done, at least, with that for which the plaintiff's debt was made; and in default to answer under an indictment for fraud.

The earnings, habitations, and lives of honest men are in no more danger from the wolf than the rogue; both are animated by the same animo furandi.

The human aggressor being just so much worse than the brute as his turpitude is rational.

It is said that some are so mentally deficient as to be unable to appreciate the distinctions between right and wrong. If this is found to be true, they should be perpetually shut up, and by appropriate employment compelled to support themselves.

Some criminals plead idiocy, and others allege madness. The former should be carefully restrained, and treated with humanity and tenderness. But both should be narrowly watched, for crime is conclusive evidence of a depraved and wicked heart;* if not so, why is it that fools and madmen are always doing bad things?

Why is it that they have to be watched, to be kept from doing harm, and that they never do anything good?

If a criminal is found really to be insane, and suffering under a permanent alienation of mind, and not a transient alienation for trick and fraud, snap the tight shirt over his arms, hook his legs to a rack, shave his head, and deplete his fury. Go it Frank But if he is a cheat, and dares to come to his reason, hang or shoot him, or bolt him up for life. He cannot be trusted.

If the crime be venal, or the offender be stupid, ignorant, or reckless, whip or imprison for the first offence; but if he be incorrigible, or the crime aggravated, upon a second conviction, shoot or hang him, or shut him up for life, without reprieve or pardon.

The wide world should be kept clear for the honest and industrious. Give them a fair chance to work and earn the necessary means of supply and subsistence for themselves, and those who cannot and will not work.

3. Upon conviction for fraud, battery, stealing, forgery, &c., the defendant should be sentenced to heavy imprisonment, and to pay the injured party his just damages; and for all personal violence to be publicly whipped. And why not? If he has beaten you, is it not fair that he should be beaten too? Pecuniary damages are rendered for pecuniary injuries and hurts to property and character; and why not corporeal punishments for corporeal inflictions?

If the ruffians who maraud and riot knew that on conviction they were to be triced up and flogged with a cowhide, well laid on the bare back, about fifty or a hundred cuts, they would not be so expert and adroit to mob and knock down. To fine or imprison, or attempt to reform a skulking scoundrel who has cheated, robbed, and battered you, is a public invitation to every coward and bully to steal, burn, and kill.

4. Abolish capital punishment, if there is a majority against taking life; although it would seem to be absurd and mawkish to spare a wilful and open robber, house-burner, or murderer. But the safety of persons and property is a priceless jewel, which should not be desecrated or despoiled; therefore, upon a second conviction of every offence affecting the safety of either, without reprieve or pardon, shut them up for life. The first Offence may have been from accident, ignorance, or excitement; but these excuses should not avail for a second perpetration. The public peace demands that such culprits should be held and treated as its incorrigible enemies.

Every city, town, and county requiring protection from marauders, should have an experienced, prudent, and resolute military officer, to be called

"THE PEACE MARSHAL,"

with power to keep equipped and disciplined for active or contingent service, an efficient military force, to patrol singly or by squads, in disguise or in column, by day and night, all highways, public places, and other localities; disperse unlawful or suspicious gatherings; silence clamors; subdue turbulence and riot, and arrest all disturbers of the peace and violators of the law, and deliver them over to the civil authorities. And as exigencies may require to invest and scour all places, and with or without warning, as the emergency may demand, scatter, cut, and shoot down all mobs and riots by muskets, cannon, or dragoons.

Police officers are generally weak and timid; they may serve civil process, or commit persons after they are arrested and secured; unarmed and singly, they never have been able to stand against, much less overcome, a mob, with bricks, stones, and firearms. Their employment, or the requisition of soldiers, without a leader, discipline, and permission to charge and fire upon such savage and lawless opposition, is a farce. Nothing will put down violence and insurrection but prompt military

attack, pursuit, and death; and nothing but military authority and discipline will defeat the bribery and corruption of a mere civil police by criminals.

If there had been a "Peace Marshal," with one hundred infantry, artillery, and dragoons each, in Kensington, on the day that St. Michael's church and the market houses were burned, he would have ordered a clearing of the streets, placed the whole district under strict military guard, and there would have been no riot, mob, conflagration, or murder.

The same course would have been adopted the next day, before noon, round St. Augustine's church. A similar proceeding would have been taken a day sooner in Southwark. A like measure would have been employed early on the day of the Astor Place riot, in New York; and the result would have been that the stores and dwellings of these locations would have been closed for a few hours or days; but no lives would have been sacrificed, no arsons perpetrated, and no encouragement would have been given for future rapine and murder.

The sacrifice of property and life, and the humiliating concessions of the impotence and indisposition of authorities for public constraint, by these awful and degrading catastrophes, are a blot on the country, which can never be wiped away. Ages must pass before their encouraging and stimulating influences will cease to excite and prick forward the outlaw and the murderer.

The value of the conflagrated property would have paid an armed police for either city for fifty years; and the shooting down of ten thousand murdering ruffians, much less the fine and imprisonment of half a dozen, could not atone for the loss of one innocent life.

At any cost-even if it be by the instant destruction of every rioter, as if he were a ferocious wild beast-the public peace, the persons, property, and lives of society should be sacredly preserved and protected; and all violence and rapine, the instant it rears its hydra head, should be crushed for ever into the earth, without delay, compunction, compassion, or remorse.

CHAPTER XVI.

POLITICS.

Delusion-Cabals — Factions-Examples-Venality-Primary meetings— Printers-Politicians' ignorance-House of Representatives in 1849Benton and Foote, in the Senate-Primary meetings-Elections-Good men deterred, &c.-Extracts.

POLITICAL pursuits have fascinated, misled, and ruined thousands.

Amor patriæ is the ostensible beginning of this captivating occupation; but it is soon lost amidst the mazes of faction.

The genuine spirit of patriotism is swallowed up in the excitements of party strife, and gives way to passion for victory.

These factions are led and ruled by hungry cormorants for spoils and plunder; and the loyal rank and file expend their time and money, and expose their health, characters, and lives, through all the boisterous violence, intrigue, and corruptions of successive campaigns, to witness the translation of their artful leaders into places of profit and power. This is the only harvest ever cut by the political reapers.

In front of this cordon of orators, torch-lights, and revolution, are found the indomitable and imperturbable candidates for office.

It is said of this heroic band, that no one of them was ever known to fight or sweat from heat, to shiver from cold, blush from shame, or look you in the eye.

They are impervious to heat, cold, insult, and shame.

The predominating trait in their character is a persevering, unflinching pursuit and cringing cowardice for office; they never despair, but scent up, and howl out for prey, like hungry wolves, till flesh is cast between their greedy jaws. Their tergiversation, treachery, and total disregard of all faith put them upon the footing of common blacklegs; and most of them are covertly or openly professed and practical gamblers.

They will spin yarn, weave tape, bribe, swear falsely, forge election returns, and buy and sell votes and offices; give

pledges to all sides, and for any purpose; swear to keep their promises, and afterwards repudiate them.

ARTS OF FACTION.

"They who enter into a faction do not properly reason weakly; but desert reason altogether, as one does who leaves his own to go into another country, whereof the laws, customs, and language are different. The design and centre of faction is to drive on such a project, and adhere to those who prosecute it. And therefore nothing must be allowed or argued but with respect to these. Hence it is, that in vain you reason with them; for one may transubstantiate as soon as convert them; all that their friends say is unanswerable, and they contemn and scorn what is said by their adversaries when they cannot answer it; there is no crime they dare not commit, for the guilt seems but small when divided amongst so many bearers; they warm themselves, by clubbing into a kind of belief, and they vote themselves into a shadow of infallibility; whilst they cry out against others as slaves to the government, they become really slaves to the faction, their liveries and chains being seen by all except themselves. But the great salary with which their bondage is to be rewarded is applause from their friends, or it may be the mob, to whom naturally their appeal lies; and the getting into the government, where they will be abhorred for practicing everything they formerly decried, and so have that reputation for which they toiled, blasted by their own old arguments."-SIR GEORGE MACKENZIE, Essay on Reason, p. 441.

At every important election in the United States, all these crimes are openly and publicly perpetrated, and never prose

cuted.

At every legislative session, bribery and corruption stalk at noonday. Presidents, governors, senators, and members logroll, are dined, supped, complimented with watches, and pretended presents, and loans by each other and by candidates; and participate in the most degrading reciprocations of sycophantic servility, intrigue, and fraud.

No measure can be carried without in-door and out-door secret and sordid stimulations. Members are hired and paid like brokers, to bargain and intrigue for the passage and defeat of laws. The respectable members are always in the minority;