he law? or,
exhibiting the doctrines of christianity in their aspect to the
penitent, they thundered forth denunciations against the proud and the
self-righteous! The champion of this system, Mr. W. C. Wentworth, turned
the artillery of his wrath against the exclusionists: "and shall not,"
he exclaimed, in the ardour of his youth, "shall not the sole
efficacious remedy be administered (the restoration of the civil rights,
capacity to become magistrates and legislators), because a set of
_interlopers_, in nowise connected with the purposes for which this
colony was founded, wish to monopolise all the respectable offices of
the government, all the functions of emolument, dignity, and power,
themselves." "How can they expect pardon of God, if they withhold
oblivion from their repentant fellow creatures." "Retrospection should
not be pushed beyond the period of arrival, but then subsequent good
behaviour should be subject to the severest tests. The re-convicted
offender, branded with the _lasting_ impressions of infamy, should be
rendered ever after incapable."[119]

Such was the recognised code of the emancipist: it were, indeed, easy to
see that the several convictions of some small rogue might not, in their
aggregation, equal the crime of him who sinks a ship or burns a house,
or the guilt of an atrocious offence, which escapes the last penalty of
public vengeance, by some legal error; but to obliterate the first
stigma of those who constituted the great body of a population, and
whose self-respect was their chief chance of virtue, was not
unreasonable.

The evils which rose from this system of oblivion, are to be traced to
the indiscretion which formed a community of criminal origin. The
effects produced by their equipages, luxury, and licentiousness, on the
British population, when set forth in the language of romance, were not
to be charged on the local government. It is in the nature of commerce
to collect wealth: the traders were nearly all expirees; they became
rich, not because they were transported, but because some were
industrious, others saving, and others fraudulent; and because they were
in the midst of a system of expenditure, which made the Treasury of
England their bank.

The acquisitions of men, who had been prisoners, with great absurdity
and forgetfulness, were attributed to the laxity of the local governors.
Even now, many who are dextrous, shrewd, and persevering, acquire
considerable properties: