Sir Samuel Romilly (1757–1818)

This book is exactly what the title suggests: the memoirs of Romilly, with virtually no notes, index or any other help. Samuel Romilly was an English lawyer, later MP. A member of the Whig party, most notably he advocated the reduction - but not elimination - of the death penalty in British legal practice. Britain had hundreds of capital offenses in Romilly's time, the overwhelming majority of which were for relatively inconsequential crimes. Romilly sought to make the laws more just by removing the harsh penalties from situations where they were not needed and reserving them for serious crimes like murder or treason.

Romilly lived and interesting life and wrote well, so the book is worth reading.… (meer)