ABSTRACT
The criminal law of England was contained in an immense and confused mass of documents, – statutes, ancient and modern records, reported decisions of the judges, and text-books. If the mind of every individual lawyer was required to deduce the law from all these repositories, it was clear that the vast work would not really be done; and if the profession proceeded on tradition, or in conventional agreement with regard to the most commonly occurring cases, it does not appear that the deposited law was of much practical use. For some years past, public opinion had tended more and more towards the abolition of the punishment of death. From the time when Sir Samuel Romilly began his disclosures of the effects of severity of punishment, there had been a growing conviction that severity of punishment tends to the increase of crime.
