110 JUSTICE AND MERCY INSEPARABLE. 



gentleman, and tends to make him more ready at 

 his rifle, and less sparing of his gunpowder, when a 

 savage is in question, than a more enlarged view of 

 things will justify, it is not to be inferred that a 

 greater latitude, with respect to self-defence, is to be 

 conceded to him than the less-exposed inhabitants 

 enjoy. On the contrary, the Supreme Government 

 is called upon to watch with the greatest care, where 

 circumstances have rendered errors or offences most 

 probable ; and to punish with severity a detected 

 crime, where concealment is particularly easy, in 

 order that a reverence for its authority may prevent 

 what its arm cannot always avenge. 



" Nor let any man misapprehend the nature of 

 severe justice, or give it a colour in his thoughts 

 different from that of the most comprehensive be- 

 nevolence and mercy. They are essentially the 

 same in the bosoms of the good and wise. In prac- 

 tice they cannot be divided ; nor does there exist a 

 more fatal error than the exaltation of a narrow, 

 ignorant, and feeble softness of temper in any power, 

 to the dignity of a virtue, at the expense of that prin- 

 ciple which sustains the happiness and the order of 

 all things. 



" Respecting the real character of savages and 

 barbarians, men of refinement or well-cultivated 

 minds have seldom had personal experience to direct 

 their reasonings, and the superficial and hasty 

 traveller, the interested trader, or the exasperated 



