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Untitled Article
' We lay before our readers an interesting extract on the sti $ > * ject of the French penal laws * €€ the criminal laws of France are not So s £ Vfcre by touch as ( hose of England . Exposure on a scaffold on a public day , and in the prisonE
dress , is the punishment of small offences and petty robberies y and ove ^ the head of the culprit who is fastened by a rope to a pole , are affixed his name aiid the cause of his piiriishrnefct . For greater offences they are burnt with a hot iron on the right shoulder , * err are condemned to thegallies ^ for a ter m of years or for life : and If guilty 6 f murder , or other very atrocious crime , they fall under the guillotine . Those condemned to the gallies are employed in different parts of thd republic , in
ihe public works , such as digging canals , clearing ports , or the like . Some hundreds have been at work for two years Dack at Antwerp , in repairing the port , and clearing the river of mucj and rubbish . Thejr "work at the spade or barrow with iron balls fastened by a chain to their legs , and are guarded by a body of troops- The immense Canal Which ; is tojoin the Northern to the Southern departments , a f&vorite project of Napoleon , and which will bear his name , will be dug out by thesd miserable wretches .
Mr . Worsley ' s " Account of the State of Religion in France * is highly interesting . There is there more than toleration , there is a perfect equality between the two great Christian sects—* -the Papists and the Protestants ! The ministers of each denoffi u * nation are appointed ( their election is at least confirmed ) by the
government , which also pays them their salary , which for both Papists and Protestants is 1 ^ 200 livres , or fifty pounds per annum . One minister is allowed for every five thousand souls whether residing in one place or in many contiguous places , who can at any time unite in demanding of the Emperor a building for religious worship , and an annual stipend for a minister , in the same manner th&t any two or three householders
m this couiitry can unite in demanding the licensing of a meeting-house . - Papists and Protestants are not permitted to obtrude their Religious ceremonies upon one another * . Where Protestant churches are opened Catholic processions are altogether prohibited . Burials are conducted without pomp ; every
town has a common burial-ground . The two parties live together in harmony , and even assist each other ' s devotions . The churches throughout France were filled indiscriminately ( we are informed by a correspondent , ) on the Thanksgiving day apppinted by the government for the victory at Austerlitz , ( for the French too appeal to the God of battles !) with persons of every
* This circumstance will prevent , we should imagine , the Methodist Missionary < Society , from carrying their favorite plaainto execution , of converting France by means of Itinerant preachers . It is not probable that Napoleon will at present relax any of his fundamental laws , in cornplinaent to Englishmen—to Englishmen especially who are commonl y considered as standing only on saiferaucc , cvtn it ho " me .
Untitled Article
152 JVoHley ' s State of France .
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), March 2, 1806, page 152, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1722/page/40/
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