Mr. URBAN, a Feb. 8. I HAVE fent you the inclosed copy of letter, which, with many others of about the fame date, came into the poffeffion of a worthy gentleman of my ac quaintance on the death of his father. The Earl of Feverfham mentioned in it was a Frenchman, and related, as I think, to the great Turenne. Though for fome years he commanded the Englifh army, he feems not to have been a good friend to this country, for he did his best to prevent the lawyers being burnt out, and King James Stuart driven out. The blow from the beam feems to have been a judgement upon him for the firft mifdeed, and to have deranged his head fo as to unqualify him for the execution of the other which he attempted. His conduct at Sedgemore has been much blamed, and there is a ludicrous reprefentation of it in the Duke of Buckingham's works. I would have fent you fome extracts by way of notes, but there is mention of Breech and Breech-water, and other things which would mifbecome the delicacy of your Magazine, which has not been of late violated, but by your crazy or wicked correfpondent Mr. Gray. Yours, &c. "SIR, PUDICIOR. "A Monfieur Monf. Parry, Envoyé du Roy de la Grande Bretagne, &c. à Lisbone. Whiteball, Jan. 27, 1678. "Befides the acknowledging to you the receipt of yours of the 6th of Dec. S. N2, for which you have Mr. Secretary's hearty thanks, this likewife comes to tell you, that on Friday the 24th of this inftant, his Majefty was pleafed to diffolve the parliament, and at the fame time declared, that a new one should be presently called, fo as to fit the 6th of March next. I know not how furprifing the news may be to you, but it was very much fo to us of the commonalty. The peace between the Emperor and France, we hear, is concluded, and then the Northern Crowns will foon come to an accommodation. "Laft night my Lord Feverfham was dangerously wounded with the fall of a beam from a house on fire in the Middle Temple, where his Lordship was giving his afliftance to quench it. Most of that Temple, and part of the Inner Temple, is burnt to the ground. "On the 24th, Mr. Ireland and Mr. Grove, the one a Jefuite, the other a laybrother, were executed at Tyburn, being found guilty in the late confpiracy against his Majefty. "All our friends in Spring Garden are very well, and I hope this will find you and Mr. URBAN, H. Feb. 3. AS lution to have done with me and my perfuade us that there is "not even one But, Mr. Urban, though J. E. would to be found, whofe fentiments are at variance with the doctrines to which he fubfcribes;" how came it to pafs, that that well-known appellation, ARTICLES the Articles of Religion fhould acquire OF PEACE? And, to fay nothing of thofe writers who have put a conftruc. tion, miferably forced and unnatural, on what the King's proclamation requires to be taken in the literal fenfe, and the preamble pofitively afferts tended "for the establishing confent were intouching true religion," what will J. avowed Apology for Subfcription withE. fay to the celebrated Mr. Paley's late out Sovereign Virtues of the Decoction of the Golden Rod. out Belief;-to his declaring it a manifeft abfurdity to fuppofe fuch a multitude of fubfcribers could every one affent to fo great a number of abftract propofitions as are contained in the curious formulary we are speaking of; and to his inference, that this affent is not expected by thofe who enjoin fubfcription? : J. E. has my permiffion to fuppofe, that I have not the leaft foundation for what he is pleafed to term my bold and indecent affertion. His fuppofitions affect me very little indeed and I fhall, nevertheless, prefume to fay, my evidence is fuch as is fatisfactory to me, and would be fo, I think, to any one who is tolerably impartial. But when a man's mind is fo intent on the emoluments which the Church has to confer, that he cannot conceal his bankerings, however unfeasonable it may be to difcover them, one does not wonder that he hould be incapable to judge of evidence; one does not wonder that he fhould think other men like himself, or that he should fufpect them of plots to deprive him of his expectations: nei ther do we much admire, if he laugh at it (as a character exifting only in idea), when he hears of a perfon whofe elevated mind holds thofe feducing emolu ments comparatively but very cheap, being under the ftrong and delightful influence of "the things which are true, honeft, juft, pure, venerable, and of good report." Thefe confiderations will help us to account for the misrepresentation of the pamphlet on Free Enquiry, which led me into this controversy. For the prefent, Mr. Urban, I will now take my leave of J. E. and perhaps for ever, PHILALETHES. A Mr. URBAN, Shotton, Durbam, Feb. 2. BOY of this place, about ten or eleven years of age, has for two or three years paft frequently been troubled with a fuppreffion of urine, accompa: nied with fymptoms of the gravel and ftone. For fome months paft he has taken, at times, the decoction or the tea of the plant commonly known by the name of the Golden Rod, which, in this part, is much cultivated in gardens, and Vide Paley upon Morals. But, not having the book by me, I have quoted from memory. I believe I am fufficiently accurate: if it be fhewn that I am not, I will readity retract. 103 moftly on account of its being in great efteem among thofe the faculty frequently ftyle the common people. About a week fince, he began to discharge great quantities of gravel, with many fmall fiones along with it. Since the firft difcharge, the ftones have been larger and larger, and the quantity, could I accurately defcribe it, would exceed all belief: his mother, two days ago, eftimated, the ftones and gravel together, could not have been contained in a threegill pot. From a careful enquiry, I find the number of the larger ftones, from three-fourths of an ounce, to one ounce and one-fourth, Avoirdupoife wt. each, evacuated within thefe last two days, to be about fifteen; and the number of thofe of a lefs fize, and not lefs than a large pea, to exceed fifty. Two of the ftones which came from him this morning are now lying before me; the one of them weighs one ounce and a quarter and one dram, and is exactly four inches round, the one way, and three inches and two-tenths the other way the appearance of it very much refembles the marle or lime-ftones found by the fea-fide. The other ftone, which is about the fize of a pigeon's egg, only fomething longer, is hollow on one fide, and is now to the eye as if it were covered with mofs. Some of the ftones have the appearance of flint, and are waved on one fide like fhells: one of this kind I have, and is of the shape and fize of a fmall gun-flint. What is very furprifing, between the times of dif charge he plays in the street (at least would) as much as any boy in the village, and is generally very chearful. To the medicine above-mentioned is generally attributed this extraordinary confequence. The plant is, indeed, by many who have been afflicted with thefe complaints, accounted the only thing of real ufe in fuch cafes. It is the folidago virga aurea of Linnæus, and the virga lior, of Ray. But, if it is poffeffed of aurea, and virga aurea vulgari bumifuch powerful effects, it is rather finguJar that it has never been ranked with diuretics, &c. but generally appears a mong the vulnerary or reftorative fimples, in all the phyfical books that I have seen. Mr. URBAN, M. ELSTOB. Feb. 14. LAMENT very fincerely with your correspondent Candide, vol. LVII. p. 1050, that no employment can be found for convicts, which may render them them ferviceable to the ftate, and worthy to be again restored to that fociety zhey had injured by their offences. The great defect in the punishments of this, and perhaps of every other country, I apprehend to be this, that they answer very imperfectly either of the purpofes for which punishments are principally intended, the reformation of the offender, or deterrence from the offence. The aoife and buftle of a public execution, and the crimes which are committed at the very foot of the gallows, are too evident proofs, that little impreffion is made upon thofe for whofe benefit it is particularly appointed. In thofe inAtances where the convict braves his fate, death lofes its terror; and in thofe, where he meets it with compofure and refignation, he is an object of compaffion, or even of envy, rather than of deteftation and dread. The horrors which the poor girl experienced, who was lately executed for forgery, muft have inftilled in the minds of the fpectators more fear of punishment than the execution of the numbers who feem willingly to fubmit themfeiyes to their fentence. Yet, inefficacious as I think a public execution is, in its prefent frequency, to the reformation of the guilty, or the prevention of crimes, I cannot agree with your correfpondent, that a private execution, and a public expofure of the dead body, would have a better effect. The mind would recoil from indulging the idea of fuch an execution, or, if the idea were indulged, compaffion for the imagined fufferings of the offender would entirely obliterate all abhorrence of his offence; and befides, the evils which were experienced by the unfortunate Sicilians under the government of Verres, might poffibly be experienced in this country under fome avaricious executioner; a bribe might be neceflary to accelerate the ftroke of death. It is not fo much from the manner in which the punishments of this country are inflicted, as from the nature of the punishments themselves, that the evil arifes. Death is the penalty to fo many offences, that the law does, and must extend its mercy to many who are perhaps juft objects of punishment. The victims it now offers are fufficient if fuch facrifices had any avail. The punishments inferior to death are in general more likely to corrupt than to leform the offender; or, if his punishment has taught him the folly as well as the wickedness of his conduct, in what manner can he testify his reformation? His character has received a stain which excludes him from employment and confidence. When, therefore, we obferve that fo many criminals, to whom mercy has been extended, have returned to their former wickednefs, it is not, perhaps, because their hearts were corrupt, but becaufe all honeft methods of procuring fubfiftence were out of their power. There can be little doubt, if a criminal could once thoroughly enjoy the advantages of honeft labour, that he would prefer the quiet, the health, and the effeem, which attend industry and integrity, to the precarious, and frequently the fcanty, fubfiftence he attains from his dangerous and miferable courfe of life: and if, when a criminal was inclined to support himfelf by labour, employment was given him, there is great reafon to hope that his punishment would make him a good citizen, and that the fate would create (if I may ufe the expreffion) a good subject. It would, therefore, well become the wifdom of the Legiflature (as Mr. Paley has fo forcibly urged), to provide fuch a punishment for the idle and the abandoned, as might break the force of former bad habits, and inculcate good ones; and, after the term of punishment is expired, to offer to the convict fome public employment, which the ftate only can provide, and which the flate might offer with perfect fafety. Places of pupifhment upon a fmali fcale have been adopted, where labour and folitude have broken the fpirit of the mott ferocious, and where nothing was requifite to make the reformation compleat but the offer of employment after the term of punishment was expired. Could the fame mode of punishment be adopted upon a larger scale, and employment provided for the con vict at the expiration of his punishment, I fhould hope more confidently, from fuch a plan, for a reformation in the manners of the poor, than from any feverity with which the laws, as they ftand now, can be executed. Murder, and atrocious offences, muft fometimes demand the life of the offender; and, in fuch cafes, the execu tion fhould be particularly folemn and aweful: but inferior offences might be punished with a greater and a better effect. And if he who preferves the life of a citizen is entitled to a civic crown, greater honours would be due to that law. |