About | HeinOnline Law Journal Library | HeinOnline Law Journal Library | HeinOnline

LOG IN
LOG IN


1 Anti-Draco, or, Reasons for Abolishing the Punishment of Death in Cases of Forgery 398 (1830)

handle is hein.agopinions/andrc0001 and id is 1 raw text is: -98 Capital Punishment qf Forgery. Jan. ment which, with the wise and learned, was to be an everlasting check to all kinds of superstitious delusion; and, consequently, was to be useful as long as the world endured. The argument is far from satisfying us, either in its old form, or in its new one, that miracles are in themselves impossible ; or, being possible, are yet incapable of proof. Nothing but the sense of an argumentative compulsion, from which there was no escape, ought to be allowed, either in this, or in any other case, to debar the human understanding from going into the freest enquiry, by thus putting in a general demurrer. It is quite another question, what ought to be the nature of the evidence, to render miracles at all probable; and what may be the accompanying conditions necessary to support a claim, which, by its very nature, is subject to the greatest difficulties, and on which the boundless fraud and folly of mankind have accumulated the greatest possible quantity of suspicion. Art. VII.-Anti-Draco; or, Reasons for abolishing the Punish- ment of Death in Cases of Forgery. By a Barrister. 8vo. Lon- don : 1830. IT is understood that the manuscripts of Sir Samuel Romilly contain matter of a very high interest to the science of juris- prudence. They are said to comprise his speculations upon all the most important questions which have of late agitated men's minds connected with this subject. He had directed his atten- tion to the amendment of the law, especially the criminal law, from a very early period ; and had perceived the expediency of some reforms, and the necessity of others, long before it ever entered into the imaginations of most other men that any juri- dical thing could be different from what it is, or that any thing could be better than the provisions of the English law in all its branches. Of the various improvements which he proposed, and which would all have been thought wild imaginations of a visionary speculator had they been made public at the time, it is remarkable that a large proportion are now either the law of the land, or almost certain of speedily becoming so. From hence we might draw a very favourable inference touching the rest which are still resisted, and predict their soon being accepted, if we were made acquainted with their nature and purport. Can any one doubt that it would be of the greatest benefit to the community to have access to these important manuscripts, were it for no other reason than to give the proposed reforms of the law the advantage of such high authority in their favour?