The National Register.
London, England, 1818-06-07 00:00:00

WEDNESDAY.

The Royal :s•ent was given by Coinmission to the Chancery
Clerks' Fees ; the Ease India Marriages, the Negociable Se-
curity, the Lottery, and to several private Bills.
Sir V. Gums delivered the opinion of the :ridges on the
question of the Itirly Peerage, which vvas unfavourable to
thr claimant.
The second reading of the Privately Stealing in Shops Bill
being moved by Lord Holland, the Lord Chancellor declared
himself hostile to the Bill; •and it was thrown act without a
•

ROYAL MARRIAGE.
Lord LIVER:9OOI. moved an Address of Congratulation to
her Majesty on the marriage of his Royal Highness the Doke
of Cambridge. The Address was arced to, At were similar
Add' eases to his Royal Highness the Prince Regent, and to
the Royal Pair.
The Game Laws Amendment Bill wu read a third tiwe
and passed.

STATE OF PRISONS.
laird LANSDOWNE called the attention of the Heine to the
increase of mime. ants said lie should have the painful task
of calling their Lordships' attention to the relefois on the
table of the Boise, from which it appeared that clime bad •
increased .1 thee.-fold degree in the last lit years; the
number of emivictions in I 1a,16, and 17, being 19,736 ; and
in 160.1, 6, and 7. only :SO. This increase of crime might
be imputed to different causes by different poisons: Some
might impute it to a long continued war; some to the state
of our revenue laws, anti some to a large/paper currency.—
Indeed, it might be the result of all these amuses united ; hut
%%liatever might be the cause of crime, every one would
agree that the fact of their increase or diminution depended
touch on the state of our prisons; and here he would only
state shortly the variety of crime and charges of clime which
;night be found in one prison; namely, charge% of felony,
petty then, manslaughter, ti and, offences against the Excise,
Came Laws, proceedingsaii the Feclrsi Cour ts, einirees
of bastardy, and varrons other descei p nous of ei hue. Now,
when it was eon/deleted that there movie upwards of
11,000 persons coalmine(' in the course of the year, 13,000 of
whom at least were again returned to society, the House would
not fail to see that t 111,1 practice of mixing offenders, without
considering the different shades of their offence, was an evi!
of the greatest mrienitn(le. From all the works publishes!
on this subject, it week! appear that the system prevailing in
the prisons of the metropolis, was the very opposite of that
which north' produce reform. To prove this, he nerd only
read an extract from Mr. Buxton's book, who, speaking of
the Borough Compter, says, " every sort of profligacy pre-
vailed there, the tried and the untried, the chained and those
at liberty, all mingle together in one common herd." And
the keeper of that prison, a most humane men, stated, that in
nine years he had never known a single instance of raformation take
place in the prison. And further, that if he were to discharge too
prisoners, he was persuaded he should in a few walks nee yet of thou
hack again. I.:yen the !vireo of Newgate was not free from objec-
tion on this head. In that prison there was areerninodation for only
ti persons when under sentence of death. In this prisrn, profligacy
ormanners prevailed till very lately here however an extraordinary
refomisition laid been brearelit about by a most eau:um/Unary and
amiable female, who, notwithstanding the disadvantages she had to
s:ruggle with, hail done mach to introduce morality into the priien;
and what might not her progress have been. had the proper regula-
tions existed an the prisons, and had it buca possible to have aided
tier in her good work, as she deserved to be. To,put the House in
possession of information or the subject was the object of his present
:cotton, and to sdnain that okcet, lie would muve an humble Ad.
areas to the Prince Regent, preying that his Royal Highness would
be graciously pleased to direct an inquiry to be entered into on the
rave of the different Miens in the kingdom, and a report thereon to
be laid before the I louse. The Noble Lord concluded by mewing an
Address to that effect.
Lord SIOSIOUTH expressed his eatisfactien at the motion of the
Noble Marquis, to which he would give his support. The measure
s' crime in this country, in the 6-pace of the last eight or nine years.
'awl indeed been alarming ; .and that increase certainly Reese out of
various combined cireumstatices. It was, however, a consolatory
ellectinn, that the increase of crime had not been proportionably
great within the last titer years as it was in the preceding, though,
in that palm
], we had had distress at it highest. provision at its high-
eat price, and we had had a transition from war tb peace, and a re-
duction beyond precedent, both in our army and navy. Another
circumstance of a most consoling nature also, was, that though the
(umber of offf neas had increased, the nuniberof capital punishments
hal decreased. The Noble Lord then went into a entnnaratiee view
et' the number of capital punishments in d;Tercit periods, from 1760
1- the present time, by which it appearol :hat ;he executions were
'such ramie numerous in the early part than in the. later years of
that period. Only two means of remedying the evil rematneo, one
of which must be adopted, either to introduce reaer severity of
pulishmcat, or to adopt such a system in our prisons, by classifica-
tion, tusDuctiort„ and other means, as might produce reformation.
and tints decrease crime. Ile was happy the Noble Marquis had
brought this subject forward ; the result would be. most probably,
taeappointment of a Committer, from whoeelaboursand recominen-
deems Poe awl
the greatest beneßt.
Th. Poe.l.twe Amendowat Bill was returned from the Dome of