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    ftgrhnps , if some of the regulations to which I have drawn your attention are adopted , a proportionate diminution of Criminals may give more ample room for these most desirable ot ^ ects . "—• P . 34 . Oxice more :

    ** 1 fhe legislature itself might contribute largely to the desired object , if they would alter some of those well-intentioned but mistaken enactments , which have contributed so much by severity ,

    seldom enforced , to defeat the very object in view . I mean that severity of punishment , which , by rendering the laws uncertain in their execution , has contributed more to the increase of crime ; than milder

    and unalterable penalties . Our criminal code must be freed from the penalty of death for all offeuce 3 except treason , rape , murder , sacrilege , arson , and all robbery when attended with violence ; and when the deliberate wisdom of those

    who shall undertake the revisal of it , shall have apportioned a punishment equal to each offence , ( at least as far as human imperfections will allow , ) and when the criminal shall know that the

    sentence of the judge will infallibly repeat the penalty of the law ; then , and then only , will the laws be armed with that terror and strength , which at present are frittered away in an empty name and a derided exterior . "—Pp . 37 , 38 .

    Our readers will see that we have w > t made these extracts from Mr . Eardley-Wihnot's pamphlet , in consequence of its being distinguished by correctness and elegance of

    composition ^ by just arrangements or by novelty of thought and reasoning . The W | iter advances no pretensions of this kind : nor is it to such praise that we consider him as entitled . What we

    admire in those pages of his letter which regard ' * the increase of crime in general , " is , that , notwithstanding he ranks among " those good and loyal men ** to whom " the very name of Reform has become odious , " he clearly represents to the " magistrates of Warnickriiirfe * ' those evils of which

    many " of hik Majesty ' s Justices of the Peace" do vipit appear to discern t } ie existence or to weigh the consequepces , After all , so much of this gentleman ' s performance as will be particularl y interesting " in the county of Warwick" is less correct and solid

    than mf ] ift f have been expected from

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    a commentary on his motto : " I have to lay before you a calendar i& point of number of criminals exceeding ktiy in the largest counties of Engknd ; two hundred and fifty-one > o 5 ftwo hundred and fifty-two in nttniber . The magnitude of the list renders it more particularly necessary for me to consider the subject , ana to discover , if it

    be possible , for some means to be adopted , whereby th € > number of offences may , in ftiture , be diminished . " * Such is the language which out Author echoes , when he speaks ( p . 4 ) of " the rapid and extraordinary increase of crime in this county , but especially in the town of Birmingham / ' and when he intimates , ( p . 15 , ) that offences have

    riauitiplied in Birmingham , " in a * degree beyond the power of common and acknowledged causes to have produced . ' * We cannot , however , admit that this is , in Mr . Eardley-Wilmot ' s words ,

    " a fact indisputable . " Nominally , indeed * the calendar at the last Warwick assize might " in point of number of criminals exceed any in the largest counties of England : " but we cannot hence infer that the ratio of the progress of crime in those counties is

    smaller . What is the case of Lancashire and Yorkshire in this respect ? Ought either Mr . JusticeBest or Mr . Earldley-Wilmot to be ignorant that quarter-sessions are holden simultaneously , or nearly so , in different parts of both those districts ? Was it not

    stated many years since that * one quarter-sessions for the town of Manchester only , has cent ,, according to Mr . Hume , ( Commentaries on the

    laws of Scotland , Introd . p . 5 Q , ) more felons to the plantations , than all the judges of Scotland usually < d <> ih the space of a year } "f Has this statement ever been contradicted ? Is it

    not the natural and necessary effect of these local gaol-deliveries to reduce the number of criminals in the calendars at the assize ? And ddes Warwickshire , does Birmingham , : $ i 5 p ^ the same advantage ? Mr . ^ mm ^ r \ Vi } - mot knows the contrary : B ^ Iot ^ that even of the fmr session * qf Jhi

    . „ .. „ .,. ., .,.,. „ , « ¦ ¦ * ¦ » . ' ¦ . i M i { VW >¦ •>>¦ ^ - t ** v | Joat | ) , B | i \ j' ^^^ fM ^ S ^ iSSi ^ l W *

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    420 Remnw . —Eardley-JVilmofs Letter on the Increase &f € rime in g&ieraL

• Citation
  • Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), July 2, 1820, page 420, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2490/page/40/