, the roan that ran cart, a morsel of v'ad by his °will:oohr. toi nn ve dI• be obitied to 11,itenit it. 'flits roan's mind wits tru:y metric. I.