The experience of Maryland, and, also, of Connecticut, where a similar system has been adopted with regard to the two first of these crimes, is said to establish the same fact.

2. OF THE PENAL LAWS OF PENNSYLVANIA.

Historical View of the Criminal Law of Pennsylvania.

The royal charter to William Penn directs, that the laws of Pennsylvania "respecting felonies, should be the same with those of England, until altered by the acts of the future legislature," who are enjoined to make these acts "as near, as conveniently may be, to those of England.

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But the founder of the province was a philosopher whose elevated mind rose above the errors and prejudices of his age. He saw the wickedness of exterminating where it was possible to reform and the folly of capital punishments in a country where he hoped to establish purity of morals, and innocence of manners. Among the first cares of his administration, was that of forming a small, concise, but complete code of criminal law, fitted to the state of his new settlement: a code which is animated by the pure spirit of philanthropy, and, where we may discover those principles of penal law, the elucidation of which has given so much celebrity to the philosophy of modern times. The punishments prescribed in it were calculated to tie up the hands of the criminal, to reform, to repair the wrongs of the injured party, and to hold up an object of terror sufficient to check a people whose manners he endeavoured to fashion by provisions interwoven in the same system. Robbery, burglary, arson, rape, the crime against nature, forgery, levying war against the governor, conspiring his death, and other crimes, deemed so heinous

in many countries, and for which so many thousands have been executed in Britain, were declared to be no longer capital. Different degrees of imprisonment at hard labour, stripes, fines and forfeitures, were the whole compass of punishment inflicted on these offences. Murder, "wilful and premedi tated," is the only crime for which the infliction of death is prescribed.

These laws were at first temporary, but being at length, permanently enacted, they were transmitted to England, and were all, without exception, repealed by the queen in council. The rights of humanity, however, were not tamely given up: the same laws were immediately re-enacted, and they continued until the year 1718, and might have remained to this day had not high-handed measures driven our ancestors into an adoption of the sanguinary statutes of the mother country. During this long space of thirty-five years, it does not appear that the mildness of the laws invited offences, or that Pennsylvania was the theatre of more atrocious crimes than the other colonies. The judical records of that day are lost: but, upon those of the legislative or executive departments and other public papers, no complaint of their inefficacy can be found; or any attempt to punish these crimes with death. On the contrary, as these laws were temporary, the subject was often before the legislature, and they were often re-enacted: which is a decisive proof that they were found adequate to their object.

We perceive by this detail, that the severity of our criminal law is an exotic plant, and not the native growth of Pennsylvania. It has been endured, but, I believe, has never been a favourite. The religious opinions of many of our citizens were in opposition to it: and, as soon as the principles of Beccaria were disseminated, they found a soil that was prepared to receive them. During our connection with

Great Britain no reform was attempted: but, as soon as we separated from her, the public sentiment disclosed itself, and this benevolent undertaking was enjoined by the constitution.

In obedience to these injunctions, the assembly proceeded, in the year 1786, to introduce the punishment of hard labour : and the offences (formerly capital) on which its effects have been tried, are, the crime against nature, robbery and burglary.

We are now to enquire whether this punishment has been less efficacious in preventing these crimes than the punishment of death. To aid this enquiry, a table exhibiting a view of the number of persons convicted, acquitted and executed, since the year 1778, is annexed.

A Table exhibiting a View of the number of Persons convicted of all capital and certain other crimes in Pennsylvania.

OF THE CRIME AGAINST NATURE.

This crime, to which there is so little temptation, that philosophers have affected to doubt its existence, is, in America, as rare as it is detestable. In a country where marriages take place so early, and the intercourse between the sexes is not difficult, there can be no reason for severe penaltics to restrain this abuse. The experiment that has been made, proves that the mildness of the punishment has not increased the offence. In the six years preceding the act, and while the crime was capital, there are on record two instances of it: in the same period since, there is but one. It was impossible this last offender could be seduced by the mildness of the punishment, because at the time, and long after his arrest, he believed it to be a capital crime.

ROBBERY AND BURGLARY.

The salutary effects of this change in our laws are not so evident in the cases of robbery and burglary as in that of the crime against nature. On the contrary, a superficial inspection of the annexed table would lead a careless observer to believe that it has tended to encourage these crimes instead of suppressing them. It is true, there were, at first, great defects in the plan, and still greater in the execution: and, for some time after its adoption, it had difficulties to struggle with which nothing but the native merit of its principle could have surmounted. A detail of these is necessary to enable us justly to appreciate this new system of punishment.

It must be remarked, that about three-fourths of the convictions of robbery and burglary, stated in the table, took place in Philadelphia. In a large city like this there is always a class of men, sometimes greater and sometimes less, who live by dishonest means, and considering theft as a regular voca