has been the lot of better men than myself in all ages of the world; and that fraternal solicitude of affection, so plentifully and strikingly manifested in my behalf, has rendered this trial the most consoling, the most exhilarating, and the most triumphant transaction of my life." CHAP. VII. Mr. Wakefield called up for Judgment-His Address to the Judges Commitment to the King's Bench Prison Brought up to the Court for Sentence-Address from Mr. Justice Grose-Sentence-Generous Testimony of Attachment from his Friends and the Public. 1799. AFTER a few weeks passed by Mr. Wakefield in the enjoyment of his family and friends, the duty of moving the court for judgment was not forgotten by his prosecutor. He was accordingly cited to appear at Westminster on April the 18th, when he addressed the Judges of the court, in a speech prepared for the occasion. The leading topics of this address are undoubtedly widely different from those generally delivered in a court of justice. Of this he was as fully aware as any of his audience could possibly be; and it should be remembered that the mitigation of punishment, the usual design of such addresses, and which he by no means overlooked, could not, in his circum stances, be a principal object. He knew too well the complexion of the times. Nor could he so soon forget what invectives the ministry, and especially the Attorney-General, in his capacity of a senator, had poured out upon him when his case, previous to his trial, was acci dentally mentioned in the House of Commons. Thus the expectations of influencing the determination of his sentence by any pleas which he could offer, were small indeed. His chief design now was, to seize an opportunity of avowing his sincere and matured opinion on public questions of high importance, in a moral, if not in a political view. The singularity of the subjects thus brought forward, not unnaturally, excited the surprise of many in the court. Yet it might surely have been expected that the address of an eminent scholar, delivered in circumstances so interesting, would have been heard by persons of liberal education with respectful attention. This was far from being the case as to some of the junior counsel, who took no pains to conceal their impatience. Notwithstanding every discouragement, he kept in view the favourite maxim of his friend Dr. Jebb, that "no effort is lost." The prospect, though distant, of exciting the attention of his countrymen to what he esteemed glar ing defects in our institutions, however they might be sanctioned by time, was more than sufficient to animate his exertions, and readily superseded all considerations of iuferior moment. Whatever difference of opinion may be entertained respecting the importance and utility of his observations, his sincerity in delivering them, under such circumstances, can scarcely be called in question. In this "Address to the Judges," Mr. Wakefield points out the distinction between "a case of active violence, or positive hostility," and " opinions and exertions of intellect in written appeals to the understandings of men, who call themselves free, where actual violence is not only not exerted, but discouraged and condemned in explicit language." He then argues, at some length, against "a position to the following purport, in a pamphlet published in vindication of the bridewell of Cold-Bath-Fields, as the basis of the penal regulations in that place-Punishment and restraint must be employed, until the mind of the prisoner is subdued:" which language he considers as implying "a supposition of melioration to the dispositions of an offender by a system of severity-an expectation that repentance and reformation may be forced on the mind through violence and rigour. Now it appears to me," he adds, "most indubitable, from every principle of reason, and every deduction of experience, that effects of a nature extremely different must unavoidably take place from harshness and austerity: namely, exasperation and obduracy on the part of a person thus treated; not without a gradual extinction, in the punisher, of all those charities and sensibilities, which alone redeem our natures from a degradation below the savageness of mere brutality." But there was one part of this Address which appeared to excite peculiar surprise, and would, no doubt, by the generality of the court, be regarded as highly extravagant. Mr. Wakefield, whose abhorrence of capital punishments has been already noticed,' declared his opinion that "even a murderer," instead of being cut off by the executioner, ought rather to be subjected to a humane discipline, till he should become reformed by the gradual but almost certain process of expostulation and restraint. In this notion, however generally exploded, he is not entirely singular. It has been supported on the grounds of Christian benevolence and political expe VOL. II. See "Mem." i. 309-318. |