Penal laws, which are either obsolete or absurd, or which have arisen from an adherence to rules of Common Law when the reasons have ceased upon which these rules are founded; and in short, all Laws which appear not to be consonant to the dictates of truth and justice, the feelings of Humanity, and the indelible rights of Mankind should be abrogated and repealed.[5] [Footnote 5: Blackstone.] But the deficiency of the Criminal Code does not arise solely from an erroneous and undigested scale of penalties and punishments. While on the one hand, we have to lament the number of these applicable to certain offences of a slight nature; we have equally to regret, that there exist crimes of considerable enormity, for the punishment of which the Law has made no provision. Among the most prominent of these crimes, may be ranked the receiving _Cash or Specie, Bank-Notes_ or _Bills, knowing them to be stolen_. To this very high offence, in its nature so productive of mischief in a Commercial Country, no punishment at all attaches; inasmuch as _Specie, Notes and Bills_, are not considered for this purpose to be _Goods and Chattels_; and the law only makes it a crime to receive property so described. If therefore a notorious Receiver of stolen goods shall be convicted of purchasing a glass bottle or a pewter pot, he is liable to be punished severely; but if he receives ten or twenty thousand pounds in _Cash_, _Bank Notes_, or _Bills_, he escapes with impunity![6] [Footnote 6: It is said the same construction of the Law has been made with respect to the Offence of buying or receiving Horses, knowing them to be stolen.] Innumerable almost are the other instances which could be collected from Reporters of Criminal Cases, shewing the deficiency of the Criminal Code; and in how many instances substantial justice is defeated, and public wrongs are suffered to go unpunished, through the objections and quibbles constantly raised in Courts of Justice; and which are allowed to prevail, principally, for want of that revision of our laws and those amendments which the present state of Society and Commerce requires. One of the chief nurseries of Crimes is to be traced to the Receivers of Stolen Property. Without that easy encouragement which these Receivers hold out, by administering immediately to the wants of criminals, and concealing what they purloin, a Thief, a Robber, or a Burglar, could not in fact, carry on his trade. And yet, conclusive and obvious, as this remark must be, it is a sorrowful truth, that in the Metropolis alone there are at present supposed to be upwards of Three Thousand Receivers of various kinds of stolen Goods; and an equal proportion all over the Country, who keep open shop for the purpose of purchasing at an under-price--often for a mere trifle,--every kind of property brought to them; from a nail, or a glass bottle, up to the most valuable article either new or old; and this without asking a single question.