Samuel Romilly - Legal Reforms

Legal Reforms

It was now that Romilly commenced the greatest labour of his life, his attempt to reform the criminal law of England and Wales, then at once cruel and illogical. His work in reforming criminal law began with his Thoughts on Executive Justice (1786), which developed the views of Beccaria. By statute law, innumerable offences were punished by death, but, as such wholesale executions would be impossible, the larger number of those convicted and sentenced to death at every assizes were respited, after having heard the sentence of death solemnly passed upon them. This led to many acts of injustice, as the lives of the convicts depended on the caprice of the judges, while at the same time it made the whole system of punishments and of the criminal law ridiculous.

Romilly saw this, and in 1808, he managed to repeal the Elizabethan statute, which made it a capital offence to steal from the person. This success, however, raised opposition, and in the following year, three bills repealing equally sanguinary statutes were thrown out by the House of Lords under the influence of Lord Ellenborough. Year after year, the same influence prevailed, and Romilly saw his bills rejected; but his patient efforts and his eloquence ensured victory eventually for his cause by opening the eyes of the people of England and Wales to the barbarity of their criminal law. The only success he had was in securing the repeal in 1812 of a statute of Elizabeth making it a capital offence for a soldier or a mariner to beg without a pass from a magistrate or his commanding officer.

Romilly's efforts made his name famous not only in the UK but all over Europe, and in 1818, he had the honour of being returned at the head of the poll for the city of Westminster. However, he died shortly afterwards.