Mr. Turner on Crimes and PuniJJjments. ^^9 



not, in the eighteenth century, * have had reafon 

 to acknowledge with fhame, that ftealin» a 

 fwan, ' breaking down a cherry tree, * lettino- 

 out the water of a fi(h pond, ^ being feen in 

 the company of gypfies, * with upwards of a 

 hundred and fifty other adlons which a man is 

 daily liable to commit, ' are declared, by EnglifK 

 Ads of Parliament, crimes worthy of inftant death I 

 Is not this a fad at which Bnglifhmen fliould 

 blulh ? And ought not our legiflators to under- 

 take, without delay, the great but neceffary 

 work of reforming thefe fanguinary and impo- 

 litic ftatutes ? Our country glorioudy led the 

 way in the abolition of torture ; let us not be 

 afhamed to follow the good example which 

 others have fet us in return, and Hill further 



* Blackftone. vol. IV. p. 4. 



' Dalt. Jult. C. GLVr. 



^ 31ft Geo. If. C. XLir. 



3 9th Geo. 1. C. XXII. 



♦ 5th Eliz. C. XX. 



' RufFhead's Index to Statutes. 

 After this, will not any one acknowledge that Judge 

 FojTter, in the preface to his Crown Law, recommends 

 its ftudy with fingular propriety, as a matter of univerfal 

 concernment.? " For," fays he, " no rank or elevation 

 " in lite, vo v.prlghtnefs of heart, no prudence or circumffeaion 

 " of conduB, fliould tempt a man to conclude, that he. 

 " may not, at fome time or other, be deeply interefted 

 " in it." 



Z 2 humanize 



