Star. — 1831-06-11 (London, England)

ROMILLT.  It Is true that, since the time when Sir Samuel Romilly commenced his humane and wise innovations on the crimi. nal laws, several capital Statutes, which, for the excessive disproportion of the penalty to the offence, had become obsolete, have been lopped cff ; but scarcely in a single instance has the criminal code been purified from any but those obsolete enacumnts which were hideous in appearance, but had become harmless, in fact, being paralyzed by pub. lic opinion, and, like fangless serpents, having no longer the power to inject that venom whose touch is death. If, as I said, the Legislature have the right, as well as the power, to take away human life, whether the resort to that terrible power be intended to prevent a repetition of the offence by the culprit, or to deter others by his example—if the sante end can be attained by means equally efficacious, which do not involve the destruction of life, no man, who does not feel a pleasure in shedding blood, for its own sake, or whose heart has not been rendered ob. durate by the influence of the system which he upholds, will venture to assert that death ought to be inflicted—that punishment with which the Almighty forbore to strike the first murderer, leaving him to become a mole fearful exam. plc to men, by the agonies of an accusing conscience, and the desolation of a living curse, ought not surely to be lightly inflicted by weak, fallible, sinful man, sitting in judgment on his guilty brother. I have shown that the criminal laws of England are not temperate. l shall now prove that they are not moral, and must, consequently, have the dangerous effnt of giving wrong notions of the degrees of guilt, and confounding the moral perceptions of the people—the worst lesson that legislators can teach man. kind. It will be allowed by all Christian, and, indeed, by all civilized, people, that every system of justice which is not founded in morality, has a false foundation.— Morality, whether its principles be taught us by the light of nature, improved by cultivr.ted reason, or by tire clearersight of sealed religion, distinguishes offences as of different degrees of moral guilt, which the laws of England confound by the denunciation of the one merciless punishment. Can the English system of criminal law, then, have its foundation in morality ? if so, there is • morality which teaches what Sir Robert Peel does, in his " amended law"—that the offence of stealing five pounds in a dwelling-house is equal to the most cruel spoliation of the most precious of the gifts of Gon, which is the life of man—that the burning of a heap of straw or bean-stalks, in a field remote from any dwelling, is not inferior in crime to the burning a family in their beds—that to steal a horse or a sheep is quite as criminal as to maliciously slay the rider or the shepherd— that to fabricate a one-pound promissory note is not leas atrocious than to assassinate a Bank Director—that to  counterfeit the King's image and superscription on a piece of gold or silver coin, is as malignant and dangerous • crime as to compass the death of the King, or to rebelliously attempt to dis,olve into the chaos of savage anarchy all the elements of civil existence - for all these offences are equally punishable by the extinction of the offender. If there be a code of morality which teaches the doctrines proclaimed in Sir Robert Peel's " amended" legislation, where is it to be found—in what place of educetion is it taught ? Has the light of nature disclosed it ? lies it been revealed in the authentic word of OOD ? The unperverted reason—the natural conscience of man revolts at the monstrous confusion of principles which such a system of " wild justice' displays, and religion, while she pours upon the mind the clear light of divine instruction, breaks in pieces upon the altars of a merciful dispensation, the tablets of sanguinary law. But our " amended" code of criminal law visits with mild punishment some atrocious offences which are far more heinous than the ordinary violations of vulgar property, tor which the two unfortunate criminals were strangled on the scaffold the other morning —and even some acts that inflict the most deadly injury, and produce irreparable affliction, meet with no punishment whatever.  e a • e Again, the man, who, in the grossest violation of the con• 6dence of friendship and the rights of hospitality, plunders his friend of that jewel of domestic peace which is above the price of rubies—who tuns the ornamvnt and the solace of his life into his disgrace and affliction—who makes his home desolate and his children worse than mothetless, incurs no punishment whatever; while the man who steals to the amount of 51 in his dwelling house, of that metal which our legislators deem to be more precious than human oloud, must expiate his offence beneath the sword of the inexorable law. It is hence, and from other in stances that I could adduce, rather evident that our criminal laws are the work of the rich and great, who, while they affected more than the indignation of the loftiest virtue against the offences into which the poor man is likely to fall, have either altogether overlooked or been exceedingly lenient to such crimes as their own "older^ are but too prune to commit; therefore, the thief of a few shil-1 hogs, or the forger of a one-pound note, was sent to the gibbet,but the fashionable gambler,who, by the basest MU of ' circumvention, plunders families of their fortune, and children of their inheritance, may have the agonies of human despair—the crime of suicide—the miseries of destitute widos hood and unprotected orphanage—to answer for before a higher tribunal, but the lightnings of our criniisial Jaw pass him by to strike and exterminate the diebortest savant,  who pilfers a small portion of Ms ill-gotten wealth. Such is the morality of the system !  I hope those who take an interest in the reformation of morals among ourselves, will exert their influence and abilities so as not to allow another session of Parliament to pan away without something being done to introduce substantial improvement and amelioration into our own code of criminal laws. In this struggle, if there is much to be encountered, there is much to be gained. If the conflict be severe, the trophies are glorious—you engage in it to give new and permanent and inestimable advantages to civilization—to promote the moral and social welfare of the people—to give to power its best security, by placing it on the imperishable foundation of enlightened justice—to vanquish and wrest from legislative barbarism the weapons of human extermination, and lay them at the feet of rejoicing humanity.