The Sun. — London, England, 1821-05-24 00:00:00

grammar demonstrated who these legislators Were. He was willing to grant, for argument sake, that the present system had some advantages, but he would ask the House to consider the price they cost. ' The price that was paid for them was the popular aid and concurrence with the law ; yet • without that aid, or the assistance of such a spe, cies of police as even the Hon. and Learned • Gentleman himself would deprecate, crimes • 9 3 .04 not be repressed. By our old • law much `'mss left to the people themselves ; they were juries, witnesses, and prosecutors. On that sys tem another has been ingrafted, which was com pletely inefficient, because the rigours of the law dad turned the people over to the side of the - offenders. Thus assistance was expected from a People who have a nice sense of humanity and of justice, to aid in punishing with equal severity --crimes of every different degree, and in this it was expected also that religious persons would Join ; but a very religious man could not con sistently be the prosecutor in a great number of these offences. There was a period when the opinion of the people was consonant to the laws, • but it was now widely different. It would be allowed that the people of this country had made the greatest steps in huthanity and civilization within the last century, and in the same period the laws had contracted a great degree of fero city, and thus the most humane people were left to execute the most merciless laws. The Hon. Member then reviewed the steps which the Com mittee had taken, in tracing by evidence the progress of a criminal, from the first crime to the termination of his career of guilt, and observed, that the invariable reply of all the witnesses, whether magistrates, bankers, chaplains, or gaolers, was favourableto a mitigation of the se verity - of the law. He wished the Hon. and L earned Gentleman opposite would look to the -Y-hole of these evidences, and • consider whether it was as Dryden says— . " Whence is it, Heaven, that men unskilled in arts, Of various ages, and of various parts, . • From motives, none can guess the how or why, Should all conspire to cheat us with a lie I" 110 W, he would ask, could it happen, that per sons So various should all conspire to cheat them with a lie ? It was said by way of solution, that it was a conspiracy : but another solution was, that they spoke alike because they spoke the truth. With the exception of Paley and Wind barn, all authorities were, in his favour; to say nothing of Dr. Johnson, look at the host of legal authorities : Sir Thomas More, Lord Bacon, Lord Coke, Lord Clarendon, Lord Ashburnham, Sir W. Blackstone, and besides some lately dead, there were persons now living whose authority Was equal to any names of history. The Hon. Member then referred to • the Sessions Paper of the Old Bailey, to shew the manner in which Juries were perjured in reducing the value of ar ticles stolen below the sum necessary to make the offence punishable with death. If perjury were not committed, he should'he glad to-know how it- came that a Bank note in one place should be worth, in the opinion of 12 men, 4s. 10d. and whilst every where else it would be said to be worth 501. He concluded his. quotations by referring to the well-knoWn Pevensey case, where a man was indicted for stealing a pair of leather breeches, and found guilty of man slaughter, from the-desire of the Jury to subject - the -criminal to a capital punishment. Another c ase was that of a man who was charged with re turning from transportation, and found guilty of ll u "tY larceny.—(A. laugh.)—There was still a r IY eater price paid for these things than the one Itich he .had already alluded. He meant that the law greW those crimes which it after .wrds puniShed. It first made the man a cri lal, and then punished him for the offence.— "e prisons were absolutely manufactories of . criminals, and the police 'was disgraceful to the eo Untry. The whole arose from our hanging our "Pes - o n ultimate punishment,•to the utter disre gard of. prevention. If it were intended to en c.oarage the growth of' crime, no system could be more 'effectual than the impunity which pre 4v,_ailed. for early offences. On the evening of the day 'when eight persons had suffered the sentence of the law, be went, in company with qie worthy Chairman of the Society for the Su ppression of JUvenile Delinquents, to one of the places of resort of those delinquents, to see if such an awful example had stopped the torrent of vice, even for a day.. lie found him 'elf in a r o o m f u ll o f y oung p erso n s o f both s e x e s fro m eight years of age, and in the Midst was a notorious dealer in forged Bank notes. Some ar t of the blame arising from-the existence of iniquity must arise from the indifference of the Govetnment to checking the career . 6f . t'he offender at his outset.. On thiS head - he begged quote to them -what was said by Lord Cake, a c 4w Yer, and not remarkable for humanity. He ,:nsidered the principle of prevention was well r : r thY of the attention of the House of Com tts`nis• He said, " Blessed be the inan who laid the first stone of so good a work ; more blessed b) e _ who continued it but above `all would he be es sed who sh o uld complete it." So said. Lord Cok e 200 years ago, and the first stone was not Yet laid !. The Hou. Member recapitulated the Princip a l p o i n t s o f hi s spe e c h, an d conc l u d e d w observing, that the preSent system had au thority an d experience against it; an d , a b ove it was contrary to that religion which 44 de- Si i r es not th e d eat h o f a s i nner, b ut rat he r t h at h e 4 nould turn from his iniquity and live." . _Mr. B RIGHT was l i ttle . friend I y -to the sheddino of human blood, but he thou g ht th e H ouse ought not to suffer itself to be led away by theory or by the magnificent disquisition which they had heard on the criminal laws. Much of what had _been s a id appeared to. him to have very little • bearing on the real merits of the case. Ile could not consent: to give up capit a l p un i s h men t s i n cases of forgery. In the present state of society, this could not be done with any regard to the se curity of property. He showed that forgery was not acrime that was committed like many lar cenies under the immediate pressure of want, and the offence was often repeated many times by the .Same individuals. It was clearly shown in the in quiries w hi c h had taken place, that transporta tion was in many instances no longer regarded as n punishment, yet this was proposed to be substi tuted fordeath in cases of forgery. It was for the Legislature to protect the property of their fel low creatures, and that property must be protect ed according to the dram - stances of the times. The statement which had been made, and the report to which theit attention had been called, were not borne out by the evidence on which they were founded. He could not see'that there was much reluctance on the part of prosecutors or witnesses hi cases of forgery, and therefore he called on the House to look at the evidence for themselves, and not rely implicitly on the report of their Committee. An lion. Member of that louse had declined prosecuting for forgery. But his did not prove that there was any general re- ictauce to come forward on such occasions. In :he particular case referred to, he thought very 'ew would have prosecuted the offender under all the circumstances of the case. It was true that many bankers and others had refused to prose cute for. forgery ; but it was also true, that mer chants and traders and others feeling the impor tance of bringing such offenders to justice, had formed themselves into associations to. prosecute. This was known, yet no member of those associ ations had been called before the Committee. Individuals had been called who could speak on one side of the question, while those who might have given evidence on the other had not been examined. The members of that profession who might have been expected to have given the best information on the subject had been ex cluded from the inquiry. Not one of the Learn ed Judges engaged in the Administration of Criminal Justice had been examined by the Com mittee. The evidence was not such as 'to justify the proposed change in the law. lle would not say that the course taken in the time of Queen Elizabeth, that of repressing crime by increased severity of punishment, ought now to be resorted to ; but this he would say, that before they re moved :a great security 'for property, like the punishment of death in cases of forgery, they ought to have stronger evidence before them than that on which the Report of the Committee had been founded. Mr. J. SMITII would not on this occasion, but for an allusion made to him, have addressed the house after the speech which had been made by .an Hon. Gentleman (the Member for Weymouth), which speech he hoped had made not the, same impression on the house that it had made on him, but some portion of that impression, and then it could not but essentially serve the cause of humanity. He had declined in one case pro secuting an individual, because, if- found guilty, he knew that the punishinent would , be death. The offender was but sixteen years. of age, and ;lis youth and other circumstances made that im pression on him, that it would have inflicted real' misery had he.been compelled.to prosecute him to conviction. It was true that a society (now no longer in existence) had been- formed, to pu-. nish forgery ; but it was also true that cases had frequently occurred in which means were taken to put a stop to prosecutions for 'forgery which had been instituted. He had known ,forgeries committed by the most ignorant,. the most helpless, and the most artless of men. A few weeks ago the case of a man was brought be fore the public for uttering forged notes; he, had been induced to interfere in his behalf; and Lord.Sidmouth, with that humanity ; which always distinguished his conduct, had inquired into the circumstances of the case, anil 'the life of the individual was spared. The unfortu nate man, it appeared, was an Irishman - ; he had come over to this country to make. hay, and had been employed to circulate forged_ one-pound. notes, receiving ss. for each he put off. Ile (Mr. J. Smith) had had some conversation with this per-, son. Itwas on the Saturday preceding the Tuesday on which he was to have been executed that he saw him, and he found the man so ignorant, that though he conversed with him for some time, he could not convince him that there was any thing wrong in that for whiCh he had been sentenced to die. lle had expected, from the great talents of the Hon. Gentleman ,who had just spoken, that he would have entered into the argument of his lion. Friend. Instead of that, he had contented himself with a sort of general attack on the Re port of the Committee. He believed that wit nesses had been fairly collected together on that occasion. lie could have wished to hear the Hon. Gentleman apply himself to that part of _his Hon. Friend's argument, which assumed that the present system encouraged perjury. He was confident that it had that effect; and. he thought nobody could sit in the Old Bailey Court while the less important business was going on--Z-when three or four wretches were tried in an hour, without being satisfied that half the. Juries per jured themselves, and returned verdicts which were not justified by the evidence. This was one evil resulting from the severity of the law, which ought to be remedied as soon as Circum stances would admit. Mr. it. MARTIN observed, that the Petitions on the table afforded abundant proof that the sense of the country was adverse to making forgery a capital crime. In answer to what had fallen from the Learned Solicitor-General, he would ask that Hon. and Learned di entlemaq, whether, if he had a ward at that University where the lion. and Learned Gentleman had ob tained so much honour, and if a friend of that ward's were to col - limit a forgery upon him for 50/. or 1001.; and if that ward were to ask his advice what to do, the Hon. and Learned Gent. would not say to him," If you wish to live hap pily in college, do not hang your friend and com panion; forfeit your recognizance to prosecute if you have entered into one, for no young lady of rank and fortune will ever marry a man ‘vlio has hanged his friend and companion."—ln the case of Dr. Dodd, did not the prosecutor, fall into great odium and contempt on account of the pro secution ? In his own case, a man to whom he had been a great benefactor, whom he had raised from indigence and made a collector of the reve nue, had committed a forgery upon him for 20001.; but finding that his counsel (Mr.M'Nally) had laid the indictment against the offender capi tally, contrary to his (Mr. Martin's) instructions, he had caused the 'recognizance to be forfeited, and the criminal escaped by this compounding of felony. He was convinced that if the law were not altered, juries would soon trifle with their oaths in cases of forgery, as they now did in cases of larceny and other offences. `Dr. LUSiIINatON argued that severity of pu nishment had not'the effect of preventing crime. In the Court with which he was connedtedi in the course of the last 13 years, three wills had been forged, and the same number of wills, with , in the same period, hqd been feloniously destroy ed. It was seen in this instance that the offelice which was punished with death, was just as fre quently committed as the .other, against which no Such punishment could be awarded. But it was asked, would you take away the punishment of death for forging marriage registers ? - Why that was a crime which he had never known to be committed. He could recollect but one case of the kind (he would not name the parties,)" and in .that one no prosecution had been instituted. Se verity of punishment, he was satisfied, from all he had seen, did not 'prevent the increase of crime as some individuals. were ioclined 'to believe it did. Eighteen years - ago there was a case of a boy passing by the Old. Bailey at the time when a man was being executed for forgery.— Up to that time the boy,- Who was a merchant's clerk, had bornethe highest character for honesty ; but inquiring for what crime the . man had suffer ed, and being told that it was for forgery, he went borne and committed a forgery that very day, so little did the' punishment which he had witnessed have upon him. For that forgery the boy was tried and convicted., Great interest was made for him, and his life was saved on its being stated by the Ordinary of Newgate, that the cul prit was unfit to 'take the Communion, and con sequently unfit to suffer: - The Honourable Mem ber for Galway had stated a casein which he had declined proSecuting a person capitally who . had forged on him, but wished another course to be taken with the party, This was the course usually taken in Ireland ; and, what must be the feeling of the country with respect to the laws, when such had become the general practice, under the sanction of the .Judges In the course of the last week a case had occurred in which the per son forged 'Upon had declared it to he his in tention to prosecute the offender for embezzling, and in that way to submit to any expence to bring him to justice, though he would not take his life away. He (Dr. Lushington) had in one instance done. the same. • lle had declined pro secuting a person who had forged on him. That individual had known the greatest vicissitudes ; he had been a common pickpocket, but had at last obtained an honest, though humble situation, (the fact Was rather singular) in .a Court of Jus tice. He noticed other instances where offenders had escaped through reluctance to punish capitally. lle disapprOyed - of the punishment of death in cases of forgery, as it was irremediable, and both' Judges and Jurors were liable to be deceived.' Instances of this had occurred at Chester, at Stafford, and_ at Durham, within the last three Years, where persons had been left for execution who had been subsequently proved to be perfect ly innocent. He _then .complained 9f the recep tacles which were open for thieves in this metropo-. lis, which he regarded as disgraceful to the Po lice. He had visited one of these, and after passing through a.very long passage ; in total dark ness, he entered _the room, in which were from • twenty to 'thirty persons. He had inquired if 'there was one among them who did not live by Jobbery ?:They - all avowed that they- ihred by depredations on the public ; and in the course. of the succeeding four months three of them for• felted their lives to the - violated laws of their country. .The• house , in which they met had since been shut up, but the, nuisance was not -0- moved, as another house in,the same neighbour hood had been opened' for the' reception of the - charatters he had described. He concluded;re commending it to the House to endeavour to pre vent crime by securing an active, police and well regulated jails, and by taking such'other mea sures is - Might be necessary.. The SUbject de manded the most serious attention of the Rouse, and ,he hoped the laws of. the country would be so amended as to make them coalesce with the. • feelings of the country. - Mr. NOLAN observed, that the preSent was not the time to consider whether : the police of the metropolis was adequate to the prevention of crime: The *object of all punishment was 'to deter, by example, from the commission of crime. Death was. the punishment, in the opinion .of most persons, most proper for forgeries on the Bank of :England :'he would 'therefore ask, why the-forgery of other instrtimerifs Should be con- . sidered.as deserving less punishment? Did the Hon. Member for Weymouth (Mr. Buxton) dis-. tinguish between the guilt of forgery on the. Bank of England and on country banks ? the forgeries of the latter to be considered less criminal than the forgeries of the former ? (Loud cries of Question l)—The Hon. and Learned Gentleman (1)r. Lushington) had stated to the House the case of a clerk, who, the very day on which he had witnessed an execution for forgery at the Old Bailey,. bad then, for the first time, committed a forgery onhis employer . . That .was _mentioned, in order to persuade . the House that severe punishment did not operate to the 1 prevention of crime. All he could say in re ply to that was, that insanity . Was an excuse' for any thing. lie Could not agree With those who thought there was an indisposition• mani fested throughout the country to prosecute for forgery, on account of the severity of the punish ment. And it was his firm conviction, that for geries were multiplied on account of the number of persons who were allowed to plead to the minor offence. The jion. and Learned Member contended, that the juries of the country were not guilty of those pious perjuries ascribed to, them.; and he thanked God that Juries had it in their, power to interpose effectually, when the circumstances of the case required i,t; by recom mending. the individual to ,the mercy of. the Crown.: After some more observations (which we were unable to hear on account of the noise which prevailed); the lion. and Learned Gentle man concluded by saying he should vote. - for the Amendment of the Solicitor-General. Mr. C. W. \VYNNE concurred in what had fallen from his Hon. and Learned Friend .who spoke last but,one, namely, that those who sup , ported capital punishment were bound to prove the necessity of it. Nothing - but the greatest ne cessity and the Safety of the State could jus,tify, 'taking-human life. The 'ancient lagave bene fit Of clergyond wisely adapted secondary punish:- ment rather than capital punishnienti The'Com-' mittee folloWing that.eXample had Made the first crime.of forgery On.the Bank subjeet to ptinish-, nient less than death. The Second' offend was to' be punished ,With death. The ease of private for geries, and the forgery of wills, occasioned in his mind some doubt. That class of crime ought, perhaps, to distinguished in the Bill by capi tal 'punishment ; but, under all the circumstances, the. Hen. Alember deClared his intention to vote for going into the Committee. Mr. CotinTENAT, having been one of the Com mittee; was desirous of saying a few words in jus tification of the vdte he should give. Looking to the state of the public mind on' the subject, he was inclined to support the , Petitions,. had frequently been laid on the table praying for re vision of the criminal laws. At first he was averse to going into inquiry, but yielding to public opi nion he at- last became one of the Committee.— The Hon. Member defended the proceedings of the Committee, and' contended, that every effort had . been made to give general satisfaction, in' their investigation of. the subject. An objection had been made to the Committee, and it was said, why did - they not examine the Judges ? It' . was better, in his opinion, not to examine tliOse learned persons. ' How could they give opinions on the subject, when they might have to try the offenders ? He felt the force of the argument, which required private forgeries' to be punished with death ; but still he was persuaded that se condary punishment might be made effectual. He was Contented to vote for the measure, if it really appeared that the crime of forgery could be pre vented by a milder punishment than death. The Marquess of LONDONDERRY was desirous of stating to the House the feeling under which he should give his vote. He did not intend to controvert., that it must be the wish of every hu mane:-person to reduce the extent of capital pu nishment as much as possible. The Noble Mar quess said he 'flattered himself he had given a sanction teethe feeling of the public on the sub ject, bat he was still disposed to support the - best policy of the law. It was a satisfaction, after hearing the 'eloquent speech of the Honour ,Member for . Weymouth, that he was .not called upon to investigate what sort: of Police would' be best to secure men from the snares of vice. That was not the object of discus sion. The attention of the House ought to be narrowed to the question, whether the Bill was, under all . the • circumstances, a humane measure,. admissible in the sense of the Legis-lature ; or whether the adoption of it would not be a sacrifice of sound legal proceedings to. the philanthropic spirit which pervaded the . -House ? He did not feel the distinction which his - Hon. Friend had taken ; namely, that forge ries of .Bank.of England notes stood on diffe rent principle. The Bank of England notes were never compulsory : persons were not•obliged to take them. It certainly _hail been convenient to take Bank notes, but in that. 'respect they were on the same footing - as Country . Banknotes. If ' hi 4 Hon. Friend gave, up the quail-61i Of 'forge ries of wills, all ether forgeries might be pu nished on a general 'principle. . The question then wag- what sort of legislative measure was most likely to prevent the crime ? 'The Noble Marquess did not wish.to beTecorded as the ad versary of mitigation of •punishment in cases of forgery, but if 'driven to draw a conclusion, it would be to say; that whilst there was rig Our in the administration of-the law, less forgeries were .committed, and' when the law was, relaxed, the crime of, forgery was increased., .Where did the House find . the crime multiplied ? He *found it' in the negeciable securities . br the Bank . of England, because .the Bank .had indicted for the minor or transportable offence.. That lenity had made forgeries on the Rank of England, "more frequent - than forgery of private instru ments.. If the Bill. passed he 'thought it would multiply_ rather than 'depress forgeries., it hail been said the hulks would .answer the purpose of secondary punishment. With reSpect to that subject, Government had net been- unmind ful,; but Gentlemen suppos.ei4, it, was. possible to have the' best gaols, the best hulks, _the 'best penitentiaries, at Short notice. .lie had . stated,,that Government •• some tinge ago took measures for the .establishment of 'a • secondary . punishment at New South Wales.., A commis t) slo . was on its return from Botany Bay, WhiCh 'had gone but - with• the special' objett of forming a secondary punishment,. which would enable Government to send convicts for pu, nishment, not to lead a better life than they had • led at home. Government had 'gone op as rapidly as could .be expected . for the ac complishnient of that .object ; but it was. for the House to consider whether any secondary pu nishment could - be provided 'for forgery, and Nvhether.they would . let their feelings run away with their understanding, by _giving ,a• bounty for forgery ; for transportation to , New South \Vales was said to'be no punishinent. 'lf then there was no secondary puniShment, it was not the time' to take away the punishment for forgery. He saw the crime multiplied as they relaxed the rigour of the law, and 'the Noble Marquess did' not think he' acted on principles less 'humane, when he said this was not the moment to tate away capital punishment. The best course he could take would be to support the motion of his Hon. Friend, which would not preclude Gen tlemen_frorn giving their sanction to any measure containing clauses not so sweeping as those in the Bill now before the House. • Mr. WlLnEitroace lamented that many ,Gen tlemen were absent when the Hon. Member for Weymouth made - his eloquent speech ; had they heard it, the soundness of the argument would have been almost irresistible. The argument of his Noble 'Friend did not appear to conyey a reason for not goirig into a Committee on the Bill. The subject (melt to have full discussion.` The lion. Member supportecrthe committalof the Bill. Sir J. MA6KINTostt rose to avail himself of the right' of reply; and expes'sed some desire to be speaker.the last The arq * U'es s . of LoNDONDERRY observed ; that he was,.nni aware that the Hon. and Learned Member NliaS strictly eptitled to _reply, as he had not s =lett that :night. i t r YIERNEir, tlr. 13nnunitAlt, and Mr..C . W. El severally held that the Hon. and Learned Ali er ivas entitled by the courtesy of the Hothe to reply.. 'lllr. B.ii-nuasT expressed , some doubt :upon the right which the Hon.and Learned Gentlemati claimed. Sir J. MACKINTOSH app ea l e d t o the.candotir of the House - Whether the Right - Hon. Gentleman. who had-just taken his seat objected to his right to reply on fair 'principles. He had abstained from speaking that night, because he did not wish to take up the time of the House, but for that attention to the "convenience of the House he was to be deprived of his right to reply." After the manner in which he had frequently spoken on the subject, he considered he had a right:to reply . ; but whether he had or not was of little im portance hi the cause. He could have no feeling on the point. The Hon, and Learned Member then observed, that the speeches delivered that night left him but little argument. He adverted to. 'the objections made to the Bill, and con tended, that-the bankers and merchants, had proved beyond a doubt that private forgeries remained without prosecution in consequence of the excess of punishment imposed by the "law. He must remind the ffouse that the thirty thou sand petitioners who had petitioned two succes sive Parliaments in favour of this Bill, vere g all of them men of some education, belonging to various . - parties ; and b e ing principally shop keepers and tradesmen, they, were the very class, most ,exposedle‘suffer by forgery, and still more by larceny and juries. Many amongst them were the usual supporters of his Majesty's present Miuisters; and consequently they could as a body be actuated by no .:political bias. The cause of the great reluctance to .prosecute for private for geries, was to be found in the description of per sons who usually committed forgeries upon Bankers,. and in mercantile concerns. -They were generally the clerks or confidential servants, very often the relations of the parties whomthey defrauded. The character of the opulent bankers and merchants , of this country was, that they shuddered • at the thought of taking away life. He trusted that that character would always be preserved, and that they would always be found unable to see the starting tear, or hear the faultering voice of persons in such a 'situation, without-compassion and pity. It often happened that these acts were committed in. a moment of infirmity, in consequence of ,the.in dulgence of some vice or passion, when -under the influence of strong temptation, rather than from any confirmed talents of depravitY. In such cases, then, the severity of the punishment provided by the law was an obstacle in the way of public justice, and they must remove it.— (Hear, hear !)-- - -His object was, as well as the - NOble Lord's; to provide a punishment for this class of offenders, which those whom they injured would not be prevented by humane feelings from carrying into - effect. They would then be ready to prosecute,' whereas at present they had the strongest horror at doing so, because Conviclion would be followed by. death. In fixing a punishment for crime, they ought to 'take the punishment of nature into considera-• tiOn. They ought to take the . natural . and the legal punishment tog - ether ; and . Nsiiere the natural was the, strongest, the a legal ought TO . be made proportionate in its ...de gree. He considered that solitary confinerrient might be made a most terrible and effective-TU. niShment for the crime. of private forgery. With respect to secondary punishments, the best.ine thod.of reforming . them would be to preveni,la a considerable degree, the frequent occurrence of capital punishments. Upon' the subject:Of wills he confessed that his mind was not prepared -for deciding :upon that-branch o f th e q ue sti on ; but if the Bill 'went into a Committee, he should there be most happy to hear any suggestion to -make an- exception for such crimes.' And he begged here to observe, that by voting. for the present motion no Member was to be understood as being precluded from the choice of morving, any amendments which' he should .see fit, :when..in the. Comrnittee.%—.(Hear, hear!)—There -was' the widest - difference betwixt private forgery 'atid,the forging .ef. Bank ; notes..: ..the: 'latter: case, there was no private feelings in operation to pro ducealcluctance to prosecute 'A _public prose cutor was eniployed, 'who only had to consult.his feelings of . duty - and to act upon- them afone. And 'who . Were the forgers in these cases 1. ,It A" was true that 4he forgers were seldom taketr-or known';—the titterers generally suffered 'for the Crime. But -how different was . the case of a forger of Bank notes, to the person who forged privately. Instead of being - a youth who : had fallen in the hour of infirmity, wheh surrounded by temptation, he was a man whose very occu patibli was Villainy,' whose life Was spent .in ' bringing'others to death and infamy. For these reasons he thought the Bill would be a great public service. It would tend to decrease the crime of private forgery, - an d it wo Uld make the distinction clear between the forger and the first utterer of the note, and those who might be iu possession of It afterwards. It would remove that darkness in which this qiiestiOti Was at present so much enveloped, as to require a person who had been almost , 'bred up' to the practice as a profession, to dis cover what were the merits of a case of forgery. —The Hon. and Learned Member then compli mented his lion. Friend (Mr. Buxton) upon the manner in which he bad argued the questiOn. He (Mr. Brixton) had laid down the great prin ciples upon which they ought - to act, and he - (Sir James Mackinfosh) had endeavoured to apply thein tothe Criminal Law 'for punishing the of fehce.of..private forgery. If he had been at all successful in those endeavours,it was to his Hdn. Fliend'that the House and the. country were in 7 delited: He should haVe been much more satits fled if the Hon. and Learned Solicitor-General had taken thediscussicie upon the three Bills. at 'once, and not have created the necessity of another • debate at - so advanced a period of the . Session ,, T . he ATTpItNEY,GENERAL had to complain of the manner in which the lion. and Learned Mein