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statute was passed inflicting a penalty on addition to the number of general and the offence of forging documents relating special commissions, there was not a forgery to real property. That penalty, however, which could be practised on a real or a did not extend to the punishment of death. fictitious person, for which a law did. not The statute authorised imprisonment for exist which made the crime a capital oflife, the pillory, branding and loss of ears, fence." He believed, indeed, that the according to the nature of the offence. It whole number of statutes on the subject was not, indeed, until the reign of king amounted to 120. These statutes might William that any statute imposed the pun- be divided properly into two classes. Those ishment of death. At that time the Bank relating to public and general affairs, and of England was established, and the pun- those relating to official and departmental. ishment of death was awarded to those In the first class might be comprised all who forged the negociable securities of documents relating to the public funds. that establishment, but in all other respects and to negociable securities-to bills of the punishments for forgery remained the exchange and promissory notes, and all same from the time of queen Elizabeth documents connected with the transfer of until the reign of George 2nd. In the property-all papers relating to marriage Under the year 1728, however, in that reign, a very settlements and testamentary bequests, material addition was made to the list of and registers in public offices. offences punishable as forgeries-the issu- second head, the official and departmental, ing of forged promissory notes and bills of might be included all documents connected exchange being made a capital offence. with the Navy and the Army, the Customs, He believed there could be very little the Excise, the Post-office, and Greenwich doubt that the extreme rigour adopted at or Chelsea Hospitals-every Act relating In attempting, this particular time on the subject of to which contained some enactments on forgery, was owing to the alarms created the subject of forgery. by the very extensive and somewhat ex- then, to consider what course was to be traordinary forgeries of an individual, a pursued, he felt there were not many diffifull account of whose depredations would culties to be overcome with reference to be found in the State Trials of that period. the general and public securities which were transferable and negociable, but that It appeared that this person, whose name was Hale, committed a number of forgeries there were very great difficulties in the way on a Member of that House, named Gibson. when they came to deal with the official One bill was for 1,6007., another for 400l., and departmental. To take, for instance, another for 7001., and one for 6,500l. of the latter class, the Act relating to the At that time it was the practice of a Mem-land-tax. In that Act there were 200 ber, in franking a letter, to write his name separate clauses, although only one of with the word "free" in the corner, leav- them related to forgery, but then that ing the superscription to be filled up in clause, the 194th section, overruled and the writing of the person sending the referred to the whole of the other clauses, letter. Hale, it appeared, procured a num- and expressly declared, that the penalty ber of these franks, and having changed affixed to the crime of forgery attached the words "free" into "for R. Gibson," to forging the documents referred to in the and then filled up the blank at pleasure, preceding clauses. In the same manner he was thus able to commit the forgery the Navy Pay Act contained twenty with ease. He had little doubt that the clauses, and the clause relating to the indignation and alarm produced by this forgeries of orders for pensions and other forgery were the principal causes of the documents referred to all the clauses conenactment of the laws to which he alluded; tained in the Act. If, therefore, he merely but in consequence of the extension of took out the forgery clause, and did not trade, the statutes on the subject of forgery alter the whole of the Act, he did nothing were subsequently increased to a great ex- in the way of a consolidation of the Law of tent, each department bringing in, with Forgery, and left the offences unprovided very little consideration, an Act to punish for. Now he proposed to meet the diffithe forgeries applicable to their own busi-culty in this way. He proposed to leave To such a magnitude had this evil arisen at the time Mr. Justice Blackstone wrote his Commentaries, that he observes, with respect to the Law of Forgery-" In

ness.

to each department the task of revising and altering the Acts connected with it. The Customs had 360 acts connected with that department, and they had already re

ciently proved. In the seven years of peace which succeeded the year 1783, although the number of the population was less and the number of crimes less, yet the executions were much more numerous than at any former or succeeding period. The executions in the seven years amounted to 378, or 56 on an average in

duced them to the number of ten. The Stamp-office was engaged in the same task. The Navy Pay-office, and those connected with the hospitals, were engaged in the same task, and he was informed that in a short time the whole of the Acts relating to them would be reduced into a very small compass. He proposed then to repeal all the Acts which inflicted a capital pun-each year. In 1787, 97 executions. And ishment for forgery, whether the offence now, taking the seven years from 1816 to be either public or departmental, and to 1822 both inclusive, the executions were name a certain description of offences for only 192, or an average of 27 each year; and which, and no other, the punishment of in the last seven years, from 1822 to 1829, death was to be inflicted. Of the 120 there were only 122 executions, making statutes to which he had alluded, 61 in- an average of 17 each year, or about oneflicted the punishment of death. The Bill third of the executions of 1784. He he proposed would contain only four would now proceed to state the offences on clauses, and in them he proposed to con- which he proposed to remit the punishsolidate the whole statute law relating to ment of death. The great principle to forgery. It would contain in one clause which he adhered was, to confine that a distinct enumeration of all forgeries for punishment to the forgery of negociable which the punishment of death was to be and transferable securities, and to everyinflicted, whether the offence was com- thing which represented money. He might mitted on the general or the departmental add to them the forgery of the Great Seal, class, and the Act would, therefore, con- the Privy Seal, and the Sign Manual. He solidate the whole of the laws relating to should also add the forgery of wills of forgery in all public and private affairs. personal property. In documents of that He thought it a most important object to kind no witnesses were necessary, and as diminish, as much as possible, the number they were generally not produced till the of offences to which the punishment of death of the parties, and might therefore death had been attached. He had, indeed, be made the instruments of great decepno hesitation in avowing, that he was a tion, and cause great injury to families, he strong advocate for the mitigation of capital had thought it right with regard to them punishments. He wished to remove, in to retain the capital punishment. He all cases where it was practicable, the pun- added to these all false entries relative to ishment of death; for it was impossible public stocks. All forgeries of promissory to conceal from ourselves, that capital notes-all fraudulent attempts to procure punishments were more frequent, and the money-all forgeries of the notes of the criminal code more severe, on the whole, Bank of England-in fact, all documents in this country, than in any country in the representing money, or which came under world. It was better, however, to proceed the denomination of negociable or transcautiously, so as not to embarrass their ferable securities. In the cases where he judicial functions, in the event of any remitted the punishment of death, he was increase of crime taking place, and that confident there would be much difference increase being attributed to the laxity of of opinion as to their propriety, and that punishment they had introduced. They some persons would be inclined to suppose had, however, both reduced the number he had not gone far enough, and others of offences for which death was inflicted; much too far; but he was of opinion that and that punishment had also, in all cases, there would be more security in that been more sparingly applied. On a com- course, and that a great deal of good parison of the number of executions in might be done by the increased caution London and Middlesex, in time of war and which these exceptions would introduce. peace, it appeared they were much more He proposed, therefore, to except from numerous in time of peace. Whether it the punishment of death all forgeries of was, that dishonest and profligate persons receipts for money and goods-all issuing were carried off by the demands of war, or of forged stamps, or forgeries of stampsthat the quantity of employment was all attempts to defraud by forged ordersgreater for all, it was impossible to say; all fabrications of bank paper, that is, the but the fact was so, as the return suffi-paper on which notes are stamped - all

the committing magistrate, and the whole neighbourhood, was executed, apparently because he was believed to be habitually engaged in other offences, for none of which however he had been convicted or tried." The right hon. Gentleman then eulogised Lord Bacon, who contended in his works for the principles he now asserted; and having adverted to the wonderful sagacity which that great man displayed, he expressed his surprise that any persons in authority could have perused his recommendations, and left it to the present day to carry them into effect. He confessed he never heard the name of Lord Bacon without feeling the force of those lines of Cowley, which he thought very preferable to those celebrated verses of Pope, in which he described him connecting together his glory and his disgrace, as at once the greatest and the meanest of mankind. Cowley's commendation was contained in his Address to the Royal Society, and his comparison of Bacon to Moses might be extended beyond the bounds of learning and philosophy. If he had not led statesmen and society out of the wilderness, he had pointed out the path. That glory was his, the neglect was his successors.

forgeries of deeds and bonds, and every document which did not come under the class he had named, and which were not negociable or transferable securities. For these offences death was now very rarely inflicted, and he was ready to admit that it ought not to be inflicted. He had been guided in this course by the opinion of the Committee which sat to inquire into the Criminal Code in 1819. The Report of that Committee says, "it has sometimes been said, that the abolition of penal laws, which have fallen into disuse, is of little advantage to the community. Your Committee consider this opinion as an error. They forbear to enlarge on the striking remark of Lord Bacon, that all such laws weaken and disarm other parts of the criminal system. The frequent occurrence of the unexecuted threat of death in a criminal code tends to rob that punishment of all its terrors, and to enervate the general authority of the government and the laws. The multiplication of this threat in the laws of England has brought on them and the nation a character of harshness and cruelty which evidence of a mild administration of them will not entirely remove. Repeal silences the objection. Reasoning, founded on lenient exercise of authority, whatever its force may be, is not calculated to make a general and deep impression. The removal of disuses is a preliminary operation which greatly facilitates a just estimate (and where it is necessary), an effectual reform of those laws which are to remain in activity. Were Before making his present proposition, he capital punishments reduced to the com- had referred to the Bill of 1821, which paratively small number of cases in which had been read a third time in that House, they are usually inflicted, it would become a but did not pass into a law, and he found much simpler operation to form a right that there was no very material variation judgment of their propriety or necessity. in the principle of the two measures. He Another consideration of still greater mo- had also referred to the Code Napoleon, ment presents itself on this part of the and he also found that there was no very subject; penal laws are sometimes called material variation in the principle of his into activity after long disuse, and in cases proposition and that of the Code Napowhere their very existence may be un-leon. There was one peculiar reason for known to the best-informed part of the being cautious in their advances towards community; malicious prosecutors set the mitigation of the punishment of forgery: them in motion; a mistaken administration it was an offence chiefly committed by of the law may apply them to purposes persons of ability and information, and for which they were not intended, and whose ability and information frequently which they are calculated more to defeat gave them the means of committing it to than to promote; such seems to have been a great extent: for instance, in the case the case of the person who in the year of Fauntleroy, the forgeries which he com1814, at the assizes of Essex, was capitally mitted amounted to above 400,000l. If convicted of the offence of cutting down the capital punishment were entirely retrees, and who, in spite of the earnest ap-mitted, some secondary punishment must plications for mercy from the prosecutor, I be substituted. Now, however mischievous

"Bacon, like Moses, led us forth at last,
The barren Wilderness he past,

Did on the very border stand

Of the blest Promised Land,

And from the mountain-top of his exalted wit,
Saw it himself, and shewed us it."

to trespass so long on the attention of the House; but he trusted the importance of the subject would be his apology. The right hon. Gentleman here briefly recapitulated the objects, as they regarded forgery, which his Bill contemplated. Connected with the Law of Forgery was the Law of Coining. It was his intention to propose the consolidation of all the laws having reference to Coining, and to mitigate the law with respect to capital punishment, as it affected one offence, in the same manner as he proposed to mitigate it as it affected the other. Should these Bills pass during the present Session of Parliament, little would remain to be done in the consolidation of the Criminal Law. He had been encouraged to pursue the course which he was pursuing, by the fact, that in no single instance had what had hitherto been done proved injurious. Although so many statutes had been repealed by his former measures, no evil consequence whatever had resulted. He could not conclude without repeating his deep obligations to the two gentlemen whose invaluable assistance he had obtained in the preparation of his measure. The one was Mr. Hobhouse, who, having fulfilled the duties of Under Secretary of State for several years with great zeal and ability, had retired into private life, retaining his disposition to be serviceable to the public. The other was his friend Mr. Gregson, whose aid had been most material. Nothing could exceed the zeal of that gentleman in the work; and to him and to Mr. Hobhouse the country was greatly indebted for their persevering exertions. The right hon. Gentleman concluded by asking leave to bring in a Bill to amend the Law relating to Forgery.

and extensive was the crime of Fauntleroy, I the necessity of proving the place where he was quite sure that if such a person the forgery was committed, provided the had been sentenced to such a punishment fact itself were proved. He was ashamed as two years' hard labour on the public roads, the sympathy of the public would soon have been excited at seeing him degraded to the condition of associating with the commonest and vulgarest criminals. If he had been sent to New South Wales, such a man in that colony would have found that transportation was the slightest punishment that could have been inflicted on him. Looking at these and other considerations, he must deprecate the sudden and entire cessation of the punishment of death for forgery. Let the effect of the measure which he was now proposing be watched. Desirous as they all were of gradually mitigating the severity of our criminal code, he entreated the House not to load such a disposition with the opprobrium which might be cast upon jt, should premature efforts prove injurious. Let the progress be gradual and cautious, and he was confident that the object would eventually be attained. It ought to be recollected that the number of offences to which the present law applied was very considerable. Upon the average, every one of the sixty-one Acts which he had described comprehended five distinct offences. Of this, however, he was persuaded, that the mitigation of the punishment would diminish the present facilities which the offender had of escape. It would insure his conviction. There were offences connected with forgery which the existing law did not touch. One, and that a very great one, was the forging of acceptances of individuals on foreign bills of exchange: he doubted if any penalty whatever attached at present to such a crime. It was his intention, however, to remove that doubt, by comprehending the offence in the provisions of his Bill. There were several other offences, the punishment of which was at least doubtful. If an English person dying at Paris made a will, and another will was forged, that offence ought to be subjected to the same punishment as the forging of a will in this country. He meant, therefore, to propose, that it be enacted, that wherever a document of that nature was executed, the punishment of forging it should be the same as if it had been executed in this country. He proposed also to remove a great imperfection in the law, by proposing to alter the law of venue; and to dispense with

Mr. Fowell Buxton said, that though he could not but be disappointed at some parts of the speech of the right hon. Gentleman, there was much in his statements which met with his cordial approbation. It was but justice to him to declare, that he had introduced very many, and very great improvements into our criminal law. The right hon. Gentleman had, in former years, swept away a multitude of capital enactments, in which the crime on the one hand, and the penalty on the other, were so utterly at variance, and in such monstrous disproportion, that those laws never