ger seen raising their children
above the crowd, to enjoy the most humiliating sight that can meet the
eyes of mortals. Let no one imagine, that men are effectually
intimidated by attending public executions: as the fatal moment draws
nigh, crowds are indeed seen rushing towards the spot; but they wear the
lineaments of insensibility, intemperance, or habitual crime. It is not
the guilt of the sufferer which extinguishes their pity: they would run
to witness the murder of a saint. The utility of executions is left to
the judgment of statesmen, but it cannot be wrong to detest them.

Thus far having delineated the broad features of the system known as
the "certain and severe," it will be proper to explain the changes which
it ultimately produced in the practical working of transportation.
Simultaneously, a new theory of colonisation was promulgated. Land
ceased to be granted: the funds accumulated by its sale were available
for emigration,--and thus to decrease the rate of wages, and to enable
the government to dispense with the services of convicts as writers,
overseers, and mechanics. To assist this project, it had been determined
to levy a tax on prison labor; but the protest of the colonists and the
remonstrance of Arthur, led to its abandonment. The despatch which
explained his views, dwelt on the inconvenience, vexation, and loss, to
which the settlers were subject. He informed the Secretary of State,
that his lordship could not understand, except by experience, how much
and how often the colonists were fretted by the misconduct of their
servants, and despoiled by their peculation: however perfect the
discipline established; although the roads were safe, and violence
infrequent; though many prisoners were reformed and useful, still the
existing social state was charged with every form of domestic annoyance
and mortification. Trivial thefts were constantly passed over, because
punishment was attended with greater loss. Thus, two hundred men
arrive--they are distributed: their masters pay down money for their
clothing; but before they reach their home, their clothes are destroyed
or sold--or, perhaps, they are committed for felony to gaol. At first
the settler repines, but his difficulties are inevitable: he is silent,
because his trials have long lost the interest of novelty, and all
around him are fellow-sufferers. The settlers who submitted to the
impertinence and unwillingness of pickpockets, he thought certainly