1810.] 
is the judye; creates the offence without 
any previous promulgation; avoids the 
doubtful and tedious ceremony of proof, 
by forcing the defendant to accuse him- 
self; and inflicts an arbitrary punishment, 
which, if not submitted to and reverenced 
bythe nation as law, is to be the parent 
of new contempts, to be punished like 
the former. 
As I live in England, I leave it to the 
parliament and people of Ireland to con- 
sider what’ is thei duty, if such aus 
thority is assumed and exercised by their 
judges: if it ever happens in this coun- 
try, 1 shall give my opinion. 
It is sufficient for me to have given 
you my judgment as a lawyer upon both 
your questions; yet, as topics of policy 
can never be misplaced when magistrates 
are to exercise a discretionary authority, 
1 cannot help concluding with an cbser- 
ation, which both the crewn ard its 
courts would do well to attend t upon 
every occasion. 
The great objects of criminal justice 
are reformation and example; but nei- 
ther of them are to be produced by punish- 
ments which the laws will not warrant: 
on the contrary, they convert the offen- 
der into a suffering patriot; and that 
crime which would have been abhorred 
far its malignity, and the contagion of 
which would have been extinguished by 
a legal prosecution, unites an injured 
nation under the banners of the criminal, 
to protect the great riglits of the com- 
munity, which, in his person, have been 
endangered. 
These, sir, are my sentiments; and you 
may make what use of them you please. 
1d am a zealous friend to a reform of the 
Memoirs of the Life and Works of Carstens. 451 
representation of the people in the par- 
liaments of both kingdoms, and a sincere 
admirer of that spirit and perseverance 
which in these days, when every impor 
tant consideration is swallowed up in 
Juxury and corruption, has so eminently 
distinguished the people of your country. 
The interests of both nations are in iny 
opinion the same; and I sincerely hope 
that_neither ill-timed severity on the parg 
of government, nor precipitate measures 
on the pant of the people of Ireland, may 
disturb that harmony between the re- 
maining parts of the empire, which ought 
to be held more sacred, from a reflection 
on what has been lost. 
j T. ErskIne, 
ees 
Yo the Edilor of the Monthly Magazine. 
SIR, 
OU will doubtless find a corner in 
your miscellany for the following 
paulotic suggestion. Let the first square 
that shall be built in the capital of Eng- 
land, or in any of its provincial cities of 
eminence, such, for instance, as Liver- 
pool or Bristol, be called by an act of 
the legislature for that purpose, I’reedom 
Square, in honour of the abolition of 
slavery in the British colonies. A pillar 
may likewise be erected im the centre of 
this sqaare, with appropriate emblems 
and inscriptions, and the names of those 
members of parliament who were most 
active and instrumental in the abolition 
be recorded in letters of gold on one 
side, and the names of the opposers in 
letters of lead on the other, to perpetuate 
their ignorance and imbecility. 
BRITANNICUS. 
’ 
MEMOIRS AND REMAINS OF EMINENT PERSONS. 
MEMOIRS Of the LIFE and works of 
CARSTENS. 
SMUS Jacop Carstens was born 
the 10th of May, 1754, at St. Gur- 
gen, a village near Sleswick ; where his 
father was a miller, and his mother was 
the daughter of an advocate. At nine 
years of age his parents sent him, as a 
day-scholar, to a school at Sleswick, 
whence he returned home every evening ; 
and as he took with him in the mornings 
his victuals for the day, he used to 
make his meals within a church near the 
gymnasiuin. There the paintings which 
decorated the walls, first awakened his 
“imagination ; for he had already mani- 
3 
fested a taste for drawing, in amusing 
himself hy copying from the bad engra- 
vings contained in his school-boaks, 
The performances of Jurian Ovens, 
one of the best disciples of Rembrandt, 
and who had fixed his residence in Hol. 
stein, chiefly engayed his attention; and 
he frequently made use of a ladder, in 
order to examine them more closely. 
His imagination became exalted every 
time he contemplated these fine produce 
tions; and he thought it the height of 
ambition, to aspire at being, some ume, 
able to execute master-pieces of equal 
merit. He apphed with considerable 
ardour to feeble attempts, but he was 
entirely 
