showing how irrationally men will act in respect of an. irrational system. For the notion is that this Word of Jah (the Sacred Writings), being his Revelation (Word), have always been by Him exactly preserved through all the ages and the changes of languages, and of transcription, and of everything to this hour. Why is it to be supposed, then, that He will suddenly lose his power to preserve, or will be indifferent to preserve? Punishments in the ordinary Courts are not very remarkable, only there is one so characteristic of the English, so comically barbarous, that I will try to describe it. The offender is stripped naked to the waist, tied up with his hands widely extended, and with his face to a strong post; then a man takes a large strong cat,, kept hungry and savage for the purpose, and placing the creature at the back of the neck, draws it forcibly down the naked back. Of course the cat holds on with teeth and claws. This is repeated till the culprit faints, when the cat is removed. The back of the man is washed with vinegar and salt, and he revives, perhaps to undergo the infliction again. This astonishing mode of correcting offenders is called flogging with the cat. I may also make a remark upon another feature of criminal punishment. The crime of treason, not only insures the death, but the horrid mutilation of the culprit; and, not satisfied with this, reaches to the innocent wife and children. All the estates, titles, honours, properties of the offender are sequestrated to the State, and his blood is attainted; that is, made incapable of giving honour and employment to his off G spring! Thus the innocent are disgraced, and reduced, not merely to beggary, but, as far as possible, placed in a condition of hopeless misery ! The Idolatry and Sacred Writings are, no doubt, responsible for this impolitic injustice and cruelty. For Jah is constantly made by the Priests to say, that he visits the sins of the father upon his child even to the tenth generation! A natural development of the moral sense would fall short of this vindictiveness; and in this false and horrible wrath, taught in their Sacred Writings, the fierce Barbarians are encouraged to outdo themselves! The greatest of all the Courts, and which chiefly controls the others, is the High and Mighty COURT OF CHANCERY. It has many names as Court of Equity, of the King's Conscience, and others-assuming as many styles and jurisdictions as the ancient Proteus of Egypt; who, as the Priests said, could take any form, or no form, be fire, or cloud, or invisible air. So this Court, feared by the Barbarians with a paralyzing dread, takes on any shape! It stands for the King's conscience-which, as the conscience of a Pope-king, must be a doubly divine thing. For, as remarked elsewhere, “Divinity doth hedge a King!" We, I think, should fear that this conscience would be as uncertain as the man. Its function is, therefore, to decide with Equity; to relieve against the inexorable hardness of the ancient rules; and give relief in cases of mistake, accident, and fraud. This looks admirable, but it is all sham (phu-dgi). Not the least attention is really paid to equity, but only to the decrees of the Court as recorded. A Suitor petitions for redress. The petition is not examined to be determined upon the matters therein stated. First -The Petition must be in all respects in due form, according to the recorded rules. Second-The matter of it must be such as the Court will consider, and such as may come before the Court. Third-Are the Parties in the Jurisdiction, and are all the parties who may be interested, duly notified and present; or, if not present, accounted for. Fourth-Are the matters for the Court only, or must it be assisted by some petty judges to ascertain the facts. Fifth-The petition being at last before the Judge, he may not look into it, unless the Lawyers look into it with him; and, then, no opinion (decree) can be given until the Records are fully examined, to discover if anything of the sort has been relieved. If a similar case be found, then the petitioner is called upon to prove his case as stated in his petition; and, if he fail to prove his exact case (though he may make a stronger show for relief), he is ordered out of Court, and condemned to heavy costs (tin-tin). If the case be proved, then the Judge reserves his judyment. For he must very carefully compare all the cases, examine all the voluminous Records, besides examining the innumerable Papers which have grown up around the Petition during all the proceedings (often spreading over many years), before he dare to order the recording of his decree. For, this done, he has added another Case to the King's conscience; that is, to the highest form of Law and of human Justice! He dare not do this unless justified by the Records; interminable, stretching backwards to the first King who pretended to have a conscience; obscure, contradictory-he dare not unless justified by the RecordsPrecedents. If he mistake, grossly, he will be certain to be called to account by the Lawyer-Caste, who make a business of seeking for discrepancies; in fact, he is bewildered-not by the case; that is simple, or was originally, simple enough; but, by the arguments of the Lawyers, the documents overlying and enveloping the case, and by the difficulty of deciding according to the Precedents. Could he merely announce his own judgment, there is no difficulty-but that is the last thing to be thought of-in truth, if reduced to that, he is bound to refuse any relief, however clear it is that equity requires it! Thus the Judge, old and wearied; a man tottering over his grave, feeble, irresolute, takes the course which may be looked for-and postpones, and postpones; other ike cases accumulate on his hands; he dismisses some, " reserves" others, refers to another judge what he can decently, decides none! Or only those which are petty, or those which are really unopposed, or those exciting no interest. Meantime, the parties to the Petition are dead, or absconded, or beggared. Years have elapsed; all parties are worn out or impoverished by the enormous expenses -at length, there is no one to pay Lawyers and the Court Officers-the thing lapses-dies. Term after Term (as Sessions of the Court are called), the Case is called. Some poor wretch struggles still to save something of the property tied up in the Court by the Case-he tries to call up from the mass of dusty and forgotten Records, a reminiscence of the lost Petition. In vain--the thing is a wreck, and has wrecked its builders ! The Case lies forgotten amid the interminable processes, affidavits, answers, pleas, replications, rejoinders, motions, applications, notices, subpœnas, summonses, commissions, bills of amendments, and of supplement; documents of all sorts, making up the Case, mouldering away in the stone alcoves of the huge Records; as the poor victims of it lie mouldering in similar forgetfulness! Not, however, without profit to the Lawyer-Caste; for some miscreant of this profession, perchance, discovering the Case, in his searches after means of spoil, sees how he may gain by it. He knows of an estate remotely touched by the matter of the old and forgotten Petition, and he knows quite well that there is really nothing affecting the property; yet, he sees fees and spoil. It is merely to frighten the possessor of the estate by an intimation of a defect of title, and refer to this old Case, never decided. The bandit [khe-te] sets in motion the machinery of the High Court of Chancery. One of its officers summonses the poor man to come into that Court, and answer to the allegations touching his right to possess the house in which, perhaps, he has lived for twenty years! and lived without objection from any source! Now it does not matter at all that there is no sort of ground for this attack; the moment it is made, the title of the poor unoffending man to his own house is ruined-almost as completely as if by the sentence of the Court he had been deprived of it. The robber who |