who refuse to be any longer restrained by those prin- | for persons to whom you mean to make labour as irk. ciples which have hitherto been held to be as clear as some as possible; but for this very reason, it is the they are important to human happiness. labour to which an untried prisoner ought not to be put.

To begin, then, with the nominative case and the verb-we must remind those advocates for the tread- It is extremely uncandid to say that a man is obstimill, a parte ante (for which the millers a parte post nately and incorrigibly idle, because he will not subwe have no quarrel), that it is one of the oldest max-mit to such tiresome and detestable labour as that of ims of common sense, common humanity, and common the treadmill. It is an old feeling among Englishmen law, to consider every man as innocent till he is proved that there is a difference between tried and untried to be guilty; and not only to consider him to be inno-persons, between accused and convicted persons.cent, but to treat him as if he was so ; to exercise upon These old opinions were in fashion before this new his case not merely a barren speculation, but one magistrate's plaything was invented; and we are conwhich produces practical effects, and which secures to vinced that many industrious persons, feeling that a prisoner the treatment of an honest, unpunished they have not had their trial, and disgusted with the man. Now, to compel prisoners before trial to work nature of the labour, would refuse to work at the at the treadmill, as the condition of their support, treadmill, who would not be averse to join in any must, in a great number of instances, operate as a common and fair occupation. Mr. Headlam says, that very severe punishment. A prisoner may be a tailor, labour may be a privilege as well as a punishment.a watchmaker, a bookbinder, a printer, totally unac- So may taking physic be a privilege, in cases where it customed to any such species of labour. Such a man is asked for as a charitable relief, but not if it is stuffed may be cast into jail at the end of August,* and not down a man's throat whether he say yea or nay. Certried till the March following, is it no punishment tainly labour is not necessarily a punishment: nobody to such a man to walk up hill like a turnspit dog, in has said it is so; but Mr. Headlam's labour is a pun. an infamous machine, for six months? and yet there ishment, because it is irksome, infamous, unasked for, are gentlemen who suppose that the common people and undeserved. This gentleman, however, observes, do not consider this as punishment!-that the gayest that committed persons have offended the lau's; and and most joyous of human beings is a treader, untried the sentiment expressed in these words is the true key by a jury of his countrymen, in the fifth month of to his pamphlet and his system-a perpetual tendency lifting up the leg, and striving against the law of grav- to confound the convicted and the accused. ity, supported by the glorious iuformation which he receives from the turnkey, that he has all the time been grinding flour on the other side of the wall! If this sort of exercise, necessarily painful to sedentary persons, is agreeable to persons accustomed to labour, then make it voluntary-give the prisoners their choice -give more money and more diet to those who can and will labour at the treadmill, if the treadmill (now so dear to magistrates) is a proper punishment for antried prisoners. The position we are contending against is, that all poor prisoners who are able to work should be put to work upon the treadmill, the inevitable consequence of which practice is, a repetition of gross injustice by the infliction of undeserved punishment; for punishment, and severe punishment, to such persons as we have enumerated, we must consider it to be.

I

apprehend there is no difference of opinion. All are agreed 'With respect to those sentenced to labour as a punishment, that it is a great defect in any prison where such convicts are unemployed. But as to all other prisoners, whether debtors, persons committed for trial, or convicts not sentenced to hard labour, if they have no means of subsisting themselves, and must, if discharged, either labour for their livelihood or apply for parochial relief, it seems unfair to society at large, and especially to those who maintain themselves by honest indusselves to imprisonment, should be lodged, and clothed, and fed, try, that those who, by offending the laws, have subjected themwithout being called upon for the same exertions which others have to use to obtain such advantages.'-Headlam, pp. 23, 24.

Now nothing can be more unfair than to say that such men have offended the laws. That is the very question to be tried, whether they have offended the laws or not? It is merely because this little circumstance is taken for granted that we have any quarrel at all with Mr. Headlam and his school.

'I can make,' says Mr. Headlam, 'every delicate consideration for the rare case of a person perfectly innocent being committed to jail on suspicion of crime. Such person is des r vedly an object of compassion, for having failen under circumstances which subject him to be charged with crime, and, consequently, to be deprived of his liberty: but if he has been in there does not appear to be any addition to his misfortune in the habit of labouring for his bread before his commitment, being called upon to work for his subsistence in prison.'Headlam, p. 24.

But punishments are not merely to be estimated by pain to the limbs, but by the feelings of the mind. Gentlemen punishers are apt to forget that the common people have any mental feelings at all, and think, if body and belly are attended to, that persons under a certain ncome have no right to likes and dislikes. The labour of the treadmill is irksome, dull, monotonous, and disgusting to the last degree. A man does not see his work, does not know what he is doing, what progress he is making; there is no room for art, contrivance, ingenuity, and superior skill-all which are the cheering circumstances of human labour.. The husbandman sees the field gradually subdued by And yet Mr. Headlam describes this very punishthe plough; the smith beats the rude mass of iron by ment, which does not add to the misfortunes of an indegrees into its meditated shape, and gives it a medi-nocent man, to be generally disagreeable, to be dull, irk tated utility; the tailor accommodates his parallelo- some, to excite a strong dislike, to be a dull, monotonous gram of cloth to the lumps and bumps of the human body, and, holding it up, exclaims, This will contain the lower moiety of an human being.' But the treader does nothing but tread; he sees no change of objects, admires no new relation of parts, imparts no new qual. ities to matter, and gives to it no new arrangements and positions; or, if he does, he sees and knows it not, but is turned at once from a rational being, by a justice of peace, into a primum mobile, and put upon a level with a rush of water or a puff of steam. It is impossible to get gentlemen to attend to the distinction be. tween raw and roasted prisoners, without which all discussion on prisoners is perfectly ridiculous. Nothing can be more excellent than this kind of labour

* Mr. Headlam, as we understand, would extend this labour to all poor prisoners before trial, in jails which are delivered twice a year at the assizes, as well as to houses of correction delivered four times a year at the Sessions; i.e. not to extend the labour, but to refuse all support to those who refuse the labour-a distinction, but not a difference.

labour, to be a contrivance which connects the idea of discomfort with a jail. (p. 36.) So that Mr. Headlam looks upon it to be no increase of an innocent man's misfortunes, to be constantly employed upon a dull, irksome, monotonous labour, which excites a strong dislike, and connects the idea of discomfort with a jail. We cannot stop, or stoop to consider, whether beating hemp is more or less dignified than working in a mill. The simple rule is this,-whatever felons do, men not yet proved to be felons should not be compelled to do. It is of no use to look into laws become obsolete by alteration of manners. For these fifty years past, and before the invention of treadmills, untried men were not put upon felons' work; but with the mill came in the mischief. Mr. Headlam asks, How can men be employed upon the ancient trades in a prison?-cer. tainly they cannot; but are human occupations so few, and is the ingenuity of magistrates and jailers so lim ited, that no occupations can be found for innocent men, but those which are shameful and odious? Does Mr. Headlam really believe, that grown up and bap,

tised persons are to be satisfied with such arguments, | the reflection that his family are existing upon a preor repelled by such difficulties.? carious parish support, that his little trade and proIt is some compensation to an acquitted person,perty are wasting, that his character has become inthat the labour he has gone through unjustly in jail has taught him some trade, given him an insight into some species of labour in which he may hereafter improve himself; but Mr. Headlam's prisoner, after a verdict of acquittal, has leamt no other art than of walking up hill; he has nothing to remember or recompense him but three months of undeserved and unprofitable torment. The verdict of the jury has pronounced him steady in his morals; the conduct of the justices has made him stiff in his joints.

famous, that he has incurred ruin by the malice of others, or by his own crimes, that in a few weeks he is to forfeit his life, or be banished from every thing he loves upon earth. This is the improved situation, and the redundant happiness which requires the penal circumvolutions of the justice's mill to cut off so unjust a balance of gratification, and bring him a little nearer to what he was before imprisonment and accusation. It would be just as reasonable to say, that an idle man in a fever is better off than a healthy man who is well and earns his bread. He may be better off if you look to the idleness alone, though that is doubtful; but is he better off if all the aches, agonies, disturbances, deliriums, and the nearness to death, are added to the lot?

Mr. Headlam's panacea for all prisoners before trial, is the treadmill: we beg his pardon-for all poor pri soners; but a man who is about to be tried for his life, often wants all his leisure time to reflect upon his defence. The exertions of every man within the walls of a prison are necessarily crippled and impaired. What can a prisoner answer who is taken hot and reeking from the treadmill, and asked what he has to say in his defence; his answer naturally is—' I have been grinding corn instead of thinking of my defence, and have never been allowed the proper leisure to think of protecting my character and my life.' This is a very strong feature of cruelty and tyranny in the mill. We ought to be sure that every man has had the fullest leisure to prepare for his defence, that his mind and body have not been harassed by vexatious and compulsory employment. The public purchase, at a great price, legal accuracy. and legal talent, to accuse a man who has not, perhaps, one shilling to spend upon his defence. It is atrocious cruelty not to leave him full leisure to write his scarcely legible letters to his witnesses, and to use all the melancholy and feeble means which suspected poverty can employ for its defence against the long and heavy arm of power.

But it is next contended by some persons, that the poor prisoner is not compelled to work, because he has the alternative of starving, if he refuses to work. You take up a poor man upon suspicion, deprive him of all his usual methods of getting his livelihood, and then giving him the first view of the treadmill, he of the quorum thus addresses him :- My amiable friend, we use no compulsion with untried prisoners. You are free as air till you are found guilty; only it is my duty to inform you, as you have no money of your own, that the disposition to eat and drink which you have allowed you sometimes feel, and upon which I do not mean to cast any degree of censure, cannot possibly be gratified but by constant grinding in this machine. It has its inconveniences, I admit; but balance them against the total want of meat and drink, and decide for yourself. You are perfectly at liberty to make your choice, and I by no means wish to influence your judgment.' But Mr. Nicoll has a curious remedy for all this miserable tyranny; he says it is not meant as a punishment. But if I am conscious that I never have committed the offence, certain that I have never been found guilty of it, and find myself tossed into the middle of an infernal machine, by the folly of those who do not know how to use the power entrusted to them, is it any consolation to me to be told, that it is not intended as a punishment, that it is a lucubration of justices, a new theory of prison discipline, a valuable county experiment going on at the expense of my arms, legs, back, feelings, character, and rights? We must tie those prægustant punishers A prisoner, upon the system recommended by Mr. down by one question. Do you mean to inflict any Headlam, is committed, perhaps at the end of August, degree of punishment upon persons merely for being and brought to trial the March following; and, after suspected? or at least any other degree of punish- all, the bill is either thrown out by the grand jury, or ment than that without which criminal justice cannot the prisoner is fully acquitted; and it has been found, exist, detention? If you do, why let any one out upon we believe, by actual returns, that, of committed pri bail? For the question between us is not, how suspec-soners, about a half are actually acquitted, or their acted persons are to be treated, and whether or not they cusations dismissed by the grand jury. This may are to be punished; but how suspected poor persons very true, say the advocates of this system, but we are to be treated, who want county support in prison. know that many men who are acquitted are guilty. If to be suspected is deserving of punishment, then no They escape through some mistaken lenity of the law, man ought to be let out upon bail, but every one should or some corruption of evidence; and as they have not be kept grinding from accusation to trial; and so had their deserved punishment after trial, we are not ought all prisoners to be treated for offences not bail- sorry they had it before. The English law says, able, and who do not want the county allowance. And better many guilty escape, than that one innocent man yet no grinding philosopher contends, that all suspec- perish; but the humane notions of the mill are bottomted persons should be put in the mill-but only those ed upon the principle, that all had better be punished who are too poor to find bail, or buy provisions. lest any escape. They evince a total mistrust in the If there are, according to the doctrines of the millers, jurisprudence of the country, and say the results of to be two punishments, the first for being suspected of trial are so uncertain, that it is better to punish all the committing the offence, and the second for committing prisoners before they come into court. Mr. Headlam it, there should be two trials as well as two punish-forgets that general rules are not beneficial in each inments. Is the man really suspected, or do his accusers dividual instance, but beneficial upon the whole; that only pretend to suspect him? Are the suspecting of they are preserved because they do much more good better character than the suspected? Is it a light sus than harm, though in some particular instances they picion which may be atoned for by grinding a peck a do more harm than good; yet no respectable man day? Is it a bushel case? or is it one deeply criminal, violates them on that account, but holds them sacred which requires the flour to be ground fine enough for for the great balance of advantage they confer upon French rolls? But we must put an end to such ab- mankind. It is one of the greatest crimes, for instance, surdities. to take away the life of a man; yet there are many It is very untruly stated, that a prisoner, before men whose death would be a good to society, rather trial, not compelled to work, and kept upon a plain than an evil. Every good man respects the property diet, merely sufficient to maintain him in health, is of others; yet to take from a worthless miser, and to better off than he was previous to his accusation; and give it to a virtuous man in distress, would be an adit is asked, with a triumphant leer, whether the situa- vantage. Sensible men are never staggered when they tion of any man ought to be improved, merely because see the exception. They know the importance of the he has become an object of suspicion to his fellow-rule, and protect it most eagerly at the very moment creatures? This happy and fortunate man, however, when it is doing more harm than good. The plain rule is separated from his wife and family; his liberty is of justice is, that no man should be punished till he is taken away; he is confined within four walls; he has found guilty; but because Mr. Headlam occasionally

be

sees a bad man acquitted under this rule, and sent out; unpunished upon the world, he forgets all the general good and safety of the principle are debauched by the exception, and applauds and advocates a system of prison discipline which renders injustice certain, in order to prevent it from being occasional.

Prison discipline is an object of considerable ím portance; but the common rights of mankind, and the common principles of justice, and humanity, and liberty, are of greater consequence even than prison discipline. Right and wrong, innocence and guilt, must not be confounded, that a prison-fancying justice The meaning of all preliminary imprisonment is, may bring his friend into the prison and say, 'Look that the accused person should be forthcoming at the what a spectacle of order, silence, and decorum we time of trial. It was never intended as a punishment. have established here! no idleness, all grinding!--we Bail is a far better invention than imprisonment, in produce a penny roll every second-our prison is sup cases where the heavy punishment of the offence posed to be the best regulated prison in Englandwould not induce the accused person to run away from Cubitt is making us a new wheel of forty felon power any bail. Now, let us see the enormous difference-look how white the flour is, all done by untried prithis new style of punishment makes between two soners-as innocent as lambs! If prison discipline men, whose only difference is, that one is poor and is to supersede every other consideration, why are the other rich. A and B are accused of some bailable pennyless prisoners alone to be put into the mill beoffence. A has no bail to offer, and no money to sup-fore trial? If idleness in jails is so pernicious, why port himself in prison, and takes, therefore, his four or five months in the treadmill. B gives bail, appears at his trial, and both are sentenced to two months' imprisonment. In this case, the one suffers three times as much as the other for the same offence: but suppose A is acquitted and B found guilty-the innocent man has then laboured in the treadmill five months because he was poor, and the guilty man labours two months because he was rich. We are It is a very weak argument to talk of the prisoners aware that there must be, even without the tread- earning their support, and the expense to a county of mill, a great and an inevitable difference between maintaining prisoners before trial-as if any rational men (in pari delicto,) some of whom can give bail, man could ever expect to gain a farthing by an exand some not; but that difference becomes infinitely pensive mill, where felons are the moving power, and more bitter and objectionable, in proportion as de-justices the superintendents, or as if such a trade must tention before trial assumes the character of severe and degrading punishment.

not put all prisoners in the treadmill, the rich as wel as those who are unable to support themselves? Why are the debtors left out? If fixed principles are to be given up, and prisons turned into a plaything for magistrates, nothing can be more unpicturesque than to see one-half of the prisoners looking on, talking, gaping, and idling, while their poorer brethren are grinding for dinners and suppers.

not necessarily be carried on at a great loss. If it were just and proper that prisoners, before trial, If motion in the treadmill was otherwise as fasci- should be condemned to the mill, it would be of no nating as millers describe it to be, still the mere de- consequence whether the county gained or lost by gradation of the punishment is enough to revolt every the trade. But the injustice of the practice can never feeling of an untried person. It is a punishment con- be defended by its economy; and the fact is, that it secrated to convicted felons-and it has every cha- increases expenditure, while it violates principle. We racter that such punishment ought to have. An un-are aware, that by leaving out repairs, alterations, tried person feels at once, in getting into the mill, and first costs, and a number of little particulars, a that he is put to the labour of the guilty; that a mode very neat account, signed by a jailer, may be made of employment has been selected for him, which ren-up, which shall make the mill a miraculous combinaders him infamous before a single fact or argument tion of mercantile speculation and moral improve. has been advanced to establish his guilt. If men are ment; but we are too old for all this. We accuse no put into the treadmill before trial, it is literally of no body of intentional misrepresentation. This is quite sort of consequence whether they are acquitted or out of the question with persons so highly respectable; not. Acquital does not shelter them from punish- but men are constantly misled by the spirit of system, ment, for they have already been punished. It does and egregiously deceive themselves-even very good not screen them from infamy, for they have already and sensible men been treated as if they were infamous; and the association of the treadmill and erimes is not to be got over. This machine flings all the power of juries into the hands of the magistrate, and makes every simple commitment more terrible than a conviction; for, in a conviction, the magistrate considers whether the offence has been committed or not; and does not send the prisoner to jail unless he thinks him guilty but in a simple commitment, a man is not sent to jail because the magistrate is convinced of his guilt, but because he thinks a fair question may be made to a jury whether the accused person is guilty or not. Still, however, the convicted and the suspected both go to the same mill; and he who is there upon the doubt, grinds as much flour as the other whose guilt is established by a full examination of conflicting evidence.

'Where is the necessity for such a violation of common sense and common justice? Nobody asks for the idle prisoner before trial more than a very plain and moderate diet. Offer him, if you please, some labour which is less irksome, and less infamous than the treadmill-bribe him by improved diet, and a share cthe earnings; there will not be three men out of an hundred who would refuse such an invitation, and spurn at such an improvement of their condition. A little humane attention and persuasion, among men who ought, upon every principle of justice, to be considered as innocent, we should have thought much more consonant to English justice, and to the feelings of English magistrates, than the rack and wheel of Cubitt.*

Mr. Headlam compares the case of a prisoner before trial, claiming support, to that of a pauper claiming relief from his parish. But it seems to us that no two cases can be more dissimilar. The prisoner was no pauper before you took him up, and deprived him of his customers, tools, and market. It is by your act and deed that he is fallen into a state of pauperism; and nothing can be more preposterous, than first to make a man a pauper, and then to punish him for be ing so. It is true, that the apprehension and detention of the prisoner were necessary for the purposes of criminal justice; but the consequences arising from this necessary act cannot yet be imputed to the pri soner. He has brought it upon himself, it will be urged; but that remains to be seen, and will not be known till he is tried; and till it is known you have no right to take it for granted, and to punish him as if it were proved.

There seems to be in the minds of some gentlemen a notion, that when once a person is in prison, it is of little consequence how he is treated afterwards. The tyranny which prevailed, of putting a person in a par ticular dress before trial, now abolished by act of Parliament, was justified by this train of reasoning :-The man has been rendered infamous by imprisonment. He cannot be rendered more so, dress him as you will. His character is not rendered worse by the treadmill, than it is by being sent to the place where the treadmill is at work. The substance of this way of thinking is, that when a fellow-creature is in the

reviewing the pamphlet and system of a gentleman remarkable for the urbanity of his manners, and the mildness and hu

* It is singular enough, that we use these observations in manity of his disposition.

frying pan, there is no harm in pushing him into the fire; that a little more misery-a little more infamya few more links are of no sort of consequence in a prison-life. If this monstrous style of reasoning extended to hospitals as well as prisons, there would be no harm in breaking the small bone of a man's leg,because the large one was fractured, or in peppering with small shot a person who was wounded with a cannon-ball. The principle is, because a man is very wretched there is no harm in making him a little more so. The steady answer to all this is, that a man is imprisoned before trial, solely for the purpose of securing his appearance at his trial; and that no punishment nor privation, not clearly and candidly necessary for that purpose, should be inflicted upon him. I keep you in prison, because criminal justice would be defeated by your flight, if I did not: but criminal justice can go on very well without degrading you to hard and infamous labour, or denying you any reasonable gratification. For these reasons, the first of those acts is just, the rest are mere tyranny.

Mr. Nicoll, in his opinion, tells us, that he has no doubt Parliament would amend the bill, if the omission was stated to them. We, on the contrary, have no manner of doubt that Parliament would treat such a petition with the contempt it deserved. Mr. Peel is too much enlightened and sensible to give any countenance to such a great and glaring error. In this case, -and we wish it were a more frequent one-the wisdom comes from within, and the error from without the walls of Parliament.

THERE is a set of miserable persons in England, who are dreadfully afraid of America and every thing American-whose great delight is to see that country ridiculed and vilified-and who appear to imagine that all the abuses which exist in this country acquire additional vigour and chance of duration from every book of travels which pours forth its venom and falsehood on the United States. We shall from time to time call the attention of the public to this subject, not from any party spirit, but because we love the truth, and praise excellence wherever we find it; and because we think the example of America, will in many instances tend to open the eyes of Englishmen to their true interests.

The economy of America is a great and important object for our imitation. The salary of Mr. Bagot, our late ambassador, was, we believe, rather higher than that of the President of the United States. The vice president receives rather less than the second clerk of the House of Commons; and all salaries civil and military, are upon the same scale; and yet no country is better served than America! Mr. Hume has at last persuaded the English people to look into their accounts, and see how sadly they are plundered. But we ought to suspend our contempt for America, and consider whether we have not a very momentous lesson to learn from this wise and cautious people on the

A prisoner before trial who can support himself,ought to be allowed every fair and rational enjoyment which he can purchase, not incompatible with prison discipline. He should be allowed to buy ale or wine in moderation, to use tobacco, or any thing else he can pay for within the above-mentioned limits. If he cannot support himself, and declines work, then he should be supported upon a very plain, but still a plen-subject of economy. tiful diet (something better we think than bread and water); and all prisoners before trial should be allowed to work. By a liberal share of earnings (or rather by rewards, for there would be no earnings); and also by an improved diet, and in the hands of humane magistrates, there would soon appear to be no necessity for appealing to the treadmill till trial was over.

A lesson upon the importance of religious toleration, we are determined, it would seem, not to learn,-either from America or any other quarter of the globe. The High Sheriff of New York last year was a Jew. It was with the utmost difficulty that a bill was carried this year to allow the first Duke of England to carry a gold stick before the king-because he was a Catholic! This treadmill, after trial, is certainly a very excel--and yet we think ourselves entitled to indulge in im lent method of punishment, as far as we are yet ac- pertinent sneers at America, as if civilization did not quainted with its effects. We think, at present, how-depend more upon making wise laws for the promotion ever, it is a little absurd; and hereafter it is our of human happiness, than in having good inns, and intention to express our opinion upon the limits to post-horses, and civil waiters. The circumstances of which it ought to be confined. Upon this point, how- the Dissenters' marriage bill are such as would excite ever, we do not much differ from Mr. Headlam;- the contempt of a Choctaw or Cherokee, if he could be although, in his remarks on the treatment of prisoners brought to understand them. A certain class of Disbefore trial, we think he has made a very serious mis-senters beg they may not be compelled to say that take, and has attempted (without knowing what he they marry in the name of the Trinity, because they was doing, and meaning, we are persuaded, nothing do not believe in the Trinity. Never mind, say the but what was honest and just) to pluck up one of the corruptionists, you must go on saying you marry in the ancient landmarks of human justice.†

* All magistrates should remember that nothing is more easy to a person intrusted with power than to convince himself it is his duty to treat his fellow-creatures with severity and rigour, -and then to persuade himself that he is doing it very reluctantly, and contrary to his real feeling.

We hope this article will conciliate our old friend, Mr. Roscoe who is very angry with us for some of our former lucubrations on prison discipline,-and, above all, because we are not grave enough for him. The difference is thus stated: -Six ducks are stolen. Mr. Roscoe would commit the man to prison for six weeks, perhaps,-reason with him, argue with him, give him tracts, send clergymen to him, work him gently at some useful trade, and try to turn him from the habit of stealing poultry. We would keep him hard at work twelve hours every day at the treadmill, feed him only so as not to impair his health, and then give him as much of Mr. Roscoe's system as was compatible with our own; and we think our method would diminish the number of duck-stealers more effectually than that of the historian of Leo X. The primary duck-stealer would, we think, be as effectually deterred from repeating the offence by the terror of our imprisonment, as by the excellence of Mr. Roscoe's education-and, what is of infinitely greater consequence, innumerable duck-stealers would be prevented. Because punishment does not annihilate crime, it is folly to say it does not lessen it. It did not stop the murder of Mrs. Donatty; but how many Mrs. Donattys has it kept

alive! When we recommend severity, we recommend, of course, that degree of severity which will not excite compassion for the sufferer, and lessen the horror of the crime. This is why we do not recommend torture and amputation of limbs. When a man has been proved to have committed a crime, it is expedient that society should make use of that man for the diminution of crime: he belongs to them for that purpose, Our primary duty, in such a case, is so to treat the culprit that many other persons may be rendered better, or prevented from being worse by dread of the same treatment; and, making this the principal object, to combine with it as much as possible the improvement of the individual. The ruffian who killed Mr. Mumford was hung within forty-eight hours. Upon Mr. Roscoe's principles, this was wrong; for it certainly was not the way to reclaim the man :-We say, on the contrary, the object was to do anything with the man which would render murders less frequent, and that the conversion of the man was a mere trifle compared to this. His death probably prevented the necessity of reclaiming a dozen murderers. That death will not, indeed, prevent all murders in that county; but many who have seen it, and many who have heard of it, will swallow their revenge from the dread of being hanged. Mr. Roscoe is very severe upon our style; but poor dear Mr. Roscoe should remember that men have different tastes, and different methods of going to work. We feel these matters as deeply as he does. But why so cross upon this or any other subject!

name of the Trinity, whether you believe in it or not. We know that such a protestation from you will be false but, unless you make it, your wives shall be concubines, and your children illegitimate. Is it possible to conceive a greater or more useless tyranny than this?

most justly characterized as a very religious people: but they are devout without being unjust (the great problem in religion); an higher proof of civilization than painted tea-cups, water-proof leather, or broadcloth at two guineas a yard.

America is exempted by its very newness as a nation, from many of the evils of the old governments of 'In the religious freedom which America enjoys, I see a more unquestioned superiority. In Britain we enjoy tolera-Europe. It has no mischievous remains of feudal intion, but here they enjoy liberty. If government has a stitutions, and no violations of political economy sancIf a right to grant toleration to any particular set of religious tioned by time, and older than the age of reason. opinions, it has also a right to take it away; and such a man finds a partridge upon his ground eating his corn, right with regard to opinions exclusively religious I would in any part of Kentucky or Indiana, he may kill it, deny in all cases, because totally inconsistent with the na- even if his father is not a doctor of divinity. The ture of religion, in the proper meaning of the word, and Americans do not exclude their own citizens from any equally irreconcilable with civil liberty, rightly so called. branch of commerce which they leave open to all the God has given to each of us his inspired word, and a rational mind to which that word is addressed. He has rest of the world. also made known to us that each for himself must answer at his tribunal for his principles and conduct. What man, then, or body of men, has a right to tell me, "You do not think aright on religious subjects, but we will tolerate your error?" The answer is a most obvious one, "Who gave you authority to dictate?-or what exclusive claim have you to infallibility?" If my sentiments do not lead me into conduct inconsistent with the welfare of my fellowcreatures, the question as to their accuracy or fallacy is one between God and my own conscience; and, though a fair subject for argument, is none for compulsion.

The Inquisition undertook to regulate astronomical science, and kings and parliaments have with equal propriety presumed to legislate upon questions of theology. The world has outgrown the former, and it will one day be ashamed that it has been so long of outgrowing the latter. The founders of the American republic saw the absurdity of employing the attorney-general to refute deism and infidelity, or of attempting to influence opinion on abstract subjects by penal enactment; they saw also the injustice of taking the whole to support the religious opinions of the few, and have set an example which older governments will one day or other be compelled to follow.

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'One of them said, that he was well acquainted with a British subject, residing at Newark, Upper Canada, who annually smuggled from 500 to 1000 chests of tea into that province from the United States. He mentioned the name of this man, who he said was growing very rich in consequence; and he stated the manner in which the fraud was managed. Now, as all the tea ought to be brought from England, it is of course very expensive; and therefore the Canadian tea dealers, after buying one or two chests at Montreal or elsewhere, which have the custom-house mark upon them, fill them up ever afterwards with tea brought from the United States. It is calculated that near 10,000 chests are annually consumed in the Canadas, of which not more than 2000 or 3000 come from Europe. Indeed, when I had myself entered Canada, I was told that of every fifteen pounds of tea sold there, thirteen were smuggled. The profit upon smuggling this article is from 50 to 100 per cent., and with an extensive and wild frontier like Canada, cannot be prevented. Indeed it every year increases, and is brought to a more perfect system. But I suppose that the English government, which is the perfection of wisdom, will never allow the Canadian merchants to trade direct to China, in order that (from pure charity) the whole profit of the tea trade may be given up to the United States.'-Excursion, pp. 394, 395.

'In America the question is not, What is his creed?-but, what is his conduct? Jews have all the privileges of Christians; Episcopalians, Presbyterians, and Independents, meet 'You will readily conceive, that it is with no small mortion common ground. No religious test is required to qualify fication that I hear these American merchants talk of sendfor public office, except in some cases a mere verbal assenting their ships to London and Liverpool, to take in goods to the truth of the Christian religion; and in every court or specie, with which to purchase tea for the supply of throughout the country, it is optional whether you give European ports, almost within sight of our own shores. your affirmation or your oath.'-Duncan's Travels, II. 328- They often taunt me, asking me what our government can possibly mean by prohibiting us from engaging in a profitable trade, which is open to them and to all the world? or where can be our boasted liberties, while we tamely submit to the infraction of our natural rights, to supply a monopoly as absurd as it is unjust, and to humour the caprice of a company who exclude their fellow-subjects from a branch of commerce which they do not pursue themselves, but leave to the enterprise of foreigners, or commercial rivals? ment and people are growing wiser; and that if the charter On such occasions I can only reply, that both our governof the East India Company be renewed, when it next expires, I will allow them to infer, that the people of England have little influence in the administration of their own affairs.'-Hodgson's Letters, II. 128, 129.

In fact, it is hardly possible for any nation to show a greater superiority over another than the Americans, in this particular, have done over this country. They have fairly, completely, and probably for ever, extinguished that spirit of religious persecution which has been the employment and curse of mankind for four or five centuries, not only that persecution which imprisons and scourges for religious opinions, but the tyranny of incapacitation, which, by disqualifying from civil offices, and cutting a man off from the lawful objects of ambition, endeavours to strangle religious freedom in silence, and to enjoy all the advantages without the blood, and noise, and fire of persecution. What passes in the mind of one mean blockhead is the general history of all persecution. This man pretends to know better than me-I cannot subdue him by argument; but I will take care he shall never be mayor or alderman of the town in which he lives; I will never consent to the repeal of the test act or to Catholic emancipation; I will teach the fellow to differ from me in religious opinions!' So says the Episcopalian to the Catholic and so the Catholic says to the Protestant. But the wisdom of America keeps them all down-secures to them all their just rights-gives to each of them their separate pews, and bells, and steeples-makes them all aldermen in their turns-and quietly extinguishes the faggots which each is preparing for the combustion of the other. Nor is this indifference to religious subjects in the American people, but pure civilization-a thorough comprehension of what is best calculated to secure the public happiness and peace-and a determination that this happiness and peace shall not be violated by the insolence of any human being, in the garb, and under the sanction, of religion. In this particular, the Americans are at the head of all the nations of the world and at the same time they are, especially in the Eastern and Midland States, so far from being indifferent on subjects of religion, that they may be

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Though America is a confederation of republics, they are in many cases much more amalgamated than the various parts of Great Britain. If a citizen of the United States can make a shoe, he is at liberty to make a shoe any where between Lake Ontario and New Orleans, he may sole on the Mississippi-heel on the Missouri-measure Mr. Birkbeck on the little Wabash, or take (which our best politicians do not find an easy matter), the length of Munroe's foot on the banks of the Potomac. But wo to the cobbler, who, having made Hessian boots for the aldermen of Newcastle, should venture to invest with these coria. ceous integuments the leg of a liege subject at York. a fox-kennel-a mouse in a bee-hive,-all feel the ef A yellow ant in a nest of red ants-a butcher's dog in fects of untimely intrusion;—but far preferable their fate to that of the misguided artisan, who, misled by sixpenny histories of England, and conceiving his country to have been united at the Heptarchy, goes forth from his native town to stich freely within the sea-girt limits of Albion. Him the mayor, him the alderman, him the recorder, him the quarter sessions would worry. Him the justices before trial would long to get into the treadmill ;* and would lament that, by

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*This puts us in mind of our friend Mr. Headlam, who, we hear, has written an answer to our Observations on the