foever, committed in that city, or in a district furrounding it of ten miles fquare.

The crime of treafon, as it is defined by the conftitution; wilful murders, committed in forts, arfenals, &c. belonging to the Union, or com mitted on board of American veffels in the open feas, or in the feveral roads; the treachery of masters difpofing of veffels or cargoes committed to their charge, for their own profit, or delivering fuch veffels to pirates; a confpiracy of failors to prevent the mafter from defending himself against pirates; piracies committed by citizens of the United States, under foreign colours, on the ves fels or cargoes belonging to the Union, or to citizens of the Union; forging of national fecurities; debafing of money by officers of the mint, or thefts committed by them of gold or filver coin from the mint; theft of money or notes from letters, made by the letter-carriers of the poft offices; and the robbery or opening of the mail on the highways, or the robbery of them in the poft offices, or opening of them by persons not authorised-are crimes punished with death.

Robbery, and the receiving of stolen goods, are punished with whipping, which is never to exceed thirty-nine ftripes; and forging of bills of lading, fhip's books, or regifters, or other fuch documents, are punished with the pillory, and imprisonment

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imprisonment not to exceed more than three

years.

All other crimes and offences against the general government, including dealings in the flave trade, which the laws of the Union prohibit, are punished by fines and imprifonment of various degrees.

Although the criminal jurifprudence of the Union cannot be charged with cruelty, when compared with that of moft ftates of Europe, efpecially England, one is not the less furprised to fee, in a code abounding with the punishments of whipping, the pillory, and death, that fine and imprisonment are the only punishments for the crimes of wilfully flitting the noses, tongues, or ears of a human being.

I cannot prevail on myfelf to believe, that the congrefs will not, ere it be long, infufe into its jurisprudence the benign temper of the legislature of Pennsylvania, whofe example has been followed by many other of the ftates. Independent of the great moral and political motives which recommend that conduct to the federal government, it must at length be moved by the hard and cruel contraft of punishments inflicted in the fame place, and for the same species of crime, according as the fentence happens to be paffed by the tribunals of the federal government, or

thofe

those of the respective states-for the fentence of a federal court is executed in the place where it is paffed. This contraft is painful in an uncommon degree at Philadelphia; where the Union having no prison peculiar to itself, criminals fentenced by the federal courts to imprifonment are confined in the fame prifon with offenders fentenced by the courts of Pennfylvania, but are not permitted to partake of the benefits of the humane and falutary regulations of that state in its prisons.

CIVIL JURISPRUDENCE.

The laws of the Union in civil matters, liké thofe of the feveral ftates, are for the moft part the English laws, accompanied with all the delays and intricacies arifing from complicated and difficult forms. It would be a great benefit conferred on the American people, to fimplify the proceedings, and even many of the principles of the law; and it is a reform fometimes talked of, but the undertaking is great and difcouraging. The lawyers, educated in the principles of this embarraffed code, and accustomed to its practices, would reluctantly change them for others; and it is to be fuppofed the greater part of them are • fo perfuaded of the fuperior excellence of the fyftem, that they would oppofe the introduction B b 3

of

of any other; and it is to be remembered that law fuits, although ruinous to clients, are the harveft of lawyers. This clafs of men compofes much more than half of the legiflature of the Union, as well as of the legiflatures of the different states; and thefe, I am afraid, are too powerful re fons to permit us to hope for any speedy reform in the law.

One of the most remarkable laws of the Union is that relative to flavery; but it may be confidered as fpringing from principles of policy, rather than enlightened reafons of jurisprudence. We have seen that the constitution permitted, till 1808, the importation, in the feveral states, of fuch perfons as, till that period, the feveral fates Should judge it expedient to permit to be imported; and by this defcription the conftitution meant to defignate flaves; which temporary countenance given to the flave trade the conftitution could not openly acknowledge, without an abfurd contradiction of the liberal principles it had premised; nor could it openly prohibit the flave trade, without a certainty of the law being oppofed by the fouthern states. By this By this vague defignation the framers of the conftitution crept out of this embarraffment; and, however grofs the fubterfuge may be, we can fcarcely blame them; fince, while they preferved the exiftence of the

Union at the difficult period when the conftitution was framed, they named a term not far diftant for the extinction of that deteftable traffic.

In 1796, the congrefs paffed a law, prohibiting American veffels to carry flaves, under the penalty of two thousand dollars, and confifcation of the flaves and veffels; and this law, although sometimes eluded, is for the greater part rigoroufly enforced, of which I have feen many instances during my stay in America. . It is even difficult and expensive to elude it; for the Quakers purfue offenders against this law with incredible activity and inveteracy. The merchants who make the attempt muft provide falfe bills of lading, and make oath that the cargo is the property of foreign merchants, and employ others to take the fame oath; and all this is attended with great expence.

A law of 1793, prohibits the giving of an afylum to any perfon engaged to serve another, ordaining a fine to be levied upon all offenders in this cafe, and declaring, that the person who flies from his master shall be liable to be sent back to him. In this law the congress avoided the ufe of the word flaves, although it was to provide against the flight or concealment of flaves that it was paffed, there being little reafon for apprehenfions about domeftics engaged for a term. Bb 4 The