and motive is beyond man's ken:-That man has no right, under any circumstances, to kill his fellow being: That the punishment of death is immoral in nature, being vindictive and revengeful in spirit:-That the immorality of the gallows is further proved by its neglect of the chief end of punishment-Reformation:-That it is in the highest degree immoral for incapable man to assume the right of inflicting a penalty which only God can properly enforce:-That by often destroying the innocent instead of the guilty, the gallows proves itself as immoral in effect, as it is clearly seen to be in tendency and that it cannot be moral to kill a culprit whom we have taken no pains to instruct in good. Every new view of the subject, therefore, leads us inevitably to this conclusion-That it is as immoral to kill our fellow-men as it is proved to be inexpedient. but from his extraordinary gift in conversation which he Among other things he related that during the time of the Revolutionary war, one of the armies passing through a district in which a great number of Friends resided, food was demanded from the inhabitants, which was furnished to them. The following day the adverse army came up in pursuit and stripped them of every kind of provision that remained, and so great was the strait to which they were reduced that absolute famine was before them. Their sufferings were extreme, as afforded to them. Death seemed to stare them in the face, and many a one was ready to despair; the forests around them were in possession of the soldiers, and the game which otherwise might have yielded sustenance was killed and driven away. Be it ours, then, Brethren! boldly to adopt new ideas upon this subject. Let us no longer entangle ourselves in sophistical pleas concerning the demerit of crime-day after day went on and no prospect of relief was man's moral right to judge the motives of his fellowmen-the Divine Commission of the ruler, and so forth. Let us recognize in the term morality simply this-Our duty to our fellow men; and when a brother falls into the gulf of crime, let us treat him as a brother, and not as a brute. Let us promptly bind him for the future: but let us not look with the revengeful eye of a savage on the past. We will detest his crime; we will mark our horror and hatred of it: we will avoid it ourselves, and we will lead others to avoid it: but we will at least restrain our hands from exterminating him, lest when his accusing spirit stands confronting ours at the Eternal Judgment-seat of God, the blood of his neglected and unpitied soul should fall upon our heads who destroyed it! (To be continued.) REMARKABLE DREAMS. WARNINGS AND PROVIDENCES. (Continued from page 158.) After the meeting, most, if not all, the young men went up to the humble dwelling of the hitherto despised teacher, besought his pardon, and begged, as a proof that it was freely given, that he would in future take his seat as formerly in the higher part of the meeting-house. They were greatly struck by the extraordinary simplicity of his dwelling, which, till then, they had never entered, and by the affectionate and childlike spirit of the old man. He freely forgave them, saying, in conclusion, “Trouble not yourselves, for it matters not, my dear lads, where I sit, so that my Great Master will but own me!" After that time, however, he resumed his seat among the established preachers. After several days of great distress they retired at night still without hope or prospect of succour; how great then was their surprise and cause of thankfulness may be conceived when, on the following morning, immense herds of wild deer were seen standing around their enclosures, as if driven there for their benefit. From whence they came none could tell, nor the cause of their coming, but they suffered themselves to be taken without resistance, and thus the whole people were saved and had great store of provision laid up for many weeks. Again a similar circumstance occurred near the sea shore, when the flying and pursuing army had stripped the inhabitants, and when, apparently to add to their distress, the wind set in with unusual violence from the sea driving the tide inland far beyond its ordinary bounds, so that the people near the shore were obliged to abandon their houses, and those in the town to retreat to their This also being during the night greatly upper rooms. added to their distress-like the others they were ready to give themselves up to despair. Next morning, however, they found that God had not been unmindful of them, for the tide had brought up with it a most extraordinary shoal of mackerel, so that every place was filled with them, where they remained ready taken without net or skill of man, a bountiful provision which sufficed for the wants of the people till other relief could be obtained. Another incident he related which occurred in one of the back settlements, when the Indians had been employed to burn the dwellings of the settlers, and cruelly to murder the people. One of these solitary habitations was in the possession of a Friend's family. They lived in such secure simplicity and had hitherto had so little apprehension of danger that they used neither bar nor bolt to their door, having no other means of securing their dwelling from intrusion than by drawing in the leathern thong by which the wooden latch inside was opened from without. As I have said, he removed frequently from one place to another, having made his will, leaving his little property to the poor Friends of the place wherever he might die. Where his death really occurred I know not, but he was buried at Jordans, where lie William Penn, Thomas Ellwood, Isaac Pennington, and other "ancient worthies" of the Society. He was buried late in the spring, in a remarkably fine and warm season, and it is related as a singular coincidence, if nothing The Indians had committed frightful ravages all more, that as the coffin was borne to the grave, a sudden and gentle fall of snow covered it and the bear-around, burning and murdering without mercy. Every ers as with a garment of white, which did not fail of producing an effect on all who beheld it. IV. George Dilwyn was an American, a remarkable preacher among the Quakers. About fifty years ago he came over to this country on what is called a "Religious Visit," and being in Cornwall where I then was, and at George Fox's in Falmouth, soon became an object of great attraction, not only from his powerful preaching evening brought fresh tidings of horror, and every night the unhappy settlers surrounded themselves with such defences as they could muster, scarcely being able to sleep, even then for dread. The Friend and his family, who had hitherto put no trust in the arm of flesh but had left all in the keeping of God, believing that man often ran in his own strength, had used so little precaution that they slept without even withdrawing the string, and as yet uninjured. Alarmed, however, at length by the fears of others, and by the dreadful rumours that sur rounded them they yielded to their fears on one particular night, and before retiring to rest drew in the string and thus secured themselves as well as they were able. In the dead of the night the Friend who had not been able to sleep, asked his wife if she slept; she replied that she could not for her mind was uneasy. Upon this he confessed that the same was his case, and that he believed it would be safest for him to rise and put out the string of the latch as usual. On her approving of this it was done, and the two lay down again commending themselves to the keeping of God. They had not lain down thus above ten minutes when the dismal sound of the war-whoop echoed through the forest, filling every heart with dread and almost immediately afterwards they counted the footsteps of seven men pass the window of their chamber which was on the ground floor, and the next moment the door string was pulled, the latch lifted, and the door was opened. A debate of a few minutes took place, the purport of which, as it was spoken in the Indian language, was unintelligible to the inhabitants, but that it was favourable to them was proved by the door being afterwards shut, and without having crossed the threshold, the Indians retired. The next morning they saw the smoke rising from burning habitations all around them; parents were weeping for their children who had been carried off, and children lamenting over their parents who had been cruelly murdered. Some years afterwards when peace was established, and the colonists had occasion to hold conferences with the Indians, this Friend was appointed as one for that purpose and, speaking in favour of the Indians he related the above incident, in reply to which an Indian observed that by the simple circumstance of pulling out the latch-string, which proved confidence rather than fear, their lives and their property had been saved, for that he himself was one of that marauding party, and that they had remarked one to another on finding the door open. "These people shall live; they will do us no harm, for they have put their trust in the GREAT SPIRIT!" (To be continued.) A DREAM, AND A WARNING. WITH the paper in my hand, In a dream, or in a trance, "We've not a crust to eat, And not a crust can gain; With madness in our brain: The fertile earth has store; 66 Speaks France unto the world For they have daily bread, We to despair are brought, For no one heeds our cries; Can compass daring deeds: A warning take from France; Ye are weak, and ye are few In my dream, if I dreamed, or trance, These terrible words were said By thousands of gloomy men; Literary Notice. Australia Felix, or, a Historical and Descriptive Account of the Settlement of Port Phillip, New South Wales, etc. By WILLIAM WESTGARTH. 1 vol. 8 vo. Edinburgh Oliver and Boyd; London: Simpkin and Marshall. Mr. Westgarth's volume is well timed and well written. The tendency of emigration towards Australia, which the reverses of these colonies checked, is now again, from their improved and steady condition reviving. The pressure at home will materially increase this, and for those who are making the necessary enquiries as to the advantages offered to emigrants by different regions, we know no work which gives a more complete view of that of which it treats than Mr. Westgarth's. We have in this volume everything that is necessary to give any one a full and we believe, a sound and safe idea of the country, the climate, the Aborigines, the colonists of Australia, and the present openings for emigrants there. We have not seen so clear and satisfactory a history of the wild speculation and consequent prostration of the colony of Port Phillip from 1840 to 1844, as Mr. Westgarth gives. He particularly recommends that colony to emigrants, and we think with reason; and he furnishes them with its history, both civil and natural, and its capabilities as a field for emigration, with all that relates to its pastoral life, squatting system, wool trade, vine growing, and general condition of society. When we call to mind that Australia has only been colonized about sixty years, we are amazed beyond measure at its present wealth, and population, and that amazement is only augmented by the rapid progress of the very recent settlements of Van Diemen's Land, Port Phillip and Adelaide, the mineral wealth of the latter colony recently discovered, wonderful as it is, being not a whit more wonderful than the wealth of wool which Australia pours into this country. Twenty years ago only, as appears by a table printed by our author, there were imported into Great Britain twenty-seven million pounds of wool. Of these twenty-five millions were from foreign countries, two millions only from our own colonies. In 1846 the amount was sixty-four million pounds, of which thirty-four were imported from foreign nations, and thirty millions, nearly one half, from our own colonies, three-fourths of this amount being from Australia alone. It may give an idea of the giant strides of the wool trade of Australia with us to state, that it has advanced every five years at this rate, two, four, ten, twenty-two, and thirty millions of pounds! What shall not the future intercourse of Great Britain and such colonies be under a wise system of emigration and government ? 1 THE WEEKLY RECORD. PROPOSED ADDRESS TO THE PEOPLE OF FRANCE. The last few hours have been crowded with Events in your City, of mighty import to the well-being of Society throughout the world. By unwise policy, your Government has precipitated your nation into a commotion, the immediate results of which it is impossible to foresee. Wise concessions to righteous demands would have saved you from a civil war, and the powers that be from the guilt of shedding blood. You have, however, taken your stand, Justice has prevailed, and thus far you have been triumphant. As a warning to rulers to avoid the folly and infatuation of declaring either that Reform is unnecessary, or being necessary, that it shall not be conceded, may the events of Paris during the last few days be an everlasting memorial. PEOPLE OF FRANCE,-The dignity and stability of a great Revolution consists in its being effected, first, for a great object; and secondly, without physical force, in the destruction of property and human life. We owe you a great debt for the stand which you have made against Oppression; but we entreat you to consummate the struggle thus commenced in the spirit of pence. The work of Reformation throughout Europe and the world is proceeding with rapid strides. Let us hasten to consummate it, and shew that whilst we abhor internal strife, we also detest international conflict, and desire by an interchange of good offices, and the products of our labour, to exhibit our belief in the truth that "God hath made of one blood all nations to dwell upon the face of the earth." Finally, we wish you God Speed. Be Peaceful, be Faithful, be Firm, and Justice must triumph. Persons approving of the above Address are requested to send Communications on the subject to the Committee, at Mr. Effingham Wilson's, Royal Exchange, immediately, in order that steps may be taken to realize it forthwith. James Copland, author of "Dictionary of Medicine." Robert Ferguson, Physician Accoucheur to the Queen. John Forbes, Physician to the Queen's Household, Prince Albert, and the Duke of Cambridge. R. D. Grainger, Lecturer. W. Augustus, Esq., M.B. Cantab. Professor, King's College. Marshall Hall, M.D. Henry Holland, Physician to the Queen and Prince Albert. W. H. Judd, Surgeon to Prince Albert. C. Aston Key, Surgeon in Ordinary to Prince Albert. P. M. Latham, M.D., Physician to the Queen. Sir James Mc. Grigor, Bart., Director General Army Medical Department. J. A. Paris, late President Royal College Physicians. T. J. Pettigrew. W. Prout, M.D., (Bridgewater Treatise). Andrew Ure, M.D. Besides these, a large number of the principal medical gentlemen in the Empire have given their concurrence to the certificate, and an anxious desire to make this communication for your convenience as short as possible, prevents me giving those valuable names at length. There are 1,214 signatures of medical men from different places, including 175 in London; 116 in Glasgow; 26 in Edinburgh; 192 in Liverpool; 75 in Manchester; 32 in Nottingham. The certificate is in the course of being further signed throughout the Kingdom. And I may add, that two powerful articles have lately appeared confirming the salutary, though unpopular doctrine, contained in your publication, viz., one in the last January number of the British Journal of Homeopa thy, and No. 48, of the British and Foreign Medical Review, I am, Sir, Your obedient servant, JOHN DUNLOP, Founder of the Temperance Movement in Great Britain, London, Feb. 1848. DEATH OF WILLIAM THOM, THE WEAVER POET OF INVERURY. The news of the death of poor Thom has just reached us. He died at Dundee on the morning of Monday, the 28th of February. Of course, as a poet, especially of the working class, he died, as he had long lived, in poverty and distress. It is but a few months since he quitted the metropolis, where, having been introduced as a lion, he was left to exist as a lamb shorn to the quick-and finding London pavements a hard pasture. Nothing can be so cruel, however well meant as these transplantations of rural working poets from their own haunts to the haunts of wretchedness in London, into which they sooner or later are doomed to drop. Thom experienced this cruelty to the utmost. A momentary and unnatural elevation, a long depression of funds, of spirits, and of health. By the aid of some true and warm-hearted friends, he was enabled to quit the ungenial metropolis for his native country, but it is to be feared, not till "the last slice of his constitution," to use Burns's phrase, was gone. Need we add, that he has left a widow in extreme distress, and that no good Samaritan could more fittingly indulge in his or her diviner feelings than by sending assistance to Croft's-lane, Hawk-hill, Dundee, where poor Thom now lies. Any contributions forwarded to this office, shall be handed to the widow without loss of time; but Post-office orders transmitted at Of once to Mrs. Thom would render the most speedy aid. Thom, as a poet, we shall speak further in our series of the Poets of the People. EMIGRATION TO AUSTRALIA. If those who are anxious to emigrate will take heed to the following facts, they will save themselves much time and trouble: Emigrants must be men and women of good moral character; not above 40 years of age; single women under 18 years of age cannot go without their parents; all must have been vaccinated, or have had the small-pox. £1 must be paid for every person above 14 years of age, and 10s. for every child above 1 and under 14. Each emigrant must take his, or her, own sheets, towels, and soap. Each man must take six shirts, six pair of stockings, two pair of shoes, two complete suits of exterior clothing. Each female must take six shifts, two flannel petticoats, six pair of stockings, two pair of shoes, and two gowns. All who may resolve to go out to the Colony must fill up a printed application, with baptismal and marriage certificates. It is much to be regretted, that those who are paid for their labour, and take upon themselves the responsibility of managing the Emigration Scheme, are at so little trouble to reach and teach such as are willing to emigrate. Hundreds who are most anxious to visit a foreign land in search of bread, have never heard of either the Emigration Office, at 9, Park-street, Westminster, or of Stephen Walcott, Esq., Secretary to the Board of Emigration. As emigration is a matter of vital importance to tens of thousands now, it is satisfactory to know that the Australian colonies are every day progressing in wealth, comfort, and prosperity. We this week notice the excellent work of Mr. Westgarth, on Port Phillip, a work on which, from our own knowledge, we can bid our readers rely. We may also quote this sentence from a letter just received from our brother, Dr. Howitt, residing at Port Phillip. "If you can do anything to forward emigration to this place, pray do it, as we are sadly off for servants. Female servants, and very indifferent ones too, are getting from £25 to £30 a-year. They are, you may conceive, more mistresses than servants under such circumstances. All classes are doing well here at present, and we only want separation from Sydney and emigration, to make Port Phillip the most flourishing of the Australian Colonies." WAR. ITS ENORMOUS COST AND DIABOLICAL DOINGS IN EPITOME. Since the accession of William III. to our throne, at the Revolution of 1688, the principalities and powers of Satan have been propitiated by this Christian (?) country, in a series of wars, or royal commissions for wholesale murder, which have cost the people of England Eighteen hundred and seventy-six millions, one hundred and thirty thousand, nine hundred and ninety-nine pounds! This calculation reaches no lower than the close of George III. During that sanguinary reign alone, our wars incurred the monstrous expenditure of Seventeen hundred millions of pounds! The amount of human lives sacrificed, as part purchase of all this perverted wealth, cannot be exactly computed; but at least from four to five millions of our fellow-subjects must have sold their life-blood, a libation to the accursed Moloch, beneath whose crushing chariot wheels, our mighty "men of valour" have ruthlessly flung their drilled slaves, in reeking hecatombs of slaughter. The moral responsibilities of governments and people-the fierce cruelties-the outrage and the plunder-the misery, destitution, and multiform agonies, involved in these wars-are not subjects for calculation. None but the Omniscient can estimate their awful sum total. Angels may weep-man shudders -demons jubilate, over the pages which record a portion of those horrors-but the folly and criminality of deliberately preparing matter for future chapters in that red and fiery record, are considerations well within our grasp. As intelligent creatures, as members of the social and political community, and yet more emphatically, as professors of the Christian faith, we are bound to weigh this question seriously, deliberately, and resolutely. Having made up our minds, let us speak out THE TRUTH among our fellows, and make it heard by our rulers, through those constitutional speaking-trumpets, whose voice, however unwelcome, they cannot refuse to heed. As a mere question of finance, to a country groaning, and all but giving up the ghost, under an unexampled pressure of taxation, it might stagger even a Field Marshal, were he persuaded to dot down the following facts and figures. At the Revolution of 1688, our National Debt was £664,263. At the peace of 1816, it had bloated itself, by legitimized human butchery, and all the unutterable abominations inseparable from campaigns and sieges, into more millions than its former thousands viz., £864,822,461. To pay the Interest incurred by this infamous squandering of our national resources, we have to raise by merciless taxation, year by year, the appalling tribute of £28,341,046, being Twenty-seven millions, six hundred and seventy-six thousand, seven hundred and eighty-three pounds more than the whole principal sum due, in the reign of William III. Will any honest man undertake to shew, by way of a small set-off against these ruinous liabilities, that all the slaughter, misery, and demoralization, which originated them, have given us a single shilling's worth of solid benefit, past, present, or prospective? FELLOW-COUNTRYMEN! THINK ON THESE THINGS. February, 1848. ELIJAH WARING. OPENING SOIREE OF THE HACKNEY LITERARY INSTITU TION. The Hackney Mutual Improvement Society having the free use of the Manor House Rooms, most liberally offered them by Mr. John R. D. Tyssen, have been induced to enlarge their Association, and met for the first soiree on February the 24th. These large rooms were filled to excess. Besides plenty of singing and music, accompanied on the piano by Mr. Terry, and solos played on the harp and concertino by Miss Blanshard and Mr. Sedgwick, there were splendid exhibitions of Dissolving Views and Chromatrope, and many beautiful works of art, amongst them specimens of the Art-Manufactures of Felix Summerley, forwarded by Mr. Cundall, of Old Bond-street. This Institution, possessing a library, and having reading and conversation rooms, and lectures, and classes for various studies, bids fair to be of the greatest benefit to the neighbourhood. SUICIDE OF DR. HORACE WELLS. This gentleman, who was living at New York, and claimed to be the discoverer of the power of Nitrous Oxide to destroy sensibility, and, therefore, of its use in surgical operations, committed suicide at the latter end of January. The cause of this act is singular. The American newspapers state that he had received a letter from the Paris Insti ute, awarding him 20,000 francs for his discovery, the highest prize ever given by the Institute. Dr. Wells appears to have been of an excitable temperament, and this distinction, in combination with the effect of the frequent inhalation of the gas, produced a state of phrenzy in which he was induced to go out with an acquaintance, and afterwards by himself and throw oil of vitriol on the women of the town parading the Broadway. For this he was taken into custody; and his feelings of remorse on coming to a different, if not a sober mood of mind, drove him to destroy himself. He has left a wife and child. DEVONPORT MECHANICS' INSTITUTE. This Institution was founded in 1825, mainly through the It munificence of Mr. Burnett, then a mercer of the town. continued its labours many years without any striking distinction, except what has since proved such, the membership of Mr. Adams, the discoverer of the planet Neptune, who was educated in Devonport, was long a member of this Society, and in a letter lately expressed to its managers the benefits he derived, particularly in his astronomical studies, adding, that his first acquaintance with fluxions was made through a book in its library. About four years ago the Lord of the Maner gave a suitable plot of ground, and a large and elegant building was erected, and opened by a Polytechnic Exhibition. Previous to this period there were 60 members, and its income was £45. It now includes 800 members, and has an income of £500, with on effective system of classes, a good brary, and mus un. The Society has lately resolved on raising a fund for a Poor Scholar's Endowment, so that any poor but deserving metaber may study at the University; and Mr. Burnard, the Cornich sculptor, has been employed to execute a marble bust of Mr. C. R. Smith, its Hon. Sec., to be placed in the Lecture Hall. CONTENTS. The French Revolution. By WILLIAM HOWITT-Facts from the Fields. The Depopulating Policy. By WI LAM How.. Extension of the English Manufacturing System, by which Men are worked up into Malefactors. No. I. The Meldrum FamilyScenes and Characters from the French Revolution, translated from Lamartine's Histoire des Girondins for Howitt's Journal. (Continued.) The Removal of Voltaire's Remains to the Pantheon PRINTED for the proprietor by WILLIAM LOVETT, of 16, South Row, New Road in the Parish of St. Pancras, County of Middlesex, and published by him at 171, (corner of Surrey Street,) Strand, in the Parish of St. Clement Danes. PRICE 10. STAMPED, 2d |