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turned to those gloomy abodes where the victims of injustice languished in mifery and despair.

The art of printing, by which one man, however private and obfcure, is enabled to make himself heard by a whole people, prepared the way for reformation. MONTESQUIEU exposed the errors of legislators, and unfolded founder principles of jurisprudence. The eloquent BECCARIA roused the attention of civilized Europe, and, by his unanswerable appeal to reafon and humanity, produced thofe fucceffive efforts to meliorate the systems of penal laws, which conftitute the greatest glory of the present age. HOWARD,* the active and indefatigable friend of man, by exploring the prisons and dungeons of Europe, and, from their dark and unvifited receffes, bringing to light the enormous abuses and dreadful miferies produced

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*The eulogium pronounced on this benevolent character by the most eloquent man of any age, cannot be too often quoted. "I cannot," fays BURKE, "name this gentleman (Howard) without remarking, that his "labours and writings have done much to open the eyes and hearts of "mankind. He has vifited all Europe,-not to survey the sumptuousness "of palaces, or the stateliness of temples; not to make accurate measure"ments of the remains of ancient grandeur, nor to form a scale of the curiosity of modern art; not to collect medals, or collate manuscripts;"but to dive into the depths of dungeons; to plunge into the infection of 'hospitals; to survey the manfions of forrow and pain; to take the guage "and dimensions of misery, depreffion, and contempt; to remember the forgotten, to attend to the neglected, to visit the forfaken, and to compare and collate the diftreffes of all men in all countries. His plan is ori<< ginal, and it is as full of genius as it is of humanity. It was a voyage of "discovery, a circumnavigation of charity. Already the benefit of his la"bour is felt more or less in every country, and I hope he will anticipate his "final reward by seeing all its effects fully realized in his own. He will "receive, not by retail but in grofs, the reward of those who visit the pri"foner, and he has so forestalled and monopolized this branch of charity, "that there will be I truft little room to merit by fuch acts of benevolence "hereafter." [Speech at Briftol, previous to the Elon in 1720.]

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by cruel laws and their corrupt administration, more powerfully awakened the feelings of humanity and juftice, by which the legiflator is enabled to complete the great work of correction.

But while the names of MONTESQUIEU, BECCARIA and HOWARD, are repeated with gratitude and admiration, the legislators and philanthropists of our own country deserve not to be forgotten. The History of Pennsylvania presents to our view a man who claims the praise of being the first to frame and propose a criminal code from which the punishment of death was excluded, except in the fingle case of premeditated murder, and by which each crime received a punishment equitably proportioned to the degree of its enormity.

In England, where fecret accufations, fecret and mock trials, torture, and all the cruel contrivances of superstition and defpotifm to confound and deftroy alike the innocent and the guilty, were unknown; where the excellent inftitution of a trial by jury, and humane and wife forms of legal proceedings were established for the protection of the accused; where liberty was defended by law, and cherished by the fpirit and manners of the people; even in that enlightened country there exifted a scale of punishments as fanguinary and unjust as any in Europe. The criminal delivered to imprifonment was often forgotten by the laws, and suffered an aggravation of his chastisement in the loathsome horrors of his prison, and the extortions and oppreffion of his keepers. No adequate diftinction was made, in the diftribution of punish

ments, between a poacher and a parricide, between him who filched a loaf to fatisfy the cravings of hunger, and him who first robbed and then murdered his benefactor.* The colonies of England

adopted in general the civil and criminal laws of the parent state. In fome, the fpirit of freedom which animated the first adventurers, fugitives from civil and religious tyranny, produced changes, and the gradual formation of a milder and more equitable fyftem of penal laws.

WILLIAM PENN,† actuated by the pure principles of a Christian and a philosopher, listening to the fimple fuggeftions of humanity and juftice, conftructed the equitable code juft mentioned, which he boldly enacted and transmitted to England to receive the royal affent, although the charter for the establishment of his colony expressly enjoined the introduction of the English laws. Affent to the new fyftem was refused by the king, yet it was continued in force by the colonial legiflature for thirty-five years. Difputes took place between the crown and the governor of Pennfylvania, concerning the ordinance requiring the officers of the government to take an oath instead of an affirmation. This conteft, which kept the colony in a ferment for many years, was at length termi

"It is a

* Blackftone's Commentaries, Vol. IV. paffim, and page 18. "melancholy truth, that among the variety of actions which men are daily "liable to commit, no less than one hundred and fixty have been declared, by "act of parliament, to be felony without benefit of clergy; or, in other ❝ words, to be worthy of inftant death." The number of capital punishments has been confiderably augmented fince the publication of the Commen

taries.

† See Proud's History of Pennsylvania, Bradford's Enquiry, &c.

nated by the legislature, who confented to exchange their favourite plan of penal laws for that of the mother country. In return for this conceffion, the crown yielded the right of affirmation to such as confcientiously refused to take an oath.

Though reftrained for a time, the spirit of reform revived with the revolution; and, ftrengthened by the difcuffions of the general principles of freedom, and the writings of BECCARIA and others, at length produced that fyftem of punishment for crimes, which reflects fo much honour on that State. The new penal laws of Pennsylvania, its prisons and penitentiary house, their progress, internal economy, and management, have been already made known by feveral publications.

When NEW-YORK became an English colony, the laws and inftitutions of England were introduced and continued in their full extent and rigour. This favourite child of the crown reflected more ftrongly than any other the image of its parent. Even after the revolution, when the spirit of liberty led to inquiries favourable to principles of moderation and justice, the criminal code of this State was diftinguished for its feverity. It was not to be expected, that a people enamoured of freedom and a republic, fhould long acquiefce in a system of laws, many of them the product of barbarous ufages, corrupt fociety, and monarchical principles, and imperfectly adapted to a new country, fimple manners, and a popular form of government.

B

Before giving an account of the changes that have been made in that system, it will be proper to exhibit, briefly, the several punishments as they exifted antecedent to the year 1796. By a law, which bears date February 1788, the following crimes are declared punishable with death: 1. Treafon; 2. Misprision of treason; 3. Murder; 4. Rape; 5. Sodomy; 6. Burglary; 7. Felonioufly taking goods and chattels out of any church or place of public worship; 8. Feloniously breaking any house, by day or by night, any person being in the house, and thereby put in fear; 9. Robbing any person in the dwelling-houfe or place of fuch person, the owner, dweller, his wife, children, or fervants being in the fame, or within the precincts thereof, fleeping or waking; 10. Robbing any perfon; 11. Feloniously taking away goods or chattels from a dwelling-house, the owner or any other perfon being therein, and put in fear; 12. Robbing any dwelling-house in the day-time, any perfon being therein; 13. Robbing any person or perfons in or about the highway; 14. Arfon, or the wilful burning any houfe or barn; 15. Malicious maiming and wounding another; 16. Forgery, or counterfeiting any record, charter, deed, writing, fealed will, teftament, bond, bill of exchange, promiffory note for the payment of money, indorsement or affignment thereof, acquittance or receipt for money or goods, any bill of credit or public fecurities iffued by congrefs or any of the United States, or any gold or filver coin current in the State. The conviction of all which felonies was accompanied with a forfeiture of the goods and chattels, lands, tenements, and hereditaments of

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