8] 



ANNUAL REGISTER, 181^. 



causes which rendered the creation 

 of such an office advisable, and the 

 reasons that had induced his ma- 

 jesty's ministers to propose thebill. 

 A long debate ensued, in which a 

 number of members joined : Mr. 

 Banks having moved as an amend- 

 ment, that the bill be taken into 

 consideration that day six months, 

 a division ensued, in which the 

 votes on the amendment were, 

 ayes, 122 ; noes, 201. Majority 

 against it, 79. The question for 

 thesecondreadingwas then carried 

 without a division. It is to be ob- 

 served that the support and oppo- 

 sition to the bill for the most part 

 coincided with the distinction of 

 men)bers as ministerial and anti- 

 ministerial. 



The order of the day for going 

 into a committee on the bill was 

 moved by lord Castlereagh on Fe- 

 bruary 15th. After an amendment 

 for putting oft" the committee to 

 that day fortnight had been nega- 

 tived, the House went into the 

 committee, and various clauses 

 were agreed to. The report was 

 then brought up, and ordered to 

 be taken into further considera- 

 tion on that day sen'night. 



On Feb. 22nd, the consideration 

 of the report was accordingly re- 

 sumed ; and after a further debate 

 of no great length, a suggested 

 amendment was negatived, and 

 the report was agreed to without a 

 division. The bill afterwards pass- 

 ed on to a law without farther 

 opposition. 



Sir Samuel Rnmilly, with that 

 perseverance in his endeavours to 

 amend the criminal law of the 

 country which has done him so 

 much honour, introduced to the 

 House of Commons on February 

 lyth, a bill which had twice passed 



that House, but had been twice 

 rejected by the House of Lords. 

 This was a bill for the purpose of 

 repealing the act which made it a 

 capital offence to steal property to 

 the amount of five shillings pri- 

 vately in a shop or warehouse. The 

 principle, he said, upon which he 

 founded his bill, was precisely the 

 same as that which he had before 

 stated; namely, the inexpediency 

 of suffering penal laws to exist 

 which were not intended to be 

 executed. A demonstration of this 

 inexpediency was found in the re- 

 turns of the criminal courts of 

 London and Middlesex during the 

 years 1805, 6, 7, 8, 9, in which 

 the number of persons committed 

 for this ofience amounted to 188, 

 of whom 18 only had beeen con- 

 victed, and not one executed. This 

 was a pretty accurate criterion to 

 show that there was no intention 

 of putting the law into execution; 

 and the consequence was, that 

 where some punishment was de- 

 served, none at all was inflicted, 

 and the offender escaped with im- 

 punity. Thehonourableand learn- 

 ed member then quoted with due 

 encomium the following sentence 

 from Mr. Burke's Observations on 

 the penal laws. " The question is, 

 whether in a well constituted com- 

 monwealth it is wise to retain laws 

 not put in force ? A penal law 

 not ordinarily executed must be 

 deficient in justice or wisdom, or 

 both. But we are told that we 

 may trust to the operation of man- 

 ners to relax the law. On the 

 contrary, the laws ought to be al- 

 ways in unison with the manners, 

 and corroborative of them, other- 

 wise the effect of both will be les- 

 sened. Our passions ought not 

 to be right, and our reason, of 



