Star.
London, England, 1822-06-05 00:00:00

CRIMINAL CODE.

Sir JAMES MACKINTOSH rose to call the at-
tention of the House to the subject of the Criminal
Law. Although the subject was of the utmost
I,s-ranee to the community at lase, yet, as it touched
concerns of no particular class of men, it could
not be so interesting as many of the debates in that
House were. At the same time, he was animated by
the number of Petitions that had been presented, and
the general feeling that had been manifested in favour
ci the Bill. But be did not expect that any measure I
could be adopted this Session. He should therefore
ropose a Resolution, which, in the next Session,
would pledge the House to an inquiry into the Cri-
rrinal Law, for the purpose of lessening the number
caisital punishments, and of making imprisonment
and transportation more effectual punishment. He
precedents of high authority in his favour, parti-
cularly in the case of the African Slave Trade; when
a similar Resolution had been proposed by Mr. Fox.
It was his wish to obtain the assent of the House to
a Resolution that mitigation of punishment would
give additional efficacy to the Laws ; that had ap-
peared in the case of the Revenue Laws, and of frau-
dulent baakrup:cies. The principle had been recog-
eized, where the ilouse, in the case of shoplifting, had
raised the sum that constituted a capital felony from
Sc. to .Cl 5. A Committee had• been appointed to
esamine evidence as to the principle ; and the sense
of the House had appeared clearly against that of the
King's Ministers. The deliberate sense of the House
I• id been, that capital punishments should be lessened.
To that. the first part of his Resolution referred. The
second part would refer to secondary punishments,
as a leading step to lmening the number of capital
was to make secondary punishments more effectual.
Bat. 1.1 this case the burden of proof lay with those
who contended tor the necessity of capital punish-
menv, which necessity alone could justify. For the
Let century and a half the law of England had been
at vat LiaCe with the feelings of mankind. But, of ten
iondemned to death, scarcely one suffered contrary
to the practice all nations, whether barbarous or
civilized. But ingenious men would always be found
to defend paradoxical opinions with a zeal frequently
greater than was produced by a reverence for truth.
The late Mr. Wyndham, and Dr. Paley, had been the
most zealous and able defendants of the established
Law. To the common place eulogiums of lawyers,
he attached but little weight, as the same panegyrics
had been lavished en the law when it was wholly un-
worthy of them. When nothing was more common
than the burning of witches at every Assize, Serjeant
Hawkins, in his Pleas of the Crown, had pronounced
the most animated eulogium on the Law of England.
I:othing had been more ridiculed than a scale of
punishments cornniensurate to crimes; but that prin-
ciple had been clearly recognized in Magna Charts,
a document which, though superannuated, he trusted
would not shock the ears of the House. It was there
stated that "Li6er homo"—(The House were aware
that most of the punishments then inflicted consisted
of fines)—" Liber homo amercet pro pa)vo della° se-
eundum modum delicti, et pro magno della° secsrndum
magnitudinem delicti, salvo contentment° suo villanus
ctiam esdem 'nod° ame? cet salvo waynagio suo." Here,
tnen, it was seen that the protection designed to he af-
forded by Magna Charta extended to the very slaves.
The Barons of the 13th century could not have fore-
o_:en that a Judge of the 19th could have put a man
to death for cutting down a tree. In the time of Sir
:.1. Hales the English law was remarkable for leaving
I.,:i.hing to the discretion of the Judge, while, in the
I:te:ent day, after a lapse of 150 years, in no country.
V; As so much left to his discretion. Between the years
1.:09 and 1817 the capital convictions had been
Trebled, and that fact alone was a strong presumption
against a system that had generated so rapid an in-
crease of crimes. Much had been truly said in the
Petitions to the House on the tendency of severe
puni.:hinents to produce impunity. Punishments'
esteemed infamous, had, in many cases, from the de-
pendence of penal law on moral feeling, been occa-
tions of horror. An excessive severity of law had a
tendency to bring the law itself into contempt : a
band of thieves leagued against the institutions of
society, expected a certain number of deaths in the
course of their campaign, and were no more deterred
by it than an army would be by the loss of lives in
a regular conflict. In 1796 Mr. Serjeant Adair,who
!lad been twenty years Recorder of London, declared
in his place in that House, that the punishment of
death was too common, and that it should be cork-
fined to murder and treason. In every country,whe-
ther more or less 'enlightened, reformation of the
Venal Code, and au equality of religious sects, had