Two Voyages to New South Wales and Van Diemen's Land

Two Voyages to New South Wales and Van Diemen's Land

The general state and condition of those unfortunate persons whose crimes had brought them under the severe cognisance and judgement of the laws, and whose lives only had been spared by the late happily increasing liberality of modern opinion and feeling, have for a long series of years occupied little public attention. Those, indeed, who bestowed any thought at all upon the final treatment of convicts, viewing the provision made for safely securing them on board of Hulks, or within the walls of Houses of Correction, or having them afterwards removed altogether to remote countries, thus restrained apart from general society for a certain time, and so long withheld at least from depredation, seem to have indulged with a degree of selfishness in the idea of personal security only as affecting themselves, or at most as extending to the other branches of the community. It seems to have appeared to the minds of such people, quite generous enough that the offenders absolute wants were provided for, and that all was effected when he was put out of the way of doing further harm: beyond viiithat, the condition of the convict was without consideration[1]. Who can fail to observe without pleasurable emotion and interest, that a far different spirit is now stirring in the minds of mankind, and that the times have become happily enlightened, not by the dissemination of irreligious, under pretended philosophical principles, but in the diffusion of Christian truth and knowledge? The present age will ever be distinguished by the temperate, disinterested, and steady efforts made to communicate to the great mass of the population the blessings of Gospel instruction; and in the forcible ixexample of persons in elevated life, on every public occasion, attended with important advantages; and under the auspices of some members of the present Administration, who have lent the aid of power to this great undertaking, the all-interesting cause of morality is firmly and rapidly advancing. It is not for the writer of this, perhaps, to indulge in eulogium, though, in the present instance, the cause would strongly invite to grateful and liberal expression. The same benevolence which shed a ray of celestial light over the poor Africans horizon, has also held up the Gospel beacon to the benighted sinner of its own climes, and forbidden despair. Mercy, commuting capital punishment for transportation, had snatched the criminals from the vengeance of the statute law; and it then became matter of inquiry, whether imprisonment in Hulks, or Houses of Correction, or mere transmission to distant colonies, was not the ultimate and only good, which, in due regard to the permanent security of society, could be fitly provided for those degraded and unhappy persons. But that wakeful care which ever attends the proceedings of the truly good, sought out with anxiety a further means of relieving their miserable condition; and thus that useful employment on board the Hulks, and, latterly, a better regulated management in the Houses of Correction, have originated and tended to produce the present visible beneficial effects. ......Buy Now (To Read More)

Product details

Ebook Number: 53643
Author: Reid, Thomas
Release Date: Dec 1, 2016
Format: eBook
Language: English