Note 36 — Chapter II
Reading edition
Romilly's attempts to improve the criminal law began in 1808. For various notices of his efforts, see his Life (3 vols. 1860), especially vol. ii. 243-54, 309, 321, 331, 369, 371, 389-91. Romilly was deeply interested in Dumont's Théorie des Peines Légales (1811), which he read in ms. and tried to get reviewed in the Quarterly (ii. 258, 391; iii. 136). The remarks (ii. 2-3) on the 'stupid dread of innovation' and the savage spirit infused into Englishmen by the horrors of the French revolution are worth notice in this connection.