WeRead Powered by ReaderPub
The History of England in Three Volumes, Vol.III. / From the Accession of George III. to the Twenty-Third Year of the Reign of Queen Victoria cover

The History of England in Three Volumes, Vol.III. / From the Accession of George III. to the Twenty-Third Year of the Reign of Queen Victoria

Chapter 683: AMENDMENT OF THE CRIMINAL LAW
Open in WeRead

About This Book

The volume traces British political, parliamentary, and military developments from the accession of George III through the early nineteenth century, chronicling changes of ministry and cabinet, debates over colonial taxation and the American conflict, parliamentary controversies involving figures such as Wilkes and Warren Hastings, questions of Catholic relief and slave-trade abolition, and responses to the French Revolution and Napoleonic wars, including major naval and continental campaigns, the union with Ireland, and domestic legislation on finance, civil liberties, and parliamentary reform.

AMENDMENT OF THE CRIMINAL LAW

Among the various statutes of this session there were two which tended to diminish, in the instances of stealing linen and cotton from fields and out-buildings, that long list of offences to which our law assigned the punishment of death. Three other bills, having a similar tendency were passed in the commons, but were rejected by the lords. All these bills were brought in by that enlightened legislator, Sir Samuel Romilly.