In addition to the usual course of instruction, as stated last year, arrangements were made by the board with Edward Parrish, a very competent lecturer, to deliver a series of lectures on Chemistry during the winter months. Through his kindness and the interest felt by him in the as murder is at common law; and for two na- the usefulness of our institution beyond its walls tions to attempt to make that piracy which is We had expected that our school would have not so, under the law of nations, is an absurdity. attracted some pupils from a distance; but the You might as well declare it burglary, or arson, realization of this has as yet been prevented, or anything else. And we have ever since, by a chiefly, we believe, by the want of a suitable joint fleet with Great Britain on the coast of Af-place for boarding young persons of color. rica, been struggling to enforce this miserable blunder. The time will come, that all the islands and regions suited to Áfrican slavery, between us and Brazil, will fall under the control of these two slave powers, in some shape or other, either by treaty or actual possession of the one government or the other. And the states-objects of our Institute, the managers were enaman who closes his eyes to these results has but a very small view of the great questions and interests that are looming up in the future. In a few years, there will be no investment for the two hundred millions, in the annual increase of gold on a large scale, so profitable and so necessary as the development and cultivation of the tropical regions, now slumbering in rank and wild luxuriance. If the slaveholding race in these States are but true to themselves, they have a great destiny before them." TO THE INSTITUTE FOR COLORED YOUTH. The Managers Report: bled, at a very moderate expense, to give our scholars the opportunity of acquiring much valuable information. The lectures were illustrated by suitable apparatus and experiments, and were made very interesting by the clear and agreeable manner of delivery. Those of the managers who were present can bear witness to the intelligent attention and orderly deportment of the audience, which consist ed not only of the pupils of the schools, but of many of their parents and friends. The study of Chemistry has since been pursued in the school with advantage. managers and a large company of the friends of the scholars and of the institution were present. The time allotted for the purpose, proved too short for recitation in all the branches taught, but those attended to were well performed. A very satisfactory semi-annual examination of the pupils of the high school was held in the That during the past year the schools in Lom-early part of the Second month. A number of bard Street have been conducted in a very interesting and creditable manner by the same teachers mentioned in our last report, viz., Charles L. Reason, principal of the High School, Grace A. Maps, assistant teacher of the female department of the same, and Sarah M. Douglass, teacher of the primary school for girls. been so short a time in operation, that we made At the date of our last report the latter school had but a brief allusion to it, but we are now pleased to state our belief that, both in a moral and lit-closely, and have expressed themselves well saterary point of view, the teacher has exercised a salutary influence over the pupils and is very desirous to carry out the object of its establishment, to prepare the scholars for entering the high school. The great need of this preparation is continually manifest, those applying for admission being very deficient, particularly in arithmetic. Through her careful conscientious attention, several of her scholars have been enabled recently to pass the examination needful for admission to the high school, and we are informed by her reports that there is commendable spirit on the part of most of the children to reach the required qualifica tion. The weekly examinations by the managers have, however, afforded good opportunities for thoroughly testing the attainments of our classes. At many of these, Friends interested in the institution have attended and questioned the boys isfied with the appropriate answers given on various subjects. We have also had occasionally several visitors from the Southern States, who were evidently much surprised at the progress of the pupils, and who very candidly expressed their satisfaction with it, although more or less connected with that oppressive system which would chain down all the nobler faculties of the mind and repress all aspirations after the true dignity of manhood, for the low and selfish purpose of making men instruments to acquire wealth and gratify ambition. In the female department of the high school. there is also great improvement; several of the girls give evidence of talent, and will, we think by their diligent application and great interest, in the pursuit of knowledge, be prepared, before long, to act as instructors of others. The exemplary deportment of their female teacher, and the faithful, unassuming manner in which she performs the duties of her station, are very sat We continue to maintain closely the standard of attainment requisite for admission. This has limited the number of boys under the care of our principal, C. L. Reason, more than we hoped to be the case, but we are confirmed in our belief that it operates favorably, by stimulating the pupils in other schools to more exertion to im-isfactory to the Board. prove and qualify themselves, thus extending An evening school for boys has been kept up The library and reading room continue to be well managed by our efficient superintendents called for, but very few persons have left withMany books not in the Library have been and librarians, James M. Bustill and wife. Or-out receiving instruction from those already proder and regularity are preserved, the books are well taken care of and extensively read. Many of the catalogues have been sold, and fines are collected when the rules are not complied with. We have made some additions to the library during the past year, chiefly periodicals selected from the best publishers on mechanics, agriculture and general literature; a few books of reference have also been added. The Institution continues to be viewed very favorably by the respectable and intelligent portion of our colored population, and they are increasingly disposed to avail themselves of its advantages, and by their example and advice to induce others to do the same. The number of pupils now on the register of the High School is 37, of whom 18 are males and 19 females. Their attendance is very regular. 30. The pupils of the primary school number about vided. There are now on the tables, for the use of the reading room, 7 Nos. of The Builder. 11 1 232121 66 Civil Engineer and Architects' Journal. Practical Draughtsman, Book of Journal of Franklin Institute. Eclectic Magazine, for '54. Greenough's Polytechnic Journal. North British Review, for '54. These have elicited a great deal of attention, and have been highly valued. One of the most cheering scenes in the Library is, the presence of a number of youth whose ages range from nine to sixteen: these the grasp of the colored youth of this metropo children enjoy advantages never before within lis. It is pleasant to witness the interest manifested and the influence of this mode of mental and moral culture: pleasant to look into the countenance of each as he pores over his volume, Librarian's Report to the Board of Managers: and endeavor to trace out the workings of his Esteemed Friends, In presenting our first Annual Report, we congratulate you that the anxiety, care, and expense attending this Institution, have not been in vain; though the location is felt to be a great drawback upon its prosperity, many parents objecting to place their children in contact with the profanity and immorality that prevail here in great profusion. A number of persons from other States have visited the Library, who expressed themselves very much gratified with the beauty of the room and the liberality of the managers. A portion of the visiting committee have been regular in attendance and have shown themselves deeply interested in the library and read ing room. From the opening of the Library to Fourth month 1st, 1854, cards of admission have been issued to 389 persons. The number of readers now using the Library is 345, of which 175 are males, and 170 females mind, the bent of his genius, and his future position in the world. Although the Library thus far may not have realized your expectations, we feel more than ever the force of the injunction "Cast thy bread upon the waters, for thou shalt find it after many days." Respectfully submitted by JAMES N. BUSTILL AND WIFE. First,-Then, if human life be absolutely sa- charging him from the custody and power of socred, simply because it is human life, this prin- ciety-it is, more properly, to send him into the ciple, by its most obvious application, would pre-presence of God, to receive the ultimate punishsent an insuperable objection to the infliction of ment of his crime, as a moral offence, at that death for any crime, under any circumstances, higher tribunal. or by any authority. But to plead that life should be taken to avenge the wilful destruction of it, is just what we might expect from those who hold that life is no more sacred than property, for property is sacred, except under forfeiture, for the purpose of compensation. This would be to place the two things on precisely the same footing. This consequence of their reasoning our opponents would not be willing to accept; yet it follows inevitably from the principle that life must be taken to avenge its destruction, and it is plainly inconsistent with the doctrine of its absolute sacredness. This ground, then, it is clear, cannot be taken by those who punish murder with death, if they will maintain their present practice. We, however, may and do adopt it, with perfect consist ency. Secondly, There remains only one other ground on which life can be held inviolable, viz., because the doctrine of its sacredness, as enforced by capital punishment, is necessary to the prevention of murder. This principle, we may remark, cannot be held along with that which we have already noticed. The two are incompatible. The latter proceeds upon the surrender of the former. It is for our opponents, therefore, to make choice of the one or the other, and take their stand upon that exclusively. The second reason gives up the absolute sacredness of life as such, and descends to the lower ground of expediency. We must bear in mind the admission, that individuals have no natural right to take life. The reason under consideration takes it for granted, that the members of a civil community can delegate to their ruler a power which they do not individually possess the right to exercise. We would deny this proposition, even if the jurisdiction proposed to be given to the civil ruler related to only some of those social concerns in which its exercise would not affect the existence of man. But we most emphatically deny the assumption, that the right to take away life-an act which, in its exercise and consequences, reaches into the exclusive province of the Creator and Moral Governor of man-can be given by any assemblage of individuals to a fellow-creature. It appears almost indisputable that no single man, nor any number of men, in whatever capacity, can have a right to put an end to the moral probation of a fellow-creature before God. The civil ruler cannot derive authority to do this from the fact of its perpetration by the murderer. As we shall afterwards have occasion to disprove the further assumption implied in this reasoning, viz., that to take the life of the criminal will tend to prevent murder, we here content ourselves with simply denying the assertion. We hold the absolute sacredness of human life, but contend, that so far from this implying or demanding life for life, the practice violates the principle, and defeats its own object. The argument in favor of capital punishment, founded on the nature of the crime of murder, so closely allied to that just considered, cannot be supported. No matter what be the nature of the crime, when viewed in its whole character and consequences, if, according to the general principles laid down respecting the province of the civil ruler, he can only undertake to punish crime as an aggression upon the civil rights of the community. God himself administers moral law-the magistrate may not contravene its sanctions-he may not enforce them. The nature of a crime may determine the kind and degree of those punishments which man may legitimately employ, but it cannot give the right to inflict such penalties as belong only to a ruler sustaining the complex relationship of Creator and Moral Governor. If this principle be a sound one, it entirely destroys the argument founded on the nature of the crime; and if it be admitted that the Jewish code superseded that which went before, this argument must be given up on another ground, for the Mosaic law did not discriminate this crime from others, as the only offence to be punished with death. It may be proper to notice in this place another argument, which has been deemed of some consideration by the advocates of capital punishment. It is argued that the act of inflicting death, as a punishment, cannot be morally wrong, since God himself has, more than once, ordained it by express injunction. It will not require any lengthened observations to show the futility of this plea, as a warrant for capital punishment, in the absence of a Divine permission. It clearly involves a twofold assumption:-1st, That man may exercise the same prerogative over the life of his fellowman as the Creator himself; and 2d, that men may act towards each other, in the social relations of life, under the Christian, as they did under the Mosaic dispensation. In a preceding chapter of the volume from which this article is extracted, the author examines the passage in Genesis, chap. ix. ver. 5, 6, and arrives at the eonclusion that the declaration to Noah contained a To put a man to instantaneous death is not, command to punish murder with death. This he rein a strictly civil respect, so much to punish him, gards as merged in the Mosaic law, and totally superas to put him beyond civil punishment, by dis-seded by the Christian dispensation. It may be sufficient to remark, respecting the, first of these assumptions, that if, in the absence of Divine warrant, all prerogative, as well as all duty, arises out of the RELATIONSHIPS sustained by one being to another, and the kind and extent of such duty, or prerogative, is determined by the nature, or kind, of such relationships, then the plea under consideration cannot be main tained. authority, because beyond his legitimate prerogative. And surely, if there be anything respecting which that limitation of human authority, which pervades all the ordinances of Providence, might be expected to obtain, it is in the power of one man over the life of another. The whole analogy of God's government is against man's independent assumption of such a power. The Divine conduct can be no precedent to the creature in this case. The judicial prerogatives of man in his civil capacity are limited; and no In order to prove that this is a sound principle in theology, as well as in moral and political science, we have only to suppose the several re-thing, in the absence of Divine prescription, can lationships in which we stand towards each other and toward God, to be annihilated. If, for example, that relation of creatureship which man sustains to the Divinity, did not exist-if man existed independently of God, then, it is clear, the very foundation of the Divine claims upon him would be taken away. Man would no longer owe the same duties to God, and solely because he no longer stood in a relation of dependence. The same is true in regard to the several duties of the family of man one to another. The mutual duties of parent and child arise out of the relation of natural parentage. The social duties of men are founded upon their relation to each other, as members of the same race, and their common relationship to the Father of all, and so on, throughout all the various departments of human duty. Duty, we say, originates in relationship, and so does prerogative-the prerogatives of God, of parents, of civil governors (which are but the aggregate of individual prerogative,) all arise out of the mutual relationships subsisting between the parties; and the kind and extent of prerogative exercised, is, in every case, determined and limited by the nature or kind, of these several relationships. The more this principle is scrutinized and tested, the more will its soundness be made apparent. If, then, we consider the difference between that relation which all men stand in towards God, as their Creator and Moral Governor, and that which one man sustains to another, it will be evident that there must be a vast disparity in prerogative-that the Divine must immeasurably exceed the human; and hence it follows, that many acts may not be morally wrong when done, or commanded to be done, by God himself, which might, and would be, if performed on human authority alone. But the argument, that the infliction of death as a punishment cannot be morally wrong, since the Divine Being once ordained it, assumes, that what was right in God himself, cannot be wrong as the act of man, irrespective of the entirely different and disproportionate relationship in the two cases. The principle cannot on any ground be maintained. Many acts, which would be right on the part of the Almighty Ruler, or when performed in obedience to his command, would be wrong in the highest sense, as the act of man's warrant him in taking the life of his fellow-man, became the Creator himself has exercised this right. This consideration would, of itself, be a sufficient reply to those who would single out the crime of murder from amongst the capital crimes of the Jewish code, and retain the penalty on the ground of the nature of the crime itself. It must be manifest, that those who speak of the infliction of this penalty not being morally wrong in itself, overlook the essential distinction between a direct Divine legislation and one simply human. There is an infinite disparity be tween the two; they admit of no comparison. It might with equal relevancy and logical propriety be urged, that the infliction of death for Sabbathbreaking cannot be morally wrong, since the Divine Being once ordained it. We would strenuously argue against the authority of civil government to inflict death, on the ground of the acknowledged fallibility of human judgment, and the eternal and irreparable consequences involved in a mistake. In the absence of Divine authority, this admitted liability to false judgment would furnish a strong presumption, that this prerogative was never designed to be exercised by man; for this liability to error arises, not only from the posi tive defect and wilful falsity of evidence in many cases, but also from the imperfect appreciation of it when true. Even if the records of judicial administration did not afford a single instance of mistake, the mere uncertainty of judgment would disqualify any civil authority for enforcing its laws by the punishment of death. If the advocate of capital punishment fails to prove an express Divine permission, there can be no power or right over human life for penal purposes. God alone is the author of life-He only can take it away. The fact, that the Almighty has, from the beginning of the world, controlled this prerogative, proclaims His exclusive right to exercise it. The prerogatives of civil government are founded on human authority-social combination cannot confer any other powers upon the civil ruler than those already possessed, in right, by each individual member. The whole purpose of civil institutions is simply the enforcement of personal rights by combination. This concert and delegation cannot give the right to adjudge and punish crime as moral, but simply as it affects those interests which go presumptuous. ABOLITION OF SLAVERY IN VENEZUELA. vernment is instituted to secure and preserve. Individual man, in virtue of certain natural and moral relationships to God and to his fellow- Herald, under date of April 15th, says that the The Caraccas correspondent of the New York creature, may have certain duties and authority liberation of the slaves passed off well. The proof a moral description, but these he cannot trans-mulgation of the act by the Governor of Caraccas fer to any other party-certainly not to a civil was attended with a civic and military procesgovernor, simply because he cannot transfer such sion, in which President Monagas and his minisrelationships to another. Civil government re-ters joined. It appears that, by a decree of July presents only a very limited portion of man's 21, 1821, all children born of slave mothers right and authority, as man-only that portion after that time were to be free at twenty-one, which may be transferred by conventional agree- consequently there were no slaves on the day of ment. The jurisdiction of government can only final emancipation much under thirty-three years extend to the civil consequences of actions. Capi- of age. The owners are to be compensated actal punishment cannot, therefore, be inflicted on cording to the valuation affixed by law, at which the ground that the moral turpitude of murder slaves could purchase their own freedom. It is deserves or requires it-the plea is absurd and not known how many slaves existed at the passage of the manumission act. The above corMan's individual relation of creatureship to respondent represents that the liberated slaves God precludes any right over his own life-he continued to attend upon their masters and miscannot possess it. If the civil ruler assumes it tresses as before. Here is another instance of a he usurps, not the right of the subject, but the general and immediate emancipation taking place exclusive right of God. Human life is abso-without any of the bloodshed and turmoil which lutely sacred to all but the Creator himself. Its are predicted so freely by the friends of slavery destruction terminates the moral probation of whenever abolition is talked about. man as a subject of the Divine government, and affects his immortal interests-the very nature of the crime of murder, which is pleaded in vindication of a literal retaliation, thus becomes an argument against it. The nature of the consequences involved, and the awful liability to mistake, in the infliction of an irreparable injury upon the innocent, prove that the power to execute the punishment of death cannot be maintained on any ground of natural right inherent in the individual, or attaching to the office of the Civil Ruler. The penalty of death, for any crime whatever, must, therefore, we think, on every ground, be pronounced unlawful to man. [To be continued.] A NEGRO CALCULATING BOY. At the United States Hotel, yesterday, was stopping a colored boy, named William Marcey, whose extraordinary mathematical powers have greatly astonished all who have witnessed his demonstrations. He will add up columns of figures any length, divide any given sum, multiply millions by thousands within five minutes from the time the figures are given him, and with such exactness as to render it truly wonderful. Yesterday noon, in presence of a party of gentlemen, he added a column of figures, eight in line, and 108 lines, making the sum total of several millions, in about six minutes. The feat was so astounding, and apparently incredible, that several of the party took off their coats, and, dividing the sum, went to work, and in two hours after they commenced, produced identically the same answer. The boy is not quite seventeen years of age; he cannot read nor write, and in every other branch of an English education is entirely deficient. His parents reside in Kentucky, near Louisville.-Cincinnati Gazette. The wise man is cautious, but not cunning; judicious, but not crafty; making virtue the measure of using his excellent understanding in the conduct of his life.-W. Penn. THE SOLDIER OF THE CROSS. O'er many a battle-field; With sword, and spear, and shield. Oft times he saw a comrade go To share a peaceful home, And much that soldier wondered why A rest far sweeter for thy toils,} Thy long and blest repose, When from the last unequal fight, A conqueror through Immanuel's might, |