tages of an Habeas Corpus Act, therefore the king or his minifters could confine them at pleasure, for what time they pleased, without giving them a trial, or even letting them know for what they were confined. For want of this, and the Englifhman's boaft, Trial by Jury, the blood of the innocent has dyed the fcaffolds of ancient and modern France. If punishment ought not to be inflicted but upon proof of guilt, then imprisonment before trial, upon fufpicion, ought not to be attended with rigorous measures, nor the confinement any closer than is abfolutely neceffary. It may be, the person accused is innocent; this has been the cafe more than once. "On this account," fays Beccaria, "the laws fhould determine the crime, the prefumption, and the evidence to subject the accused to imprisonment and examination, and not leave it to a magistrate.' A prifoner ought never to be tortured in the course of his trial, under the pretence of making him confefs the crime he is accused of committing. But can this be reconciled with our ideas of juftice? Rather produce evidence; and by evidence alone let facts be proved; let the credibility of the witnesses be confidered; and if all combined are not fufficient to prove the guilt, the accufed perfon must be pronounced innocent.---Torture has been cuftomary in moft nations, at one time or other, either to make a man confefs his crime, his accomplices, or that some discovery might be thereby made of other matters, &c. When Archbishop Laud threatened one, who refused to confefs his accomplices, that he fhould be put to the torture,--"Then I may impeach Archbishop Laud," he replied. This fhews the impolicy of torture. Upon this head I will express myfelf in the words of Beccaria, in his Essay on Crimes and Punishment, a book which every European ought to read. He fays, "No man can be judged a criminal until he be found guilty; nor can society take from him the public protection, until it have been proved, that he has violated the conditions on which it was granted What right, then, but that of power, can authorise the punishment of a citizen, fo long as there remains any doubt of his guilt? This dilemma is frequent. Either he is guilty, or not guilty. If guilty, he fhould only fuffer the punishment ordained by the laws, and torture becomes useless, as his confeffion is unneceflary. If he be not guilty, you torture the innocent; for, in the eye of the law, every man is innocent whofe crime has not been proved. Befides, it is confounding all relations to expect that a man fhould be both the 53 the accufer and the accused; and that pain should be the teft of truth, as if truth refided in the muscles and fibres of a wretch in torture. By this method the robust will escape, and the feeble be condemned. These are the inconveniences of this pretended test of truth, worthy only of a cannibal; and which the Romans, in many refpects barbarous, and whose favage virtue has been too much admired, referved for the flaves alone. The refult of torture, then, is a matter of calculation, and depends on the conftitution, which differs in each individual, and is in proportion to his ftrength and fenfibility; fo that, to discover truth by this method, is a problem, which may be better folved by a mathematician than a judge, and may be thus fated---The force of the mufcles, and the fenfibility of the nerves of an innocent perfon being given, it is required to find the degree of pain necessary to make him confess himself guilty of a given crime.' The above writer lived in a country where torture was once the order of the day, and made a part of their religious exercifes, at leaft of the priests and lords inquifitors, thofe holy minifters of Chrift, to whom Nebuchadnezzar's priefts appear harmlefs in comparison. Who can read the hiftory of the Inquifition, and not feel thofe emotions of grief and indignance which no language can defcribe? The variety of torments, the hot and the cold, the roafting alive, the broiling on gridirons, the continual dropping of water upon the bare head of one fixed in a chair; and all this was ordained by the laws of thofe times, and made a part of their penal code. The history of the Inquifition is the best exposition of those tales fo common among uneducated men and children, and which they think belong to another world---namely, the fhutting up in dark holes, boiling, burning, black tormentors, fire forks, &c.----But enough for the prefent. I am, JANUARY 14, 1799. Yours, &c. F. B. W. SUFFICIENCY OF THE SCRIPTURES. MR. EDITOR, IN N viewing the prevalence of what is commonly called Deifm fpreading among all ranks of people, I am clearly convinced none will efcape its leaven or contagion, but those who who have tafted that the Lord is gracious, and are distinguished by their attachment to Chrift's new commandment in loving thofe who are of the truth for the truth's fake. Thefe, in Scripture language, are of the church of Philadelphia, who are promifed, by the great Head of it, to be preferved from the prefent delufion, called (Rev. iii. 10.) the hour of temptation. Because thou haft kept the word of my patience, I also will keep thee from the hour of temptation which shall come upon all the world to try them that dwell upon the earth. I was led to thefe thoughts by feeing a queftion propofed in your Mifcellany, vol. ii. p. 369. where your correfpondent afks, "Is the Bible (received and credited as the word of God) fufficient of itself to lead a foul to falvation, or is any internal evidence neceffary?" To obtain perfect fatisfaction upon this fubject, I would recommend him to take the apoftle's advice to Timothy, (2 Epift. ii, 15.) by rightly dividing the word of truth, efpecially its two general divifions of letter and fpirit: for want of attending to this has arifen all the confufion in the world refpecting the doctrines of Chriftianity, and confequently the increase of so many fects and parties. Hence the apostle, defcribing these two very important fubjects (which comprehend the whole of the Bible) fays, "The letter* killeth, but the fpirit giveth life." 2 Cor. iii. 6. This part of the Bible called by the apoftle the letter, being only attended to, is fo far from "leading a foul to God," that the reverse is the confequence; and for want of attending to each distinctly, the mouths of deifts, and other gainfayers, have been opened against thefe facred Oracles. But when both are properly illuftrated and applied, they are then called the engrafted word; James, i. 21. Receive with meekness the engrafted word, which is able to fave your fouls. The apoftle alfo in addreffing Timothy, ufes fimilar language, 2 Epift. iii. 15. And that from a child thou haft known the holy Scriptures, which are able to make thee wife unto falvation, through faith which is in Chrift Jefus. Your correfpondent will receive additional confirmation refpecting the fufficiency of the word of God to lead a foul to falvation, if he will only attend to our Lord's parable of the fower. Here he will find his fecond enquiry fully cleared up, by our Lord's stating the feed to be the word of God, and the human heart to be the ground into which it is fown. Luke, viii. 11---15. There * 2 Cor. iii. 6. To ypaμja atroxleivel, litera occidit, h. e. lex literis comprehenfa, non conferens virens ad præftandum, fcilicet quatenus docetur legaliter, feparata a gratia Chrifti. Pafor, in loc, fore fore no internal evidence is neceffary for the reception of divine truth, but the foftening of the human heart. Job, xxiii. 16, For God maketh my heart foft, and the Almighty troubleth me. The Pfalmift alfo fpeaking of the earth, and the cause of its fruitfulnefs, afcribes it to the power of God, Pfalm lxv. 10. Thou makeft it foft with fhowers, thou bleffeft the springing there. of. You may eafily perceive that this fubject inay be enlarged to a very great extent; but if you think these few hints may be of any ufe either to your correfpondent or the public, they are at your fervice. I am, Sir, with great respect, Yours, &c. I HAVE fent you the following piece, extracted from the Selections from Foreign Literary Journals, lately published, which, if you judge worthy of a place in your ufeful Mifcellany, will, I hope, afford entertainment and inftruction to many who have not the opportunity of feeing the above work. Yours, &c. PHILOMATH. LITTLE WORLDS WITHIN THE GREAT ONE. N attentive glance on nature is ever totally unprofitable to the thinking fpectator. It always prefents fomething for both his heart and his mind to feed on. He either gains from it an occafion for enlarging his views, or an opportunity for admiring the Creator, or materials for rational and wife conclufions, or all of them put together. Even the creeping worms in the furrow---even the scattered particles of fhells in a broken stone---even the tender bud of a plant, fills the philofophic votary of truth with improving fentiments; though they do not enter the heart of the simple fhepherd, who tends his flocks upon the mountains, and might be far better acquaint ed with nature, but whose attention is only awakened by the lightnings that burst from the clouds, or the thunders that roll along the sky. In a fhady grove that was fufficiently enlightened for perceiving a thousand wonders of nature, my eye cafually defcried a leaf ་ a leaf on which a reptile had drawn his crooked ferpentine line in various forms. I broke off the leaf, held it to the open fky, and faw the little folitary ftill at work-unconcerned, though in the hand whose flightest preffure could have destroyed his whole habitation, together with himself. So then, thought I, this is the little world in which thou art born, in which thou liveft, in which thou gainest thy fubfiftence, and followeft thy natural instincts, till the time of thy transformation arrives. Is it poffible that two films of a leaf can contain a store of wealth for a creature which has, who can tell how many, wonderful organs? a wealth of which it can fcarcely confume the fiftieth part in the support of its existence for feveral days! I will not caft thee away, thou poor infignificant creature! When I meet with fone difcontented being of my own fpecies, I will fetch thee forth, and fhew thy ftructures to his murmuring heart. Perhaps an unnoticed worm may be able to fhame him, whom fublimer leffons cannot move. But then, how much smaller worlds may be comprised in the larger! In this thicket alone what a fucceffive diverfity of creatures! what an order and connection in this variety! what a multitude of means, and aims, and ends! what a display of creative wifdom! From this oak, that raifes its haughty head fo high, to the minuteft herb that grows beneath its fhade, what a number of vegetables! and all these vegetables peopled with fuch a variety of living beings, to fome of which, perhaps, the breadth of a hand may appear as a distance of miles to us! How many republics of animals may inhabit this copfe, and fill up the round of their deftination! Ye feathered fongfters of the foreft, fay, are ye ftrangers, or are ye the inhabitants of this grove? Ye are its inhabitants; for this bufh that over fhades the neft of your young, was alfo the place of your birth; here is the academy in which you were trained to all you know; on this branch you courted your mates, and in this mofly tree you paffed your nights; at this rill you flaked your thirft, and with thefe falling feeds you appeafed your hunger; till at length, perhaps, after three fummers and two winters, a powerful fportsman, or a crook-beaked hawk, puts an end to your harmlefs lives, and thus makes room for your offspring. How many grand revolutions in your ftates, ye inhabitants of the earth, in the moft proper fenfe, who crawl beneath my feet! Let an ant-hill be ever fo artificially conftituted, yet a cunning bird can foon commit horrid devastation in it, or the hand that rummages for your eggs for food to the pecking nightingale in the gilded cage of a lady of quality. What, in the fight of heaven, |