1799. ] Extraéts from the Port Folio of a Man of Letters. 
hort you, when you have time, to exa- 
mine thofe {pecies upon the {pot, and in 
the proper feafon. 
Your refolutions, Sir, being fuch as 
you mention, I certainly am not the man 
to dilapprove them: an agreeable leifure 
fo obtained is highly honourable. To 
perform great duties in elevated fitua- 
tions ; {uch is the tafk impofed upon men 
of your profeffion, and endowed with 
47t 
your talents; but when an individual, 
after offering to his country the tribute 
of his zeal, finds it no ufe, he may cer- 
tainly then be permitted to live for him- 
felf, and to content himfelt with being 
ri ie 
[Thefe letters, fo charadterifiic of the 
mind of their celebrated author, will be oce, 
cafionally continued. } 
— - 
Extracts from the Port Folio of a Man of Letters, 
HE laws of Spain juftify killing in 
lelf defence, gravely ftating, that it 
is better that a man fhould defend his own 
life, than to leave his death to be avenged 
by his relatives ‘* szayor mientras que vive 
gue fe defenda, que dexar que lo venge de- 
poys fu morte.’ The laws of Japan, a 
country which feems to be as far diftant 
from others in its opinions, as in its fitua- 
tion, allow no indulgence for felf defence, 
The only difference they make between 
that and the moft atrocious murder is, 
that if the aggreffor be killed, the furvi- 
vor thal] be allowed to be his own execu- 
tioner. 
A cafe, upon this point, occurred in 
Scotland, about 50 years ago, which 
does no great honour to the judges of that 
country. A Mr. Cumming was tried 
in the court of julticiary for the murder 
of a foldier. The jury found a {pecial 
verdiét, which ftated,—T hat the prifoner 
and two friends met fome foldiers in the 
neighbourhood of Edinburgh, and cafu- 
ally afked them what it was o’clock ; 
that one of the foldiers having returned 
an impertinent anfwer, Mr. Cumming 
faid, ‘* is that an anfwer to give to a gen- 
tleman?** that, thereupon the foldiers 
drew their bayonets, and the gentlemen 
their fwords, and a fcuffle enfued: in 
which Mr. Cumming, iz defending bim/elf, 
killed one of the foldiers, The court, 
upon this verdict, adjudged Mr. Cum- 
ming to be hanged! which was put in 
execution !—-This decifion, however, had 
fome good effeét in Scotland. A trial 
foon atter occurred of Mr. Carnegy of 
Finhaven, for killing the Earl of 
Strathmore. Carnegy and the Earl had 
been at the funeral of a relation. In 
returning from dinner, where the company 
had drank pretty freely, Mr. Lyell, one 
of the party, ufed much infulting lan- 
guage to Mr. Carnegy, and at laft pufhed 
him into a dirty ditch :—On getting up, 
Mr. Carnegy drew his fword, and made 
3 puth at Mr, Lyell, when he ran behind 
Lord Strathmore, who received the thruft 
and was killed. On the trial, Mr. Dun- 
das (the father of the’ fecretary of flate), 
who was Mr. Carnegy’s counfel, ftrongly 
prefled it upon the jury, not to return a 
fpecial verdict, as had been there the cuf- 
tom, and which, in the cafe of Cum- 
ming’s, had been fo fhamefully abufed ; 
but at once to declare the prifoner guilty 
or not guilty. His eloquent and judicious 
reafoning had the effect, and the jury re- 
turned a verdict of zot guilty. 
Mr. Locke, in his “* Effay on Civil 
Government,” (book 11. ch. xviii.) puts 
a fingular cafe with regard to juftifiable 
homicide ; 
<¢ A man, with his fword in his hand, de- 
mands my purfe in the highway, when per- 
haps I have not twelvepence in my pockets 
this man I may lawfully kill. To another I 
deiiver rool. only whilft Talight, which he 
refufes to reftore me when I am got up againg 
but he draws his {word to defend the poffeffion 
of it by force, if I endeavour to retake it. 
The mifchietf this mandoes me is a hundred, 
or poflibly a thoufand times worfe than the 
other perhaps intended me (whom I killed 
before he really did me any), yet I may law- 
fully kill the one, and cannot fo much as 
hurt the other.” 
Among the many accounts of the diffe- 
rence in the price ‘of provifions in old 
times, and at prefent, none is more re- 
markable, and certainly none more au- 
thentic, than the following :—but in this, 
as well as all other details on that fubject, 
the proper confideration is to be made of 
the comparative value of money in thofe 
times and now. 
In the year 1314, a parliament was held 
on purpofe to fix the price of provifions, 
awhich was fo enormous that the people 
could not fupport themfelves. The follow- 
ing were the prices fixed by the legifla- 
ture. A ftall or corn-fed ox 1]. 48.3 4 
grafs fed, ditto, 16s. ; a ftalled, or corn- 
ted cow, 12s. ; a grals fed cow, 10S, 5 a 
fat fheep, with the wool on, 1s. 3d. ; 
ditto, 
