The Earl of Stradbrokepresented a Petition from Stow, in Suffolk, expressing the feeling of the Petitioners respecting the late fires in that county, and stating, amongst other things, that those fires were not confined to hours of darkness, but that such was the boldness of the perpetrators, they sometimes selected the daylight, and even the hours of Divine Service, for the accomplishment of their wicked designs. The Petitioners prayed their Lordships to take the subject into their immediate consideration, and by the appointment of a Commission or otherwise to inquire into the cause or causes of the increasing evil. It was not his intention to speculate as to those causes which produced these fires; but he might perhaps be allowed to state, that as far as he could form an opinion from the evidence which had come before him, he was inclined to say that they had been committed either by children or by persons of dissolute character. They might proceed from various causes, but he was disposed to attribute them to the existence of a large and gradually increasing population, who, owing to deficiencies in the harvest, found it extremely difficult to obtain constant employment. What he wished to call the attention of Her Majesty's Government to was, that under the Act for punishing persons guilty of these offences—guilty of setting fire to sheds in fields—there did not appear to be any adequate punishment. He believed it had been decided by the Judges that a Magisstrate could not send persons for trial, or render them liable to a punishment for felony, merely on account of fires of this description. An instance occurred in Stowmarket where the parties were arrested, but the Magistrates were obliged to discharge them, believing that they could not commit them to trial for a felony. Another point was this—that under the same Act the utmost punishment which could be inflicted for setting fire to stand- 1092 ing crops was transportation for seven years; and he was one of those who felt that that was not an adequate punishment for such an offence.
§ Lord Denmansaid, that there was a difference of opinion amongst the Judges as to the firing of outhouses being punishable as a felony. Some Judges had considered, without any doubt, that the burning of detached dwellings and outhouses was so punishable; but others were of opinion that an outhouse meant something near the dwelling. He would take the liberty of suggesting, since there was a doubt on the subject, that there would be no impropriety in introducing a measure to make the law clear, and to provide distinctly that the setting fire to outhouses fell within the crime of arson. He regretted to hear the noble Earl attribute those unfortunate and atrocious acts to some state of the population in general. According to the experience which he (Lord Denman) had an opportunity of forming throughout the country, he would not say that those fires were attributable to any general cause of the kind. In no one instance that came within his observation could he say that they were symptomatic of a general state of discontent. On the contrary, when there had been several fires in the calendar, and when the first impression respecting them had been that which the noble Earl had stated, he was surprised to find that each particular case was attributable and traceable to some particular cause, and to the want of feeling upon the part of some extraordinary mischievous, stupid, and ignorant person.
Lord Campbellagreed in what had fallen from his noble and learned Friend, and thought, that if the present state of the law was defective, it ought to be amended. He rejoiced that the noble Earl had not joined in the cry respecting the mitigation of the penal code in cases of arson. His (Lord Campbell's) belief was, that the mitigation of the severity of the law in this, as in other cases, had had a strong tendency to lessen the number of those offences.
§ Lord Wharncliffesaid, he would mention to the Secretary of State for the Home Department the suggestions which had been made, and which he was sure would receive his attentive consideration.
§ Petition laid upon the Table.
§ House adjourned to Friday.