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martial race. Milder occupations may there have been prepared for the gentle and the good; for we apprehend that those persons very much err who conceive the battle and the drunken revel to have constituted the bliss and the constant employment of the hardy sons of the North. Love and friendship, there as elsewhere, exerted their beneficent influence, the arts of peace were far from being unknown, and agriculture engaged a portion of the population. It is really too absurd to see Hume gravely observing, that in the eleventh century the Northerns began to grow acquainted with tillage. From the account of deeds of atrocity committed against strangers and enemies, it is not just to infer a ferocity of domestic manners: when we read of the barbarities committed by a band of Toorkomans or Koords in their forays on a hostile tribe, we might feel disposed to regard them as beings who delight only in the sight of blood and suffering; but view these same men in their camps and families, and their ordinary life will be found to be mild, just and kind. So may it have been with the Northmen; their religion at least appears not to have been a mere sanguinary superstition.

We now take leave of the Eddas and their able expounder. We have already observed more than once, that we think Mr. Magnusen right, in regarding the religion contained in them as chiefly a physical one; but we cannot go the full length with him in his exposition of all the details of the mythi, many of which are, we doubt not, mere fanciful adjuncts, and many perhaps of the legends were composed by men who had no physical phenomena in view. We quoted, in our former article, an excellent passage from Bastholm, to which Mr. Magnusen should, we think, have devoted more attention than he has done. We must, however, acknowledge that our excellent mythologist is never dogmatic, and that he gives to the opinions of others their full weight and authority. A greater fault in him, we conceive, to be the manner in which he forces etymology into his service. Having adopted the opinion that all the various systems of ancient religion were originally one, and that the Goths came from the shores of the Black Sea to the North, he lays hold of the slightest analogies and resemblances in proof of this original identity, and by attempting to prove too much, he really weakens his cause. To us, the religion of the Eddas, with its frost-giants and similar personages, has all the appearance of a religion framed in the north, and in conformity to its aspect and climate; but the migration of the Goths from Asia, though from similarities of language and feature with some of the oriental races, we believe it to be a true, yet we cannot concede to be a

historical event. There is not the slightest allusion to it in the tales of the Eddas, or in the verses of the Scalds, and we much doubt if the Roman literature and Christianity had not visited the North, whether we should ever have seen the early chapters of the Heimskringla. Supposing two nations, speaking kindred tongues, to have framed separate religious systems, on the usual principle of deifying the different parts of nature, may not they have fallen on nearly similar appellations for their gods? In the ancient language of the North, Sól is the Sun, and Vár is the Spring, words almost exactly the same as their Latin equivalents; the same is the case with many Northern words compared with Greek, Persian, and Sanscrit ones. Might not then this sufficiently account for several of the correspondences observed by Mr. Magnusen, without having recourse to the hypothesis of Odin being Buddha, and the religion of the latter having spread from India to Scandinavia? These points we leave to the consideration of those who wherever they perceive a resemblance infer communication.

A more agreeable portion of the extant literature of ancient Scandinavia remains untouched. Its romance, containing the exploits of Sigurd, Helgi, and other warriors, may perhaps on some future occasion furnish us with the materials of what we might hope to prove an interesting article.

ART. V.-Causes Criminelles Célèbres du dix-neuvième siècle, redigées par une Societé d'Avocats. 4 vols. 8vo. Paris.

1828.

It is a very remarkable circumstance, that, in place of increasing in number and variety with the progress of social life and the superaddition of artificial to natural feelings, the causes of crime should actually seem to have diminished, at least in numerical force. It is remarkable, however, only at first sight, or when viewed as an insulated fact; for in reality it forms an unavoidable part of the history of the human race, and agrees in the nicest manner with the context. In the earlier stages of society, to enumerate the incentives to crime was to run over the whole

• Is it not a curious circumstance that one of the Persian tribes, enumerated by Herodotus, should be called riguáno? Mr. Hammer thought at one time he had found, in Mirkhond, Germania as the ancient name of Khowaresm. He was, as he has since acknowledged, misled by the error of the MS. he used, for the true word is Jorjania. As far as we know of him, Mr. Hammer claims no exemption from the common lot, but his slips certainly did not merit the illiberal and indecent strictures lavished on them by Senkowski. He still, however, maintains the Ermân of the Shah Nameh, which lies on the borders of Iran and Turcan, corresponding with Khowaresm, to be the cradle of the Germanic race.

catalogue of human passions; in our era the motives of the robber, the forger, the assassin, nay, the seducer, sometimes, may be all resolved into one. The breach of the Eighth and Tenth Commandments is, at the present day, either the cause or object of almost every other crime. Love, fear, and hate, all the mightier tyrants of our nature, that once ruled the hearts of men and the destinies of the world, are molten into the golden substance of Avarice. The mercenary character of crimes will be found to be in exact proportion to the refinement of the country in which they are perpetrated. In Ireland, for instance, there is more poverty than in England, and her calendar is blotted with more blood; yet there are fewer murders committed there from mercenary motives than in this more civilized country. On the continent, France has the honour of exhibiting in her crimes a much clearer title to that distinction of refinement, which she knows so well how to appreciate, than any of her neighbours.

But even in those parts of the continent nearest resembling England in intellect and activity, we observe a singular difference in the characteristics of crime. The genius of the continental nations has contrived to throw a kind of melodramatic air over their bloodiest deeds; there is a magnificence in the conception, and an exaggerated atrocity in the details, by which our feelings are divided between horror and surprise.

On turning to the first pages of the volumes before us, we find two persons in the station of gentlemen, in order to free themselves from some debts, and become masters of a little property, resolving to murder their friend, a person of consideration and respectability in the place. They lie in wait for him in the street, drag him into a house of public debauchery at an early hour in the evening, place him deliberately upon a table, and cut his throat in the presence of several men and women whom they had engaged, by means of the most insignificant bribes, to assist them. They wrap the body in a cloth, march publicly to the river and throw it in, and then complete the execution of their plan by going openly to the house of the deceased, and, in the presence of his servant, removing the property they coveted. Farther on, a young man, reduced to some pecuniary necessity, without dreaming for a moment of such ordinary modes of relieving himself as going upon the highway or picking pockets, murders his aunt by stabbing her repeatedly in the breast, and cuts off his brother's head, legs, and thighs, which he throws into the river and the streets. But there is sometimes an episode in the romance-an underplot interwoven with the most horrible scenes of the tragedy, which relieves us for the moment of its presence like a well found in the desart. In the first case we have mentioned, for example,

there are two lovers, accomplices of the murderers, who, at the denoument, exhibit feelings which we could hardly conceive to be capable of existing in such circumstances. The girl, who escapes with imprisonment, implores permission to share the fate of her lover who is condemned to die; while he, overwhelmed with grief at his mistress's misfortune, scarcely feels the bitterness of his own. Before presenting to our readers, however, an account of some of the incidents detailed in these volumes, which it is our purpose to do, it will, perhaps, not be considered superfluous if we take a very brief view of the criminal laws and institutions of France as they exist at the present day.

The old system, with its hoary load of corruption and absurdity, was levelled to the dust by the revolution. The fabric erected in its stead, however, in its hastily-placed and incongruous materials, exhibited tokens of the feverish spirit of the time; and it was not till the year 1808, that a Code was promulgated, which, with some unimportant modifications, remains in force to this day.

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It is worthy of remark, that in this celebrated code, the power of prosecuting for offences is left entirely in the hands of the pointed functionaries of the law, who may prosecute or not as they think proper; but this abuse, monstrous and disgusting as it seems in theory, is partially corrected in practice by the power which resides in individuals of summoning a suspected party at once before the judge of police, and thus, at least, of producing a discussion. Article 9 of the Code of Criminal Instruction enumerates the functionaries by whom judiciary police is to be administered. Of these, with the exception of the judges of instruction, who have some discretionary power, the Procureur du Roi in each arrondissement is the chief; he again is governed by the Procureur General of the Court of Appeal, who is himself under the immediate superintendance of the minister.

1. The Court of Simple or Ordinary Police takes cognizance of offences involving no greater punishment than a fine of fifteen francs or five days' imprisonment. It is divided into two different tribunals, one of which, consisting of the mayors of communes assisted by the "juges de paix,” determines on cases occurring in the commune when the accused are taken in the fact, when they are inhabitants of the commune, or when the parties present themselves with their witnesses, demanding no more than the small pecuniary fine. The second tribunal, composed of the Juges de Paix, has charge of the graver offences of this class.

2. The Court of Correctional Police, to which appeals from the above are carried, is held by the inferior judges, "juges de première instance," who take cognizance of offences involving only

a pecuniary punishment, a temporary imprisonment in a house of correction, or the interruption of certain civil or civic rights.

3. The Criminal, or High Criminal Court, is the tribunal for the trial of offences to which a greater punishment is annexed than that of temporary imprisonment. It is held in courts of assize, once a month in Paris, and four times a year in the other departments. It is composed of five members of the Court of Appeal in departments where that court is established; and in other departments, of one member of the Court of Appeal assisted by four judges of the inferior court of the place where the assize is held. In the former case, the Procureur General, or one of his substitutes, fills the place of public accuser: in the latter, the same functions are performed by the Procureur du Roi, or one of his substitutes.

4. The Courts of Appeal, or royal courts, of the members of which the High Criminal Court is chiefly composed, besides other duties, hear appeals from the Court of Correctional Police, and pronounce the "mises en accusation."

5. The Court of Cassation annuls sentences,* judgments,† and decrees, which are attacked on the score of incompetence in the court deciding, or on that of its having exceeded its powers; and for any express contravention of the law, or violation of prescribed forms. But the decree of this court is not itself final; the prisoners may be retained in custody, and the trial carried anew to a court of assize.

6. In its judicial functions, the Chamber of Peers is competent to the arrest and trial of its own members, to the impeachment of ministers, and to the disposal of cases of high treason.

7. The Chamber of Deputies has the power of arresting its own members during the session; but if taken in the fact of committing a crime, the privilege of the deputies ceases, and they may be seized like any other persons by the witness.

Such, in limine, is the materiel of the French system of criminal law; but it is necessary to point out a few peculiarities worthy of remark before we look at the machine in operation. We shall avoid the details of the steps that are taken before the criminal is brought to a public trial; but these, be it remembered, are all private. The body politic is no sooner wounded by the perpetration of a crime, than its feelers-the police officers, the gensd'armes, the judges of instruction, are all on the alert; they secure the criminal, the accomplice, the witness, the accuser; they drag suspected persons into solitude and darkness, and with an

* Of the Juges de Paix.

Of tribunals de première instance.
Of the royal courts.

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