In reporting his numerous conversations with Dr. Johnson, Boswell says; "He this day again defended duelling, and put his argument upon what I have ever thought the most solid basis, that if public war be allowed to be consistent with morality, private war must be equally so." Boswell then very properly remarks, "Indeed we may observe what strained arguments are used to reconcile war with the christian religion!" The argument of Johnson is as good for assassination as for duelling. Nothing, however, but "strained arguments be brought "to reconcile war with the christian religion; and the same is true of duelling and assassination. Death is death, and murder is murder, however they may be effected. The man who would shudder at the thought of taking the life of a neighbour, by assassination, for an offensive word, should equally shudder at the thought of doing the same thing by a duel, and still more to do it by exciting a war, in which thousands of innocent people must probably perish. can INQUISITORIAL TRIBUNALS. THE Christian Observer for March, 1827, contains a Review of Llorente's History of the Inquisition. Few persons, it is believed, can read the accounts relating to the Spanish Inquisition, without being amazed that such an atrocious institution should have been suffered to exist for three centuries in any country in christendom. A table is given exhibiting the number of persons that suffered by this terrific tribunal, commencing with the year 1481 and ending with 1808,-a period of 327 years. During that period the number burnt alive, was Burnt in effigy Condemned to the galleys and prisons 34,658 18,019 . 288,214 In the table are several items worthy of particular notice. Under the administration of the Inquisitor General Torquemada, from 1481 to 1498-17 yearswas burnt alive 10,220 Burnt in effigy 6,810 Condemned to the galleys and prisons 97,371 Under king Philip II., from 1556 to 1597,-41 years burnt alive 3,990 Burnt in effigy 1,845 Condemned to the galleys and prisons 18,450 Under king Charles IV., from 1788 to 1808, a period of 20 years, burnt alive, 0; in effigy, 1; condemned to the galleys and prisons, 42. Now what was the object of all this havoc and misery? The Inquisitors would say, the whole was done to purify the christian church, and to prevent the spread of fatal errors. But what errors could be more fatal than those which led the Pope and the Inquisitors to murder and torment those whom the Messiah came to seek and to save? At this day the conduct of the Inquisition is regarded with horror in almost every country in christendom. But here we must pause, reflect, and inquire. Was the Spanish Inquisition the worst of all human tribunals? Is there not a tribunal still popular in almost every country, arrogating more extensive power than the papal Inquisitions? and whose decrees have been as unjust and vastly more destructive to human life and happiness? While the Ecclesiastical Inquisition has slain its hundreds, and its thousands, the Political or War Inquisition has slain its millions and its tens of millions. Yet while one of these abominable tribunals has lost its reputation, the worse of the two is still popular. We are all filled with horror at the conduct of a few fallible Inquisitors in passing decrees, which doom to the flames fifty or one hundred innocent persons for the imaginary crime of heresy, and send a still greater number to the galleys, or prisons. Think then of the far more atrocious wickedness of the War Inquisitors a king, perhaps, and his privy council, decreeing a war which must probably involve the destruction of a hundred thousand of their brethren, and fill whole countries with wretchedness and wo. We all abhor the conduct of the Spanish Inquisitor General, Torquemada, under whose administration of nineteen years, more than ten thousand individuals perished at the stake. Why then do any applaud the War Inquisitor General of France, Napoleon Bonaparte, who in less than nineteen years, probably occasioned the death of five millions of people, with as little reason and jusuce as Torquemada destroyed his thousands! We do not mean to say that all the blame of that vast destruction of life is to be imputed to Napoleon. Other War Inquisitors were doubtless blamable. But to the horrible War Tribunals of Europe the whole mischief may be imputed. Though the Papal Inquisition and the War Inquisition are in some respects different, they are in several points alike. They are both tribunals of injustice and mischief; they both act on the principle of doing evil that good may come, or doing evil to prevent evil; they are both directly hostile to the precepts and the spirit of the christian religion; they have both been the effect of delusion; they have both depended on popular opinion for their existence, where they have been tolerated,and they will both be abolished when public opinion shall be duly enlightened. Then both will be regarded as the fruit of barbarism, and as the reproach of the nations by which they were supported. The War Tribunals will sink in public estimation as low as the Papal Inquisition now is in Protestant countries. Military Inquisitors and Conquerors will cease to be praised for the mischiefs they have done; they will rather be classed with Torquemada, as men who should have been confined in the prison for felons, or the bedlam for maniacs. As the progress of public opinion has already nearly abolished the atrocities of the Spanish Inquisition, we have reason to hope that the greater atrocities of the War Tribunal will ere long be set aside by the power of enlightened patriotism and philanthropy. ENCOURAGING LETTER FROM BARNSTABLE. Barnstable, January 12th, 1828. REV. SIR-I am gratified in being able to state to you, that a Society, auxiliary to the Massachusetts Peace Society, has been formed in this town. A number of our citizens have been, for a long time, anxious that such a society should be established; and having duly considered the subject, agreed to appoint a meeting for that purpose on the 25th of December last. They solicited me to address them on the occasion, which I did. After the exercises were over, a constitution was presented and accepted, and the Society organized; and I am happy to say, it now embraces sixty members. Our officers are the following; Rev. ENOCH PRATT, President. FREEMAN MARCHANT, Esq. Vice Pres. Mr. SAMUEL CHIPMAN, Rec. Sec. Mr. FREDERICK SCUDDER, Treasurer. We have now some funds, and should like to receive from you a list of the publications, best calculated to promote the objects of the Society. Yours, respectfully, HENRY HERSEY. MR. LADD'S MISSION. WILLIAM LADD, Esq. is now on a mission to New York and Philadelphia, to see what can be done to advance the cause of peace. Considerable hope is entertained that he will effect the organization of a National Peace Society. Should he fail in this, he will doubtless be the instrument of exciting more zeal and energy in the societies already formed; and of occasioning other local societies to be organized. He passed through Providence, Rhode Island, and Windham county, Connecticut, to Hartford in that State. He had delivered Addresses in several towns, and from Hartford he has written; "I find every where more success than I anticipated." ODE TO THE GENIUS OF THE PEACE SOCIETY. [From the Herald of Peace.] HAIL! virgin daughter of the sky, Within this dark recess below, For long, alas! with ruthless storm Rise, daughter of a nobler line, Arise, commissioned from above, Proclaim aloud to man below Whence strife and hatred are; That breathes infuriate war: And when thou heav'st the suppliant sigh, Vermont. A letter from Vermont contains the following information. "In consequence of exertions commenced by members of our Peace Society, an important alteration has been procured in our militia law. Formerly those who were conscientiously scrupulous of bearing arms, the Friends excepted, were obliged to pay two dollars a year to the officers for military purposes, or otherwise be subject to penalties. But in lieu of this, it is now required that three dollars be paid into the town treasury for the purpose of educating children in common schools. Thus the matter is taken entirely out of the military line, and the money devoted to a good object." Our correspondent is much gratified with this success, though he thinks, and justly thinks, that this is not all the relief that should have been granted. Though the money is devoted to a good object, men ought not to be fined for possessing pacific sentiments, or having consciences which will not suffer them to learn the art of public homicide. Why not fine those whose principles and consciences allow them to practise robbery and homicide, if called on so to do by fallible rulers? Is it not a proof of barbarism when conscientious men are punished for being of pacific principles and dispositions? New York. Governor Clinton commenced the present year by a Message to the Legislature, which contained the following thoughts and recommendations in regard to Duelling. "A prominent and besetting evil of the times is the practice of duelling, which equally shipwrecks the peace of families and destroys the lives of useful members of society. In these cases, false notions of honor are arrayed against the dictates of morality, the prescriptions of law, and the injunctions of religion. If public opinion is unable to arrest this aggravated evil, the arm of the law ought to be stretched forth, full of terror and replete with punishment." |