nations, no one can doubt. We should be worse than spoilt children were we to justify the taunts occasionally thrown out by foreigners. We should be like those princes in despotic states, one of whom asked the bishop, his tutor, when reading the French history with him, and it was said that the king died in such a year. "What," said the prince, "do kings die then?" "Sometimes," was the bishop's courtly and cautious The Americans indulge in the taunt at our expense; we are unable to retaliate; for their national vanity, amounting to disease, is coupled with so rational a regard to their interest that they are the first to adopt, and often to continue, the improvements of other countries. answer. And now what a scene of misery and crime does their recent history and present condition present to the friends of Social Science, more horrid than any case known in modern, let us say Christian times! and with this sad peculiarity, that the whole people, instead of merely permitting, as in other cases, the crimes of their rulers, are themselves the active and willing agents in the work of merciless slaughter-of such wholesale bloodshed as never before disgraced the name of man. Que est ista tam infesta ira, quam per tot acies fusus sanguis explere non potuerit? Adde huc populationem agrorum; incendia villarum, ac ruinas omnia ferro ignique vastata, hiscene ira expleri non potuit? (Liv. vii. 30). How the blame for these horrors should be distributed it boots not to inquire. Some good men have been deceived by the notion that slavery is the cause of the war-duped by the pretext that the North fights to free the slave, whereas their emancipation edict was a mere belligerent measure, an afterthought; they (as Bishop Wilberforce said) caring no more for the freedom of the black than they do for that of the white. But it has been reserved for the later act of the tragedy to see that Government, when destitute of other troops, drive herds of the unhappy negroes to slaughter, with no more remorse than sportsmen feel in clearing a preserve. Yet certain though it be that the North did not make war to free the slave, and that this could not have entered into their consideration when they began the contest for preventing the secession, it is no less certain that the maintenance of slavery-their detestable institution-was partly the object of the South in fighting for their independence; and the friend of humanity, although feeling that we are not entitled to require a more sudden emancipation than we ourselves effected in our colonies, may yet earnestly hope that out of this cruel contest and its countless evils, the mercy of an All-ruling Providence may draw the good, contemplated by neither party, of giving freedom to the slave. But whatever difference of opinion may prevail regarding the origin of this frightful civil war, there can be none as to the duty imposed on other nations of not taking part with either belligerent; and in this country individuals were most properly warned by proclamation against enlisting in either army, the enforcement of the Foreign Enlistment Act being held out as certain. Every British subject is liable to its penalties who so enlists, and that which is now a misdemeanor was formerly a felony, at one time punishable with death. All those who serve in the army of either party are guilty, and may be prosecuted in the Court of Queen's Bench as if their enlistment had been in an English county. Therefore the North makes war upon the South by troops composed in part of persons liable to prosecution for the offence of enlisting, and it was one of the gravest charges upon George III. that he employed German mercenaries against the independence of America, though these Germans were guilty of no offence in hiring themselves to the service. The poor Irish who thus sell themselves, break the law of their own country in order to perpetuate in America all the crimes of civil war. We are now in York, the birth-place, it is commonly believed, of the first Christian emperor, Constantine, who declared the gospel the religion of the State. It is lamentable to think that to this capital there has penetrated the unbelief which is one of the great misfortunes of the present day, prevailing much more on the continent than in these islands, by the elaborate and subtle efforts of its victims, yet somewhat to be deplored among ourselves. The friends of religion very justly complain of the mode and manner of these attacks, that they are not plain and open, but covert and insidious; casting doubts and raising suspicions, without such a direct assault as the religion itself might meet and repel; nay, sometimes proceeding from persons who avow their belief, but would reduce the subject of it to such dimensions as left it unstable and incapable of defence. There are, however, more open assailants; and it is strange to find that while a body directing these, are actually distributing tracts, conducting a periodical work, and holding meetings for debate, both in the southern counties, and even as far north as Edinburgh, there should be found at the same time propagators of spiritual visions, in which, as extremes oftentimes meet, those are prone to believe who have faith in nothing else. Although some of the most zealous of those subject to these delusions fancy that true religion gains by them, as affording proofs of another world's existence, it is certain that the bulk of those who believe in spiritualism, in communications from remote regions of the earth, and even from beyond the grave, are utter disbelievers in all religion natural and revealed, unhappy persons in whom the works of the Creator which surround them fail to raise a thought of the Almighty power, wisdom, and goodness, and to whom the revealed will of God is addressed in vain. It becomes us to regard such opinions with pity, as far as they are sincere, abstaining from all expression of vituperation, difficult as it may be to avoid blaming those who, by propagating such delusions, would unsettle men's faith in one system without even affecting to put anything in its place. But we of the Association hold fast by our own opinions, handed down with the sanction of the names most venerated in all the walks of all the sciences, held indeed by the most respected and beloved, and deeply lamented of our own body. Death has since our last Congress visited us with irreparable losses, of which may well be noted that of our excellent Professor Pillans, one of the most able, learned, and pious of men; and Sir W. Brown, whose munificence, almost unexampled in modern times, bestowed upon the working classes in Liverpool their rich library, and the great structure for their meetings. The friend of all sects, bestowing his generosity alike to them without any distinction, though every one knew how firmly held were his own principles of religion as well as policy, though tempered by forbearance towards whoever differed with him on either. The loss of Lord Lyndhurst also befel us at the very close of our Edinburgh assemblage, and grievous it was both to his friends and the world. To say anything of his other merits would be superfluous, but we here may commemorate the obligations under which he laid the promoters of improvement in our jurisprudence. Beset on all sides by the adversaries to change in the law, by those with whom he concurred in views of general policy, by the alarmists of every class, and by the judges themselves, he resisted all attempts to turn him from the right path; and even when he had for a moment, under the pressure of party connection, opposed the first proposal of local courts, his opposition was marked by a candour suited to his great sagacity, and he soon after gave that important measure his powerful support. Certainly with any other Conservative Chancellor it never would have been carried; and the great change in the law of evidence, the examination of parties, opposed by the Liberal Chancellor, as well as the other judges, found in him a cordial supporter. His irreparable loss leads us in connection with the topic now handled to reflect with satisfaction on the peace which he enjoyed in his latter days, and the lively interest he took in religious study. The book which he read without intermission was the New Testament. It formed for many months the subject of his daily perusal; and he left in writing his important testimony to the comfort which he derived from the gospel truths. The last matter of a secular kind which occupied his attention was the Edinburgh Congress and its proceedings, the very day before he retired to that rest for which he often said he was anxious and prepared: "Soul of the just! companion of the dead! (Thomas Campbell.) 26 Address BY THE RIGHT HON. SIR JAMES P. WILDE, JUDGE OF THE COURT OF PROBATE, ON JURISPRUDENCE AND AMENDMENT OF THE LAW. THE 7th of February, 1828, was a memorable day in the annals of Law Reform. Then it was that the greatest orator of his age delivered his celebrated oration in the House of Commons, and laid open the sweeping changes which our law required. From that moment an impulse was given which has not ceased to be felt. Interest was aroused, indignation excited for the errors of the past, and a basis laid on which to build fair hopes of the future. Since that time, the progress of Law Reform has been unceasing, though gradual. And now, after thirty-six years, after the destruction of a host of anomalies, and the removal of barriers and obstructions, such as set justice at defiance, we find ourselves still engaged in the same work, and, singularly enough, under the guidance of the same hand. No one can rise from the perusal of that remarkable speech, and a contrast with the reforms actually since effected, without marvelling at the success with which the defects and weak points of our judicial system were hit upon and exposed. And it is not too much to say, that ninetenths of the precise evils there indicated have been successfully met by the precise remedies there proposed. A glance at the subjects dealt with will serve to show us both the benefits that we have reaped, and the evils from which we have escaped. It will further serve to stimulate us to successful labour in the same field. The monopolies of the serjeants and the attorneys of the Common Pleas, and of the latter in the Exchequer, tending as they did to exclude business from both these courts, and overwhelm the Court of Queen's Bench, were exposed. These monopolies have been abolished, and the business of the courts equalised. |