According to this theory, it was maintained that all bodies had a tendency both to gravitate, and to gravitate to some centre, the two forces combined forming a curve. He thus accounted for the motions of the heavenly bodies, and all proceeded on mathematical demonstrations, accompanied with the calculations of algebra.

The other branches of philosophy, as well as astronomy, were, in like manner, brought to the test of experience, and subjected to mathematical principles. Such was the philosophy of Newton, which, though it found some opponents at the time, and does so still, (though these are subjects which belong not to this place,) is How the favourite philosophy at Cambridge. Contemporary with Newton were other great mathematicians, Mr Cotes of Trinity College, Dr Smith of Trinity College, Mr Whiston of Clare Hall, and, in a later period, Dr Waring, who was accounted the greatest algebraist in Europe of his time. Mr Whiston read lectures on Sir Isaac Newton's philosophy, so far as astronomy was concerned, in the public schools.

Though mathematics took the lead in Cambridge studies, metaphysics was not overlooked. Mr Locke's Essay on the Human Understanding, though it had been much discredited at his own university, Oxford, and indeed was opposed in one or two large volumes at Cambridge, yet was received very early into the colleges and public schools. The old school logie, however, did not sink into disuse; for though Bacon's philosophy had treated syllogism with great severity, and Locke's mode of inquiry goes far beyond the school logic, yet some book on logic was usually attended to in the colleges, and the disputations in the public schools were carried on, and still are carried on, by syllogism. Burgerdicius was republished at Cambridge since the appearance of the Novum Organon. Dr Law, late Bishop of Carlisle, and Master of Peter House, published a splendid edition of Locke's Works in 1777, accompanied with a preface and a life of Mr Locke.

It has indeed, it must be acknowledged, been thought by some, that the mathematics became, and still is, the too predominant study of this

FOL. VI.

eminent seat of learning, to the discredit and prejudice of the other departments of literature. But such an opinion must not be too hastily formed, or too generally admitted. With respect to classical literature, it is well known that the public foundation schools in England particularly excel in that department, and that they greatly supply the university with good classical scholars; nor can it be denied, that lectures in the Greek and Latin classics are regularly given in the colleges, and that a great variety of premiums, and a portion of the public honours, are conferred upon those who excel. It may, however, with more truth be said, that classical literature occupies no part of attention in the public schools; or of the examinations at the time of taking degrees in the Senate House: so that the very first degrees may be obtained without any classical literature, though a classical medal cannot even be aspired to without a previous respectable portion of mathematical knowledge having been not only supposed, but proved; and it has been thought, that some alterations might be made, in this respect, with advantage to classical, and without any injury to the mathematical, studies.

With respect to some other branches of literature, it should seem that certain members of the university were somewhat aware of the objection, and that they have not been backward to supply the deficiency. In addi tion to the old professorship of civil law, a new professorship for the laws of England was established by the university in 1788; and a new professorship of mineralogy in 1803, in addition to the Woodwardian professorship, that was founded in 1724; and certain members of the university, without waiting for the sanction of a public professorship, have very lately ventured to give lectures in Political Economy, and in Agriculture. There are regular professorships for Medicine and Anatomy; but though many of the most eminent snd learned physicians of former, and of the present times, have graduated at Cambridge, there exist local and distinct reasons, which do not at all affect the character of the university, why Cambridge never has been, and perhaps never can be, much of a medical school: According to certain regula,

D

"What was the man's name?-William Potter.

"What part of the year was he executed in?-In August; the trees were cut down in the Spring; he was tried and executed in August.

"Relate to the Committee what you know of the transaction relative to his commitment, conviction, and execution ?-He was a very bad character, and he owed a particular spite against a miller in the neighbourhood, who had had him committed for snaring hares.

"State to the Committee any further circumstances that occur to you relative to this man's conviction?-The miller had planted a young orchard of trees, which he had taken a great deal of care of; he had planted it about three or four years before, and one morning when he got up, he found his trees had been all cut down.

"How many trees; between 60 and 70?—A great number; he came to me as a magistrate to complain of the thing; I asked him, if he suspected any particular person; he said, he suspected Potter: I asked him, if there were any prints of the feet; he said, yes. In consequence 1 granted him a warrant, and the man was brought before me; I made him pull off his shoes, and sent for the shoemaker who made the shoes; I had them compared with the footsteps, and they agreed; the thing was brought home to him, and he was tried before Mr Justice Heath, and convicted of the offence.

"He received sentence of death ?-Yes, which rather struck us all with surprise; the miller, the clergyman of the parish, and several of the inhabitants, presented a petition, and I signed my name to it.

"You forwarded that petition to the Secretary of State ?—I did, and I have Lord Sidmouth's answer, and my reply to it. They were handed in and read, as follow:

"Whitehall, 6th August 1814.

"Sir,

terday morning, respecting W. Potter, now under sentence of death, in which your Lordship is pleased to say, you do not find any circumstance stated on his behalf, which will justify you in recommending him to mercy; I wish it was in my power to offer to your Lordship's attention, any act of his which might extenuate his offence, unless it be the ample confession which he made soon after his commitment, and which was produced at his trial, and by which, a gang of desperate villains who had long infested the neighbourhood where they resided have been detected, and the country rid of part of them, viz. Jasper Raven and William Allen, may be considered as such.

"I have now to submit to your Lordship, that I have just come from visiting the unhappy man, in company with Mr Morgan the chaplain, who addressed the convicts, and I can bear testimony to that deep contrition which he expressed in his petition, and as far as I can judge, never was sorrow exceeded, or repentance more sincere than his; and I am authorised by Mr Morgan to say, as far as appearances go, such has been the state of his mind ever since his condemnation.

I beg leave to suggest to your Lordship, that I am well assured, when he committed the act for which he stands condemned, (viz. cutting down the trees,) he was not sensible of the heinousness of the offence, or aware of the punishment which awaited it; and I believe very few of the lower orders of the people are acquainted with the terms of the Black Act.

"If any of these circumstances should be considered of sufficient weight by your Lordship, to induce you to recommend the wretched man as an object for the extension of the Royal mercy, so that his life may be spared, I know it would afford the highest gratification to the injured party, and to me very great satisfaction.

"Having said thus much, your Lordship will allow me to add, that I hope you will not for an instant entertain the smallest surmise, that I am not thoroughly convinced of the justice and propriety of the sentence which has been passed upon him, or that I would not under similar circumstances, as a magistrate, exert my best endeavours to bring the offender to convic

"Chelmsford, 8th August 1814. "My Lord,

"I have the honour to acknowledge the receipt of your Lordship's favour yes

tion.

With sentiments of perfect respect, I have the honour to subscribe myself, my Lord, &c. R. TORIN. "On his Majesty's Service.

mouth, one of His Majesty's Principal Secretaries of State, &c. &c. Whitehall.'"

"What was the general character of this man?-He was a very notorious thief; he committed a vast number of petty thefts.

"Was he ever convicted of petty theft? -No; but he was known to be a thorough thief; he broke open several tills, and stole the money out.

"Had he ever been convicted or committed before ?-No, not to my knowledge. "Did he confess all the acts of petty theft that you have mentioned ?-He gave a list of them to Mr Morgan.

"At what period were those confessions made?-After he was convicted; I believe the day after condemnation.

"What was the age of this man?About thirty.

"Was he married or single ?-A married man, with a family.

"A labourer ?-A mere jobbing man. "Did the execution of this man excite a considerable feeling in the country?A great many people were surprised at it; it was considered a case of extreme hardship, but which was palliated by the badness of his character.

"If any man was to cut down as many trees as he had, would any gentleman in the neighbourhood prosecute him ?-1 cannot speak as to others; I have no doubt that many would not prosecute, particularly the Quakers; but if a hundred trees of mine were to be cut down, I would not prosecute a man for it, because it would endanger his life." pp. 87-89.

The only commentary which we think it necessary to make on this evidence is, to quote a sentence from that of G. B. MAINWARING, Esq. a magistrate of Middlesex, who justly remarks, that, "to be universally operative, punishments must be such as are in unison with the common feelings of humanity." If this principle were attended to, many laws would be repealed, and many favourite measures would be abandoned. We should like to give the whole of Mr Mainwaring's evidence, but that is impossible. We must, however, take notice of his solution of an apparent difficulty stated, as we think, by the Recorder of London and some others, and grounded on a fact said to have been observed by those conversant with the Old Bailey practice, " that a diminished calendar has succeeded a session which had been attended with executions."

"But," says Mr Mainwaring, "I do not consider this to be a criterion of the decrease of crime; I apprehend that it is the contrary; that the executions had of them selves deterred prosecutors, upon the feelings and principles which I have before de

scribed.

"Then you would infer rather the decrease of prosecutions than the decrease of

crimes?-Certainly; and I conceive that magistrates, in their incipient jurisdiction, have more opportunity of ascertaining the disposition of prosecutors, and of observing the working of their minds, than those who see the cases in their last stages, where the parties are compelled to proceed; and I also think that solicitors and those persons who have private intercourse wiih the partics engaged in prosecutions, would be enabled to afford better information upon this part of the subject, than even the magistrates themselves." p. 122, 123.

These remarks are strikingly just, and, along with the rest of the evidence, they fully warrant the Committee in stating, that,

"highly as they esteem and respect the Judges, it is not from them that the most accurate and satisfactory evidence of the effect of the Penal Law can reasonably be expected. They only see the exterior of criminal proceedings after they are brought into a court of justice. Of the cases which never appear there, and of the causes which prevent their appearance, they can know nothing. Of the motives which influence the testimony of witnesses, they can form but a hasty and inadequate estimate. Even in the grounds of Verdicts, they may often be deceived. From any opportunity of observing the influence of punishment malefactors are most commonly found, the upon those classes of men among whom Judges are, by their stations and duties, placed at a great distance.

"Your Committee have sought for evidence on these subjects from those classes of men who are sufferers from Larcenies, who must be prosecutors where these Larcenies are brought to trial, who are the witnesses by whom such charges must be substantiated, and who are the jurors, by whose verdicts only effect can be given to the laws. On this class of persons, where the crimes are most frequent, and where long and extensive experience allows little room for error and none for misrepresentation, or in other words, on the traders of the cities of London and Westminster, your Committee have principally relied for information. To the clerks at the offices of magistrates, and to the officers of criminal courts, who receive informations and prepare indictments, to experienced magistrates themselves, and to the gaolers and others, who, in the performance of their duties, have constant opportunities of observing the feelings of offenders, the Committee have also directed their inquiries; their testimony has been perfectly uniform." p. 9.

The next matter in point of importance is what is reported on the subject of Forgery.

"Your Committee, (they state) are of opinion, that Forgeries are a class of of fences, respecting which it is expedient to bring together and methodize the laws now in being. That in the present state of public feeling, a reduction of the punishment in most cases of that crime, is become necessary to the execution of the laws, and consequently to the security of property and the protection of commerce; and that the means adopted by the Legislature to return to our ancient standard of value, render the reformation of the Criminal Laws respecting forgeries, a matter of very considerable urgency. Private forgeries will, in the opinion of the Committee, be sufficiently and most effectually repressed by the punishments of Transportation and Imprisonment. As long as the smaller notes of the Bank of England shall continue to constitute the principal part of the circulating medium of the kingdom, it may be reasonable to place them on the same footing with the metallic currency: your Committee therefore propose that the forgery of these notes may for the present remain a capital offence; that the uttering of forged bank notes shall, for the first offence, be Transportation or Imprisonment; but that on the second conviction, the offender shall be deemed to be a common utterer of forged notes, and shall, if the prosecutor shall so desire, be indicted as such, which will render him liable to capital punishment. Respecting the offence of knowingly possessing forged notes, your Committee have no alteration to suggest, but what they conceive could be fit in all transportable of fences, that a discretion should be vested in the Judges to substitute Imprisonment with hard labour for Transportation, where such a substitution shall seem to them expedient. As the discovery of the actual forgers of bank notes has been found by experience to be in the highest degree difficult, your Committee consider the suggestion of the Commissioners for inquiring into the means of preventing forgeries, of offering an unusual large reward for the detection of forgeries, as worthy of serious consideration; to such rewards in general, the Committee feel an insuperable objection. In the case of forgery there are circumstances which considerably weaken the objection. No jury could convict in such a case, on the mere evidence of an informer, unsupported by the discovery of those materials, implements, and establishments necessary for carrying on the criminal system. The reward would therefore have little tendency to endanger innocent men, by false accusation. The evidence on which the conviction would rest must be of a sort which can hardly deceive. The informer would only furnish the key, by which the means of evidence would be found; the reward would rather be for detection than for conviction.

"There are several points on which your Committee are desirous of offering some observation to the House; two of these are of great importance; the first relates to the best means of enabling Judges to pronounce sentence of death only in those cases where they think it probable that death will be inflicted. The second, whether the establishment of unexpensive and accessible jurisdictions, for the trial of small offences, with the help of juries, but with simple forms of proceeding and corrective punishments, might not be a means of checking the first steps towards criminality. These and other parts of this great subject, the Committee hope that the House will allow them another opportunity to consider, by permitting them, in the next Session, to resume, and if possible to complete their inquiries," p. 15, 16.

But we must again conclude, without exhausting one-half of our own observations, or of the interesting matter with which this Report so much abounds. The evidence of Ba his life, we might say, to the melioraSIL MONTAGU, Esq. who has devoted tion of our criminal laws,-of W. D. EVANS, Esq. Vice-Chancellor of the County Palatine of Lancaster,-of the Right Hon. Sir Archibald Macdonald, Bart.-and of Mr James Harmer, solicitor, who is highly spoken of by the Committee,-is extremely interesting; but we can only add a small portion from that of Mr Montagu.

"I think, therefore, I have proved that this opinion is entertained in society, that severity of punishment has a beneficial effect; there will be no difficulty in accounting for this, if, at any future time, it should be the pleasure of the Committee to call upon me so to do. This opinion is, I conceive, radically erroneous; and is the cause, as I conceive, of the erroneous feeling in society, and the relaxation in our sentiments with respect to crime and punishment. This is a question upon the power of human punishment. There is a short section upon this in Sir William Blackstone's Tracts; but the whole, and all the reasoning upon it, must come to what has been stated by Sir William Grant, who says, it is not by the fear of death, but by exciting in the community a sentiment of horror against any particular act, that we can hope to deter offenders from committing it; and although the threat of death may tend to increase this horror, when it is in conformity with the public sentiment of the crime, it must be remembered, that when it is in opposition to this sentiment, it may have a tendency to diminish it. If intimidation could prevent crime, why