But after thus having attempted to show the injustice, impolicy, and absurdity of the present distribution of the penalty of death, the question will naturally be proposed, how can we change them to advantage? This we cannot better answer than by referring to the speeches and conduct of Sir Samuel Romilly; a man, who, whatever those may say, whose foolish pride is flattered, by the opportunities afforded them from the vagueness of the application of our Penal code, to use arbitrary power, is certainly not a rash disturber of the old and good constitution; but a man whom every patriot must revere, every Englishman venerate. He has begun to stamp the sandy and unsettled deserts of our criminal law with footsteps, that may guide those who follow him in the cause of humanity. Going upon the sound maxim of our ancestors, he has begun the reform in those parts which most called for the healing hand, and instead of going upon vague theories and loose ideas, he attempts the remedy of the evil by gaining the clue of experience, in the smaller crimes, to guide him through the labyrinth of various opinion and to give us an opportunity of learning by our success in these cases, whether we may adopt the same conduct in others. He is a man undismayed by difficulties, unmoved by wanton opposition, or, we should fear, the might be disgusted by the strange perverseness he has met with in many members of our parliament. Some laws, which he condemned, have been abrogated—and though the others, which he proposed altering, have been retained, still we will not despair, seeing them in such able hands but that in time he will gain not only this point, but also pursue the career he has so well begun.
The history of his proceedings in this subject can be told in a few words.—The first of our unjust and obsolete statutes that he attacked was that of Elizabeth (8 Eliz. c. 4.) which rendered the picking pockets capital; of which he obtained the repeal, and which by 48 Geo. III. c. 129. was made a felony within clergy, and punishable with transport-
