perpetually open the wounds of Ireland; and cordially do we wish, that through the means of reasonable concession on both sides, the question might be settled, and forgotten for ever." Sir, I as heartily wish, and will as confidently predict, the downfall of popery, as your correspondent; but I feel assured, such an auspicious event will rather be delayed than hastened by the exclusive system for which he contends. I rejoice at the progress which reformation is making in Ireland, and at the efforts of the several religious societies to spread the knowledge of Divine truth in that interesting part of the United Kingdom. Among these, the British Reformation Society holds a very important place, as calculated to promote religious discussion and inquiry, together with the circulation of the Scriptures, and tracts adapted to the lower orders of Roman Catholics,-while it holds out no secular inducements, nor embraces any political objects whatever. To all these admirable institutions, I would say, Go on and prosper. 66 other agents upon them, so as to become innoxious to man? This question demands an answer; and we proceed to give it, according to our best ability. Mining operations having been early begun, and having continued, and not only continued but increased from age to age, as has been already shewn, if these gases, in the natural order of things, would have become exhausted, in these last ages it is the time, if ever such a time will arrive in this sphere, that these effects should at least become observable in their progress; and if any counteracting agents exist, it is also time these agents should have become visible to us: but no such exhaustion, and no such agents, are known, even at this late period. It would perhaps be presumptuous in an individual decidedly to pronounce, that these events will never occur in this sphere; but in the total absence of all evidence to the contrary, the only conclusion that can safely be made is, they never will become exhausted so long as mining operations are continued; and that no natural agents exist, whose spontaneous counter-operaIn the nature of things, the continuation of tions will neutralize their malignant effects. mining operations will radically increase the evils complained of, and that in an alarming degree, I conceive for these reasons: Sophistry, sir, is capable of detection and exposure; but the practical arguments, founded on facts, which I have urged in support of my views, are not so easily grappled with, and need not fear refutation. First. The continuance of mining operaMy position of " the absence of all danger tions does and will exhaust the upper strata from concession, and the gross impolicy of of minerals, and of necessity compel the exclusion," is perfectly unshaken by any miners to operate upon the lower and yet thing your correspondent has advanced; and lower strata; but every removal from the hence all his declamations about the "im-surface of the earth is an extension of dismutability of popish principles," potance from the atmosphere which rests pish insurrection, and Protestant massacre," "the deposing power of the pope," &c. are only feeble subterfuges, to evade the true ground of discussion, and prop a cause which he finds to be otherwise untenable. With regard to any danger, the onus probandi lies upon Mr. Tucker, and, till he establish this, or give up his case, the charge of sophistry recoils on his own head. I remain, sir, yours respectfully, Nov. 12th, 1827. A PROTESTANT. MEPHITIC GASES.-NO. VI. (Continued from col. 421.) An inquiry perfectly natural, and one often made, arises out of this subject, viz. Will not the gases which are now so injurious to miners amidst their operations, become in process of time exhausted, and thus leave the mines free from danger; or be neutralized by the natural counteraction of upon that surface, and every one of these extended distances is a more effectual bar to its salutary action in the mine, and thus circulation of atmospheric air throughout increases the difficulty of procuring a free the mine. deeper strata, a less and less number of Secondly. In working deep and yet shafts are sunk, in order to work a given area of these strata, because in proportion to the depth, the expense of sinking these shafts increases until it becomes so enormous, that few indeed of these are sunk ; and as a natural consequence, the galleries which connect these shafts with the works become enormously extended, and thus interpose between the miner and the atmosphere, distances which are alarming even to contemplate. Miles already intervene between the miner, at the extremity of his mine, and the shaft by which he ascends to day; and these miles are occupied with galleries of almost all forms and dimensions; some in good, some in incomplete 327 Mephitic Gases in Mines-No. VI. 528 repair, straight, winding or zigzag, accord-| are as much so as the old works of an ing to circumstances, and the situation of the works in which the miner is occupied for the moment. Thirdly. In working upon the deep portion of an inclined plane, when the higher portion has been worked out, continual issues of gas take place from the old works; and thus the loads of noxious matter, accumulated by preceding ages, press upon the immured miner of the present age, and by parity of reason, the noxious matter brought out by this age will press upon the next, and so on, from age to age, until the dissolution of this sphere. The effects of these old works upon the new workings are by no means imaginary; in the nature of things they must, and do constitute a serious inconvenience. Large portions of coal, pyrites, limestone, spar, the gangue of metalliferous veins, sulphureous fragments, shale, and other minerals, as well as the remains of animal and vegetable refuse, are left by the miners, amidst accumulations of water and gases, on their quitting these works, in confined situations, which ferment and generate noxious effluvia; and large orifices, exposing immense surfaces of heterogeneous mineral matter, are left exposed to the action of these waters and gases; new channels for water are also formed by the miners, and left, on their quitting the old works, to be filled up by the refuse which these waters bear from the upper strata, every one of which tends to generate and push noxious effluvia into the new works at hand. Fourthly. The issues of gas into a working mine must be nearly similar in succeed. ing as in preceding mines from the minerals themselves; and the fissures and orifices in these minerals are of a nature similar to those which have been enlarged upon in the papers already inserted on this subject. Because every new surface which is exposed in a mine, and every new orifice which is pierced, must and will yield portions of the gas they contain, whether the stratum in a course of working be far beneath or near the surface of the earth. exhausted mine; and from the great number of horses and men employed in mines of this description, these works contain large portions of animal and vegetable refuse, accumulations of water in shallow pools, and surfaces of minerals exposed to the action of these in as great abundance as the works of an exhausted mine, and the effects of these are as seriously felt by miners as those before noted. And Lastly. The great extension of the works in deep mines, and the length and intricacies of the galleries which communicate with the shafts and these works, multiply the chances of interruption to a free current of atmospheric air throughout all their parts. Within the mine the roof occasionally falls down, and the sides sometimes shelve in, and water is frequently dammed up, and calms and smothering heats, at certain seasons, induce inaction in the atmosphere without; all of which tend to the same infliction upon miners, viz. the privation of fresh air, and the consequent accumulation of gases within the mines, and a tendency to explosion and burning, or of suffocation. Death is written upon the fallen roof, the shelved sides, the accumulated water within and without, upon the serene azure of heaven itself; and his shafts, "like the pestilence which walketh in darkness," fly beneath the surface of the earth, fall upon the already entombed miner, and in a moment, while all is serenity upon the surface, the scorching explosion, in awful tumult, or the suffocating gas, in silent yet deadly gripe, hurries men and horses out of life. Our previous conclusion is borne out therefore by these premises; and it appears there is not the most remote chance of these mephitic gases being exhausted during the continuance of mining operations, but that there is every reason to conclude, in proportion as the mines descend to greater and greater depths beneath the surface, that these gases will acumulate therein, and from age to age become more and more destructive to miners. The latter question, viz. "Will these Fifthly. In the workings of nines which gases be neutralized by the natural counultimately contain these long galleries, interaction of other agents upon them, so as process of time, large portions of old work- to become innoxious to man?" And the ings interpose themselves between the answer already given, viz. "No such agents miners and the shafts; indeed, it is these are known even at this late period of time, worked or exhausted strata which, in some and that, in the total absence of all eviinstances, push the miners forward to a dence to the contrary, the only conclusion distance from the shaft, and which call that can safely be made is, that no natural some of these long galleries of mines into agents exist, whose spontaneous counterexistence. These may with every pro- operations will neutralize their malignant priety be called old works; indeed they effects;" remain to be considered. To this answer we can only add, The laws of creation are fixed laws: they received their existence at the moment of creation; the word of Omnipotence called them forth to subserve His purposes, and act as His agents upon the matter of the universe; and as He called them forth, so also did He impart unto them stability. Our keenest researches into, and our most severe experiments upon these laws, have not, in a single instance, detected the least indication of instability, decay, or dotage in them; a vigour, like the pristine vigour of youth, instantly answers the call of every experiment, and maugre all our puny efforts, and, amidst the rush of time, with all its changing seasons, they remain the same. After the lapse of nearly six thousand years, no symptoms of decay or death having yet become visible, short-sighted man, although he may look backward, certainly cannot look six thousand years forward, must conclude, that as no aberration is yet visible in the laws which govern matter in this sphere, the probability is small indeed, that any agent will arise in the course of nature, which will spontaneously operate upon these gases, so as to neutralize their malignant effects in mines. Until that moment, when the fulness of time, and the fitness of things, shall determine the Omnipotent to annihilate the laws which govern matter in this portion of the creations of GoD, these laws will, according to His own word, as we noted on a former occasion, continue the same; and then instantly will the frame of this sphere dissolve, and the matter thereof pass away from before His face for ever. These things are recorded in the sacred volume-the volume of inspiration, and they accord with the experience of ages, therefore they cannot fall to the ground. It becomes man, therefore, in compassion to his fellows, to try by every possible means, to carry into these subterraneous recesses such remedies as the wisdom wherewith his Creator has endowed him, can be provided by his utmost skill, in order to avert from those who shut themselves out from the light of day, to minister to the conveniences of their fellow-men, the awful ills to which they are exposed. (To be continued.) JUDICIAL IMPROVEMENTS IN CEYLON. (From the Asiatic Journal for June 1827.) As our Indian administration, especially the judicial branch of it, is becoming, from peculiar circumstances, a subject of in creasing interest, a statement, from authentic sources, of the important experiments which have been successfully made at Ceylon, accompanied by an exposition of the principles upon which they were adopted, and the advantages which they have al| ready been attended with, cannot but be gratifying. Sir Alexander Johnston, the then chief justice and first member of his majesty's council in Ceylon, after a very long residence on that island, a very attentive examination of all the different religious and moral codes of the various descriptions of people who inhabit Asia, a constant intercourse for many years, as well literary as official, with natives of all the different castes and religious persuasions which prevail in India, and a most careful consideration of every thing which related to the subject, recorded it as his official opinion, in 1808, that the most certain and the most safe method of improving the British go vernment in India, of raising the intellectual and moral character of the natives, of giving them a real interest in the British government, and of insuring the continuance of their attachment to the British empire, was to render the system of administering justice amongst them really independent, efficient, and popular; and that the wisest method of gradually attaining these objects, was by granting to the natives of the country themselves, under the superintendence of European judges, a direct and a considerable share in the admininistration of that system. As a very general opinion prevailed, both in India and in England, that the natives of India, from their division into castes, from their want of intellect, from their want of education, and from their want of veracity and integrity, were incapable of exercising any political or any judicial authority, either with credit to themselves or with advantage to their countrymen, it was, for many reasons, deemed prudent by Sir Alexander Johnston, that the experiment of allowing natives of India to exercise the same rights and privileges in the administration of justice in India, as are exercised by Englishmen in Great Britain, should be first tried on the island of Ceylon. The population of Ceylon consists of a considerable number of inhabitants of each of the four following descriptions of people, viz. 1st, of about half a million who dederive their descent from the inhabitants of the opposite peninsula of India, who profess the same modification of the Hindoo religion, who speak the same language, have the same customs and laws, and the 531 Judicial Improvements in Ceylon. same division of castes, as those inhabitants; 2dly, of about half a million other inhabitants who claim their descent from the people of Ava and Siam, who have the same religious and moral code, and who profess the same modification and the same customs of the Buddho religion as the inhabitants of those two countries; 3dly, between 50,000 and 60,000 Mahomedan inhabitants, who are partly of Arab and partly of Mogul descent, who have the same customs and laws, and who profess the same modifications of the Mahomedan religion, as prevail amongst the different classes of Mahomedans who inhabit the peninsula of India; and, 4thly, of a very considerable number of what in the rest of India are called half-castes, descended partly from Portuguese, partly from Dutch, and partly from English Europeans, some of them professing the Catholic, some the reformed religion, and all of them resembling in character and disposition the halfcastes in the rest of India. As it was therefore obvious that the population of Ceylon was composed of a great number of each of the four great divisions of people, of which the population of the rest of India was composed, Sir Alexander Johnston conceived, that should the experiment of extending the rights and privileges of Englishmen, in as far as they relate to the administration of justice, to all the different descriptions of half-castes and other natives on the island of Ceylon, be attended with success, it might therefore be acted upon with great moral and political advantage in legislating for the different descriptions of half-castes and other natives on the continent of India. From the year 1802, the date of the first royal charter of justice, to the year 1811, justice had been administered in the courts on that island according to what is called, in Holland, the Dutch-Roman law, both in civil and in criminal cases, without a jury | of any description whatever, by two European judges, who were judges both of law and fact, as well in civil as in criminal cases. In 1809, it was determined by his majesty's ministers, on the suggestion of Sir Alexander Johnston, that the two European judges of the Supreme Court on Ceylon should, for the future, in criminal cases, be judges only of law, and that juries, composed of the natives of the island themselves, should be judges of the fact, in all cases in which native prisoners were concerned; and, in November 1811, a new charter of justice under the great seal of England was published in Ceylon, by which, amongst other things, it was in sub 532 stance enacted, that every native of the island who was tried for a criminal offence before the Supreme Court, should be tried by a jury of his own countrymen, and that the right of sitting upon juries in all such cases should be extended, subject to certain qualifications, to every half-caste, and to every other native of the island, whatever his caste or religious persuasion. This experiment of extending the rights and privileges of Englishmen, having, after 16 years' experience, been found to be productive of the greatest security to government, and of the greatest benefit to the people of the country, it has become a subject of serious consideration both in India and in England, whether the same rights and the same privileges, as since the year 1811 have been exercised with the most beneficial effects by the natives of the island of Ceylon, may not also be exercised with the same good effect by all the natives of the East India Company's dominions in India; and Sir Alexander Johnston, at the request of the president of the Board of Control, wrote to him, in the year 1825, the letter, of which the following is an extract, explaining to him the reasons which originally induced Sir Alexander to propose the introduction of trial by jury amongst the natives of Ceylon, the mode in which his plan was carried into effect, and the consequence with which its adoption has been attended. "26th May, 1825. “Dear sir,—I have the pleasure, at your request, to give you an account of the plan I adopted while chief justice and first member of his majesty's council on Ceylon, for introducing trial by jury into that island, and for extending the right of sitting upon juries to every half-caste native, as well as to every other native of the country, to whatever caste or religious persuasion he might belong. I shall explain to you the reasons which induced me to propose this plan, the mode in which it was carried into effect, and the consequences with which its adoption has been attended. The complaints against the former system for administering justice in Ceylon were, that it was dilatory, expensive, and unpopular. The defects of that system arose from the little value which the natives of the country attached to a character for veracity, from the total want of interest which they manifested for a system, in the administration of which they themselves had no share, from the difficulty which European judges, who were not only judges of law, but also judges of fact, experienced in ascertaining the degree of credit which they ought to give to native testimony; and finally, from the delay in the proceedings of the court, which were productive of great inconvenience to the witnesses who attended the sessions, and great expense to the government which defrayed their costs. "The obvious way of remedying these evils in the system of administering justice, was, first, to give the natives a direct interest in that system, by imparting to them a considerable share in its administration; secondly, to give them a proper value for a character for veracity, by making such a character the condition upon which they were to look for respect from their countrymen, and that from which they were to hope for promotion in the service of their government; thirdly, to make the natives themselves, who, from their knowledge of their countrymen, can decide at once upon the degree of credit which ought to be given to native testimony, judges of fact, and thereby shorten the duration of trials, relieve witnesses from a protracted attendance on the courts, and materially diminish the expense of the government. The introduction of trial by jury into Ceylon, and the extension of the right of sitting upon juries to every native of the island, under certain modifications, seemed to me the most advisable method of attaining these objects. "Having consulted the chief priests of the Budhoo religion, in as far as the Cingalese in the southern part of the island, and the Brahmins of Remissuram, Madura, and Jafna, in as far as the Hindoos of the northern part of the island, were concerned, I submitted my plan for the introduction of trial by jury into Ceylon, to the Governor and Council of that island. Sir T. Maitland, the then governor of Ceylon, and the other members of the council, thinking the object of my plan an object of great importance to the prosperity of the island, and fearing lest objections might be urged against it in England, from the novelty of the measure, (no such rights as those which I proposed to grant to the natives of Ceylon ever having been granted to any native of India,) sent me officially, as first member of council, to England, with full authority to urge, in the strongest manner, the adoption of the measure, under such modifications as his majesty's ministers might, on my representations, deem expedient. After the question had been maturely considered in England, a charter passed the great seal, extending the right of sitting upon juries, in criminal cases, to every native of Ceylon, in the manner in which I had proposed; and on my return to Ceylon with this charter in November 1811, its provisions were immediately carried into effect by me. "In order to enable you to form some idea of the manner in which the jury-trial is introduced amongst the natives and halfcastes of Ceylon, I shall explain to you, 1st, what qualifies a native of Ceylon to be a juryman; 2dly, how the jurymen are summoned at each session; 3dly, how they are chosen at each trial; and 4thly, how they receive the evidence and deliver their verdict. Every native of Ceylon, provided he be a freeman, has attained the age of twenty-one, and is a permanent resident in the island, is qualified to sit on juries. The fiscal, or sheriff of the province, as soon as a criminal session is fixed for his province, summonses a considerable number of jurymen of each caste, taking particular care that no juryman is summoned out of his turn, so as to interfere with any agricultural or manufacturing pursuits in which he may be occupied, or with any religious ceremony at which his caste may require his attendance. On the first day of the session the names of all the jurymen who are summoned are called over, and the jurymen, as well as all the magistrates and police officers, attend in court, and hear the charge delivered by the judge. The prisoners are then arraigned; every prisoner has a right to be tried by thirteen jurymen of his own caste; unless some reason why the prisoner should not be tried by the jurymen of his own caste, can be urged, to the satisfaction of the court, by the Advocate Fiscal, who in Ceylon holds an office very nearly similar to that held in Scotland by the Lord Advocate; or unless the prisoner himself, from believing people of his own caste to be prejudiced against him, should apply to be tried either by thirteen jurymen of another caste, or by a jury composed of half- castes, or Europeans. "As soon as it is decided of what caste the jury is to be composed, the register of the court puts into an urn, which stands in a conspicuous part of the court, a very considerable number of the names of jury. men of that caste out of which the jury is to be formed; he continues to draw the names out of the urn, (the prisoner having a right to object to five peremptorily, and to any number for cause,) until he has drawn the names of thirteen jurymen who have not been objected to; these thirteen jurymen are then sworn, according to the form of their respective religions, to decide upon the case according to the evidence, and without partiality. The Advocate Fiscal then opens the case for the prosecu tion (through an interpreter if necessary) to the judge, and proceeds to call all the |