Page:A Tour Through the Batavian Republic.djvu/231

Rh proof of the sanguinary spirit of the English laws, or the dissolute manners of the nation. In some of the United Provinces, the barbarous spectacle of a public execution has not occurred within a century; and the average of malefactors who in that period have suffered at Amsterdam, is less than one victim a year devoted to appease the indignation of offended laws. How amiable and enlightened is this policy, compared with the profuse waste of human life by the English courts of justice! At different times, the British legislature has deliberately pronounced one hundred and sixty crimes