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from public observation . " One of our correspoiiHents suggests ( pp , 367 , 368 ) that he alludes to the opinion of the Millenarians . It has been conjectured again , that the peculiar * doctrine of the Arians is intended . Others * and amongst them Mr . Mardon , think that the Doctor had in view " the
sect or system" of the Unitarians . But the difficulty has been increased by a sentence in the preacher ' s Appendix to his Sermon for the Princess Charlotte , as follows : * ' We can never so forget the way in which many of the Orthodox Congregations of England
have relapsed into Unitamamsm , nor be so blind to the degree in which the infection of Arianism has spread itself over the North of Ireland , as to admit it as an infallible position , that popular patronage is the best way of raising a barrier against error of doctrine among the ministers of religion . "
On the two passages compared together , Mr . Mardon ' s Letter turns . He reconciles them by supposing , ( p . 14 , ) that in the interval between the publication of the two sermons , the learned divine acquired information upon the subject , which , though of
great notoriety , he had at first touched upon without understanding it . Dr . Chalmers ' s statements naturally lead Mr . Mardon to an exposition of the present state of the Unitarian body , and to
a reference to the spirit and evidence of their system . The Letter is explicit and frank , but at the same time respectful and courteous . We rejoice to see our system so amiably attired before our northern neighbours .
The " Statement of the Evidence for Sir Isaac Newton ' s Unit arianism , " in the Appendix , is worthy of attention . Mr . Mardon pretends to no discovery on this subject , but he has adduced testimony sufficient to confirm the
general report and uniform tradition of that great man ' s being an Antitrinitarian . This topic is discussed in our preceding Numbers , Vol . V . 346 , VIII . 515 , IX . 398 , XL 143 and 220 , XII . 529 , 591 , XIII . 167 .
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author reasons and feels as a Christian , and we know not how he can be answered . He denies the right of society to take away human life ia the case supposed , and he next shews the inexpediency and impolicy of the practice . Life , he contends , is not the property of man . It belongs to God , who has not delegated it to any of his creatures- The Jewish law is
no exception : that was a Theocracy , God himself being the immediate Ruler ; and the great principle of that law is retribution : as it regards personal injury , u an eye for ari . eye , " a man for a man , not a man for a sheep , riot a man fora horse ; and with
respect to property , the offender was to make restitution , restitution in kind , greater only in degree $ in no case whatever is the property , or are the possessions of man put in competition with the life of man , never are they weighed together in the scales of God , never ought they to be in those of
man . The name of forgery comes upon the heart with a sickening recollection of its tremendous punishment ; but what is it ? Simply theft : but life is infinitely more than an equivalent for property .
If the right of punishing forgery with death be not proved , the argument of policy is worse than futile . But has the frequency of death as the punishment of this crime diminished it ? Has not the offence on the
contrary increased with the severity of the punishment ? The punishment is in reality too cruel to be in all cases executed , and therefore the gui ] ty frequently escape . The moral effects of a merciless code
of laws , whose very cruelty defeats its own end , are in the last degree deplorable . Crimes widely different in degree are confounded and the law loses its authority * The land is either stained with blood or rent [> v violence .
Such is the authors general argument , to which no abstract can do justice . He appeals to the heart , and in a strain of eloquence that is irresistible . Could he be heard . at once
throughout the kingdom , the people would speak to the new parliament in a voice which , like thunder , would shake prejudice and sophistry down to the ground : Woe to him that bttildeth a city twth blood .
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Review . —On the Punishment of Death in the Case of Forgery . 645
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Art . IX , —On the Punishment of Death in the Case of Forgery ; its Injustice and Impolicy maifitained . 8 vo . Pp . 32 . Hamilton , 1818 . THIS is a serious and convincing argument against capital punishments for the crime of forgery . The
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Oct. 2, 1818, page 645, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2481/page/45/
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