present more painful practice in such cases. For this indulgence, he, together with his brother and his uncle, had joined in a petition to his Majesty, and thankfully accepted it, appearing in good health and spirits, ready and chearful to undergo the experiment.

Whoever has passed through life and death, and done or suffered any thing remarkable in either, so as to attract the notice and excite the curiosity of the world, must expect to have their names marked out in suitable characters in the records of time. For we can no more avoid hearing and conversing on the interesting subjects of the day, on the remarkable actions, conduct, and character of persons distinguished for their good or evil deeds, than we can guard the hearing ear against sounds, exclude visible objects from the seeing eye, or suppress that appetite for news, which, if not equally natural, is perhaps stronger in many than for their breakfast. Let this be accepted as an apology, if any be requisite, for those outlines of life and death touched in the following characters.

But further, they who are so unhappy as to have fallen into public offences, when being overtaken by the hand of justice, and brought to any right sense of their condition, are often reminded to pray, and 'tis to be presumed they do so, to their latest hour, "that other offenders, especially their accomplices, may be brought to repentance and give glory to God. - And that all who are engaged in the like evil courses, seeing or hearing of their punishment, may take warning and fear, and do no more so wickedly." For, as the preservation, the recovery, and the deterring of others is one good end of all public examples; the more surely and extensively this good end is obtained, the better 'tis to be hoped will it fare, not only with the promoters of it, but also with the poor sufferers themselves. As on the contrary, they who weakly and officiously strive to disappoint and defeat this good purpose, do so far disappoint the designs of public justice, and deprive the unhappy criminals of the good fruits of an hearty and real repentance; one necessary part of which we are obliged by our rules of duty to inculcate daily upon them from first to last, "to let no worldly consideration hinder them from making a true and full confession of their sins, and giving all the satisfaction which is in their power to every one whom they have wronged or injured, that they may find mercy at our heavenly Father's hand for Christ's sake, and not be condemned in the dreadful day of judgment." Can the credit of an offender, or his family, already stained unavoidably by his own act, and deed, or can the concealing and screening of accomplices who must one day be brought to justice, (and the longer deferred, the heavier must it fall) can these worldly considerations be put in the balance against the indispensable obligation to this duty, and the dreadful consequences denounced on the neglect of it?

So that such indulgent and mistaken friends or visitors of obstinate criminals, who put them off this course and practice, are in reality their enemies: And their best and true friends are they, and they only, who endeavour to make their lives and deaths as instrumental to their own happiness, as useful and beneficial to the public good and safety, as the case will admit.

On such principles, till supplanted by better, we must proceed in our usual