tecting the informer from infamy: Then se cre calumny is authorized, and punished only when public. The nature of the crime: If actions, indifferent in themselves, or even useful to the public, were called crimes, both the accusation and the trial could never be too secret. But can there be any crime committed against the public which, ought not to be publicly punished?

Public Accusations, says Montesquieu, are more conformable to the nature of a republic, where zeal for the public good, is the principal passion of a citizen, than of a monarchy, in which this sentiment is very feeble from the nature of the govern-, ment the best establishment is that of Commissioners, who, in the name of the public, accuse the infractors of the laws. But in all governments, as well in a republic as in a monarchy the punishment due to the crime of which one accuses another, ought to be inflicted on the informer.

ALFRED'S LAW. See MURDER.

ANECDOTES OF OFFENDERS.

Beccaria.

A Canada merchant, who had been accustomed to ship quantities of oil annually to the London market, finding (as indeed almost every merchant experiences) a constant and uniform deficiency in the quantity landed, greatly exceeding what could arise from common leakage, which his correspondents were quite unable to explain; having occasion to visit London, was resolved to see his cargo landed with his own eyes; so as, if possible, to develope a mystery heretofore inexplicable, and by which he had regularly lost a considerable sum for several years. Determined therefore to look sharp after his property,

he was in attendance at the wharf in anxious expectation of a lighter which had been laden with his oil on the preceding day; and which, for reasons that he could not comprehend, did not get up for many hours after the usual time.

On the arrival at the wharf, the proprietor was confounded to find the whole of his casks stowed in the lighter with their bungs downwards. Being convinced that this was the effect of design, he began now to discover one of the causes at least, of the great losses he had sustained; he therefore attended the discharge of the lighter until the whole of the casks were removed, when he perceived a great quantity of oil leaked out, and in the hold of the vessel, which the lightermen had the effrontery to insist was their perquisite. The proprietor ordered casks to be brought; and filled no less than nine of them with the oil that had thus leaked out. He then ordered the ceiling of the lighter to be pulled up, and found between her timbers as much as filled five casks more; thus recovering from a single lighterload of his property, no less than fourteen casks of oil, that, but for his attendance, would have been appropriated to the use of the lightermen; who, after attempting to rob him of so valuable a property, complained very bitterly of his ill usage in taking it from them. Colquhoun.

The wife of a well known sharper lately upon the town, is said to have appeared at court, dressed in a stile of peculiar elegance, while the Sharper himself is supposed to have gone in the dress of a clergyman. According to the information of a noted receiver, they pilfered to the value of 700l on the King's birth-day (1795) without discovery or suspicion. Ibid.

An officer of police who waiting the hour of a

noted

noted receiver, in St. James's Street, being taken for a thief by the watchman the latter entered into conversation with him, and naming the receiver, he told the officer that he being very liberal and kind to them, they did not disturb any person go. ing to his house, and if he had any thing to carry there he would slip out of sight, so as to be able to say he had seen nothing. Ibid.

In August, 1792, a Jew was ordered to take his trial for a rape, committed on a married woman.The offence appeared, on examination, to be extremely aggravated.-The Grand Jury however did not find a bill; which was thought a very singular circumstance, as the proof had been so clear before the magistrate. The reasons were afterwards sufficiently explained; which shew, what corrupt prac tices, artifices, and frauds will be used to defeat the ends of justice :-In consequence of a previous understanding between the Jew and the husband of the woman who had been so grossly abused, a sum of 20l. was left in the hands of a publican, which the prosecutor was to receive if the bill was not found. In this confidence the woman gave a different evidence from that which she had given before the magistrate The Jew, however, cheated hoth the husband and the wife; for he no soonet discovered that he was safe, than he demanded the money of the publican, and laughed at the prosecutor. Ibid.

A merchant of high respectability in Bourdeaux had occasion to visit the metropolis upon commercial business, carrying with him bills and money to a very large amount.

On his arrival at the gates of Paris a genteel looking man opened the door of his carriage, and addressed him to this effect :-Sir, I have been waiting for you some time; according to any notes, you

were

were to arrive at this hour; and your person, your carriage, and your portmanteau, exactly answering the description I hold in my hand, you will permit me to have the honour of conducting you to Mon⚫ sieur De Sartine.

The gentleman, astonished and alarmed at this interruption, and still more so at hearing the name of the Lieutenant of the Police mentioned, demanded to know what Monsieur De Sartine wanted with him; adding, at the same time, that he never had committed any offence against the laws, and that he could have right to interrupt or detain him.

The messenger declared himself perfectly ignorant of the cause of the detention: stating at the same time, that when he had conducted him to Mons. De Sartine, he should have executed his orders, which were merely ministerial.

After some further explanation the gentleman permitted the officer to conduct him accordingly. Monsieur De Sartine received him with great politeness; and after requesting him to be seated, to his great astonishment, he described his portmanteau; and told him the exact sum in bills and specie which he had brought with him to Paris, and where he was to lodge, his usual time of going to bed, and a number of other circumstances, which the gentleman had conceived could only be known to himself.-Mons. De Sartine having thus excited attention, put this extraordinary question to him—Sir, are you a man of courage?-The Gentleman, still more astonished at the singularity of such an interrogatory, demanded the reason why he put such a strange question, adding at the same time, no man ever doubted his courage. Monsieur De Sartine replied," Sir, you are to be robbed and murdered

this night! If you are a man of courage, you must go to your hotel, and retire to rest at the usual hour: but be careful that you do not fall asleep; neither will it be proper for you to look under the bed, or into any of the closets which are in your bedchamber; (which he accurately described);-you must place your portmanteau in its usual situation, near your bed, and discover no suspicion :--Leave what remains to me.-If, however, you do not feel your courage sufficient to bear you out, I will procure a person who shall personate you, and go to bed in your stead."

The Gentleman being convinced, in the course of the conversation, that Monsieur De Satine's intelligence was accurate in every particular, he refused to be personated, and formed an immediate resolu tion, literally, to follow the directions he had receiv ed: he accordingly went to bed at his usual hour, which was eleven o'clock.-At half past twelve (the tine mentioned by Monsieur De Sartine), the door of the bed chamber burst open, and three men entered with a dark lantern, daggers and pistols.-The Gentleman, who of course was awake, perceived one of them to be his own servant.-They rifled his portmanteau; undisturbed, settled the plan of puting him to death. The Gentleman, hearing all this, and not knowing by what means he was to be rescued, it may naturally be supposed, was under great perturbation of mind during such an awful interval of suspense; when, at the moment the villains were preparing to commit the horrid deed, four Police Officers, acting under Mons. De Sartine's orders, who were concealed under the bed, and in the closet, rushed out and seized the offenders with the property in their possession, and in the act of preparing to commit the murder.

The