"I cannot see what religion has to do with government,” I replied.

"Every man's principles," returned Robert, "must have much to do with his actions: for instance, do not your principles and mine operate powerfully on us both, in the management of our respective wives? Were Ellen to wear a cap or bonnet I did not approve, I should tell her of it immediately, and should be displeased if she did not change the fashion."

"In that case," I replied, "you would convert the simple act of wearing a top-knot which did not suit your taste into a breach of morals; and here is precisely an exemplification of what I began my argument with, namely, that offences may be multiplied, and occasions of guilt created, by too severe a discipline. And hence, I approve of the wisdom, and I admire the policy, of that system which I hope to see established in our island before many years are past. I would have every situation of authority and honour under government laid open, without test or inquiry, to every respectable person, of whatever creed he might be. I would have every assistance and every encouragement given to immoral persons, by which they might be brought back into the bosom of their families. I would have the utmost tenderness shown even to the felon, whom we are obliged to exclude from society in selfdefence. And I should be sorry ever to exercise any thing like discipline over a faithless wife, or an undutiful son or daughter, so long as any hopes remained of reclaiming such a one by tenderness or forbearance, or by any conceivable exercise of charity or love."

I then proceeded to spout certain absurdities which I thought very fine, respecting universal love and charity, philanthropy, and benevolence; denominating indiscriminate forgiveness a godlike attribute; when Robert interrupted me, by simply asking, to what God I attributed this quality. "Not, I trust," he added, " to the God of the Christians? for the very foundation and basis of true Christians is this, brother; that the Lord our God, being perfectly holy and just, could not forgive sin as an absolute God; or without a sacrificial atonement. And hence, to harmonize the attribute of mercy with that of justice, he ordained, before the foundation of the world, his own Son to be a propitiation for the sins of the whole world; thus exhibiting his incapacity of

forgiving sins (to speak after the manner of men), by the very measure which he took, in his divine wisdom, to show his infinite love towards his fallen creatures. Do not, therefore, think, James," continued my brother, "that you are imitating the divine character by this blind and indiscriminate benevolence which you so much praise; which, in fact, is but a device of the Evil One infused into the minds of men, in order, no doubt, to confound all proper distinctions of right and wrong; and actually to make it men's interests to do ill that they may obtain favour."

I was by this time at the door of my patient's house, and not sorry to part from my brother, with whom I found it impossible to coincide in any one opinion.

From that time my brother and I had many discussions of the same nature, but neither of us was in the least disposed to give way, and therefore our arguments only tended to make us uneasy in each other's company, and to discomfort both our parents and Robert's wife; all of whom, as well they might, thought me decidedly wrong; that is, as far as they could understand me.

After this, years passed on without any great changes, excepting that both families were augmented by the birth, in one of two children, and in the other of three. My brother's son was the eldest of this generation, and was called George, after my father. My son was his junior only by a few months: we called him William, after my deceased uncle. In two years more a daughter was added to our family, and another son to my brother's; and, as much as eight years afterward, a second daughter was given to me, on which dear child we bestowed the name of Sarah.

It was when my son William and my daughter Bessy had attained the ages of five and three, that the baleful effects of my false principles began to display themselves more evidently. My wife, as I before said, was young and inexperienced when she married me; and my absurd notion of not interfering with her caprices had deprived her in many instances of the benefit of my advice. There is an old saying, that "two heads are better than one;" and even granting that a man may not always be wiser than his wife, yet it may be naturally supposed that, when two persons having the same interests, take counsel together, some good may some

times accrue from the very pause and delay which these consultations must occasion. But the independent principles which I entertained, as I before stated, had prevented me from holding any of these consultations with my wife; indulging the idea that I had no right to interfere with any of her little whims or caprices, or even with her opinions, so long as she allowed me the same liberty. If, therefore, she did not improve under my management, no one can wonder; and if our children were not guided in the best manner possible, it will not, I suppose, be a matter of surprise to my reader.But to return to what I was about to say.

My mother was always anxious that all her family should meet on Easter Sunday at the Woodhouse to dine, and accordingly on that Easter Sunday which happened soon after William had completed his fifth year we all met under the paternal roof, and had an excellent dinner; after which, my brother and myself took a walk with our little sons, and were returning, when the boys picked up a little puppy which belonged to a dog in the yard, and brought it into the kitchen. The puppy made a whining noise, which attracting my brother's attention, he bade his son carry the little animal back to its mother. We then proceeded to the parlour, which was always used on this annual festivity, but were presently called out again into the kitchen by the loud cries of the little dog, which George had placed upon the dresser, instead of carrying it back to its mother. The creature had fallen from the dresser, and was considerably hurt. My brother no sooner understood the state of the case, than he took a small horsewhip from a peg in the kitchen and gave his boy a slight stroke over the shoulders, which made him roar louder than the puppy had done.

"Be silent, sir," said his father. "If you give another roar, I shall give you another stroke. Go up to your room, pray to God to forgive you for your disobedience, and don't come down till you are humble."

The little fellow was silent in a moment, and went stumping up stairs, half-frightened and half-sullen. My brother then turned round to put up the whip in its place, and, in so doing, stepped near my boy, who, starting back, said, "Uncle, you are not going to beat me! Father never beats me!" and he looked boldly up to him as if he dared him to it.

"It is not my business to correct you, little master," replied Robert, "while you have a father to do you that good turn; you have nothing to fear from me;" and he replaced the whip, and accompanied me into the parlour. There we found the rest of the family seated round the tea-table; and we also sat down: but I observed that my brother was thoughtful; and, on Ellen asking where George was, he answered that he had corrected him for disobedience."

“Yes,” I said, addressing my sister; "he laid his horsewhip over his shoulders, and then sent him to his room till he had done roaring."

"He did very right,” replied Ellen, calmly, "if he was disobedient."

"And don't you ask what mighty offence a child of five years old could be guilty of, sister, to deserve such a punishment?"

“I understood that he was disobedient,” she replied. "Disobedient!" I repeated: "giddy, thoughtless, forgetful. He did not put the puppy down, when his father bade him."

“Well, what was that, brother James, but disobedience?" asked Ellen.

Robert reddened, while this was passing, and looked as if determined not to enter into an argument on the subject: but I was equally determined that he should; and challenged him to the contest, by saying, "Surely, Robert, it would be better to reason with a child at that age, when he does wrong, than to use such violent measures. I have never laid a hand on William."

"So he told me just now," replied my brother. "And you see the consequence, Robert: his will is free, his spirit unbroken: and he will tell the truth in the face of the whole world, whether it makes against him or not. But once lay the horsewhip across his back, and he loses that noble confidence for ever."

"Noble confidence!" repeated Robert: "might not another name be used for this sort of behaviour? Truth I delight in, but not when it proceeds from want of shame. Children should be taught to be ashamed of what is wrong, and be made to know that chastisements will follow bad conduct; and they should not be accustomed to suppose that all is right, when they acknowledge their faults without shame or penitence."

"You will make a canting hypocrite of your boy,

Robert," I said; "that is, if he does not, by-and-by, break the yoke, and leave your house. This sort of treatment might have done years ago, when children, by comparing notes, could discover that the same process of tyranny was going on in every other family as well as their own. But in these enlightened days, when the march of intellect is making such rapid strides, another system must be adopted. Man must now be governed by reason, or not governed at all. Blind obedience can no longer be expected, either from wives, children, or servants. Man has discovered his rights, and will require to be treated with justice. Every man's conscience must now be a law to himself, and the regulator of his actions. I desire not the blind obedience of any person connected with me; nor can I understand why any individual should demand such submission from another. I abhor the system of controlling the actions or principles of any free agent― such is man-and I reprobate every measure of government by which the reasoning and thinking powers of the subject are to be brought under the trammels of

I was proceeding to this or some such effect, when the door was burst open, and George entered, his eyes being swelled, and his little features all blubbered and shining with tears; while his sobs were so loud as to shake his whole little body. Straight he ran to his father, and was on his knees in a moment before him, begging pardon; then to his mother; then to his grandfather; then to his grandmother; as if he felt that he could not have offended one without offending all: imploring, entreating, with all the energy of infant eloquence; and not being satisfied till he had received the kiss of peace from each honoured individual, nor being perfectly happy again till lifted upon the knees of his father: where, as from a place of perfect security and happiness, he humbly waited until his portion was administered to him from the hands of his mother.

"What say you now, James?" said Robert, at the conclusion of this scene. "Who is so happy now as the contrite child, received again into his father's arms? Would all the reasonings of the wisest man_that ever lived have had such speedy and salutary influence on this infant as the chastisement, given by the hand of