allude to Lord Erskine, without gratifying myself by saying of him, that by the rare union of all that was learned in law with all that was lucid in eloquence, by the singular combination of all that was pure in morals with all that was profound in wisdom, he has stamped upon every action of his life the blended authority of a great mind and an unquestionable conviction. I think, Gentlemen, you will regret the failure of such a man in such an object. The merciless murderer may have manliness to plead; the highway robber may have want to palliate; yet they are both objects of criminal infliction: but the murderer of connubial bliss, who commits his crime in secresy; but the robber of domestic joys, whose very wealth, as in this case, may be his instrument; he is suffered to calculate on the infernal fame which a superfluous expenditure may purchase. The law, however, is so, and we must only adopt the remedy it affords us. In your adjudication of that remedy, I do not ask too much when I ask the full extent of your capability how poor, even so, is the wretched remuneration for an injury which nothing can repair; for a loss which nothing can alleviate! Do you think that a mine could recompense my client for the forfeiture of her who was dearer than life to him? "Oh had she been but true, : Though Heav'n had made him such another world He'd not exchange her for it." I put it to any of you, what would you take to stand in his situation? What would you take to have your prospects blasted, your profession despoiled, your peace ruined, your bed profaned, your parent's heart broken, your children parentless? Believe me, Gentlemen, if it were not for those children he would not come here to-day to seek such remuneration; if it were not that, by your verdict, you may prevent those little innocent defrauded wretches from wandering beggars as well as orphans on the face of this earth. Oh, I know I need not ask this verdict from your mercy; I need not extort it from your compassion; I will receive it from your justice. I do conjure you, not as fathers, but as husbands; not as husbands, but as citizens; not as citizens, but as men; not as men, but as Christians: by all your obligations, public, private, moral, and religious; by the hearth profaned, by the home desolated, by the canons of the living God foully spurned ! Save, oh! save your fire-sides from the contagion, your country from the crime, and perhaps thousands yet unborn from the shame, and sin, and sorrow, of this example. [The Jury found for the plaintiff-Damages, Five Thousand Pounds.] LETTERS ΟΝ PUBLIC-HOUSE LICENSING; SHOWING THE ERRORS OF THE PRESENT SYSTEM; (ORIGINALLY PRINTED IN THE TIMES NEWSPAPER.) TOGETHER WITH A PROPOSAL FOR THEIR CURE. BY A MAGISTRATE FOR MIDDLESEX. LETTERS ON PUBLIC-HOUSE LICENSING. SIR, TO THE EDITOR OF THE TIMES. No subject of internal economy is so meddled with by the government, so fettered by legal restrictions, so subjected to the arm of power, as the dealing out of beer and other liquors. With such unusual restraints upon the accustomed course of trade, it might be expected, that the avowed end of repressing drunkenness would be at any rate arrived at; but, on the contrary, if we are to credit the report of the Southwark magistrates, drunkenness and its attendant crimes are on the increase in an alarming degree. A respectable and intelligent member of that body, Mr. Wissett, repels this opinion, in a recent publication; but there is no doubt that the evil exists to a considerable extent, and that it would be very desirable to curtail its limits. In this all will agree: but while one party runs full tilt at the question, and after teazing the victualler with ever-changing regulations, which it were impracticable to follow, hits on the radical cure of not licensing any house, which has either "communication with the street" or "back door." Another party, witnessing the folly of these ordinances, is for doing nothing. Both courses are erroneous. It is chimerical to attempt the extermination of |