should not the terror of death attend the most trifling offences? Why stop at the terror of death for any offence ?' That this opinion of the efficacy of severe laws is erroneous, I will endeavour to satisfy the Committee; first, from such facts as have occurred to me; and, secondly, I think there is not the slightest difficulty in showing, from the recognized principles of the law of England, that a priori it must be so. First, I say, in fact, severe penal enactments do not tend to prevent certain of fences; the best mode of trying this, the sort of test would be, to take a crime pregnant with the most serious evils to a commercial country, and which has been always punished with almost indiscriminate severity; I mean the crime of forgery in England. It appears that the number of forged one pound notes for a series of years is as follows:-In 1814 they were 10,342; in 1815, 14,000 and upwards; in 1816, 21,000 and upwards; and in 1817, 28,000. I hope I may be permitted to call to the attention of the Committee the practice now prevailing with respect to the effect of severe laws in forgery, by which I see, day after day, that capital enactments are used as engines to induce persons to confess themselves guilty of the minor offence, without any trial at all, upon a confession obtained under circumstances, which, except upon a plea of guilty, would not be evidence. There is another crime of great importance in this commercial country; I mean the crime of concealment and embezzling property, the frauds in bankruptcy; it is scarcely possible to imagine the extent of these crimes. I published a tract some time since, in which I explained, that there were regular houses where people could be procured at a per centage, who had old bill stamps and old deed stamps, upon old paper, to any amount, to prove debts under commissions, all of which involve capital offences in the bankrupt; I suppose there is scarcely any person who has seen so much of this species of capital felony as myself, and I am satisfied, that it is carried to such an extent as to set the whole law at defiance. I beg on this subject to refer to my examination before a Committee of the House of Commons on the bankrupt laws, on the 11th of Febru. ary 1818, in which I endeavoured to explain the state of the law, and its inefficacy in the respect to this crime; I stated and I repeat the act, 5 Geo. II., passed in the year 1732, since which time there have been, I conceive, at least 38,000 bankrupts; for taking the average from 1732 to 1786, at 250 a year, the number of bankrupts during those years will be 13,200; the actual number of bankrupts from 1786 to 1805 was 16,200, taking the present average to be 800 each year, which is much below the number, that will be 3200; the total sum from 1732 till 1810 was 32,600, supposing the average from 1809 to 1819 to be 700 per annum, which I believe is below the mark, there will be 6300, making the total number 38,900; I believe I have taken each of the averages much below what they ought to be computed. During this time, that is, for near a century, with nearly 40,000 bankrupts, I doubt whether there have been ten prosecutions: I believe there have been only three executions, and yet fraudulent bankrupts and concealments of property are proverbial, are so common as to be supposed almost to have lost the nature of crime. With respect to the fact, as to a severe law not preventing larcenies from a dwelling, shoplifting and picking pockets, as returns have been made to the House, I conceive there will be no necessity for me to repeat them; if it is the wish of the Committee that I should, I will do it at a future day. Such are the results from facts, by which it appears to me, that the punishment of death does not prevent certain offences; the reasoning appears to me to be as clear as the facts themselves; crime is prevented not solely by legal enactment, but by the joint operation of three powers: by the legal power, or the fear of punishment awarded by the law; by the moral power, the fear of the censure of the community; and by the power of religion, the fear of religious censure. Upon duly poising these, the efficacy of all laws, I conceive, depends, when these powers unite, their effect is the greatest possible; they unite in awarding the punishment of death, as I conceive, for murder, for rape, for unnatural crimes, for treason; they unite in many cases where the punishment is not death, for swindling and receiving stolen goods; for another crime, for which indeed no legal punishment is affixed at all, the crime of incest. I conceive, that very few persons in the community would hesitate to give efficacy to the different punishments annexed to these different crimes. Their names and the crimes are never mentioned but with detestation, because our feelings are not outraged by any improperly severe punishment being associated with them. When these powers oppose each other, the efficacy of the law is proportionably diminished. They oppose each other in the case of bankruptcy. They would oppose each other in a law which has existed in our own time, in annexing the punishment of death for breaking the head of a fish pond. They oppose each other in duelling, and the law has become almost a dead letter." p. 79, 80. "With respect to bankruptcy, may I beg to refer the Committee to the examination of Sir Samuel Romilly, which will be found before the Bankrupt Committee, in page 51, where he states, The nation, however, has been so far from adopting this severe disposition of its government, that it scarcely ever happens, that persons can be found who will institute prosecution for felonies under the bankrupt laws. Very numerous instances might, I believe, according to information which I have received from various quarters, be laid before the committee of creditors, who have deliberately resolved to allow bankrupts, by whom they had been grossly defrauded, to enjoy complete impunity, because they saw no other alternative than such impunity, or the certainty of shedding their blood. That men should feel great repug nance to put a human creature to death for such an offence, cannot surprise those who have reflected what the nature of the crime really is. Whatever the language of the law may be, or whatever national expediency may be thought to require, the great mass of mankind never can be brought to regard as highly criminal that which is not to a great degree immoral; and when it is considered, that by our law a bankrupt is made such against his will, it is evident that the only immorality of one who has secreted none of his property, but who does not surrender to his commission, is, that he withholds from his creditors the information and assistance which he ought to afford them, to enable them to recover his effects, and to apply them in satisfaction of their demands; and even this immorality may find some extenuation in the disgrace to which he must be subjected, and in the danger to which he is exposed, since however honestly he may have acted, and though every thing he has in the world be given up to his creditors, yet if he do not obtain his certificate, he may be imprisoned for life, by any one creditor who will prefer gratifying his resentment to any benefit he might derive from the commission. That a man has not fortitude enough to encounter so much shame, and such a risk may be culpable; but who can upon calm reflection say, that it ought to be punished with death? The crime of withholding property from the creditors is indeed much more immoral; but even this, in the case of one who has been made a bankrupt without his own concurrence, amounts in reality to nothing more than the not paying (to the extent of the property withheld) debts which it is in his power to pay. That this is criminal cannot be denied; but that it should be expiated by the blood of the offender, confounds all notions of justice, and destroys all gradations of guilt. It is very dishonest, but it is not more dishonest in an obscure tradesman than in the heir to a title; and yet for this dishonesty, while our law hangs the tradesman, it suffers all other such debtors to enjoy complete impunity; nay, it not only leaves them unpunished, but it suffers them, in defiance of their creditors, to enjoy and to squander in gaol the substance which ought to be applied in the payment of their debts; for there is no process by which, in the case of persons not subject to the bankrupt laws, copyhold estates, property in the public funds, or money lent upon security, can be taken by creditors in execution.' I beg also to refer to my own examination before the Committee, (in page 21,) in which I state as follows: I submit to the Committee, that the legal sanction is in this case opposed by the moral sanction; the amount of the moral guilt of the bankrupt is the non-payment of his debts, or the nondelivery by him of his property to his creditors. Of the immorality and impropriety of this no doubt can be entertained; but I conceive that there is scarcely any person in this intelligent community, who will think that a man ought to be put to death for the non-delivery of his property; particularly, when it is remembered that the offender is not the only person to blame. There must be a feeling in the community, that the imprudent confidence reposed by creditors is not wholly exempt from censure. It appears to me that the religious sanction also is in this case at variance with the legal sanction. Our religion is daily inculcating upon us mildness and forbearance. As Christians, we are taught (except for the most atrocious and bloody offences, and even then with sorrow) not to desire the death of a sinner, but rather that he should turn from his wickedness and live;' and we are particularly taught to forgive our debtors as we ourselves expect forgiveness. For these reasons, it appears to me that the existing laws are wholly inoperative.' There were various persons who were examined before the Committee upon the same subject, all of whose opinions, expressing their disapprobation of it, will be found in the examination; and the Committee, on that occasion, have reported that the law is injurious."* JACOBITE RELICS. † THESE Relics, which could not have found a more appropriate Editor than Mr Hogg, have yet somewhat disappointed us. Amidst a quantity of trash scarcely worth collecting, although the Editor has given us little A state of crime in the metropolis, for the year 1819, will be found under the head of the British Chronicle for this Number. The Jacobite Relics of Scotland, being the Songs, Airs, and Legends of the Adherents to the House of Stuart. Collected and illustrated by James Hogg, Author of the Queen's Wake," &c. Edinburgh, Blackwood. more than one-fifth of what he received, there are only a few pieces very good-but these are excellent in their kind, and we shall indulge our readers with a specimen of some of the best. The collection comes no farther down than to the Rebellion in 1715; but it seems to be Mr Hogg's intention to pursue his plan through the succeeding periods in which the Jacobite cause rises in interest, although we are ignorant whether its sacri vates rise equally in inspiration. He begins so early as Charles I., a period in which his collection contains scarce any thing good. There is one spirited song on David Lesley's march to Scotland, although Mr Hogg seems to carry his admiration too far, when he tells us that "it is the very essence of sarcasm and derision, and possesses a spirit and energy for which look in vain in any other song existing." It thus begins: we may March! march! pinks of election, Irish, who formed the principal part of Montrose's foot at that hapless engagement, had, notwithstanding the discomfiture, still kept together, and defended themselves, though deserted by the horse, o'clock they got possession of the old tower and attacked on every side. About two and castle-yard of Newark, where they resolved to defend themselves to the last, seeing no quarter given to the common soldiers. Lesley, observing that it would cost some pains to dislodge them, offered them quarter; which being accepted, it was signed by him and Adjutant Stuart. On that they came all out to an adjoining field, as ordered, and laid down their arms; and, while this was doing, wanted plenty about him, represented to some of the ministers, of whom he never him, that that army was all composed of Papists and vile prelates; on which, as soon as they were disarmed, he surrounded them with his scourges of heresy,' and cut them down every man, except Stuart himself, whom, he said, he would reserve to be hanged. In this he meant to be as good as his word; but Stuart contrived to make his escape in women's clothes, on the Why the devil don't you march onward in very night before he was to have been exe order? March! march! dogs of redemption, You shall preach, you shall pray, March! march! scourges of heresy, a cleary, &c. "David Lesley," says Mr Hogg," the leader of this host of blest ragamuffians,' seems to have been a brave and resolute officer, but one who made a pretence of zeal for religion a cloak for the most brutal acts of barbarity, as well as dishonour. There is no act of perfidy on record more detestable than that of his at Newark on Yarrow, on the evening of the day on which he gained the battle of Philiphaugh. A brave body of Grahams, Stuarts, some of the Clan-Chattan, and about two hundred cuted. He acted the same scene over 'again in Cantire the year following, causing a whole army of Macdonalds to be cut to pieces, after granting them quarter and disarming them. It was on this occasion that he said to John Nevay, a bloody preacher, who accompanied him, 'Well, Mr John, have not you got your fill of blood for once ?' "The commission of the estates and church granted Lesley 50,000 merks and a chain of massy gold for these exploits; and to Middleton, his associate, they granted 25,000 merks: but they soon were weary of them, and contrived, with a good deal of pains, to get them ordered back into England the next year. Never did the middle counties of Scotland suffer so much under the tyranny of an army as they did under this host of the righteous; which was the reason why they were so easily persuaded to rise in a mass to oppose Cromwell, two years afterward. And, besides, Lesley hanged all the noblemen and gentlemen of Bishop Guthrie, in his Memoirs, enumethe King's party that fell into his hands. rates upwards of twenty of those who suffered in the course of that year. At the execution of three of them, in Lesley's presence, at Glasgow, the Rev. David Dixon exclaimed in ecstacy, O but the gude wark gangs bonnily on!" pp. 164, 165. There is nothing very good, amidst many attempts, on the Restoration, or the Royal Oak; and we come on to the Revolution in 1688, when we find the wit of our Scotch nobility at rather a low ebb. My Lord Newbattle endited an elegant and witty song, as it is called by a commentator of that age, of which the following is a speci men. Clunie the deddy, and Rethy the monkey; Leven the hero, and little Pitcunkie ;) O where shall ye see such or find such a soudy? Bannocks of bear meal, cakes of croudy. And so it goes on There's Semple for pressing the grace on young lasses, There's Hervey and Williamson, two sleeky asses, They preach well, and eat well, and play well at noudy Bannocks of bear meal, cakes of croudy, &c. We have no doubt the rafters in many of the lofty venerable tenements in the Old Town have rung again to this noble effusion, and to the peals of laughter which, in its day, it occasioned; and we have as little doubt, that we still write and sing, in our more modish modern houses, things quite as silly, though we scarcely laugh so heartily. Songs are not to be tried solely by their real merit-there is a relative merit in them more than in any other composition, and what appears to us absolute nonsense, and may be so, in fact, still may have had the merit of serving its end. Indeed, what we cannot but admire in many of the songs in this collection is, their outrageous and raving absurdity, characteristic of that intoxicated and unbridled spirit, so commonly the effect of political extravagance. We do not know whether the Radicals sing. We suppose not, as they do not drink ;fellows who are fond of long prosing harangues from Hunt and such like can have no music in their souls. There is not one of them could, for the soul of him, ridicule any of the royal or military heroes of the day in a strain of such glorious and nonsensical insolence as the following delightful raving, entitled, King Wil liam's March. O Willie, Willie Wanbeard, An' a wallet at his wame: Some will eat his meat, VOL. VI. O Willie, Willie Wanbeard, He's awa to ride, Wi' a bullet in his bortree, And a shabble by his side; O Willie, Willie Wanbeard, Wi' water in his waygate, O Willie, Willie Wanbeard, O saw ye Willie Wanbeard An' his doup downermost, Play, piper, play, piper, Play a bonny spring, An' his sign on his reade, Like a true king. pp. 24, 25. There are not a few pretty good wipes at Old Glorious. The battle of Killiecrankie is thrown in his teeth, both in Scotch and Latin, moreover, the massacre of Glenco, rather a tough morsel to chew; then we are told, The tod rules o'er the lion, Whan Willie the wag came here! And, finally, he is packed off to the infernal regions, without the slightest ceremony. Indeed, ever since the time of Dante, (though we do not mean to accuse our Jacobite poets of plagiarism from the great Florentine,) political zealots have thought themselves E still more entitled, even than religious ones, to send whomsoever they chose to these agreeable mansions. In this collection we find a great many people there whom we have always been taught to reverence, such as Algernon Sydney, Lord Russel, Bishop Burnet, (who is a particular favourite of his Satanic majesty,) and many others, as well as King William. There is a sweeping sentence, indeed, in the close of the song "Would you know what a Whig is,' which all persons of that unfortunate party would do well to lay to heart, and, to show our great impartiality, we give it for the entertainment of our Tory readers, who, no doubt, will consider it as excellent, and extremely applicable to the present times. Spew'd up among mortals from hellish jaws, He suddenly strikes at religion and laws, With civil dissensions, and bloody inven tions, And all for to push on the good old cause. Then goes to the devil, from whence he came. We come on to Queen Anne, about whom and the Union there is a humorous allegorical song, entitled, "Queen Anne; or, The Auld Gray Mare." Its familiarity is very entertaining. You're right, Queen Anne, Queen Anne, You're right, Queen Anne, Queen Anne, You've tow'd us into your hand, Let them tow out wha can.. She'll funk nae mair at you. And ane into the sta', She was the best of a'. Whene'er he touch'd her flank, Or curried her hide fu' clean, Then she wad fidge and wince, And shaw twa glancing een. Whene'er her tail play'd whisk, Or when her look grew skeigh, It's then the wise auld man The deil tak that auld brute," Quo' he," and me to boot, But I sall hae amends, Though I should dearly rue't." pp. 68, 69. The old man then gets farriers to tie up the mare. They tow'd her to a bauk, On pulleys gart her swing, Ane daudit her wi' a flail, The auld wise man he leugh, And bade them prod eneugh, And wow but he was fain! And skelp her owre again. p. 70. And so the adventure goes on, till at last the old mare, in a fit of desperation, kicked so violently, that the stable fell down upon the heads of her tormentors. The poem concludes thus: Take heed, Queen Anne, Queen Anne, The wise auld man is you. p. 72. But it is upon the arrival of the present Royal race that the spirit and animation of these Jacobite poets breaks all restraint. There is a torrent of every sort of insult, abuse, nonsense, and shrewd wit, poured upon the head of poor George I. The adventure of his Queen and Count Koningsmark before he left Hanover,— the mistresses whom he brought with him, his family,-his ministers,every thing about him, are held up to the most unsparing ridicule; and there is a wild spirit of wit and revelry of a half-drunken sort reigning over the whole exhibition, which is quite unlike any thing to be found elsewhere. "The wee wee German Lairdie" is an inimitable production, and is just as good as such a poem |