seem to be a good criterion that the royal mercy should only be extended on two indispensible conditions.

"" 1. That the convict under sentence of death should, for the sake of public justice, and to deter others from the commission of crimes, discover all his accomplices, and the robberies or other crimes he has committed.

66 2. That he should be transported; or make retribution to the parties he has injured, by being kept at hard labour for life, or until ample security shall be given for good behaviour after such retribution is made.

"The precaution not having been used of knowing for certain, before pardons were granted, whether the parties were fit for his majesty's service or not the convicts themselves carefully concealing every kind of bodily infirmity-and the pardons containing no eventual condition of ultimate transportation, in case the persons should be found unfit for the army or navy-the result has been, that many convicts, who have been since actually thieves upon the town, were almost instantly thrown back upon the public.-Some, even before they were attested by the magistrate, in consequence of the discovery of bodily incapacity; and others, in a very short time after they had gone into his majes ty's service, from the like unfitness being discovered; from some artful device practised to procure a discharge; or from desertion. A professed thief is never deficient in that species of artifice and resource which is necessary to rid him of any incum. brance.

"This, however, is seldom taken into the calculation when humanity urges philanthropic characters to interest themselves in behalf of criminals;

nor

nor could it perhaps otherwise have been known, or believed, that so many of these outcasts of society have found means again to mingle with the mass of the people.

"What impression must these facts make on the intelligent mind! will they not warrant the following conclusion?

66

1. That every individual, restored to society in this way, is the means of affording a species of encouragement, peculiarly calculated to bring others into the same dreadful situation from which the unhappy convict is thus rescued.

86 2. That, for this reason, every pardon granted, without some lesser punishment, or removing the convicts from society, is a link broken in the chain of justice, by annihilating that united strength which binds the whole together.

66 3. That, by removing the terror of punishments by frequent pardons, the design of the law is rendered in a great measure ineffectual; the lives of persons executed are thrown away, being sacrificed rather to the vengeance of the law than to the good of the public; and no other advantage is received than by getting rid of one thief, whose place, under present circumstances, will speedily be supplied by another.

"That able and excellent magistrate, the late Henry Fielding, Esq., to whose zeal and exertions in the exercise of the duties of a justice of the peace in the metropolis the public were under infinite obligations, manifested, half a century ago, how much he was impressed with the injuries arising from frequent pardons. Those who will contem plate the character and conduct of this valuable man, as well as that of his brother, the late Sir John Fielding, will sincerely lament that their ex

cellent

cellent ideas and accurate and extensive knowledge upon every subject connected with the police of the metropolis, and of the means of preventing crimes, were not rendered more useful to the public. It is to be hoped, however, that it is not yet too late, since the state of society and the progress and increase of crimes call loudly for the establishment of a responsible preventive system."

PARDONS, DEVICES USED TO OBTAIN THEM.

No sooner does the punishment of the law attach on a criminal, than false humanity becomes his friend. Pardons are applied for; and it is known that his majesty's great goodness and love of mercy has been frequently abused by the tricks, devices, and frauds, too commonly resorted to by convicts and agents equally depraved as themselves; who, while they have recourse to every species of falsehood and forgery, for the purpose of attaining the object in view, at the same time plunder the friends and relatives of the prisoner of their last guinea, as the wages of villainy and misrepresentation.

By such nefarious practices, it is much to be feared that many a hardened villain has eluded the punishment of the law, without any previous reference to the committing magistrates, who may be supposed to have accurately examined into his character and connexions; and, what is still worse, without extending to the community those benefits which might arise from important discoveries useful to public justice; such as convicted felons are always capable of making, and which, in conjunction with transportation, it should seem, ought to be one indispensible condition upon which pardons should be granted to capital convicts.

Instead

Instead of these precautions, which appear to be absolutely requisite, it is to be lamented, that, without reflecting that a common thief can seldom be restrained by military discipline, many of the worst class of convicts have received his majesty's gracious pardon, on the simple condition of going into the army or navy. This has been no sooner granted, than the royal mercy has been abused, either by desertion, or by obtaining a discharge, in consequence of some real or pretended incapacity, which was previously concealed. Relieved in so easy a manner from the heavy load of a capital punishment, the culprits return again to their old practices; and, by this means, punishment not only ceases to operate as a prevention of crimes, by example, but becomes even an encouragement; while the labour of detection and the expense of trial and conviction are fruitlessly thrown on an injured individual, and their effect is wholly lost to the public. Ibid.

PARRICIDES.

By the Lex Pompeia of the Romans, parricides were ordained to be sown in a sack, with a dog, a cock, a viper, and an ape, and thrown into the sea, thus to perish by the most cruel of all tortures.

The ancient laws of all civilized nations punished the crime of parricide by examples of the utmost severity. The Egyptians put the delinquents to death by the most cruel of all tortures; mangling the body and limbs, and afterwards laying it upon thorns, to be burnt alive.

By the jewish law it was death. See CHINESE LAWS.

PEACE

PEACE OFFICERS. See CONSTABLES.

PENITENTIARY-HOUSES. See HOUSES OF COR

RECTION.

PERJURY.

This shocking offence, particularly prevalent among the inferior ranks in society, is to be attributed in no small degree to the want of proper solemnity and previous explanation on the administration of oaths. Nothing can exceed the unimpressive and careless manner which is in practice in calling upon witnesses to make this solemn appeal to the Supreme Being. It would seem highly necessary that all oaths should be administered in the most impressive manner by the judge, and that a form should be devised, calculated, in the greatest possible degree, to impress upon the mind of the party a high sense of the obligation he or she has come under to speak the truth.

On the whole, it may be asserted that nothing could tend to improve the police of the country and the metropolis more than a general revision of the laws respecting misdemeanors, and particularly the act of the 17 Geo. II, cap. 5, and subsequent acts respecting vagrants and rogues and vagabonds; so as to assimilate them in a greater degree to the present state of society, and to render their execution more certain and beneficial to the community. Colquhoun. See OATHS.

PICKPOCKETS.

Picking pockets seems to be the first stage of cri minality, and is generally practised by young

of

fenders,