punishable with death, and consequently the. greater the number of executions, the less criminals care about that punishment. One fact is alone sufficient to demonstrate this truth. Rev. Mr. Roberts, of Bristol, England, put the inquiry to one hundred and sixty-seven persons, who were under sentence of death at different times, and all of whom he visited, whether they had ever witnessed a public execution. The result was, that one hundred and sixty-five of them had been spectators in the crowds gathered on such occasions. The following instance is quoted by Dick,* from the "Schoolmaster in Newgate.' "One morning a boy," who appears to have been previously in the habit of pilfering, came into his father's room, and seeing nothing to eat for breakfast but bread and butter on the table, he said, 'What! nothing for breakfast? Ah! wait a bit.' He then went out, and in a quarter of an hour came back with some steaks and a pint of rum, besides having money in his pocket. He had gone out and stolen a piece of Irish linen from a shop on Ludgate Hill, took it to a buyer of stolen goods, and bought the articles he had brought home, all in the short space of fifteen minutes; and this was not an uncommon thing for him to

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*Mental Illumination, p. 336.

do, although his parents were not in need. The boy was at length transported, when he was only fourteen years of age. He subsequently detailed to me all his practices, and how he got into crime. His parents resided in a court running out of the Old Bailey, and he had witnessed every execution which had taken place during his short career. So much for the effect of executions, as supposed to deter from crime ;-indeed, most of the boys engaged in crime, appear to have a great pleasure in attending executions." In a story, called the "Lesson of Life," written by Douglass Jerrold, there is a conversation between a monk and a hangman, of Paris, in which the following passage occurs :-" Ho! hold you there, Father-example. 'Tis a brave example to throttle a man in the public streets : why, I know the faces of my audience as well as Dominique did. I can show you a hundred who never fail at the gallows' foot to come and gather good example. Do you think, most holy father, that the mob of Paris come to a hanging as to a sermon-to amend their lives at a gibbet? No: many come as they would take an extra dram! it gives their blood a fillip-stirs them for an hour or two; many to see a fellow-man act a scene which they must one day undergo; many as to puppets and ballet-singers, at the Point Neuf; but, for example,

why, father, as I am an honest executioner, I have in my day done my office upon twenty, all of whom were constant visitors of years' standing at my morning levees." The principle advanced in this extract, is demonstrated by scores of instances which have occurred in England and America; and which prove beyond a doubt, that the boasted restraints of sanguinary punishments, is fallacious, and that the sight of such executions only hardens those who should always be under good influences.

Did we doubt the fact, that waste of life produces carelessness of it, the horrible scenes of the French Revolution, in which a river of blood was shed, and the vile, the pure, the degraded, the talented, were indiscriminately swept into destruction, would establish it beyond controversy. There is a remarkable instance, however, which is thrillingly interesting, as well as illustrative of my theme.

For centuries there existed in India, a number of communities of robbers and murderers, named Thugs. They journeyed in bands over the country, in all directions, robbing and murdering native travellers, (for they never molested Englishmen, from fear of detection.) Their mode of executing their victims, was, almost universally, by strangling. They never spared a victim, on the principle that "dead

men tell no tales," except it might be a child, saved, to be brought up in their murderous occupation. At various times, tens of thousands of persons were destroyed by the Thugs, who considered it as their occupation. In the sessions of 1836, held at Jubulpoor, two hundred and forty-one prisoners were convicted of the murder of four hundred and seventy-four individuals, nearly all of whose corpses were found. And to this case, multitudes might be added, swelling the instances of murder to an enormous number. The most singular fact in regard to this people is, that they made it a religious duty to murder. They worshipped a goddess, named Bhowanee, to whom they prayed, and besought for success in their excursions. And if a Thug should commit a murder without a favorable omen, such as "lizard chirping, or a crow making a noise on a living tree, on the left side," they believe that he never will be blessed more. But when the omens and rules laid down by their goddess, are observed, they deem it their duty to murder, and to feel no sympathy for their victims. They consider that travellers, when the omens are favorable, are thrown in their way by the deity, to be killed. Murder, then, is their occupation-their children are taught it-and when a son goes out on an expedition for the first time, it is pre

faced by religious ceremonies, invoking success on his attempt. This horrible organization was principally unveiled by officers under Lord William Bentinck, Governor General of India, who, with his successors to the present time, have almost destroyed the Thugs.* The fact demonstrated in this case, is this: by constantly dealing with murder, individuals become reckless of life and of the sufferings of others; for the Thugs could murder fifty or a hundred persons, with no more emotion than when engaged in an ordinary transaction.

It consequently follows, from the position which is sustained by the instances we have adduced, that the more a nation is engaged in war, the more its people will lose sight of the practice of kindness, and become sanguinary in their tastes. If nations would consider this fact thoroughly, in connection with this simple truth, that most wars grow out of trivial circumstances, and then endeavor to settle difficulties amicably, it appears to me that the eagle of war would have to fold his wings in slumber. Think of it as we may, yet it is truth, that most wars have no better reason for their origin, than the boys spoken of in one of the Lay Sermons of

*For a full account of this singular people, see the Foreign Quarterly Review, for April, 1838-and the History of the Thugs, by Captain W. H. Sleeman, 2 vols.