144 ANNUAL REGISTER, 1810. 



by varied views and occupations; 

 so unvaried occupation and conti- 

 nued sameness in the train of our 

 thoughts, leads, by the magnify- 

 ing power of attention, to fanati- 

 cism and madness.* 



Sir Samuel Romilly concluded 

 an eloquent speech, in reply to the 

 opponents of his motion as fol- 

 lows : "Let me conjure the House 

 to reflect how much time has 

 passed since the legislature enact- 

 ed, that penitentiaryHouses should 

 be erected; thatthough the ground 

 for erecting them had been pur- 

 chased at great expense to the 

 public, nothing effectual has yet 

 been done towards their establish- 

 ment; that thewant of them, in the 

 mean time, is every day more sen- 

 siblj' felt; that other punishments 

 are found to be iueflPectual ; that 

 crimes have become more fre- 

 quent, offenders more daring and 

 desperate, public morals more out- 

 raged, and the laws more de- 

 spised ; — and then to say, whether 

 we ought to persevere in the sys- 

 tem which has hitherto been fol- 

 lowed, and whether we ought to 

 defer, even though it be only to 

 another session, a measure from 

 which so much good is to be ex- 

 pected." The House then divi- 

 ded—Ayes, 52; Noes, 69. 



Mr. Bathurst then moved, 

 " That this House will early in the 

 next session of parliament take 

 into consideration the means of 

 most beneficially carrying into ef- 

 fect the acts of the 19th and S^th 



of his present majesty's reign, for 

 the establishment and regulation 

 of penitentiary Houses." This 

 resolution was agreed to nem. 

 con. 



The Vexatious Arrests Bill, the 

 principal object of which was to 

 increase the amount for \^hich a 

 person might be arrested, from 

 10/. to 20/. passed through the 

 committee in the House of Lords, 

 June 14 ; and the Insolvent 

 Debtors' Bill, June 20. The Scotch 

 Judicature Bill t was read a third 

 time in the House of Lords, and 

 passed June 14. — For a list of 

 other laws enacted this session, 

 see Appen. Chron. p. 324. 



House of Commons June 15. 

 Mr. Brougham rose, pursuant to 

 notice to call the attention of the 

 House to the state of the Slave- 

 trade; a subject on which he 

 spoke at very great length, and with 

 his usual ability and eloquence. 

 While on the one hand it appear- 

 ed, from tiie documents he for- 

 merly moved for, that nothing had 

 been done to circumscribe the 

 foreign slave-trade, it was now 

 found that this abominable com- 

 merce — though it did not deserve 

 the name of commerce, but ra- 

 ther that of crime, had not com- 

 pletely ceased even in this coun- 

 try. After the tiial had been 

 given to the abolition law, he was 

 now prepared to go much further, 

 and to declare at once that it 

 ought to be made felony. He 

 pledged himself to bring in a bill 



•Dr. Witherspoon who was called from his pastoral charge in Scotland, about forty 

 years ago, to be the principal of a college in America, published some years before 

 a pamphlet in which he produces instances of players having worked themselves 

 up into a persuasion, that tlie theatrical was a real world, and the only world worth 

 attending to. The contempt of painters for all other pursuits and accomplishments 

 than their own, is proverbial. 



t See Vol. LI, (1809) Hist. Eub. p. 170, 



