The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1833-05-10 00:00:00

li2 3E2' i3arli cnt.

lI3IISE or LORDS.

MONDAY, MAY 6.
The Marquis of Waesnisonn, the Earl of Wanwrce, and
another Peer, took the oaths and their seats.
The, royal assent was given by commission to the London and
Birmingham Railway Bill, to the-Liverpool (Warrington) and
Birmingham Railway Bill, and to several private bills. The
Commissioners were, the Lord Chancellor, the Duke of Rich-
mond, and the Earl of Shaftesbury.
After which the house was wholly occupied in the reception
of petitions on various subjects.
TUESDAY.
SLAVERY.
,Petilinneeageinst slavery were presented (50 -in number) by
leird Suffield, from various congregations of Wesleyan Me-
tinetiets in the counties of Bedford, Durham, Oxford, Lancas-
ter. Sussex, York, Kent, and from Wales; by the Earl of Ripon
antLehe Duke of Itiehmond, from places in Sussex; by the least
(ml Radnor, from Maidenhead ; by the Earl of Rossly n, from two
places (names not heard); by the Bishop of Lincoln, from a
parish in his diocese ; by Earl" Cawdor (19) limn various places ;
-by Lord• Western (3), from the county of Essex; by the Mar-
A:sie of Lansdowne, from clergy of three denominations of Pro-
teetant Dissenters in the neighbourhood of London, from Ken-
sin
eatou, frOm Ackworth, -and three other places iu Wiltshire ;
by Earl Fitzwilliam, from Northamptonshire, Yorkshire, Bath,
and five-other places in Somersetshire ; by Earl Grey, from the
Lord Mayor, aldermen, and commons of the city of London,
from Camberwell, and seven other places; and by the Earl of
Gmemford-from Tandaragee, in the county of Armagh.
Lord Western presented two petitions from Bucking, in Es-
sex, against ecclesiastical dues on Dissenters' marriages.
SCOTTISH UNIVERSITIES.
The gad of lIADDINOTON asked his noble friend the Secre-
tary of State for the Home Department, whether anything had
-.been determined by his Majesty's government in consequence
of-the reports of the commission on the Scotch universities Sln
182 i or tes27 his Majesty, by virtue of his.peerogative of visitor
ssf- the Scottish Universities, appointed a commission with full
pewees en examine, report, and frame regulations with respect
to the discipline, studies, revenues, and ail things connected
-with_ those universities. Ile was a member of the commission,
which eat for four years, and was presided over by his noble
fiend opposite with great credit to himself. 'the board made
several voluminous reports, one with respect to each university,
besides a general report, whichi was presented in October, 1830.
Ile wished to know from the noble secretary whether any, and
if so, what part of the recommendations of the commission
irouel be adopted by his Majesty's ministers.
Lord MetesounNE observed, that from the length of time that
Karl elapsed since the reports of the commission without any-
thing being dime, it might appear as. if government had neeer-
10eted the subject, but all who were acquainted with the reports
Dauer. know that they embraced great changes in the constitution,
discipdue, and regulations of the universities, and this circum-
stance afforded the only explanation and excuse why no measure
hadehitherto been taken in relation- to the subject. However,
Wil.3 the intention of government to take the matter into con-
sideration as speedily as possible, with •a view to consider what
paltsof.the- reports should be adopted.
Earl Fitzwilliam presented a petitton from the Glasgow Po-
litical Union for the repeal of the corn laws.
ISIr. Bernal and others from the commons brought up the
personal estates bill, and several private bills.
A.OMINISTIIATION OF THE CRINIMAL LAW.
Earl thew presented a petition fronea place the name of
Which was-not heard, for the abolition of the punishment of
death for offences against property.
The Duke of SUSSEX presented a petition from inhabitants
of London and its -vicinity, agreed to at a public meeting at
Exeter-hall, for an efficient reform of the. criminal law, and the
adoption. of a judicious system of prison discipline, with a view
t') afford protection to property without the sacrifice of human
life. The petition was signed by 5330 persons, many of whom,
on signing the petition, stated that they had been robbed and
had -refused to prosecute, thereby exemplifyiug in their own
cases the insufficiency of the laws to protect property. lie
was aware of the difficulty of the subject, which ref iied the
ntmost caution and deliberation in dealing with it. It au ything
eotial be safely done with a view to diminish capital punish-
Ments, man would rejoice snore than himself. Ile fully
agree ,1 with the petitioners. as to the necessity of entering iuto
an examination of prison discipline. He understood, that in
proportion to the severity of capital punishments, convictions
n capital offences were found to decrease. In England and
Wales, in 1831), out of every 101) persons charged with capital
eitiences, only 28 were convicted, whilst 80 were convicted out
ef every lot) charged with offences not capital. In London the
fseammency of capital punishment, which was much greater than
ie the country, had been found to operate against capital con-
victions. In conclusion, the illustrious duke expressed his
willingness to afford every assistance in this power on the
subject, without desiring, however, to hurry, the house in its
proceedings upon a matter so important. The petition was
then read at length, as follows :
" To the Right Hon. the Lords Spiritual and Temporal of
the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireiand, in
Parliament assembled.
" The petition of the undersigned inhabitants of London
and its vicinity, agreed to at a public meeting, held in
Exeter-hall,
Humbly showeth,—That your petitioners are deeply
im-
pre-se with the opinion that- the efficacy of- criminal laws
Gepends less upon the severity of punishment than the certainty
of infliction; and that laws which cannot be carried into execu-
ti us without shocking the feelings of society, and exciting
sympathy for the offender, are contrary-to reason, inconsistent
with morality, and oppoecil to the interests of justice.
" That the criminal laws of England are of a character so
.ificlictive and barbarous as to Le utterly incapable of uniform
execution,. and that consequently, under the present system,
the lives of men depend less upon the precise and express pro-
visions of law than upon the temper, feeling, or caprice of a
judge, or secretary of state, whence it arises that all the assizes
and circuits throughout England afford examples of inequality
of punishment, amid practical proofs of the arbitrary discretion
eaercised in the selection of victims for the altars of sanguinary
Justice.
"That the excessive severity of the law operates to the total
impunity of a great proportion of offenders, by deterring hu-
mane persons from prosecuting, and by holding out a tempta-
tion to jurors to violate their oath rather than be accessory to
judicial murder ; while almost all the capital punishments now
on the statute-book are innovations upon the temperate and
wholesmne principles of the ancient common law of the land,
which has ever been admired for its humanity and wisdom by
the greatest legal authorities, and is coeval with the noblest and
best principles of the English constitution.
" That your petitioners, therefore, humbly pray your right hon.
house to take the criminal laws into your consideration, and, in
accordance with what time true interests of justice as well as of
humanity require, to introduce such a thorough and efficient
reform of the criminal law as will render it snore availing to
public morals than to private vengeance, and by a judicious
system of prison discipline afford, that protection to property of
whieh all persons may avail themselves without purchasing it
by the sacrifice of human life."
Lord LYNDHURST' referred to the act passed at a late period
of time last session, subjecting persons for certain offences to
transportation for life, and observed that the returns made on
the subject showed that out of 300 conviction under that act,
cases only had occurred in which the punishment had been
eominuted or remitted; and he was satisfied that in several of
those cases the remission proceeded from the circumstance of
the offences having been committed before the passing of the
act. It appeared, then, that the law had been enforced in 29
cases out of every 30. He did not hesitate to declare that to
enforce the law in this manner was a harsh and unjustifiable
administration of the criminal law. He did not allege this as
-a charge against the noble viscount. opposite. The bill came
up from the other house of Parliament to this without the clause
enforcing transportation, which was introduced in the Lords.
The bill went back to the Commons, and that house was ex-
treeiely averse to the clause, which, however, it cousented to
adopt, lest the bill should be lost for that session by expunging:
it. What was the effect of the law as it now stood ? A man
was tried and found guLty of stealing to. the value of £5 iu a
dwelling-house, and it was imperative on the judge to sentence
him to fransportatiou for life,—a sentence which was carried
into effect. the next prisoner was tried for stealing, accom-
panied by breaking and entering a dwelliug-house ; he was
also convicted and sentenced to one year's imprisonment and
hard labour; so that the punishment of the inferior offence was
transportation for life, and of the superior offence, which in-
volved a felony,_ the punishment was a year's imprisoinnent.
This was an anomaly in time criminal law of the country ?
On what pretence did it proceed? It was stated that the
system bad been adopted in order to prevent crime by
the certainty of punishment. Ile maintained that the ex-.
tent of punishment should lie iu the discretion of the court,
and that it was impossible to prevent crime by snaking
disproportionate punishment certain. '1 he evil to be appre-
hendee in discretionary- punishment consisted in the various
tempers and dispositions of different judges, of whom. some
ight be too stict, and others too lax, inthe administration of
CeulQ law ; but toms void the chance of that evil, you adopted e fixed