But it is obvious to remark, that before we advert to any positive measures for the preven tion of crimes, much less pretend to have any right to resort to severer punishments, it is requisite that we should remove as far as possible every inducement which in any manner leads to their commission; for if it should appear that the erroneous measures of the legislature itself, have led the way to the depravity and wretchedness of the people, with what propriety, or even justice, can we talk of resorting to severer measures, till these primary and inciting causes be effectually removed?

That the present moment is in the highest degree favourable for entering on such a task, must be apparent to every one who considers that we are just recovering from the effects of a long and most expensive war, or in other words, from a state of political existence which disturbs the order of society, aggravates our national burthens, and from its very nature, encourages the worst passions upon the greatest scale. From peculiar circumstances it has had the effect, in this country, of inciting us to its continuance by a factitious prosperity, which gratified our wishes as long as we floated on its surface, but no sooner were we left to ourselves, than we found how unsubstantial our supposed advantages were, and the transition from a state of war to a state of peace convinced

us that we could not interfere in the work of slaughter and destruction, without paying the penalty inseparably annexed to it. This we have accordingly been suffering in the effects of those habits of immorality and idleness which are induced by long continued warfare, and which being diffused through the people at large, contribute to fill our courts with criminals, and our journals with enormities unheard of in any other time or country. These dispositions have been instigated to their highest pitch by the poverty and distress resulting from the enormous increase of taxation, an evil, that like a disease in the human body, falls inevitably on the weakest part. Unfavourable, however, as these representations may seem, there are already strong indications of recovery. A degree of information hitherto unexampled is diffusing itself through every portion of the community; -the necessity of resorting on all occasions to sound principles, and consequently of investigating and defining those principles, is very generally acknowledged: the rights and interests of the different classes of the community are better understood, and an earnest desire is manifested of resisting the influx of depravity and wickedness, not by persevering in measures of severity, but by the introduction of higher and better principles of legislation, the deductions of reason and justice, and which

are calculated to heal and not to aggravate the wounds of humanity.

In taking a survey of the state of society around us, one of the most striking objects which attracts our attention, and which particularly excites the observation and surprize of every stranger, is the shocking habit of intoxication, which is exhibited, not only in the metropolis, but in most other parts of the kingdom, and which if not actually encouraged, is openly permitted to the most alarming and incredible extent. Let the reader who doubts this assertion examine the reports of the Committee of the House of Commons appointed to inquire into the police of the metropolis; he will there find such a representation of the dreadful effects of this vice, as cannot fail to call the public attention to a subject, in which not only the interests of morality and religion, but the personal and individual safety of every member of the community is in some degree involved.* It is principally to

* "On a Sunday morning, from April to Michaelmas, on Holborn hill, there is nothing but riot and confusion, from Hatton Garden to the Market, from four o'clock in the morning till eight; the gin-shops open so early that they get drunk, and rioting and fighting about. I should think that there must be two or three or four hundred-it is quite like a market-loose disorderly people of both sexes-I have seen as much as three or four fights on a Sunday morning. Thompson's gin-shop is what they call the best. I should

this source that the committee have traced up the increased depravity of the present times; and they have shewn, by the most authentic evidence, that most of the horrible crimes which have of late been committed, in and about the metropolis, have been occasioned by the "brutalizing effect of spirituous liquors; by which the criminal is rendered insensible to the milder feelings of his nature, and regardless of all consequences, whether as affecting this world or another."* To

not wonder if there were a thousand customers on a Sunday morning, before the time of service-the place is full from four in the morning till eleven."-Examination of Mr. John Barnley, Beadle of St. Andrew's Parish, Hatton Garden, &c.

* See the evidence of Mr. Poynder, Clerk of Bridewell Hospital, and late undersheriff of London and Middlesex, who had a particular opportunity of knowing that this was the case with respect to the murder of Mr. Bonar, a transaction which astonished the nation, because it was impossible to discover in it any of the motives which usually give rise to such crimes, but which this witness sufficiently explains by stating that the murderer, when not under the influence of drams, was a civil and obliging man, but when he had been drinking, was fierce. and violent. It was also in evidence with regard to the murderer of the two families at Ratcliffe Highway, that he had been drinking the strongest kind of gin, both before and after the murders; and in the case of Smith, who instigated his wife to set fire to his house in Newgate Street, and afterwards poisoned her, that she might not betray his secret, it appears that both these unhappy persons were long addicted to the drinking of spirits, and that he was himself sensibly under the influence of liquor during the whole time of his trial. In the Times of Oct.

the same cause a very respectable witness attributes the spirit of insubordination and sedition which has manifested itself in some districts, and the murders to which it has given rise. The general conclusion drawn by him from his evidence is," that it is his firm conviction, founded upon some experience, that so far as regards offences against the laws of the state, the continuance of the present system is favourable to public crime; that inducements of so strong a nature are afforded by authority for its commission, as the lower (and in some degree the middle) class of society, find it impossible to resist; and that no influence, arising from the counteraction of even the wisest and best system of human judicature, can possibly be found adequate to the protection of public morals, or perhaps eventually to the preservation of society itself, if some radical alteration do not take place."

To a question from the committee, whether the witness could suggest any remedy to this practice, he gave it as his conviction, that so

18th, 1818, is an account of the murder of Mary Albert, an infant of four years and a quarter old, committed by Robert Dean, an act of atrocity which would be quite inexplicable, had we not been informed that he appeared to be a steady and good tempered man when sober, but was extremely ferocious when intoxicated.