two persons, who before meant no harm to one another, falling out upon some sudden occasion, the one kills the other, this is involuntary manslaughter; but in this, and every case of homieide, upon provocation, if there be a sufficient time for passion to subside, and the person provoked afterwards kill the other, this is deliberate revenge, and amounts to murder.

Mortgage, is an obligation, whereby lands or tenements of a debtor are pawned or bound over to the ereditor, for money or other effects borrowed; peremptorily to be the creditor's for ever, if the money be not repaid at the time agreed on. He who borrows the money is called the mortgager, and he who lends is the mortgagee. Henry VIII. prohibited excessive usury. Though a mortgage be considered as forfeited, and the estate absolutely vested in a mortgagee, in case of failure of payment, yet the mortgager may in any reasonable time recal and redeem his estate, paying to the mortgagee his principal, interest, and expences; for otherwise, in strictness of law, an estate worth 1000/. might be forfeited for non-payment of 100%. or a less sum.

Mortmain, is the alienation of lands and tenements to any corporation or fraternity, and their successors, as bishops, parsons, vicars, which could not be done without the king's licence, and that of the lord of the manor; or of the king alone, if it be immediately holden of him.

When popery was the established religion in this country, it was customary for the monks to persuade persons on their deathbeds, to leave at least a part of their property to the convent to which they belonged; thus they became proprietors of very considerable estates. To prevent this evil, many laws have been made from time to time; and no person now can leave, by will, any sum of money to a charitable use, unless it be bequeathed and enrolled in chancery twelve months before the death of the testator.

Plaintiff, in law, he that sues or complains in an action, whether of debt, trespass, deceit, or the like. Defendant, siguifies him who is sued in an action personal, and a tenant him who is sued in an action real.

Subpoena, a writ, whereby any person under the degree of peerage, is called to appear in chancery, in cases where the common law hath made no provision.

The name is taken from the words of the writ, which charge the party summoned to appear at the day and place assigned sub pœna centum, librarum, on the penalty of an hundred pounds.

There is also a sub pana ad testificandum, for summoning of witnesses in other courts, as well as chancery.

Treason, imports a betraying treachery, or breach of faith.. It therefore happens only between allies. For treason is indeed

a general appellation, made use of by the law to denote, not only offences against the king and government, but also that accumulation of guilt which arises when a superior reposes confidence in a subject or inferior, between whom and himself there subsists a uatural, a civil, or even a spiritual, relation; and the inferior so abuses that confidence, so forgets the obligations of duty, subjection, and allegiance, as to destroy the life of any such superior. And therefore, for a wife to kill her husband, a servant his master, these breaches of domestic faith are denominated petit treason. But when disloyalty so rears its crest, as fo attack even majesty itself, it is called, by way of distinction, high treason.

High treason is considered as the highest civil crime any man, as a member of the community, can possibly commit. By the ancient common law, there was a great latitude left in the breast of the judges to determine what was treason or not so; but to prevent arbitrary constructions, a statute of Edward III. defines what offences only are high treason. It deems that such, "when a man doth compass or imagine the death of our lord the king, or our lady his queen, or of their eldest son and heir," &c.

The punishment of high treason is solemn and terrible. 1st. The offender is to be drawn to the gallows, and not to be carried or walk, though usually (by connivance, at length ripened by humanity into a law,) a sledge or hurdle is allowed, to preserve the offender from the extreme torture of being dragged on the ground or pavement. 2d. That he be hanged by the neck, and then cut down alive. 3d. That his entrails be cut out, and burnt while he is alive. 4th. That his head be cut off. That his body be divided into four parts, &c.

5th.

The king may, and often doth, discharge all the punishment' except beheading, especially where any of noble blood is attainted. In case of coining, which is treason of a different complexion, the punishment is milder for male offenders, being only to be drawn and hanged by the neck till dead. But the punishment for women is to be drawn to the gallows, and there to be burnt alive:

Petit treason may happen three ways; by a servant killing his master; a wife her husband, &c. A servant who kills his master whom he has left, upon a grudge conceived against him during his service, is guilty of petit treason; for the traiterous intention was hatched while the relation subsisted between them, and this is only an execution of that intention. So if a wife be divorced, and should kill such divorced husband, she is a traitoress." The punishment of petit treason in a man, is to be drawn and hanged, and in a woman to be drawn and burnt. The idea of which latter punishment seems to have been handed down to us from the laws of the ancient Druids, which condemned a woman

to be burnt for murdering her husband; and it is now the usual punishment for all sorts of treason, committed by the female sex. Persons guilty of petty treason, were first debarred the benefit of clergy, which has been since extended to their aiders, abettors, and counsellors.

BOOKS ON LAW.

To those who are not educated in the profession of the Law, and to whom the contents of the preceding chapter may appear insufficient, we recommend "Potts' Law Dictionary, 8 vo." an excellent compendium on this subject.

CHAP. V.

RELIGION AND RELIGIOUS SECTS.

Ir is acknowledged that man is superior to brute creatures, and that this superiority consists in his capacity of being much happier in himself, and in his power of contributing in a more eminent degree to the happiness of others; by which means he makes nearer approaches to his Maker, who is supremely benevolent, and superlatively happy.

It is also well known, that this superiority in man, with respect to his power of enjoying and communicating happiness, depends upon the superiority of his mental faculties, by which he is capable of greater comprehension of mind, of taking into his view more of the past and of the future along with the present; so that his ideas are more complex, and farther removed from mere sensible objects. In consequence of this, the happiness of man does not depend upon his present sensations, but is of more stable nature; and his resolutions and actions do not depend upon variable circumstances, but he can pursue an uniform plan of conduct without being diverted from it by the events of the hour, or of the day.

This superior comprehension of mind cannot, however, in the nature of things, be attained by man without a state of progressive improvement, beginning with the condition of a brute animal, merely impressed by sensible objects, and impelled to action by those impressions, as children are; because these impressions are the elements of all our knowledge, and of all our powers in future life; and there is no true wisdom in any attempts to accelerate this progress beyond a certain term. For what would a greater comprehension of mind, and a greater power of combining ideas, avail us, without a stock of ideas to combine and comprehend? It is well known, that if we expect that boys should

ever make valuable men, they must continue some time in the state of boys, or they will never make men worth forming. In the very warmth and impetuosity, and consequently the occasional irregularities of youth, we often perceive the germ of the most excellent characters. But then these irregularities of youth, by which their minds are stored with a sufficient variety of strong impressions, must not be continued beyond the season of youth, or that state of peculiar sensibility, in which something still more new shall be able, in a great measure, to lessen the effect of preceding impressions, otherwise habits will be formed which will preclude ali farther progress. In a course of time, the mind acquires an insensibility to new impressions. A man is then in a manner incapable of extending his views, and thereby he loses the great privilege of his rational nature. His mind, for want of air accession of new ideas, or farther knowledge, may even contract, and he may sink into a state approaching that of a brute animal, and one that is old and intractable.

This, however, we observe by the way, though we shall have some further use for the observation hereafter; our object being to shew, that for the very same reason that a man excels other animals, a believer in divine revelation, and especially a Christian, is superior to other men; his comprehension of mind being enlarged by such knowledge of revelation brings him acquainted with, so that he is capable of being much more happy in himself, and of a more generous ardour in promoting the happiness of others. Also, being less sensible to present impressions, he will be more drawn out of himself, and be more free from that anxiety and distress, to which persons who attend to themselves only are necessarily subject.

It may not be improper to consider as the first great article of revealed religion, because it is by this means more strongly impressed upon the mind, though it is also the dictate of nature, to be the doctrine of the being of a God. It so much stands or falls with the belief of revelation, that at present they generally go together, and they who are unbelievers in revealed religion, though they may retain the belief of a God, have little motive to attend to the subject, so that they are generally practical, thoughnot absolutely speculative atheists.

Now the belief, the habitual and practical belief, of the being of God, a Being infinitely wise, powerful, and good, the Author of universal nature, and the doctrine of a Providence, which is connected with it, contributes greatly to the enlargement of the mind of man, extending our views beyond what we immediately see and hear around us. Without this, man is comparatively a being of narrow views, but little advanced beyond the brutes, and bas but little motive to attend to any thing beyond himself, and

the lowest gratifications. Without this faith, he must be liable to be disturbed and unhinged by every cross event.

But the belief of a God, and of a Providence, of a Being who created all things, who has assigned to every creature his proper station, and who superintends the whole chain of events, relieves and enlarges the mind, and also gives us a lively interest in the concerns of others. The idea of a God is that of the father of all his creatures, and especially of all mankind: and this suggests the farther idea, that all men are brethren, the children of one common parent; and with this idea are intimately connected a thousand other pleasing ideas, and especially a sense of a commou interest, and an obligation to promote it by every means in our power. With this favourable impression, we are prepared to respect, and to love all mankind as brethren, and to bear with one another as such. Whereas, without this idea, we feel as so many unconnected individuals, turned adrift upon the wide world, where we must each of us scramble for ourselves as well as we can, and shall seldom think of attending to others, any farther than a regard to our own interest may make it expedient.

Thus, by means of faith in the being and providence of God, we are nobly carried out of, and beyond, ourselves, and are led to conceive a generous regard for others; and by this we lose nothing but a mean selfishness, and with a tormenting anxiety, which is at the same time the characteristic, and the punishment, of a narrow, contracted mind.

There is no true, well-founded patriotism that has any other foundation than this. Without this, there will always be room for suspicion and distrust, a suspicion of private and selfish views, suited to a mind destitute of this great and enlarged principle, of all mankind constituting one family, under one great head; the idea of an universal parent, who regards us all as his children, and who requires that we regard each other in the same pleasing light.

Without faith in God, and a belief of his universal benevolent providence, men must be liable to be peculiarly distressed and disconcerted at such calamitous events as we are daily subject to. They are evils in themselves, and we do not know to what farther evils they may lead. Even the good that we see is uncertain, and unstable, and for any thing that we know, may terminate in evil, which it will there by only serve to aggravate. In this state of mind, all is darkness and, confusion, anxiety and dread.

But the moment that we begin to consider the world not as a fatherless world, but that there is a principle of wisdom and goodness presiding over all, and believe that nothing can come to pass without the knowledge and intention of this infinite wisdom and goodness, the gloom vanishes, and day-light bursts upon