The Sun.
London, England, 1832-03-22 00:00:00

(No. 12,332.)

LONDON, THURSDAY EVENING, AI ARCH 22, 1832.

CRAVEN ARMS COMMERCIAL HOTEL AND
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PRINCIPLES OF THE CRIMINAL LAW

IRVING THE SECOND.

OF SCOTLAND.

TO THE EDITOR OF THE SUN.

BY ARCHIBALD ALISON, ADVOCATE.

Sin,-You are, no doubt, pretty well acquainted with
the proceedings of the Rev. Mr. Irving, but his extra.
vagances will soon be thrown completely into the shade by
Air. Baxter, an attorney in this town, who it is generally
bel'eved, was alluded to in the Times on Friday week,
under the designation of an •' inspired attorney from
Yorkshire," and who is there described as having broken
in upon the service in Mr. Irving's chapel eight or nine
times in the course of the morning and evening. Mr.
Baxter was a few months ago a strenuous supporter of the
church, and published a reply to Mr. Beverley's letter to
the Archbishop of York ; but he has now seceded from
the church, and openly denounces it. He has for several
weeks past :been in the habit of reading and explaining
the scriptures in different rooms in the town, which are
generally crowded to excess—large numbers being drawn
to hear him, doubtless, from the novelty of his expositions:
and it is generally understood that he has brought several
persons into his own way of thinking—amongst the rest
a clergyman of the church residing in the neighbourhood.
I have copied from my notes part of his explaation of the
Bth of Revelations on Friday evening last; and as it par-
takes more of a political than a religious character, you,
perhaps, may be induced to give it a place in the Sun.
Mr. Baxter, after reading the Sth chapter of Revela-
tions, remarked that the Book of Revelations was divided
into three parts. The first contained the addresses to the
seven Churches. The opening of the seals (setting out
the state of the visible Church from the time of Christ
going up into glory to the day when he would cast it off,
and bring in the church spiritual) was the second part.
The third part was the setting forth of the state of the
church spiritual, which the Lord is now about to reveal on
the earth ; for the Lord, because of the sins of the visible
church, has cast it off; and because the visible church has
quenched the spirit of the Lord, and committed abomina-
tion, he has taken his spirit from it. This third part of
the Book of Revelations was that to which all must take
heed, because it is that which is now fulfilling on the
earth. It is said when the 7th seal was opened there was
silence in Heaven for the space of half an hour. This si-
lence was the bringing in of the third part of the book—
the bringing in of the prophecy of the two witnesses, as
described in the 11 th chapter—the time of driving the
woman into the wilderness, as described in the 12th
chapter—the time of the two beasts, as described in the
13th chapter—the time of the lamb standing on Mount
Sion, as described in the 14th chapter; and in these
chapters would be found all that the Lord has to do within
the three years and a half' into which we have now en-
tered. The sounding of the trumpets indicated the laying
down of the Protestant part of Christendom, which yet
ho'ds the pure form of godliness: while the Papal part and
the infidel part have wholly departed not only from the
spirit of godliness, but also from the form of godliness.
The " third part" alluded to in the chapter, as being de-
strayed, was the Protestant part, where the judgment of
God must begin, because the Protestant part having the
farm of godliness denied the power ; and, because the
people of God are deceived by the form of godliness, which
is in the Protestant part, God will break in pieces and de-
stroy the form of godliness, because it slays the souls of
the people. The workings of Satan might be seen in
Popery and Infidelity ; but when Satan came clothed with
the Protestant forms of godliness, which are pure—when
he came as an angel of light, having the form of godliness,
who could know him ? If he had crept in under the form
of godliness, was it not time for the Lord to arise and
strip him of his garments, that the people might be no
longer deceived? Mr. Baxter then alluded to popery and
infidelity. The infidel he described as satan's servant ;
the papist was also satan's servant, but under a form more
like to christianity. Every one had heard of the cruelty
exercised by the papists over the children of God--of
their murders, racks, tortures, inquititions, prisons__
they had been as a mountain sitting on the breasts
of the people of the Lord to weigh them down to
the earth. But there was another inquisition, ano-
ther torture, another slaying of the people of God,
another mountain lying over the people of the Lord.
This was in the Protestant part of Christendom. Had
not the spirit been quenched in the Protestant churches ?
Wius it not quenched in the mass of those that are called
Protestant? Assuredly it was. Not only had this spirit
of the Lord been quenched, but more had been done.
When there had arisen in congregations men to speak
what had been done ? They had been persecuted, borne
down. This was worse than putting to death, for while
the Papists lay the body on the rack, they could not touch
the soul ; but they who quenched the spirit were slaying
the soul. For this it was that the Lord would first arise
on the Protestant part of Christendom—for this would
this nation be judged. Mr. Baxter then, in allusion to
the earthquake mentioned in the sth verse, said the falling
of the French nation into infidelity was that earthquake
which was necessary to divide Christendom into three
parts : for before the French fell into the infidel form it
was built up in the old Papal form. When the late King
fell, and the present King came to the throne, the nation
cast off the Papal religion, and became infidels. They
have no national religion, and the nation is an infidel
nation. The Papal and the Protestants parts were well
known ; and Christendom was now divided into three
parts for the sounding of the trumpets. They belong to
this land, because this land is the Protestant part of
Christendom. The first trumpet is the destruction of the
civil state of the nation ; the 2d, of the military ; the 3,1,
of the ecclesiastical; the 4th, of the regal ; the sth, the
desolation of the Church in the nation ; the 6th, the send-
ing the sword of civil war through the nation, and the
breaking down of the state; the 7th, the going of the
saints into glory. Within three years and a-half all these
will be blown—within three years and a-half will all be
fulfilled on the earth.

BLACKWOOD, EDINBURGH; AND CADELL, LONDON, 1832

This is a book which deserves notice, not
merely on account of its practical use, but by
reason► of its tendency to advance the science of
jurisprudence. A complete digest of the
criminal code of a country, which is not a mere
compilation from statutes and cases, but a phi-
losophical arrangement of legal principles, is cal-
culated to do good service towards the purifying
and rationalizing of the criminal law of that
country ; and in this point of view the utility
of the work to England, is not less than to
Scotland. Without a comparison of systems
of law, the science of jurisprudence cannot exist,
any more than surgery can flourish without a
knowledge of comparative anatomy. Mr. Ben-
tham is said to have made himself master of
every existing legal system, before his invaluable
writings made their appearance, but, of the
Herculean difficulty of such a task, few can be
aware, who do not know the voluminous mass
of books in which the laws of most countries
are to be found, and that only by diligent
search. So far as regards Scotland, there was
great need of a work like the present, and though
our limits debar us from giving even a synopsis of
its contents, we cannot forego the occasion of
recommending to professional, as well as un-
learned readers, the best Digest of the Criminal
Law of Scotland within our knowledge, and
one that is unincumbered with the obsolete and
superfluous matter with which such works too
often abound. Baron Hume's celebrated work,
besides being somewhat antiquated, has lost much
of its applicability to the business of the Courts,
and can hardly compete in utility with the pre-
sent volume, which contains above a thousand
unreported cases, and above five hundred deci-
sions upon analogous points in English practice.
It is the first volume, being complete in itself on
the subject of crimes, and the second volume,
which will be a separate work, is intended to
embrace the subjects of indictment, trial, and
evidence.

The following extract from the chapter on
it:nominate offences, will afford a specimen of
Mr. Alison's style.

" By the common law every new crime, as it succes-
sively arises, becomes the object of punishment, provided
it be in itself wrong, and hurtrul to the persons or pro-
perty of others.
" In the particulars above stated, the great and ruling
distinction between the Scotch and English law is to be
found, and from it the superior mildness and humanity of
our practice has arisen. In England the powers of the
common law do not extend in the general case beyond a
misdemeanour, and all the serious crimes, and almost all
the modern offences, are the subject of legislative enact-
ments. The consequence is, that their statutes, made on
the spur of the moment, and frequently at the suggestion
of interested or suffering parties, are, in general, characte-
rized by excessive severity; and the Judges, having no
power to modify the penalties, find themselves constrained
to pronounce the pain of death on numerous offenders
wholly unworthy of so extreme a punishment, and who, as
a matter of course, are afterwards pardoned. In Scot-
land, on the other hand, where the powers of the common
law are more extensive, and we have been less afflicted,
till recent times, with the fever of legislation, new delin-
quencies, as they have successively arisen, have fallen under
the coercion of the common law, and thence they have been
not only visited at first with a milder punishment than
those ordained in the sister kingdom by the supreme au-
thority of the legislature, but the criminal practice has
been softened by the increa,ing humanity of successive
times, and accommodated itself to the ideas and necessities
of more civilized ages. Hence, while the capital crimes
of England are still, notwithstanding the enlightened efforts
of recent legislation, nearly 300, those of Scotland are not
yet 50, of which more than a half have originated with
the British Parliament."

Mr. Baxter on a previous occasion said, that the " three
years and a-half" commenced on the 14th of January in the
pre•ent year so that according to his statement, Christ will
make his appearance in the heavens in July, 1835!!! As an
authority for this, Mr. Baxter quotes the 2d verse of the 11th of
Revelations, wherein occur the words " forty and two months:"
but how he discovered that the forty and two months"
commenced on the 14th of January last is a complete mystery.
The following verse mentions " two witnesses," who are to pro-
phecy " a thousand two hundred and threescore days, clothed
in sackcloth." These two witnesses Mr. Baxter has stated to be
on the earth, but he does not name them.

GENERAL REGISTRY.

TO THE EDITOR OF THE SUN.

SIA—I have perused carefully the long letter of your corre-
spondent T. B. regarding this matter. In imitation of the spirit
with which he has addressed the Committee, I, too, would wish
to avoid thrusting myself officiously forward, yet as I have a
thorough knowledge of the Registers of Scotland (being, in
truth, occupied about them every day), and have also a little ac-
quaintance with the state of real property in England, and the
laws by which that property is at present regulated, I trust the
following observations, by way of reply to T. B's letter, will not
be deemed intrusive. He founds chiefly upon fears, but I shall
endeavour to state facts.

T. 8., to a certain extent, labours under a mistake, in sup.
posing that a general registry is a novelty, and that local re-
gisters prevail generally out of England. We take consider-
able credit to ourselves as a nation on account of the perfect
state of our system of registration, which is general, and is
centered in Edinburgh, the Keepers of the local public registers
being merely collectors, who transmit periodically to the gene-
ral register house, Edinburgh, the whole deeds registered with
them, and there they are retained for ever after, not as the
public records of any particular district, but as the property of
the kingdom at large, for such, in truth, they are, and ought to
be considered. A general register for Scotland is also kept in
Edinburgh, so that parties have it in their option either to re-
gister their deeds in it, or with the district collectors, and if
there were any great advantage to be derived from the latter
plan, we surely would have found it out long ago ; but instead
of this being the case, parliamentary returns lately made spew
to demonstration, that at least two-thirds of the whole deeds
registered in our public registers are sent to Edinburgh at the
expense of the parties, while the remainder are scattered
throughout the local registers, which, as I said before, are pe-
riodically (i. e. once a year at least) transmitted to Edinburgh.
The reason of this selection is obvious. What man would wil.
finely have his private transactions made the gossip of a dis-
trict, if he
could avoid
.it ? Where, too, as happens in a great
majority of cases, purchasers and lenders are to be sought for in
other districts, the advantages of centralization must be appa-
rent. But independent of this, I maintain, that the state of the
law regarding real property in England, will not admit of local
registers. Supposing such a plan were adopted with reference
to direct conveyances, what is to be done with indirect ones
which affect no particular property ? They, at least, would
require to be sent to a general registry, since jou could not
oblige the Officers of the Crown to find out the districts wherein
the estates of its debtors and accountants were situated, and it
would be manifest injustice to lay private creditors, conusees,
&c., under a similar necessity. Here, then, there would, in al;
cases, be two registries to consult, and intending purchasers or
lenders, I have reason to think, would often look upon the
general one as of the most importance. Be that as it may, I

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