The British Press; or, Morning Literary Advertiser. — London, England, 1822-06-05 00:00:00

I I k • 1 . 4 • s♦t, roam tire totter frost Dr. Coln*, to Weir be ladle. foes Wetted. Ste F. BURDETT intimated, that there was nothing to Invalidate any part of the statement which lo bad before Anode. • Mr. C. WILSON presented a Petition from ilsekbaro, ',Wog for • revision of the Criminal Cods. At. DENMAN promoted a similar Petition from Camel ipea. Cornwall. They were severally ordered SO Ilio plated. The CHANCELLOR of the ZECHEQUER wished to titre it the Hon. wed Gallas,* Member opposite (Sir R. Fer. nosein) would be willing to forego Ids motion on the office of 94 Scotch Postmaster, which, together with many others, •vr iiiiiir revision by the Coibmimiooern appointed by Per u f. it. FERGUSON was cbeitent to forego his motion, sod the snore so as hr felt sure that the Commissioners most Nil id with his view all to the uselessness of the office. He only wished to know if the Conimosnioaers would imme. iiMely take it into consideration. The CHANCELLOR of the ExcnietabEß said that it would come coder cuosiderrtion soon, bat in what order depended spun the course clones by the Commissioners. REVISION OF THE CRIMINAL LAW. Sir J. MACKINTOSH. in rising once more to be speak the attention of the House to the subject of the motion of which he had given notice, said, he lona aware that he was now to speak on a question of mere Resters! interest, touching no particular limo, the community, awakening no strong emu- Nis exciting no party feeling. and he could pro. rase neither amusement nor interest in the obser. striations he was about to offer. beyond that which they might derive from the importance of the ques tion to the public and general interests of the com iltanity, and his own consciousness of acting in the discharge of a great cud important public duty. Referring to the nature and number of the Peti• 'owls on this subject. which on the present as well as on former occasions had been fotwarded from veople of all cl and of every religion, mid presented by members of all parties in politic., ex pressing, as he contended they did, the deliberate opinion and permanent feeling of a great majority of the most reflecting, the moot considerate. and .he most enlightened portion of the people of this kingdom; such appeared to be the general impres sion of the importance of this question, and so eirung mid growitig the conviction of the necessity Of deeply investigating it, that he hoped lie should be excused for bespeaking that degree of attention 6u the part of the House with which it had been plebsed to honour him on former occasions.— Hear, hear.) —lt was not his intention to propose the iiitreductlen of any Bill on the subject to be passed in the 'urgent Session, the time itself would *hew that such could not be his design. But pre vented as he bid been by the state of his health in the early part of the Session, and by a variety of circumstances that had afterwards occurred from iretenting the subject to the earlier consideration of the House, he felt that it would be • dereliction of duty on his part if he did hot take some step to forward a question in which so large and enlightened ▪ portion of the community felt so deep an Interest. He meant, therefore. to propose a Resolution, to which the House had already in great pert given ass assent on a forii.er occasion, for the purpose of securing the future consideration of the subject sit an early period. The Resolution with which he should conclude was this— " That this Horse will at an early period of the seat ftes. •loa of Parliament take iatu its must serious consideration the means of giving greater smeary to the Criminal Law or ti.e country by abating the nndne r guar of its punishment% Ity atrengtheiting the puller , god reudering the puny-dement saf transportation more effectual fur the purposes of example . nod reformation." He laid very little stress on the technical forms of his Resolution. as he wished to lay the whole ques t.Osi open for discu•siou, with the view of obtotioug ▪ declaration as a general principle of the expe diency of II reform of the Criminal Law, and to liaise mach a declaration recorded on the Journals as a useful guide to the deliberations of Parliament in the future consideration of the subject. There were precedents of very high uulliutily fur such a ensirse of proceeding. It was tits! which Ind been followed, and finned the best in almost all cases of reformations of gradual wpcialluti, which required time sod laliour and perseverance to effect. A resulutiou of this kind. relative to the great question of time abolition of the Slave Tiede, was proposed, after an Act had punted both Houses • Parlismeut, and received the saitetion of the Comm. by Me. Foy, which might almost he said to be the dieing woe& of that great mass. Follow- Ines as he did, in the forYstespe of so illustrious its authority, be dial not think that any further prece. Unlit could be seceleary. It was a principle gene• rally admitted by those who at all cousidered the balrject, that to give due effic..cy to the penal laws, it was necessary its abate the rigour of their pu nishments. That was the principle which he 119111 wished to establish. and it was by DO Means Dew to the Legislature of this couutre. The principle of the Act by which the pussishuseot fur robbery of • Islesseitiog grovals (fueisterty a capital offeecr) was Commuted, was, that to cruder the law moreelficmci lisii fur the prevention of thecritue. it was secemary to . peseeed by redecing the merrily of the pssoisbwirot. Apia. the Ist Gorge -IV. took away the punish ment of death in the ease of fraudulesit bookrupt- I sea; no one would say that it was because the crime was looked upon as light and trivial that the meat of death was taken away 1 but it was eve drolly because the severity of tae punishment ren dered lib* law iiirfficattous, to such a degree as t o have made it a dead letter for the list seventy years. And yet that *alien offence of a more grave used deeper cows:witty than 19 oat of AU of she felonies pureisheble by death under still existing lade. In many cases then it hail been found, and the avowed that reduction of the severity of sinnishments was the way to give efficacy to peer! lans. The Committee of Inquiry into the state to( our Crisnival Law had framed sea Report upon that 1., sneiple. which was adopted by the House in the re-appointment of the Cuninintee, with direc tions to report upon the-caves in which that pritiei pW had hero applied to the modification of rood statute.. He wourl rewind the House of the diva wool its the last Session in favour of the Bill for mi tigettlig the punishment of forgery, the strong gruurid of those who supported the opposite system, opal wheu the numbers of those divisions were con illlered with reference to the number of petaans wbo etitered so deeply into the subject as to mitred site debates *a questions of this nature, he would on that these divisions proved the deliberate sense If the House of Commous to be that the punish. 'Mt of death ought to he liken away in that Ma • . - Stance at lent. Is . propositiethe Resolution Which he Intent to onliniit, he was therefore calling ripen *heti to acknowledge no new-principle, bet to can 'Arm, by a fresh declaration, one which had before been distinctly and repeatedly recognised. The se fond branch of hie Resolution related to secondary punishments. It having been objected to him on a former occasion, that while he was proposing to redacts the capital peniehnsects, be had omitted to provide proper secondary punishments as • substitute. To obviate • similar objection in the present installer, he bad joined both branches of the subject in one Resolotion. Hie own option, however, still was, that the first step that was ne. *rosary, is order to reform the secondary punishments, was 'to reduce the number of capital punishments. The hallo. lieu of capital punishment could only be juntilied by strong necessity; the tame species of necessity which justified any other attack ins human life—which must be resolved into the priociple of self -defence, that Is, that so other mesas remained to society of saving Itself against the attempts of the crinsitial, and they who were desirous of reducing the number of caph tat paathoests had a right to call upon the upholders of them for proof of their necessity, and were not required le dedicate their abolition. In matters of getters' interest, sod plain sad ordinary practice, it was • sufffcient objection that they were at variance with the totem°s understanding sod general sense of inaekind. Every body agreed in the opiates that the laws ought to be executed, and that their silly efficacy consisted in the certainty and regularity of their administration; but we bad no less than 200 laws creating capital uffences,of which ugly 20 were carried isto execution; and of the convictions that took place under those 20, out more than oar in ten was followed by the execution of the sea. fence. He was desire of the opiaion. of Dr. Paley sod Mr. Windham on this subject, and be could account for them in so other way than by ascribing them to the fondness of par. ticular minds for paradoxes, sad the aptitude of such minds to be surprised by ingenious argument tied unexpected illustration into the support of what had perhaps before appeared to them, as it still did to others, to be untenable. He had no doubt that on this occasion, as on almost every other where any choose in existing laws was proposed, he should be met by as outcry against innovation, and warm eulogiums on the excellence and perfection of our laws. He had as true a re verence for the fundamental principles of our laws as aoy the blindest panegyrists of their toper. tedious. Hut in any panegyric which he should be disposed to pronounce upon these law', he should incline to adopt the luggage of Milton, its his Arcopagetica, is vindication of the liberty of the press—“ They who freely magnify what has been nobly done, and fear not to declare freely what might be dune better, give you the truest covenant that their highest praise is not flattery, and their honest advice is your best praise." That was the praise which, if be had the eloquence of that great poet and highly gifted man, he should wish to be enabled to apply to the laws of England. When it was first proposed to alter the ancient law of Iris. son, the attempt was met by panegyrics on the exeelleacs of the law, and tudartives against Innovation, and that al a lime *hes it was sot allowed to swear witnesses on the part of a prisoeer.--(Hear.)— Hawkins, io his Pleas of the Crowe, attributed the opinion of latrine severity is the penal laws to " theme only who knew nothing of the law ;" and that was at the time when the law against wilds's were in full furce, and persons were liable to be burnt for sorcery —(Hear.)— But to come farther down, when • woman might be burned for petty treason, aid •Ince an accused person, for refusing to plead, was pressed to death, lawyers were not less loud in their panegyrics oat the existing state of the laws than is the present day.—(Hear, bear.)—He knew that in evaders times editing was among a certain clam of persons more ridiculed than the idea of a scale of punishments gra. dusted is proportina go the degree of crime. But those who treated the subject is that manner, were direly igeoresit of the authority coo which the *reamed fee midi a seek was founded. The Barons who ohiaised Magna Charts were the authors (treads a scale.—(Hear, bear!)—Hs hoped the wordier(' Magna Charts would not shock thecae/of tire House. He found there—in that first of statutes—thol law of lows— that 30 times confirmed charter, the folios/tau article devised as. security to the people egoism tyrannous pu roamed* " Ut lifer home now atneretatar, pro parr° delieto aid eadsaffice mortice della& wee pro move deficits nisi ;crow. tit matenifactineos deficit. :afro confinement° Iwo; was Mom eodens modo anutreiater salvo waynagio reo ;" '. A free ruin shall not be amerced (ur fisted) for • small fault, but according to the degree of the fault, and for a Treat crime is proportion to the heinousness of it, lea•isir to him his confieement; and a villain shall be amerced after the same wi , saving. to him his wainage."... Thus did the liberality of those rade and martial Barges skew itself in guarding the commercial interests of those brine them, and eves use property of their vassals against the operation of tyrannous insuisliments. He would ask nay men who heard hint whether the principle of that clause of Magna Chortle had not over and over again bees broken by later enactments? Was it not an invasion of that principle to punish with death the uttering of • forged Oae pound note ? Was it agreeably to that law, that it was punishable with death to steal to the value of 40s. in a dwelling house ? Was it not is opposition to that principle that the law bad beets enacted which made it a capital offence to cut down a tree in as avenue or park ?—(Hear, hear)—The contrast was must striking between those barbarians of the shit teenth century, sod the enlightened Irgislators of the •ino. heath. Sir Mottle.* Hale, in his Treatise on the Criminal Lam, said that, in his opinion, theft ought nut tube punished with death; it was however in •latord all nations punished with demob when accompanied with aggravating rheum. stances, but in most pans a greater latitude was given in that respect to the arbffrlion jadiefs tins in this country. In that meted, the reign of Charles II , then the administration of Ihe criminal law of this country was distinguished from at of other nations by nothing being left to the at &Orion jarfuls. But sow this country was distinguished from every other nation oil the face of the faith by almost every punishment known to the law being left to the arbitrives Paid*. Such was the vast revolution which had beets effected by the silent progress of time in our criminal law. At the period he had just mentioned forgery was not a capital offence, stealing in a shop was not a capital offence, cutting down trees was not a capital offence, and yet Sir M. Hale raid, that the punishment of death ought not to he inflicted except under extraordinary circumstances. Is looking at the Returns of Crime on the table of the House, be found that from the year 180510 the year 1809, the number cf capital convictions was 381; and that in the five yeses arms 1809 tbey einoonted to 1,280. So that under the present system at criminal law the number of capital etodoctions had trebled is five years. That return contained, if sot a conclusive argument. at leant • strong pre sumption aghast our system of criminal I w. In order see how far that argument would hold goud, it would be well to compare the slate of this country with respect to crime, with that of other countries under • different system cof law. That would be a soil of expert mentos' crawls. There was a moral law in busman nature, whirls, by its working upon the feeling implanted in the bosom of all inankiud, limited the effect of severity of pa. misbrand. They had seen attempts to Weird punishments called " Wanness," which had bees known often In prove a amerce of honour and esteem to the sufferer. The virtuous, in the inkiest severity of punishment, bad found victory and triumph where the tyrant that doomed them had loped to ittAtrt agony sad degradation. These, to be sure, were extreme cases, but they beautifully exemplified the moral cheek upon the tyranny of pedsliments. Every moral retain of man's bosom revolts against the inflictions of tyrannical laws, and the execution of their punishments excited only execration and abliortence against such laws aid those who enforced them, while they arrayed the strolled feelings of tbe human heart on the side of the criminal. Such were the fer lines excited by the indiction of death, for cutting down trees, and other offences equally trifling. The punishment of death, if limited to • few of the most atrocious crimes, 0011 / 41 become awful from its association with deed■ which radii the universal abhorrence of mankind ; but when viewed in comudtion with such trivial acts as the denote duce of trees, or steeling to the value of 40s. it was disarmed of it. effect. is UM, Mr. Serji ant Adair, who _had the expend** of twenty years es Rewarder of Leedom, *AWE pert to a debate on the criminal law, said, a The tune pirate of our critical law is too tegeicary; it le painful VI relied that the punishment or death to net confined to murder sad weans." If be should be (taend as a vision ally in urging the redaction of raPitilieliinies, he did sot h.bragba"deyriagost so far In quoted.a iia The theory a, the t rist hil l "°P d h peical lawyer he since been subjected to the test of ixperieoce, and was it, he 'would ask made worse or weakened by that experience? Amount the great changes of opinion that had been bronchi about, there were two things in- which all nations at this moment were generally agreed, which were, the amelioration of Criminal Law, nod ate equalising of all sects of religion in political end civil rights. Thome priaciples were sow acknow ledged in all the nations of Europe and America ; from the absolute monarchies of the Holy Alliance, to the democratic governments of America; from the blind despotism of Russia, and Austria, not perhaps the most oppressive of gore omelets, but certainly the kreateat enemy to all improvement, to the enlightened freedom of. the United States; from the untried and inexperienced legiilation of regenerated Spain and Por tugal, to the oldest end bloat practised of political bodies; all received, all acknowledged, all were governed by thore most just and sound princlilleo; except one branch of the British Legislature, which 'he should not name.—(Cheers and laughter.)—(The Flonouribfe and Leaned Gentkman then proceeded to pronounce in animated eulogy on the genius and mental power of'. 'Napoleon Bonaparte, and the general wisdom and policy of his endeavours to improve the internal condition of his etltpire by lila patronage of arts end erriencee, and learning and learned men, but above all by the introduction of the Code Napoleon, in the forma tion of which he hi mse lf great ly 'misted.] 14 the favour of • Noble Friend of hie, • Member of the Chamber of Peers of F , be was in possession of documents which en abled him to form • comparison of the effect*, or the " working," as the Noble Lord (Londonderry) would call It, of the criminal codes of the two greatest nations of Europe. In that comparison the first thing that struck him was, that the number of capital felonies is the one was 223, and in the ether only six. The only offences printahebls with death by the Code Napoleon, were high treason, murder, anon, forgery of notes of Ore Bank of Framer, and Government securities, coining, and theft. its order to render the last-mentioned crime a capital offence, it must be accompanied by one of the following limitations: first, it must be perpetrated io the night ; or, secondly, by two or more persons in company ; or thirdly, with arms; or, fourthly, by breaking open apartments by farce; or entering under the pretence of public authority; or lastly, It must be accomplished by the use, or threatening to use arms. In France one seventeenth of the convicti were for capital offence.; in England oriemeventh. In France there being no punishment of transportation, the number sentenced to imprisonment and hard labour amounted to fonnfifthe of the convictions ; in England the number sen tenced to transportation was one in four. The main pops latiow of England and Wales for the period since the Code Napoleon had been in operation ass 11,000,000, and that of France 27,000,000, being • difference in the proportion of 21 le 1. On the average of the first three years of the operation of the Code in France, the lumber of capital conviction was 294, in the last three years it was 303, a dill so tri dial as hardly to be called so increase. Its England the uunober of capital convictions on the average of the first three years of the same period was 349; and in the last three years, 1,249; being an increase of more than three fold. He did not Morsel to impute the whole, or even the greater part of this i eee to the contrast afforded by the state of the penal law of the two ,counines ; nor would he determine what part of it was silibotable to that eau,'; but it was certainly impossible not to ascribe to it a considerable porno's of the result. It might perhaps be attributed in some degree to the difference of the police of the two countries, or to a second mote lamentable cause, the iuc r of distress and suffering in this country. But, be would ask, was there Nothing its the effect of the two succes sive iayssioas of France by immense foreign armies, of the diabsuding of a vast body of military of her own, and of thirty years of war end revolution, upon the morel character of the nation—was throe soothing in all tiro., to be set against the operation of a superior police its that rotatory, and the sufferings of the people is this ? Bot by referring to the period from !SOS to 1809 that period of our greatest imaginary prosperity—that period not of gulden but of paper wealth—that period of the fsll aim of paper from the Bank to the Treasury—it would be found that long antece dent to the peace the number of capital convictions went on rapidly increasine, arid that the increase had not been accelirsted in proportion since the peace.— The second branch of the resolution he was about to propose, related to the improvement of secoodary punishments. The BM subject of consideration connected with it was the Po. lice. Ali police regulations had two legitimate objects; to espies. dim:orders, and to detect crimes. The most efficacious Incase of promoting the latter of those objects was to mo- Aerate the penal levie,sud apportion the initishments to the 'store and degree of their crimes, whereby the objections eiesthe part of pro.ecutors and salines-es would be removed. if they wished the officsair of informer and prosecutor to erase to be odious, they must relieve thews of the fear of Muleshoe the off rider to the gallows. It was the associa tion of death with the occupation of one, and the act of the other, that made the former ham soil the latter odious.— With respect to irsuiportat ton, he was not one of those who thought that epic's of punishment ought to be entirely abolished. He looked up..., transportation for a term of years as pernicious is its tfri cm, but transportation fur life he thought was almost the only efficacious and advisable punishment for an absolutely irreclaimable offender, tar fur the man who had fallen for the first time into the commission of • considerable off ,ace, without any pre vious stain on his moral character, sod who by that offence must forfeit his former rank and coosiderstioo in society, amid could only hope to retrieve his fame sad his fortune by removal to another laud. %%bat was greatly wanted was a good penal colony, establish ed upon such a rystem as would blend the criminal, after a term a penitence, with the rest of society, the want of whit!, was the greatest defect in the estAlishirient of New South Wales. On the question of Primo, Discipline, Which was materially connected with the reform of the Criminal Code, he bad but a few words to nay; the sub ject would be far better treated by ,los e hose practical virtues had eriabli il to sprsk of it from their own experi ence sod oh rrrrr nun. One of the first requisites towards an amelioration of our poison discipline, was as improved system of classification, which should be regulated by the consideration of the character wit' previous habits of the primmer, as well as the nature of his crime. There was • Bill on the table cont•laiag • clause eelatilig to the clessifi• cation of prisoners, by which ell those convicted of felonies were to be classed together; so shit the cutter down of meet, the utterer of a forged note, or the perhaps needy and mirror tuaate man, Ishirfor tiellrat time fa his life had stolen to the amount of 40u. would be placed with pan kid. a and puisoiMrs, In order to effect thia object, they must begin with conflate( the punishment of death to the mum atrocious crimes, then they could easily separate the less guilty floor the more vi cious. Then the profess would be abort to the establish ment of a prison rode, calculated to reform the iinharderi eil offender; but under the present system, they had game laws, and revenue lairs, which peopled the pri sons, and the phones prepared them fur the gallows. He disclaimed arty idea of making • prison • desirable mi. deuce ; or e• bad been tauntingly said in that House, Weide ing them with feather beds and Turkey carpets. He would do mach to relieve the primmer from unnecessary privation and useless suffering; but be should never forget that he should be made to feel 'bat he •as Its a priests, and undergoing the punishment of crime. The use of the word refuratatioa, in speaking of the effect of a wholesome system of prison discipline, conveyed an erroneous notion of the extent of its operation. The example of meridian.t in a prisoner was much more effectual in preveutiag the commission of crime than that of puoishment ; the reformation of a prisoner, therefore, was not con lined in Ito effects to the prisoner himself, but ape. rateri beneficially on those who observed him. (The Hoc and Learned Member then proceeded is terms of the highest commendation said warmest panegyric to speak of the labours of the truly excellent society of ladies, under the direttiou of the admirable and amiable Mr.. Fry. towards reforming female prisoners and reclaiming them from vi cioos hebita, and teaching them religious duties and obe dierice In the laws. Bat, he added, amidst the career of their laudable 'milieus, the (-rimlessl code met them at every step, with the must formidable obstacles to the promotion of their benevolent and pious designs, by the forcible fss i preesims of its inittatice, which the excessive enactment of capital runshasetits produced in the minds of pcnemelns4 .4- He conclod4Ly Moving the Resofidinn mentioned in . the oommeneentrat of his speech. The ArTORRET.GINERAL rose, Ise (mid, under feel ings of peculiar embarrassment, from the powerful jet upon the Wimp of hie hearers of the appeal of his Honour able and Livened Friend, to follow whom ripen any sub ject was not aver) encouraging task. He trusted neither his Honourable and Learned Friend nor the House would look upon him Is one of those whose prejudices reel. dered them averse to any alteration in the laws or the country. He was no metre an advocate fast capital punish ments than bin Honourable and Learned Friend; and be folly agreed with him in opinion, that they could only be justified by necessity, and iu those cases where the interests of society required them. He should therefore he as ready as any man, when any particular statute was pointed out, by which • capital punishment war annexed to an offence which did ant require shut extreme of punishment, to join in Its repeal. But be could by no means coolestt to the adoption of • resolution of this general and sweeping nature, not pledging the House to an iovesligation only of the Criminal Law, not pointing to any specific branch of the law which it was desirable to modify ; but plating that House and the Government in a situation is which they ought not to be placed, by branding with unjust se. verity and undue rigour the whole body Of our criamival law. The course • bich lilt Hon. and Learned Friend had pur sued in a former Session was this: he proposed a Com mittee should he appointed on the criminal law, which being granted, he took on active part in it, and a Report followed, which recommended that capital punishments should be abolished in particular instances, and secondary mica adopt. id; and the Hun. and Learned Gentleman brought in some Bills in eonseq . The House adopted some of those m es, and the Hon. and Learned Gentleman now •11. - ged that they adopted the principle in the extensive terms which he now called upon the Home to agree to by Lis Revolution, He now called upon the House to go into a general teiriew of the whole of the criminal law, without pointing out what particular measures he was prepared to propose in except as to one or two more instanceit—namely, cUuing down young trees and stealing in dwelling houses. Bat it was impossible for the House to examine the whole of the criminal law, he would not say in use night, bid in a whole Session of Parlament. He thought therefore that it would have been mach wiser if the subject had been brought forward earlier in the Semmes, if it were intended to be followed op by any practical mea s . There was no proof that the annexation of capital pueishn3eat to ceriaiii crimes haul a teudenry to increase offences; the whole argument was speculative and theoretical. Besides, arse there not a degree of incoosisieney in that which his Honourable and Learned Friend now proposed? Hi (Sir J. Meckiatudi) agreed with the Committee, of width lie wra an active member, that there were some offences to which capital punishments ought to remain ; for example, perjury, and robbery accompanied with violence. Yet in those crimes here was an infinite number of gradations; so that in the majosily of cases it wbuld be intimastble to fal low up those crimes with the punishment of death. But the same argument might apply to those offences which be (Sir J. Mackintosh) tweed ought to retain the capital punishmest, which be applied to those other crimes, to which he considered the capital punishment ought not to be retained. indeed, according to his argument, so ca pital punishment ought to remain oa the statute book, eves for murder, unless the punisliniest of death in the majtwity of eases followed upon conviction. But the principle of our criminal law was not to have a regular scale of pienishmenia for uffeoces, as the provocative of the Crown was applied to eaten the severity of punishment. It was argued that where the law airriezed the punishment of death to a crime for which there was also • secondary punishment, that law was less effleactima by reason of the capital punishment being sopentdded. But surely no one could emitted that the appreliensiou of the capital psmishmeot could diminish the terror of the secondary punishment. The Hon. and Learned Gentlenesn then compared the numbers in the year 1818, of persons convicted of burglary and robbery, and the numbers led fur these crimes, with the numbers convicted and Ind fur forgery to thew that there was 'rely little difference in the relative proporticeirk and be coo tended that it was impossible accurately to distinguish sod define the different gradations and shades of offence, and proportion the punistimesis without creating an immense number of statutes, which after all would be inadequate.— His Honousable and Learned Friend had referred to the crustiest law of France, bat was Ise prepared to adopt the whole law of France, together with its Pre ventive Police? If he were out so prepared, thee it was is vain to thaw an inference from the Freed' criminal law alone. The Honourable Genilimwo's Resolution em braced police, prison discipline, and above all the system of secondary punishments; yet the whole of his able at 'mews applied but to one of the points contained in his Resolutieri, and passed slightly over what be (the Attorney. General) considered as most material. The time also at which the proposition was brought forward, lie considered quite inopportune, when they had • Committee sitting on the Guided of Police; when a Bill was on their table relative to transportation, and when • Gentleman bad been sent out to collect informative on that subject, from whom they might expect a report; at • time, in short, when ▪ the points were wader the consideration of the House 111 some shape or oilier. If the House adopted the Reso lution, it would hold out to the cousitry a g I con. demnatiusi of the principle and practice of the Criminal Lew. The only precedent which the Hon. and Learned Gentleman had cited, was the Resolute:lo moved by Mr. Fox, relative to the Abolition of the Slave Trade, but that the House would recollect was an insulated measure. Fur the remises which he had staled, he should meet the proposition of his Hun. and Loomed Friend by moving the previous _question. Mr. F. BUXTON said, if this had been a motion respect• ing it,. Criminal Law slime, he would not hare Incurred the risk of impsiring the effect of the eluqueat and able stale. ment of the Honourable and Leaned Friend, by treading is his steps; hut as there were other ant jeets cuuwected nub it, he mould intrude fur • short space on the time of the House. He agreed with the Honourable soil Learned Gridiron's (the Attorney-General) that the addition of the punishment of death to certain crimes increased the terror, if the reelminly of punishment remained the same; hut that was the very point in question. He held in his head a re turn for the year ISIS from Ireland. It appeared there were 0.000 persons committed fur offences not capital, of whom 3,000 were convicted. For Vilma' offences there were 2,500 peruses committed, of *horn orie.eeventh only were com et/4rd. There were tried 3,700 persons fee the minor offence, of whom 3,000 were convicted. Fur the capital offence nine hundred persons were tried, and 'cern hundred were convicted. The result was, that of the conswonals fur uffeaces sot capital, the chances were four to tine to fai• roue of • conviction. On the capital charges, the chasms were as out to there. These facts were equally true as re. girded Eugland and America. If he had understand his Hon. and Learned Friend correctly, there was I r one criminal in France ten in England. The cause of dim pre valence of crime he thought did nut arise from say peculiar depravity of the people of &Weed, but from the nature of our institutions. With respect to the subject of traospurta. lion : in the year 1818 there were 3,300 persons sentenced to death or transportation, 100 only were executed, and 3,200 of these (all of whom were great offenders) remained. Last year the Noble Marquis and the Houeerable and Learned Gentleman (the Attorney General) coutended, that we had no secondary punishments at all. The same thing was said by Lord Liverpool in souther place. He stated that the Secretary of States office was hesisgral with •ppli. cations fur permission to go to the delightful celerity New South Wales, and It was absurd therefore to talk of trans portation to that place as • punishment. So also said Lind Sidmouili, Lord Eldon, and so also, 12 years before, said Lord Ellenhorough. How happeued it then that such a system bad been persisted in with so much tenacity? We had thus fur the list 12 years been offering • bounty fur crime. On this point he had the evidence of a capital convict. The man'a name was Clarke; he lived in Essex, and was married to a very respectable woman ; he committed an offence for which he was traniported—he was New iu Bulaay Bay. He (Mr. Buxton) sow held it his bead a private andeoulidential letter of this man to his wife, which, as be had bee person« 'Mon, he would read to the House, from which they would awe the extent of the man's compuuctios, and remorse fur having violated the lows of his country. The Hon. Mem ber Own read ilat letter, which contained a glowing desert,- • ion Of Ilte kesitifel climate f o Country, and he efq a . fortable situation of she convict, cuucluding with declaring that the offence for which be was imam-tried would be "the be si day's work he ever dom." He (Mr. Buxtoe) bad "era a letter Goo' another convict, named (Wok, wise spoke of she consfertalsle situation he had got as stream to 'Squire Love been He whom e o w . the th e a s t .°cf. ( M : files t as h : 0 8 i ii i N h to l o of t ohi )s robus t hte scapin g,." h The ap pene d employer.ribiroiasy o f somethinge aas propertyifo un d gaad o l 0 6 0 t r s t y. : t and stmeaced to be transported. He (Mr. Ballot') ap plied to the Heise Olin., in order that be might strive bib trim oe board the hulks, or in the PreticaltarS at home, bat his application was refried. The mate seas sent to Botany Bay, and the coiumgreace was, that he had earned there great part of hie ill-gutt. u wettish, and ems turned into 'Squire Love, and had a err. L a n ti r is h l o ori f a u e r , s i t e d e r l o w l;t e es rag s e h lit all ° Eel s n u r .r h° e I ro t eTe is ii m E tl i spected, and is • Very clever Grellentae. No doubt he wa. but whether those who seat haw there were entitled in thee same appellation. he raterh doubled. There was a snail .r ease related is of one Gslleo, who for ae uffeoee against Tiberias", was banished to the island of Letleutt, but the Senators hearing that he sprat his lime must happily, recalled him to sit amongst themselves, and in that respect be thought they acted more wisely Mae we did. He would nut at that late boor make any observation °tithe prison disciples, or police, mid would say nothing on the subject of the criminal law, except only to real to the re collection of the House an illustration of his lion. sad leirtied Peiend's, which 'Week him forcibly last year. The El• relin. Charles V. after a long life of religion. perseca dos, as the latter end of it adopted a milder system, on the cum •ietion of the teethe scy of the former, His favourite study was the code Caroline, a mole swore severe thin that of Dace, ender the operate** of which it was complained that they wanted charges, music stars, witnesses, and even judges. The prevaleace of crime in Ale country was aa evil of greet magnitude, the remedy for what. was in the hams of the House, and as the Resolution of his Hon. mid teamed Fraud would trod to diadsthh sisal evil, it should have his support. Mr. W. COURTERAY raid be could not go the length of the Resolution proposed by she Hon. and Learned Grade. man, though he might agree with h'm on the necessity of mete particular alterations. He thought it could nut bat neceasery to reassert • principle to which the House had already acceded, and moat pariiculaily if they now agreed to the R4.'011914,41, it would not at all forward the practical re formation of this system, Mr. PEEL mid, that as the duties of bit Mire were to not 'tamely connected with each of the topics •hsch had been submitted to the Horse, he felt it necessary to make a few observations, lest his silence might be Mistimed tutu so sets/aims of the proposidoe. Add Ant, be wished to Aide that he cordially concurred with the Flonuerable aid Learned Gentleman (Sir James Mackintosh) in the en , o. glum he prumatierd upon the individuals immersed in reforming prison discipline; their motives weee above all praise, sad their intentions seed exertions were pm fertly am. sistrut with the soundest principles of humanity and pulley. (Hear, hear )--He was one of show who considered the ay. tern of prison discipline extremely defertive, find he looked to ifs amtlioralion as the Main instrument for the par. lon of crime, and it was the intention of she Govertsnamit to submit, ust Friday seat, a InP•Slite to she House on slut 'object. Would it then be It that the Hotta should pledge itself to a vote for so late a period, which would curve der their consideration in • few days, iesiel which he should lamest should be postponed one single day!—(Hear. hear ) With respect to she question of traospentatioo, it war ha opinion that that subject should IA maturely considered dee etouneat they had introduced • sirtre rigorous system• of pri son discipline. Oa the 'object of police, he perfectly con curred wish the Hoe mumble and L-arced Cedtlemtao, that it was of the last importance to hare an active and rigorous potrigorous, ler When he said God forbid he should mean that they should estal fish a system of espionage into palate families, or any curtailment of that Marty sf action which was superior so all consaimatirms.—(Hear, hear, hear). — He pledged himself dint in a few days he should lay berms the Howse a measure for regulating the police, which 'lel-- sated to a Committee over which lee lad had she honour to preside. The object of the plan would be to make as es. minima oe a small stale is order so enable thews to formals *Mom as to she pmeticability of a more general it would then be hardly wise to adopt the Resolution before them unlit they saw the plans that would be asbesiiied to them in • few days. ths the subject of trapaportatiun be could any nothing deliteite as to any alteration, mill the Noose were in possession of the Report of Ilse greatcoat, who had gone out to New South Wales to give so arming of the condition of die country. It did over I. his that a sew system of transportation might be effected. Fee instance, to send out a certain number of convicts to Ber muda, and employ them at hard labour in the public work., taking sufficient security that their mural discipline should be attended to, and if it succeeded on a limiied male, iheal motion bee unit, aperi h etd eperfectly agreed might er be tr i ed nmiore viewsgener ally. taken A e :tu She by his Hoe. Friend (Mr. Courtenay,) and he should abstain from entering into an argument on the snhject ; fur he creesidavd it a most dangerous practice to pronounce a condemnation _ .( do; e lee o pali t i: c a: li lth: :l li nd 'eaulde rs. re b ahn i ai m mt i rip ( ted M lhaYaCn r .tri . i Pe alawßhi e lunel l int ) albite a li n i;e° i n awtu ti l e trahu i si d ele:rer o csi r m":llf p he:en re i abli j ie u weaLa d nel i e ced .:eat:pseas o hei. p laPlA p li u roh: u nould e u n 'hi: l 44: . Mr. C. WILSON remarked, that as the subject would i pe e chtplyreettot Re naif o h l t uto be i r n or u e en t eee he imi H r o y u . oe on Friday, he thought Mr. W. WYNN rose amidst load Cries of " Question' to address the House. In comequence of the Noise which prevail suet t e io d n w t e ha eo t u h l only ose co s r il a r b e i t e (t a n n e d s u ita w ei a v ed a tio F n i , mi a d arae wo ly. im a withdraw his Resolution. Sir JA NI ES MACKINTOSH observed, in ropey. that he ithiseld have been happy to concise in the soggestioo of hi. Right Houourable Friend, but be felt it necessary to retain the lint part of the Resolution, which asserted the serenity of souse measure to give greater efficacy to the Criminal Laws by diminishing their undue rigour. Because be felt that by adopting that proposition, no injury could he dune; it embraced nu new principle; it would direct the public mind to that most important subject; and ii would hate the eget* of collecting all the information that could he obtained on a question which required all the wisdom of the nation The object.o of the Hon. Gentleman (Mr. Conrtenay ,` . namely, that it would be better to chief ilia. consideration of the subject lentil some plan were detailed, inigbt have been a good one in 1819 when it was first made, but it now lust all its force, inasmuch as PINOT that time, althutieh 'Fe same argument had been often repented, nothing lint! door by Parliament. He therefore wished to take I i.e• of the House upon lbw Reso!atiusi, with It.. altelaiwsi Le had stated.—(Cheer..) The Howie then divided. The Numbers weie--_ Ayes Noes Majority for the Resolution .... ld The division was bailed with timid chemist. NAVIGATION BILL. Mr. WALLACE mimed the °tiler of the Day fir the third reviling of the Navigation Bill. Mr. DAVENPORT ruse to opposiv the third rending of the UM, fur be considered it Nighty injurion. to the made the country, and particularly the silk !rude, •high en• su present in a flourishing condition. The projectors of Owl Bill a►uala ►ave attended to the old awl homely proverb. '• Let well g k aloue." Autougsl the disadrantiers arising out of this measure, he considi rid it would ■lfurd it great eueourarnmerit to sinsgellog. lie shillala thirrfore move, that the Bill be read a third lime ill's dsy six m onth. Mr. ROBERTSON seconded the mono'. He eouddrrr•l the Bill lull of danger. He objected to it nut hersyse injuriouscould be to say particular brooch of trail,. hs 4 detrisaeutal to the commerce and iudostry of the cumin , gnierally. The Hun. Member then cited some on•tiorr• Iron the 'eidetic, taken before the Cunindttre to poi.' t►. America.' and other A:Heir/is ship ousters cuti'd vitro , at a Rauch cheape► rate than the B h shipping, and shoe• fore.. could never hope to compete with them. Thai thi.i beteg the case, it was maramble set to me that that so- r _..-,.. 1 I I • 4 • • • . ; f. t, ~i -