to put it in another point of view. In the reign of the Plantagenets, the number of capital offences created was four; in that of the Tudors, twenty-seven; in that of the Stuarts, thirty-six; in the reign of the House of Brunswick, one hundred and fiftysix. Or to make it still stronger, more crimes have been denounced as capital in the reign of his present Majesty, than in the reigns of the Plantagenets, the Tudors, and the Stuarts combined." To show the uncertainty of its execution consequent upon the severity of the law, he said,

"You will observe, that every criminal has certain natural chances of escape. He commits a felony; that felony may never be discovered; if discovered, he may not be suspected as its author; if suspected, proof may be wanting; proof being supplied, he may not be apprehended. These are natural chances in favor of the criminal; they must be calculated at something; but whether that something be two to one, or one hundred to one in favor of the criminal, is a matter of indifference to my argument. I will put them at that to which I think they most nearly approach, namely, five to one. But I have proved that it is highly probable that the reluctance to prosecute augments his natural chances of escape ten to one; that is, what was by nature five to one, becomes fifty to one. I have proved, that the reluctance of juries to convict in capital cases, doubles these chances; so we have arrived at one hundred to one in favor of the criminal, that he will not be capitally convicted. Being capitally convicted, what are his chances against execution? Government has saved me the trouble of calculating this. It appears that if a criminal be capitally convicted, it is ten to one he will not be executed; so that we are arrived at this it is five to one he will not be detected; fifty to one he will not be prosecuted; one hundred to one he will not be convicted; and one thousand to one that the sentence pronounced by the law will never be carried into effect.

"Gentlemen will naturally startle at so extraordinary a result. I confess I did so myself when I first considered the subject. I distrusted premises which led to so strange a conclusion. Ithought they proved too much; nevertheless that conclusion is true, and true to a mathematical demonstration."

In spite of the opposition of Government, the motion for the appointment of a committee was carried by a majority of eighteen. Mr. Buxton was included in this committee, as well as in another, appointed nearly at the same time, to examine the state of the gaols throughout the kingdom. The business

of these committees occupied his time and thoughts. Three mornings of the week were devoted to one, and three to the other. Caring little about party politics, he voted as he liked, sometimes with Government and sometimes against it, according to his view of the case. "I feel the greatest interest," he writes to his friend North, "in such subjects as the Slave Trade, the condition of the poor, prisons, and criminal law : to these I devote myself, and should be quite content never to give another vote upon a party question."

It was not till the year succeeding their appointment, that the committee charged with the inquiry into the working of the criminal laws brought their labors to a close. From their report arose the bill of Sir James Mackintosh for the abrogation of the punishment of death in cases of forgery. The speech which Mr. Buxton delivered upon this bill excited even more notice than that delivered upon the motion for a committee. "Sir James Mackintosh said in the House, that it was the most powerful appeal he had ever had the good fortune to hear within the walls of Parliament." " And in a subsequent debate, Mr. (now Lord) Denman remarked, that "more of wisdom, more of benevolence, more of practical demonstration, he had never heard in the course of his parliamentary career, than was contained in the energetic speech of his honorable friend."

The evening after the delivery of this speech, Mr. Buxton received from Mr. Wilberforce the following letter, which gave the direction to the labors of the rest of his life:

"My dear Buxton, London, May 24, 1821. "It is now more than thirty-three years since, after having given notice in the House of Commons that I should bring forward, for the first time, the question concerning the Slave Trade, it pleased God to visit me with severe indisposition, by which, indeed, I was so exhausted, that the ablest physician in London of that day declared that I had not stamina to last above a very few weeks. On this I went to Mr. Pitt, and begged of him a promise, which he kindly and readily gave me, to take upon himself the conduct of that great cause.

"I thank God, I am now free from any indisposition; but from my time of life, and much more from the state of my constitution, and my inability to bear inclemencies of weather, and irregularities which close attendance on the House of Commons often requires, I am reminded, but too intelligibly, of my being in such a

state that I ought not to look confidently to my being able to carry through any business of importance in the House of Commons.

Now, for many, many years I have been longing to bring forward that great subject, the condition of the negro slaves in our trans-Atlantic colonies, and the best means of providing for their moral and social improvement, and ultimately for their advancement to the rank of a free peasantry; a cause this, recommended to me, or rather enforced on me, by every consideration of religion, justice, and humanity.

"Under this impression I have been waiting, with no little solicitude, for a proper time and suitable circumstances of the country, for introducing this great business; and, latterly, for some Member of Parliament, who, if I were to retire or to be laid by, would be an eligible leader in this holy enterprise.

"I have for some time been viewing you in this connection; and after what passed last night, I can no longer forbear resorting to you, as I formerly did to Pitt, and earnestly conjuring you to take most seriously into consideration the expediency of your devoting yourself to this blessed service, so far as will be consistent with the due discharge of the obligations you have already contracted, and in part so admirably fulfilled, to war against the abuses of our criminal law, both in its structure and its administration. Let me then entreat you to form an alliance with me, that may truly be termed holy, and if I should be unable to commence the war (certainly not to be declared this session); and still more, if, when commenced, I should, (as certainly would, I fear, be the case,) be unable to finish it, do I entreat that you would continue to prosecute it. Your assurance to this effect would give me the greatest pleasure — pleasure is a bad term let me rather say peace and consolation; for, alas, my friend, I feel but too deeply, how little I have been duly assiduous and faithful in employing the talents committed to my stewardship; and in forming a partnership of this sort with you, I cannot doubt that I should be doing an act highly pleasing to God, and beneficial to my fellow creatures. Both my head and heart are quite full to overflowing, but I must conclude. My dear friend, may it please God to bless you, both in your public and private course. If it be His will, may He render you an instrument of extensive usefulness; but above all, may He give you the disposition to say at all times, Lord, what wouldst thou have me to do, or to suffer? looking to Him, through Christ, for wisdom and strength. And while active in business and fervent in spirit upon earth, may you have your conversation in heaven, and your affections set on things above. There may we at last meet, together with all we most love, and spend an eternity of holiness and happiness complete and unassailable. Ever affectionately yours, "W. WILBERFORCE."

A charge so important was not lightly to be rejected or assumed; and it was not till a year and a half after the receipt of this letter, that Mr. Buxton fully resolved upon undertaking it. During that interval, he spent what time he could command in a study of the subject in all its bearings. But before we enter upon any view of this, the great object of his life, let us trace to their conclusion the efforts in which he engaged for the improvement of the gaols and of the criminal law.

"The committee on gaols (appointed in 1819) published its first report in 1820, and the government was thereby induced to bring in a bill for consolidating and amending the prison laws then in existence. This bill was referred for revision to a select committee, of which Mr. Buxton was a member." p. 90.

6

"After much patient investigation, a bill was prepared by the committee, and immediately adopted by the two Houses of Parliament; and thus the English gaols, instead of remaining the nurseries and hot-beds of crime, the almost inevitable ruin of all who entered within their walls,' have become, generally speaking, places where the improvement, as well as the punishment of the criminal is attempted. Perfection, of course, is not yet "attained; the new system has been of no avail in those prisons where exertions have not been used to enforce it; but no man can read the descriptions of the state of gaols from twenty-five to thirty years ago, and compare them with those of the present day, without being astonished at the extent of the evil and of the reform." p. 91.

With regard to the reform of the Criminal Law, without following out the particulars of parliamentary warfare, it is enough to say, that Sir James Mackintosh kept the subject constantly in view, and made various efforts to bring about a reform, apparently without success, till Mr. (now Sir Robert) Peel, being Secretary of the Home Department, commenced in 1826 his revision of the code, by which it was cleared of many obsolete and barbarous statutes, and the whole body of the criminal law arranged and consolidated. In 1830, while this work was still going on, Mr. Peel introduced a bill for consolidating the laws relating to forgery, retaining, however, in spite of a strong opposition, the punishment of death in several cases. To express the sense of the men of business in England, that their property would be far safer when protected by a penalty to whose infliction humanity was not

opposed, Mr. Buxton dictated one morning, at breakfast, the form of a petition which, being quickly sent to the principal towns of the kingdom, received the signatures of firms representing above one thousand bankers. It was presented by Mr. Brougham, and had great effect in procuring a majority in the House of Commons against the punishment of death for forgery. The merciful and intelligent Lords reversed the decision; but the question was virtually decided by the vote of the Commons; and no execution for forgery has, since that vote, taken place in Great Britain.

"In succeeding years, the infliction of capital penalties was more and more reduced by the efforts of Mr. Ewart, Mr. Lennard, and others, to whose exertions Mr. Buxton always gave, while he remained in Parliament, his strenuous assistance; and it is satisfactory to know that the number of crimes, now legally punishable with death, is reduced from two hundred and thirty to eight or nine; and that, practically, no executions now take place in England or Wales, except for murder or attempts to murder." p. 247.

We are now come to the great labor and achievement of Mr. Buxton's life-the emancipation of the slaves in the British colonies. His previous exertions, which we have briefly noticed, had developed his powers, displayed his force, and won the respect and confidence of his contemporaries. Wilberforce had seen in him the qualities fit for carrying out those plans, which, as he was conscious, required a younger and more vigorous champion than himself. But our space fails us; and the hasty sketch which we propose to give of the crowning work of Mr. Buxton's life must be reserved for our next number.

7. Bowen

ART. IV. - Dalmatia and Montenegro: with a Journey to Mostar in Herzegovina, and Remarks on the Slavonic Nations; the History of Dalmatia and Ragusa, the Uscocs, &c. By SIR J. GARDNER WILKINSON, F. R. S., &c. London: John Murray. 1848. 2 vols. 8 vo.

THE Countries that form the eastern coast of the Adriatic have been but seldom visited and described by modern trav