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vately stealing in shops and dwellinghouses, and in constructive burgla

ries.

ries, are, he says, desirous of being prosecuted on capital indictments rather than otherwise. "The present numerous enactments to take away life appear to me wholly ineffectual; but there are punishments which I am convinced a thief would dread, namely, a course of discipline totally reversing his former habits; idleness is one of the prominent cha

Mr Joseph Harmer, who has prac⚫ tised for twenty years as a solicitor at the Old Bailey, gave a testimony which the Committee cannot but recommend to the most serious consideration of the House. In the course of his practice he had confidential communication with at least 2,000 caracteristics of a professed thief--put

him to labour; debauchery is another quality; abstinence is its opposite-apply it; company they indulge in, they ought therefore to experience solitude: they are accustomed to uncontrolled liberty of action

corum. Were these my suggestions adopted, I have no doubt we should find a considerable reduction in the number of offenders." He states, that "he has often seen juries reduce the value of things stolen, contrary to clear proof. There is no reluctance to prosecute or convict in his opinion in murder, arson, burglary in its original sense of nocturnal housebreaking, highway robbery, with violence and murderous attacks on the person. The thieves observe the sympathy of the public; it seems to console them, and they appear less concerned than those who witness their sentence. Certainly the general feeling does not go along with the infliction of death in the case of crimes unaccompanied by violence; there are very few advocates for the generality of the present punishments; these punishments rather tend to excite the public feeling against the criminal laws."

pital convicts, and may be presumed to have as good means of understand ing their temptations, their fears, and their hopes, as any individual in the kingdom. He is now much employed by prosecutors, and from intercourse with them, as well as by for--I would impose restraint and demer observation of their conduct, has the amplest means of knowing the influence which capital punishment has on their disposition, to aid and enforce the execution of the laws. The Committee must also add, that he appeared to them a man of sagacity, as well as of a conscientious and humane character, whose opinions on this subject are entitled to much consideration. Every part of his evidence is so important, that they find it difficult to select particular facts as worthy of greater notice. He informed the committee, that he knew many instances of persons injured by larcenies and forgeries, declining to prosecute on account of the punishment; that the same consideration strongly disinclines many persons to serve as jurors at the Old Bailey, and induces them to bribe the summoning officer not to summon them; and that he has seen juries influenced, as he believes, by the severity of the punishment in numerous capital cases, but especially in forgeries, give verdicts of acquittal where the proofs of the prisoner's guilt were perfectly clear. Old professed thieves, aware of the compassionate feelings of ju

IV. Much of the above evidence sufficiently establishes the general disinclination of traders to prosecute for forgeries on themselves, or to furnish the Bank of England with the means of conviction, in cases where forged notes are uttered. There is

no offence in which the infliction of death seems more repugnant to the strong and general and declared sense of the public than forgery; there is no other in which there appears to prevail a greater compassion for the offender, and more horror at capital

executions.

In addition to the general evidence above stated, to notorious facts, and to obvious conclusions of reason, your Committee have to state the testimony of some witnesses of peculiar weight, on the subject of forgery.

Mr John Smith, a member of the House, and banker in London, stated, that he knew instances where prosecutions for private forgeries were relinquished on account of the punishment, and had no doubt that if the punishment was less, prosecutions would have taken place.

Mr Barnett, also a member of the House, and a banker in London, is of opinion, that capital punishment goes extremely to discourage prosecutions in forgery; he knows many instances of this, scarcely a year passed without something of the kind; he is of opinion that the majority of private forgeries pass unpunished, on account of the severity of the punishment. The punishment of death tends, in his opinion, to prevent prosecution, and to increase the crime. Mr J, F. Forster, a Russia merchant, and Mr E. Forster, a banker in London, gave some remarkable examples of the repugnance to prosecute in forgery. In one, by the connivance of the prosecutor, a person who was introduced to the magistrate as a friend of the prisoner's desired to see the forged check, snatched it away, and threw it into the fire-a mode of avoiding prosecution, which, from other parts of the evidence, does not seem to be uncommon. In another, a forgery

to the large amount of fifteen hundred pounds, where the forger and the utterer were both in custody, the prosecution was relinquished merely because the offence was capital. Had punishment been ever so severe, short of death, no endeavour would have been made to save the offenders. In the opinion of Mr E. Forster, more than one half of the private forgeries which are committed, escape prosecution on account of the severity of the law: he added an example of the like sentiments, in the offence of stealing in a dwellinghouse, which the Committee consider as remarkable, because it occurred in the officers of a public institution, who usually allow themselves to be less influenced by their feelings than individuals: a committee of a public institution, whose house had been robbed, would not engage in the prosecution unless the goods were valued under forty shillings. In this committee were persons of respectable condition in almost all the occupations which are most liable to loss by forgeries and thefts.

Mr Fry, a banker in London, mentioned four cases of prosecution for forgery which were prevented by the capital punishment, in one of which the party injured swallowed the forged note, that he might not be compelled to prosecute. Mr Fry explicitly stated, what is indeed implied in the evidence of the preceding witnesses, that, as a banker, he should consider his property as much more secure if the punishment of forgery were mitigated to such a degree that the law against that offence would be generally enforced; in nine cases out of ten of forgery which he has known, there has been an indisposition to prosecute.

Dr Lushington declared that he knew, that in the minds of many persons there is a strong indisposition

to prosecute, on account of the severity of the punishment; and that be had heard from the mouths of prosecutors themselves, who have prosecuted for capital offences, where there was a danger of the persons being executed, the greatest regret that they had so done; and many times they have expressed a wish, that had they been able to have foreseen the consequences, they would never have resorted to the laws of their country. He also related the case of a servant who committed a robbery upon him: the man was apprehended, and his guilt was clear; but Dr Lushington" refused to prosecute, for no other reason than that he could not induce himself to run the risk of taking away the life of a

man."

Mr Charles Attwood, a manufacturer of window-glass at Newcastle, and a seller of window-glass in London, had observed a very considerable indisposition to prosecute in capital cases among the traders of London generally and conceives that this reluctance would abate, if the punishment were mitigated to something less than death.

Mr Isaac Lyon Goldsmid, a broker to the bank, and to merchants, whose experience in the transactions of bankers is very extensive, entertains no doubt, that the punishment of death has a tendency generally to prevent prosecution, and thinks that evidence to that effect might be discovered in hundreds of instances. A servant of his own committed a very aggravated forgery upon him. She confessed her guilt to the magistrates before whom she was taken; but it appearing that if she was prosecuted at all, it must be capitally, Mr Goldsmid declined all further proceeding, and she was liberated. In the next family in which she be came a servant, she committed ano

ther capital felony; and again the severity of the law appears to have been her protection.

Mr Daniel Gurney, a banker in the county of Norfolk, declared his own reluctance, and had observed a similar reluctance among many bankers and traders in the country to prosecute in cases of forgery, in consequence of the severity of the law. The dread of being instrumental in inflicting death had, with himself, and to his knowledge with others, operated as a protection to the criminal. In illustration of his sentiments, he mentioned the case of a man who was in the habit of committing forgery," and was not prosecuted in consequence of the capital punishment." Mr Gurney considers that "his property as a banker would be more secure, if the punishment were not so severe, because there would be more inclination to prosecute." He also suggested, that if in every town of sufficient importance, an agent was invested with full authority from the Bank of England, to stamp the forged notes that were presented to him, it would be a considerable check to their circulation. In this opinion Mr William Birkbeck, a banker in the West Riding of York, fully concurred; conceiving that if an agent of this kind were authorised to put a mark upon such notes, indicating that they were forged, it would probably throw them back on the original issuer so early, as to show him the futility of attempting to issue others of a similar description.

Your Committee cannot but consider the suggestion made by these respectable gentlemen as well meriting attention.

After due consideration of this important question, your Committee are of opinion, that forgeries are a

class of offences 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 would be fit to all transportable offences, 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

VOL. XII, PART II.

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 unusually 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,

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to resume, and, if possible, to complete their inquiries.

The Committee consider themselves as bound to express their gratitude to Mr Evans, the learned and most meritorious Vice-Chancellor of the County Palatine of Lancaster; to Mr Long, a respectable barrister; and to Mr Jameson, a young gentleman employed in the study of the law, for the liberal and useful aid which they have afforded during the

whole course of the investigation. Your Committee will conclude by informing the house, that in pursuance of the various opinions and recommendations which they have stated above, they have instructed their chairman, early in the next session of Parliament, to move for leave to bring in bills, for the objects and purposes of which this report is intended to explain the nature, and to prove the fitness.

REPORT

OF THE COMMISSIONERS appointed fOR INQUIRING INTO THE mode of PRE VENTING THE FORGERY OF BANK-NOTES,

To his Royal Highness George, Prince of Wales, Regent of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland.

In obedience to the directions contained in his Majesty's Commission, we proceeded, in the latter end of the month of July last, to consider the important subject referred to us. Our attention was first directed to the proposals for improvement in the form of the notes issued by the Bank of England; and it being known that many plans had been submitted to that body which they had not thought it expedient to adopt, we felt it proper, in the first instance, to obtain correct information upon this point; and we, therefore, requested the Court of Directors to furnish us with an account of such plans. They did accordingly furnish us, without delay, with a detailed account of 108 projects, regu

larly classed and arranged; together with the correspondence respecting them, a statement of the trials to which they had been subjected, and specimens of the proposed originals, and of the imitations executed by order of the Bank. They also laid before us about seventy varieties of paper made at their manufactory in experiments for its improvement, in which almost every alteration recommended for adoption had been tried, and, in some instances, anticipated by their own manufacturer.

We have also received and answered communications from about seventy individuals, which have been arranged and considered; and in some cases, a personal interview has been requested and held. Several of these persons had been previously in communication with the Bank; and we find, that in the instance of some projects of superior promise,

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