burn with fire the city and all the spoil thereof, every whit, for the Lord thy God.'

Sheba, who brought him the newsTibi sunt omnia quæ fuerunt Mephibosheth.'

seems that Justinian made this ordinance turough avarice alone. It also appears that, in the times of feudal anarchy, the princes and lords of lands, being not "So in the crime of high treason, the very rich, sought to increase their trea- king scized the property, and the chilsure by the condemnation of their sub-dren were deprived of it. Naboth having jects. They were allowed to draw a been proceeded against, quia malerevenue from crime. Their laws being dixerat regi,' King Ahab took possession arbitrary, and the Roman jurisprudence of his inheritance. David, being apunknown among them, their customs, prised that Mephibosheth had taken part whether whimsical or cruel, prevailed.in the rebellion, gave all his goods to But now that the power of sovereigns is founded on immense and assured wealth, their treasure needs no longer to be swelled by the slender wreck of the fortunes of some unhappy family. It is true that the goods so appropriated are abandoned to the first who asks for them. But is it for one citizen to fatten on the remains of the blood of another citizen? { Confiscation is not admitted in countries where the Roman law is established, except within the jurisdiction of the parliament of Toulouse. It was formerly established at Calais, where it was abolished by the English, when they were masters of that place.

The question here was, who should inherit the property of Mademoiselle de Canillac-property formerly confiscated from her father, abandoned by the king to a keeper of the royal treasure, and afterwards given by this keeper of the royal treasure to the testatrix. And in this case of a woman of Auvergne a lawyer refers us to that of Ahab, one of the petty kings of a part of Palestine, who confiscated Naboth's vineyard, after as sassinating its proprietor with the poniard of Jewish justice-an abominable act, It appears very strange, that the inha- which has become a proverb, to inspire bitants of the capital live under a more men with a horror for usurpation? Asrigorous law than those of the smaller suredly, Naboth's vineyard has no contowns: so true is it, that jurisprudence nection with Mademoiselle de Canillac's has often been established by chance, inheritance. Nor do the murder and without regularity, without uniformity, confiscation of the goods of Mephibosheth, as the huts are built in a village. grandson of King Saul, and son of The following was spoken by advo-David's friend Jonathan, bear a much cate-general Omer Talon, in full parlia- greater affinity to this lady's will. ment, at the most glorious period in the annals of France, in 1673, concerning the property of one Mademoiselle de Canillac, which had been confiscated. Reader, attend to this speech: it is not in the style of Cicero's oratory, but it is curious.

With this pedantry, this rage for citations foreign to the subject; with this ignorance of the first principles of human nature; with these ill conceived and ill adapted prejudices, has jurisprudence been treated on by men who, in their sphere, have had some reputation.

CONSCIENCE.

SECTION I.

"In the thirteenth chapter of Deuteronomy, God says-'If thou shalt find a city where idolatry prevails, thou shalt surely smite the inhabitants of that city with the edge of the sword, destroying it Of the Conscience of Good and of Evil. utterly, and all that is therein. And LOCKE has demonstrated (if we may thou shalt gather all the spoil of it into use that term in morals and metaphysics) the midst of the street thereof, and shalt { that we have no innate ideas or princi

2 T

ples. He was obliged to demonstrate, and irresistibly, directly contrary to the this position at great length, as the con- eternal principle. trary was at that time universally believed. It hence clearly follows, that it is necessary to instil just ideas and good principles into the mind as soon as it acquires the use of its faculties.

Nature has made a provision against such horrors. She has given to man a disposition to pity, and the power of comprehending truth. These two gifts of God constitute the foundation of civil Locke adduces the example of savages, society. This is the cause that there have who kill and devour their neighbour ever been but few cannibals; and which without any remorse of conscience; and renders life, among civilized nations, a of Christian soldiers, decently educated, little tolerable. Fathers and mothers who, on the taking of a city by assault, bestow on their children an education plunder, slay, and violate, not merely which soon renders them social, and this without remorse, but with rapture, ho-education confers on them a conscience. nour, and glory, and with the applause of all their comrades. It is perfectly certain that, in the mas-heart, that, from the age of sixteen or sacres of Saint Bartholomew, and in the seventeen, a single bad action will not "autos-da-fe," the holy acts of faith of be performed without the upbraidings of the Inquisition, no murderer's conscience conscience. Then rush on those headever upbraided him with having massa-long passions which war against concred men, women, and children, or with the shrieks, faintings, and dying tortures of his miserable victims, whose only crime consisted in keeping Easter in a manner different from that of the inqui-in sitors.

It results, therefore, from what has been stated, that we have no other conscience than what is created in us by the spirit of the age, by example, and by our own dispositions and reflections.

Man is born without principles, but with the faculty of receiving them. His natural disposition will incline him either to cruelty or kindness; his understanding will in time inform him that the square of twelve is a hundred and forty-four, and that he ought not to do to others what he would not that others should do

to him; but he will not, of himself, acquire these truths in early childhood. He will not understand the first, and he I will not feel the second.

Pure religion and morality early inculcated, so strongly impress the human

science, and sometimes destroy it. During the conflict, men hurried on by the tempest of their feelings, on various occasions, consult the advice of others; as, physical diseases, they ask it of those who appear to enjoy good health.

This it is which has produced casuists; that is, persons who decide on cases of conscience. One of the wisest casuists was Cicero. In his book of "Offices," or "Duties" of man, he investigates points of the greatest nicety; but long before him Zoroaster had appeared in the world to guide the conscience by the most beautiful precept" If you doubt whether an action be good or bad, abstain from doing it." We treat of this else} where.

Whether a Judge should decide according to his Conscience, or according to the Evidence.

Thomas Aquinas, you are a great A young savage who, when hungry, saint, and a great divine, and no Domihas received from his father a piece of nican has a greater veneration for you another savage to eat, will, on the mor- than I have; but you have decided, in row, ask for the like meal, without think-your "Summary," that a judge ought ing about any obligation not to treat a to give sentence according to the evidence neighbour otherwise than he would be produced against the person accused, treated himself. He acts, mechanically although he knows that person to be per

fectly innocent. You maintain that the deposition of witnesses, which must inevitably be false, and the pretended proofs resulting from the process, which are impertinent, ought to weigh down the testimony of his own senses. He saw the crime committed by another; and yet, according to you, he ought in conscience to condemn the accused, although his conscience tells him the accused is innocent.

According to your doctrine, therefore, if the judge had himself committed the crime in question, his conscience ought to oblige him to condemn the man falsely accused of it.

{number of very ridiculous questions. In these questions the French divines are not spared. Mention is particularly made of a memoir presented to the Sorbonne by a surgeon, requesting permission to baptize unborn children by means of a clyster-pipe, which might be introduced into the womb, without injuring either the mother or child.

At length the corporal is directed to read to them a sermon, composed by the same clergyman, Sterne.

Among many particulars, superior even to those of Rembrandt and Calot, it describes a gentleman, a man of the world, spending his time in the pleasures In my conscience, great Saint, I con- of the table, in gaming, and debauchery, ceive that you are most absurdly and yet doing nothing to expose himself to most dreadfully deceived. It is a pity, the reproaches of what is called good that while possessing such a knowledge company, and consequently never incurof canon law, you should be so ill ac-ring his own. His conscience and his quainted with natural law. The duty of honour accompany him to the theatres, a magistrate to be just, precedes that of to the gaming houses, and are more parbeing a formalist. If, in virtue of evi-ticularly present when he liberally pays dence which can never exceed probabi- his lady under protection. He punishes lity, I were to condemn a man whose severely, when in office, the petty larceinnocence I was otherwise convinced of,nies of the vulgar, lives a life of gaiety, I should consider myself a fool and an { and dies without the slightest feeling of

assassin.

remorse.

Fortunately all the tribunals of the Doctor Slop interrupts the reading to world think differently from you. I observe, that such a case was impossible know not whether Farinaceus and Gril-with respect to a follower of the church landus may be of your opinion. How- of England, and could happen only ever that may be, if ever you meet with among papists. Cicero, Ulpian, Trebonian, Demoulin, the Chancellor De l'Hospital, or the Chancellor D'Aguesseau, in the shades, be sure to ask pardon of them for falling into such an error.

Of a Deceitful Conscience.

At last the sermon adduces the example of David, who sometimes possessed a conscience tender and enlightened, at others hardened and dark.

When he has it in his power to assassinate his king in a cavern, he scruples going beyond cutting off a corner of his The best thing perhaps that was ever robe-here is the tender conscience. He said upon this important subject, is in passes an entire year without feeling the the witty work of Tristram Shandy, slightest compunction for his adulterv written by a clergyman of the name of with Bathsheba and his murder of Uriah Sterne, the second Rabelais of Eng-here is the same conscience in a state land: it resembles those small satires of of obduracy and darkness. antiquity, the essential spirit of which is so piquant and precious.

An old half-pay captain and his corporal, assisted by Doctor Slop, put a

Such, says the preacher, are the greater number of mankind. We concede to this clergyman that the great ones of the world are very often in this state: the

torrent of pleasures and affairs urges
them almost irresistibly on: they have
no time to keep a conscience. Con-
science is proper enough for the people;
but even the people dispense with it,
when the question is how to gain money.
It is judicious, however, at times, to en-
deavour to awaken conscience both in
mantua-makers and in monarchs, by the
incalculation of a morality calculated to
make an impression upon both; but, in
order to make this impression, it is ne-
cessary to preach better than modern
preachers usually do, who seldom talk
effectively to either.

Liberty of Conscience.
[Translated from the German.]

[We do not adopt the whole of the following article; but, as it contains some truths, we did not consider ourselves obliged to omit it; and we do not feel ourselves called upon to justify what may be advanced in it with too great rashness or severity.-Author.]

"But suppose monseigneur hangs up your two hundred workmen and your family,' rejoined the almoner, and gives your manufacture to good Catholics?'

"I defy him to do it,' says the old 'A manufacture is not to gentleman. be given like a farm; because industry cannot be given. It would be more silly for him to act so, than to order all his horses to be killed, because, being a bad horseman, one may have thrown him off his back. The interest of monseigneur does not consist in my swallowing the godhead in a wafer, but in my procuring something to eat for his subjects, and increasing the revenues by my industry. I am a gentleman; and although I had the misfortune not to be born such, my occupation would compel me to become one; for mercantile transactions are of a very different nature from those of a court, and from your own. There can be no success in them without probity. Of what consequence is it to you that I was baptised at what is called the age of discretion, and you while you were an infant? Of what consequence is it to you that I worship God after the manner of my fathers? Were you able to follow up your wise maxims, from one end of the world to the other, you will hang

"The almoner of Prince, who is a Roman Catholic, threatened an ana- § baptist that he would get him banished from the small estates which the prince governed; he told him that there were only three authorised sects in the empire -that which eats Jesus Christ, by faith alone, in a morsel of bread, while drink-up the Greek, who does not believe that ing out of a cup; that which eats Jesus Christ with bread alone; and that which eats Jesus Christ in body and in soul, without either bread or wine; and that as for the anabaptist who does not in any way eat God, he was not fit to live in monseigneur's territory. At last, the conversation, kindling into greater violence, the almoner fiercely threatened the Anabaptist that he would get him hanged. So much the worse for his highness,' replied the anabaptist; I am a large manufacturer; I employ two hundred workmen; I occasion the influx of two hundred thousand crowns a-year into his territories; my family will go and settle somewhere else; monseigneur will in consequence be a loser.'

the spirit proceeds from the father and
the son; all the English, all the Hol-
landers, Danes, Swedes, Icelanders,
Prussians, Hanoverians, Saxons, Hol-
steiners, Hessians, Wurtemburghers,
Bernese, Hamburghers, Cossacks, Wal-
lachians, and Russians, none of whom
believe the pope to be infallible; all
the Mussulmen, who believe in one God,
and who give him neither father nor mo-
ther; the Indians, whose religion is
more ancient than the Jewish; and the
lettered Chinese, who, for the space of
four thousand years, have served one only
God without superstition and without
fanaticism. This then is what you
would perform had you but the power
'Most assuredly,' says the monk, ' for

the zeal of the house of the Lord de- port belonged to him, could calculate to vours me.' 'Zelus domus suæ comedita nicety what the cargoes of those vessels ine.' were worth, and within how many days they would arrive from Smyrna at the Pireus.

"Just tell me now, my good almoner,' resumed the Anabaptist, are you a Dominican, or a Jesuit, or a devil?' 'I am a Jesuit,' says the other. Alas,' my friend, if you are not a devil, why do you advance things so utterly diabolical?" "Because the reverend father, the rector, has commanded me to do so.' "And who commanded the reverend father, the rector, to commit such an abo-chimeras. A man may walk well, and

mination?'

"The provincial.'

"From whom did the provincial receive the command?'

"From our general; and all to please the pope.

We have seen ideots who could calculate and reason in a still more extraordinary manner. They were not idiots, then, you tell me. I ask your pardonthey certainly were. They rested their whole superstructure on an absurd principle; they regularly strung together

go astray at the same time; and, then, the better he walks the farther astray he goes.

The Fo of the Indians was son to an elephant, who condescended to produce offspring by an Indian princess, who, in consequence of this species of left-handed union, was brought to bed of the god Fo.

peror of the Indies: Fo, then, was the nephew of that emperor, and the grandson of the elephant and the monarch were cousin-germans; therefore, according to the laws of the state, the race of the emperor being extinct, the descendants of the elephant become the rightful successors.

"The poor Anabaptist exclaimed :"Ye holy popes, who are at Rome in possession of the throne of the Cæsars-This princess was own sister to an emarchbishops, bishops, and abbés, become sovereigns, I respect and I fly you; but if, in the recesses of your heart, you confess that your opulence and power are founded only on the ignorance and stupidity of our fathers, at least enjoy them with moderation. We do not wish to dethrone you; but do not crush us. Enjoy yourselves, and let us be quiet. otherwise, tremble, lest at last people should lose their patience, and reduce you, for the good of your souls, to the condition of the apostles, of whom you pretend to be the successors.'

If

"Wretch! you would wish the pope and the Bishop of Wurtemburgh to gain heaven by evangelical poverty !'

"You, reverend father, would wish to have me hanged!'

CONSEQUENCE.

WHAT is our real nature, and what sort of a curious and contemptible understanding do we possess? A man may, it appears, draw the most correct and luminous conclusions, and yet be destitute of common sense. This is, in fact, too true. The Athenian fool, who believed that all the vessels which came into the

Admit the principle, and the conclusion is perfectly correct.

It is said that the divine elephant was nine standard feet in height. You reasonably suppose that the gate of his stable ought to be above nine feet high, in order to admit his entering with ease. He consumed twenty pounds of rice every day, and twenty pounds of sugar, and drank twenty-five pounds of water. You find, by using your arithmetic, that he swallowed thirty-six thousand five hundred pounds weight in the course of a year; it is impossible to reckon more correctly. But did your elephant ever, in fact, exist? Was he the emperor's brother-in-law? Had his wife a child by this left-handed union! This is the matter to be investigated. Twenty different authors, who lived at Cochin China, have successively written about it; it is incumbent upon you to collate these twenty authors, to