there was extravasation of blood under the skin of the face. On the eyelid was a slight wound scarcely penetrating to the orbit, which might have been caused by a sharp or cutting instrument, but could not in their opinion have produced death. On opening the body no internal injury was discernible. The reporters added their opinion that the extravasated blood, swelling of the head and ecchymosis, were occasioned by a fall or by blows, and that death had been produced either by hemorrhage or suffocation. It was, moreover, stated by a physician present from curiosity at the examination, that the eye was ecchymosed, and the wound irregular and indented.

On connecting this report with the known fact that the deceased had formerly constant quarrels with her son and daughter-in-law, the supreme court of Arras came to the conclusion that they had murdered her. Montbailly and his wife were condemned to be broken on the wheel, and on him the sentence was actually executed. A respite was granted to the woman on account of her pregnancy. During the interval, a revision of the trial being procured, the opinion of the celebrated Louis was taken on the facts. Upon full investigation he decided, that it was much more probable that the individual died from apoplexy than any other cause. The following are some of the grounds for his conclusion. Intemperance predisposes to sanguineous apoplexy; the reporters, therefore, have neglected their duty in not opening the head of the deceased; had they done so, the condition of the brain might have explained the cause of hæmorrhage. A person predisposed to that complaint would naturally lose a great quantity of blood on falling in a state of intoxication against any sharp-edged substance; the arteries and veins of the head would be also much distended. The livid spots found on the thorax and arms of the deceased, and attributed by the reporters to blows or falling, are appearances ordinarily seen in those who die drunk. Further, the body was examined at the end of the month of July, 32 hours after death. There might have been present incipient putrefaction, which would account, perhaps, for the swelling of the head, lividness of the thorax, and other similar symptoms.

On these grounds it was Louis' opinion that there were no proofs of assassination whatever. The superior Court of Arras, in consequence, revoked their decision, exonerated the memory of Montbailly, and enjoined medical practitioners thereafter to extend their examination to every part of the bodies of those found dead.

In the instances where death results from wounds or blows, it is generally very difficult to trace them to the real author. There is scarcely any external injury which may not be inflicted by the sufferer himself, and a great many may be occasioned by pure accident. Gathering, however, from the direction and nature of the wound, the position of the arm producing it, some presumption may, generally, be deduced for or against suicide. If the traces of violence commence from behind, as in the case of a ball passing through the body, entering at the back: or if the defunct, to commit the act, must have employed his left hand, as in the case of a throat cut from right to left, we have a strong probability against self-murder. The irregularity of the wound, if inflicted by a sharp weapon; bruises about the rest of the body; and other signs indicating a struggle for life, will often throw light on the question. It may be as well to quote two or three cases illustrative of these difficulties, and we will begin with one of accidental death, which to the superficial observer, presented every appearance of assassination. It occurred near Morges, in Switzerland, in the year 1792.

He

A man in a state of excessive drunkenness left the inn where he had been carousing about 11 at night, to return to his home at the distance of half a league. The weather was cold, and the ground covered with snow. was found dead next morning at the side of a ditch not far from his own door. A report that he had been murdered became prevalent, and a medical

man who saw the body asserted the certainty of it. The suspected murderer was already marked out, when Dr. Desgranges, then residing at Morges, was ordered to inspect the body.

No traces of violence were found, until on turning the head from the left to the right side, there appeared an oblique wound beneath the lower jaw, and measuring externally about three quarters of an inch, and in depth a little more. The clothes of the deceased, as well as the snow on which he lay, were profusely stained with blood.

As this wound bore no resemblance to those inflicted by ordinary instruments, Desgranges was led to the belief, that the injury was caused by an auger which the deceased had taken with him from the tavern and carried under his arm with the handle backwards. This was found at the side of the man, covered with clotted blood. Upon opening the wound and inserting the auger, it was discovered to apply completely; the size of the aperture internally was larger also, than the external appearance indicated. Further, on dissection it was ascertained that the left carotid had been wounded, and that the hemorrhage therefrom had been the immediate cause of death. These facts seemed to decide that the injury was accidental, and it was conjectured that in endeavouring to extract the auger on which he had fallen, the deceased had moved it round, and thus made the internal wound larger than the orifice.

In the following case which occurred at Hertford in the 4th year of Charles the First, we find a jury mistaking murder for suicide. The report of it was found among the papers of the eminent Sir John Maynard, a name familiar

to our legal readers.

Jane Norcote was found dead in her bed with her throat cut. On the deposition of two females and a man, relations of the deceased who slept in an adjoining room, that she went to bed with her child the night before during the absence of her husband, and that no person entered the house afterwards, the coroner's jury returned a verdict of felo de se. But a suspicion being excited against the deponents, the jury, before their verdict was drawn up in form, desired that the corpse might be disinterred, which was done accordingly thirty days after death, and the jury then charged the relations with the murder. They were tried at the Hertford assizes, and acquitted so entirely against evidence, that Harvey J. suggested the propriety of an appeal, which was. thereupon brought by the child against his father, grandmother, aunt, and her husband Okeman.

The evidence was as follows. The deceased lay in a composed manner in her bed, the clothes not at all disturbed, and the child by her side. The throat was cut from ear to ear, and the neck broken. There was no blood on the bed saving a slight tincture on the bolster where her head lay. From the bed's head ran a stream of blood, which ponded in large quantities in the bendings of the floor. At the bed's foot was a similar stream, which likewise ponded on the floor in great abundance. But there was no continuance or communication of blood between these two streams, neither on the bed nor on the floor. It was further deposed, that on turning up the mat, clots of congealed blood were found in the straw underneath. The bloody knife was found sticking in the floor a good distance from the bed, with the point towards, and the haft from it. Upon the haft was a print of the thumb and four fingers of a left hand.

The accused were all found guilty except Okeman, and suffered death without making confession.

THE CONTRAST.

AT a meeting, held not long since at Washington, over which Gov. Cass presided, Messrs. Webster, Frelinghuysen, Grundy, and Wayne-men

coming from different sections of the Union, belonging to opposing parties in politics, but each of them distinguished in his native State-delivered their sentiments, in an eloquent and forcible strain, in favour of temperance and temperance societies, and in advocacy of the principle of total abstinence. Lord Chancellor Brougham, the man of the people, who has laboured so successfully to diffuse among them the blessings of education, and is now foremost of the advocates of parliamentary reform, has said, If he had the power, as he had the disposition, he would entirely prohibit the use of ardent spirits. O'Connell, on a memorable occasion, pending a county election, enjoined his countrymen and friends, as they valued their reputation, and the cause of equal privileges which they advocated, not to let whiskey pass their lips: they obeyed his wishes, and succeeded, not only in returning their candidate, but in avoiding any approach to riot or disorder; thus signally triumphing over their enemies, and affording a fine moral lesson to all Ireland. Mark now the contrast. Pending the recent discussion in the Senate, at Harrisburgh, for repealing the disgraceful and immoral law just passed for licensing oyster-cellars, and all other kind of shops, to retail ardent spirits, Mr. Burden took occasion to indulge in the following strain of invective against the Pennsylvania Temperance Society. "He said, the Temperance Society was a dangerous secret association. It was composed of a set of hypocrites-those that got drunk, and yet preached up temperance." And again, "The Temperance Society of Philadelphia had not spoken the truth-they were liars, &c. &c." Arguments cannot persuade, nor benevolence warm this senatorial traducer of men, whose motives he is incapable of appreciating. We should have thought it a waste of time and paper to introduce him, for the purpose of contrasting the distinguished men at Washington, and those of the British parliament, with a mere automaton, spouting, in tones of anger, the language of Billingsgate,-were it not to ask, whether the city of Penn, of Franklin, of Benezet, and of Rush, will tolerate any longer a man who declaims in a style which even the keepers of grog-shops, and liquor retailers in general, would be ashamed of? Are the people prepared to countenance the foul aspersions cast by their Senator on a Society which numbers among its members such active philanthropists as a Roberts Vaux, a Matthew Carey, and an Alexander Henry; or such benevolent men and sound republicans as Jacob Holgate, John Goodman, Joseph S. Riley, and many others of similar standing in its community-to say nothing of the members of different professions enrolled in the temperance cause?

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It may well be said of him who neglects the beauties of the IT early morning hour, that he but half enjoys his existence. The sweetness and freshness of the air-the softened landscape-the glories of the rising sun and the melody of all nature, as it awakes to renewed life and vigour, diffuse a sense of pleasure throughout the frame; imparting to the mind a calm delight, and producing an equally beneficial influence upon the bodily health.

"Who the melodies of morn can tell?

The wild brook babbling down the mountain's side;
The lowing herd; the sheepfold's simple bell;

The pipe of early shepherd, dim descried

In the lone valley; echoing far and wide
The clamorous horn along the cliffs above;
'The hollow murmur of the ocean tide;"
The hum of bees, the linnet's lay of love,

And the full choir that wakes the universal grove."

So sang the minstrel Beattie, and equally glowing and energetic have been the praises bestowed by other poets upon the beauties of this sweetest period of the day : nor has the physician withheld his voice from praise of the genial influence of "the balmy breeze of incense-breathing morn" upon the body of man. essential indeed is its enjoyment to a perfect and continued state of health, that there is scarce an instance of a person having attained to any considerable' longevity who has not been an early riser. To all, the following exquisite lines of the author of the VOL. III.—27

211

Seasons, speak an important lesson. The man of taste will need no other to rouse him betimes to active life.

66

Falsely luxurious, will not man awake,

And springing from the bed of sloth, enjoy
The cool, the fragrant, and the silent hour,
To meditation due and sacred song?

For is there aught in sleep can charm the wise?
To lie in dead oblivion; losing half

The fleeting moments of too short a life;

Total extinction of the enlightened soul!

Or else, to feverish vanity alive,

Wildered, and tossing through distempered dreams?
Who would in such a gloomy state remain
Longer than nature craves, when every muse,
And every blooming pleasure wait without

To bless the wildly devious morning walk?"

Of all the changes that have taken place in the arrangements of social life, there are none more opposed to the maintenance of health, and the dictates of good sense, than those which relate to the hours of rising, and retiring to bed, and the period for taking our meals. Formerly the highest classes of society in Europe, even royalty itself, rose with the lark, dined at noon, and retired to bed about eight or nine in the evening. These hours have been gradually changed for others later and still later; and now, we find the fashionable world lazily emerging from their couches, when their ancestors had completed the active pastimes, to which the former part of the day was dedicated, dining without appetite about the hour when the latter retired to rest, and seeking their beds, for a great part of the year. about the time their forefathers rose, that is, when the morning is about to unfold all its glories. Although these absurd practices are not followed to the same extent in this country as among the fashionables of Europe, yet, even here, how very few of those in easy circumstances, prove from experience, how sweet it is -To gaze, at early morn,

On the wavy spears of the golden corn;
How sweet to mark the new born day,

When night with her clouds hath passed away:

When the far off hills and the mountains high

Are glancing clear mid the azure sky,

And the milk-maid gaily flies along

With her noiseless step and her mermaid song-
And the pearly dew drops glittering lie,

Like the bright tears rain'd from beauty's eye.

They who consume in sleep the morning hours, can lay but slight claims to that pure taste and genuine devotion which animate the breast of the real student of nature, nor the healthful elasticity of frame possessed by him who delights in those inward joys those sublime and secret sensations of gratitude towards his Maker, which are elicited by contemplating the creation at