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    eg . . their -. view of the question ^ by shewi ng the inefficacy of a milder legislation ., and a more humane administration of the law in this country ; and the universal practice on the continents of Europe and America , loudly , practi cally refutes their odious system . We haVe two hundred and twenty-three

    offences capital by Act of Parliament . There is one statute , passed within a century , which contains seventeen capital felonies , one of which is for maliciously shooting at a man , and another for destroying a rabbit in a warreni What can be the cause of

    this ? Ajre we worse than our neighbours ? Will nothing but " breaking into tip bloody house , qf life , * ' restrain Knglisjinaen fron * Invading the property of . dih § i * s ? Is blood the only cement t $ > hohl us , together im the social state ? What is the cause of this moral degradation }? For moral degradation of the

    lowest , degree is , imputed by these tf strict statutes and most biting laws : and if these be necessary to our wellbeing in society , all our vaunted superioa ? ity in morals , over other nations is either gross cant or lamentable delusion . ' One of these two tilings must be ; either our laws are the cause of our

    manners , or our manners the effect of our laws . ; if the former , then are we , if vice ajad happiness be incompatible , " of all men most miserable ; " if the latter , then the sooner we set about the reformation of our penal code the better . But if this reasoning be

    disputed , at least it must be admitted , that if bad legislation does not create ftll the evil of our corrupt morals , it contributes , to increase and promote it ; vicious habits and sanguinary laws mutually acting upon and producing one another in < a sort of vicious circle .

    I trust it will not be impertinent to offer a word or two on the score of ueligion to men who aue now laudably engaged in building new churches , who are continually , inveighing against those who are disseminating blasphemy and

    infidelity , and whose , zeal in the holy cause of piety and virtue , if we may confide in their " mouth honour , " is exceeding . As they are Christians , they doubtless believe the Almighty to be the moral as well as the natural

    Governor of the ^ universe , and consequently man to be a responsible being . What is it , then , they do , whan they destroy , for the sake of a very smalt

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    portion &f that which represents the commodities of life , a human beim *^ their fellow-creature , made , as tne Scriptures tell us , after God ' s own image , a little lower than the angels > and born to immortality ? Are they , do they think themselves , justified in thus sending to his account one of their own kind , in the bloom of manhood , to await his final doom before

    that great Being from whom no secrets are hid ^ at whos e hands he must expect , if that indeed His mercy were not over all his works , and His , justice a very different attribute from that so miscalled here below , an irrevocable sentence of condemnation . Good God !

    r tremble at a thought so horrible . After all , Mr . Editor , notwithstanding the fair exterior of religion held out to us by our governors , I cannot help thinking that there is something at bottom very different from what they

    would have us believe . There certainly must be a very different feeling in . petto ; they cannot in their hearts have a « ny true faith in that which they profess , but only assume the appearance to avoid scandal . Certain it is , that men who , from some constitutional

    obtundity of intellect , or from false reasoning , the effect of depraved habits , have been persuaded to doubt that which they wish not to credit , would act just in this sort of way , believing the Creator and Preserver of all things to be , as Lucretius taught ,

    * ' Wrapt up in self , a God without a thought , Regardless of our merit or default . " They would ( fis our Christian rulers do ) immolate at the altar of lucre as many fellow-beings as suited their

    interest or policy . What imports it to hang annually three or four score of human creatures , endowed with mere animal existence , and who , when destroyed , will contribute more , by the decomposition of their bodies in the earth , to the service of their

    surviving brethren , than they ever did during their Ikes ? Such , it appears to me , must be in secret the opinions o # those who can thus outrage religion and humanity by persisting , in defiance of every good' feeling , in putting to death so many of their , own species . Aw&y , then , at once with this mockdry of Christianity ! Let them be at least consistent ; let them talk to us no

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    i 10 Capitol Punishments .

• Citation
  • Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Jan. 2, 1821, page 10, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2496/page/10/