The Statesman. — London, England, 1819-03-03 00:00:00

mestere es that alluded to by tbe flan. Member. — They waited with respect for the Report of the Nutlet Committer. To that Report they wnul.l, as they were boond to do, bow implicitly. Ile under. mood that last Isiah' a return of din amount of think V. per in circulation us, misled for. Ile was • hie to elate that the 'mount of Antes at present its circulation was 25,000,000, at less. 200,ttrit1 more than when this last Mani was wade in Deo.rel.er, THE CATI(OLIC‘ Or I ELM" D. Sir J. NEWPOIif bold in his band a Petition, saurrnasly sieved, from Waterford, prop ing for a repot of oho disabilHas attacbod to the liornao Catholics of Ireland. The Right Hon. U.. , nut said ibis Peados, was adopted eta tarrotiori, eld at she roosistion of ipporards of 30 of stro ripe! Protestant inliabitanis of Waterford, who strongly recomniewded tbo adopsiou of ibis ousesaro. )le Wird ibis circsoislarteo as this commeitersent of is moo Era. llr trusted it would be followed by Positions front every part of the kinodos. Posirionw as read, and ordered to b. printed. • M. WFSTEHN preseitied Petitions from Chelan,. ford, Hocking, mod Braintree, lo Esse', peoyiog a roelsion of rho Penni Code. Sir A. HOPE aaked of the Noble Lord (Cagtle. reagb), wt•eo it lass Wooded to read tbo Windsor &labll.lmtent Bill ■ wood tiro.? Lord CASTLEREAGH said, O. Bill would As raid a second tisa on Thursday ► sad caiaatitied far Monday. Sir A. HOPE said, he should lien •n Monday ••ve that the number of Equerries in attendance •n its 'Majesty at Wi .dsor Ise continued at ail. TiinUAS GKADY. Sir It. W I I.`:ON moved the Order of the Day, far calling Thomas Grady to the bar, in order to his being discharged. Mr. Grady having appeared at the bar,• The SPEAK FR sr/dressed him nearly as follows: " Thomas Grad), you have berm declared gaiety of wr i t i ng en d sending II Letter tom Member of Peril.. meat, containing a Iligh Breach of the Privileges of the Hone ; for that offence yea have been committed • pre to his Mejorty's jail of Neugate. Your retition praying to be Mesa:led, end expressing con. trition for year offence, has, however, been re. crewed ,• aid the wee yere Ikon espies. for having offended sgsinst the Hoare, relieves me from a duty which I should otherwise have had to per. form ; end which, considering your situation in renekl to me have been extremely *ski; name ly, that of enlarging epos the waterer of your offence. 1 have now only to add, that the Moose, whilst it it determined to support its own honour, dignity, end privileges, as the beet wins of preserving the Privileges of tlie People, le eyeful at the woe limo to measure its punishment by justice ; end its justice being satisfieJ by the con. 1 Dillon you bate @sprinted, 1 em sow commanded le order, that you be discharged; sod you are accord. logly discharger! on paying your foes."—[Howl] Mr. Grady bowed and retired. On the motion of Lord CASTLEREAGH, it was ordered that Mr. Speaker's speech should be esteem! on tile Journals. , Mr. LYT I ELTON g.ve notice, that on the nanis inst. he should submit certain Itesolniinos respecting the Louver Mr. W. WYNN said, he isnderstond the Noble Lord (Castlereagh) last night, declared his intention of dividing the Committee appointed last eight into Sob• Committee. ; es be considered this could not be done. "mahout the leave of the Hoes's, he wished to know if the Noble Lord intended to propose such a coarse? Lord CASTLEREAGH said, be had no intention of proposing each a motion to the House. lie consi dered that the. Committee might molt conveniently perform Us die)! by dividing itself. Mr. WYNN submitted to the Speaker whether this could be done; sod whether such a division of it Committee was not on tioconstitutioual and danger. one mine of proceeding. 'fhe SP} AKER.detlured his opinion, that a Com mittee appointed by the House was one indivisible body. Mr. W. WYNN said, with this opinion in ►M 'favour, he should certainly oppose t►e Committee being divided into Sub-Committees. It would W necessary the Noble Lord shoeld apply to the Hasse on the subject. and he (Mr. W.) trailed be would give notice of his motion. AMENDMENT OF TUE CRIMINAL LAWS. Sir J. MACINTOSII.- 1, Mr Speaker, the ques tion, in reference to which I had the honoor to give o notice early In the Scotian, relative t o the / mood. went of so much of Om Criminal Lew as relate' to capital penishments, I shall trouble the lines, with bet little preliminary matter, the sohject itself being of that importance, and the Noble Lord himself last night bevies established, beyond controversy, the obsolete necessity of a revision of the Penal Code.— It will ho•ever be necessary for me to addict some thing In the shape of precedent as to the proceedings of the Howse in former moos of a reference of similar sobjeats to Committees of the Mose. The first In which I shall allode ie that in 1717, which appears no the face °leer Journals, wherein a similar power was delegated to a Committee of that day, to eneelre into the state of the Criminal Lew. And 'here I bag lease to observe, I Ovoid have immediately staled' the grounds upon which ta• motto,. I am abbot to make shield have recommended itself to the peculiar notice of the limes', but for the acississimes and con. cessions which last night were mad* relative to Mad subject by the Noble Lord. Those atlesissions and ceneossions hail, In a ettnelderable eating, .statrowed the 'mood, of difference betweeo isle motion and that of the Noble Lard, and so far sigiplified the qaustion. Under these circumstaticee, bad It been merely • qeestion betsteen the ttlsebie bird end my- I self, hoe far the minute arrangement of the different subjects of eimelry were likiff to effect the wood objeet, the dietossinn woolti.dre attended with little 4.llscolry, at the several top would probably have been dismissed in the abstract ) hot es those interests mesa weighty and Important its tie eye of the lawyer. plainent , lier, mimesis, and citizen of a free Mate out inincstely concerned, it will be necessary that should enter into the Investigation with a minute ra re/eery to the existing tsl and advert generally to the psahhrbfeelitig, as will as that of even constitatetl nothooettes on the subjelt. The question now be fell/rah, Mmtte is t which of the two its-des pro. TTIE STATESMAN: poled wee likely to effect the object of mitigating this recommendation, ore the part of IhiconsmisSes• 1 ;he $ by of penal inflicting, _and inisoripg 0 the Iriethi t itistorpof its failerepri rekerdien Idoalt.not Nblie that speci4 of etcient - genietskto fad oil- go 14etiter than to sweet was not oppose.' "by sett and property, fetich was the Bret object of I Lord Ilerideke f or any of the goat hoed as. all legislative provisions. This question aunt Dethorities of that day. A• Amite: ?Menthe dole. eltimetely decided by the mode in which the sob-' 'tuition of these powers had been permitted by ject to Is. discussed was referred to the conEderatiou ; the House iii the year 1770; Jokes ahe seems of of the Conwitiee. It is not at all necessary, after Meredith, Fos, Sir Gorge Saville, and others of the what the Noble Lord (Castlereagh) has stated to first ieforminiou bed latest in the Bosse appeared the House that I sheikd make out a case to war- on that Committee. The question referred to them rant this enquiry into the state of the Criminal Law; was equally extensive as that proposed to the former, not that I should for a moment take it for granted, and the labour. of the Committee, though confined to that the coincidence of any two :timbers, though of only one branch of the investigation now proposed opposite parties in that House, should be taker to by the Noble Lewd, nevertheless lasted two Sessions, decide • question of this insimtlince; bat the de. ! and ended in a recommendation to abolish eight dif. Malan of the House last night has no doubt settled I ferret descriptions of capital poniihment. The Rill that preliminary pert of the question. The enquiry I founded on this Resoletion was also lost la the Ileum being admitted by the Noble Lord to he most ex. I of Lords, where, it was some gratification to think, pedient, it remains to be ascertained how far that ' it was not opposed by either of these lliteetrieus proposed by the Noble Lord may produce any prat- names, Lords Hardwick, or Camden. I might stand deal benefit. To this description of delegated power en those precedents against what had bees last eight of enquiry I have two objections, the first of which urged by the Noble Lord, or even upon the prow( I being that of the physical impossibility of carrying have afforded, that the question, as subdivided by such an enquiry into elect, might My pre. l him for the consideration of parts of • Colintillet elide the Necessity of stating the second. An Hon. I similerly subdivided, is contrary to the sense of Friend el' mine, well known for his zeal in the i Parliament; but the dilTormsee between the high cause, last night slated, that it would be impossible political standing and official station of that No fur any Committee to make a sstisfaciery report on bleman gives him decisive @riflemen as to thlt the subject of the condition of oar jails, within u , imperative weight of authority, sod renders it less space than the duration of • septennial Perlis. , necessary I should make out my case for • COT. Sent ; and that the investigation of the case of pri.! mitts. upon stronger sad more Indisputable grounds. SOWS in three jails alune, had taken up the time of The Noble Lord last night, it is tree, stated, that • most essidsous avid industrious Committee for a I the evil existed, but did not attempt to point out any whole Session. fleece it mast be obeitios le the, probability of finding out by the intervention of this commonest capacity teat an investigation lot* the i Committee, a remedy for the evil soedmitted to ' , MO. state of jails geoerslly , punishments by trans.; Ile then overlooked, or, st least, did not think it ',mistime end on board the hulks, with their sere.' necessary to point out specifically the defects ezist. ral adjuncts, must be an enquiry of so eatensire a I leg in the system, so as to chalk out a line of acting were as to be, if not 'heals:ply impossible, at for the Committee. Two things art necessarily ea. least likely to outlive the duration of any Panne. Pecled to be pointed out to the Hose s in order to meet. To obviate this inconvenience, the Noble Waco it to enter into an enquiry of this Merlons Lord, assert other admissions and cone's.' eaters—the exiatenee of the evil, and five probable sines, states, that it is his intention to subdi. i hone of a remedy, alone 1 contend the Noble Lord vide the labour thee imposed upon the Commit. , has not made oat a Peetementary ground for the ea. tee, by dividing the Committee itself into differeet I quiry lie proposes. I approach the hollowed insti. parts. This brings me to the sealed ground of my ' lotions of our ancestormeith more circumspection and objection in lionise, namely, that this practice of ; reverence, and therefore, feel myself booed to make subdividing a Committee into two or three parts, and ,1101 a most satisfactory case in support of tie appli. approprMiog to each its different sphere of mud.; Wien I now make to it, and show there east, a nation. is contrary to the acknowledged usage and r strong probability of the dimitietiou of that evil, practice of Pediment. The delegation of such • : which all good mid merciful men mutt steeply de. power to naming and report upon any particular I Ogre- And here, I hope, I shall not ha told I am subject, is the privilege of the House alone ; but is i a rash and alibi speculator, whose object, bosom' the present instance it is attempted to be assented by laudable in colter respects, most necessarily agreed td the Noble Load, or at least the choice of the imps. rthe guilty mind the hope of impunity for offenses o pt i on i s l e f t to t h e orrongemeo r o f the C o mmittee! hereafter it, be committed, in what was last night de. itself, Is hereas Parliament had bereinfone, with pe. I nominated by the Noble Lord the geld" age of Wier jealousy sod precision, specifically delegated ! crime. —( if laugh.) —I am 'Minnie ansious leotard such a power to Committees, and refused to actinism loudest any misrepresentation on so important a sib. ledge or receive their Reports whenever they bodes-I.l4'er, as it would be in the highest degree absurd to ceeded the bounds specially prescribed to the nature: propose any thing like what bad been termed a new of the inentigatien mudded to their labours. The; code of Criminal Law, to a country enjoying, ender Noble Lord's motion is se multifarious in ifs nature,: the present administration of the laws, every blessing which renders society happy sod free.—[/tsar! I and embraced so marry distinct and separate grounds: of enquiry, that it is in vain to expect as, siderite.. Suck • proposition would be eatrevegant end titiat- o I tory result from the investigation he lest night pro.. Wes ; but such is not mine; I wYold not rrOW Iltelh• omit. It may pike r s reach the state of the jails, pose the abolition anogenher of the punishment of bet it never ran comprise the state and condition of death for onences. When other mesas fail to deter,: the different clams of offenders, such less suggest I or when the olfender is nn longer safely to he tolerated measures or legislative enactments, to promote the; in society from the enormity of his offence, thee leo. reformation of criminal., the correction of whose; doehtedly the law may justly deprive him of a life habits soil their probel.le return to society is finally : forfeited to the maintenance of gond corder. The are. the object of all this enquiry. The labours of a Com. ' ercise of discretion in the judicial administration of Wiles to enquire into the state and description of: the Isir may he said to be an evil ; so may the Cri. *ls, and the best method of providing for the re. .boat Law itself ; but if that discretion he reposed in formation as well es the safe custody of offordera (for . the Esecutive to prevent the infliction of an Injustice, so the Noble Lord's motion rati),could never embrace or remedy an evil not foresee , ' or provided against, the case of those confined under sentence of death, then it may fairly be pr cud • good ; and it bet referred to those whose punishment consisted ; should be the pride of the Hooey to restore to the principally or 'Untidier in imprisonment ; thus the ; Crown, end its tree rrimsolliatirle. the Joliette on the I greet cause of the avaredearet of the Criminal Law of Beath, that most endearing and splendid privilege of , &trend wee to skulk into the notice of the Legisle. the Throne—the dispensation of mercy ! which it tore 11sCitlenholly, ander r of an equivocal word . unfortunately has heel, the °hint of recent times to or sodok„iio phrase. !l ow f or , t h en , d oes hi s no . ' rob it of almost altogether. lem far from expect-1 lion, and that of which I have given notice, cliff's ? : ing er mil wishing to establish any thing like 6 Both are fouedeil upon the adminion that enquiry Is' tleisersst principle to Melillo Punishmesst ; my' become necessary ; and the Noble Lord professes he I object is stately that of attaining practically bete., is desiroes to resider hi. motion as estensii• av toy : flush resells to society, so as to motile :the laws ows, so as even to embrace secondary punishment... to be enrolee(' without violating the sympathies j --There are, nevertheless, ,efficient grounds of I and eletteging the feelings of man temente his fel.' distinction la these different motions as to their : low-creetores. Upon this principle, imitision in objects, which 1 shall be enabled to peeve are ; ll'e may end punishment in the fewer eases would distinctly dilfereet ; and to prove that I eel not be the result : whereto, now punishment was almost ; w pm ] to f e ll ow a tours . o f p roco otifog si n sr no exception to the rule for the administration of the eorivesikat to my object sod purposes, I shell re. la" . • My ohject is only to indite* the Legialetere to fur to the precedents on the Journals of that Home. I adopt modes of punishment different in their nature, by which it will appear, that severel references of a I and 'dieted to the proportions of offeaces, which similarly utensils nature, have been made 14 Goo- ' 111400 4 11 denominated Is) tire same generic name, ere mitten in cases like the present. In the year 1700 ; as widely apart from each other la degree el Poor. a remarkable iustance occurred of a similarly es., miry as off , nces of an altogether different elm: teosive delegatimi of power le a Committee of that ' such a classification of crime, as would render all day, which was expressly appointed to rumble the good and worthy men the voluntary defender') sod state of the laws relating to felony, 'lndio report to sealers sepporrers of the laws. Much consolation , the Houle on the expediency of replotting the said must aCCrna to the ministry at large from the es- laws. Would any one contend, that • delegation of . :manses given by the Noble Lord, that whet- such ostensive power we., as the Noble Lord hintrd ever unfavourable aspect the offences against pre. I last night in speaking of my motion, an attack on , perly had assumed, the ancient and national dm the jesapeadence of the land, or that the motion bad • racier had not suffered from the comparative orights.ed, or , been mewled by men deficient Is i frequency of crime of a higher nature, and more legislative or po mm e l k now l e d ge ? The newel of . Immediately !reeled against. the peace of society. Pelham, Pitt, afterwards Lord Chatham, Grant,; —Pear, hear!]-1 sin as willing as the Noble Dudley, Ryder, and others, equally well known for i Lord to seppose this has arisen trim the teespenry the seuoileess of their principles and their legal distresses of the times, soil should be sorry that any I knowledge , „ ro ,„ ogis the supporters o f a me - I thing hut ocular proof convinced nee to the contrary. lien for • Committee with thew extraordinary IMy situation and that of the Nolthe Lord in this re. powers. A precedent hail been este-) spiel is singar anica Sem* of those Mashed by mein whom w ta hich lents mooed no thus walled 'cases which ul he thin d ks even tempora whims ry, l. I am disposed to in sin age so defective let senatorial ability, ought think permstiost ; some which I thi n k permanent , not to be rloolillrfefl destit•te of authority.— be treats as titou 4 h they were temporary. I had The Committee.. so •ppisioted .a 4 empinyerl for two i hoped the prosecutions On the commission of forgery Sessions in the 'equity, and 11,••Ily reported that it would hay.- crns-il with the resumption of ash-pay. eves espellient to thatige, in $Oll.llll instances, the . mews. Ice Noble Lord leads us t o 'spec ' no suc h poeivhineet of death for others named in their Re. thing. The progressive increase of the manufactures port, which, it was their opinion, might be 'Owl. ' of she country alas last night the sshject of model,. tined its their stead with benefit to the Public. This merit on the part of the Noble Lord. I cannot help wasthefirst Committee w bith timid stated thedangenous ' wishing these evblences of our wealth may be p. rpe. sod baneful cousequencea of the system of the Poor I 'nal. Another subject of his coniluleneent was the in. Lissa. smith, Laos of Parish Settlements, with the creasitigpopulationrltherountry;onthissebject;moch linguine mins% from these sources ; it was even misrepreselitat ion ha. likens place. The population of their knew • that pauperism and crime, at in our own London, for instance, though amazingly increased, days, sailed SW. by side, end acquired strength re• ha- by no means relatively increased mime the year ciprocally from each other. The Committee petti- 1700. The great reuses of the increase 'feriae arose, 1 ___ to the neg_tret _ __otet_on o f the ( 'nor imagine, from mistake s an d errors i n mite policy o f moistly *Wiled I eal A i ; it that day as prodeetive of the most Wessling in- ou• emit:totems. The Game Laws, the Laws against Creme of crime. A Bill was Weight in pursuant to Contraband Trantr, and Srat. , 42lers, 1127 e, by their ity, tended merit trk inceesso the number of 'La ✓ictims t o topsider, justice. It is testi. the pr.., Honourable geintlernoe Sam la retinue e torgr stored, yet many ef tfils+rstiecting &ties an d i t,.,... bat its, which affofd no roveie, may he I :Ned nti : both create crime. .intstes.lers and poachers are to. ciproral aid. to ritie another. I' may be impossih'u e t once 10 t i:‘ Pg. the system of Commercial La. nil such s coondy a. (imat Britain; hot it does !neon sespicides that in the foortb year of pews stottdog has yet been attempted, aids a view to change a it i tem of rev. nee, the enforcement of adlich not is.. frequently ended in the commission of me vet a'. Basks, outrages, and atrocities. It Is worthy of remark, the greet increase of crime, as eshihited by the papers before the House. strived at it. acme I. I tiOS ; from standard it sometimes varied, hat time decteased since; and this *se. sheers of the enoramus issue of Bank.notes, which was mist ably proved by 'an anonymous writer, whose loot•Irstl,t• of the ini:i. jean, in • letter written to the Right II 'n R. Peel, a pp ears to have been only eqoalltid by hi. claasieal and general information. 'ibis period, .0 fat :I to the morals of the country, was remarkable as an lepoch ie . which the note for one poun.l sloth's( fell in sale* to I.ls. and the commonest !sheerer found this secret agency of some nialicsiatit but occult demon had robbed him of one-third of the means to support his family, without his {mooing how it • *opal ? ed. The practice of the law for the last centery had been completely at variance wish she letter of it. And so eatraordittery was the sierras., of convictions and taiecirtiens, open the avenge of later miry, that lin London and Westminster, out of two Itendred co. OW Mottles there have been convictions and ...taros. tient iron ont more than 45, leaving the eenwning 153 I a dead letter upon the awe...hook. For the last 13 yeats in England and Wales generally, there have been convictions upon not more than 30 capital file- Ole, Out of the before-mentioned 'NO So that net lot 170 capital offences not one conviction has taken I place distill the space of 13 years. The enormous growth of them highly penal valeta, bet, it is to be regretted, occurred during the best period of -et history, since the year laiiiii: or in other morels *nee :the ewer, has had a Parliamentary (' memo.— Sect which it has been the ambition of men, of en *r aise little rime, at all siesta to have crested a capi ta) offenee by Stowe, as Mr. Rorke Is slid to have been masted by a Member es attemptiog to keys the Howse ea • elieiviren, with the perses.ses. em i r. once the subject *mild not detain him a moment, as it was wily for passing an At t. iollicting thw realty of death without beliefit of clergy.— (4 link.)—These enactments has. since, I.OW_ ever, been matetistly coriected, if not altogether teadwaid obsolete by the loetessed humanity of the age Is which we lire. 1/I,,thitig can be as:diced sd. perior in authority to the diets,. of that Most arSU. 1 mentativa, iogenioes, and attend Weyer (siir Wm. Grin?), who slid, in ono irivance, that the law sod the practice are diametrically at variance ; that of the two, the practice was right; and. therefore, as the practice could net safely be wound op to the law, the law ought to Ire Itrought dose to the practice. A general conepiracy had thereto,. been formed by Prosecutor, Jury, and Judge, that the law should eat libe its ordinary course. If such then be the case, as admitted by the Ugliest authority. why I should net the Legislature prevent theseerael and in human lets remaining any longer in elilltellet, as proofs of its folly mad felon) ?—la jetties, is the 6164900 n, I meat t roirat against the mode ' which the N.thle foal has taken for viscera twining Ike supposed decrease of •sermliona for N. lony. It is not fair to t..lie tee pros.ii*.l felonies, and, compoooding t.,em with the lesser, present a ' Ilatteriog tagerephe of the atilrequenry of the number of *muttons, when almost all thus, esezutions, stem well knew. to have taken place under •ight ot nine alatotes for principal felonies, ia which cases there was rarely a passible chance of escape; Seek as the offences of murder, shooting, and grabbing, argon, highway robbery, burglary. gni piracy.— The Black Act, and other frightful enormities in le. *gisistioe have bet too successfully operated at home and abroad to designate our Criminal Cade as in. human add sangehsery. Many instances have oc co*red where the very persona who*, property was sought to be protected, bad sascessfolly applied to Pediment to repeal the Penal Seamus which pro. lived themselves and their properties, as In the cases of the owners of bleach•geosods, benkers, and others. To quote again the great person whom I have already quoted, I agree with Sir Wm. Greet, that the due vvvvv tion of the Criminal Low„ is a part of the moral relocation of mankind, bet I epee with him also la thinking, that this takes place only when the punisheent coincides with the general opision that i' is proportioned to the offence. If, how ever, we look to the opioions delivered by the great. est men whom this cosatry has prodeced, from the time of Slr W. Blackstone Joan to the present day, I we shall find that their opinion has been than the Criminal Law of this eettotry list 'silence with pub lic feeling os the sobiect.—[Dear, hear. hes.r !]— Such it will be found war the opinion of those great men, Mr. Fos sod Mt. Pitt, end Lind Grenwille.• ha, in a former Session of Podia:wet, delivered as able sad eloyeent a speech on this subject, as I ever re. member to have heard.—[l/ear, heir!]—ll it is not, I admit • proof of error that an abstract sad speesite• 'Mite opinion should for • abort time be at . rtrisisc• with popular -isomer, bet thee the llyebtee of Cele urinal Law should in such a revolts es Greeteritaiee beat variance with the general feeling of the wheat and best members of the commenity daring • write of pests certainly does appear to MOS proof thee there is something in the system vitally arose. It is from this view of the subject priocipotly, that 1 have offered myself to the Hoes*. It is toot my ebb to oppose the Civil Laws of the country , but le re mote them. It is in u n de r to rei.der the cm WWI of lb" laws silty, tilat I implore the ideation of the Bosse to the proposed intendment of them. S. so. Serious is the practice of stoderedniogivroporty by Juries, in order to erode the severe p•oslites of tea law, that Sir 'William Illatkstoce, its his classical work, calls the practice a pines reljury.-4/1••• 1 .1 Should any Statesman eisticavotir to postpone the time of that Reform which is. to atietki hie in the Criminal lA*, of this country, it may bows t'nt he will hate cease to rue the consequence. I ha n now nearly done, hut before I Sit down I ir , .h to add en •• word more with rr avec! to the Pee St: