Capital Punishments.

deliberately put to death in the course of ten days! Monstrous! And of these fourteen victims, four of them for forgery and the lesser offence of uttering forged notes! What, Mr. Editor, is become of the "Committee appointed to consider of so much of the Criminal Laws as relates to Capital Punishments for Felonies"? I believe they have recommended the substitution of some other penalty in the place of the ultimum supplicium in cases of forgery, or at least of the uttering of forged notes. If so, why is it not attended to? If our rulers will persist in hanging up, by the dozen and the score, their fellow-creatures, upon their heads let the blood light. The people have no hand in it; they disclaim such an infernal system; they are no less hostile to the Draconian code, that condemns to an equal punishment the stripling who passes a forged bill for 208., and the midnight assassin who bathes himself in the blood of his victim, than those great and good men of the past and present century, Beccaria, Montesquieu, Blackstone, Johnson, Goldsmith, Romilly, Mackintosh, Buxton, &c. What can induce those in whose hands rests the dread but unenvied power of life and death, thus pertinaciously to adhere to a practice so revolting to the Creator and the creature, and, as is proved by multiplicity of examples, ineffectual a preventive of crime-the great, the sole object of punishment? And why is it inefficacious? Why does it fail of its aim? Let us hear what that able writer and distinguished philanthropist above quoted says on this subject: "In proportion as punishments become more cruel, the human mind, which, like fluids, rises to a level with the surrounding objects, becomes hardened; and, the force of the passions still continuing, after a century of cruel punishments, the wheel terrifies no more than formerly did the prison." I shall give no opinion on the subject of crimes accompanied with violence, though I am disposed to think that offenders of this sort might be prevented from injuring society in future, be made useful to the state, and even eventually reclaimed, if we were as ready to reform as we are to launch them into eternity; my busi ness is, at present, as well with the crimen falsi, as with what may be

VOL XVI.

the

as

9

"The frequency

broadly termed theft. That good man
and distinguished moralist, Johnson,
in the CXIVth Number of the Ram-
bler, (a paper which I earnestly re-
commend to the perusal of those who
advocate the cause of justice and
humanity, but more particularly to the
attentive consideration of such persons
as, from an erroneous idea of the ne-
cessity of sanguinary inflictions, have
hitherto opposed all amendment of our
criminal code,) thus speaks of the
confusion of crime:
of capital punishments, therefore,
rarely hinders the commission of a
crime, but naturally and commonly
prevents its detection, and is, if we
proceed only upon prudential princi-
ples, chiefly for that reason to be
avoided. Whatever may be urged by
casuists or politicians, the greater part
of mankind, as they can never think
that to pick the pocket and to pierce
the heart is equally criminal, will
scarcely believe that two malefactors
so different in guilt can be justly
doomed to the same punishment;
nor is the necessity of submitting the
conscience to human laws so plainly
evinced, so clearly stated, or so gene-
rally allowed, but that the pious, the
tender and the just will always scruple
to concur with the community in an
act which their private judgment can-
not approve." When the Dr. wrote
the above, the absurdity, the wicked-
ness of the doctrine of equal penalties
for unequal offences, was not so gene-
rally admitted, nor had the public
sympathy for poor wretches, the vic-
tims of a code
neighbouring states," been so gene-
rally excited as it has of late years. It
is not so now. Englishmen, Sir, I
repeat, renounce a code that is at once
an outrage on their feelings and their
code that condemns to
judgment; a
an equal penalty a Maddon and a
Nesbitt. If the arguments of those
celebrated philosophers and philan-
thropists before mentioned, and others
on this side of the question, are un-
sound; if either their premises are
false or their deductions erroneous, let
them be refuted, let the

C

"the reproach of

"Mighty

Mother" in Threadneedle Street, and her mammon-worshiping children, sit down and subvert the reasoning of their opponents, which, indeed, they must do by arguments à priori, since they cannot appeal to experience, in favour

10

Capital Punishments.

of their view of the question, by shewing the inefficacy of a milder legislation, and a more humane administration of the law in this country; and the universal practice on the continents of Europe and America, loudly, practically refutes their odious system. We have two hundred and twenty-three offences capital by Act of Parliament. There is one statute, passed within a century, which contains seventeen capital felonies, one of which is for maliciously shooting at a man, and another for destroying a rabbit in a warren! What can be the cause of this? Are we worse than our neighbours? Will nothing but breaking into the bloody house of life," restrain Englishmen from invading the property of others? Is blood the only cement to hold us together in the social state? What is the cause of this moral degradation? For moral degradation of the lowest degree is imputed by these "strict statutes and most biting laws:" and if these be necessary to our wellbeing in society, all our vaunted superiority in morals over other nations is either gross cant or lamentable delusion. One of these two things must be; either our laws are the cause of our manners, or our manners the effect of our laws; if the former, then are we, if vice and happiness be incompatible, " of all men most miserable;" if the latter, then the sooner we set about the reformation of our penal code the better. But if this reasoning be disputed, at least it must be admitted, that at if bad legislation does not create all the evil of our corrupt morals, it contributes to increase and promote it; vicious habits and sanguinary laws mutually acting upon and producing one another in a sort of vicious circle. I trust it will not be impertinent to offer a word or two on the score of religion to men who are now laudably engaged in building new churches, who are continually inveighing against those who are disseminating blasphemy and infidelity, and whose zeal in the holy cause of piety and virtue, if we may confide in their "mouth honour," is exceeding. As they are Christians, they doubtless believe the Almighty to be the moral as well as the natural Governor of the universe, and consequently man to be a responsible being. What is it, then, they do, when they destroy, for the sake of a very small

portion of that which represents the
commodities of life, a human being,
their fellow-creature, made, as the
Scriptures tell us, after God's own
image, a little lower than the angels,
and born to immortality? Are they,
do they think themselves, justified in
thus sending to his account one of
their own kind, in the bloom of man-
hood, to await his final doom before
that great Being from whom no secrets
are hid, at whose hands he must expect,
if that indeed His mercy were not over
all his works, and His justice a very
different attribute from that so mis-
called here below, an irrevocable sen-
tence of condemnation. Good God!
I tremble at a thought so horrible.
After all, Mr. Editor, notwithstanding
the fair exterior of religion held out
to us by our governors, I cannot help
thinking that there is something at
bottom very different from what they
would have us believe. There certainly
must be a very different feeling in
petto; they cannot in their hearts have
any true faith in that which they pro-
fess, but only assume the appearance
to avoid scandal. Certain it is, that
men who, from some constitutional
obtundity of intellect, or from false
reasoning, the effect of depraved habits,
have been persuaded to doubt that
which they wish not to credit, would
act just in this sort of way, believing
the Creator and Preserver of all things
to be, as Lucretius taught,

"Wrapt up in self, a God without a
thought,
Regardless of our merit or default."

They would (as our Christian rulers do) immolate at the altar of lucre as many fellow-beings as suited their interest or policy. What imports it to hang annually three or four score of human creatures, endowed with mere animal existence, and who, when destroyed, will contribute more, by the decomposition of their bodies in the earth, to the service of their surviving brethren, than they ever did during their lives? Such, it appears to me, must be in secret the opinions of those who can thus outrage religion and humanity by persisting, in defiance of every good feeling, in putting to death so many of their own species. Away, then, at once with this mockery of Christianity! Let them be at least consistent; let them talk to us no

!

more of him who addressed the thief on the cross, who said to the adulteress, "Go, and sin no more." Let them boldly come forward and avow their unbelief. Let them preach Materialism as well as practise it. By so doing, they will at least diminish the number of their vices by the abstraction of hypocrisy.

I

PHILADELPHOS.

SIR, December 12, 1820. HAVE perused with much interest [Vol. XV. p. 623] the resolutions passed at a meeting of the subscribers to the Fellowship Fund at Liverpool, respecting the re-establishment of an academical institution similar to the one which, a few years ago, existed at Hackney.

That some increased means should be adopted for the purpose of providing a supply of ministers for those congregations which are now vacant, as well as for those whose pastors are far advanced in years, seems to be generally admitted; and, without doubt, it is a subject which should engage the attention of all those individuals, and those associated bodies, who are impressed with a sense of the importance of promoting the spread of those views of Christianity which they believe to be truly evangelical. It is also generally admitted, that the highly respectable college at York cannot be considered as fully providing for the exigencies of the case. That a regular succession of ministers, well versed in biblical criticism and the more abstruse parts of science, and competent to defend the Unitarian faith against the assaults of learned objectors, will be provided by that Institution, is a source of high gratification and confidence. But it is reasonable to suppose, that young men thus educated will be called upon to take the charge of congregations in the large towns, and therefore, in order to provide for the supply of ministers for smaller congregations, the number of which is every year increasing, some additional means should be put into active operation.

While the importance of this subject is generally allowed, there are, in the opinion of many judicious persons, serious objections to the attempt to establish an additional academical institution. Among numerous other obstacles, the expense necessarily at

tendant upon such establishments is thought to form an insuperable one, particularly when it is considered that the funds required for their support must be derived from contributions casual and irregular, and that consequently a scheme well-digested, and for some time successfully carried on, might be suddenly rendered entirely abortive. There are, however, let us hope, other modes by which the important object may be attained; and I beg to suggest to your readers some hints upon the subject.

As it is evident from the increased zeal which is apparent among Unitarians, and from the establishment of Fellowship Funds, that something considerable may be raised towards the furtherance of this object, I would recommend that young men who are desirous of devoting themselves to the ministry, should be encouraged to do so; and that ministers, duly qualified to direct their studies, should be induced, by adequate remuneration, to undertake that charge; that six or eight students should be placed under the care of one minister; that a committee, consisting partly of ministers and partly of laymen, and residing in some central part of the kingdom, (in and near Birmingham, for instance,) should be appointed to manage the affairs of the institution; to receive and appropriate the funds; to receive and decide upon the applications of preceptors and students, and to arrange the terms to be paid, and the plan of tuition to be adopted, according to the circumstances and qualifications of the respective parties. One advantage to be derived from the adoption of this plan would be, that something might speedily be done, without incurring any serious risk, even if it were not uftimately found to answer. Another is, that as a variety of preceptors would be employed, perhaps greater benefit would result than from an academical institution upon a large scale, where certain notions are apt to prevail on the subjects of doctrine, style and manner, which often produce too great an uniformity among the students. Another is, that by being located in different parts of the kingdom, the young men would have more opportunities afforded for improving themselves in pulpit-exercises, previous to the completion of their studies. Many On the Punishment of Unbelievers.

and the views and motives which influ- Jesus, Nay, the very Deists themenced him in it;"-but I think he is mistaken in asserting that Elymas was punished "for the wilful rejection of the evidence given to the divine mission of Jesus, by the testimony of miracles." Surely this was a crime by no means peculiar to Elymas, neither are we justified in imputing this crime to Elymas, unless Mr. Scott can shew that he had witnessed any miracle before that which deprived him of sight. His guilt was precisely that of some modern infidels. Sergius Paulus desired to hear the word of God, and Elymas endeavoured by his sophistry to prevent the natural effect of the apostle's argument; he sought to turn away the deputy from the faith. Full of all

subtilty and all mischief, as he was, and already possessed of some influence over the mind of his friend, he would probably have succeeded, but for the exercise of Paul's miraculous power. Any other miracle might have produced the same effect on the candid temper of the deputy; and as it was not the practice of our Saviour or his apostles to inflict disorders, though they frequently removed them, we are justified in believing that there are modes of opposing the progress of Christianity peculiarly deserving of temporal punishment.

selves, whose sublime virtues have
called forth such eloquent panegyric,
borrow the noblest of those virtues
from the precepts of Him, who knew
what was in man, though they have
not the candour to acknowledge the
source of their pure and dignified mo-
rality. This being the case, if the
blasphemer, the scoffer, the daring
violater of the national law, the reviler
of the national faith, the misleader of
the simple, the abuser of the ignorant,
the corrupter of youth, the destroyer
of all that is sacred and venerable-if
this man be not a proper object of
punishment, shew me the offender who
deserves it! For the protection of
this offender, Mr. Scott would impose
an absolute restraint upon the exercise
of lawful authority. When they "can
produce similar evidence of their being
divinely commissioned; when they can
act under the same especial authority
and under the same divine impulse
with the apostle; then, but not till
then, let them punish the unbeliever
in their creed; then, but not till then,
let them adduce the punishment of
Bar-Jesus as a sufficient scriptural
authority for delivering over the op-
poser of their religious system into the
hands of the civil power."

Having shewn that Elymas acted the
same part as some unbelievers of later
date, I now come to another division
of Mr. Scott's argument, in which he
inquires "whether the treatment of
Bar-Jesus can, in any respect, be con-
sidered as a precedent for us to fol-
low?" And first, I must notice a
misconception of the case; I do not
know that any one contends for the
right of punishing a man on account
of his dissent from the religion of the
Establishment. The Roman Catholic
and the Protestant sectary are allowed
the open profession and quiet enjoy-
ment of their peculiar modes of faith me.
and worship; but Christianity, in its not follow Paul's example, unless you
No, says Mr. Scott, you must
most comprehensive sense, including can produce similar evidence of being
the divine mission of our Lord, and
the doctrine of a future state of reward
and punishment, " is part of the com-
mon law of the land." Our civil in-
stitutions, our moral character as a
nation, our ideas of social duty, our
feelings of self-respect, are all founded
upon that standard of right and wrong
which is held forth by the religion of

of one ingenuous mind from the so-
We have seen that the preservation
phistry of an Infidel was deemed by
the inspired apostle sufficient to jus-
tify an unwonted use of his miraculous
power; then, shall the Christian ma-
gistrate sit with folded arms, and, be-
cause he cannot work a miracle, permit
the minds of thousands and tens of
thousands to be perverted with impu-
nity? Ought he not rather, under the
limitations of Christian benevolence,
to exercise that power with which he
is entrusted in defence of the dearest
interests of men?
says St. Paul, be ye followers of
I beseech you,

suppose it possible that an apostle,
divinely nely commissioned. Can he then
acting under divine impulse, would
perform an action unlawful for Chris-
tians in general? Let us also remem-
ber that this apostle was Paul-Paul,
who on various occasions so carefully
distinguished when he spoke by com-
mandment, by permission, or after his

i