"But sure of qualities deserving praise, "None go to ruin Fortunes; all to raise." WE are taught that the gates of Mercy in the future state, to which all Christians look forward with humble hope, are never shut against repentant sinners, save and except only those egregious culprits, who have committed "the sin against the Holy Ghost."Divines, however, (who are expected to possess superior information on abstract points of theology) are not unanimously agreed as to the precise nature of this offence, against which the most fearful of denunciations si to operate.-And as the most learned doctors, (with profound deference I speak it) lack something of supernatural intelligence, it cannot be wondered at, that even they should not be quite certain,' relative to a matter so occult-so involved in mystery, No. 55.

DD

that for the solution of it, they must trust either to inspiration, or conjecture (no other reference presenting itself on this side of heaven,) and especially, when we consider that mankind seem to be wholly ignorant, or forgetful, that there exists a sin, daily before their eyes, on earth, and merely against society in our own sphere, which is equally beyond the utmost extension of the clemency of fellow-creatures; every one of whom is, nevertheless, liable (however decidedly the chances against such an event may appear in some cases) to fall, himself, into the same shameful plight.

It has been urged by the cavillers against religion, that it is inconsistent with the benevolent attributes of the most High, (to which all his glorious works bear ample testimony), that a transgression, to which such fatal consequences are inevitably to be attached, should not have been so clearly described in the Scriptures, that no mistake, as to its identity, could be possible; but that all might be induced to use due vigilance in avoiding it. But it may not have ever once occurred to those sapient criticisers of celestial jurisprudence, that, the most scandalous crime, to which I alluded, and to which, a consciousness of their own fallibility ought to incline mortals to shew some little mercy, is equally undefined in the criminal code of any nation, on the face of the terraqueous globe: No specific clause having ever been provided (at least in direct language) for its castigation-nor even mention made of it, as penal, in any of the statute books: Notwithstanding which, it is invariably visited with the most severe inflictions and afflictions; and beheld with undissembled aversion, and contempt, in all countries, where the inhabitants are one degree above barbarians, (for amongst savages it is unknown); and the more civilized the people, the more frequent is its occurrence, and the more intense its punishment. I can anticipate, in imagination, all the sneers, all the contradictions, and all the common-place observations, which will be levelled at me, when I proclaim the title of this Leviathan euormity to be no other than "POVERTY;" in comparison with which all the other peccadilloes of the descendants of Adam appear as the white plumage of the swan, to her black feet.

The whole world will be found ready to deny in words, their assent to this proposition; and possibly some may revile it, as an absurd paradox; but the whole world, notwithstanding, daily confirm the justness of my classification of poverty. By a much more substantial and faithful test---their actions and their treatment of it in particular; by that proof then, my argument shall stand or fall, trusting that the nature of truth cannot be distorted by a combination of vulgar prejudices, and prepossessions; however clamorous may be their advocates.

Many crimes are simply local, that being illegal, in one state, which is entirely conformable to the constitution of another. Poverty is a general fault, not being eligible any where. Poor people, may be said to be rather connived at than tolerated.

In highly civilized communities, like this wherein we have the good luck to be placed, money is the main spring of action, all ranks are put into motion by its powerful influence. "It sways the har, the pulpit, and the throne," nor can even "ridicule" penetrate through its charmed coat of mail, so as to occasion much obstruction to its control. Its empire is established so firmly in the minds of men, that it may set accident and opposition at defiance; and there is a strong presumption in favor of its retaining the sovereignty until the general conflagration. Therefore, amidst the general homage which is paid to this idol, woe awaits him who is expelled from the triumphant court of Fortune. Vain and nugatory will it be for him, if he is found in the ranks of Poverty, to plead that no misconduct on his owu part has subjected him to her tyranny: that he has been impressed, a most reluctant subject, into her service; from which he is willing to recede the moment an opportunity is afforded. The situation is itself the cause, and not (as superficial casuists might conjecture) the effect of his monstrous demerit. Being caught in the fact, sentence is pronounced, maugre all his vociferous expostulations, and with much semblance of justice too. For doubtless Want the prime minister of Poverty who is the eternal opponent of Fortune, will have traced in expressive characters, on every lineament of his mea

ger and cadaverous visage, the squalid insignia of the remorseless monarch, in whose forlorn train he moves. And, moreover, possibly he has the presumption, arrayed in her uniform, of threadbare patched and begrimed rags, to trail his enfeebled limbs over that soil in which, during his mundane pilgrimage, he is fated never to have any interest or property; and wherein at his death he can only hope to be allowed, by grudging charity, a brief sojourn, in a hole, sunk barely beneath the surface of the earth; in some purposely-exposed burial ground; until the voraciousness of dogs, or the curiosity of scientific christians, dislodges his emaciated carcase from even that scurvy repository; and thereby provides space for the accommodation of the skin and bones of the next expiring vagrant. By ge. neral consent, (I contend for it with confidence) poverty is a capital crime of the deepest die; and subjects the wretch who is convictable of it to death, by torture and famine. Is it then imputable to stupidity, or im pudence, that some folks persist in asserting that it is always a misfortune, but not necessarily a fault? Surely the treatment which a malefactor meets with in this world, differs in so many essential respects from that which is usually experienced by one to whom misfortunes only have happened, that it is scarcely possible for the two predicaments to be ever confounded together. Whereas, the states of guilt and poverty so perfectly assimilate, that the terms would be synonymous, were it not that guilt has a remarkable advantage in the scale; for a person may be guilty, and not poor; but cannot be poor, and not guilty: the essence of the guilt lying in the poverty itself. Now observe the parallels.

Is a man publicly censured for any hideous and disgraceful crime: forthwith his former friends and acquaintance, who are ambitious of retaining for themselves a respectable footing in society, detach themselves from his company, and abandon his cause. Just so fares it with the pauper, as soon as his circumstances are thoroughly known.--No man cares to greet with the ardour of friendship, or the frankness of intimacy, a felon, when proceeding in a cart to the place of exccution. Quite as few are forward to recognize with such

salutations, (before witnesses), him, whose exterior displays unequivocal evidence of extreme penury. We do not often hear of creditable members of the com munity attending at the pillory, or stocks, to condole with those under exposure therein; however close may have been their previous connections. The desolate abodes of indigence are scenes of as great extremity, and are as seldom resorted to, by those in more easy cir cumstances, for the purpose of affording alleviation to the sufferers. When a man receives the sentence of capital punishment, from the judges of the land, he endures a legal death from that moment; although his natural life may be prolonged for years afterwards. He whose poverty is decided to be irremediable, undergoes a social annihilation as instantaneously: Friendship erases his name from her page, and misery inserts him in her doleful roll of unacknowledged and unconnected creatures. The slayer of a mortal body is condemned, as an expiation of his crime, to forfeit his own life, by a mode of execution which extinguishes the vital spark in a few minutes. But the pauper is per mitted to linger until he is consumed piecemeal, being undoubtedly more culpable, in as much as his insolv ency extirpates the divine sympathies in the breasts of all that have known him: for the kindly feelings of the summer insects, which ere while delighted to bask in the sunshine of his prosperity, inevitably torpify at the dreary aspect of his leafless season, and the uninviting sound of the wintry blasts around him, "spirantes frigora cauri." Again, What punishment should be deemed excessive for an ingrate, capable of bereaving of their highest comforts the friends "whose hopes were in him?" nay for absolutely forcing them to de part from the loved haunts of their most precious joys, to seek, like our first parents when turned out of the garden of Eden, an inferior settlement elsewhere? Yet all this is perpetrated by the shabby fellow, who having disbursed his last pound, (no matter though in acts of hospitality and benevolence,) is incapacitated from any longer covering the festive board, where his friends were wont to gormandise, very much to their satisfaction: an indulgence of which they had hoped a more durable tenure. But the bats who have no objection