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human laws are vain to restrain the warm tides of the heart.
We pause with rapture on those historic scenes in which freedom has been attempted or preserved through the magnanimous self-sacrifice of friendship or Christian aid. With palpitating bosom we follow the midnight flight of Mary of
Scotland from the custody of her stern jailers; we accompany
Grotius in his escape from prison in
Holland, so adroitly promoted by his wife; we join with
Lavalette in
France in his flight, aided also by his wife; and we offer our admiration and gratitude to
Huger and
Bollman, who, unawed by the arbitrary ordinances of
Austria, strove heroically, though vainly, to rescue
Lafayette from the dungeons of
Olmutz.”
This admirable production, every page of which proclaims the scholar and the friend of human liberty, was beautifully printed in 1853, by John P. Jewett and Company, in a volume with elegant illustrations by Edwin T. Billings, and should find a place in every library.
While abroad, Mr. Sumner's attention was naturally drawn to the condition of European prisons; and he availed himself of the opportunities afforded him by intercourse with distinguished friends of humanity, to study their various systems of discipline.
On returning he continued his investigations on this subject; and in connection with Dr. Samuel
