THE particulars of the crime of this unfortunate young man may be stated in a few words. He had long been known in the neighbourhood where he lived, as an object of disgrace, and the cause of perpetual disturbance. Not indeed that he was more profligate in character than those with whom he was immediately connected. His father, as well as his mother-in-law, lived in habits of drunkenness. She died eight months before the son committed the crime for which he suffered. Jolin was, with his father, by trade a blacksmith. His business brought with it some temptation to drinking; and, in Jersey, where spirits are cheaper even than in England, this disposition was most easily gratified. So that, with the example of his parents, and his own circumstances, it is not a matter of astonishment that he fell into the course of sin which led to his ruin. The progress of vice was, it is to be presumed, in his case, like that of other drunkards. The liquor, at first taken as a bodily relief, unguarded by any restraint, was soon resorted to as an indulgence; till at last he was enlisted in the number of those of whom the prophet speaks, “who rise up in the morning that they may follow their drink, and continue till night, till wine inflames them.” But the abominable tendency of this particular sin is illustrated almost equally by the conduct of the father and son. It appeared on the trial of Jolin, that he had been exposed to the greatest cruelties on the part of his father. One person deposed, that he had often seen him beat his son with a hammer, or any thing else, which might happen to come under his hand, and almost always about the head; and the scars from these wounds were seen on his head when he was committed to prison. Another, that she had once heard the prisoner’s mother cry out for help. She went in, and saw the son down, and the father striking him with an iron bar, saying at the same time, that he was going to kill him. Very often he would not give him any food. Another witness testified, that, going into the house of the father, he saw him put down a flat iron bar, with which he had just been striking his son on the head, and his head was covered with blood. He was laid on his bed, but his father refused to allow any assistance to be tendered to him. This witness had seen the father kick his son about several parts of the body. What a contrast is all this to that scene which the psalmist describes of a household where the Spirit of God dwells—“Behold, how good and how pleasant it is for brethren to dwell together in unity, for there the Lord commandeth his blessing.” These facts are introduced, not only in explanation of the subject, but that some light may be thrown on the appeal which Jolin afterwards made to his judge on his own behalf.