therefore, Sir, now call upon you, to co-operate with us in our efforts, to restrain the young people in Reading, from the breach of the Sabbath. It is with concern we mention, that our streets exhibit on that day, crowds of boys engaged at marbles, pitch-penny, and other sports and plays, while our ears are frequently wounded, with dreadful oaths and curses. It is surely a very singular fact, that children who can scarcely otherwise utter a syllable in English, are yet perfectly skilled in all the variety of impious and blasphemous expressions which that language can afford. In our sincere apprehension, there is not so much tumult and uproar-so much gross prophanity, and indecent violation of the Sabbath, exhibited in all the streets of Philadelphia, as in the small borough of Reading; a circumstance that reflects equal discredit upon the police of our town, and the religious character of its inhabitants. We have determined therefore, that we will no longer remain indifferent spectators of such conduct; and have come to a resolution, to go as far as the laws will support us, in putting a stop to it. For this purpose, we shall order the constables to patrole the streets on Sunday, (to begin on Sunday the 30th day of this month) with authority to apprehend all persons, that may be found guilty in the premises, that they may be dealt with as the law requires.

We do assure you, Sir, we wish not to give offence to any body. Nor is it our desire to see any person punished, much less the young. It is far more agreeable to us, to prevent the commission of crimes, than to punish them. You will therefore observe, we have fixed upon so distant a day, as Sunday the 30th of the month, for the execution of the law, in hopes that your notifying your congregation of it, (which we request you will do) joined to your pious exhortations to parents and masters, to restrain their children and apprentices, may be the means of producing the intended reformation, without obliging us to have recourse to the harsher correction of the law.

If we sustained no other relation to society, than merely that of public magistrates, yet we should rejoice to see the doctrines and principles of Christianity univer

sally prevail; because we are persuaded, they are the only solid ground of all morality, and consequently of good government. Righteousness exalts a nation; but sin is a reproach to a people, and leads not less certainly to national ruin and destruction, than to individual misery, both here and hereafter. We are,

Sir, &c. &c.

No. X.

SENTENCE OF DEATH,

PASSED ON BENJAMIN BAILY, IN NOVEMBER 1797,

FOR THE MURDER OF JOST FOLHAFER.

You

You have had a fair and impartial trial. The witnesses have been examined in your presence. selected your own jury, and have been ably and zealously defended by your counsel. When we see a man, under such circumstances, sent out of the world, in the administration of justice, it must be guilt alone, that bears him down. The evidence on the trial, made so strong an impression, as to combine in one sentiment against you, the court, the jury, and the bye-standers.

As you have but a short time to live in this world; and there is no hope of pardon, from any earthly hand, let me urge you to seek a pardon from above.

It is the consolation of the wretched, and the guilty, that God is infinitely merciful. But it should be remembered, that he is merciful, not to him who continues in the practice of sin, but to him only who repents, and utterly forsakes it.

Be assured, the question is not, Whether you must repent of your sins? That is certain, sooner or later. But the question is, Whether it is not betler to repent in this world, where your repentance may be attended with the happiest effects, than to repent hereafter, when it will answer no other end, but to increase your torments?

You have been guilty of murder in its most horrid form-deliberate-cruel-and remorseless. You have imbrued your hands in innocent blood, for the sake of a

little money. And though the water of the mountain hath washed the stain from your garments, and from your hands, yet oceans of water can never wash away the stain of guilt from your conscience. Nothing can possibly do this, but the efficacious, and all-cleansing blood of a SAVIOUR. To this blood you must apply, as the only remedy for a soul polluted with sin.

Be advised, therefore, immediately—anxiously—and solicitously to set about the great duty of repentance, and working out your salvation with fear and trembling. You have not a moment to lose-exert yourself-and you have never prayed before, strive to pray now for the first time; for prayer is the very breath of heaven-and without it, there is no religion-no repentance-no pardon on earth.

if

Weep over your sins-and if you cannot so much as look up to heaven, perhaps with downcast eyes, smiting your breast, you may both feel and express the fervent wish of the publican.

Weep, I say, over the blood of Folhafer; for if you go out of the world, with his blood in your conscience, it will wring your soul with never-ending agonies and horror.

You die an early victim to public justice, and are cut off in the morning of your days. But to him who is pardoned by his God, it is of no importance, whether his days be few, or many. Nor is any life sufficiently long, though it be extended to a thousand years, which is spent in scenes of guilt and folly, and at the close of which, the unhappy man is found unreconciled to his God.

To conclude. Let me earnestly advise and beseech you to send for some pious clergyman, and to converse freely with him, on your present wretched situation, and more alarming prospects. And who knows, but thro' the blessing of God on your endeavours, you may be presented without spot or blemish, before the throne of the Lamb, and shine hereafter, among the spirits of just men made perfect in the realms of ineffable glory and felicity. The sentence which the law prescribes, and which this conrt awards, is this-, &c. &c.

FINIS.

No. XI.

ON DUELLING.

[DELIVERED AT READING, BEFORE THE GRAND JURY OF BERKS COUNTY, Nov. 1802.]

Gentlemen of the Grand Jury,

Ir is is the unerring declaration of holy writ, that "God made man upright, but they have sought out many inventions.”* Ever since the disobedience and apostacy of our first parents, his imagination has been unremittingly on the stretch, to find out some new scheme of gratifying his passions, at the expence of moral duty; and so successful have been his efforts in exploring the unhallowed scenes of guilt and folly, that it may be fairly questioned, whether at this period of the world, any possible mode of sinning against his Creator, hath been left undiscovered. All the duties of the decalogue, that rule of everlasting righteousness, have been transgressed in so many thousand shapes, that it would seem to exceed the compass of human sagacity to add a single vice. to the black catalogue. Instead of obedience to the first and great commandment-supreme love to his Creator, the ruling passion of every perfect mind-daily experience evinces, that he loves every other object better. Instead of loving his neighbour as himself, the great precept of the second table, we see him continually violating the rule of eternal justice, of doing to others as he would wish they should do to him; and instead of extending the hand of benevolence to the relief of his fel

Eccles. vii. 29.

low-creatures, we behold him too frequently extending the arm of destruction, at the merciless call of pride, revenge, avarice or ambition. But among all the deviations from moral rectitude-among the innumerable ways of oppugning the laws of GOD, which the depraved ingenuity of man has invented, it hath been reserved for modern manners, to discover and to introduce, the most singular, the most extraordinary, and the most unaccountable, that ever disgraced a Christian country; I mean the custom of DUELLING.

It is not my design, Gentleman, to give an historical account of the rise and progress of duelling-it would be at this time, altogether superfluous. It is sufficient for my present purpose to insist, that it is illegal-that it is immoral-that it is irrational-and that it is impious.

As murder, in contemplation of Law, essentially consists in deliberately killing a fellow creature, it is obvious where death ensues in a duel, that it is, generally speaking, the most aggravated species of murder; because it is accompanied with every circumstance of cool preparation, that a spirit of revenge can dictate. In such extreme abhorrence does our law justly hold this offence, that not only the principal, that is, he who actually kills the other, is guilty of murder, but his second also; because he takes part with him, and by his presence, becomes a principal in the first degree. Nor is it any extenuation of the crime, that the person killing, was first struck by the deceased, or that he had often declined to meet him, and was at last prevailed upon to do it by importunity, or that he only intended to support his reputation, or that he meant only to disarm his adversary. These, and all such frivolous excuses are of no avail, in any case where the fighting happens after such a lapse of time, that there is ground to believe, the violence of the passions had subsided. By the common law, barely sending a challenge, though no fighting ensue, is a misdemeanor punished by fine and imprisonment. More effectually, however, to discourage and check this vice, a special law of our state has provided, that the person