civil ruler to pretend to assume such a jurisdic- | consistent with the reason assigned for it. If tion, is to take the judgment-seat of God himself, and supersede his sovereign prerogative. In a state of civil society every man resigns the right of punishment, in order that the State may duly exercise it in his stead. But the great question to determine is, where the point of limitation lies? What class of offences may be punished by human government, and by what sanc tions its rightful laws may be enforced? That some limitation is necessary and proper will be admitted by all, for none will be found to assert the right of the civil governor to take cognizance of all those nameless moral delinquencies which, in their direct results, do not affect the civil welfare of the community. Society has the right to inflict the privation of all the benefits which it can confer; but the State cannot give life-it has no power over itit cannot, lawfully, take it away. The civil ruler cannot pretend to be the minister of MORAL justice. He is incapable of estimating the degree of moral obliquity in any case, but without this he is incompetent to the judicial recompence of moral evil. The full and proper execution of justice is held back and suspended for a judgment beyond the present life. It is only as affecting civil rights that rulers have anything to do with virtue and vice. In our instinctive and ultimate judgment upon cases where there is offence against the laws of morality, we always, even after having inflicted civil punishments, refer the matter to a future and a higher tribunal. No authority or jurisdiction can legitimately be committed to any functionary, but such as is of the same nature with the relation out of which it arises. In as far as the origin of civil and moral authority determines their province and limits, it separates them, and places the subjects of each beyond the jurisdiction of the other. But the supporters of capital punishment, in order to find a warrant for its infliction, represent the civil ruler as having a commission to execute upon crime its full moral desert, and, therefore, will take the life of the murderer, on the plea that moral justice requires he should die. The argument is altogether absurd. Human governments can do much less in the way of administering justice than many are apt to imagine. At the very best, and in many cases which fall far short of murder, it is but a fallible and imperfect attempt to protect men, even in those interests and rights which civil society may legitimately undertake to guard and maintain. That it should assume to vindicate the claims of moral justice, must, therefore, be regarded as vain and presumptuous. It is commonly argued, by the defenders of capital punishment, that human life is sacred; the crime of murder, therefore, it is said, demands the life of the destroyer. To this it may be replied, that the act is in human life be sacred, the circumstance of the murderer having violated it, cannot constitute any reason or warrant for the State violating it again in his person. It has been pleaded, with some speciousness, that life is to be held sacred against the murderer, but not against the State; and this appears to some to give consistency, if not validity, to the argument. But the theory is inconsistent as a doctrine; and, therefore, invalid as an argument. It is not enough for our opponents to tell us, that they distinguish between the inviolability of life to the individual, and the right of the State, in its corporate capacity. may explain what they mean by the sacredness of human life, but we want to know the grounds upon which the distinction is founded. We are left to gather this from the terms of their statement, and the tenor of their arguments in general. (To be continued.) This CURE FOR THE WOUNDS OF THE WORLD. Let him who wishes for an effectual cure for the wounds which the world can inflict, retire from intercourse with men, to intercourse with his Creator. When he enters into his closet and shuts the door, let him shut out, at the same time, all intrusion of worldly care, and dwell among objects divine and immortal; those fair prospects of order and peace, shall there open to his view, which form the most perfect contrast to the confusion and misery of this earth. The celestial inhabitants quarrel not: among them there is neither ingratitude, nor envy, nor tumult. Men may harass one another, but in the kingdom of heaven concord and tranquillity reign forever. From such objects, there beams upon the mind of the pious man, a pure and enlivening light; there is diffused over his heart a holy calm; his agitated spirit assumes its firmness, and regains its peace; the world sinks in its importance, and the load of mortality and misery loses almost all its weight; the green pastures open, and the still waters flow around him, beside which the Shepherd of Israel guides his flock.-BLAIR. DAGUERRE IN AFRICA. Science and art are taking hold in long benighted Africa. The Liberian Republic is gradually and permanently spreading its powerful influence for good, and the higher attendants of civilization are extending their refining and enobling qualities over the hearts and minds of the formerly untutored native, and his more advanced' brethren from the United States. A friend has submitted to our view, several daguerreotypes taken in January last, at Monrovia, in the Republic of Liberia. They purport to be the faces of President Roberts and his lady, and of Vice President Benson, and are said by compe tent judges to be excellent likenesses. As works of art, they will favorably compare with specimens of American skill, chemical knowledge and artistic arrangement. The artist, Augustus Washington, was formerly located at Hartford, Connecticut, where he was eminently successful in his profession, but a desire to be free, and become a citizen of that country, where alone his race have already risen to and are maintaining their nationality, induced him to emigrate to the Independent Republic of Liberia. We learn that he has there met with large success, and himself and family are in good health, and well pleased with their new homes and happy land. FRIENDS' REVIEW. PHILADELPHIA, SIXTH MONTH 3d, 1854. In our last number, notice was given under the head of "Summary of News," that the Nebraska bill, which was so unexpectedly obtruded on the attention of the federal legislature, and which has produced such an excitement both in and out of Congress, had passed the House of Representatives, by a majority of thirteen votes. An amendment made by that body, rendered its return to the Senate necessary to its consummation. As was to be expected, this measure has received the sanction of the Senate, and no doubt will have assumed the character of a law, by the presidential signature, before this paper reaches our subscribers. What the direct practical effect of this enactment will be, supposing it permitted to continue on the statute book, remains to be seen. It may still be hoped that emigrants from the free States and from Europe, with their well-known hardihood and superior capabilities for opening a new country, and transforming a wilderness into cultivated fields, may so far and so freely pour into this territory as to give a decided majority to the advocates of freedom. It may also be remembered that whatever may be attributed to Northern votes, in the consummation of this measure, the voice of the people of the north has been loudly and unequivocally raised in opposition to it. A little time will bring up an opportunity for those now neglected members of the community, whose earnest remonstrances have been shamefully disregarded, to manifest their opinions and make their power felt, in a constitutional manner, at the ballot box. If a law so consonant to the principles on which the people of these United States assumed their station among the nations of the world, can be abrogated by the Representatives of the people, the same The declaration of Lord Representatives, when so commanded by the people themselves, may repeal this repealing clause and consequently reinstate the previous law. It may also be considered that whatever was intended by this recent violation of what was unquestionably regarded as a solemn compact, unrepealable by any subsequent legislature, slavery is not established by it in the territories of Kansas and Nebraska. Mansfield that slavery can be supported only by positive law, is unqestionably a sound legal maxim. If then slaves should be taken into those territories, during their territorial existence, they can be held by no existing law. If any legal tribunal should sanction their slavery, it must be done upon arbitrary, not on legal principles. Hence the importance of filling the land, as quickly as possible, with men of correct principles. If the advocates of freedom, whether located on the north or south of Mason and Dixon's line, would only speak out in tones such as the urgency of the case demands, there is a potency in the prin ciples and operations of freedom and free labor, which is more than equal to all that the intrigues and machinations of slave-holders can accomplish. But after all that can be hoped from the energy or power of the north, the passage of the Kansas and Nebraska bill, under existing circumstances, must be regarded as of fearful portent. When the present government was formed, the preva lent feeling of the nation, awakened, to some extent, by the contest from which it had recently emerged, was evidently in favor of freedom. Laws had been lately enacted in a number of States under which slavery in them must inevitably expire with the passing generation. To secure the blessings of liberty, was one of the avowed objects of the Union; and it would be a shameful imputation upon the character of its authors to assert, that this freedom was intended to be restricted to persons of one complexion. The provision included in the ordinance of 1787 was unquestionably designed to apply not only to the N. W. of the Ohio, but to all territory to be subsequently acquired by the United States. And could the acquisition of Louisiana have been foreseen, there is no reason to doubt the application of the principle of freedom to that territory. This ordinance, we observe, was adopted at the time the convention was engaged in framing the federal constitution, and was confirmed by the first Congress under it. By this ordinance, if its principles had been duly maintained, slavery must have remained forever limited to the States in which it was then planted. The concession relative to the migration or importation of persons, usually construed as referring to the African slave trade, was expressly limited, not chargeable with violent opposition to the rights to the States then existing. This article was ad- of the South, contains the following remarks: mitted for the purpose of securing the adhesion of South Carolina and Georgia. It seems to have been thought more eligible to secure to Congress the power of abolishing that odious traffic, at the end of twenty years, than to incur the risk of its indefinite continuance. The provision respecting the recovery of fugitives from labor, we observe applies to those escaping from the States: and if intended to apply to fugitive slaves, was plainly confined to slavery in the States, not the territories of the Union. "It is the only one of all the conventions of the kind ever made in relation to its subject matter in which this section of the Union has received any valuable consideration for the many concessions it has made, and yet they who should have maintained it with resolute integrity for the sake of the exemplary honesty and firmness with which faith has been kept with them in various like cases, have forcibly abrogated and annulled it, in the face of the declared wishes, and even the earnest expostulation of the people of the free States. We need not say that conduct of this character is fitted to impair the obligation of all compromises similar to that which has just been destroyed with The concessions made by the free States, in so marked a disregard for the sentiments and will of one-half the people of the country. They, at favor of slavery, have all been exacted and sub- least, whose principles and confidence have been mitted to, while the slave-holding interest has so grossly outraged by the act, cannot surely be, been encroaching, whenever an opportunity has with any grace, required to observe very strictly been offered. One slave state after another, with engagements made with those who have exhibit ed a readiness, whenever they have the power, to its three-fifths representation, has been added to break all that they are not interested to preserve. the Union. The treasury of the nation has been But this is not the worst effect of the treachery drained to support the expense of wars waged which has been lately practised. It strikes at the for the recovery of fugitive slaves. Territory has very vitals of the national Union. It has evidently aroused already in this quarter a spirit of resis been purchased at the general expense, and con- tance to that species of sectional usurpation and signed to slavery. But of all the measures by violence which cannot be persisted in without which a disregard to the original principles of producing a conflict of opinion, interest and powour Union has been manifested, it is questionable er, which, if commenced, will inevitably terminate only with a dissolution of the confederacy. Afwhether anything equal to this Kansas and Ne- fairs have reached a point at which it is imperabraska bill has been offered to the humility and tively incumbent on the North to unite for defence, forbearance of the north. From what we have and take a determined stand against that reckless heretofore experienced, and what we now see and audacious purpose of domination over it, which neither law, nature, nor humanity is able looming in the distance we have reason to fear to restrain. We would not be understood as adthat other measures, still more revolting, will fol- vising to resort to any illegal and violent mode of low in the train. We already find the reopening redressing grievances past or wrongs to come. of the slave trade, a traffic which seems to have Nor can any one deprecate more devoutly than we do the occurrence of any occasion which might been denounced by the civilized world, vindica-lead to a separation of those political relations ted not merely as economical, but as humane. which have, for a long period and with so much And however revolting to humanity that traffic is mutual advantage, bound the States together. But well known to be, it is not difficult to believe that we cannot shut our eyes to the unmistakable signs which indicate that, unless wiser and purer a conscience which can be reconciled to the in- and more conservative counsels direct the governternal traffic in slaves, by which thousands of the ment hereafter, infinite trouble, if not the worst natives of Maryland and Virginia are annually of calamities that could befal the republic, is cer transported to the States of the South, will readily tainly in store for us." find an excuse for the transatlantic traffic; especially when the difference between the prices of an African and a native slave is thrown into the scale. When we soberly reflect on the injustice which has been meted out to the descendants of the African race, and the native inhabitants of this favored land, we cannot avoid the conviction that a fearful load of guilt rests upon us, and well may we fear that the passions which this recent measure has awakened into action, may be productive of consequences not easily foreseen. In relation to the provision in the act of 1820, which is repealed by this recent enactment, the North American of the 29th ult., a paper certainly By a letter from Liverpool, dated the 12th ult., we are informed that Richard Allen, of Waterford, Ireland, has been liberated to pay a religious visit to some parts of this country; particularly to Friends in Canada. Samuel Bewley, of Dublin, was expected to be his companion. The expected time of embarkation was the 20th ult. Our beloved friends, Eli and Sybil Jones, were expected to return to their native land in the same steamer. MARRIED,-On Fifth day the 25th of Fifth month, N. York, ABRAHAM TABER, of New Bedford, Mass., at Friends' Meeting house, Ledyard, Cayuga co., to MARY JANE, daughter of Augustus and Phebe Jane Howland, of Ledyard. DIED,-On the 17th ult., in Norwich, N. Y., at the residence of her son-in-law, Samuel Weeden, in the 85th year of her age, CATHARINE WEEDEN, widow of the late Peleg Weeden, a member of Butternuts Monthly Meeting. On the 8th of Fourth month last, in the 19th year of her age, ELIZA C. WELLS, daughter of Russell and Eliza C. Wells, members of Adrian Monthly Meeting, Michigan. After great conflict of spirit she was mercifully enabled to adopt the language, O death, where is thy sting; O grave, where is thy victory? the suffering slave, and she repeatedly referred to the exercise she had passed through in regard to using the products of unrequited labor. At one time she observed to her husband, "Should I be raised from this sick bed, if thou art willing, we will withdraw as far as practicable from all parti cipation in this guilt, and let such articles as are required for me at this time be free from the stain of slavery." on the 18th of Fourth month, at his residence near Richmond, Wayne co., Ind., SAMUEL NICHOLSON, aged about 44 years, an exemplary member of Chester (Ind.) Monthly Meeting. The fruits of a uniformly humble and circumspect course of life, were well attested by the tranquil and peaceful manner in which he was, in firm reliance upon the mercies of his blessed Redeemer, permitted to pass from the fluctuating scenes of time to never ending eternity. And although the severing of the tender ties of affection, which bound him to a large circle of endeared relatives and friends, was affecting indeed, yet, these afflic tions were greatly alleviated by a well grounded assurance that his gentle and sanctified spirit has in mercy been transferred to the "realms of "Heaven lends us friends to bless the present scene, Resumes them, to prepare us for the next." at his residence, near Parkersville, Chester county, Pa., on the morning of the 26th of Fourth month, JACOB BAILY, an esteemed member of Kennet Monthly Meeting of Friends, in the 79th | year of his age. For some days before his death, he seemed impressed with the belief that his close was drawing near, and said to one of his family, My end must be drawing very near, I am sensible of it." He then conversed very calmly for a time, and remarked, "I have always been a full believer in the doctrines of the Christian religion." He appeared to have nothing to do but to fill up his measure of bodily suffering, his mind being stay-bliss." ed and collected in the prospect of a heavenly inheritance. He suffered much from difficulty of breathing, and at one time, when feeling somewhat relieved from it, he solemnly uttered this brief testimony," Verily, verily, there is a reward for the righteous; verily he is a God that judgeth in the earth." And again, when suffering from the same cause, he said, "Oh! that I could flee away and be at rest." To him death appeared to have no terrors, but rather to be as a door opening to heavenly rest. Retaining his faculties clear to the last, he passed quietly away as one failing asleep. His redeemed spirit, joining, we humbly believe, that innumerable multitude, which John the Divine saw, and of whom it is recorded, "For the Lamb, which is in the midst of the throne, shall feed them, and shall lead them unto living fountains of waters, and God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes." On the 13th of last month, in the 60th year of her age, MARY, wife of Thomas H. Terrell, a useful and beloved member of Shortcreek Monthly Meeting, Ohio. She was firmly attached to the principles, and concerned to support the testi monies of our religious society, and being clothed with that charity which thinketh no evil, and possessing in no common degree the amiable and endearing qualities which win affection and regard, she was much beloved by a large circle of relatives and friends. From the commencement of her illness she was impressed with the belief that it would terminate in death, and was early concerned that every debt of duty to her family and friends should be discharged, not only imparting counsel to those around her, but also dictating several letters of religious admonition to the absent. suddenly, on the 20th ult., at his residence of Wilmington Monthly Meeting, in the 63d year in Wilmington, Del., THOMAS STAPLER, a member of his age. INDIAN CIVILIZATION. The Committee of Philadelphia Yearly Meeting, for the civilization of the Indian natives are desirous of engaging the services of a Friend and his wife to aid in conducting the Farm and family at the Boarding School at Tunessassah. Also, a suitable Friend to take charge of the School. JOSEPH ELKINTON, 377 South 2d St., Philada. 5th mo. PHONOGRAPHY. A pamphlet has recently been issued in this city, including a number of documents in relation to this interesting subject. This system is founded on rational principles. Language necessarily consists of a definite number of distinct articulate sounds. If we adopt a separate character for each separate sound in the language, we have, of course, the means of exhibiting to the eye, what we may call a picture of all the sounds which the voice presents to the She frequently expressed her thankfulness, say-ear. This is exactly what writing has been deing, her heavenly Father had dealt mercifully with signed to accomplish, from the days of Cadmus, her, her bodily suffering not being great, and her mind enjoying sweet peace," adding, "I see not who is reported to be the first who taught manthe shadow of a cloud between me and my Saviour." kind to paint the thoughts and catch the flying Her heart overflowed with love, love to God, and love to the whole human race. sound, to the time of Isaac Pitman, the author of the present system of phonography. That the Her feelings were drawn forth in sympathy for purpose of writing is but imperfectly answered | phy is adapted. Thousands use it who never by any system hitherto brought into common use, must be obvious to any one who reflects upon the various methods often adopted to represent similar sounds, and the various ways in which the same words are pronounced by different readers, as well as the incongruous sounds often assigned to the same combination of letters. This imperfection can scarcely fail to attend any system of writing in which the number of characters is less than the number of distinct, articulate sounds. pretend or aim to be reporters. They employ it entirely legible, they use it in every case where simply as a labor-saving instrument. Finding it what they write is designed for their own use, or the eye of a fellow-phonographer. Probably a mail never passes in our country or in Great Britain, that does not carry phonographic letters of business or friendship. Some, who are clerks, use it as amanuenses, taking down from the dictation of their superior, letters which they rewrite in long-hand, for his signature. Some, who are students, use it in recording the words of instruction which fall from their preceptors; to be afterwards more carefully reflected on and read at leisure. Some, who are lawyers, or employed by lawyers, use it in preparing legal documents, to be transcribed into long-hand; or in recording evidence verbatim as it falls from the graphy for their paper; and others, who are printers, set up type therefrom. More than fifty years ago, Dr. Thornton, afterwards superintendent of the patent office at Washington, published in the transactions of the American Philosophical Society, an essay on a universal alphabet, in which he proposed to in-witness. Some who are editors, write in phonotroduce one, and only one, character for each separate articulate sound. In the course of this essay, he remarks that the difference between the bad and the correct speller, on the existing systems, is that the former exhibits his own blunders, and the latter the blunders of every body else. Upon the plan which he offered to public acceptance, he thought that no variety of spelling could arise among those who used the same pronunciation. But neither this nor any other scheme, as far as I am informed, prior to our own days, combined or attempted to combine, with this indispensable characteristic of a perfect alphabet, such simplicity in the form of With regard to the swiftness with which phothe characters used, as to enable a writer of ordi-nography is written, there can be no dispute. It nary intellect, to put down upon paper the words as they flowed from the lips of a speaker, at the usual speed. This, the phonography of Pitman appears to accomplish. The following extracts from the pamphlet alluded to, may give to our readers some idea of the system, and of its importance. A perfect alphabet of the English language It is such an would contain thirty-nine signs. alphabet which is adopted in phonography; and to its use is due, almost exclusively, the legibility and ease of acquisition, by which it is so remarkably contrasted with all other systems of short-hand. In writing phonography, we simply write the sounds heard in pronounciation; without reference to the conventional arrangement of letters, by which in ordinary writing custom requires that words should be represented. By the enlargement of the alphabet this becomes possible; and the successful result exing practice to theory. hibits a fresh proof of the importance of conform suffices to compare the conciseness of phonography with long-hand (or any other) writing, to be convinced of the immeasurable superiority which the former must give in point of rapidity. The average rate of public speaking is about one hundred and twenty words a minute; yet there are phonographers, who can write as many as one hundred and eighty, and perhaps more. In fact, it is only by this system, that satisfactory verbatim reports are possible. But, putting out of view those who are skilled as reporters, and referring to those who adopt phonography only in correspondence, or for private purposes, there are few of moderate skill who cannot write it from three to five times as rapidly as long-hand. This system, an invention of Isaac Pitman, of Bath, England, was published in its first imperfect form in 1837, but has since received many improvements; and, as at present written, may be dated from the year 1845. It has, therefore, been about ten years prominently before the public. Its spread and adoption since that time as a method of writing and reporting, have been It is proper to refer to the importance of phoremarkable. Several hundred thousand text nography, in contributing to the correctness and books explanatory of the system have been sold distinctness of the pupil's enunciation. Experiin Great Britain and the United States; and the ence had shown, before the invention of Phononumber of practical phonographers is known to graphy, that an important aid to elocutionary be very considerable. As a system of verbatim studies, was to practice the pupil in what is termreporting, it is rapidly superseding all rivalry. ed the Elements ;-that is, the sounds of the But it is not for reporters alone, that phonogra-language. Distinctness in uttering the elements, |