trustworthiness in matters requiring minute accuracy, and that is a very important quality for such a task.

We cannot help fancying that Mr. Smallfield loves his subject very much; he seems to have plunged into it very heartily, and to be still thoroughly immersed in it: and we love it too; and therefore it is that we wish him suffici

ent

encouragement to complete and even extend his design. We have never felt the difficulty of the honest boatswain, who wondered what could possibly be the use of so much dry land in the world; neither have we any doubt about the use and the beauty of the rivers by which it is variegated. An acquaintance with them well deserves to be erected into a distinct science. We hail Potamology with a cordial greeting; and welcome it to our studies, parlours, schools, reading rooms, lecture rooms, mechanics' institutes and universities. There is no end to the interest which rivers excite. They may be considered physically, geographically, historically, politically, commercially, mathematically, poetically, pictorially, morally, and even religiously, by which we mean devoutly as well as ceremonially. In the world's anatomy they are its veins, as the primitive mountains, those mighty structures of granite, are its bones. They minister to the fertility of the earth, the purity of the air, and the health of mankind. They mark out nature's kingdoms and provinces, and are the physical dividers and subdividers of continents. They welcome the bold discoverer into the heart of the country, to whose coast the sea has borne his adventurous bark. The richest freights have floated on their bosoms, and the bloodiest battles have been fought upon their banks. They move the wheels of cotton mills by their mechanical power, and madden the souls of poets and painters by their picturesque splendour. They make scenery, and are scenery, and land yields no landscape without water. They are the best vehicle for the transit of the goods of the merchant, and for the illustration of the maxims of the moralist. The figure is so familiar, that we scarcely detect a metaphor when the stream of life and the course of time flow on into the ocean of eternity. Superstition has consecrated and adored their waters, and religion made them its emblem of moral purification, and there is the river of life even among the bowers of Paradise.

We hinted at a method of teaching Geography with which Mr. Smallfield's tabular plan harmonizes. We mean the reverse of the common system, which begins at the wrong end, teaching artificial and political distinctions first, and natural ones afterwards; or rather, perhaps, not at all, save as they are incidentally and therefore very imperfectly acquired. Pure Geography (as the French writers call it) should always be taught first, and made the basis of all the other kinds of knowledge which are usually connected with the term Geography, including the productions of the soil, location of minerals, distribution of animals, demarcation of kingdoms, &c., &c. Having studied the surface of the Globe as nature has shaped, indented, divided, and diversified it, by mountains, rivers, and seas, the mind would come prepared for the other, the less obvious and permanent distributions of its surface, according to which it is mapped out by science, history, and politics. They would be easily superinduced upon the original chart; would be, as it were, only so many different modes of dividing or colouring it; and would be made the more intelligible by their reference to it. A set of Tabular Descriptions, which we hope Mr. Smallfield will go on to produce, would much facilitate this rational mode of teaching Geography; while they would also be exceedingly valuable, and in some measure supply a serious deficiency to those who have been instructed, or are instructing, in the ordinary

ON THE APPLICATION OF UNITARIAN PRINCIPLES TO THE REFOR-
MATION OF CRIMINALS.

WITH the consideration of many of the important moral subjects which
excite the benevolent exertion of the wise and good in the present day,
Unitarian principles seem to be closely connected. Those opinions which
inculcate the belief of the limited duration and reformatory nature of future
punishment, must necessarily exert a beneficial influence on the question of
prison discipline and penal law; and those persons must surely be the best
fitted for the humane management of these momentous and awful subjects
who have a firm conviction of the merciful character and dispensations of
their Creator, and believe that it is his intention finally to save and to bless
every creature which he has thought fit to call into being. They must be
enlightened to know that no mind is created in vain, or is incapable of a
high degree of improvement, or is destined for other than useful and good
purposes by its Maker, before they can be furnished with a spiritual armour
to come into a hopeful contact with misery and vice. When they believe
this, when they feel a strong moral trust that a soul, with all its noble capa-
cities and powers, its intellect and its passions, is not made to be cast away,
however degraded and obscured by the evil direction of its gifts, when they
are solemnly impressed with the truth that God is too good to inflict ever-
lasting or infinite sufferings for any only mortal and finite sins, then, and
not till then, they have those views of his kind and holy and merciful na-
ture, which render them worthy to be entrusted with the regeneration of
their fellow-creatures, or likely to attempt it in the spirit in which alone it
can be successful. They will be benevolent in every thing, because they
believe their Maker to be benevolent, and they will follow the example of
their Saviour in all their treatment of others, because he is the most perfect
example of that benevolence. On this ground they will try all human laws
and customs by the test of a pure and rational Christianity, and approve or
reject them accordingly. They will, in consequence, oppose the punish-
ment of death for offences, because the whole spirit of the Christian Scrip-
tures is opposed to it. The same tribunal will shew them the folly and im-
policy as well as wickedness of all severe or cruel methods of attempting
the improvement of criminals; it will teach them that the mind is not to be
changed by corporeal inflictions, and that there are rights possessed by every
living being which a religious person will respect under all circumstances.
They will try to gain the gratitude and good will of the miserable, by endea-
vouring to reach any virtuous or kindly feeling which remains unextin-
guished, because they understand that it is by good motive and not by me-
chanical effect, that they can secure any certain improvement. They will
be incapable of feeling indignation against offenders, and will be filled with
the purest compassion, because religion teaches them that the natural con-
sequences of sin are in themselves severe suffering, and that only the Being
who reads the human heart is fully able to measure the degree of guilt in
any transgression; whilst they cannot be disheartened in their virtuous ef-
forts, because they look forward in every failure to that great and glorious
result of all evil and misery which will eventually make the existence of
every human being an evidence of the mercy and kindness of God. Nor is
the benevolence of its religious belief the only advantage which the Unitarian
creed possesses over others with respect to criminals. Its clearness and
simplicity make it peculiarly suited for the improvement of the ignorant and
the darkened mind; for it is not by mysterious doctrines or speculative

opinions that the sinner, whose evil habits are strong, can be touched or reclaimed; if opinion at all has any power of reaching such a mind, it must be by instilling the simple principles of the jurisdiction and authority of his Maker, his constant inspection and presence, ence, and such truths as are calculated to make a deep and immediate impression. But is not some preparation necessary to bring the obdurate offender under the influence of benign and salutary impressions? Could we not facilitate this by placing him in circumstances favourable to virtue, to order, and to comfort? Mrs. Fry, in this respect, has shewn her knowledge of the human heart in her attempts at Newgate, and what an Unitarian Christian would have been led to by his religious views, her own good sense dictated to her; it is by the practice, in however small a degree, of kindness and goodness, in witnessing virtuous examples around them, that an idea can be conveyed to the mind of a guilty character of the wisdom and benevolence of the Deity. Their ideas of his attributes are dark and weak, and whatever is remote or theoretical is too refined to influence them. But when they come into immediate contact with a portion of their fellow-creatures whose minds and motives, though greatly superior to their own, they are in some degree capable of understanding, they have a moral standard before them by which to judge of themselves; and if by those persons they are uniformly treated with justice and kindness, they are also to be improved by their grateful feelings; for how few are so hardened as to be totally insensible to benefits humanely conferred !

Now, in this practical and most important change in the habits and feelings of sinners, Unitarianism is an unerring guide; because an Unitarian feels convinced that the great object of the gift of life is virtuous exertion, and the formation of a pure and correct character; for in his view religion is not the understanding of abstruse or confused dogmas, of differing and sometimes contradictory theories, but the perfection of his moral being, the regeneration of his soul, the conflict with sense and temptation, the mastery of his passions, the general improvement, refinement, and sanctification, of his whole character. He knows that the way-faring man, though a fool, cannot err therein; that in making the malicious kind, the cruel tender, the abandoned orderly, he is spreading, in the manner most acceptable to his Lord, the interests of true Christianity; that he is preparing the soil for higher and holier knowledge, and gradually inducing a taste for order and virtue which must precede any capability of true devotional feeling. An Unitarian believes that wherever Christian motives exist and produce Christian virtues, the person who possesses them is a Christian, though he may be mistaken in his speculative belief on many difficult and comparatively unimportant points-points which he considers it of trivial consequence whether they are ever presented to the consideration of any but philosophical or highly cultivated minds.

Now, the Orthodox and Calvinistic creeds are precisely of this abstruse and difficult kind; fitted only to confuse even intelligent and reasoning minds, and often leading them out of their depth into those questions which it has pleased a wise Providence to leave in darkness, and to cover with an impenetrable veil from human curiosity. God has, indeed, revealed himself fully to us in the character of our heavenly Father, in his glorious moral attributes, in the perfection of purity, wisdom, and goodness; these he has mercifully unfolded to the contemplation of the lowest of his rational creatures, but his nature, the mode of his existence, his plans, the wonders of the unseen world, the origin of evil, and many other points, are not revealed truths, nor can any effort of mortal intellect ever attain to them. Supposing for a mo

ment that the Trinity were true, it would still be an unrevealed truth, and, as such, it would be one that has no immediate bearing on moral usefulness or on the actions of human beings. Every thing that our Creator requires of his creatures, as the condition of their happiness or salvation, is explicitly and fully declared. We have line upon line, and precept upon precept. Now the great value of the Unitarian religion is, that it regards this moral code which is given for the daily government of our lives as the most important part of revelation to us, because it is that in which we are called to co-operate with the designs of Providence. The nature of our Saviour, or the nature of the Deity, and such metaphysical questions, we are by no means forbidden to form our conclusions upon, but we are not commanded to learn and comprehend these things: but to love mercy, to do justice, and to walk humbly with our God, are injunctions laid upon all, and which all are called upon to obey. Now, are not these moral obligations peculiarly suited to the poor, the ignorant, or the sinful, who cannot have the restrictions of more abstract and refined considerations to withhold them from wrong? The wicked are generally ignorant. With a child, when we wish to form a religious character, we take his ignorance and childishness into consideration; we begin by endeavouring to form good and useful habits, habits of kindness, of self-denial, of attention to the comfort of others; but we should not expect to succeed if we began by attempting to give him abstract ideas of religion and devotion. No, we are obliged to connect these with his previous associations, to lead him from his love and gratitude to us to the love of the great Giver of all, and even to make many allowances for the confusion and strangeness of his first conceptions of a Supreme Being, and gently and carefully to explain sacred things as he is able to receive them. We open the next world to him in its connexion with this; we unfold to him the probable consequences of a certain course of conduct; we lead him tenderly in the way he should go until he is able to conduct himself, and just such should be our treatment of criminals: they have shewn themselves incapable of self-government; it is then our duty while they are under our care to make the circumstances around them such as shall favour their recovery from sin, and as much as possible deter them from it, without depriving them of individual free-will. If we do the last, in our anxiety to prevent the possibility of crime, we make them into automatons, we render them incapable of acting upon motive, and, in so doing, we destroy their accountableness. Now, this ought to be particularly guarded against, because in destroying practical free-will, we destroy the capability of all improvement; the very thing by which alone any permanent good can be secured; for it is the rectification of the will and the intentions which alone is to be depended on. On this account tread-mills, compulsory labour, and all forced exertion, are to be deprecated, because they are eventually unavailing. The unhappy sufferer must believe that punishment alone is the object in view, without any regard to the interest of society or to his future welfare; but, on the contrary, where these two points are manifestly taken into consideration, equity appears, and the purposes of benevolence are answered. The criminal is instructed, and in time acquiesces in his sentence. But are not all compulsory methods contrary to the example of Christ, and to the spirit of Christianity? Did not he ground all his instructions to sinners on the supposition of an intellectual freedom, a choice between good and evil, a power to obey or disobey? He appeals to their reason, he wishes them to act upon conviction; in every word of his discourses he treats them as rational and accountable beings. By persons of a severe creed this is lost sight of; the criminal is too often regarded as an object deserving only of vengeance, as a sort of moral monster, whose whole will is evil alone, and that continually-who has no right to choose his most indifferent actions, who has forfeited his human rights, who is to be compelled to whatever his keeper approves, who deserves from all around him nothing but contempt, detestation, and avoidance. By punishing and tormenting him here, they think they are doing God service, (as they believe he himself punishes some of them everlastingly in future,) and they easily overcome their natural relentings by persuading themselves it is for the good of society; they forget that, as society is composed of individuals, whatever is the means of raising one mind or saving one human being, is a more certain good to the community, than all the chances of others being influenced by the warning of their sufferings. Why should it be supposed that this will be the case when, in general society, we daily see that it is not, even where the admonition is before their eyes? Do the terrible effects of drunkenness in the loss of health to the individual, in the ruin of families, in the poverty and degradation that ensue, deter others from the crime, even in the same neighbourhood, and with the consequences daily exposed to them? Does even the death of the infatuated man effect this? No, it must be by a principle within, and not by outward fear that the sinner can be restrained; and that principle within must be formed by the inculcation of a purer and better taste, by some idea of virtuous enjoyment, by the instructions of a practical religion, by a living faith, and not an abstract and metaphysical theology. He must be taught that he will bear the results of his own actions, that our Saviour came to save him from his sins by shewing him that repentance (not a mere feeling of sorrow, but the long and difficult process of forming new dispositions and habits) would regain the favour of God-but by no means to exculpate him while remaining in them, however correct his faith may be, from the future and inevitable issues of them. This religious creed gives a man an immediate motive for exertion and endeavours after a renewed life, because he feels it is by the mercy of God a thing put into his own power; while Calvinistic or orthodox views on the contrary, rest so much on a mysterious and heavenly change, that they produce continual deception, give rise to presumption in some, and reduce others to the borders of despair. Hence we may more safely trust to the silent advance of corrected opinions and improving habits, than to religious fervours excited by impassioned addresses to beings more accustomed to be governed by their feelings than their reason. An illustration of this might be found in the sudden conversions in scenes of terror, if the cases were coolly examined. Fear produces a tumult and agitation of mind, which in time must subside into a calm tranquillity, the natural and physical result of over-wrought feeling. This transition is, however, assumed as an evidence of supernatural interposition, and the guilty sufferer readily believes that which is so flattering to his hopes; and hence he is elated with transport by the reaction of his feelings, and the assurances of those who wield the consciences of men, and who even believe they have power to absolve the sinner, and to present him to his Maker, cleared from all imputation of guilt, as a fit object of the Divine approbation, and equally entitled to the rewards held out in the Scripture, as those addressed in the words, "Come, ye blessed of my Father," &c. These views, so false yet so inviting, are not the views that ever will reform sinners, and there is every reason to believe, that the inculcation of them is one cause of the hypocrisy, and affectation of piety and self-abasement, to cloak evil designs, which is known to have prevailed in some prisons, and which has driven some persons to the conviction that the prisoners are incapable of receiving religious impressions. They certainly are incapable of