1831.] Affairs in General. 657 



French revolution^ there have been no capital punishments in Paris. 

 On Saturday last, however, government determined on sacrificing a 

 wretched culprit to the laws. He had been convicted of an atrocious as- 

 sassination committed near Paris, and had lain under sentence of death 

 during many months. The horrible implement and paraphernalia of 

 death were withdrawn on Saturday morning from the store, in which 

 they had lain during sixteen or eighteen months, and the usual prepara- 

 tions were made at the Place de Greve for an execution ; but it soon be- 

 came evident that the inhabitants of that quarter were determined that 

 the execution should not take place without a struggle, in which more 

 blood would be spilt than that of the condemned. The execution Avas 

 therefore postponed." 



If this be true, we are rejoiced at it, for better reasons than French 

 impulse. The guillotine was the child, almost the emblem, of the revo- 

 lutionary era. It was invented for the express purpose of massacre. 

 The old methods of execution would have been too tardy for the mob 

 appetite for blood. Reform in Paris was thirsty, and a criminal every 

 half hour would have starved its passion for gore. The guillotine an- 

 swered the purpose incomparably. It was next in rapidity to the grape- 

 shot and the drownings, and it was more picturesque. It was theatrical, 

 bloody, and brief, to the exact degree of republican taste. The list of 

 those whose heads fell beneath it, within little more than two years, was 

 eighteen thousand, and those the principal persons of France, including 

 the unhappy king and queen. We shall rejoice, if this horrid source of 

 horrid recollections has been abolished, for ever. 



If the modern principle of change were to be limited by utility alone, 

 it might have a fine field in the abuses of law. Time, which renders 

 the state of things as different in one century from their state in another, 

 as if man had changed his nature, naturally generates legal abuses ; and 

 nothing can be wiser employment for a legislature, than the revision of 

 the national laws. It will be recollected, that a few months since a bill 

 was thrown out, which had for its object the erection of local courts, or 

 places of cheap law, in the various counties. It was strongly opposed, 

 on various grounds ; but one proposal of the commission of law inquiry, 

 for the prevention of fraud, by individuals withdrawing themselves from 

 their creditors and spending their incomes abroad, was visited with pecu- 

 liar derision by Lord Plunkett. The evil, nevertheless, subsists, and to 

 an extraordinary degree. In the debate, a few nights since. Lord Hard- 

 wicke asked the Chancellor, " whether it was his intention to improve the 

 laws respecting creditors who avoided the payment of their just debts 

 by leaving the country, and residing abroad. He knew a person who 

 resided at Boulogne for this purpose, though he regularly received an 

 income of 800/. a quarter, from his property in this kingdom." Yet 

 this is but one case. The evil is universally acknowledged. 



In reply, the Chancellor said, " a more shameful state of law could 

 not exist, than that of which persons could avail themselves by going 

 abroad and avoiding the payment of their just debts. He himself knew 

 a man of 8,000/. a-year, who lived in the rules to avoid his creditors. 

 The expenses of law proceedings, those of the Insolvent Court, the dis- 

 charge of prisoners, the expenses of debtors while in gaol, and those of 

 collecting debts, amounted to (iOO,000/. a-yenr, and all this was abstracted 

 from the funds of the creditors. In addition, the sum of 11G,0U0/. 



