THE LITERARY PANORAMA, AND National Register : For AUGUST, 1818. NATIONAL AND PARLIAMENTARY NOTICES, (British and Foreign,) PROSPECTIVE AND Retrospective. BANK NOTES: FORGERIES. ACCOUNTS RELATING TO Ordered to be printed by the House of of long continued practices of the most henious description, in order that only so much should be disclosed in evidence to the judge and jury? In these instances, the clemency of the accuser has often screened a practiced offender. In others, the same consideration has be cumstances of peculiar temptation-of the first offence of not being the principal, but a secondary, or an agent, only,-of being betrayed into the crime, or whatever other alleviations might be pleaded-whatever appeals might be made to compassion towards youth and of suffering friends-to former good conduct, or respectability, &c.—all these are urged with zeal and solicitude;the prosecutor feels their influence, and takes his measures accordingly. HUMAN life in despotic states, is little valued, and is at the mercy of the personal disposition of chiefs and go-friended a novice in guilt; and the cirvernors; but, in free states, the life of a subject is forfeit only to the public law of the community, and that law if rigorous, may be abated by the clemency of the prosecutor who urges it; whether this feeling be excited by considerations general or particular. A law which is too severe, speedily be-inexperience towards the sympathies comes a dead letter among ourselves humanity revolts at its execution; and this general compassion of our nature, influences individuals, in their conduct towards the guilty. That there are shades of guilt in the commission of In offences between individuals, it is the same crime, is also universally ac- in the power of the party offended to knowledged; and individuals aggrieved, moderate his sense of the offence, and do in effect, put the guilty on their to demand only a certain portion of justrial in foro conscientiæ, before they ice; whether it is equally so, and wheproceed to enforce the laws which havether it ought to be equally so, in cases been broken. of public crime, is a question not withHow many extensive scenes of most out its difficulty. To answer it, demands villainous and flagrant pillagings to a previous and thorough knowledge of great amount have beer, charged as a rob- the laws applicable to the case; a clear bery under the value of forty shil-view of the real detriment suffered by lings, in order to save the life of a cri- he community from the crime comminal? How often has a single theit uitted; an acquaintance with the freof small value been selected from a mass quency of the crime, and the couse. VOL. VIII. No. 47. Lit. Pun. N. S. Aug. 1. 2 C THE LITERARY PANORAMA, AND National Register : For AUGUST, 1818. NATIONAL AND PARLIAMENTARY NOTICES, (British and Foreign,) PROSPECTIVE AND RETROSPECTIVE. BANK NOTES: FORGERIES. ACCOUNTS RELATING TO BANK NOTES: FORGERIES. Ordered to be printed by the House of Comm: ns. of long continued practices of the most henious description, in order that only so much should be disclosed in evidence to the judge and jury? In these instances, the clemency of the accuser has HUMAN life in despotic states, is often screened a practiced offender. In little valued, and is at the mercy of the others, the same consideration has bepersonal disposition of chiefs and go-friended a novice in guilt; and the cirvernors; but, in free states, the life of a subject is forfeit only to the public law of the community, and that law if rigorous, may be abated by the clemency of the prosecutor who urges it; whether this feeling be excited by considerations general or particular. A cumstances of peculiar temptation-of the first offence of not being the principal, but a secondary, or an agent, only,-of being betrayed into the crime, or whatever other alleviations might be pleaded-whatever appeals might be made to compassion towards youth and law which is too severe, speedily be-inexperience towards the sympathies comes a dead letter among ourselves of suffering friends-to former good humanity revolts at its execution; and conduct, or respectability, &c.-all these this general compassion of our nature, are urged with zeal and solicitude;influences individuals, in their conduct the prosecutor feels their influence, and takes his measures accordingly. That there are towards the guilty. shades of guilt in the commission of the same crime, is also universally acknowledged; and individuals aggrieved, do in effect, put the guilty on their trial in foro conscientiæ, before they proceed to enforce the laws which have been broken. In offences between individuals, it is in the power of the party offended to moderate his sense of the offence, and to demand only a certain portion of justice; whether it is equally so, and whether it ought to be equally so, in cases of public crime, is a question not without its difficulty. To answer it, demands How many extensive scenes of most previous and thorough knowledge of villainous and flagrant pillagings to a great amount have beer, charged as a rob- the laws applicable to the case; a clear bery under the value of forty shil-view of the real detriment suffered by he community from the crime comlings, in order to save the life of a criminal! How often has a single theit itted; an acquaintance with the freof small value been selected from a mass quency of the crime, and the couseVOL. VIII. No. 47. Lit. Pan, N. S. Aug. 1. quences of that frequency; not omitting a reference to the facility or the difficulty of its execution, and to the nature of the temptation annexed to its commission. Even murder itself is not always the same guilty action: though it never can be justified, yet the enormity of a provocation, or the impulse of the moment, will always be allowed to distinguish a personal vengeance from the cool-the circumspect-the diabolical employment of the stiletto of a hired assassin; or the crafty malice of a poisoned beverage, administered under the guise of confidential friendship. The crime of High Treason against cannot qualify himself for the execution of his project, without a perseverance in previous studies, equal to an apprenticeship at some honest business. He cannot attain to the execution of a copper plate proper for the purpose, without acquiring a babit of hand by unremitted practice: he cannot imitate in a passable, in an undistinguishable manner, without the exercise of a determined, a resolute, an indefatigable assiduity. Now, during all this while, during the lapse of time necessary for his purpose, has he no compunctious visitings of nature?". Has he no remorse, no penitence? If not for himself, has he no consideration for others? for those whom he must of necessity involve in his guilt, as his agents ? the State is punished with exemplary severity, not merely because it is directed against superiors by station and importance; but also because it is, in It is not blockheads, it is not fools, its very nature, the result of plots and it is not the unintelligent members of plaus long contemplated, long cherished soc ety, which direct their efforts to this and fostered, in the mind, before it class of counterfeits. Plain, simple, could, by possibility, be matured into upright, illiterate men are not-cannot the ouvert act; and because, also, it be the principals in such undertakcompromises many beside the first au-ings, ex mero motu. They may be, and thor of the act, the man in whose mind the original conception first started. -For, it is evident, that after the meutal conception of such a crime against the public, there must be many opportunities of repelling the thought; no doubt, some are, misled into the acceptance of such inferior participation in guilt, as their nature and station qualify in them for; but, they are not the masters, the first movers in this combination of plan and system. Now, when the thought is advancing to- we say, that no punishment can be too wards design, there must be many op- severe for such as not only violate the portunities of abandoning the design; dictates of their own consciences, as as the scheme ripens into action, the maintain a prolonged opposition to the perseverance in guilt must be stronger remonstrances of their own minds, but and stronger, more resolute, more de- also purposely involve others in the initermined, more inflexible. This conti-quity of their actions, and trepan into nnance, this progress in guilt, differs essentially from a sudden energy of imagination, from a momentary transport, the consequence, perhaps, of a recent affrout, disappointment, or an-tages of honesty and honour.-The guish. The intention, the motive, constitates the crime but the prolongation of this intention, the encouragement of this motive, adds much to the atrocity of the action. And this argument directed to the consideration of the case of Forgery of Bank Notes, it is presumed, includes no slight importance. For, the man who intends to engage in the Forgery of Bank Notes, has many opportunities of re-considering his intention: he crime those (perhaps many) who, but for them, would have preserved their integrity; together with their respectability in society, and all the advan difference surely is great between the two cases; and while the deluded claim our pity, and we willingly grant it, the deiuder must be considered as a hardened villain, and treated according to his demerits. We infer that if an individual would without hesitation make this distinction, then, it cannot be unbecoming in a public body. If the Bank bring some perpetrators of the crime of Forgery to public trial, while others are treated with less severity, it does not follow that mere partiality has been the motive; but rather, that consideration which every such case deserves, Nor will it follow, that the Bauk by commuting the punishment in some cases, to that due to a lesser crime, is guilty of injustice; but that the circumstances of each case have been duly examined, aud those the least flagrant have been compassionately appreciated. We have been led into this train of propa he assumed, every falsity he he met his fate. Is this a solitary case? We wish it were. We wish that too many similar, had not come under our knowledge. But, with our knowledge we must be allowed to comb.ne discretion; for it is thought, by having had opportunities lately of inspecting the early studies of a man executed fo. forgery. It should seem, that he applied himself with uncommon diligence during several years to the acquisition of the Art; that, not deterred by the imperfections, and in fact, the clumsiness of his first efforts, he persevered, till he had conquered his difficulties, and became a Master For-practice of it. Our readers may recol not acquaintance with evil, that is sufficient, at all times, to deter from the Danish Journal, describing a tower, lect, in our pages, an article from a and a lake, so attractive, that many had been tempted to suicide, by throwing themselves into the still and motionless water. Not an individual could of escaping death by drowning, yet flatter himself with the smallest hope the delusion was so powerful, as to require a centinel, a warder, to prevent such shocking scenes. It were the ger, after five or six years of practice. It so happened, that his notes were circulated among the lower classes of a distant county; and thus were the honest but poor labourers who had taken them, deprived, through his villainy, of all the fruit of their labours. Some, when the matter began to be suspected, had not wherewithal to buy a meal's meat-except these forged notes:-and others, who had laid by small sums against "a rainy day," found their de-height of imprudence to approach the pendeure altogether disappointed, and themselves totally ruined. We exercise the prudence of concealment on other parts of this most afflicting case: a case, which alone is sufficient to prove that less than half the pains taken to become a villain and a pest to society, would qualify a man to claim distinction no less by bis ingenuity than by his honesty. And this, we presume think, takes such instances out of the class contemplated by our worthy and benevolent.correspondent, HUMANITAS, (see p. 91.1 This criminal knew from the first, that he was transgressing the laws of conscience, and of his country that he was deeply injuring great, numbers of pers ns, and those of a rank in life that could not afford to be injured every manoeuvre he put in practice to circulate these fabrications, every individual he employed, every disguise to edge of this precipice; or even to None can deplore more than ourselves the loss of lives involved in the crime lie will give us credit for the best wishes of Forgery on the Bank; and the pubto diminish that loss. But, whether less severe provision of law, or by the this might be best accomplished by a execution of severer laws in a wilder See LIT. PAN. - N, S. Vol. III. p. 120: |