tions and the conduct of judges. Considerable care has been taken to lay down the rules of procedure in precise and intelligible language. Provision is made for securing the greatest publicity to all the proceedings of criminal courts. The right to publish an account of all such proceedings, and freely to discuss the conduct of the judges, and of the other officers employed in administering justice, is distinctly recognised. But this is not all. In order to make effectual provision for the diffusion amongst the people of this most important information, a particular officer is appointed, whose duty it is to publish accurate accounts of all trials, remarkable, either for the atrocity of the offence, or the importance of the principles decided in the course of the proceeding. * The provisions which relate to the functions of judges are twofold: those which regard the positive duties which are enjoined upon them, and those which regard the restrictions by which their power is limited. Amongst the duties imposed upon judges, there is one at once so singular and so beneficial, that it deserves very particular notice. "It is provided, that the judge shall, at the request either of the accused, or of the prosecutor, state and record his decisions, WITH THE REASONS ON WHICH THEY ARE FOUNDED." This provision, implying a thorough knowledge of the history of the past, is still more remarkable for the sagacity which has thus suggested, perhaps one of the most effectual securities that can be devised, not only for the integrity, but for the caution of judges. It would not be easy to estimate too highly, either the singular wisdom of this provision, or the magnitude of the good which will be sure to result from its adoption. Among the things which the judge is forbidden to do, there is an express prohibition of those charges hitherto so frequently employed as the means of diffusing his political tenets, displaying his eloquence, and sometimes gratifying his passions. Those presentments of the same nature are also forbidden, by which the jury recommend candidates to office, denounce public measures, or eulogize the virtues of men in office. Such proceedings, it is stated, are beneath the dignity of the magistrate, and inconsistent with the sanctity of that body, whose functions of public accusers and guardians of the liberty and reputation of their fellow citizens require calm investigation, undisturbed by intemperate discussions. If, from the very nature of a popular government, party spirit cannot be excluded from the legislative, or even the executive branches; yet it is justly observed, that if once it find admittance to the sanctuary of justice, the vitals of the political constitution will become affected, and there can be no better means of facilitating this corruption, than permitting the judges to make political harangues to a jury who reply by a party presentment. In England the conduct of judges is frequently altogether subversive of the design of the trial by jury. They distinctly, and even vehemently, state their own conviction of the guilt or innoVOL. VI. No. 34.-Museum. 2 R cence of the accused. Not in political cases only, in which this is generally done to a notorious and shameful extent, but even in criminal cases, the charge of the judge to the jury frequently differs in no essential point from the address of the advocate to that body. In order to prevent this most mischievous practice, it is declared in this code, that the charge of the Judge shall be restricted entirely to an opinion of the law. He is even prohibited from a repetition of the evidence, except when required by some one of the jury. It is stated, that the practice of repeating all the testimony from notes, always from the nature of things imperfectly, not seldom inaccurately, and sometimes carelessly, taken, has a double disadvantage: it makes the jurors, who rely more on the judge's notes than their own memory, inattentive to the evidence; and it gives them an imperfect copy of that, which the trial by jury requires they should record in their own minds. Forced to rely on themselves, the necessity will quicken their attention, and it will only be when they disagree in their recollection, that recourse will be had to the notes of the judge. It is justly observed, that if an ordinary court of justice be properly called the temple of that high attribute of the Deity, we may, without too far extending the metaphor, term the tribunal of criminal jurisdiction a shrine in that temple: the holy of holies, into which impure or unworthy passion should find no admittance, and where no one ought to of ficiate until he has put off the habits of ordinary life, and assumed, with the holy robes of his function, that purity of intention, that ardent worship of truth, so inconsistent with the low pursuits of interest, the views of ambition, or the vanity of false talent. The soundness of the principles which have been adduced in illustration of the spirit in which this code is framed, the peculiar interest which, it is conceived, the British public must take in the work, and the extreme beauty of several of the passages in which the principles are explained and justified, have tempted us to such an extended detail, as to preclude the possibility of our entering with the like minuteness into the subject of the sanctions of the law. Yet the facts and reasoning adduced by Mr. Livingston under this head are so important, that we feel peculiarly anxious to draw the attention of the people of England to this portion of the work, and especially the attention of its men of letters, of its philosophers, and of the members of its legislature. They deserve on every account the most calm, unprejudiced and serious consideration, and in the present state of the public mind, they must be read by many persons, at least, with intense interest. After stating that it has been established as a principle, that the law punishes, not to avenge, but to prevent crimes; that it effects this, first, by deterring others by the example of its inflictions on the offender; secondly, by its effect on the delinquent himself, taking away, by restraint, his power; and, by reformation, his desir, of repeating the offence; that no punishments, greater than are ne cessary to effect this work of prevention, ought to be inflicted; and that those which produce it by uniting reformation with example are the best adapted to the end, several of the modes of punishment which have been, and which still continue, in modern times, to be adopted, are separately considered: namely, banishment; deportation; simple imprisonment; imprisonment in chains; confiscation of property; exposure to public derision; labour on public works; mutilation, and other indelible marks of disgrace; stripes, or the infliction of bodily pain; death. * * Here, then, is the case of a woman who delivered forged notes for circulation, from the very room in which the dead body of the executed forgerer at that very moment lay; the execution having taken place on the day preceding, and the criminal executed, probably the forger of those very notes, being a man with whom she had been living. How idle is it to talk of the punishment of death as an example of its power to deter others from the commission of the like offences, how worse than foolish to continue to repeat this theory, and to legislate with a reference to it, when the experience of life exhibits such facts as these, and when those whose official situations afford them the best means of judging, declare that they are common and ordinary occurrences! No circumstances which the imagination could possibly invent, could show the inefficacy of this punishment in so striking a light as this proof of it derived from real life. We cannot enter into the statement of the reasons which have induced this truly enlightened legislator to propose the abolition of the punishment of death even for the crime of murder. He discusses the subject in a most masterly manner; the reader, we are persuaded, will now need no assurance of this; we may add, that the investigation is conducted throughout with the utmost candour, and we deeply feel that we could render no better service to our country, than by inducing our countrymen, had we the power to induce them, not only to read, but seriously to consider the important facts which he adduces on this and on the preceding head. We must not, however, omit to point out a singular defect in this part of the Code. It is justly observed, as we have seen, that there is an essential evil in those punishments which admit not of the possibility of being recalled or compensated, even when the innocence of the sufferer is demonstrated; but the more obvious truth, that punishment ought, as often as possible, to be compensative to the injured party, is almost entirely overlooked. Yet it is self-evident, that when an injury has been committed, the delinquent ought to be made, as often and as completely as possible, to repair it. Compensation to the injured party, ought to form a fundamental part of every penal infliction, whenever the nature of The case will admit of it. Some offences, it is true, are not re parable in any mode, or in any measure: in the majority of of fences, however, which consist of offences against property, compensation can be afforded in a greater or a less degree, and in every such case there is the utmost propriety in securing this species of satisfaction by the punishment imposed. When the delinquent is rich, pecuniary satisfaction might be made a part of his punishment; punishment of another kind, it may be necessary to superadd, but there is an obvious propriety in making this a part of it. When the delinquent has no property, his labour might be made the means of affording the requisite compensation. "Hard labour with the most economical fare, till the produce of the labour equals the amount of the satisfaction required," says the author of Jurisprudence, "is a species of punishment recommended by the strongest considerations. It is not said, that labour so limited would always be sufficient punishment, and there are many cases in which it would be too much; but even then, it should go as far as it can in the one case, and as far as it ought in the other." Again, "when the injury is done to reputation, there is a manifest propriety in making the injurer contribute to the reparation, wherever it can be done. In many of the cases, too, the proper mode is abundantly obvious: all those, for example, where the publication of falsehood is the injurious act. The author of the injury may, in a way as public as that of the offence, and as well calculated as possible for the reparation of the injury, be obliged to declare, that he has been solemnly adjudged to have propagated a falsehood, and is condemned to publish his own shame." It is certainly a capital defect in this part of the Code, that this fundamental rule in the regulation of punishment is entirely overlooked. We regret, that we are compelled by want of room to pass over the admirable observations which are made on writs of habeas corpus; there is, however, one passage relating to this subject which we must not omit. In examining the different enactments of this justly celebrated statute, he observes "Every friend of freedom must be grateful to its authors for the extensive and, it is devoutly to be hoped, the lasting benefit they have conferred on mankind. Ten millions of freemen have already consecrated it among their fundamental rights, and the rising republics of the New World will not fail to adopt so precious an institution, when they review, and finally establish their constitutional compacts. This is the greatest glory a wise nation can desire; to see its principles recognised; its institutions adopted; its laws copied, not only by men speaking the same language, and bred in a similarity of manners, but translated into different languages, adapting themselves to different habits, incorporated in different Codes, and in all acknowledged as the first of blessings. And the trial of a cause by an independent jury, on the banks of La Plata, on the Oroonook; or the writ of habeas corpus, adopted by a representative assembly in Mexico, or Peru, ought to afford more satisfaction to an Englishman who loves the honour of his country, than the most splendid triumph of her arms. We must not, however, suffer our admiration of any institution to blind us to its faults; or prevent us, when we are about to adopt it, from scrutinizing severely all its provisions, and carefully inquiring whether in its operation defects have not been discovered, which a prudent attention might amend. In examining the English statute with this view, some important omissions have been observed, and in the project presented to voti. an attempt has been made to remedy them." We cannot conclude this notice of his labours, without joining our feeble voice to that of the legislative assembly, for which he is preparing this Code, and "earnestly soliciting Mr. Livingston to prosecute his work" in the spirit of this Report. In England the eyes of its most enlightened philosophers, of its best statesmen, and of its most devoted philanthropists, will be fixed upon him; and in his own country, his name must be had "in everlasting remembrance," venerated and loved. He is one of those extraordinary individuals whom nature has gifted with the power, and whom circumstances have afforded the opportunity, of shedding true glory and conferring lasting happiness on his country; and of identifying his own name with its freest, and most noble, and most perfect institutions. SELECTED FOR THE MUSEUM. The Life and Remains of the Rev. Edward Daniel Clarke, LL.D. Professor of Mineralogy in the University of Cambridge. 4to. London. G. CowIE and Co. 1824. DR. CLARKE was a man of considerable industry, intelligence, and enterprise: too vigorous and bustling to be satisfied with the rather heavy ease of an University life, but too desultory and capricious in his pursuits to make any important or permanent contribution to general knowledge. He was the descendant of a literary race, his great-grand-father having been Wotton the antagonist of Bentley, and his grand-father and father both clergy men, and both having written something popular in its day. Dr. Clarke was born in 1769, at Willingdon in Sussex. His early years passed away without affording any indications of his future temperament. His biographer thinks that he has detected natural history among his early passions. But all boys are gatherers of brambles and birds'-nests. He received his scholarship, which appears to have been at no time profound, at Tunbridge under the late Vicesimus Knox, where he was said to be an indolent boy; was subsequently placed in a situation of some profit in Jesus College, Cambridge, through his family connexions; and soon gave himself up to those pursuits in which under one shape or another, he was engaged till the end of his days; he made a balloon "This balloon, which was magnificent in its size and splendid in its decorations, was constructed and manœuvred from first to last entirely by himself. It was the contrivance of many anxious thoughts and the labour of many weeks, to bring it to what he wished: and when at last it was completed to his satisfaction, and had been suspended for some days in the college-hall, of which it occupied the whole height, he announced a time for its ascension. There was nothing at that period very new in balloons, or (nor) very curious in the species which he had adopted; but by some means he had contrived to disseminate not only within the walls of bis own college, but throughout the whole university, a prodigious curiosity, re |