that the lines should be straight and even, but it is equally necessary that the thickness of them should also be determined and known. A single spider's thread may subtend an optical angle of a second, or more, according to its thickness, and the instrument of which it forms so important a part; and the neglect of such a quantity would create confusion among the astronomers as to the magnitude of the sun, moon, and planets.

Other improvements have also been made. By a peculiar system of lines, which the superintendent has contrived and adapted to his instruments, the observers are enabled to dispense with an assistant-a curious achievement, which makes the web of a spider do the work of a man! The great Bessel, in his "Zone Observations," the most extensive catalogue ever made, was assisted by the "brave" Argelander, who read the instrument and recorded while the other observed. By the Washington arrangement, the same person observes, reads, and records. Bessel, with the aid of his assistant, could observe three stars per minute; Lieut. Maury, by his arrangement, can observe two stars in a minute without an assistant, and with a greater degree of accuracy, if, (as we believe was the case,) the Konigsburg instrument was read with but one microscope-as the Washington observers read with six microscopes, the mean of which is likely to afford the most accurate result.

We have been led into making more detailed remarks than was intended at the outset of this article, upon some of the subjects embraced in the volume before us, from the consideration that this important establishment is rather a novelty in our country, and that its present publication is the first report of its progress to the public. Several other observatories are now, or will soon be, in operation. We approve highly of the present plan of having this one of the observatories a naval institution, under the management of navy officers; yet we think that its organization is susceptible of one improvement. It should be separated from the Bureau of Ordnance, and called the Bureau of Longitude and Hydrography. A bill for this purpose was reported from the naval committee at the last session of Congress, by unanimous consent. We hope to see this bill become a law. The English and French governments, with the foresight and prudence worthy of great mar itime nations, practice in this respect upon the advice of General Washngton, and "in peace prepare for war," by causing their appropriate bureaux to be constantly collecting hydrographical information-to publish such parts as the interests of commerce require, and to reserve that which would be exclusively useful for naval operations in the event of war. With squadrons cruising in every sea, we have not profited by the advantages thus presented, principally from the want of a bureau specially organized for the purpose. Every attentive observer of passing events must be aware that some of our recent naval operations would have been successfully promoted had such a bureau existed but a single year back. But chiefly from the want of such hydrographical information as it would have been the business of the proposed bureau to furnish, we have seen a commanding of ficer of acknowledged ability, energy, and gallantry, unable to secure for some of his efforts the success they deserved.

Another important duty for this bureau would be the construction of the American Nautical Almanac, a useful and necessary work, which has been recommended to Congress by the present popular and judicious Secretary of the Navy, who so well understands the real wants of the service, and for which the observations already made at this naval observatory afford ample materials.

CAPITAL PUNISHMENT."

It is evidence of the progress of a humane and enlightened spirit in our state legislation, that at the last session of our Legislature, four out of a committee of five, appointed to consider the subject of the death penalty, reported in favor of its abrogation. The report, prepared by Mr. Titus, Chairman of the Committee, is an able condensation of the proofs and arguments furnished by the various advocates of the reform, with views and comments by the committee, which give them additional force. It was the misfortune of this document to have been presented late in the session; too late to produce that crowning result it is so well calculated to enforce. This we know was not the fault of the committee, who earnestly desired the action of the Legislature, had an affirmative vote been practicable. But it was early apparent that members, studious of their interests in the ordinary concerns of politics, were reluctant to commit themselves on either side of a question of such perilous uncertainty, as whether the humanity of their constituents might be superior to their prejudices. There was the ordinary disposition to engage in merely political discussions, and to adopt measures for the physical improvement rather than the moral welfare of the State.

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Greater agitation of the public mind was required, before the voice of philanthropy, uplifting the injunction, THOU SHALT NOT KILL," Could be made to penetrate the obtuse ears of those common legislators, who have no better test of public opinion, than popular excitement and cla

mor.

The committee, therefore, did well to submit their report, even at a late hour of the session, though hopeless of the action of the Legislature. It is a response to numerous petitions, which shows that the white flag still towers above the red from the top of the capitol. It will aid the progress of a just and enlightened sentiment, which will, in the end, command the obedience of those legislators, who consider that as justice is mythologically represented with bandaged vision, they the better obey her mandates, by shutting their eyes and ears against experi

ence.

We hope we shall not be required to continue the discussion of this subject beyond the sitting of the Legislature, which is about to convene. The people have instructed their representatives upon it with a potency hardly short of the warning voice of revolution. The law of blood is virtually inoperative. Every test by which the awful conclusion of the punishment is to be reached, is rendered so uncertain, that murderers, unless withheld by other terrors than those of the law, would sooner take a life than commit a forgery, or a larceny. Whether frozen judges, or dogmatic Christians, or unsympathising statesmen, may be able to appreciate it or not, it is evident, in the result of almost every trial for murder, that jurors can no longer hold the scales of judgment with an even hand, when one man's blood is to be weighed against another's. They evidently incline toward the living being with a force of sympathy which perverts their reason, and brings them to conclusions which astound

Report from the Select Committee on the subject of Capital Punishment. In Assembly, May 4, 1846.

every mere looker-on, whose opinion does not stand under the responsibility of a life.

We have heard of several men strongly in favor of the gallows, whose opinions have been changed, when called to assume the responsibilities of jurors in capital cases. The writer of this theorised in favor of capital punishments, when a student of books, until compelled to change his convictions from his experience with men. He has so often witnessed the success of those legal tragedians who, in the living drama, where life is at stake, can, with the angel of mercy at their side, appeal to the sympathies of men with so much greater force than the public prosecutor, whose imagination struggles against the horrors of the cord and the gibbet, that he has been forced to the conclusion that the law must be changed, so that mercy may be on the side of justice.

And can there be an instance of grosser infatuation than that which possesses the opponents of this reform? One would think, if they did not yield to considerations of benevolence and mercy, and to their fears of punishing the guiltless, they would be persuaded, when it is so clearly apparent, that they aid in the escape of the guilty! And although they argue that it is against the Christian religion, and the spirit of our institutions, that murder should pay any other penalty than that of blood, are they not rebuked into silence by the fact, that human nature, under the subduing influences of both, revolts at the required forfeiture, and prefers to encounter any obloquy rather than pronounce the fatal verdict?

Nothing is clearer than the immediate necessity of this reform. When a human life is at stake, it is evident that the minds of jurors become distempered and unsettled, and they rush to any conclusion, however irrational and absurd, rather than pronounce the doom of a fellow-being. Many recently occurring cases are full of considerations severely painful to the philanthropist, who looks for justice in that certainty which is foiled by the severity of the law. The cases of Ezra White and Polly Bodine, in this state, of Tirrell, in Massachusetts, of Myers, in Virginia, of Selby, in Kentucky, of Spencer, in New-Jersey, are sufficient to illustrate the principle. Whatever differences there may be in these cases, it is evident that there is, throughout the Union, but little terror in the law of murder, while the arbitrament of juries may be looked to, to extract its force with almost as much certainty as the metallic rod disdains the thunder.

It is to be considered, that the terrors of the sanguinary law have rendered the rules for choosing jurors so peculiar, that in this state a jury can only be chosen, in strongly contested cases, with great difficulty, and at an enormous expense. By the arts of the counsel for the prisoner, the jury, when so chosen, is rather likely to be of the feeblest, than of the firmest judgment, and to have predilections, or strong sympathies for the accused, and prejudices against the law. Under these circumstances, it is not surprising that every murderer has the strongest hopes, and society the greatest fears, while the law remains unchanged.

We could have hoped that our republic would have punished, in the different States, the earliest examples of cultivating a tenderness of human life, even in the penal statutes. Proceeding, as our government do, upon the basis of a confidence in human nature, there are, nevertheless, those amongst us, who distrust the appeal of mercy and humanity to the motives and passions of men. We have waited till monarchical governments have led the way successfully in this grand and elevating experi

ment.

There are pyramids of proof, all tending in the direction of faith, hope and charity, and yet we hesitate! Michigan has, however, taken the lead in purifying her statutes from the stain and the smell of blood; and it is hoped that New-York, although having lost the honor of being first in this work, will be able to advance to the second place, by the aid of those hesitating spirits who can better comprehend the light of an example, than see or feel the force of a principle.

We shall avail ourselves of the next number of the Review, to give a synopsis of the argument of the Legislative report, with a few additional

comments.

POLITICAL PORTRAITS WITH PEN AND PENCIL.

HON. EDMUND BURKE.

THE career of few men affords a better illustration of the fostering tendency of republican institutions, than is to be drawn from that of Edmund Burke, now Commissioner of Patents.

His family, of Irish origin, as indicated by the name, originally resided in the town of Westminster, Vermont, situated in the beautiful valley of the Connecticut, where his father cultivated a farm, on which the subject of this sketch was born, on the 23d of January, 1809. The circumstances of the parent, like those of most middling farmers of New-England, were such as to compel him to keep the son at agricultural toil until sixteen years of age, with the exception of the time prior to his fifteenth year, devoted to the exercises of the ordinary country free school of those days. Fortunately for the son, the mind of his parent had, by reading and reflection, become devotedly attached to the theory of government, as expounded by Thomas Jefferson, the reviled by the influential, and nominally wise, of New-England, of those times. He strictly fulfilled the duty of training the mind of his son, which, at sixteen, was sufficiently developed and well-informed to fit him, without any other than this common school and parental education, for commencing the study of law, in the office of the Hon. W. C. Bradley, (of Westminster, Vt.,) who has so long ranked as one of the most enlightened republicans and eminent jurists of New-England.

In the autumn of 1829, and indeed before the close of his twenty-first year, Mr. Burke, having passed the usual examination, was admitted to the bar; and in the following spring commenced the practice of his profession in the wild northern region of the state of New-Hampshire, where, in three years, his experience with men and things, not only taught him much of human nature, but matured his intellect and confirmed his political principles.

In 1833, Mr. Burke removed to Claremont, in the county of Sullivan, (N. H.,) and there established the "New-Hampshire Argus," which, under his management, immediately took rank as one of the first democratic newspapers in New-England. The success of the Argus soon caused its removal to Newport, the shire-town of the county, where it was united with the "New-Hampshire Spectator," a paper then, and for many years previous, of considerable standing among the democratic journals of New-Hampshire; and under the sole editorial direction of

Mr. Burke, the joint establishment took the name of the "New-Hampshire Argus and Spectator." Such was his success in this theatre, that, in 1837, though personally a stranger to the present President of the United States, (then Speaker of the House of Representatives,) and Senator Grundy, he received overtures from these gentlemen, ou behalf of the leading democratic politicians of Tennessee, to remove to Nashville, and assume the editorial charge of the Nashville Union. Mr. Burke, on reflection, having determined to accept this invitation, published his valedictory, which immediately brought forth so strong a remonstrance from his political friends at home, that he gave up the intention of removing to Tennessee.

At the next Congressional canvass he was nominated, and triumphantly elected to the House of Representatives of the United States; and took his seat on the 2d of December, 1839, at the opening of the 26th Congress.

He soon obtained rank in this new field, as a man of a high order of intellect, extensive acquirements, untiring industry, and uncompromising political integrity. The famous debate of 1840, on the Sub-Treasury bill, may be said to have first made the democratic party, out of NewEngland, acquainted with the intellectual powers of Edmund Burke, and to mark him as one of the rising men of the country.

This fruitful theme, opening wide the whole field of political economy, afforded an opportunity for the impression of his influence on the future financial policy of the government. As it fortunately happened, his previous studies had taken the proper turn, his speech, devoted to the elucidation of the difficult problem of fluctuations in prices and wages, and to an exposition of the principles which regulate exchanges, both foreign and domestic, crowned his reputation as a bold and clear headed thinker. He brought all the powers of his searching mind to sustain and illustrate his propositions, which were fortified with an impregnable array of facts and figures, the result of weeks of untiring research. In so doing, he gave to the country an invaluable essay on the principles which regulate prices and wages, and the derangement of the exchanges, legitimately growing out of the speculations of Biddle & Co., which were then so furiously charged as the result of the policy of the administration of Andrew Jackson and Martin Van Buren.

This speech, in making his reputation, also made him a mark for the shafts of the spouters in the federal ranks; and in the first session of the 27th Congress, a Mr. Arnold, of Tennessee, famous for congressional fanfarouades, undertook to attack Mr. Burke, and, unfortunately for himself, at the same time attacked the intelligence and integrity of the people of New Hampshire. In reply, Mr. B. delivered one of the most eloquent, vigorous and caustic speeches of the session; in which, after nobly defending the state of his adoption, and demonstrating by statistical comparisons, the difference in an educational point of view, between New Hampshire and the portion of Tennessee represented by his antagonist, he fell on poor Arnold without mercy. Prior to this occasion, he had taken no notice of congressional assaults on himself, preferring to let them pass at their true value. Afterwards, he had no occasion to defend himself; for this legislative thrashing of Arnold appeared of a sudden to divest gentlemen of his peculiar stamp of all desire to appear witty or zealous at the expense of the New Hampshire representative.

In 1842, he had occasion to approach the tariff question, in an argument supported, as usual, with results of his statistical researches, in connection with the science of political economy. This effort, which won