able gentleman asserted in a subsequent debate, that no nation on earth has so little of the petty thievish propensities as ours,' and that the repeal of any part of our penal code, would tend to 'unsettle the opinions of mankind and to disturb received ideas as to guilt; in a word, would risk altering the character of the people.' The unenlightened presumption' of these innovators in our criminal jurisprudence, were, he said, endangering 'the mighty machinery of a nation's happiness, the accumulated wisdom of ages.' It was in precisely the same spirit that in the last debate which took place in the House of Lords on the subject of the Slave Trade, prior to the third reading of the Bill for the abolition of that accursed traffic, it was gravely asserted by a noble Earl, that the proposed measure was a libel upon the wisdom of the law of the land, and upon the conduct of our ancestors.'

6

It must be admitted at once, that Capital Punishments have, not less than the traffic in slaves, the practice of ages in their favour. The Greeks, the Romans, the Mahometans, the Hindoos, and the central nations of Africa, have all considered them as part of the mighty machinery of a nation's happiness.' The only exception is supplied by the legislature of that upstart transatlantic nation, whose example, notwithstanding the complete success which has seemed to attend upon it, is not sufficiently classical to have, with some learned and honourable gentlemen, the force of a precedent. But in order to have the question of innovation fairly brought before us, let us examine into the history of legislatiou in our own country. From a chronological list of statutable capital offences contained in Montagu's " Opinions 66 upon the Punishment of Death," the first extant statute appears to have been passed in the reign of Edward III. and was directed against Bringing false money into the Realm.' Three, other statutes were passed in the same year, one relating to a similar offence, the others to acts of high-treason. The next bears the date of the reign of Henry VII. Three were passed in the reign of Henry VIII.; but that monarch had a shorter method of proceeding than by multiplying capital statutes: in his reign the executions averaged, it is said, 2000 a year. In the reign of Edward VI. horse-stealing, robbing in a booth, or in a dwelling-house, and being accessary before the fact, were first rendered punishable with death. In the sanguinary reign of his successor, four new penal laws were added to the statute book. Her arbitrary power, satiated as it was with the victims of ecclesiastical tyranny, might well dispense with adding new terrors to the criminal code. In the reign of Elizabeth, further penal laws were enacted for the protection of the coinage; rape and burglary were also made capital, as well as being accessary to those and some other capital offences. During the seventeenth century, up to the accession of William and

Mary, eight more offences were added to the list of capital crimes. The progress of legislation seems then to have quickened considerably, for eighteen penal laws were passed in this reign, ten in the reign of Queen Anne, thirty-two in that of George I. fiftyone in that of George II. and up to the year 1806, seventy-two had been added within the present reign. One hundred and sixty-five offences, therefore, have been rendered capital by statute since the commencement of the last century. The spirit of innovation appears to have been pretty active among our legislators, but then, it has exerted itself in the good old quiet way of statute-making, without any regard to new maxims of jurisprudence, and without casting any libels on the wisdom of our ancestors! Sometimes the punishment of death has been denounced upon the spur of the occasion, to check a particular crime; sometimes to protect a trade or manufacture which had been exposed to frequent depredations; sometimes, it should seem, as a matter of course, upon the mere principle of analogy. The ease, indeed, with which the clause-felony without benefit of clergy, inserted in the draft of a bill by some clerk in a committeeroom, has obtained the assent of the Honourable House, is to be accounted for only from these words being supposed, as Mr. Whitbread once said, to possess a miraculous power against 'crime.' Thus it has been proposed without hesitation, and 'adopted without argument. If any offence existed,' said that gentleman, a member of parliament had only to apply to this House, and the sledge-hammer was instantly over the offender.' A bill was on one occasion referred to by Sir Samuel Romilly, as having recently passed that House without opposition, which added nine new capital felonies to the former catalogue. 'Such an increase of severity was,' he justly contended, as great an innovation as a repeal of severity to the same extent.' Innovation! The process is busily going forward, and has been for centuries, under other names, both in and out of Parliament. Why is the term to be reserved for those measures exclusively which originate in the purest benevolence? But this is always the last paltry stand which is taken by the discomfited advocates of a bad cause, when beaten off from the field of argument. But for the purpose of noticing the modern origin of by far the greater part of our capital statutes, we should not indeed have thought it worth while to refer to a charge which may with so much force be retorted on the authors and abettors of these multitudinous penal enactments. The opinion in favour of a mitigation of punishment, is of quite as long standing as most of these laws. Three hundred years ago, Sir Thomas More and Erasmus, the two greatest men of their age, raised their voices in deprecation of the sanguinary practice. In the following century this novel opinion, besides being advocated by Raleigh and

6

Chillingworth, received the support of the profoundest philosopher and of the most eminent lawyer of whom England can boast, Lord Bacon and Lord Coke. The latter, in the preface to his Fourth Institute, speaks of the frequency of the punishment making it so familiar as it is not feared.' For example,' he says, 'what a lamentable case is it to see so many Christian men and 'women strangled on that cursed tree of the gallows, insomuch, as if in a large field a man might see together all the Christians that but in one year, throughout England, come to that un'timely and ignominious death, if there were any spark of grace or charity in him, it would make his heart to bleed for pity and 'compassion. But the consideration of this preventing justice were worthy of the wisdom of parliament, and in the mean time 'expert and wise men to make preparation for the same, as the text saith, ut benedicat eis Dominus. Blessed shall he be that 'layeth the first stone of the building, more blessed that proceeds in it, most of all that finisheth it, to the glory of God, and the 'honour of our king and nation.'

In glancing down the list of eminent writers and statesmen by whom this glorious innovation has been successively pleaded for, there is one name upon which the eye cannot but rest to pay the homage of the most painful regrets,-the name of Him who during thirty years stood foremost in the cause, labouring with the indefatigable ardour of true benevolence, to meliorate and humanize the administration of that jurisprudence of which, in another branch, he shone the brightest ornament. For him we might have hoped was reserved that full measure of benediction which had so long before been pronounced on the consummator of this great work of justice and humanity: a fame far more illustrious than could have been derived from the highest legal title, would then have ennobled the name of ROMILLY. Alas! that so bright a day should have disappointed us of a sun-set, by abruptly shutting up in mist and premature darkness! that a career so enviable and so beneficent, should have closed in precipitous horrors! But the contest will still be carried on, and that triumph which the ablest pleadings of enlightened talent have hitherto failed to secure, must ultimately await on the concentrated might of national opinion.

We ought before to have noticed the spirited and eloquent pamphlet at the head of this article, which directs the public attention more particularly to the injustice and impolicy of the punishment of death in the case of forgery;' in the case of this modification of theft, (for it is nothing else,) almost to the exclusion of other crimes of far deeper moral turpitude. The reason is this, remarks the Author: in this professedly Christian country, the real value of the life of man is little known.'

'The life of man in the estimation of God, is more than equivalent to the wealth of the universe. Fools may laugh, infidels and philoso

phers may despise, and legislators may disregard the remark, but it is the truth of God; and those who will not bend to its authority, must sink beneath its weight.'

We have left almost untouched the argument from the mild spirit of Christianity, but we must not trust ourselves with any fresh topic; and indeed it seems almost superfluous to make any appeal to principles which, had they been sincerely recognised, would long since have changed the character of our domestic policy. Our criminal code is a disgrace to the theory of our jurisprudence; our prisons are a still fouler blot upon our practice, inasmuch as moral evil infinitely outweighs the utmost physical suffering. It becomes, however, all those who profess and call themselves Christians, to see to it, that no endeavours of theirs are wanting in the promotion of a reform co-extensive with the whole of the existing evil. Satisfied as we are that the work of melioration will go forward, we nevertheless would not, for all the world, feel indifferent, or act as if we felt indifferent, to its progress, nor forget the claims which the vilest participants of our nature have upon us, who, not less than they, derive all our hope of salvation from pure, unmingled, Infinite MERCY,

Art. II. An Introduction to the Critical Study and Knowledge of the Holy Scriptures. By Thomas Hartwell Horne, A. M. Illustrated with Maps and Fac-similies of Biblical Manuscripts, 8vo. 3 Vols. pp. xix. 1615, Price 21. 2s. 1818.

THIS

HIS work we bring forward with confidence to the notice of our readers, as the very best introduction to the critical study of the Holy Scriptures, in the whole compass of English literature. It is a comprehensive digest of the labours of the most eminent writers; both foreign and domestic, on subjects of Biblical criticism. It has engaged the attention of the Author for a considerable number of years, and is replete with proofs of his industry; nor is this the only qualification for the undertaking which is displayed in the execution of the work: it exhibits a sound judgement and considerable ability. It is altogether an invaluable work, and cannot fail of procuring for the Author the warm commendation of every liberal scholar. To the Biblical student it may be safely recommended, as affording him more assistance in the pursuit of his proper object, the knowledge of the Scriptures, than any other publication whatever, and as entitled to a place in his library, whether it be large or small, among the books which he will never regret having purchased. From the following analysis, our readers will perceive the variety and extent of the subjects on which it treats. The work is divided into three parts. The first volume comprises two of these general divisions, extending to 688 pages. There are some excellent preliminary considerations on the moral qualifications for studying the Scriptures, a inost important topic, which Biblical

students are in great danger of overlooking, and which cannot be too closely or too frequently pressed upon their regard.

Part I. contains a concise view of the Geography of the Holy Land, and of the political, religious, moral, and civil state of the Jews, illustrating the principal events recorded in the Scriptures. Chap. 1. treats of the physical Geography of the Holy Land. Chap. 2. includes its political divisions. Chap. 3. contains a description of Jerusalem, the temple, synagogues, and other buildings, with a sketch of the history and present state of that celebrated city. Chap. 4. exhibits the political state of the Jews, from the patriarchal times to the Babylonish captivity-under the Asmonean princes-the Herodian family-and the Roman procurators: treats of the Roman judicature, forms of proceeding in trials, and modes of punishment, particularly crucifixion. Under this last article the circumstances of our Saviour's crucifixion are considered and illustrated at large. Chap. 5. The ecclesiastical state of the Jews, account of the Jewish Church and its members, ecclesiastical persons, modes of worship, sacrifices and offerings, sacred times and seasons. Chap. 6. On the religious and moral state of the Jews, during the time of Christ, Jewish sects, and Jewish and Roman modes of computing time.

Part II. On the Interpretation of Scripture. The literal, allegorical, typical, and parabolic senses of Scripture, with general rules for investigating and determining them-words and phrases -subsidiary means of ascertaining the meaning of Scripture, the original languages of the Bible-Hebrew, including bibliographical and critical accounts of grammar and lexicons-Greek, style and dialects of the New Testament, principal Greek lexicons, Cognate languages- Versions of the Scripture, Old Testament, Targums, Septuagint and other Greek versions, Syriac, and other oriental translations, Latin versions; New Testament, oriental versions, western translations, use and application of ancient version-Parallel passages of Scripture; scholia and glossaries, subject matter, context, scope, analogy of faith- Figurative language of Scripture-Apparent contradictions of Scripture, and the manner of reconciling them-Quotations in the New Testament from the Old, from apocryphal and profane authors-Historical interpretation of Scriptures-Interpretation of Scripture miracles-Spiritual interpretation-Interpretation of types-Doctrinal interpretation-Moral interpretation-Promises and threatenings-Inferential and practical reading of the Scriptures-Commentaries.

The second volume, containing 689 pages, is wholly occupied by Part III. containing an analysis of the different books of the Old and New Testament, including a concise account of the books reckoned apocryphal. The topics brought into discussion in