§ LORD ST. LEONARDSMy last Bill relates to a digest of the Criminal Law. If the present Government think, as the last Government thought, that this subject is an important one, I shall be happy to render my services in carrying it out. I propose that this shall be effected by a series of measures. That which I now submit is the first in that direction, and I can assure your Lordships that it has been prepared with great care and attention. It contains some general provisions, and lays down some general rules which will be applicable to the whole subject. I have very much at heart the prevention of murders and minor brutalities between husband and wife. With respect to bodily injuries to a wife, I have made it a distinct crime; and so with regard to any minor brutality. On the question as to the responsibility of a wife for a crime committed in the presence of her husband, the Commissioners to whom these questions of law have been referred, are of opinion that the law should be altered, and that the wife should not be protected unless she could prove that she committed the offence under the actual influence of her husband. There is only one thing more to which I will call your Lordships' attention, and that is the offence of duelling. The Commissioners recommended the punishment of duelling to be removed from the first class to the second, because they thought that when the punishment was reduced to transportation or imprisonment, juries would no longer hesitate to find verdicts of guilty. This is very sensible; but still I have ventured to leave the law as it stands. The offence is now murder, and the punishment the highest that man can inflict—death. And now that the healthy tone of society has done what law never did and never can accomplish—rendered 9 it impossible for a man living in society either wantonly to provoke a, duel, or to refuse the explanation and satisfaction justly duo to another, I would leave it to some other time, if it should become necessary, to alter the law. We know not what the effect of degrading the punishment, if I may so express myself, might be. Society might no longer exercise its influence in this direction. Look at the effect of putting down boxing, fair fighting amongst the lower orders, which was rendered necessary by the brutal and brutalising prize fights. From my boyhood upwards, if man or boy, at the moment of quarrel, happened to have an offensive; weapon in his hand, he cast it far from him, and "up with his fists." A fair fight ensued: but, now that such personal encounters are not permitted, there must be resort to some means of punishing an insult—an Englishman no longer hesitates to search for his knife, and plunges it into the abdomen of his antagonist. I have, therefore, left the law applicable to duelling as I found it. I have made a separate provision to meet such cases as those of Cannon the sweep's. If men will abuse the strength which God has given them, the law should guard us as far as may be from their murderous assaults. I have added to the severe punishment, solitary confinement. The law was found strong enough to punish Cannon, who is now under sentence of transportation; but although the offence would fall within one of the general classes, yet, as in the case of assaults of husbands upon wives, I have made it the subject of a separate provision, in order-that such ruffians may know that the Legislature has provided against their particular crime, and that the provision may be generally circulated, in the hope of putting an end to such atrocities. The noble and learned Lord then presented a Bill to consolidate and amend the Criminal Law of England, so far as relates to Incapacity to commit Crimes, Duress, Criminal Intention, Criminal Agency and Participation, and Homicide, and other offences against the Person (Criminal Law Amendment Bill).
LORD CAMPBELLrejoiced that his noble and learned Friend had introduced this Bill; and without, giving any opinion as to how far he could agree to the amendments it contained, he must say he certainly never had the smallest doubt that the criminal law ought to be codified; and 10 he thought the exertions of his noble and learned Friend (Lord Brougham), who was now absent, in reference to this very important subject, had been of the highest value. Though he (Lord Campbell) thought it was fitting and proper that this, the first portion of the intended consolidation of the criminal law, should be introduced and maturely considered, and that it should be passed if it met with the approbation of both Houses of Parliament, he was clearly of opinion that it should not come into operation until the whole object was completed. If a contrary course were taken, it would be the first time in any nation that a new code of laws had been put into force piecemeal. The inconvenience that must arise by such a mode of proceeding was at once obvious. However, these observations were not arguments against the introduction of the Bill, and his only object in rising on the present occasion was to suggest to his noble and learned Friend the propriety of inserting a clause postponing the operation of the Bill until the whole code was completed. If his noble and learned Friend objected to do so, he should feel it his duty to propose a clause of that kind at some future stage of the Bill. With regard to duelling, he entirely concurred with what had fallen from his noble and learned Friend, and he thought the measures proposed would have the effect of reducing it to even a lower ebb than it was at present, Duelling did not require to be put down by law, as public opinion was already putting it down; but he thought that duelling should still be in the eye of the law murder, and that it should remain with those who advised the Crown in these cases to say whether, under the peculiar circumstances, the law should take its course.
§ Bill read 1a.