[1] See Mr. Middleton's interesting Report on the County of Middlesex, and the extracts from thence in Chapter III. of this Work.

[2] Blackstone's Commentaries.

[3] Can that be thought a correct System of Jurisprudence, which inflicts the penalty of Death, for breaking down the mound of a fish-pond, whereby the fish may escape; or cutting down a fruit-tree in a garden or orchard; or stealing a handkerchief, or any trifle, privately from a person's pocket, above the value of 12d;—while a number of other crimes of much greater enormity, are only punished with Transportation and Imprisonment; and while the punishment of murder itself is, and can be, only Death; with a few circumstances of additional ignominy?

[4] See the "Report from the Committee of the House of Commons on Temporary Laws;" May 13, 1796—and also the "Report from the Committee for promulgation of the Statutes," December 5, 1796; and the "Resolutions of a Committee of the whole House," March 20, 1797.

[5] Blackstone.

[6] It is said the same construction of the Law has been made with respect to the Offence of buying or receiving Horses, knowing them to be stolen.

[7] The partial remedy applied to some of these evils by Statutes passed since the former Edition of this Work, shall be noticed in a subsequent Chapter dedicated to the subject of Coinage.

[8] No hardship can be so great as that of subjecting an individual, under any circumstance whatsoever, to the expence of a public prosecution, carried on in behalf of the King: Besides adding, almost on every occasion, to the loss of the parties, it is productive of infinite mischief, in defeating the ends of Justice.

[9] Beccaria, or Crimes and Punishments, Cap. 6.

[10] He lived 624 years before the Christian æra.

[11] It has been thought necessary, by the Legislature, to explain and enlarge these clauses of the Act 25 Ed. III. as not extending, with sufficient explicitness, to modern treasonable attempts. It is therefore provided by the Act 36 Geo. III. cap. 7, "That if any person (during the life of his present Majesty, and until the end of the Session of Parliament next after a demise of the Crown) shall within the realm, or without, compass, imagine, invent, devise, or intend death or destruction, or any bodily harm, tending to death or destruction, maim, or wounding, imprisonment, or restraint of the person of the King, his heirs, and successors, or to deprive or depose him or them from his stile, honour, or Kingly name; or to levy war against the King within this Realm, in order by force to compel him to change his measures; or in order to put any force or constraint upon, or to intimidate or overawe, both houses, or either house, of parliament; or to incite any foreigner to invade the dominions of the Crown: and such compassings, &c., shall express, utter, or declare, by publishing any printing, or writing, or by any other overt act or deed"—the offender shall be deemed a Traitor, and punished accordingly.

[12] King of the West Saxons, anno 688.

[13] That acute Reasoner, the Marquis Beccaria, who wrote after Montesquieu, holds this last opinion.—"A punishment, (says this able writer) to be just should have only that degree of severity which is sufficient to deter others: perpetual labour will have this effect more than the punishment of death."

Becc. chap. 28.

[14] Beccaria. See ante page 45.

[15] In cases where a criminal appears to be remarkably depraved, and that the apprehensions he may excite require such precautions, he shall be branded on each cheek with the mark of a gallows, so visibly and strongly impressed as not to be effaced either by time or any other means whatever.

[16] This punishment is different from the pillory in England. In the German Language it signifies an exposure on the public theatre of shame. The Criminal is chained and guarded on an elevated scaffold, and exposed an hour at a time, with a paper on his breast denoting his offence.

[17] When a criminal is condemned to severe imprisonment, he has no bed but the floor, no nourishment but bread and water, and all communication with relations, or even strangers, is refused him. When condemned to milder imprisonment, better nourishment is allowed; but he has nothing to drink but water.

[18] Corporal punishment is inflicted with a whip, rod, or stick, publicly, on the criminal; the degree of punishment (within 100 lashes or strokes at one time) depends on the sound prudence of the Judge.

[19] The punishment of the Chain is inflicted in the following manner. The criminal suffers severe imprisonment, and is so closely chained, that he has no more liberty than serves for the indispensable motion of his body.—Chained criminals suffer a corporal punishment once a year, as an example to the Public.

[20] The punishment of death is not authorized by any right.—If it were so, how could it be reconciled to the maxim, that a man has no right to kill himself?

The punishment of death is a war of a whole nation against a citizen, whose destruction is considered as necessary or useful to the public good.—If I can demonstrate that it is neither necessary nor useful, I shall have gained the cause of humanity.—If the experience of all ages be not sufficient to prove that the punishment of death has never prevented determined men from injuring society—if the example of the Romans—if twenty years' reign of Elizabeth, Empress of Russia, be not sufficient, let us consult human nature in proof of my assertion.

The death of a criminal is a terrible, but momentary spectacle; and therefore a less efficacious method of deterring others, than the continued example of a man deprived of his liberty, and condemned to repair by his labour, the injury done to Society. A condition so miserable is a much more powerful preventive than the fear of death, which men always behold in distant obscurity.

Beccaria, cap. 28.

[21] This remedy as it respects Receivers of stolen Goods, is specifically explained at the close of a subsequent Chapter which relates entirely to that subject, and to which the Reader is particularly referred.

[22] This observation can only apply to such voluntary contributions as are liable to abuses, and where the poor are permitted to dispose of the benevolence of the opulent in their own way.—The Soup-Charities established in different parts of the Metropolis are a peculiar exception, inasmuch as they contribute only to the relief of those that are really objects of distress, while no Public Charity heretofore instituted has been found to be liable to fewer abuses. In a great Metropolis like London, it has been clearly established, that in spite of every regard to prudence and œconomy, decent families will be suddenly broke down, while the habits of life peculiar to the lower orders, and their want of the knowledge of frugal cookery have proved a source of much real calamity; for where nothing is laid up, every pressure arising from sickness, child-birth, or death throws many hundreds upon the Public, who have no legal parochial Settlement, and who but for some relief must absolutely perish;—While the Soup-Charities hold out immediate and constant relief to many families, who might otherwise perish with hunger;—while this species of relief may be said to be accessible to every indigent family in the Metropolis, no lure is held out to the idle or profligate. It cannot be disposed of, as bread, meat, and coals, for gin and other articles. There is therefore scarcely any risque of deception, more especially as the applicants pay down half the original cost on receiving it—Thus establishing the means of discrimination between real and pretended distress. About 10,000 families, composed chiefly of persons who had not the means of obtaining sufficient food to support nature, consisting of 50,000 men, women, and children, were relieved by the daily distribution of Soups at Spital-Fields, Clerkenwell, St. George's Fields, and Westminster, during the last winter, at an expence to the Subscribers not exceeding One Guinea for every 504 meals of rich nourishing Soup, which those poor people received. But this is not the only advantage which attends these Institutions, since there is every reason to believe, that while the poor are thus frugally fed, they are taught by example, and by circulating among them printed friendly advices, what they never knew before—The means of making a little go far, by introducing the same beneficial mode of dressing food in their own houses. And from a minute attention to this object, the Author has great satisfaction in stating, that from the eagerness shewn to obtain the Soup, and the thankfulness almost universally expressed for the benefits it conferred, there is every reason to hope, that more good has arisen to the industrious poor from these establishments (which are now extending themselves in the Villages and Manufacturing Towns) than by any plan which has ever been resorted to for relieving distress. Among the various classes of benevolent individuals, to whom the Public have been indebted for their pecuniary and personal aid in promoting this design the Society of The Friends is peculiarly prominent. To the zeal and perseverance they have manifested, and the valuable time they have bestowed, in giving effect and utility to the System, is owing much of its success.

[23] These thefts are committed by degrees in a small way, seldom exceeding a truss of hay or a bushel of corn by one man at one time; and are generally of smaller articles. In some places the stealing of gate-hooks and iron-fastnings is so common as to compel the farmer both to hang and fasten his gates with wood. Middleton.

[24] Not satisfied with the profit here stated, which, considering the difference of measures, is above 100 per cent. is a common practice with the Retailers of this useful article to carry the milk first home to their own houses, where it is set up for half a day, when the cream is taken from it, at least all that comes up in that time, and it is then sold for new milk. By which means, what is delivered in the morning is no other than the milk of the preceding afternoon, deprived of the cream it throws up by standing during that time. By this means a farther considerable profit accrues to the Retailers, and the milk is greatly reduced in point of strength and quality. This cream, poor as it is, they again mix with flour, chalk, and perhaps other more baneful ingredients, and yet it finds a ready market in the Metropolis. Middleton.

[25] That man will deserve a statue to his memory who shall devise and carry into effect a plan for the employment of Discharged Prisoners and Convicts, who may be desirous of labouring for their subsistence in an honest way.—It is only necessary for some men of weight and influence to make the attempt, in order to insure the assistance of the opulent and humane in so good and necessary a Work. See a future Chapter as to the present state of punishment and the remedies proposed.

[26] The frauds and felonies committed in the course of a year with respect to horses exceed all credibility. Above thirty thousand of these useful animals are said to be flayed and boiled in the Metropolis, at the Seventeen Licensed Houses, annually, of which about one-fourth are brought there alive, supposed chiefly to be stolen horses. These Establishments require many additional regulations to enforce and insure that purity of conduct, which the Legislature had in view when the Act of the 26 Geo. 3, cap. 71, was passed for licensing persons to slaughter horses. In the operation of this Act is strongly evinced the inefficacy of the best laws, when measures are not pursued to insure an accurate and chaste execution. Wherever the vigilance of a General Police does not extend its influence in carrying into effect all regulations of a preventive nature, it is in vain to hope that the evil in the view of the Legislature will be diminished.

[27] The depredations which are committed almost every evening in Cheapside, and the adjacent streets leading into it, affords strong proofs of the necessity of an improved system with regard to watchmen and patroles.

Allured to that particular part of the Metropolis, from the extensive and valuable property in piece goods and other portable articles which are constantly removing to and from the different shops and warehouses:—a multitude of thieves and pickpockets, exhibiting often in their dress and exterior, the appearance of gentlemen and men of business, assemble every evening in gangs, watching at the corners of every street, ready to bustle and rob, or to trip up the heels of the warehouse-porters and the servants of shopkeepers carrying goods; or at the doors of warehouses, at dusk and at the time they are locked, to be ready to seize loose parcels when unperceived; by all which means, aided by a number of other tricks and fraudulent pretences, they are but too successful in obtaining considerable booty. In short, there is no device or artifice to which these vigilant plunderers do not resort: of which an example appeared in an instance, where almost in the twinkling of an eye, while the servants of an eminent silk-dyer had crossed a narrow street, his horse and cart, containing raw silk to the value of twelve hundred pounds, were driven clear off. Many of these atrocious villains, are also constantly in waiting at the inns, disguised in different ways, personating travellers, coach-office clerks, porters and coachmen, for the purpose of plundering every thing that is portable; which, with the assistance of two or three associates if necessary, is carried to a coach called for the purpose, and immediately conveyed to the receiver.

The most adroit thieves in this line are generally convicts from the hulks, or returned transports, who under pretence of having some ostensible business, (while they carry on the trade of thieving) generally open a chandler's shop, set up a green-stall, or get into a public-house: some of these old offenders are known also to keep livery-stables for thieves, and horses for the use of highwaymen; thereby forming a connected chain by which these criminal people extend and facilitate their trade; nourishing, accommodating, and supporting one another.

[28] Hints have been submitted to the Author for establishing a plan of Travelling Police, to extend 20 miles round the Metropolis; by means of Patroles well armed and mounted, who should be on the road at all hours; the expence to be defrayed by the produce of a toll to be raised for the purpose. This scheme might in all probability be much improved under the sanction of a General Police Board, without the additional expence of the proposed toll.

[29] See the 28th Report of that Committee.

[30] There appears to be a deficiency in the Act of 30th George the Second, cap. 24. in omitting to add Bank Notes after the word Money, and also Horses, Cattle, Sheep, or other Animals, after goods, wares, and merchandise; since, (as has already been noticed, ante page 9,) it has been held that Bank Notes are not Money, nor are horses, cattle, &c. considered as goods, wares, or merchandise, according to the legal construction of any existing Statute.—An amendment of the Law with regard to these and other objects is the more necessary, as Bank Notes and Horses are, perhaps, more the objects of swindling, than other species of property.

[31]

[32] A regulation of this kind is of great importance; as the property of the poorest and most distressed part of the community, to the amount of nearly one million sterling, is constantly in the hands of Pawnbrokers in the Metropolis alone! and although it is of the utmost consequence that they, above all others, should be honest, correct and even humane characters, (and it is to be hoped many of them are of that description,) yet certain it is that any person, even the most notorious rogue or vagabond, who can raise ten pounds to pay for a licence, may at present set up the trade of Pawnbroker; and it is even said that some have got licences who have actually been on board the Hulks!—a thing unavoidable under the present circumstances.

[33] The encouragement which this impostor received from the weaker part of the females of rank and fortune in the Metropolis, raised up others; who had the effrontery to insult the understanding of the Public, by advertising in the News-papers.

[34] An Affidavit, made not very long since in one of the superior Courts of Justice, illustrates this observation in a very striking degree. It is in these words—"That it is almost impossible to convict persons keeping Gaming-Houses before the Magistrates, by reason of the enormous wealth generally applied to the corruption of unwilling evidence brought forward to support the charge—That on an information exhibited against one of the Partners of a Gaming-House, he got himself discharged by deterring some of the witnesses from appearing, and by the perjury of another partner who was examined as a witness, and for which he then stood indicted—That divers of these Gaming-Houses were kept by practising attornies, who, by threatening indictments for pretended Conspiracies, and other infamous means, have deterred persons from prosecuting them."