MONTHLY OCCURRENCES. September 26. on the evening of the 1st of August, and was continued during the witle of the next day: The French had 13 Notwithstanding the capture of the French forces in Ireland, that country is in the most distracted fitua-fail of the line and four frigates, the tion. Ata variety of places the Re- English 13 fail of the line, and a 59 bels are in great force, particularly in gun fhip. The French, though moorConnaught, where they are headed by ed in a line of battle, could not act French Officers, who are making the well, their fituation incommoded most active efforts to difcipline them. them, and their clofenefs to the shore The Rebel leader Holt, continues to prevented the manoeuvering and commit great ravages in the counties working their fhips properly, but they of Dublin, Wicklow, and Kildare. annoyed our fhips confiderably, as they led into action. The Bellero By the country gentlemen in various parts of Ireland, the profpect of the long, dark nights of Winter, is contemplated with dreary and gloomy emotions. Scarcely knowing whom to confide in, or whom to be afraid of, many have determined not to trust to the doubtful fecurity of their own country houfes, but have retired ro the Metropolis. 28. A letter from Florence, dated August 21, fays "According to let ters from Naples, the French Charge d'Affairs has given in a note to the Neapolitan Miniftry, in which he protests against the admiffion of the English fleet into the harbours of Sicily, and declares it will be confidered as a breach of the Treaty of Peace. French troops are continually on their march towards the Neapolitan frontiers. 08. 3. Yesterday evening an Ex traordinary Gazette was published, containing an account of the complete defeat of the French fleet, which conveyed Buonaparte to Egypt. The letter from Admiral Neifon does not enter very much into detail; but it appears that the French fleet, which was off Roletta, had inade every difpolition, both by mooring in a trong line of battle, and erecting batteries on an ifland, to refift any attack that might be made upon them, and to bring off Buonaparte and his ariny in cafe he fhould not be able to fecure himself in Egypt; it is faid too, that the French fleet expected a vifit from the English. The action commenced phon was laid along fide the L'Orient, the French Admiral's fhip, and engaged her for four hours; the latter then caught fire, and blew up, with a thousand people on board, with a dreadful explosion. The flaughter on board the French fhips. was prodigous, it amounted accord. ing to fome accounts, to feveral thoufands. On the fide of the English there was 995 killed and wounded. To conclude, nine fail of the line, and two frigates were taken; two fail of the line and one frigate were burnt, and two fail and one frigate efcaped one ran into Rhodes, and was feized by the Turks. Admiral Nelson has fince been created a Peer, by the title of Baron. 5. A Royal Order, has been published in Hanover, impofing an extraordinary War Tax for three years, towards the fupport of the Army of Obfervation, for the defence of his Britannic Majefty's German Eltates. 6. Letters from Petersburg, dated Sept. 1ft, ftate that a confpiracy has been difcovered against Paul I. whether it be real or pretended, it has been judged proper to implicate in it 8 pesions of the higheft rank, of this number are Prince Poniatousky and Prince Galetzin. They were all immediately tranfported to Siberia. 8. By advices received from his Majesty's Minister at Conftantinople, dated September 3d, it appears that war has been declared by the Grand Signior against the French; that the French A French Minifter, with his whole lega-nounce the return of harmony be tion, have been fent to the Castle of the Seven Towers, and that fome French merchant fhips in the harbour have been taken poffeflion of. The Ruffian auxilliary fquadron was in fight of Conftantinople on that day. 12. Paffawan Oglou, fo far from having agreed to terms with the Porte, as has been reported, appears to be in greater force than ever, and the Turkish troops fent against him have been unable to make any impreffion. The defigns of this leader, are faid to be most extenfive, and his ambition, talents, and courage are allowed to be very great. The feeds of Revolution have been thickly fown by him in Greece, and according to fome accounts have already produced infur. rections in various parts of that country. 16. It is generally expected that at the opening of Parliament, fome propofals will be made for the purpofe of effecting an union between Ireland and this country. The following has been extracted from a London paper, generally poffeffed of very good information."We are informed from authority we are not inclined to doubt, that the French Directory fome time ago difpatched a fwift failing veffel, to the United States, with an accredited agent to adjust all differences between France and America. It is probable therefore we fhall foon have to an tween the two Republics. 20. A ferious infurrection has taken place at Maita; the French General had imprudently put arms into the hands of the inhabitants, who on the fignal of two pieces of cannon being fired in the Old City, attacked the French, took the cannon on feveral batteries, together with a quantity of powder, and put upwards of 100 French foldiers to death. The French are pent up in the fortrefs, very much in want of provifions, and the English are expected to get poffeffion of the place the moment their fleet appears before it. 22. Last night a Gazette Extraor dinary was published, containing an account of the compleat defeat of the Breft squadron; the action was warmly contefted, and the force nearly equal. 23. Accounts have been received at the Admiralty, of the Leander, of 50 guns, having been carried into Corfu by a French line of battle fhip. 25. Saturday a Council was held, when Parliament was prorogued to he 20th of November. The Grand Vizier of the Turkish Empire has been depofed, and has been fucceeded by a person lefs inclined to the French intereft. 26. Letters from Madras fay that an extenfive armament is preparing by the English, for the purpose of attacking the Dutch Settlement of Batavia. THE Univerfalist's Miscellany For NOVEMBER, 1798. ESSAY ON PUNITIVE JUSTICE. DEAR SIR, WE E live in an age when many fubjects are brought forward for investigation and scrutiny. The doctrine of future punishment forms a general fubject of converfation, and, I think, is by no means unworthy the serious confideration of all men; because the character of God, and the future fituation of creatures are closely connected therewith; and I think it may be admitted as a fact, that men having fuppofed God to be fuch an one as themselves, has been the fruitful fource from which the common opinion of future punishment has sprung. It may not be thought altogether unworthy our enquiry, whether men have not transferred the ideas of punishments among men to the divine conduct in inflicting punishments, upon his creatures, and the line of the poet will apply to other than the heathen world. "And hell was built on fpite and heaven on pride." If it should not be thought aside from the defign of your Mifcellany, I would offer you a few thoughts upon the fubject of punishment among men, efpecially capital punishment, to which this is intended as an introduction; and in treating of which I wish to confider it merely as a branch of philofophy, and myself as if feated upon the brow of some lonely mountain, with my Bible and the Hiftory of the World, from the earliest period down to the clofe of the eighteenth century, in my hand. Punishments are certainly neceffary: it is much to be wished that the ftate of fociety were fuch that it did not require the exercise of punitive justice; but is it not worth while to enquire whether criminal laws, as they have been enforced, in different periods and among different nations, have VOL. II. Tt had had the falutary effect of leffening crimes, encreafing the fafety and happiness of society at large, and reftoring of criminals from the error of their ways? Has not the reverse to this never happened in fome nations? Let Ruffia speak— let the executions upon the Wolga bear teftimony. And in one of the moit civilized nations upon the face of the earth, did we never hear of crimes committed under the gallows, while an unhappy being has been expiring upon the fame? One would afk, in fuch countries, is fociety bettered by thefe executions? Are they calculated to improve the morals of the living, while they tear from fociety a member which might, through proper difcipline, be made ufeful. he Man is the workmanship of Deity, and confequently is the facred property of the most high God, poffeffor of heaven and earth. This is a point no one will difpute. There are many important things connected with this view of the subject; fuch as the right that God, and only God, has to dispose of his creatures, in all circumstances, as shall best suit the purpofes of infinite wifdom and goodness. Man comes into this world under the laws which God has eftablifhed in nature, is placed in fuch circumftances as are moft fit and fuitable. God fixes the bounds of our habitations, &c. Man muft abide, like a centinel at his post, until he who placed him there removes him; he has not power over his own life; cannot deprive himself of it, without violating the law of his Maker. His breath is in his noftrils, and though the thread, which connects him with his fellow beings, be flender, he has no right to fnap it, and make his exit. And why? Because he is not his own, but the property of God; and God has not given him power over his own life, but made it his duty and privilege to cherish and preferve it. Difmal indeed would be the fituation of fociety, if, in a fit of grief and perplexity, arifing from the embarraffment of affairs, or any other caufe, it could be confidered as a duty for man, by his own hand, to extricate himself from fuch a fituation, when a little patience perhaps will fee an end to embarraffiments, and a wife be faved from premature widowhood, and children from becoming fatherless; and "The darkest day "(Live till to-morrow) will have paffed away." And for the fame reafon, man must not deftroy the life of his fellow man. Men are very tenacious of their property, who think it no crime to steal men, and deprive, in various ways, ways, thofe beings of life who belong to God alone. The crime of murder has been confidered by all. nations as very enormous and shocking, that no governments have fuffered it to be committed with impunity. Hence the various laws that have been made in different ages, and the various methods of punishing those who have been guilty of it; and we well know the punithment of death has been inflicted for crimes far less than murder. The foreft laws in England, before the birth of Magna Charta, made it death to kill a beast in the king's foreft; and under the fame inftitutions in France, a peafant being accused of killing a boar, in order to extenuate the crime, faid, in his defence, he thought it had been a man.-Shocking! thrice horrid expreffion! But the laws of that country only were criminal; they confidered the - property of God as a mere nothing, when compared with a wild beast. The inhuman Draco boafted that he punished all crimes with death: fmall ones, he faid, deferved it, and he could think of no greater for large ones. Probably there was no christian inquifition in his day, no Calvin to instruct him, or no method of half killing difcovered. If man be really the property of God, then whoever deprives him of life, without a warrant from him for fo doing, commits murder. I shall not now enquire whether God has given authority to man for this purpose, though, by the bye, we may expect to find it among Chriftians and not among Heathens, for that would level the whole, and make no diftinction between believers and infidels, and it cannot be either blafphemy or herefy to call Draco a murderer. This much may be obferved, that we live under a difpenfation of mercy and grace, and are under the authority of Jefus, not Draco; the one (Jefus) has abolished death, and caft a light upon the fubject of life and immortality;, the other (Draco) might be faid to abolith life and introduce death. I am aware that many objections may be brought from the Mofaic difpenfation, from the nature and enormity of individual murder, &c. &c. which it would be out of place here to confider, and as I have extended this letter beyond the limits I propofed, I fhall conclude by afking, whether it must not in every nation be more defirable to prevent than punish crimes? August 16, 1798. And am, Sir, T12 F. B. W. NA |