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from an unnatural straining after distinctness; where even the lawyer, panting under an accumulation of nouns and pronouns, of numbers and genders, toiled in vain through the windings of endless repetitions and parentheses, after something which had seemed an idea when he set out in the paragraph, but which, at the end of it, brought him to confess, with Hamlet, that his reading was "words, words, words." All excuse for thus perpetuating obscurity in what ought, more than any thing else, to be plain to every citizen, was removed by a simple provision that, in future, whenever a statute, in describing the subject matter of an offence, or the party committing it, or the party against whom it is committed, shall make use of the singular number or masculine gender only, it shall nevertheless be understood "to include several matters as well as one matter, several persons as well as one person, females as well as males, and bodies corporate as well as individuals," unless it be otherwise provided in the statute itself, or there be something in the subject or context repugnant to such a construction.

The third of Mr. Peel's acts (7 and 8 Geo. IV. c. 29), contained the law of offences against property in its new and simplified form. It is not necessary to enter into the details of this long statute, and it would scarcely be possible to present them in any useful abstract. It by no means affected any vain precision of systematic arrangement; it thwarted no confirmed habits of thinking; it trenched very little even upon received definitions. It brought the various species of crime into one view; assigned to each its

plain description and precise punishment; and, by laying down positive rules, removed distinctions which had often given rise to subtle and embarrassing doubts. It abolished the distinction between grand and petty larceny, declaring that every larceny, without regard to the value of the thing stolen, should be held to be of the same nature, and subject to the same incidents, as grand larceny had been before the passing of the act. It defined clearly what should be held to be part of the dwelling house, in questions of burglary and of capital theft from a house-a subject which, more than once, had puzzled or employed the ingenuity of criminal lawyers. Similar subtleties as to "possession," and "the conversion of possession," in the law of embezzlement, and in the wiredrawn distinctions between larceny and fraud, were avoided, by simply declaring, that, if a person in the employment of another should receive possession of any property by virtue of that employment, and then embezzle it, he should be held to have stolen it, although it should never have come into the possession of the master, otherwise than by being in the possession of the person so employed; and by providing that, if on a trial for obtaining money under false pretences, the offence should turn out to amount to larceny, that should be no ground of acquittal, but the culprit should not be liable to be afterwards tried for larceny upon the same facts. In regard to punishment, the rigour of the penal law was mitigated, not aggravated. The statute recognized four classes of punishments, and the offences were distinctly set forth, to which each was to be applicable. The first was death; then transporta

tion for life, or any term not less than seven years; or imprisonment for not longer than four years, with public whipping, in the case of males, once, twice, or thrice, as the court might direct. Next came transportation for any period not more than fourteen, or less than seven years, with the alternative of three years imprisonment and whipping; and lastly, transportation for seven years, with the alternative of imprisonment for not more than two years, and whipping. The offences, for which capital punishment was retained, were, robbery, whether committed by personal violence, or by a threatened accusation of an infamous crime (and an enumeration was given of the crimes which, in this sense, were to be considered infamous); burglary; breaking into, and stealing from, a dwelling-house, church or chapel, or stealing in a church or chapel, and breaking out of it; theft in a dwelling-house to the amount of five pounds, or when accompanied by putting in fear within the house; the plundering of wrecks; stealing of horses, cows, or sheep, or killing them with intent to steal the skin.

Those offences which consist not in feloniously appropriating the property of another to one's own use, but in maliciously injuring and destroying it, formed the subject of the fourth of this series of statutes (c. 30). It reserved capital punishment for arson; the demolition of buildings, and destruction of machinery by rioters; the exhibiting of false lights and signals, with intent to bring any vessel into danger; the destroying any part of the vessel herself, or of her cargo, when stranded, or in distress, and the impeding of any person endeavouring to save his

life from on board of her. Other species of injury were left to be punished with different periods of transportation and imprisonment; and altogether, the number of capital offences was considerably diminished. In many cases, likewise, a summary mode of proceeding was introduced, which was so far a limitation of trial by jury; but its effect was to save many petty offenders, or supposed offenders, from the long imprisonment to which they were often doomed, before the charge against them could be sent to a grand jury. The last statute (c. 31), regulated the relief to be had against the hundred, by persons whose property had been injured by rioters, and laid down the mode of procedure to be followed in applying for redress.

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On the 27th of February, Sir John S. Copley, master of the Rolls, moved for leave to bring in "a Bill for the Improvement of the Administration of Justice in the Court of Chancery," founded on the report of the preceding year. He introduced his motion by a very luminous exposition of the nature of the alterations proposed to be made, and the principles on which they were founded. called forth a number of speeches, abounding, as usual, in absurd vituperation of lord Eldon. But the changes that occurred, prevented the bill from going forward. The greatest judge that England ever had, resigned his high office; and forthwith Mr. Brougham and sir James Scarlett discovered, that lord Lyndhurst, sir John Leach, and sir Anthony Hart, would infallibly do, and do well, what lord Eldon, sir J. Copley, and sir J. Leach, had not been able to do.

On the 2nd of July the parlia

ment was prorogued. The follow ing was the speech of the lords commissioners :

"My Lords, and Gentlemen; "We are commanded by his Majesty to express to you the satisfaction which his Majesty feels in being enabled, by the state of the Public Business, to release you from further attendance in parlia

ment.

"His Majesty directs us to inform you, that he continues to receive from all Foreign Powers, assurances of their earnest desire to cultivate relations of friendship with his Majesty; and that his Majesty's best efforts, as well as his Majesty's communications with his Allies, are unceasingly directed to the termination of existing hostilities, and to the maintenance of general peace.

"Gentlemen of the House of

Commons;

"His Majesty commands us to thank you for the Supplies which you have granted for the service of the present year, and to assure

you that his Majesty has given directions for a careful revision of the Financial State of the Country, with a view to every diminution of expenditure which may be found consistent with the necessary demands of the Public Service, and with the permanent interests, good faith, and honour, of the nation.

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My Lords, and Gentlemen; "His Majesty is confident that you participate with his Majesty in the pleasure which his Majesty derives from the indications of a gradual revival of employment in the manufacturing districts.

"His Majesty trusts, that although your deliberations on the Corn Laws have not led, during the present session, to a permanent settlement of that important question, the consideration of it will be resumed by you early in the ensuing session, and that such an arrangement of it may finally be adopted as shall satisfy the reasonable wishes, and reconcile the substantial interests, of all classes of his Majesty's subjects."

CHAP. VII.

Death of Mr. Canning-Formation of a New Ministry under Lord Goderich-Changes in the Cabinet-COLONIES-INDIA-FOREIGN RELATIONS.

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had borne, in a great degree, a personal character; it was man to man, the soldier and his sword." It was destined to be speedily followed by an event which stretched that interest to its fullest bent, and taught one of the most impressive lessons, that the history of politics presents, of the vanity and uncertainty of ambition.

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The health of Mr. Canning had been in a very delicate state even at the commencement of the session, and the mental anxiety which followed was but little favourable to its restoration. It was not the mere ordinary contests of politics that now claimed his attention: to these he had been too long and too successfully habituated, to regard them as any thing but scenes of triumph; in that arena, there was no weapon of which he was not master, no opponent whom he could need to fear. Neither was it the cares of empire, which the triumph of his talents and his ambition had now laid upon him, that depressed his spirits, and harassed his feelings; he possessed

mind, and tact, and confidence, more than sufficient to bear the weight of them all. It was the unexpected loneliness in which he found himself, that irritated, perplexed, and exhausted. At the very moment when he reached the pinnacle of his fortunes, he found himself left almost alone by those whom he had hoped to use as coadjutors, and of whom the vulgar abuse by the rabble rout could not prevent him from knowing, that, when they left his side, they carried with them much of the confidence, and respect, and attachment, of the country. At the head of such a ministry as he had wished to form, his power would have been inexpugnable, his influence despotic, his situation enviable. As it was, he found himself forced, in some measure, to accept of favour, rather than to command-to negociate for the kind looks of ancient foes, instead of moving on, in the proud spirit of independence, surrounded by ancient friends, who in many a contest had battled by his side against these very men. He saw himself driven, as it were, into the arms of a coalition, whose very name excited jealousy and distrust, while the multifarious differences of its members might call upon him at any moment either to maintain his place by compromising his own consistency, or to leave himself defenceless, by insisting on the sacri

fice of theirs. His pride could not but be deeply wounded, when he found that his power in any degree depended upon the good pleasure of those whom it had long been his boast and his delight to confound by his eloquence, or make the laughing-stock of the country by his wit: much more must "the iron have entered into his soul," when he found that his very fate was placed in their hands. Mr. Can ning, too, was a man of kindly and amiable feelings; and the rupture of old intimacies, and the necessity of conciliating old enmities, where no cordial confidence could ever be reposed, brought with it an irrita tion and disappointment a thousand times more annoying and exhausting, than, to such a head, the mere anxieties of government could ever have become. His care-worn appearance betrayed that the mind was ill at ease within: mind and body panted equally for repose. Soon after the rising of parliament he was visited by an attack of illness, which seemed, however, to yield to medical treatment, and he went down to the duke of Devonshire's seat at Chiswick, to seek tranquillity and enjoy a purer air. The disease returned; inflammation had commenced; it proceeded with a violence and rapidity which set art at defiance; and Mr. Canning expired at Chiswick (the same house in which Mr. Fox had breathed his last), on the morning of the 8th of August, after having been prime minister for only four months.

This unexpected event produced a much more lively sensation in the country, than the stroke which, in the beginning of the year, had driven lord Liverpool from public life. All our kindly feelings, all our respect for intellectual power, all our admiration of high and suc

cessful exertion, join in calling forth almost involuntary regrets, that one who has just gained a splendid, and a hard-earned, prize, should be snatched from it for ever, when he has scarcely been allowed to grasp it. Mr. Canning, too, possessed in his own character, enough to justify the admiration which attended him when living, and the regrets that followed him to the grave. Europe lost in him the ablest statesman, and the Commons of England the finest orator of his day.

Imbued with the very spirit of the classics, he was a most accomplished scholar; and though early introduced into public life, and almost constantly occupied, from the entrance of his manhood, in the details of official business, and the bickerings of party politics, the practical wisdom which he thus treasured up, never impeded the felicity with which, on all occasions, he brought into play the favourite subjects of his youthful studies. His fancy was elegant and prolific ; his taste was exquisite; and to it, much more than to strict logic, were his orations indebted for their charms and their effect. He seldom followed closely out any regular train of argumentation; he never trammelled his reasoning in the stiff forms of the dialectician; but he caught with facility the general bearings, and striking relations of ideas: with never-failing tact he seized those views of his subject which were sure to tell most immediately upon his auditory, and his opponents; and his thoughts flowed from him in a stream of uninterrupted fluency, in periods of the most sounding and graceful declamation. Yet he was never inflated or inane; it would scarcely be possible to select from his speeches a single sample of bom

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