136 THK BAGSTKB CASE. 



chanced to drop in one morning upon the living skeleton. That, at one 

 time, most spectral individual, had, by reason of much pecuniary im- 

 provement, lined his ribs, yea, clothed his entire frame, with a garment 

 of flesh, that altogether softened and melted away the angular propor- 

 tions of his figure, into a pleasant and aldermanic rotundity ; and Claude 

 Seurat was, at the time we speak of, one who bade fair to bear away 

 the fame of Lambert. The stolid and obtuse public were, however, 

 delighted with, and astonished at, the phenomenon ; until we, by chance, 

 arrived. Burying our forefinger in his larded side, we exclaimed, " Call 

 ye, good people, call ye this man a living skeleton ? Monstrous misno- 

 mer ! Why, the fellow's enormously fat. Is a curve a straight line ? Is 

 substance shadow ? Is an elephant a cameleopard ? Is a ball of cotton a 

 skein of thread ?" The pursy impostor hereupon waddled away, pant- 

 ing and abashed, and thenceforth the eyes of the community were 

 opened. 



Thus, you see, it will not be thought surprising, if we feel ourselves 

 hardly disposed to coincide in the view which the intelligent jury has 

 thought fit to take of Miss Bagster's case ; upon which, indeed, it is 

 our intention to say a word or two. Let not the reader be alarmed 

 "we are not going into the particulars of Miss Bagster's case ; we are 

 Hot going to conjure up the disgusting details of filth, folly, selfishness, 

 and grasping avarice, with which the proceedings abound. A few 

 general remarks, suggested by the verdict pronounced in this case, are 

 all we purpose at the present moment. 



The only pretext for placing in confinement this poor young creature 

 is, lest society should be in any degree affected by her being at large. 

 This the preservation of society is the only justifiable pretext for the 

 enactment of laws at all ; and every degree of punishment, from a 

 week's confinement in the house of correction to the penalty of death 

 itself, unless it bear solely in view the degree of injury sustained by 

 society, and the prevention of its recurrence, is tyrannical and unjust. 



Unhappily, however, our laws are so framed and administered, as to 

 partake the nature of moral and final judgments upon offenders ; 

 and we, accordingly, hear of the " vengeance of the law," from the 

 mouths of those appointed to administer them ; a phrase not only dis- 

 graceful to a civilized country, but an admission, that the nature and 

 original institution of the laws are not understood, and that our judges 

 are accustomed to look upon themselves as " God Almighty's gentle- 

 men," deputed to afford culprits a foretaste of the last day. 



The " vengeance of the law" has virtually wreaked itself upon this 

 unfortunate young person. Here is a young woman, of a naturally 

 weak understanding, most grossly and culpably neglected in early youth 

 almost designedly, as it should seem, withheld from the attainment 

 of any one thing that might tend to strengthen her mind, and confirmed 

 in every thing whose tendency was to perpetuate its weakness hurried 

 suddenly before a tribunal catechised upon points, in which it is im- 

 possible that she should be proficient, and of which some of her examin- 

 ers themselves exhibit the most wretched ignorance her memory taxed 

 upon trivial matters, which it were an evidence of wisdom to have for- 

 gotten and the fact of her lunacy established, by her want of know- 

 ledge of certain mechanical calculations, which she had never been 

 taught, and which, without teaching, the intellect of a Bacon would 

 never apprehend. 



