in France, is laughed at as "the mere affair of a sofa;" in England, its penalty is a black eye or so, and half a crown a week; in the Orient, it is a matter of course; in the Southern States, it is a legal and very peculiar institution; and in New-England it is a fearful crime; and yet is, notwithstanding, a very fashionable vice, in spite of bolts and bars; one, too, that has lately stained not a few preachers of the gospel. Adultery, so far as individuals are concerned, is, except in rare instances, a thing of terrible moment; but, alas! the very ones who make the most noise about it, denounce it the loudest and prosecute the sinners most grievously, are the very ones who are particularly weak in that direction themselves. Many a judge has left the bench, wherefrom he had just sentenced some weak one to long years of penal servitude, to revel in a wanton's arms!
Individuals are governed by personal laws and influences; but society, community, the mob, develope an "opinion" or "sentiment," before which all charitable, just, or personal considerations vanish and are forgotten. Many a jury, if individual preferences were allowed scope, would free the culprit whom the "twelve" consign to dungeon or the gibbet. This is material force! Again: A fellow hires himself out as a soldier, to commit homicide as often as he can;—goes out; does so; comes back, after making a dozen or two,—perhaps a hundred orphans;—settles down in life, beneath his "laurels," lives to a good old age, dies, and goes to—hell,—I think, with ne'er a pang or qualm of conscience. Why? Because the community smiles on him and sustains, as a mass, the very thing—man-killing—that every one of them, taken singly, condemns and must ever disapprove.
