which has for years been going on between the advocates of death punishment and its opponents, who have, in perfect consistency, clamoured most vehemently for the preservation of the life of this execrable monster of human depravity. But notwithstanding the clamour of a few, the voice of the millions, as with the sound of many waters, has called for his execution. In truth, the people of Massachusetts were in some degree prepared for decision in this case, inasmuch as past leniency has materially contributed to the increase of crime, as will appear from the following extract from a transatlantic paper of great respectability:

"It appears from Governor Briggs's annual address to the Legislature, that there has been for the last ten years a great increase of convicts in our State Prison. The way in which some, and, if we remember right, the Governor with the rest, account for the increase, is that the sentences of the courts have been much less severe than formerly. We will not undertake to say how much of the effect is to be attributed to this cause. But there has been another cause of more evident potency. The last ten years have been specially marked by the efforts of the so-called prisoner's friends, alias criminal's aids. The class of people, called by courtesy the Philanthropists, have worked with no little energy a broad machinery, not only against capital punishment, but really against all punishments. From them the sentiment has had a wide diffusion, that crime is a mere disease or misfortune, deserving to be treated with medicine rather than with punishment; and, to some extent, the idea has been conveyed, that the robber, thief, and murderer, have a sure passport to public sympathy. Now, what else could we expect, than that this class of operatives would be greatly increased? What is more natural than that the demand should create the supply?

"And if the leniency of the courts has been a cause cooperating, that itself has had a cause. If the courts have been unduly lenient in the administration of the laws, it has doubtless been by yielding to a morbid public sentiment, which to them has seemed to require it. And how has that sentiment been created? Either we come to the conclusion that it is our spurious philanthropists that have added so many recruits to the army that wars upon the peace, property, and lives of the community. At any rate, the fact that a time which has been distinguished for unusual leniency in punishments, has been as distinguished for the increase of crime, is a very effectual condemnation of the theory of those philanthropists."-British Banner.

"ABOLITION OF THE OFFICE OF LORD-LIEUTENANT OF IRELAND. In the first place, the office of Lord-lieutenant is an anomaly for which the reason and justification ceased, when the modern improvements in locomotion, both by sea and land, made

the communication between London and Dublin as easy and regular as that between London and York. Secondly, the sepa rate form of government tends to divide the people of Ireland from the people of Great Britain, to keep up separate views, ideas, and sentiments, unfounded notions of an opposition of interests, mutual jealousy, ignorance, and estrangement. Thirdly, it involves a division of responsibility, a clashing of authorities, a confusion of jurisdictions, which impede the march of government, and tend to weaken and retard it, when vigour and promptitude are of the most consequence. Fourthly, the local government of Ireland tends more than any other cause we know of, to encourage that inveterate and fatal habit to which Irishmen of all classes and positions are so notoriously addicted, the habit of leaning upon Government in all their difficulties, instead of depending upon their individual resources, and relying upon themselves."Edinburgh Review.

THE CONVOCATION.—“I believe that there are formal and technical difficulties attending the revival of the powers of Convocation, and the noble lord has already acknowledged that before it can act it must be remodelled: into these I will not enter. I will suppose that all such technicalities are overcome, all obstacles removed, her Majesty's advisers satisfied, her Majesty consenting, and Convocation called together; what would follow? Great disappointment, or great excitement. What business is to be despatched? Some would say the Liturgy requires revision. Some rubrics are inconsistent, and others unintelligible.' If the assembling of Convocation were to end in the reconciliation of some conflicting rubrics, or in supplying the deficiency of others, or even in the change of a few obsolete words or questionable phrases, the result would be little worth the cost of production. Thus far, then, you disappoint; go further, and you excite. If more were attempted, and the doctrine of the Prayer-book were touched, even with the lightest hand, a flame would be lighted up from one end of the country to the other. Where we have now a smothered fire, hotter perhaps than is agreeable, but still managable, we should raise a conflagration which it would require all her Majesty's prerogative to extinguish. Suppose, then, the Liturgy untouched, and nothing more attempted than what we know to be desired by many members of the church-the issuing a declaration which should contradict a recent decision of the Privy Council, and define the effect of baptism more exactly than it is defined in our articles. Would peace follow? Can we suppose that this would prove a healing measure? I cannot so interpret the spirit of the age as to believe that the great body of the church, laity or clergy, are prepared to restrict the liberty of opinion on matters hitherto undecided, which our forefathers

have always enjoyed, and under which the church has flourished for three hundred years."-Speech of the Archbishop of Canterbury in the House of Lords, July 12th, 1851.

SECTION VI.

THE RELATION OF CAUSE AND EFFECT-CONDITIONAL CAUSES.

A CONDITIONAL cause is a circumstance, or state of things, which is necessary to the production of an effect, but which does not actively produce that effect.

Thus, if a man fall from his horse, it is a necessary condition that he should previously have been on his horse, otherwise he could not have fallen. If a man is hanged for forgery, the active or efficient cause of his being hanged is the commission of the crime; but if he had never learned to write, he could not have committed a forgery; hence his knowledge of writing is a necessary condition.

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As the condition does not thus actively, or necessarily produce the effect, we do not usually use the words “ ditional cause" and "effect," but we say the "condition,” and the "sign." Thus, a physician feels the pulse of his patient, to ascertain the state of his health; the state of health is the condition, the state of the pulse is the sign. Now, a man may be in a bad state of health, and yet his pulse may be regular: the existence of the condition is no proof of the existence of the sign. But if the pulse be irregular, it shows that the health is disturbed: the existence of the sign is a proof of the existence of the condition.

So it is a necessary condition to the performance of any act, that the man who performs it should be alive. Now then, if a will is produced of a date some years subsequent to the death of the alleged testator, it proves that the will is a forgery. The man might have been alive without making a will, but he could not have made a will unless he had been alive. The condition must have preceded the sign.

1. This relation of condition and sign supplies us with various modes of reasoning.

From the non-existence of the condition, we infer the non-existence of the sign.

Qualifications, instruments, and opportunities are necessary conditions to the performance of any act. If we

prove the absence of these we prove the non-performance of the act. If a man has committed murder, it is a necessary condition, that he should have been at the place when the murder was committed, and at the time the murder was committed. Now, if he can prove an alibi, (this word is Latin for elsewhere,) that is, if he can prove that he was at a distant place at the time the murder was committed, this proves that he did not commit the murder. The nonexistence of the condition proves the non-existence of the sign. But you cannot reverse this rule. The existence of the condition will not of itself prove the existence of the sign; for he might have been at the place where, and at the time when, the murder was committed, and yet might not have committed the murder. It might have been committed by some of his companions.

Again, from the existence of the sign we infer the existence of the condition.

Take the same instance. If a man is proved to have committed a murder, it proves the condition, that he was at the place where, and at the time when, the murder was committed. But if it is proved that he did not commit the murder, that is in itself no proof that he was not present when the murder was committed. The nonexistence of the sign is no proof of the non-existence of the condition.

Sometimes it is contended in favour of a proposed measure, that it is a necessary condition, i.e. a conditional cause, to some other measure of still greater importance.

Thus the Earl of Shaftesbury advocated in the House of Lords the establishment of Lodging Houses for the poor, upon the ground that domestic comfort is a necessary condition to their intellectual and moral improvement.

"Could their Lordships suppose that these physical evils produced no mischievous moral consequences? He was sorry to have to inform them that they produced the most fatal and deadly consequences. They generated habits of drinking-they led to the overthrow of decency. Every function of nature was performed in public-there was no retirement for any purpose-for any purpose; there was no domestic education-nay, education

itself was useless, if children returned to their homes to unlearn by example what they had learned elsewhere by precept. He grieved to reflect that in these dens there could be no domestic training of that description which was more valuable than any other training-the training of the mother; and that the want of such domestic training could not be compensated by any system of public education which could be devised. This he saw daily. He had, as many of their lordships perhaps knew, been for some time connected with the ragged schools recently established in the metropolis. Most of the ragged children whom they saw about the streets attended those schools, and not, he trusted, without benefit. A young boy or girl received there useful lessons, but they returned to the single room, in which six families might be residing, without any regard to the restraints which were necessary for a social, moral, and religious life; and they lost, in one hour, all the decent impressions which they had gained in the previous six. Until this source of evil were removed, all your hopes to improve the morals of your people, all your efforts to give them a useful and religious education, will be vain. You must stop this welling fountain of disaster, if you would carry into execution the benevolent and provident views which you, in common with all who have property to protect, entertain towards the lower class."

Dr. Hamilton uses the same kind of argument in his Sermon upon early closing the shops in London :

"Vainly, my friends, shall we multiply the means of rational instruction if we do not shorten the hours of labour. Vainly shall libraries and reading rooms hold out their attractions, and vainly shall popular lectures and polytechnic exhibitions keep open till late at night, unless, along with the lecture or the show, we give the leisure to look and listen. And vainly shall kindhearted tradesmen treat their hands to an occasional holiday evening, in order to visit some instructive sight or hear some appropriate address,-unless the boon be prolonged and perpetuated unless time be afforded to follow up the study, or drink again the stream they have once tasted."

By a similar mode of reasoning we sometimes adduce a precept to prove a doctrine, the truth of which seems a necessary condition to the justice of the command. Thus the commands of Scripture to repent, believe, obey, imply as a necessary condition that man has the power to repent, believe and obey. The threatenings of punishment imply as a necessary condition that man is a free agent; otherwise he could not justly incur punishment. So Arch

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