sacrifice of a few miserable objects to the vengeance of the laws? Can the public good be promoted by a lavish expenditure in securing punishment for the guilty, when half the money so employed would, perhaps, suffice for holding out encouragement to the distressed?*

Rap. You are of opinion, then, that the penal laws of certain countries should, in part, be abolished: that they are sanguinary and disgraceful to a state. In imitation of the Porcian law, you would, perhaps, inflict on none but murderers the punishment of death. But will not this, by many, be called weakness; and will not weakness (or, as you would term it, mildness,) in a government necessarily lead to the perpetration of crimes?

Fur. Not when the beauty of virtue is displayed as it ought to be: not when moral goodness is inculcated and generally known. The mischiefs which are so commonly experienced, and the offences which are so frequently committed, proceed, in most instances, I am persuaded, from ignorance; which is the parent and the nurse of vice. The Porcian edict, of which you have just spoken, and which ordained that no Roman citizen should be put to death, was not, you may remember, productive of any ill consequences to the state. Thus much for lenity in a government, and its effects on the minds of men. But what I would principally insist on is this, let a good and a virtuous education be given to the people, and there will scarcely be occasion for penal laws: continue to behave towards them as the statutes of former times have directed-times comparatively barbarian with the present and you punish them for actions, the turpitude of which they hardly know. Cruel and inhuman are the givers of such laws; and I boldly maintain, that they who thus proceed towards their indigent and mistaken fellows, are the greater criminals in the sight of

This subject has been touched on in a former dialogue; but, as it cannot be too frequently urged, I shall not apologize for introducing it here.

Heaven, and more particularly deserving of earthly reproach.

Rap. If the plan could be adopted, and a public education were ultimately to put a stop to the commission of crimes, it would, no doubt, in a moral point of view, be deserving of particular praise: politically considered, however, I fear the objections to it would be many and great.

Fur. If I understand you aright, you argue that the people, by learning to distinguish between right and wrong, and by the exercise of that most discriminative faculty, reason, would soon know themselves to be men, and with such intellectual advantages might become a little troublesome to the ruling powers.

Rap. Perhaps so: and, by this means, stir up sedition and revolt. As a philosopher, you may be right in what you propose, but you cannot possibly be so as a politician. The lesser evil, indeed, and which you so feelingly deplore, might perhaps be remedied: but the greater one, and which I so seriously dread, would be seen in all its terrors. In fine, you would scatter firebrands among the nations; and, when the injury is manifest, you would perhaps attempt to exculpate yourself, by saying, with the madman, you were in sport.

Fur. Away with all such narrow, such contemptible, prejudices! Perish the sentiment which would debase mankind, which would bring them to a level with the beasts of the field. Shall the people be blinded, that they may the better keep clear of pitfalls? shall a want of knowledge the better secure to them their happiness and peace? A negative kind of happiness at best!

Can it be sin to know,

And must they only stand by ignorance?-PAR. Lost.

But be it remembered, that men in power, of whatever country, would do well to provoke inquiry into their measures, instead of endeavouring to avoid it. If their politics be sound and good, they will, like the doctrines of Christianity, be received and cherished by almost all.

In a word, the closer the examination, and the stricter the scrutiny into those politics, the more, in such a case, will it contribute to their permanency, and redound to their fame.

Rap. The consequences, so generally resulting from the people meddling in affairs of government, I mean not to insist on now. In ancient history, indeed, the instances are many and fatal. We find that the multitude are frequently ambitious, without the power of conducting themselves aright. They remind me of the serpent in the fable, which, desirous of travelling, but despising the guidance of its head, observed a backward, a retrograde motion, and thus went blundering the whole of its way.

Fur. The character you give of the commonalty I allow to be just. But still I recur to the want of proper instruction in their earlier years, and feel convinced, that the very education which meaner politicians are fearful of bestowing on the people, would be at once the great security of themselves for I will willingly suppose them virtuous-and of the state to which they belong. Plutarch is a strenuous advocate for it; and attributes the seditious and turbulent temper of the Romans, in what is called the looser times of the empire, to a remissness in the education of children, and which contributed much to the ruin of the commonwealth. Latter historians, too, have animadverted sharply on that government for this so shameful a neglect of its citizens: the consequences of which, say they, were the corruption and decay of morality, the almost total extinction of letters, a very heavy blow on the before-mentioned glorious fabric, and which greatly accelerated its fall.

Rap. This were all very well, could we mould men according to our wishes, or to the ideas of perfection which are to be found in the writings of certain moralists and speculatists of the times. Our criminal laws are undoubtedly severe; but to abolish them, or even to relax in them, in the present corrupted state of the

world, were to leave our property exposed to every marauder. It is remarked, indeed, by an ancient philosopher, that the wise man would always live virtuously, even were there no restraints on his actions, even were there a total abrogation of every law. This is certainly the language of philosophy; further, perhaps, it is the language of humanity: but is it founded on actual observation, or in truth? I must know more of the force of philosophy, I must see more of the integrity of wisdom, before I can accede to the propriety of the remark, before I can admit it as a general principle, and thus divest myself at once of my guard. No; we must not throw away the buckler of the law, while envy and malice are prowling around like fiends, which are ever watchful and ready to seize on us as their prey.

Fur. Envy and malice are, I believe, more frequently to be found in the higher classes of the people than in that to which I allude, and to which I unfortunately belonged. But, if these hateful and destructive passions are sometimes to be seen among the lower orders of the community, in what, it may be asked, have they originated? Why, the one perhaps in the glittering parade, the other in the insufferable arrogance of the sons of fortune; who, while they talk of pity, do actually, by the hard conditions they impose on their tenants and others, distress the very persons whom, not only in justice but in policy, they ought to favour in every point. Hear how pathetically this disposition and conduct of the powerful is spoken of by a distinguished moralist and writer of the age:-" C'est là (dans les chaumières du pauvre) qu'on s'instruit par quelles iniquités secrètes le puissant et le riche arrachent un reste de pain noir à l'opprimé qu'ils feignent de plaindre en public." Now what are we to think of such men? We must surely hold them in little estimation or regard; and were it not for the exertions of the meaner ranks, of those whom they consider as their retainers, (though, in fact, the very reverse,) the luxuries they indulge in

would never have been known; for, as to themselves, they are incapable of almost every kind of effort: with immoderate possessions, indeed, the powers both of body and mind are observed to decay.

Rap. From your manner of speaking, I know not in what point of view you consider the luxuries and superfluities you hint at, and which are so much indulged in by the rich and great. In what way do they affect the people? are they really beneficial or hurtful to them? Remember, I advert to the labouring part of the people, who compose by far the most numerous class.

Fur. It has been maintained by able writers, that luxury is greatly beneficial to a state'; and this idea has arisen principally from the employment given by it to artists and manufacturers of every kind. The argument made use of by those writers is certainly specious, and, as far as it regards our home commodities, I acknowledge it to be just. A few restrictions, however, might be necessary even here, when we consider the pernicious influence of luxury on many, particularly the middling ranks of life in a word, its universality is baneful in the highest degree, not only, as I have just observed, to many who indulge in it, but also as it draws off an amazing number of hands to produce the superfluities so generally demanded; hands, which might be much better engaged in agricultural pursuits, and from which considerable benefit would be derived to all. As to the foreign articles which are pouring in upon us, and often to the exclusion of our own, in seeing them I nearly lose my temper, and am induced to exclaim with the poet

O, luxury! thou curst by Heaven's decree.

The merchant, it is true, is enriched, and the exchequer is swelled, by their means. But, let us consider the poverty, the squalid wretchedness, which is to be seen in our streets; and this, too, among the young and healthy, who, were a greater quantity of specie kept in