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had more fury, however, than force. They succeeded in the extirpation of Christianity; but such unaccountable efforts are a proof of their insufficiency. They wanted to establish a good polity, and they have shown greater marks of their

weakness.

We have only to read the relation of the interview between the Emperor and the Deyro at Meaco ‡. The number of those who were suffocated or murdered in that city by ruffians, is incredible; young maids and boys were carried off by force, and found afterwards exposed in public places, at unseasonable hours, quite naked, and sewed in linen bags, to prevent their knowing which way they had passed; robberies were committed in all parts, the bellies of horses were ripped open, to bring their riders to the ground; and coaches were overturned in order to strip the ladies. The Dutch, who were told they could not pass the night on the scaffolds, without exposing themselves to the danger of being assassinated, came down, &c.

I shall here give one instance more from the same nation. The Emperor having abandoned himself to infamous pleasures, lived unmarried, and was consequently in danger of dying without issue. The Deyro sent him two beautiful damsels; one he married out of respect, but would not meddle with her. His nurse caused the finest women of the empire to be sent for, but all to no purpose. At length, an armourer's daughter having pleased his fancy §, he determined to espouse her, and had a son. The ladies belonging to the court, enraged to see a person of such mean extraction preferred to

Collection of Voyages that contributed to the establishment of the East-India Company, tom. 5. p. 2.

§ Collection of voyages that contributed to the establishment of the East-India Company, tom. 5. p. 2.

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themselves, stifled the child. The crime was concealed from the Emperor; for he would have deluged the land with blood. The excessive severity of the laws hinders therefore their execution when the punishment surpasses all measure, they are frequently obliged to prefer impunity to it.

OF THE SPIRIT OF THE ROMAN SENATE *.

4

UNDER the consulate of Acilius Glabrio and Piso, the Acilian law was made, to prevent the intriguing for places. Dio says ‡, that the senate engaged the consuls to propose it, by reason that C. Cornelius the tribune had resolved to cause more severe punishments to be established against this crime, to which the people seemed greatly inclined. The senate rightly judged, that immoderate punishments would strike indeed a terror into people's minds, but must have also this effect, that there would be nobody afterwards to accuse or condemn; whereas by proposing moderate penalties, there would be always judges and ac

cusers.

OF THE JUST PROPORTION BETWIXT PUNISHMENTS AND

CRIMES $.

It is an essential point, that there should be a certain proportion in punishments, because it is essential that a great crime should be avoided rather than a smaller, and that which is more pernicious to society, rather than that which is less.

* Chap. xiv.

+ The guilty were condemned to a fine; they could not be admitted into the rank of senators, nor nominated to any public office. Dio, book 36.

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"An impostor who called himself Constantine Ducas, raised a great insurrection at Constantinople. He was taken and condemned to be whipt; but upon informing against several persons of distinction, he was sentenced to be burnt as a calumniator." It is very extraordinary, that they should thus proportion the punishments betwixt the crime of high-treason and that of calumny.

This puts me in mind of a saying of Charles II. king of Great-Britain. He saw a man one day standing in the pillory ; upon which he asked what crime the man had committed. He was answered, Please your Majesty, he has wrote a libel against your ministers. The fool! said the king, why did not he write against me? they would have done nothing to him.

"Seventy persons having conspired against the emperor Basil, he ordered them to be whipt, and the hair of their heads and beards to be burnt. A stag one day having taken hold of him by the girdle with his horn, one of his retinue drew his sword, cut the girdle, and saved him; upon which he ordered that person's head to be cut off, for having, said he, drawn his sword against his sovereign." Who could imagine that the same prince could ever have passed two such different judgments?

It is a great abuse amongst us to condemn to the same punishment a person that only robs on the high-way, and another who robs and murders. Surely, for the public security, some difference should be made in the punishment.

In China, those who add murder to robbery, are cut in pieces; but not so the others; to this difference it is owe that though they rob in that country, they never murder.

*Hist. of Nicephorus, patriarch of Constantinople.
‡ Du Italdy, to

+ In Nicephorus's history,

In Russia, where the punishment of robbery and murder is the same, they always murder. The dead, say they, tell no tales.

Where there is no difference in the penalty, there should be some in the expectation of pardon. In England they never murder on the high-way, because robbers have some hopes of transportation, which is not the case in respect to those that commit murder.

Letters of grace are of excellent use in moderate governments. This power which the prince has of pardoning, exercised with prudence, is capable of producing admirable effects. The principle of despotic government, which neither grants nor receives any pardon, deprives it of these advantages.

Present State of Russia, by Perry.

MR. CLARKSON.

FROM HIS PORTRAITURE OF QUAKERISM,

PUBLISHED IN THE YEAR 1807,

I FIND it almost impossible to proceed to the great courts or meetings of the Society, which I had allotted for my next subject, without stopping awhile to make a few observations on the principles of that part of the discipline, which I have now explained.

It

may be observed, first, that the great object of this part of the discipline is the reformation of the offending person.

Secondly, that the means of effecting this object consists of religious instruction and advice. And, thirdly, that no pains are to be spared, and no time to be limited, for the trial of these means; or, in other words, that nothing is to be left undone, while there is a hope that the offender may be reclaimed. Now these principles the Quakers adopt in the exercise of their discipline, because, as a Christian communit, they believe they ought to be guided only by Christian principles, and they know of no other, which the letter or the spirit of Christianity can warrant.

I shall trespass upon the patience of the reader in this place, only till I have made an application of these principles, or till I have shown him how far these might be extended, and extended with advantage to morals, beyond the limits of the Quaker Society, by being received as the basis, upon which a system of penal laws might be founded among larger soci eties or states.

It is much to be lamented that nations professing Christianity should have lost sight, in their various acts of legislation, of Christian principles, or that they should not have interwoven some such beautiful principles as those, which we have seen adopted by the Quakers, into the system of their penal laws. But if this negligence or omission would appear worthy of regret, if reported of any Christian nation, it would appear most so if reported of our own, where one would suppo e that the advantages of civil and religious liberty, and those of a reformed religion, would have had their influence in the correction of our judgments, and in the benevolent dispositions of our will. And yet nothing is more true than that these good influences have either never been produced, or, if produced, that they have never been attended to upon this subject. There seems to be no provision for religious instruct.on in our numerous prisons. We seem to make no patient trials

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