PARLIAMENTARY REPORT ON THE

In our Number for March last, we gave a Historical View of the Progress of Opinion on the Criminal Law and the Punishment of Death," to which the present article may, in some respects, be considered as a conclusion; and it is exceedingly gratifying to be able to state historically, that the subject which we then treated has now been deliberately considered and reported on, in a wise and liberal spirit, by a committee of Parliament. It could not, indeed, be otherwise, our readers will readily believe, with a committee named by Sir James Mucintosh, and of which he and Mr Buxton have been leading members. From the moment the committee was appointed, the public expectation was highly excited; and, if we looked to the Report only, we should, perhaps, say, that all is not realized which was anticipated; but, when we reflect on the magnitude of the subject, and the shortness of the time which could be devoted to it in one session of Parliament, and look at the mass of important evidence, parole and documentary, which is presented to Parliament, in the minutes and appendix, we shall be surprised not that more has not, but that so much has been, accomplished.

REPORT from the SELECT COMMITTEE of the House of Commons appointed to consider so much of the Criminal Laws as relates to Capital Punishments in Felonies. Ordered to be printed, 8th July 1819.

In the Report itself, the committee are exceedingly chary of touching any topics not strictly committed to them; and, when we advert to the prejudices against all changes of a certain description which exist in the minds of those to whom the Report is more immediately addressed, this guardedness is highly to be approved of; but, in the evidence, a foundation is laid for speculations of a wider and freer description, and the documents afford materials of the utmost value, not only to the people of Britain, but to the legislators and lawyers of all countries on the surface of the globe. It is to other countries, and other times chiefly, we fear, that these materials will be of value; for, while the body of evidence here presented to the public establishes invincibly the striking impolicy of multiplying severe and penal laws, and while the committee recommend the repeal of various laws of that description, it has ever been the tendency of our Legislature rather to add new features of severity to our criminal code. As that code is exhibited in the TABLE OF CRIMINAL LAW, from 25th Edw. III. to 59th Geo. III, which forms the 26th article of the appendix, its aspect is sufficiently repulsive; and it must occasion pain, we should think, to every one who looks at this table, to observe, as no one can fail to observe, that the far greater proportion of our penal statutes have been passed in the present reign. Offences against the state,-against the coin,-against rioting and acts of violence,-and against forgery in particular, have, within that period, been multiplied and

complicated to an almost appalling extent. But however gloomy this picture may be, and whatever may be the fate of the present generation, it is some consolation to think, that posterity, and humanity at large, will profit by the labours of British philanthropists; and it generates something like a feeling of pride and satisfaction to reflect, that when all around us seems to be absorbed in the vortices of party or fashion, or overwhelmed by vice, and crime, and misery, individuals are constantly emerging, who, from their wisdom, their moral courage, or their unwearied practical benevolence, do honour to their species, and redeem or sustain the national character.

In our historical sketch, we had the pleasure of mentioning the names of many of those truly noble and useful persons, and even at the present day we can boast of not a few deserving of more honour than society has yet awarded them; but what we meant chiefly to state was, that the mere existence of such men must be regarded as an earnest of better times; for we cannot despair of humanity, nor of our country, while it presents us with one such brilliant example.

It is time, however, to come more immediately to the Report. It appears, say the Committee, That murders, and other crimes of violence and cruelty, have either diminished, or not increased, and that the deplorable increase of crimes is not of such a nature as to indicate any diminution in the humanity of the people." This is satisfactory in itself; but it is peculiarly so at a time when the bold assertion that education has mischievous effects on the morals of the people has been publicly made; an opinion happily disproved by the diminution of the more atrocious crimes, at a time, too, when, from the aggravated distresses and sufferings of the people, we might naturally have looked for a consider

able increase.

The next remark of the Committee is not less important. "The practice (they say) of immediately publishing the circumstances of every atrocious crime, and of circulating in various forms an account of every stage of the proceedings which relate to it, is far more prevalent in England than in any other country, and in our times than in any former age. It is, on the

whole, of great utility, not only as a control in courts of justice, but also as a means of rendering it extremely difficult for odious criminals to escape. In this country, no atrocious crimes remain secret.' It is of great moment, we conceive, that this opinion, so obviously well founded, should be known to be now invested with the authority of a Committee of Parlia ment; for, if we mistake not, various manifestations have appeared of an intention in certain quarters to lessen the publicity given to judicial proceedings. PALEY tells us that "this requisite of the proceedings of courts of justice being carried on in public, apertis foribus, is equivalent to many checks upon the discretion of judges. "The most corrupt judge (he observes) will fear to indulge his dishonest wishes in the presence of an assembly: he must encounter what few can support, the censure of his equals and companions, together with the indignation and reproaches of his country." We earnestly desire, and would fain hope, therefore, that this great security for the fair and impartial administration of justice, will never be diminished or affected.

Another point of mighty importance is very briefly alluded to by the Committee, namely, "The establishment of unexpensive and accessible jurisdictions for the trial of small offences, with the assistance of juries, but with simple forms of proceeding and corrcctive punishments." Such establishments are not only wanted, but loudly called for, both in criminal and civil matters; for the expence and delay which attend most of these proceedings at present, amount substantially, though not intentionally, to a denial of justice. But this is a subject which would require a separate treatise for itself.

The main object of the Committee, in this Report, is to shew the inefficacy and absurdity of our present system of awarding capital punishments for so many minor offences: And, as they remark themselves, they have been "enabled to present to the House a considerable body of evidence in support of opinions, which had hitherto rested chiefly on general reasonings, and were often alleged, by their opponents, to be contradicted by experience. Numerous and respectable witnesses (it is added) bave borne

long been a prevalent opinion. It is sanctioned by the authority of two successive Committees of this House, composed of the most eminent men of their age, and in some measure by the authority of the House itself, which passed several bills on the recommendation of their Committees. As a general position, the propriety of repealing such statutes seems scarcely to have been disputed; respecting the number and choice of them, different sentiments must always be expected. Your Committee have not attempted a complete enumeration, which much time and considerable deliberation would be required to accomplish. They selected some capital felonies, for the continuance of which they cannot anticipate any serious argument, and which seem to them to serve no purpose but that of encumbering and discrediting the statute book. Various considerations have combined to guide their choice; sometimes mere levity and hurry have raised an insignificant offence, or an almost indifferent act, into a capital crime; in other acts the evil has been manifestly and indeed avowedly temporary, though it unfortunately produced a permanent law. Where the punishment of death was evidently unnecessary at the time of its original establishment, and where, if it was originally justified by a temporary danger, or excused by a temporary fear, it has long been acknowledged to be altogether disproportioned to the offence, your Committee conceive themselves warranted in confidently recommending its abolition. But they have also adverted to another consideration; if, in addition to the intrinsic evidence, of unwarrantable severity in a law, which arises from the comparison of the act forbidden, with the punishment threatened, they find also that the law has scarcely ever been executed since its first enactment, or if it has fallen into disuse as the nation became more humane and generally enlightened, your Committee consider themselves as authorized to recommend its repeal, by long experience, and by the deliberate judgment of the whole nation. In the application of this latter principle, they have been materially aided by the documents which have been mentioned. Where a penal law has not been carried into effect in Middlesex for more than a century, in the counties round London for sixty years, and in the extensive district which forms the Western Circuit for fifty, it may be safely concluded that the general opinion has pronounced it to be unfit or unnecessary to continue in force. The Committee are aware, that there are cases in which it may be said, that the dread of the punishment has prevented the perpetration of the crime, and where, therefore, the law appears to be inefficacious only because it has completely accomplished its purpose.

Whatever speciousness may belong to this reasoning in the case of conspicuous crimes, and punishments generally present to the minds of men, it never can be plausibly applied to rare and obscure offences, to penal enactments, of which it requires a more than ordinary degree of professional accuracy habitually to recollect the existence. Your Committee have endeavoured to avoid all cases which seem to them to be on this ground disputable. From general caution, and a desire to avoid even the appearance of precipitation, they have postponed cases, which seem to them liable to as little doubt as some of those to which they are about to advert.

"It has sometimes been said, that the abolition of penal laws which have fallen into disuse, is of little advantage to the community. Your Committee consider this opinion as an error. They forbear to enlarge on the striking remark of Lord Bacon, that all such laws weaken and dis. arm the other parts of the criminal system. The frequent occurrence of the unexecuted threat of death in a criminal code, tends to rob that punishment of all its terrors, and to enervate the general authority of the government and the laws. The multiplica tion of this threat in the laws of England has brought on them, and on the nation, a character of harshness and cruelty, which evidence of a mild administration of them will not entirely remove. Repeal silences the objection. Reasoning founded on lenient exercise of authority, whatever its force may be, is not calculated to efface a general and deep impression. The removal of disused laws is a preliminary ope ration which greatly facilitates a just estimate, and (where it is necessary) an effectual reform of those laws which are to remain in activity. Were capital punishments reduced to the comparatively small number of cases in which they are often inflicted, it would become a much simpler operation to form a right judgment of their propriety or necessity. Another consideration of still greater moment presents itself on this part of the subject; penal laws are sometimes called into activity af ter long disuse, and in cases where their very existence may be unknown to the best informed part of the community; malicious prosecutors set them in motion; a mistaken administration of the law may apply them to purposes for which they were not intended, and which they are calculated more to defeat than to promote; such seems to have been the case of the person who, in the year 1814, at the Assizes for Essex, was capitally convicted of the offence of cutting down trees, and who, in spite of earnest applications for mercy from the prosecutor, the committing magistrate, and the whole neighbourhood, was executed, apparently because he was