the prisoner to confess his crime, and they made him drink a stupefying beverage, in order to render the approach of death less terrible.*

By this mere analysis of a part of Mr. Salvador's work we may judge of the extreme interest of the whole. His principal object has been, to make apparent the mutual aids which history, philosophy, and legislation afford in explaining the institutions of the Jewish people. His book is a scientific work, and at the same time a work of taste. His notes indicate vast reading; and in the choice of his citations he gives proofs of his critical skill and discrimination. Mr. Salvador belongs, by his age, to that new generation, which is distinguished as much by its application to solid studies, as by elevation and generosity of sentiment.

* By this, says Father Lamy, we may understand what the mixture of wine and myrrh was, which they presented to Jesus on the cross, and which he would not drink. Introd. to the reading of the Holy Scriptures, chap. vi. (Note of Mr. Salvador, Book iv. ch. 2.)

TRIAL OF JESUS.

REFUTATION OF THE CHAPTER OF MR. SALVADOR, ENTITLED "THE TRIAL AND CONDEMNATION OF JESUS."

"THE chapter, in which Mr. Salvador treats of the Administration of Justice among the Hebrews, is altogether theoretical. He makes an exposition of the law-that things, in order to be conformable to rule, must be transacted in a certain mode. In all this I have not contradicted him, but have let him speak for himself.

In the subsequent chapter the author announces: "That according to this exposition of judicial proceedings he is going to follow out the application of them to the most memorable trial in all history, that of Jesus Christ." Accordingly the chapter is entitled: The Trial and Condemnation of Jesus.

The author first takes care to inform us under what point of view he intends to give an account of that accusation: "That we ought to lament the blindness of the Hebrews for not having recognised a God in Jesus, is a point which I do not examine." (There is another thing also, which he says he shall not examine.) "But, when they discovered in him only a citizen, did they try him according to existing laws and formalities?"

The question being thus stated, Mr. Salvador goes over all the various aspects of the accusation; and his conclusion is, that the procedure was perfectly regular, and the condemnation perfectly appropriate to the act committed. "Now," says he, (p. 87,) "the Senate, having adjudged that Jesus, the son of Joseph, born in Bethlehem, had profaned the name of God by usurping it himself, though a simple citizen, applied to him

the law against blasphemy, the law in the 13th chapter of Deuteronomy, and verse 20, chapter 18th, conformably to which every prophet, even one that performs miracles, is to be punished when he speaks of a God unknown to the Hebrews or their fathers."

This conclusion is formed to please the followers of the Jewish law; it is wholly for their benefit, and the evident object is, to justify them from the reproach of deïcide.

We will, however, avoid treating this grave subject in a theological point of view. As to myself, Jesus Christ is the Man-God; but it is not with arguments drawn from my religion and my creed, that I intend to combat the statement and the conclusion of Mr. Salvador. The present age would charge me with being intolerant; and this is a reproach which I will never incur. Besides, I do not wish to give to the enemies of Christianity the advantage of making the outcry, that we are afraid to enter into a discussion with them, and that we wish to crush rather than to convince them. Having thus contented myself with declaring my own faith, as Mr. Salvador has let us clearly understand his, I shall also examine the question under a merely human point of view, and proceed to inquire, with him, "Whether Jesus Christ, considered as a simple citizen, was tried according to the existing laws and formalities."

The catholic religion itself warrants me in this; it is not a mere fiction; for God willed, that Jesus should be clothed in the forms of humanity (et homo factus est), and that he should undergo the lot and sufferings of humanity. The son of God, as to his moral state and his holy spirit, he was also, in reality, the Son of Man, for the purpose of accomplishing the mission which he came upon earth to fulfil.

This being the state of the question, then, I enter upon my subject; and I do not hesitate to affirm, because I will prove it, that, upon examining all the circumstances of this great trial, we shall be very far from discovering in it the application of those legal maxims, which are the safeguard of the rights of accused persons, and of which Mr. Salvador, in his chapter On the Administration of Justice, has made a seductive exposition.

The accusation of Jesus, instigated by the hatred of the

priests and the Pharisees, and presented at first as a charge of sacrilege, but afterwards converted into a political crime and an offence against the state, was marked, in all its aspects, with the foulest acts of violence and perfidy. It was not so much a trial environed with legal forms, as a real passion, or prolonged suffering, in which the imperturbable gentleness of the victim displays more strongly the unrelenting ferocity of his persecutors. When Jesus appeared among the Jews, that people was but the shadow of itself. Broken down by more than one subjugation, divided by factions and irreconcilable sects, they had in the last resort been obliged to succumb to the Roman power and surrender their own sovereignty. Jerusalem, having become a mere appendage to the province of Syria, saw within its walls an imperial garrison; Pilate commanded there, in the name of Cæsar; and the late people of God were groaning under the double tyranny of a conqueror, whose power they abhorred and whose idolatry they detested, and of a priesthood that exerted itself to keep them under the rigorous bonds of a religious fanaticism.

Jesus Christ deplored the misfortunes of his country. How often did he weep for Jerusalem! Read in Bossuet's Politics drawn from the Holy Scriptures, the admirable chapter entitled, Jesus Christ the good citizen. He recommended to his countrymen union, which constitutes the strength of states. "O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, (said he,) thou that killest the prophets and stonest them which are sent unto thee, how often would I have gathered thy children together, even as a hen gathereth her chickens under her wings, and ye would not!"

He was supposed to be not favorable to the Romans; but he only loved his own countrymen more. Witness the address of the Jews, who, in order to induce him to restore to the centurion a sick servant that was dear to him, used as the most powerful argument these words-that he was worthy for whom he should do this, for he loveth our nation. And Jesus went with them. Luke vii. 4, 5.

Touched with the distresses of the nation, Jesus comforted them by holding up to them the hope of another life; he alarmed the great, the rich, and the haughty, by the prospect of

a final judgment, at which every man would be judged not according to his rank, but his works. He was desirous of again bringing back man to his original dignity; he spoke to him of his duties, but at the same time of his rights. The people heard him with avidity, and followed him with eagerness; his words affected them; his hand healed their diseases, and his moral teaching instructed them; he preached, and practised one virtue till then unknown, and which belongs to him alone-charity. This celebrity, however, and these wonders excited envy. The partisans of the ancient theocracy were alarmed at the new doctrine; the chief priests felt that their power was threatened; the pride of the Pharisees was humbled; the scribes came in as their auxiliaries, and the destruction of Jesus was resolved upon. Now, if his conduct was reprehensible, if it afforded grounds for a legal accusation, why was not that course taken openly? Why not try him for the acts committed by him, and for his public discourses? Why employ against him subterfuges, artifice, perfidy, and violence? for such was the mode of proceeding against Jesus.

Let us now take up the subject, and look at the narratives which have come down to us. Let us, with Mr. Salvador, open the books of the Gospels; for he does not object to that testimony; nay, he relies upon it: "It is by the Gospels themselves," says he, "that I shall establish all the facts."

In truth, how can we (except by contrary evidence, of which there is none) refuse to place confidence in an historian, who tells us, as Saint John does, with affecting simplicity: "He that saw it bare record, and his record is true; and he knoweth that he saith true, that ye might believe." John xix. 35.

SECTION I.-SPIES, OR INFORMERS.

WHO will not be surprised to find in this case the odious practice of employing hired informers? Branded with infamy, as they are in modern times, they will be still more so when we carry back their origin to the trial of Christ. It will be seen presently, whether I have not properly characterized by the