Page images
PDF
EPUB

body? Are they not the constituted guardians of the rights of the people? We revere the trial by jury it is the palladium of British independence, and is therefore to be laid up in the ark of our choicest treasures; and if it be, as all human institutions are, liable to abuse, that abuse appears to us more likely to be on the side of the people than on the side of authority, and more likely to consent, not as our objector supposes, in condemning the innocent, but in acquitting the guilty. It is a farther objection brought against this Society, that it usurps the place of the constituted authorities of the land; that the constables, the clergy, and the very courts of the law, are thrown into the shade by its obtrusion of itself into the ordinary functions of these various bodies."Can any objection be more unfounded? The unchanging and unmixed object of the Society is to assist constables in their duty; to facilitate and second the labours of the clergy; to drag criminals to the bar of justice. If, indeed, the superior activity of the Society chances to reproach the indolence of the lay or clerical watchmen of the state, this is not the fault of the Society, but the fault of these worthies of the gown and staff. If this be the case, shall it not be considered as one grand title of the institution to general regard, that it not only watches and labours itself, but challenges to new exertions, and rouzes to higher enterprises its drowsy fellow-labourers? And is it even honest to say of an institution, that it disparages the laws, when its simple object is to present criminals to the eye of the law; to place them precisely in that focus, upon which the force of the magistracy can act. The laws are never so much dishonoured as by their ill administration; and, therefore, those who facilitate their movements, and assert their authority, above all men "magnify the law."

Another capital objection to the

institution is, that it "multiplies the breed of informers." Now if we have laws we must have informers, or the law will be useless. Accordingly a certain number are created even by the laws themselves. Grand juries are informers; for they swear "diligently to inquire, and true presentment make, of all matters and things given to them in charge." Churchwardens and constables are also contituted informers; and as the law enjoins information upon some, it invites it from all, by assigning a proportion of the penalty to the informer. There are, indeed, cer tain statutes against informers; but against informers of what kind?— Those who act from malicious motives; who follow information as a trade; who injure the character of individuals, or violate the peace of the nation. Information is, indeed, dishonourable, when merely venal; when it avails itself of obsolete statutes to inflict individual vengeance; when it exposes the offender to a severe punishment for a light crime. But are the informations of the society of this nature? The statutes and resolutions on which it proceeds, are not obsolete, for they are chiefly the proclamations and sta tutes of this and the three preceding reigns. The informations are not venal, for all the mulcts are thrown into a common fund, and transmitted to the Philanthropic Society. There is no disposition in the society to call down on crimes, punishments beyond their desert; for in many instances they have applied themselves to mitigate that penalty which the law would inflict. Under such circumstances, is it honourable to impute to these men the vices of common informers; to see in them the ghosts of Empson and Dudley; to threaten the public with the revival of those scenes of legal tyranny and exaction which disgraced the reign of the Tudors; to calumniate the scheme of the society as a system of espionage, dangerous to the liberties and happiness of the

country? We have not so learned morality and candour.

The last objection of any weight to the proceedings of the society is, that "it spares the rich, but cruelly persecutes the poor." This is, at least, a popular thesis, and must be canvassed.

Now in searching the various reports and papers of the Society, we are led in the first place to deny the fact. We find, for instance, that the Society have attacked the Operahouse, the very musnud of highbred pleasures; and that they have passed over poachers, and other classes of criminals, wholly of the poorer order. We find, on the contrary, no instance where they have refused to punish in the rich, the same crimes they punish in the poor. We find a multitude of cases, where they have displayed a spirit so mild as almost to defeat the purposes of justice. They have never failed to pre-admonish those whom they prosecuted: they have never prosecuted to conviction, where contrition has been expressed, and a reasonable pledge has been given that that contrition was sincere: they have, in many instances, disarmed the wrath of justice, by interceding for a mitigation of the penalty.

So much for the fact. But it may still be said, the society "have made larger assaults upon the vices of the poor than of the rich."They have. But could they from the very constitution of the society do otherwise? In the first place, the institution did not undertake to chastize neglects of duty, but open violations of it; and these are chiefly to be detected in the coarser vices of the poor. In the next place, it did not undertake to make laws, but to facilitate their execution; and the laws are pointed in general at the flagrant excesses of the poor, rather than at the refined profligacy of the rich. What is to be done? Would those who object already to the encroachments of the institution, have them usurp the

seats of justice, expel the Speaker from his chair, themselves dictate new laws and carry them into execution?-Are Kings, Lords, and Commons, if indeed these titles are to be preserved in the new nomenclature, to legislate for the poor, and this society for the rich?-Besides, if the society are to prosecute the vices of the rich, they must adopt that very species of informa tion which their enemies condemn. The vices of the rich are a good deal confined to their own houses. To convict lady Bab as a cheat, or her spouse of infidelity, it would be necessary to worm themselves into the friendship, or to steal disguised into the drawing-rooms of these right honourable profligates. The vices of the poor, on the contra❤ ry, walk abroad, insult us in the market-place, and elbow us in the streets. In the one case, the snake is in the grass; in the other case, it lifts its head in the road which we must necessarily tread. It is plain then, that the objectors must either patronize informers, or applaud the measured attacks of the society. Let them ride which horn of the dilemma they prefer.

For ourselves, we must say that "of all the cants in this canting world," there is no cant more odious than that of some of the avowed champions of popular liberty. It is according to their creed, nothing short of despotism to attack even the vices of the multitude. To res cue their daughters from seduction, to secure their property from knaves, to restrain their tongues from blasphemy, is with some modern politicians on a par with introducing the knoot, and the rack, and lighting up the fires of the inquisition. But is it the fact, that liberty can flourish only in the soil of vice? Is it not, on the contrary, ascertained, that the ages of greatest civil freedom have been those of largest personal restraint; that slavery and profligacy have usually been contemporaneous; that in the

[ocr errors]

despotic reign of Charles the Second, vice stalked abroad; and that societies on the model of the present sprang up and multiplied only at the period of the revolution *.Do our demagogues cry aloud then for a "free people?" Make the people virtuous and they must be free, and those only will continue to wear chains who do not deserve freedom. Do they clamour for reform in parliament? Let them labour also to reform the people, for if there are some who give, there must be many who receive; and a corrupt population of necessity creates a corrupt parliament. We do not mean that the vices of the community excuse those of their representatives; but we do mean that multitudes are charging the parliament with what is, in fact, the crime of the people at large, and of

* Vide Disney's Essay on Immoralityand Society's Reports.

none more, we will venture to say, than of many of those who clamour for reform.

We wish that we had not been called to qualify our commendation of the measures of the " Society for the Suppression of Vice," by any exceptions. Those exceptions, such as they are, we have thought it our duty to state; and in again adverting to them, we think it right again to observe, that they now no longer exist. They cannot now, therefore, be considered as detracting from the claims of this society to the public gratitude, and the public support. Their useful and disinterested labours have had the commendation and thanks of the lord chief justice, of more than one of the judges, and of a variety of magistrates. We desire also to bring our gift to their altar, and to add the feeble testimony of our opinion, that this society "deserves well of its country."

REVIEW OF REVIEWS.

To the Editor of the Christian Observer. THOUGH I am a dissenter from the church established, so far was I from being offended with your review of "The History of the Dissenters" by Messrs. Bogue and Bennett, that I was rather gratified by the perusal of it. Your strictures upon that work are not more severe than it deserved. Indeed I cannot but think you have dealt mercifully with the authors; for besides the articles to which you have justly objected, you might have pointed out many gross blunders, several of which have been pointed out in another review, by a known dissenter. I am well acquainted with many respectable nonconformists, who are so disgusted with this performance, that they are really ashamed that any

liberal church-men should see so illiberal and ill-written a publication, which, instead of serving our cause, is calculated to injure and disgrace it: particularly the chapter on the grounds of nonconformity, which are ridiculously put in the form of a dialogue between a Dissenter and Mrs. Church, the former of whom is made to talk like a bigot, and the latter like a silly old woman. It is to be hoped, that no sensible and learned members of your church will consider this work as patronized by the body of dis senters. It is with a view to prevent this, that I trouble you with the present address. Let me request you to inform your clerical readers, that to my certain knowledge, many in our connexion who had purchased the first two volunes are so much dissatisfied

with them as to determine not correspondent, who is respectfully to buy the remaining ones, which yours, is the case with your present

AN OLD NONCON

LITERARY AND PHILOSOPHICAL INTELLIGENCE,

&c. &c.

GREAT BRITAIN.

Is the press-A Poem, entitled the World before the Flood, by Mr. James Montgomery;-Babylon and other Poems, by the Hon. Arabella Hawke;-A stereotyped edition of the Bible, in French;—A view of the present state of Sicily by a British officer;-Account of Mr. Kirkpatrick's embassy to the kingdom of Nepaul;-The authorized version of the Book of Psalms improved, with Notes by the late Bishop Horsley; Topographical Researches in Wales, by Mr. N. Carlisle; and Missionary Anecdotes: containing remarkable instances of the conversion of the Heathen; with an account of the superstitions of Pagan Nations, by the Rev. G. Burder.

So large a part of the edition of the late Mr. Cecil's works, now in the press, has been bespoke, that no copies will be adver tised for public sale. Names may yet be sent to the Editor, the Rev. J. Pratt, Doughty street.

Mr. Pond is appointed to the situation of astronomer royal, vacant by the death of the Rev. Dr. Maskelyne.

Dr Smith's two prizes, of 251. each, for the two best proficients in mathematics and natural philosophy, are adjudged to Mr. Thomas Edward Dicey of Trinity college, and Mr. William French of Caius college, the first and second wranglers.

The following are the quantities of rain which have fallen at Bristol during the last seven years: in 1804, 29.77 inches; in 1805, 26.1 inches; in1806, 34.33 inches; in 1807, 31.31 inches; in 1808, 32.8 inches ;in 1809, 29.51 inches; in 1810, 35.1 inches. The governors of Bethlem hospital have adjudged the first premium, for a design of a new lunatic asylum, to be erected in St. George's fields, to Messrs. Good and Lochner of Hatton Garden. There were nearly sixty competitors.

It has been announced by Dr. Davy, that he has, by the action of the voltaic battery, produced hydrogen or inflammable air, from

carbon, and some of the metals; and that he believed, that future discoveries would prove that hydrogen formed a constituent part of all inflammable substances. He exhibited the fusion of platina in vacuo, by a powerful voltaic pile of two thousaud plates, which is the first time the experiment had been shewn. During the fusion, intense light and heat were produced, and very vivid scintillations were emitted from the platina, which Dr. Davy supposed, were occasioned by the separation of an elastic gas, probably hydrogen. The fact of the separation of hydrogen from carbon and the metals is highly important: if Dr. Davy's conclusion be established, it may lead to the revival of that part of the phlogistic system which considered hydrogen as the base of metals and other inflammable substances. The voltaic battery, made use of in these experiments, is the most powerful instrument of the kind which has yet been constructed. The striking distance of the discharge was more than one inch in vacuo. All the metals which were acted on by it, immediately fused; oil, water, and spirit of wine, were rapidly decomposed, and vivid sparks given out from the wires, which were immersed in the fluids, and connected with the two extremities of the plates. Dr. Davy stated, that he believed the full shock from it would occasion instantaneous death. He once, by accident, received a shock from a thousand plates; but, the discharge being made upon the dry cuticle of the hand, which is an imperfect conductor, the force of the shock was much weakened, and though it was extremely painful he did not receive any permanent injury. On examining his hands, he found the skin burned in that part where the discharge had been made.

FRANCE.

The emperor Napoleon, in order to give its proper weight to the French language, and to simplify the acquirement of useful. knowledge, has ordered that all exercises and theses in the universities throughout

appears to contain globules of iron, pretty large and brilliant. AUSTRIA.

France, shall be performed and written in French; and that a knowledge of Latin and Greek shall, in no department of his government, be deemed a qualification for degrees, ranks, or offices, either political, medical, legal, or clerical. The prescriptions of physicians are to be in French, and the service of the church is no longer to be performed except in the vernacular tongue.

A ball of fire appeared in the commune of Chargouville, on the 23d of November, which, bursting with a tremendous explosion, let fall three large stones, accompanied with smoke, and darted with such force, that they entered the earth to the depth of nearly 80 centimeters. One of the stones is covered with a crust of greyish black, while the inside is more clear. It is very compact, and hard enough to cut glass.

It

A prodigy has appeared in Germany, in the person of John Spitzler, a youth only thirteen years of age, who is said to be well acquainted with ten different languages, most of the mathematical sciences, and to be a proficient in music. He is a native of Lower Austria, and the son of a reduced clergyman: for the last six months he has been blind. The Emperor Francis has settled a pension on him.

The base of the Carpathian mountains, near Makonitza, fell on the 6th of November, with a report so loud that it was heard at the distance of twelve miles. Six villages have been destroyed by this precipitation, and thirty-four lives lost.

LIST OF NEW PUBLICATIONS.

THEOLGGY.

Practical Piety, or the Influence of the Religion of the Heart on the Conduct of Life. By Hannah More. 2 vols. 10s. 6d.

Sacred Hours, chiefly designed to illustrate the Offices and Doctrines of the Church of England. By J. Grant, M.A. 12mo. 7s.

A Sermon, occasioned by the Death of Mrs. Trimmer, preached at New Brentford, Aiddlesex, on Sunday, January 6, 1811. By the Rev. Thomas Haverfield, A. M. 1s. 6d.

Sunday Reflections. By the Author of Thoughts on Affectation. 8vo. 9s.

The Devotional Family Bible, with Notes and illustrations. By John Fawcett, A. M. No. I. 1s. or Part I. 7s.

Knowledge Increased; a Sermon. By the Rev. Jonathan Walton, A.M. Rector of Birdbrook, Essex. 1s. 6d.

MISCELLANEOUS

Exploratory Travels through the Western Territories of North America: comprising a Voyage from St. Louis, on the Mississippi, to the Sources of that River, and a Journey through the Interior of Louisiana and the North-eastern Provinces of New Spain, performed in the Years 1805, 1806, and 1807, by Order of the Government of the United States. By Zebulon Montgomery Pike, Bajor of the 6th Regiment U. S. Infantry. Quarto.

A Tour in quest of Genealogy, through several Parts of Wales. 8vo. 12s. or with the Arst impressions of the plates, 18s. Catalogue Général, Méthodique et Rai

[blocks in formation]

Memoirs of Prince Eugene of Savoy, written by himself, translated from the genuine Edition, containing all the Passages omitted in that of Paris. With a Portrait and Facsimile of the Author's Hand-writing. 8vo. 7s.

The Universal Cambist and Commercial Instructor; being a full and accurate Treatise on Exchange; including the Monies, Coins, Weights and Measures, of all Trading Nations and Colonies; with an Account of their Banks and Paper Currencies. By P. Kelly, LL. D. 2 vols. 4to. 41. 4s.

Reflections on the Nature and Extent of the Licence Trade. 2s. 6d.

Pocock's patent Geographical Slates, to save Time and Labour in communicating to the Geographical Student a Kuowledge of Maps; and to remove those Difficulties which attend the usual Process of drawing Projectional Lines. 5s. 6d.

The Chronicle of the Kings of Britain. Translated from the Welsh Copy attributed to Tysilto, and illustrated with copious Notes, and original Dissertations on various Subjects. By Peter Roberts, A.M. 4to. 21. 2s. large Paper 31. 3s.

The Asiatic Annual Register; or a View of the History of Hindoostan, and of the Politics, Commerce, and Literature, of Asia, fer the Year 1808. Vol. X. 1. 19.

« PreviousContinue »