Британ саяхатшысы және заң реформаторы Сэмюэль Ромилли

British politician

Sir Samuel Romilly (1 March 1757 – 2 November 1818), was a British lawyer, politician and legal reformer. From a background in the commercial world, he became well connected, and rose to public office and a prominent position in Parliament. After an early interest in radical politics, he built a career in chancery cases, and then turned to amelioration of the British criminal law.

Romilly was born in Frith Street, Soho, London, the second son of Peter Romilly, a watchmaker and jeweller, and his wife Margaret Garnault, daughter of Aimé Garnault, another jeweller. He was largely self educated. Romilly had Sir Samuel Fludyer, 1st Baronet as godfather and first cousin once removed, and prospects for entering his business; but Sir Samuel died in 1768, followed by his brother Sir Thomas in 1769, and the opportunity fell away He served for a time in his father's shop. He became a good classical scholar, and was conversant with French literature. The family was Huguenot, and spoke French at home. They attended the French Protestant Chapel in Soho, where John (Jean) Roget from Geneva was pastor. Roget introduced Romilly to the works of Jean Jacques Rousseau, and he became a follower. Romilly was articled in 1773 to William Michael Lally, a chancery solicitor.

In 1778, Romilly decided on a career as barrister, and entered Gray's Inn. He was a pupil of Jeffries Spranger, an equity draughtsman. Staying for a period with David Chauvet, one of the progressive group of local politicians, Romilly met the like minded Etienne Clavière, among others. A friend from the Paris leg of this visit was Marguerite Madeleine Delessert (1767–1839), later Madame Gautier. Her mother was Madeleine Catherine Boy de La Tour, who married Etienne Delessert (1735–1816). Marguerite became the wife of the Genevan banker Jean Antoine Gautier (1756–1800), who moved to Paris. Romilly stayed at the Delessert home in Passy.

In 1783, immediately after being called to the bar, Romilly made a second tour. This time he was accompanied in France by John Baynes, and met Benjamin Franklin at Passy, to whom Baynes had an introduction from John Jebb. In Lausanne he met the Abbé Raynal. In the meantime, the failed Geneva Revolution of 1782 had occurred. Romilly was introduced in 1784 to Honoré Mirabeau, by the Genevan writer François d'Ivernois, as his Memoirs state; Halevy says it was through Thomas Brand Hollis. D'Ivernois and Dumont formed part of the group of the revolution's leaders who by then were exiles in London. Mirabeau saw him daily for a long time. In what has been called the Bowood circle, Jeremy Bentham, with whom Romilly was acquainted, became a friend, and he had much to do with Benjamin Vaughan, another friend.

In 1789 Romilly visited Paris, and studied the course of the French Revolution there, also visiting the dungeon at Vincennes where Mirabeau had been confined. When Mirabeau became a political leader, it was to Romilly that he applied for an account of the procedure used in the House of Commons of Great Britain. Romilly's abilities were recognized by the Whig party. The Marquess of Lansdowne offered him in 1792 the parliamentary seat of , which Romilly turned down. and in August of that year attended the sedition trial of Thomas Muir, which he regarded as shocking. By the end of 1793 Romilly had concluded that French revolutionary politics amounted to "barbarism". He explained in 1794 to his correspondent Madame Gautier that "public events" had brought about his change of views. In August 1797 he secured the acquittal of the radical John Binns. During the Peace of Amiens, Romilly was in Paris. He visited the Palais Bourbon, where the Legislative Assembly met, with Bentham.

In 1806, on the accession of the Ministry of All the Talents to office, Romilly was offered the post of Solicitor General, although he had never sat in the House of Commons. He accepted, was knighted, and was brought into parliament for Queenborough. He went out of office with the government, but remained in the House of Commons, sitting successively for Horsham, Wareham and Arundel. As he concluded his remarks, Romilly was greeted with a standing ovation by other Members of Parliament, a reaction that very rarely occurred in the House of Commons. Wilberforce himself sat with his head in his hands, tears streaming down his face.

Romilly worked to reform the criminal law, under the influence of what is now called Classical criminology. He spent a dozen years of his life on the passage through Parliament of legislative reforms. He argued against the attitudes to punishments of Martin Madan and William Paley. The so called Bloody Code of justice was, in his view, something that required reform, while, as he stated in his Memoirs, one effect of the French Revolution was to lessen the chances of Parliament passing the necessary legislation. The tide of opinion, however, was beginning to turn. In 1808, Romilly managed to repeal the Elizabethan statute which made it a capital offence to steal from the person. Successful prosecutions of pickpockets then rose. Charles Williams Wynn, on the other hand, saw Romilly's background in equity law, and discrete bills, as inadequate. In 1813 John William Ward found the approach too "philosophical".

A Fragment on the Constitutional Power and Duty of Juries upon Trials for Libels (1784) on juries and the Case of the Dean of St Asaph, anonymous publication by the Society for Constitutional Information. Romilly was buried on 11 November 1818 at the parish church of St Michael and All Angels, Knill, Herefordshire, with his wife Ann.