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 inidnight 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 the multiplicity of examples, ineffectual as 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 business is, at present, as well with the crimen falsi as with what may be

broadly termed theft. That good man and distinguished moralist, Johnson, in the CXÏVth Number of the Rambler, (a paper which I earnestly recommend 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 necessity of sanguinary inflictions, have hitherto opposed all amendment of our criminal code,) thus speaks of the confusion of crime: "The frequency 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 principles, 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 generally 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 cannot approve." When the Dr. wrote the above, the absurdity, the wickedness of the doctrine of equal penalties for unequal offences, was not so generally admitted, nor had the public sympathy for poor wretches, the victims of a code "the reproach of neighbouring states," been so generally 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 judgment; a code that condemns to an equal penalty a Maddon and a Nesbitt. If the arguments of those celebrated philosophers and philanthropists before mentioned, and others on this side of the question, are unsound; if either their premises are false or their deductions erroneous, let them be refuted, let the 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

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

SIR,

PHILADELPHOS.

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 ultimately 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

other advantages occur to my mind; but I refrain from enumerating them. I am strongly impressed with the necessity that something must be done;" and have ventured to pen these remarks, only in the hope that it may lead others who may be more competent to form a judgment upon the matter, to give it their serious consideration.

One subject, in conclusion, I would beg to hint at; namely, that congregations ought deeply and candidly to consider, whether the salaries generally paid are not inadequate to the maintaining of their ministers in that comfort and respectability to which they are entitled by their education and the all-important nature of their services; and whether a want of due consideration on that head has not done more than any thing else, to lessen the number of those who are willing to devote themselves to the ministry.

SIR,

I. H.

Oct. 30, 1820. AVING lately read a Sermon,

Scott, on the 25th of last May, before the friends of the Unitarian Fund, on the almost worn-out subject of Coercion employed by the Civil Power in defence of Christianity, and observing, that though the preacher does not expressly mention the Inquirer's Four Letters to the Rev. Mr. Fox, he has obviously alluded to them by censuring the application therein made of the case of Elymas, I take the liberty of requesting you to allow the following observations to appear in your valuable Repository, as the easiest and surest way of claiming the attention of those who may have heard or read the Sermon of Mr. Scott, but are not acquainted with the Letters of the Inquirer.

I cannot help concluding that Mr. Scott himself has founded his censure on the report of others, since a person of his discernment and candour could not have read that application of the case of Elymas without observing, that it was not the intention of the writer to justify the civil magistrate in using severe and coercive measures towards those who cannot receive as the truth of God, what may have been ordained or established as such by the govern

pussion

they

lusions of ignorance or bigotry, but they will doubtless feel, that " though freedom from prejudice is one part of liberality, yet to respect the prejudices of others is a greater." They will state their arguments fairly and dispassionately, and they have a right to do so, but they will not dissolve the ties of moral obligation by scoffing at the doctrines which render those ties binding on the bulk of the people. These are not the Deists with whom the civil magistrate of a Christian country has any pretext for interfering. Such Deists, if such there be, are the friends of social order and moral virtue, and, consequently, the supporters of lawful authority. They may reason with the philosopher in his closet, but they will not corrupt the simple inhabitant of the cottage, or delude the starving manufacturer with impracticable schemes of reform.

Elymas is represented by Mr. Scott as the philosophic friend of Sergius Paulus, and I quite agree with that gentleman in believing that "it was not merely the opposition which BarJesus, as a man of science, made to the apostles that was culpable; but the peculiar nature of that opposition,