11 PREFACE. 



2. Proposition touching the amendment 



of the laws . .337 



3. Offer of digest of the laws . . 353 



4. Certificate touching the penal laws . 362 



5. Advice touching the Charter-house . 374 



6. Observations on a libel . . 384 



Two centuries have passed away since Lord 

 Bacon said, I have held up a light in the obscurity 

 of philosophy which will be seen centuries after I am 

 dead. O) He died on the 9th of April, 1626. On 

 the 9th of March, 1 826, Mr. Peel, on moving for leave 

 to bring in a bill for the amendment of the criminal 

 law, said, If authority were required, I could cite 

 some of the most illustrious names that have 

 adorned the civil and judicial annals of this coun 

 try, the names of lawyers and of statesmen, who 

 have either expressed a decided opinion in favour of 

 the attempt to simplify the law, or who have been 

 actually engaged in the undertaking. To one of 

 these, the first in point of antiquity as the first in 

 weight and esteem, I will refer, and thus preclude 

 the necessity of summoning other less important 

 testimony. The lord chancellor Bacon submitted 

 to king James I. a proposal for amending the laws 



(a) In the dedication of the Novum Organum, he says, et 

 mortuus fortasse id effecero, ut ilia posteritati, nova hac ac- 

 censa face in philosophize tenebris, preelucere possint. 



And in a letter which he wrote to the king, he says, And, 

 to tell your majesty truly what I think, 1 account your favour 

 may be to this work as much as an hundred years time: for I 

 am persuaded, the work will gain upon men s minds iu ages. 



