to disabuse the people of the thousand errors which the spirit of party is propagating through the land,—an undertaking like this, we say, could not fail, as we persuade ourselves, to have some effect on public opinion. And if but a small party could be formed of the impartial and candid, who threw off all other shackles, and felt themselves pledged to nothing but the truth, it might answer the purpose at least of a balance-wheel, to control the irregularities, and moderate the violence of the machinery of government.

SAME SUBJECT CONTINUED.

THE next step we have to take after having contributed by the act of suffrage to the legislation of the country, is the administration of its laws in our courts of justice.

Some questions concerning this department of our civil duties will indicate our own apprehension of the defects of Christian morality to which it is exposed; and they are all that we, at the present, have space for.

Is the obligation of an oath sufficiently regarded? We have been shocked to hear from those who are familiar with our courts of justice, that perjury,-not the perjury, which as such is liable to indictment, but perjury by construction, perjury in an intentional concealment or coloring of the truth, is by no means so uncommon as to excite surprise.

Again; does fairness in argument hold a sufficiently high place, and have a sufficiently strict interpretation among the forensic virtues? We see no moral barrier against arguing both sides of a question, though only one side can be right. There are two sides to every question, and it is meet that both should be considered in the inquiries of the judge and of the juror. We should feel, therefore, that although a cause were palpably wrong, there would be no violation of moral principle in fairly stating it. It is but doing what the judge or the juror ought to do for himself. But still this is a duty which requires, for its right performance, the supervision of a jealous and vigilant conscience. If the advocate declares, that he solemnly believes that to be just, which he knows to be unjust, or if he urges an unjust claim, knowing it to be unjust, as though he fully confided in its rectitude, no Christian or righteous law can exhonerate him from the charge of a serious moral dereliction, Words are words,

they have their meaning and force, they are amenable to the obligations of truth and sincerity, as much in a court of justice as out of it. There are not two rules to walk by; but the rule is one, eternal and immutable. It is true, that in many cases, justice consists very much in a balance of oppos→ ing claims, and there is much to be said and earnestly said, on both sides. But where there can be no compromise, where a palpably unrighteous claim is set up, unhappy is his conscience who can speak as heartily for what he knows to be the wrong, as for what he knows to be the right, and can speak with the greater air of sincerity and earnestness, the worse he knows his case to be! Or, unfortunate is his mind, to whom every cause becomes right, which he undertakes to advocate; for his mind, on this supposition, must have become extremely mechanical, or utterly perverse, and must have forsaken the broad range of wholesome inquiry into the noble and generous principles of legal science, for the narrow and crooked by-paths of selfish and artful litigation,

We are ready to hear remonstrance against the views now stated; and we should expect it to be in terms like these;'Nay, but something must be conceded to human infirmity. If a man takes up one side of a question to defend, he is very apt to see only what makes for that side, and he is liable to urge insufficient arguments, and to support a bad cause with an air of sincerity and confidence.' We are willing to concede much to human infirmity, but not one iota of principle. And we think it most seriously behoves those who would keep a conscience void of offence in the profession of which we are speaking—that it most seriously behoves those who would make their daily studies and avocations minister to their intellectual and moral improvement, carefully to weigh the circumstances that have so much to do with their rectitude both of mind and heart. The pursuits to which we devote our whole lives should be paths, we deem it not too serious to say,-paths that lead to heaven. It is certain, that no other will lead us there!

Once more; we ask if moral turpitude is properly treated in our courts of justice? In civil causes, are not duplicity and unfairness oftentimes so much a matter of course, that the most serious deviations from principle are looked upon with indifference or levity? In criminal prosecutions, too, are not the feelings with which crime is generally regarded, we had almost said, at the farthest possible remove from the

spirit of Christianity? The unhappy man charged with a criminal offence-unhappy, if not guilty, most unhappy if he is so is brought to the bar for trial. How is his appearance received, and how is the prosecution conducted? Is it in the spirit of Christian men; engaged in the sad task of investigating the offences of an erring and unhappy fellow-being? Is even that humane principle of the law regarded, that the accused man be held innocent, till he is proved to be guilty? Does the lowering brow of the spectators, or the proud and scornful glance of the eye, or the mocking gibe and jest that passes around, show any consideration, any pity, any humanity? Does the office of the prosecutor assume its highest dignity, or its most impressive character, when he testifies more satisfaction than displeasure, more of eager delight than of grave indignation or sorrow, as he traces the successive steps in that dark and mournful career of iniquity, that is fast bringing his victim to ignominy and sorrow? We admit that there are difficulties in the Christain discharge of this office; that there is a strong temptation to let professional zeal go too far. But it is a temptation, like all others, to be guarded against. And, in our view, it is important, that it should be guarded against, in order to the most salutary and effective administration of justice. For it is evident, that all the effect that is produced upon the mind of the offender, is to exasperate, not to reform him, to render him more hostile than ever to society, and, in short, to make him, after his trial and his punishment are over, tenfold a worse man, and a more dangerous member of the community than he was before. The spirit of prison discipline is fast improving; that of our courts ought to keep pace with it.

SAME SUBJECT CONCLUded.

BUT we propose now, in the third place, to pass from these slight notices of the duties and functions of freemen, to consider that grand condition which lies at the foundation of a free government; we mean, the equality of its citizens. This has been long enough our boast; let us consider its difficulties and dangers? Our remarks on this head will be excursive, though they must necessarily be brief.

The condition of equality, to be healthful and happy, to be stable and well-ordered, must be a state of higher duty,

of more mutual forbearance, of more Christian consideration and kindness, than any other political situation whatever. It has been often said, and it is unquestionably true, that the theory of Christianity is essentially republican. But it is equally true, that the practice, under republican institutions, must be essentially Christian, that the spirit of society must be Christian, or those institutions can never be permanent nor useful. That level, to which every thing is tending among us, which the distribution of property and the rotation of office are as certain to preserve, as the law of gravitation is to preserve the even surface of the ocean,-that level must not be like the low and marshy ground where floods sometimes sweep, and rank vegetation at other times springs up, and stagnant exhalations arise; but it must be rather like the broad and lofty table-land, which is sometimes found upon the tops of the mountains. We repeat, and would insist, with what emphasis we can give to language, that equality, such as exists among us, must be a state of great moral improvement, of high and holy duty, or it is not a safe, it is not even a desirable state.

We entertain a strong persuasion, that the mass of the people in this country have by no means yet come to understand this moral necessity, which presses, as an unchangeable bond, upon their favored condition. We know that there is a general and vague conviction, that virtue is necessary to sustain institutions like ours. But it is not virtue in general that will suffice; still less is it negative virtue,—the absence of intemperance, dissoluteness, and disorderly manners. There are positive and specific virtues required to make our condition a happy one. Neither is the just idea of this happy condition to be satisfied by general prosperity. The revenue, the census, the statistics of the country may all tell us of prosperity. Business, among a people whose enterprise is unrestricted, may show great results. But if we would understand the real state of things among us, we must go beneath these general and gratifying representations, to the relationships of individuals, the interior condition of families, and the personal feelings that arise from the vaunted equality in which our civil institutions place us.

Look, for instance, at the relations of employer and employed, of householders and domestics, among us. We must be permitted to doubt whether these relations are yet as happy in this country, as they are among the more unequal and

despotic institutions of the old world. We have no predilection, it is scarcely necessary to say, for distinct orders in society. Be it pride, or passion, or philosophy, that makes them so, they are, at any rate, to our republican tastes, altogether intolerable. We have too much respect for human nature, to survey these arbitrary distinctions with any patience, even at a distance. We abhor the tone and style in which superiors are allowed to speak to inferiors in such a state of society, or in which the low are obliged to address the high and privileged. We think it a totally false condition for human nature to be placed in, a condition at war with the spirit of Christianity, and entirely adverse, so far as it goes, to the formation of that character which becomes rational and immortal beings.

All this we hold to be true; and yet it is equally true, that the degree of moral cultivation among a people may be such, as to make distinct orders in society more favorable to happiness than universal equality. In that case, much is fixed, that may be safest in being so fixed; there are barriers which are not to be broken over, the collisions of mind with mind, and passion with passion, are, in many respects, curtailed and limited. Rights, by such a constitution of things, are fewer, and claims are fewer, and differences and disputes, jealousies and heart-burnings, are, in that proportion, lessened.

Now, it is perfectly obvious, that if the members of such a community were placed at once on a footing of equality, they would require, in order to their mutual good understanding, their tranquility of mind, and social happiness, an increase of virtue proportioned to the greatness of the change.

Such is our condition, and upon us is laid the same moral requisition. We must learn to live together as Christians, if we can, with mutual respect, with mutual forbearance, with the desire, not to exact service, not to enforce homage, but to promote each other's welfare; or we cannot live happily together. Very selfishness must here put on an aspect widely different from what it would do among the nobles and serfs of Russia, or among the grandees and peasants of Spain, ay, Stern or among the gentlemen and commoners of England. command will not do here; abject obedience has no place; and, in their stead, must be gentleness, courtesy, true selfrespect, true kindness, or society will be held together by no peaceful bond. May our favored condition be doubly blessed