However much we glory (and we ought to glory) in the general excellence of our Criminal Law, yet there is no truth more clear and obvious than this: -"That this code exhibits too much the appear

ance of a heterogeneous mass, concocted too often "on the spur of the occasion (as Lord Bacon expresses it):—and frequently without that degree "of accuracy which is the result of able and minute discussion, or a due attention to the revision of "the existing laws, or how far their provisions bear upon new and accumulated statutes introduced "into Parliament; often without either considera"tion or knowledge, and without those precautions "which are always necessary, when laws are to be "made which may affect the property, the liberty, "and perhaps even the lives of thousands."

Some steps have, indeed, been taken in Parliament, since this work first appeared, towards a general revision of our Statute Law,* and which, it is hoped, will ere long be adopted. Whenever the time shall arrive that the existing laws, which form the present Criminal Code, shall be referred to able and intelligent men

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?

* See the "Report from the Committee of the House of Commons on Temporary Laws," May 13, 1796-and also the "Re"port from the Committee for promulgation of the Statutes," December 5, 1796; and the "Resolutions of a Committee of the whole House," March 20, 1797.*

effectually to revise, consolidate, and adjust the whole, in a manner best suited to the present state of Society and Manners, the investigation will unquestionably excite no little wonder and astonish

ment.

Penal laws, which are either obsolete or absurd, or which have arisen, from an adherence to rules of Common Law when the reasons have ceased upon which these rules are founded; and in short, all Laws which appear not to be consonant to the dictates of truth and justice, the feelings of Humanity, and the indelible rights of Mankind, should be abrogated and repealed*.

But the deficiency of the Criminal Code does not arise solely from an erroneous and undigested scale of penalties and punishments. While on the one hand, we have to lament the number of these applicable to certain offences of a slight nature: we have equally to regret, that there exist crimes of considerable enormity, for the punishment of which the Law has made no provision.

Among the most prominent of these crimes may be ranked the receiving Cash or Specie, Bank-Notes or Bills, knowing them to be stolen.

To this very high offence, in its nature so productive of mischief in a Commercial Country, no punishment at all attaches; inasmuch as Specie, Notes, and Bills, are not considered for this purpose

* Blackstone.

to

to be Goods and Chattels ; and the law only makes it a crime to receive property so described.

If therefore a notorious Receiver of stolen goods shall be convicted of purchasing a glass bottle or a pewter pot, he is liable to be punished severely; but if he receives ten or twenty thousand pounds in Cash, Bank-Notes, or Bills, he escapes with impunity ?*",

Innumerable almost are the other instances which could be collected from Reporters of Criminal Cases, shewing the deficiency of the Criminal Code; and in how many instances substantial justice is defeated, and public wrongs are suffered to go unpunished, through the objections and quibbles constantly raised in Courts of Justice; and which are allowed to prevail, principally, for want of that revision of our laws and those amendments which the present state of Society and Commerce requires.

One of the chief nurseries of Crimes is to be traced to the Receivers of Stolen Property.

Without that easy encouragement which these Receivers hold out, by administering immediately to the wants of criminals, and concealing what they purloin, a Thief, a Robber, or a Burglar, could not, in fact, carry on his trade.

And yet, conclusive and obvious as this remark must be, it is a sorrowful truth, that in the Metropolis alone there are at present supposed to be

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.

upwards

upwards of Three Thousand Receivers of various kinds of stolen Goods; and an equal proportion all over the Country, who keep open shop for the purpose of purchasing at an under price-often for a mere trifle, every kind of property brought to them; from a nail, or a glass bottle, up to the most valuable article either new or old; and this without asking a single question.

It is supposed that the property, purloined and pilfered in a little way, from almost every family, and from every house, stable, shop, warehouse, workshop, foundery, and other repository, in and about the Metropolis, may amount to about 700,000l. in one year, -exclusive of depredations on ships in the River Thames, which, before the establishment of the Marine Police System in June 1798, were estimated at half a million more, including the stores and materials!--When to this is also added the Pillage of his Majesty's stores, in ships of war, Dockyards, and other public repositories, the aggregate will be found in point of extent, almost to exceed credibility!

It is a melancholy reflection to consider how many individuals, young and old, who are not of the class or description of common or even reputed thieves, are implicated in this system of depredation; who would probably have remained honest and industrious, had it not been for the easy mode of raising money, which these numerous Receivers of stolen goods hold out in every bye-street and lane

in

in the Metropolis: In their houses, although a beggarly appearance of old iron, old rags, or secondhand clothes, is only exhibited, the back apartments are often filled with the most valuable articles of ship-stores, copper-bolts and nails, brass and other valuable metals, West-India produce, household goods and wearing apparel; purchased from artificers, labourers in the docks, lumpers, and others employed on the River Thames, menial servants, apprentices, journeymen, porters, chimney-sweepers, itinerant Jews, and others; who, thus encouraged and protected, go on with impunity, and without the least dread of detection, from the easiness of access, which their various employments give them, plundering every article not likely to be missed, in the houses or stables of men of property; or in the shops, warehouses, founderies, or work-shops of manufacturers; or from new buildings; from ships in the river; nay even from his Majesty's stores, and other repositories, so that in some instances, the same articles are said to be sold to the Public Boards three or four times over.

Thus the moral principle is totally destroyed among a vast body of the lower ranks of the People; for wherever prodigality, dissipation, or gaming, whether in the Lottery or otherwise, occasions a want of money, every opportunity is sought to purloin public or private property; recourse is then had to all those tricks and devices, by which even children are enticed to steal before they know that it is a crime; and to raise money at the pawnbrokers, or the ald