The Sun.
London, England, 1841-03-09 00:00:00

EVEN! 14 61, ED 11110_11_-

li
1C437 was the aboii,ion of the punishment of ,in
4:1
cares aff.. cting property, and le, ther(f could 1,;, If
why that offence should still be visited wiLit of
it was said it was treaton-Ille to destroy the PrOc`t)led
the Quz ea, why was not the same system to be nd°P'-'
respect to the Qa,en's palace, or the Crown jevol'e;
The pariie.,, who illne would be tempted to de'trqfdroat
Maj -sty's dockyards, were net likely to be deterri‘
the crime by an apprehension of puuishrnent. N°
,on,,
nab subject, no one but an emissary from a folciln en,„11(1‘
could bare the smallest temptation ; and he '6%7: to,
come to this country with the intent to set
re'vu
ent
ships, or in any other way to dam ge the
of thin country, must have such an inducerr,lo3
or such a fearlessness of char,x!er, as that to
rya,
t' -e punishment of death would hold out no le 'h
what,‘ e-, The offence, then, was one, which, th"grii
partook of the cha actor of high treason, was re-I,fil
of such ocearence th it Iv trusted th' Nabic t.
would be induced to exempt it from capital
With respect t perjury i relation to stamps alld
arid certain matters cohne:_qed wish the Bank of E.g.bni,
in those cases, no objection was entertained to the
or
ton of eupi:al punishments: and there were two nu
c.-es to wtt:ch. ;he Noble Loid had extended thi.
von. But ti.e Noble Lord had net adverted to the
of attemp ing to commit Knurfer, or tie uffenees L:1 141r,_
an robbery att, tided with a degiee of viohnce
~e
eiidange e.l life. He c,,uld only undeistand from the
eiidange ci life, lie cooll only uudeistan fro
silence of. the Noble Lord that he was d;sposkd
punishal.nec
twin the system of capital punishments in reference to 10
class of offences. It was with unfeigned regret ibikto
(Mr. F. Kelly) earre to that conclusion. F the
Lord would tear in mind the test which lie bad biaiielfB!
plied to try tile expedie. cy of calital
he would find that there were clearer grounds, w°o
convincing arguments for the abolition in those casec'ili
those offences in which he consented to the abolition. , j
one of the Acts of the Noble Lord, a modification oat
been introduced with respect to violence, and with intril
to commit grievous bodily harm. As soon as the
came into general practice, counts were brought chargdla
tae offence in both ways, capital and not capitalk_sPhol
no case who-e both counts were charged, as far as he
heard from persons in the profession, had the Jury punishmen;
victed of the capital offence. In every case the Jug cca
victed the party of the minor offence. The best mans
of
securing the conviction and preventing the acquit! ei
the guilty, was t ) abolish capital punishment. fact,
continuing these punishments, they did, in, or-
hold out a temptation to the commision 0' .-ees
der, they induced the party to destroy a ,n
trd
whom he otherwise would not have destroyed. He truible
that upon consideration of all the circumstances the 14°,bst
Lord would be induced to proceed still further 415 jai
course cf legislation which had already been so beee
to the country. He trusted that he would soon see ntli
tat punishments altogether abolished, and a sstidtteeri
and effectual system of recondary punishments intro"„ re
in their stead ; and this he believed would be far coy
effectual for th prevention of crime, than that ssllgelo-o.
system it had so long, and, for the interests of the c
try, so injuriously maintained. pl
Mr. SHAW could not coincide in the proPe'',.ll;llbe
the Noble Lord to abolish the capital purishmeetf, ice)
crime of rape. When there was a clealy proved
there ought to be no doubt as to the punishment"-4 in
such cases it ought to he death. He entirely agree
to
the general principles laid down by the Noble Lot"' are
with respect to this crime he could not coincide in the
guments used by him.
Sir C. DOUGLAS would have much pleasure ill °I31);,
porting the Bill of his Hon. and Learned Friend, fat
his opinion, the Noble Lord had failed in making °id to
case for opposing it. The country was much indebted
him for his strenuous exertions upon so important a subiioo-0
Mr. E WART begged to congratulate the lini°„;'ulf
the fact of the Government coming forward and Prnr,:oo
the abolition of the punishment of death with respect $l-
- crimes, and he trusted that but few years would Ø.
lowed to pass before capital punishment would be unkn,°,,,,h•
The Noble Lord, he regretted to find, had not iv!
stitutel any punishment for transportation, although -butt
bad provided secondary punishments in many coon; eo
appeared to him that it was extremely injudicious to
prnis
so large a discretionary power of commuting punishrfirie-
the hands of the Secretary of State. He was on cba
that ere long the people would insist uon ascertainingtr.
grounds upon which that discretionary power e-cest
cised. The Noble Lord had shown with the greg't 0
clearness that where the punishment of an offence
commuted t something less than death, the 11„L'517:01
convictions was increased in a very large ratio. "41 ttat
from the returns which had been laid upon the table'
since the reduction of capital punishment from 1,244 i,,;
Tielas
to somewhere about 10 offences, the number of convif" ~e•
had increased in the proportion of three to one. l'lbad
joiced in the enlightened views which the Noble Pr" god
propounded in the course of his address to the H°llsei
he trusted that he would persevere in his praiseworthY
gad
humane efforts for the mitigation of the crimin6l 111 W
the country.
Mr. P. HOWARD thought the Noble Lord me eat
carried his principle of the abolition of capital
too far. It appeared to him that rape should
been excepted, because, if that was done, it sr.
move one of the greatest safeguards of womaa's nni°ll4
He entered his solemn protest against that part GI I
Noble Lord's plan, re
Leave was then given to bring in the Bills, :We'h we
severally read a first time, am] ordered to be read a nee°
time on Friday next. of
The other Orders of the Day were then dispose"'
and the House adjourned at Twelve o'Clock.