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have been hoped from individuals associated in a public, and not very popular cause, against a phalanx of journalists and pickpockets, irreve rent wits and blaspheming draymen, friends of the people and enemies of the country, staunch patriots and French prisoners, gamesters and procuresses, men of light fingers and ladies of light character, flogging critics, butchers, and assdrivers.

But, lest our estimate of the activity of the society be thought too high, let us inquire what it has actually done. In an address to the public by the members of the institution, published in 1804, two years after its first establishment, we find the following table of its proceed ings:

Total convictions

623

7

Profanation of the Sabbath
Vending obscene books and prints
Riotous and disorderly houses, &c. 11
Lotteries, little-goes, &c.
33
Cruelty to animals

If the number of convictions since that period has diminished, it is not because the zeal and activity of the society, but because the number of offenders, has lessened. That this last effect has taken place, is indeed apparent, from the statement published by the society in 1807. There it appears, that such had been the influence of its proceedings against violators of the Sabbath, as gradually to have diminished the necessity of prosecution;-that at one general meeting of the society, the number of prosecutions reported was an hundred and eighty; at the next, an hundred and seventy-eight; and at the third, only seventy. Since that period the reformation of the metropolis, where alone the society in the first instance was able to act, has been progressive as to this particular offence. In this respect the whole town exhibits, to a considerable degree, a new face. A vast numBer of shops are now closed which formerly used to be open. The butchers of several markets have thanked the society for compelling

them to an act which they find productive of so much comfort to themselves, and they have even associated to secure that triumph which the labours of the society had won. We hail this single achievement of the institution with no common gratitude. The more solemn observation of the Sabbath has, for a long period, distinguished this country from the continental powers; and who shall say that it has not been one of the barriers between us and the common calamities of Europe?

What has been said of the violation of the Sabbath, may be affirmed of' other crimes. The number of prosecutions has diminished, because the number of criminals has diminished. But will this be a charge against the society? Is not the object of all punishment prevention; and, therefore, can the success of the society be better estimated than by the diminution of crimes? A state is not powerful because it has a number of armies fighting unsuccessfully in different quarters of the globe; but because its armies are in such a state at home, as to impose peace on every nation around it.

Indeed, in estimating the success of the society, its effect in preventing crime ought to occupy a prominent place. It admits of no doubt, that the number of crimes of a certain description has diminished since its erection; but it may also be presumed, that its bare erection in the first instance acted powerfully as a preventative. A public declaration of an intention to prosecute for certain offences, could not fail to have the effect of materially diminishing those offences. We possibly "owe to it, therefore, blessings of which we little dream." It may have crushed in the egg the most formidable evils. It may have chained the hands of the swindler, crossed the stratagems of the seducers of youth, chilled the prurient imagination of the licentious artist, rescued our domestics from jails, and our sons and daughters from pollution. It is of th

nature of much of the good done by this society, that it should be imperceptible; but it is not on this account the less substantial. We are at least as much indebted to him who keeps us from a sick-bed, as to him who heals us when we are there.

The society, in its fifth and last Report, mentions the detection of a large market for obscene prints, images, and toys, in the various French prisons; and expresses its gratitude to the present government, for the zeal and vigour they have displayed in crushing an evil so injurious to public morals.

But it may be said, "admitting to the full the activity of the society, was all this activity necessary? Were the transgressors numerous? Might not crimes of this kind be left to the ordinary courts of justice; and does not their enormity secure their punishment?"-We shall answer these questions distinctly.

In the first place, as to the number of transgressors. Let the former state of our shops and markets, too fresh in the eye of every Christian observer to be so soon forgotten; let the number of disorderly houses which the agents of the society have even now been unable to convict; let the fact, that a considerable num. ber of persons were employed in selling prints in this country, a very large proportion of whom vended improper prints; let the fact, established upon judicial evidence, that these prints were regularly and abundantly circulated in many even of the female boarding-schools in the neighbourhood of London and elsewhere; let the additional fact, that many of those polluting publications, which are now only sold by stealth and with peril to the vender, might have been seen a few years back exhibited in the shops even of respectable booksellers;-let these, and a thousand other like circumstances, decide both whether the society was necessary, and whether it has been useful. The number of criminals is still, however,sufficiently

large to warrant, and even to demand, the interference of all lovers of morality and good order. Nor, whilst the lusts and passions of men continue what they are, is this society likely to want objects to call forth its exertions.

The second inquiry, whether the punishment of these offenders may not be left to the ordinary operation of the laws, demands a more extended reply.

There are certain crimes which are alike pernicious to the community and to individuals. Such are robbery and murder. Against these, if not in the first instance, yet after proof of their perniciousness, an adequate provision will necessarily be made in every country. It may be safely left to the ordinary operation of the laws to punish such offences. In such cases, justice will be alive; for individual happiness being palpably affected by them, information will be popular, and therefore informers sufficiently numerous. There are other crimes, such as those against religion and decency, not less pernicious in their ultimate consequences to the community, but not so immediately injurious to individual interest. Against these the state will be longer in providing and as the peace and comfort of individuals is only remotely affected by them, informations will be very rare. And not only will there be little disposition in such cases to inform, but nothing less than an undaunted courage will enable a man to lay his information. Consider the hosts of assailants which, like the cloud of locusts in Egypt, the informations of this very society have called up from the cellars in which they were concealed; and the showers of raillery, insult, and calumny, which have descended upon its members, from the thrones of philosophers and the garrets of critics. Could an individual be expected to encounter all this; to leap into this lake for the good of his country?

Nor is it mere animal courage

that is wanting; the profession of an informer, like that of the publican in ancient days, has become infamous by the vices of the men who have followed it. To inform, therefore, supposes an entire contempt of public opinion; a willingness to share the merited abhorrence of an unpopular fraternity, and to forfeit our own character in exposing the vices of others. Now is this to be expected from mankind in general? If even an individual could be found, thus willing to fight the battles of his country, does our knowledge of mankind teach us that we may safely rely for the guardianship of the public virtue on the regular and abundant production of such champions? Are these Decii and Horatii born every day?

But suppose men to have the requisites already specified, public spirit, courage, and contempt of public opinion; suppose them to have all possible disposition to inform against this class of criminals, they would still want the ability. Could an individual, or a few unsupported individuals bear the expenses which numerous prosecutions would, although in every case successful, necessarily bring with them? Are not many of these crimes difficult of detection, the evidence being perhaps of an obscure and complicated nature? Would not ordinary juries receive the testimony of such informers with suspicion, and, when cast, leave them without reluctance involved in all the expenses of prosecution? From these and a variety of similar considerations, we think it indisputable, that if the detection of the crimes in question is to be left to the zeal of individuals, they will be committed with impunity.

In many countries, the government, aware of this indisposition and inability of individuals to carry conviction home to criminals of this most pernicious class, have assumed to themselves the office of prosecutors, and have become the guardians of their own decency and good moCHRIST. OBSERY. No. 111.

rals. This provision, however, has been found inadequate; because though in times of repose and public virtue, the government may keep its post against the encroachments of the profligate and profane; they have, in a perturbed state of society, other battles to fight where the contest is more popular,---the stake, as far as they are concerned, larger, and the danger more imminent. But even if this provision were in any case complete, yet in our own country it is not made. Whether it be that the hope of individual exertion has rendered the necessity of public interference less palpable; whether it be that the existence of such societies as that under consideration (for more or less they have existed at different times for upwards of a century) has seemed in some degree to supercede the efforts of the government; or whether it be that our free constitution has revolted at all approaches to a minute police: whether one of these causes or the combination of them has stood in the way of the interference of the government, we know not but certainly it has not interfered. Though our system of national jurisprudence be distinguished probably beyond that of every other, it provides but inadequate practical checks for the vices and immoralities of the people. Our statute book is indeed the watchful guardian of our commercial interests; but it leaves the interests of morality in a great degree to shift for themselves. This may be owing to the nature of our constitution. A stricter police may be incompatible with the precise degree of freedom we enjoy. But if that degree of freedom is to entail vice upon us, we should be disposed to abridge just so much of it as might invest the government with the power of controuling vice. Indeed, freedom without virtue is of little value. It is like a sword in the hand of a maniac--an instrument indeed of honour, by its name and its ornaments, but which may produce rain to himself and all around him.

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If then, as has been contended, and therefore can reach the delina sufficient check is not provided, quent whether he hides his head in either by the powers vested in go- a coronet or a night cellar. The vernment, or by individual virtue solitary reformer, no less than the and activity against a numerous class executive government, will be inacof vices, the necessity of institutions tive, for the one will be too timid, such as we are defending can scarce- and the other too busy to do much ; ly be disputed, They are, in fact, but the society have nothing to our forlorn hope; and if they can fear, and nothing of the same imporaccomplish nothing, it is obvious tance to do; each man will catch that nothing can be accomplished. and communicate ardour; an atmosphere of zeal will diffuse itself around, and be felt in acts of benevolence and usefulness to the com munity at large.

It may, indeed, be conceded, that neither unassociated individuals, nor government itself, can erect sufficient barriers against these crimes; hut it may also be denied, that societies are more efficient as guardians of the public morals. Now we have already traced out some of the successes of this society; and this appeal to fact might be suffered. to decide the question. But it is obvious that such societies are not thwarted in their operations, by those checks which, inpede the influence of either individual or official interference. They do not suffer, for instance, from the odium which overwhelms the individual reformer; for if it fall at all, it falls upon numbers whose congregated strength can bear the burden. The expense also which, ruins an individual is not felt by a society. A solitary reformer will perhaps be intemperate; but here the intemperance of one man is corrected by the prudence of another, and the supineness of one animated by the zeal of another. The solitary reformer could scarcely be conversant with every subject; but here we have a society to which, as to a bank, all the professions bring their distinct contributions to draw them off for the benefit of the public. The solitary reformer also cannot be every where, and see every thing; but the society, by its numbers, possesses a species of ubiquity from which vice can scarcely escape. The solitary reformer may be poor or may be sick, and is necessarily confined to a certain sphere of observation; but the society moves in all spheres, has agents of all ranks,

Having now seen something of the nature, the efficiency, and the necessity of the institution whose reports are before us; it remains to notice such objections as have not been already answered.

In the first place, some are hardy enough to affirm that all such combinations are unlawful. Lord Ellenborough and Judge Grose think otherwise. The assertion indeed, if those who urge it are serious, can proceed only upon a misconception of the nature of a conspiracy. A conspiracy is defined by the commentator upon Blackstone to be a combination to "injure individuals, or to de acts which are unlawful or prejudicial to the community." It is a conspiracy for instance to combine with others to convict a man of a crime which he has never committed, or to carry any measure in opposition to the laws. But the object of the society is merely to punish the guilty, and to strengthen the laws. This objection, indeed, would go far to convict the whole nation of conspiracy. For what else, according to this are the societies for the prosecution of poachers and felons? What else the societies with which almost every country town is furnished, for the punishment of the crimes most frequent in their neighbourhood? If every association of individuals for a common end is a conspiracy, then every copartnership must expiate their crimes upon a scaffold, and even we poor luckless reviewers, the Cethegi and

Catalines of the day, must bear all the brunt of Ciceronian thunder, and die by the hands of the common hangman.

But say the objectors, "if you once allow men to combine, what limits will there be to the combination; why should not the troop of conspiracy swell to an army, and crush every force legal or illegal which thwarts them?" We would ask another question; Why, if you allow one physician to practise gratuitous ly should there be any end to gratuitous doctors? Why should not one like tadpoles multiply into a million, and expel the mass of well-fed practitioners from the profession? It would be at once replied to this query, gratuitous practitioners will not multiply to any alarming extent, because doctors cannot live without eating if they would, and would not if they could. And so we say of this society. Whilst men continue selfish and greedy; whilst the state of the world compels almost every man to put out his time to good interest; whilst physicians take their guinea for scratching their names at the end of some bad Latin; whilst a man must pay six shillings and eightpence for happening to meet bis lawyer in the street; whilst a dentist will modestly demand two or three guineas for assuring you, of what you have known for thirty years, that you have not a sound tooth in your head; there is little peril that the bands of gratuitous informers will so amplify as to endanger the safety of the state, or the impartial administration of justice, It has been observed that the vilest animals are the most prolific; that the queen of the forest bears only one cub at a time. Now so is it in human kind: whatever be the fecondity of others, reformers in religion or morals are plainly not farrowed nine at a birth. -Indeed, there is a general prin ciple assumed by objectors of this class, which requires some limitation, The demand, they say, will create

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the supply and so it will in books, and bread and cheese; but it will not in morals. The love of virtue is not so great; nor the necessity of virtue so pinching and obvious;nor the supply of moral and religious precepts so lucrative; that men will quit the more profitable employments of life to regenerate the age. "What" (said some one to the fool of Brederode, who walked about as if sowing seed) "are you doing there?" "Sowing fools," he replied. "And why not sow wise men?" "C'est que la terre ne les porte pas." "The soil does not bear them." Let not then the sage guardians of the public pleasures be under any alarm. Sow teeth, or cast stones, or employ any other accredited recipe for population, and depend upon it whatever springs up, good men will not. We confidently believe we shall have no South Sea expeditions in the cause of morals; that we shall have no protestant crusades; that we are in no danger

of invasion from the Goths or Huns of Essex-street; that no modern Quizotte will sally forth for the protection of the Sabbath. Let the objectors, then, and the men whose cause they so manfully advocate, sleep easy, if indeed they can, in their beds, under the confident assurance that the conspirators in the cause of law and purity,have no such bounty to offer, as will draw a large body of troops to their standard.

A third objection made to the Society is, "that, inits various prosecutions, any ordinary jury is likely to be influenced by the respectability and authority of the prosecutors." But let it be remembered, that this very respectability is a guarantee that prosecutions will not be falsely or lightly instituted; and that vexatious or malignant prosecutions would at once destroy the authority, and therefore the influence of the Society. Besides, is it found that jurors are usually influenced by the rank and pretensions of the prosecutors? On the contrary, are not the jury, strictly speaking, a popular

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