Facility with which

capital punishments are enacted.

Yesterday was read a third time in the House of Commons and passed, a Bill to make the destroying, or beginning to destroy, by persons riotously assembled, any of the machinery employed in collieries, a capital felony. The Bill was brought into the House by Mr. Lambton, a considerable owner of collieries; but neither on moving for leave to bring in the Bill, nor in any stage of it, was the attention of the House in any manner called to this penal enactment. The offence is already by a former statute a felony, felony, punishable with transportation. That this severity has not been sufficiently efficacious; that the crime is in any degree increasing; that any remarkable instance of it has of late occurred, was not stated by any one. But, as if the life of man was of so little account with us, that any one might at his pleasure add to the long list of capital crimes which disgrace our Statute Books, the Bill passed through all its stages as matter of course, without a single statement or inquiry, or remark being made by any one. As soon as I knew of the Bill, I watched it through its last stages; but, after consuming many hours in the House to my great inconvenience in a fruitless attendance, I was never able to be present when the Bill came on. To-day, on occasion of the third reading of a Bill requiring the clerks of assize and of the peace in Ireland to make returns to Government of the criminals tried at the different assizes and quarter sessions, I spoke of this penal Bill which had passed yesterday; animadverted upon the facility with which such Bills were passed; and expressed

a hope that in the Lords, in which such great difficulties were made whenever it was proposed to abolish any one capital offence, some more attention and consideration would be given to this Bill for adding to such offences, than had been done in the Commons. I made these observations in the confident expectation that they would appear in the newspapers of the next day, and be read by some of the peers; but, to my mortification, I did not observe that any notice was taken in any of the papers of what I had said.

27th, Th. I mentioned this Bill to Lord Lauderdale, Lord Holland, and Lord Shaftesbury, and they all said they would attend to it. The real reason, I believe, for making this new capital felony, is, that the principal object of the Bill is to give the owners of collieries, whose property is injured by any such outrages as the act contemplates, an action against the hundred; and there is not, that I know of, any instance of such an action being given, but in the case of a capital felony. It is not from any desire to hang the poor wretches who may be convicted on this law that it is passed, but because, without exposing them to be hanged, the proprietors of collieries do not know how to decide that they may have a remedy against the hundred.

July 2d, Tu. Parliament was prorogued.

funeral.

13th, Sat. On the invitation of the family of Sheridan's Richard Brinsley Sheridan, I this day attended his funeral.* I understood that it was to be very

* He died on Sunday, the 7th of July.

private, and that he was to be followed to the grave only by a few of his friends, and of those who had been particularly connected with him in politics. When I arrived at Peter Moore's house in George Street, to which the body had been removed, as being near to Westminster Abbey, where it was to be buried, I was astonished at the number and the description of persons who were assembled there *; the Duke of York, Lord Sidmouth, Lord Mulgrave, Lord Anglesea, Lord Lynedoch, Wellesley Pole, and many others, whose politics have been generally opposite to Sheridan's, and who could grace the funeral with their presence, only to pay a tribute to his extraordinary talents. How strange a contrast! For some weeks before his death, he was nearly destitute of the means of subsistence. Executions for debt were in his house; and he passed his last days in the custody of sheriffs' officers, who abstained from conveying him to prison merely because they were assured that to remove him would cause his immediate death; and now, when dead, a crowd of persons the first in rank, and station, and opulence, were eager to attend him to his grave. I believe that many, and I am sure that some, of the mourners were self-invited. Such certainly were three of the Prince's friends, Lord Yarmouth, Bloomfield, and Leach. They sent a letter from Carlton House the day before the funeral, expressing a desire to attend, and their offer was not refused. The Prince, about ten days be

* Among his old friends who attended were the Duke of Bedford, Lord George Cavendish, Lord Robert Spencer, Lords Holland, Erskine, and Lauderdale.

fore Sheridan's death, when he was in great distress, and after some of the newspapers had observed upon the strange inattention he met with, had sent him a present of 2001. ; but Mrs. Sheridan had the spirit to refuse it, and when she communicated to her husband what she had done, he approved her conduct. The immediate cause of his death was reported to be an abscess; but the truth is, that his constitution was nearly worn out, and that his death was rapidly accelerated by grief, disappointment, and a deep sense of the neglect he experienced.

30th, Tu. My dear Anne, with all our children, except William, who is in Shropshire, and John, who is at school, set off this day for Cheltenham, and I remain in town till the Chancellor's sittings shall terminate.

Aug. 30th, Fri. I set out (after coming out of Court, for the Chancellor's sittings have lasted till this morning) for Cheltenham.

31st. Through Oxford to Cheltenham.

Sept. 1. 2. & 3. Remained at Cheltenham. Met there M. de Bourke the Danish Minister, Mr. Pattison the American, Matthias, &c.

4th. Set out with Anne and the children, passed through Gloucester, Newnham, by the banks of the Severn to Chepstow, and from thence through Cardiff to Cowbridge.

5th, Th. Looked over my estate at Barry and Porthkerry, and in the evening returned from Cowbridge to Cardiff, where we slept.

6th, Fri. By the banks of the Taaffe, a beautiful drive to Merthyr Tydvil, from thence to

Wetness of

the season.

Brecon, Hay, and Cabalva, Mr. Davies's; remained at Cabalva, where William met us, till

21st, Sat. When we went to J. Whittaker's at the Grove, not far from Presteign. Stayed there till we removed to Knill, on Wednesday, Sept. 25. Oct. 8th, Tu. Set out for Tanhurst, passed through Hereford and Ledbury, slept at Upton. 9th, Wed. Through Oxford, slept at Henley. 10th, Th. Arrived at Tanhurst.

The weather has been uncommonly wet throughout the summer, and during the whole of this last journey through Herefordshire, Worcestershire, Oxfordshire, Berkshire, and Surrey, we saw the greatest part of the harvest on the ground, drenched with the heavy rains which have lately fallen, in an extremely bad state, and great part of it likely to be lost. In the neighbourhood of the Thames, and in many other places, the country was flooded to a very great extent. In other places, the crops were still standing; and often in the adjoining fields, the new wheat was rising and very Prospect of high on the ground. In Radnorshire and the part of Herefordshire we have been staying in, the prospect is extremely alarming. There must be a very great scarcity of wheat and barley. The potatoes, too, which form so large a part of the food of the poor, have greatly failed; and, to add to their distress, the long continuance of rain has prevented them from getting peat from the moors, and laying in their usual stock of winter fuel.

scarcity.

The Lord Mayor's dinner.

Oct. We left Tanhurst and returned to town. Nov. 9th, Sat. I dined at Guildhall at the Lord Mayor's dinner. Though always invited, I never