only from virtue and wisdom, benevolent hearts, and comprehensive understandings; which, being the portion but of a few more exalted individuals, can never be found in the multitude to be governed: nor can they be bestowed in any extraordinary degree on those who govern: statesmen and ministers, who must be hackneyed in the ways of men, cannot be made of such pure and refined materials; peculiar must be the composition of that little creature called a Great Man. He must be formed of all kinds of contradictions: he must be indefatigable in business, to fit him for the labours of his station, and at the same time fond of pleasures, to enable him to attach many to his interests by a participation of their vices: He must be master of much artifice and knavery, his situation requiring him to employ, and be employed by so many knaves; yet he must have some honesty, or those very knaves will be unwilling to trust him: He must be possessed of great magnanimity perpetually to confront surrounding enemics and impending dangers; yet of great meanness, to flatter those enemies, and suffer tamely continual injuries, and abuses: He must be wise enough to conduct the great affairs of mankind with sagacity and success, and to acquire riches and honours for his reward; and at the same time foolish enough to think it worth a wise man's while to meddle with such affairs at all, and to accept of such imaginary rewards for real sufferings. Since then in all human governments such must the governors, and such the governed eternally be, it is certain they must be ever big with numberless imperfections, and productive of abundant Evils: and it is no less plain, that if infinite goodness could not exclude natural and moral Evils, infinite power can never prevent political.

I hope, Sir, the picture I have here drawn of human nature, and human government, will not appear too much of the caricature kind: your experience in both must inform you that it is like, though your good nature may incline you to be sorry that it is so. I trust likewise to your good sense

to distinguish, that what has here been said of their imperfections, and abuses, is by no means intended as a defence of them, but meant only to shew their necessity: to this every wise man ought quietly to submit, endeavouring at the same time to redress them to the utmost of his power; which can be effected by one method only; that is, by a reformation of manners: for as all Political Evils derive their original from Moral, these can never be removed, until those are first amended. SIR, &c.

MORALITY OF MAHOMETANISM.

(Continued from page 220.)

MODESTY.

SPEAK unto the true believers, that they restrain their eyes, and keep themselves from immodest actions: this will be more pure for them; for God is well acquainted with that which they do. And speak unto the believing women, that they restrain their eyes, and preserve their modesty, and discover not their ornaments, except what necessarily appeareth thereof; and let them throw their veils over their bosoms, and not shew their ornaments, unless to their husbands, or their fathers, or their husband's fathers, or their sons, or their husband's sons, or their brothers, or their brother's sons, or their sister's sons, or their women, or the captives which their right hand shall possess, or unto such men as attend them, and have no need of women, or unto children, who distinguish not the nakedness of women. And let them not make a noise with their feet, that their ornaments which they hide may thereby be discovered. And be ye all turned unto God, O true believers, that ye may be happy. Chap. xxiv, vol. ii. p. 192.

O true believers, let your slaves and those among you, who shall not have attained the age of puberty, ask leave of

you before they come into your presence, three times in the day, namely, before the morning prayer, and when ye lay aside your garment at noon, and after the evening prayer. These are the three times for you to be private: it shall be no crime in you or in them, if they go in to you without asking permission, after these times while ye are in frequent attendance, the one of you on the other. Thus God declareth his signs unto you; for God is knowing and wise. And when your children attain the age of puberty, let them ask leave to come into your presence at all times, in the same manner as those who have attained that age before them, ask leave. Thus God declareth his signs unto you, for God is knowing and wise. As to such women as are past childbearing, who hope not to marry again, because of their advanced age, it shall be no crime in them if they lay aside their outer garments, not shewing their ornaments; but if they abstain from this it will be better for them. God both heareth and knoweth. It shall be no crime in the blind, nor shall it be any crime in the lame, neither shall it be any crime in the sick, or in yourselves, that ye eat in your houses; or in the houses of your fathers, or mothers, or in the houses of your brothers, or sisters, or the houses of your uncles, or in› those houses the keys whereof ye have in your possession, or in the house of your friend. It shall not be any crime in you whether ye eat together or separately. Id. p. 198.

MURDER.

O true believers, the law of retaliation is ordained you for the slain; the free shall die for the free, and the servant for the servant, and a woman for a woman: but he whom his brother shall forgive, may be prosecuted, and obliged to make satisfaction according to what is just, and a fine shall be set on him with humanity. This is indulgence from your Lord, and mercy. And he who shall transgress after this, by killing the murderer, shall suffer a grievous punishment. And in this law of retaliation ye have life, O ye of

understanding! that peradventure ye may fear. e. ii. v. 1. p. 31.

It is not lawful for a believer to kill a believer, unless it happen by mistake; and whoso killeth a believer by mistake, the penalty shall be the freeing a believer from slavery, and a fine to be paid to the family of the deceased, unless they remit it as alms: and if the slain person be of a people at enmity with you, and be a true believer, the penalty shall be the freeing a believer; but if he be of a people in confederacy with you, a fine to be paid to his family, and the freeing of a believer. And he who findeth not wherewith to do this, shall fast two months consecutively, as a penance enjoined from God; and God is knowing and wise. But whoso killeth a believer designedly, his reward shall be hell; he shall remain therein for ever; and God shall be angry with him, and shall curse him, and shall prepare for him a great punishment. c. iv. v. 1. p. 112.

REMARKS.

This method of accepting a pecuniary compromise for blood, we are told in a note on the passage, from Chardin, is frequently practised among the Mohammedans, especially in Persia. A similar usage obtained in England in the time of the Saxons, where this kind of retaliatory revenge was allowed, as may be seen in law books, under the name of deadly feud; and which also admitted of commutation for money. This indeed is holding the life of a man very cheap, and rendering it insecure. But if the old Saxon laws and the present practice of the Asiatics do not sufficiently estimate and guard the lives of the innocent, the laws prevailing at present in some of the United States, do not set a proper value upon the lives of the guilty. The present list of capital offences in their criminal codes is shocking to humanity; and in many instances the punishments are inadequate to the crimes.

There appear but two ends to be obtained by penal inflietions. I. The reformation of the offender. II. The deterring others from the commission of the like crimes.

These two ends, however, ought to be separately or jointly attended to, in proportion to the nature of the offence, and its detriment to society: and it is also to be considered, whether the offence is only the result of some temporary passion, of which the subject, with proper treatment, may be eured: Or,

Whether its atrociousness evinces a depravity of heart, which the security of mankind claims a security against; where reformation is improbable, or too precarious to be

trusted.

According as these considerations agree together, they will determine whether the first intention of punishment, reclaiming the criminal, ought to be attended to; or whether the second should be the sole object of proceeding.

From this view of the matter, who can avoid pitying a poor unfortunate young man, whose existence is cut off in the prime and vigour of life, for the paltry theft of a horse; his life being put in estimation with the value of that animal. It is true, that most of the states have by statute expunged from their criminal code many of the barbarous usuages, inherited from England, but in some of them there is still room for great improvements. We have lately been informed of the execution, in Georgia, of one Smith for attempting to aid a female to escape from slavery; whilst in the same state the murder of a slave is punished only with a fine, and temporary imprisonment. The laws of Virginia and South Carolina are similar in this respect. A circumstance took place, not many years since, in Camden, in the latter state, worthy of notice. A shoolmaster of that place murdered a negro woman, and absconded. In his hurry, he packed up with his own cloathes a handkerchief belonging to the family in which he boarded. He was brought back, and as by the laws he could not be punished with death for the murder, he