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1 Davidson John, Review of Sir Samuel Romilly's Observations on the Criminal Law of England, as It Relates to Capital Punishments, and on the Mode in Which It Is Administered 159 (1812)

handle is hein.agopinions/rssro0001 and id is 1 raw text is: is a scourge which ought by no means to be inflicted by us upon the French on any part of the continent of Europe; but it may very properly be visited (as surgeons try experiments, ' in corpore vili') on the Turks, Egyptians, or South Americans: when directed against Ciudad Rodrigo or Badajos, it is a miserable waste of strength; but when waged upon Alexandria or Buenos Ayres, it is good husbandry and statesman-like resolution. The last four lines of the poem, in which he dissuades England from toiling for fame or-glory ; and in which, because she is stout and able, he exhorts her by no means to fight, till she is forced to fight for her life, are of so high a strain of public spirit as well as poetry, that we cannot refrain from quoting them. 'Let others toil for fame, thy veteran ray Beams yet undimmed, nor knows, nor fears decay, Virtue thy cause, thy birthright liberty, Fight England but for life, and live but to be free !'-p. 92. We must here, admonished by our contracting limits, conclude our review of this excellent work. We can only hope that what we have said will not damp the curiosity of the reader, nor induce him to take our opinion upon a poem, which we promise him he will find, upon one or two perusals, (we recommend two at least,) to exceed any idea that we have been able to convey of it. ART. IX. Observations on the Criminal Law of England, as it relates to Capital Punishments, and on the mode in which it is administered. By Sir Samuel Romilly. - London. THIS able and luminous pamphlet, which was published two years ago, was intended to convey to the public the substance of a speech delivered by the author in the House of Commons, (9th February, 18 t0,) on moving for leave to bring in a series of bills to repeal the acts of 10 and 11 William III. 12 Anne, and 24 Geo. II. which make the crimes of ' privately stealing in a shop, goods of the value of five shillings ; or in a dwelling house, or on board a vessel in a navigable river, property of the value of forty shillings, capital felonies.' The publication took place while the fate of the bills was still depending in parliament. On the 2d of May, the motion for a repeal of the capital punishment for the larceny in a dwelling-house was rejected by a small majority. Soon after, the second bill, relating to larceny in a shop, was carried in the House of Commons without a division ; but its progress was stopped in the House of Lords by a majority of three to one. At the end of the same session, the third bill, from the pressure of business, was given Portugal: a Poem. 159 1812.

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