The Sun.
London, England, 1837-07-05 00:00:00

EDITED BY THEODORE HOOK, Esq.
poLBuRN'S NEW MONTHLY
‘-f AIAGAZINE AND HUMOURIST,
The JULY NUMBER is embellished with a Fine LIKENESS of

HIS LATE MAJESTY;
Accompanied by a Memoir, and contains the Continuation of
TE GURNEY PAPERS, by the EDITOR,
And the following Articles by other Distinguished Writers :
Confessions of Ralph Restless. Lines. By Leigh Hunt, Esq.
By Captain Marryat. The Phantom Ship. By Captain
Subjects feel. Pictures. By Miss Marryat.
Landon. High Connections.
Pleasures of Relationship. The Inconsolablcs. By Laman
Patty Larkspur's Watch. By Blanchard, Esq.
Douglas Jerrold, Esq. A Case of Furious Driving. By
Ride in the Great Western Alfred Crowquill.
Jungle. By an Old Forest Mr. Cabooze.
Ranger. Recollections of Grimaldi.
The Poetry of Early Rising. By A Special Ev.ming in the Life of
the Author of " Glances at a Musical Amateur.
Life." Ragamuffirts,British and Foreign.
&c.

&c.
Henn Colburn, Publisher, I

Great Marlborough-street.

the publication of THE SUN N
at 50 minutes pas;

;EWSPAPER commcnced this day
t Three o' Clock.

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LONDON,
WEDNESDAY EVENING, JULY 5, 1837.

' In the House of Lords yesterday it will be seen that amongst
several other Bills which were brought up from the Cominons
vas the Imprisonment for Debt Bill. The Bills also intro-
'wed by Lord Joinv RUSSELL for the amelioration of the Cri-
minal Law were severally read a second time, and ordered to
e committed on Monday.
In the House of Commons, Mr. MAXWELL'S motion for an
uldress to the Crown, to appoint a Committee of Inquiry into
the state of distress existing amongst the hand-loom weavers,
vas carried by a majority of 5 in a House of 101 Members.
On the motion of Lord JOHN RUSSELL, the Punishment for
Death Bill was reported, and the Parliamentary Electors Bill
was read a third time and passed. A great many other Bills
!hat stood on the Order paper were advanced a stage. The
-lackney Carriages (Metropolis) Bill, which stood for Corn-
nittee, was withdrawn. The sitting was very short, the House
having adjourned before eight o'clock.

The second reading of the Forgery Bill gave rise to
little discussion last night in the House of Lords.
IThis is the- first of a series of Bills, the object of
which is to humanize our apparently cruel and bloody
criminal law. We say apparently, because it is well
Iknown that the theoretical terrors of our criminal code
Tare greatly mitigated, if not altogether nullified in
practice. Hence, in fact, arises the necessity for the
proposed amendment. It is because it has been found
impossible to carry the law as it stands on the statute-
hook into effect, that it becomes the duty of the Legis-
lature so to alter it as to make its enactments conso-
nant with the claims of reason and justice, as well as
with the feelings of those on whom its administration
lerolves. Hardly a criminal trial now takes place in
which we do not see the Judge and the Jury striving
113 r every possible means to evade the duty which
he law has imposed upon them—setting at
defiance sanctions which, in other cases, are
held sacred, and the breach of which would be con-
sidered infamous, and yielding to the impulse implanted
!.)3, nature in the heart of every man, which tells him,
In dealing with the life and liberty of his fellow-man,
to " do justice," but to " love mercy" at the same time.
The great evil of this conspiracy—as we may call
it—against the law in its present state, is, that it is
almost wholly inoperative. Where the penalties extend
to the life of the criminal, there can never be found a
prosecutor, except in cases of murder ; and even where
transportation for life is the punishment, there is, in
many cases, the greatest reluctance to become
the in-
strument of inflicting it. This humane feeling is taken
advantage of by those who speculate in crime, and
thus the severity of the law becomes the encourager of

Then, again, the uncertainty of punishment acts in
'the same way. It not only leaves the culprit a great
lumber of chances of escape, (which in his estimation
mount to a certainty), but it brings the law, and
hose solemnities with which it has been wisely
nvested, into disropute with the well-disposed, and
into utter contempt with the vicious. Can there be
nogge ater—we had almost said a more profane—
Y,r than for a Judge, sitting on the bench of
justice, surrounded with all the insignia of his sacred
:Ace, to go through the awful ceremony of putting
'3ll the black cap, and pronouncing sentence of death a man, when every one present knows that he is
not in earnest ; that all this is a mere make-believe,
which can have no other earthly effect but to make
!the guilty laugh at, and others despise, the laws.
It is a subject of rejoicing that the commencement
;of a new reign—of a virgin reign—is to be signalised
!)y the amendment of laws so cruel in their principle,
!and so demoralising in their practical effects, though
we are quite of Lord BROUGHAM'S opinion, that the
Reform ought to have been carried much farther.

We may now congratulate the public that the
Ication so often made to Parliament, for throwing open
!all the depositories of public monuments and exhibi-
itions of the fine arts in national buildings, is in a fair
ray of being speedily carried into effect. Fortunately
this has not been made a party question lately as on
.'ortner occasions, when the High Church party ob-
jected to the gratuitous admissionbof the public to our
inational temples, on the eround that it would interfere
!with certain privileges Of the Deans and Chapters.
When the subject was brought forward last week in
!the Loids no objection was made to it by any Bishop
Billnitifircutssim;