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a first offence , and every person in court wished her acqi «**« il . The jury watched the testimony very narrowly , to see if any thing could be laid hold of in her favour .
Lord Kenyon told the jury , that they werei not to take any of the alleviating circumstances into consideration in their verdict , what , ever palliation they mi ^ ht , be ; and the woman was found guilty . Lord Kenyon proceeded to pass the sentence of the law * When
the woman heard the sentence of death , she shrieked and fell life - less to the ground . Lord Kenyon , who was endowed with
sensibility , instantly called out —My good woman , / do not mean to hang you . —Will nobody persuade the poor woman that she is not to be hanged ! 44
This case made n great impression upon myself , as well as on every one present . I have frequently heard the same noble Lord pass sentence , not on the prisoner before him ^ but on the law . " 9
Mr . Morris * Speech in the House of Commons on Sir Samuel Romillifs Bill * Reported in Flower ' s Pol . Revie w * v . ix . p . 76 . many years ago , upon the Norfolk circuit , a larceny was
committed by two men in a poultry yard , but only one of them was apprehended : the other having escaped into a distant part of the country , had eluded all pursuit * At the ijext assize ** , the apprehended thief was tried and convicted , but Lord Loughborough , before whom he was triedr
thinking , th « offence a veVy slight one , sentenced iitm only to a few months' imprisonment . The news SF this \ sentence h&ving reached tl ^ e accomplice , in his retreat , he immediately returned , and sur-
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rendered himself to take his . trial at the next assizes . The next assizes came ; but , unfortunately a ... the prisoner , it was a different judge who presided ; and still
more unfortunately , Mr . Justice Gould , who happened to be the judge , though of a very mild and indulgent disposition , had observ . ed , orahought he had observed , that men who set out with
stealing fowls generally end by committing th ^ most atrocious crimes ; and building a sort of system upon this observation , had made it a rule to punish this offence with great severity , and be accordingly ,
to the great astonishment of thi * unhappy man , sentenced him to be transported . While one was taking his departure for Botany Bay , the term of the other ' s imprisonment had expired : and what must have been the notions which that little public who witnessed and compared these two examples , formed of our system of criminal jurisprudence ?** Sir Samuel Romilly ' s Speech in the House of Commons , Feb . 9 * 1810 .
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On the Extract from the Eclectic Review . Sir , Your extract from the Eclectic Review ( pp , 92—94 ) brought to my mind several circumstances ,
which made g , deep impression on it some years back , when I was at the University of Cam bridge y and when the proceedings against * a noted academic excited at that
place a great deal of attention . I was then ^ acquainted with the writer of the article , who from hi& mode of writing may easiffy be detected as not being a member of the University , though , if h «
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On the Extracts from the Eclectic Review . 165
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), March 2, 1812, page 163, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1746/page/27/
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