The Sun.
London, England, 1811-05-25 00:00:00

cAr'i,irAL PUNISIIMENTS IttLYUCtION

LOCO I:IO4LAND, VitrNii.l,l to I,oilCe, rose to move
the second reading of tlar ills brOught, op from the
Commons, and propi.)sed try Sir S. R.iniiliy, for
repealing the Glottal l'unishinenis annexed fel he of.
fences of Xe?tling to dwelling-htruses and shops;
beyond a certain amount ; stealing on Navigable
Cantos And in.Weaciting • wounds in Great Ili irain
and liciand.-41'hey are five in number, Oin very
restricted linlitis;. this day confine us to a brief
and general notice of his Lordship's able aoa elo-
quent speech upon the tsecastial.:l—He first stated
the Ogirr and (Lome of the Acts which rendered
the odeutes in question capitally ptimsliable. Tliese
enaCimenti, took 4,13ee in the reign of William the
Third, irld of, Queen Anne ; and he mite, tell lir.
the v..ry diffetent nature of the iiisiii.g laws of
tiglatitl, front what they were at those particular
periods and also at the very material difference in
the value of money. It was: judged, under the
eircuoupances of those days, ailtisable to punish
these ofiences in the must cottiPendiuns, thengii
riot the most ettikatious. way, ~ they, coold
°devise,
namely, by the dreadful 'punishment of death, The
dine under coneideration, though evidently lot one
general object, did not exsttly restupon,,the same
grounds. Those which related to the dePreclatioris
committed in bletachog grnuods,proesteded exactly on
the same principlev and were ritora,particularly en-
titled to the attention of the ffouse, as the very in-
dividuals .whole propeniet Were concerned, in both
parts of the Urntrd Kingdom), had count forward
and reitnelattli, the F.,egislattire to stew model-the hie,
as, from tins effeet or itstaireine severity, their pro.
pertics were the. more exposed,in consequence of the
very great uncertainty 01, puoishment. Thus the per.
aims the moo interested hadclearly expressed ireirsen.
inherits: In point of principle and abject the Bills
were the same. ~Froto, the extreme ligour of. the
existing laws, the attual punishment of offenders
h,-came very and, thus, instead of re-
sriatning the commission of offences; they were in
effeut. multiplied, Brill was incontrovertibly true—
lung experience ,evitteed it, What he advocated,
when he urged their Lordships to sartedion the 'Bills
in question, was not
.the cause of theory or. brCti-
-141:011 ti was, hiunded in recorded faels.—in the an-
riskot the criminal jurispradente of the cotintry„—
lit point of fact, the practice of the law in these re.
sticrAs, was against. the letter of the, law and the
sntrjed solved into the qcesiion, whether the terror
puiiishritent.or the ceminty oil punishment, was
the itiore likely to di.:ter -from th4.l oi,lmissiOn of
crittis The tionivon.airle iiper.atiort of the present
r,gorous enaqinent.s eitsted in more ways than cook]
bt.eildwirlyastieriaiiiable. It was not only the 410-
valtr`of obtaining cotividions on prosecutions io
CooTlA.of 'Juitiee that. way to be Considered, but the
noinbers Who Were deterred
,froni ilte prosecution of
ofteiitias, they.shouftlO9d4nger the life of, a fel.
lOw-cfratnie, for the Value,Of the paltry. sum of five
,onds, or even` of lorti lhat,numbers
si'eit 40 deferred, he mid aright. to assume in argil•
meat, treat theme circumstances which weie,
ut
daily and evid.nt notoriety. Nor was •v
the vvor.t. Juries bad been known} to incur
_the
taritt3e'gt, Pt:rjury rather Loan commit the cuiptit

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LONDUIi: P by I. Citlt V I-I -% It I< IS c: No. 4, klartlar-rtAi couriw-tfreit siikEPiblishod by WILLIAM ARMIG It SC RIPt S, South Malian Wet essed,
vi c NGA i 12, Stl3l2d, Whore didvarielenintri Order, tot the Pater, Lettere. far th it MAIO, lra. ott-taid), mus: b 3