which suits so well with the tory no. tions of Johnson, and which our modern Anti-Jacobins would be desirous to promulgate as our charter. To the Proprietors of the Belfast Magazine. My object was to show that a boat may be made ready, when wanted, without any previous preparation, and even where corkK. wood is not to be procured. Where every thing can be had, and money is at command, I am convinced that Mr. Christopher Towill's boat (a description of which terminated my former communication) is that which should be adopted in preference to any I have yet seen described. T I have long been convinced of the practicability of my plan, by a series of experiments made many years ago, but never thought of making it public, until reading in your Magazine, the account of the ship wreck at Ballycastle, vol. 1, page 268, where had any one thought of equipping a common boat, with three or four empty twenty gallon casks, and a little heavy ballast, well se cured from shifting, there is great reason to suppose, the crew might have reached the shore in safety. More than two years have elapsed since your publication made known my plan, which was also, at my instance, inserted in the Belfast NewsLetter, from the desire of rendering more extended, what I was persuaded would be useful information, and might be successfully employed whenever such a melancholy scene as that described at Ballycastle, presented itself. or It never entered my mind that an honorary medal any other emolument would follow my plan; if it should ever be the means of rescuing a single individual from death, I would then receive an ample reward. fence against society, for which the forfeit of life is not the atonement. But the punishment of death is not authorised by any right, it is therefore a war of a whole nation against a Citizen, whose destruction they think necessary for the general good. The experience of all ages may be sufficient to prove, that the punishment of death has never prevented determined men from injuring society. This method has been long tried, but with so little success, that rapine and violence are daily encreasing. The prisons of these kingdoms (which are periodically emptied into the grave, and again filled to add new victims to sanguinary justice) is a melancholy proof of this assertion. Must we go to the end of the world, must we have recourse to the laws of China, to learn how frugal we ought to be of human blood? It is now more than four thousand years that the tribunals of that empire have existed, and during that time the meanest subject, at the extremity of the empire, has not been executed, without first transmitting his case to the Emperor, who causes it to be thrice examined by one of his tribu nals, after which he signs the deathwarrant, alters the sentence, or entirely acquits. always those in which the most bloody inhuman actions, and the most atrocious crimes were committed, for the hands of the legislature and assassin were directed by the same sanguinary spirit. The punishment of death is pernicious to society, from the example of barbarism it affords. If passions, or the necessities of war, have taught men to shed the blood of their fellowcreatures, the laws which are intended to moderate the ferocity of mankind, should not exercise it by examples of barbarity, the more horrible as this punishment is usually attended with formal pageantry. Is it not absurd, that the laws that punish homicide, should, in order to prevent murder, publickly commit it themselves? What are the natural sentiments of every person concerning the punishment of death? We may read them in the contempt and indignation with which every one looks on the Executioner, who is nevertheless an innocent executor of the public will. What then is the origin of this contradiction? It is, that in a secret corner of the mind, in which nature's original impressions are still preserved, men discover a sentiment which tells them, that their lives are not lawfully in the power of any one, but of that necesonly, which, with his iron sceptre, rules the universe. During the 20 years reign of Eliza.sity beth, Empress of Russia, not a criminal was executed. Catherine 28, who succeeded her, with much more genius, followed her example. Yet crimes were not multiplied by this humanity; and it generally happens, that the criminals sent to Siberia, in time become worthy members of society. The countries and times most noted for severity of punishment, were • Voltaire. ed for two crimes that injure society If an equal punishment be ordainin different degrees, there is nothing to deter men from committing the with greater advantage. greater, as often as it is attended To equal robbery with murder, is to confound in common minds the gradations of iniquity, and to incite to the commission of a greater crimes, to prevent the detection of a less. He who knows not how often rigorous laws produce total impunity, and how many crimes are concealed and forgotten, for fear of hurrying the offender to that state in which there is no repentance, has conversed very little with the world. They who would rejoice at the conviction of a thief, are yet shocked at the thoughts of taking his life His crime sinks to nothing, when compared with his misery, and severity defeats itself, by exciting pity. All laws against wickedness are ineffectual, unless some will inform, and some will prosecute; but till we mitigate the penalties for mere violations of property, information will always be hated, and prosecution dreaded. The heart of a good man cannot but recoil at the thought of punishing a slight injury with death, especially when he remembers that the thief might have procured safety by another crime, from which he was restrained by his remaining vir tue. Independently of its inhumanity, of its inutility, and of every other consideration, one important, and, in my opinion, singly sufficient reason, why the punishment of death should never be inflicted, is the possibility of the innocence of the sufferer, and the impossibility of reversing his sentence, should that afterwards appear, but which all the remorse and contrition of the prosecutor and judges, can never restore again to his unhappy family, and to society. The unfortunate sufferer can then receive no compensation for the horrid injury he has sustained, he has not the consolation of seeing his innocence manifested to his country, and his character rescued from infamy. The only difference our laws ordained between the punishment for the most atrocious murder, and the theft of five shillings, is, ordering the criminal, in the first case, to be exe cuted within 48 hours, and his body to be anatomized: in the second, perhaps the unfortunate victim may get a few days or weeks longer, and his body delivered to his friends, if he should be so fortunate as to have any, to pay the last duties to his remains. According to the existing laws of America, robbery is not punishable with death, and only in particular instances is murder or forgery. The punishment inflicted is imprisonment, some 7-14-21 years, or during life, according to the enormity of the crime, by which means hundreds of useful members are made, or preserved to society. In those prisons different trades are carried on, and when a man is put into them, he is obliged to make choice of one, whether he is able to support himself or not, and by this means many idle vagrants, after being confined a few years, grow industrious, good tradesmen, and able to support themselves in comfort, after their enlargement. Punishments of this kind are certainly more useful than death or transportation, in preventing the commission of crimes; as by this means there is a perpetual example before us, while, in case of death, it is merely temporary. The idea of perpetual imprisonment is dreadfulenough, but then, in case of the innocence of the person being proved, (as it has often happened) then he can be restored to his family and society, and his character and his name snatched from infamy. For the Belfast Monthly Magazine. SKETCH OF THE CHARACTERS OF THE AMERICAN PRESIDENTS. Extracted from the Jesuit's Letters, lately published in America. OF Washington what shall be said? Panegyric cannot be ex hausted on his name. The sovereignty of his country was asserted by his energy, and secured by his moderation. His military successes were more solid than brilliant, brilliant as they were; and judgment, rather than enthusiasm, regulated his conduct in battle. In the midst of the inevitable disorders of camps, and the excesses inseparable from a civil war, humanity always found refuge in his tent. In the morning of triumph, and in the darkness of adversity, he was alike serene; at all times tranquil as wisdom, and simple as virtue. After the acknowledgment of American independence, when the unanimous suffrage of a free people called him to administer their government, his administration, partaking of his character, was mild and firm at home, noble and prudent abroad. Born to opulence, he had nobly increased his patrimony, like the early heroes of Rome, by the labours of agriculture: and though an enemy to vain parade, he wished to environ the manners of republicanism with a becoming dignity. His well regulated mind repulsed every species of extravagance. No one of his fellow citizens loved liberty more ardent ly; but no one heard, with a strong er repugnance, the exaggerations of demagogues. In all his negociations, the heroic simplicity of the American President dealt, without vain-glory or abasement, with the majesty of kings. His were not the fierce and imposing features which strike all minds; but order, and justice, truth, and, above all, good sense, were his characteristics: good sense, a quality as rare as it is useful, and as useful in public sta tions as in private life. Genius elevates, boldness destroys; good sense preserves and perfects. Genius is charged with the glory of empires; but good sense alone can assure their When Wash repose and duration. ington saw his country raised, in a great measure by his personal influence, from distraction and des pondency, to an honourable rank among independent nations, actuated by neither fear nor ambition, but desirous of enjoying in private the tranquility he so greatly contributed to affirm, he retired from the presidency, to live and die a private citizen, when he might have been monarch of the West. But though he relinquished the first place, the first name in America continued and ever will be Washington. There are prodigious men, who appear at intervals, with the character of greatness and domination. An unknown, supernatural cause sends them forth, when required to found or repair the ruins of empires. In vain do such men keep aloof, or mix with the crowd; the hand of fortune raises them suddenly, and they borne from obstacle over obstacle, from triumph through triumph, to the summit of authority. Inspiration animates their thoughts; an irresistible movement is given to their enterprises. The multitude looks for them in itself, but finds them not; and lifting up its eyes, they are beheld in a sphere resplendent with light and glory. No monarch on his throne was ever so great as Washington in his retirement. No founder of an empire had the same pretensions, looking around on the national power and prosperity he had created, to exclaim, He sunt mee imagines, hac nobilitas, non hereditate relicta, sed quæ ego plurimis laboribus et periculis quæsivi.* are The ancients would have deified such an individual as Washington, and transmitted his name, thus rendered The two succeeding Presidents have also already passed away politically, each of them with claims much urged, and much contested, to applause. From a long residence in the United States, and an inti mate observation of their principal men, manners, and institutions, I hope I have collected the means for appreciating them justly, with for appreciating them justly, with out imbibing the poison of their factions and personalities. And I shall endeavour to delineate them, as if sacred, to the veneration of posterity, No political improvements or national institutions, no course of policy, no mere system, however excellent, can tend so much to make a nation happy and great, as the disinterested exertions of individuals, exalted by their superior talents and virtue. It ought to be one of the first objects of a republican people, to enshrine the characters of those men, to whom their prosperity may be even in part ascribed, and with whose names their national character will be associated. Some of the ablest statesmen and historians have pronounced their judgments for men in preference to measures. Sallust, a warm admirer of popular governments, and certainly enlisted on the popular side, inquiring into the causes of Roman greatness, thus expresses his opinion: Mihi, multa agitanti, constabat paucorum civium egregiam virtutem cuncta patravisse, eoque factum uti divitias paupertas, multitudinem paucitas su peraret. Sal. de Cat. s. 54. Il ne s'est pres que jamais, says Voltaire, rien fait de grand dans le monde que par le génie et la fermeté d'un seul homme, qui lutte contre les préjugés de la multitude. Es. sur les Maurs. And the late Mr. Fox expresses a similar sentiment in still stronger terms. "How vain," says he," how idle, how presumptuous is the opinion, that laws can do every thing! And how weak and pernicious the maxim founded upon it, that measures, not men, are to be attended to." Hist. of James II. introd. p. 14. So too the philosophising poet, dilating indeed the sentiment with a poet's license, exclaims, Of forms of government let fools contest. 'That which is best administered is best. BELFAST MAG. NO. XL. they were no more, without bias or Périsse à jamais l'affreuse politique, The void left by Washington it was impossible to fill; and Mr. Adams, whose misfortune it was to succeed him, proximus, sed longo intervallo, never entered the mind in comparison with his predecessor. At the commencement of the revolution, Mr. Adams stood forth a zealous, resolute, and useful patriot; and though his services were confined to the civil departments, they were nevertheless steady, welldirected, and important. Being afterwards vice-president under Washington, of acknowledged abilities, and irreproachable reputation, baving had the honour of representing his country in Europe on several momentous missions, and being an individual of preponderating influence in the States of New England, the Presidency devolved upon him after Washington's retirement, as it were, rather as a matter of routine and reward, than on account of his superior fitness for the situation. No man can be great, who is not greater than his fortune; nor does any weakness more deservedly incur contempt, than the intoxication of success. Elated by his election, Mr. Adams lost the equanimity which was, perhaps, the first requisite for his place. Wanting, besides, the personal weight that a President should possess, when the impulse that carried him into office subsided, as it soon did with the infatuation that followed, it became evident, that neither himself, his cabinet, nor the people, were under his government, and that his short-lived power was on the wane. A considerable section of his own party Aaa |