Изображения страниц
PDF
EPUB

correction. To him, so far, is intrusted the punishment and the reformation of criminals. But he is not even called upon to look to these objects, except as they may incidentally further his own interest. He is neither expected nor exhorted to regulate his treatment of convicts with a view to the diminution of crime in the British Isles, but to the profits of his farm in Australia.

'It is true, the settler may sometimes be, like other men, actuated by other feelings besides a regard to profit: but these feelings are not likely to be those of public spirit. When the convict does suffer hard usage, it is not much to be expected that this will be inflicted with a view to strike terror into offenders in Great Britain, or to effect any other salutary end of punishment. His treatment is likely to depend not so much on the character of the crime for which he was condemned, as on the character of his master. Accordingly, Colonel Arthur (p. 3), in enlarging on the miseries to which a convict is subjected, makes prominent mention of this, that he is conveyed to a distant country, in the condition of a slave, and assigned to an unknown master, whose disposition, temper, and even caprice, he must consult at every turn, and submit to every moment.'

[ocr errors]
[ocr errors]

'Colonel Arthur (p. 23) falls into an inaccuracy of language which tends to keep out of sight a most important practical distinction. He says: With regard to the fact that convicts are treated as slaves, any difficulty that can be raised upon it must hold good whenever penitentiary or prison discipline is inflicted.' If by a 'slave' be meant any one who is subjected to the control of another, this is true. But the word is not in general thus applied. It is not usual to speak of children as slaves to their schoolmasters, or to their parents; or of prisoners being slaves of the jailer; or soldiers of their officers.- -By slaves we generally understand, persons whom their master compels to work for his own benefit. And in this sense Colonel Arthur himself (p. 2) applies the term (I think very properly) to the assigned convict-servants.

'It is observed by Homer, in the person of one of his characters in the Odyssey, that 'a man loses half his virtue the day that he becomes a slave;' he might have added with truth, that he is likely to lose more than half when he becomes a

slave-master. And if the convict-servants and their masters have any virtue to lose, no system could have been devised more effectual for divesting them of it. Even the regular official jailers, and governors of penitentiaries, are in danger of becoming brutalized, unless originally men of firm good principle. And great wisdom in the contrivance of a penitentiary-system, and care in the conduct of it, are requisite, to prevent the hardening and debasing of the prisoners. But when both the superintendent and the convicts feel that they are held in bondage, and kept to work by him, not from any views of public duty, but avowedly for his individual advantage, nothing can be imagined more demoralizing to both parties.

'Among all the extravagances that are recorded of capricious and half-insane despots in times of ancient barbarism, I do not remember any instance mentioned, of any one of these having thought of so mischievously absurd a project as that of forming a new nation, consisting of criminals and executioners.

But had such a tyrant existed, as should not only have devised such a plan, but should have insisted on his subjects believing, that a good moral effect would result from the intimate association together, in idleness, of several hundreds of reprobates, of various degrees of guilt, during a voyage of four or five months, and their subsequent assignment as slaves to various masters, under such a system as that just alluded to, it would have been doubted whether the mischievous insanity of wanton despotism could go a step beyond this. Another step however there is; and this is, the pretence of thus benefiting and civilizing the Aborigines! Surely those who expect the men of our hemisphere to believe all this, must suppose us to entertain the ancient notion of the vulgar, that the Antipodes are people among whom every thing is reversed. The mode of civilization practised, is of a piece with the rest.

'They have (says one of the writers on the Colony) been wantonly butchered; and some of the christian (?) whites consider it a pastime to go out and shoot them. I questioned a person from Port Stephens concerning the disputes with the aborigines of that part of the colony, and asked him, if he, or any of his companions, had ever come into collision with them, as I had heard there prevailed much enmity between the latter and the people belonging to the establishment? His answer was, 'Oh,

we used to shoot them like fun!' It would have been a satisfaction to have seen such a heartless ruffian in an archery ground, with about a score of expert archers at a fair distance from him, if only to witness how well he would personify the representations of St. Sebastian. This man was a shrewd mechanic, and had been some years at Port Stephens: if such people consider the life of a black of so little value, how is it to be wondered at if the convicts entertain the same opinion? It is to be hoped that the practice of shooting them is at an end; but they are still subjected to annoyance from the stock-keepers, who take their women, and do them various injuries besides.'Breton, p. 200.

[ocr errors]

But to waive for the present all discussion of the moral effects on the settlers, likely to result from the system, let it be supposed that the labour of convicts may be so employed as to advance the prosperity of the colony, and let it only be remembered that this object is likely to be pursued both by governors and settlers, at the expense of the other far more important one, which is inconsistent with it, the welfare of the mother-country, in respect of the repression of crime. This one consideration, apart from all others, would alone be decisive against transportation as a mode of punishment; since even if the system could be made efficient for that object, supposing it to be well administered with a view to that, there is a moral certainty that it never will be so administered.

'If there be, as some have suggested, a certain description of offenders, to whom sentence of perpetual exile from their native country is especially formidable, this object might easily be attained, by erecting a penitentiary on some one of the many small, nearly unproductive, and unoccupied islands in the British seas; the conveyance to which would not occupy so many hours, as that to Australia does weeks.

'But as for the attempt to combine salutary punishment with successful colonization, it only leads, in practice, to the failure of both objects; and, in the mind, it can only be effected by keeping up a fallacious confusion of ideas.'

'Plantations are amongst ancient, primitive, and heroical

works!'

Bp. Hinds remarks on the great success with which the ancient Greeks colonized: pursuing an opposite plan from that of all nations since, and accordingly, with opposite results.

An ancient Greek colony was like what gardeners call a layer; a portion of the parent tree, with stem, twigs, and leaves, imbedded in fresh soil till it had taken root, and then severed. A modern colony is like handfuls of twigs and leaves pulled off at random, and thrown into the earth to take their chance.

'Above all, let men make that profit of being in the wilderness, that they have God always, and his service before their eyes.'

Every settler in a foreign colony is, necessarily, more or less, a missionary to the aborigines-a missionary for good, or a missionary for evil,-operating upon them by his life and example.

It is often said that our colonies ought to provide for their own spiritual wants. But the more is done for them in this way, the more likely they will be to make such provision; and the more they are neglected, the less likely they are to do it. It is the peculiar nature of the inestimable treasure of christian truth and religious knowledge, that the more it is withheld from people, the less they wish for it; and the more is bestowed upon them, the more they hunger and thirst after it. If people are kept upon a short allowance of food, they are eager to obtain it ; if you keep a man thirsty, he will become the more and more thirsty; if he is poor, he is exceedingly anxious to become rich; but if he is left in a state of spiritual destitution, after a time he will, and still more his children, cease to feel it, and cease to care about it. It is the last want men can be trusted (in the first instance) to supply for themselves.

I

ESSAY XXXIV. OF RICHES.

CANNOT call riches better than the baggage of virtue; the Roman word is better-impedimenta;' for as the baggage is to an army, so is riches to virtue-it cannot be spared nor left behind, but it hindereth the march; yea, and the care of it sometimes loseth or disturbeth the victory. Of great riches there is no real use, except it be in the distribution; the rest is but conceit; so saith Solomon, 'Where much is, there are many to consume it; and what hath the owner but the sight of it with his eyes ?' The personal fruition in any man cannot reach to feel great riches: there is a custody of them, or a power of dole,3 and a donative of them, or a fame of them, but no solid use to the owner. Do you not see what feigned prices are set upon little stones and rarities-and what works of ostentation are undertaken, because there might seem to be some use of great riches? But then, you will say, they may be of use to buy men out of dangers or troubles; as Solomon saith, Riches are as a stronghold in the imagination of the rich man:" but this is excellently expressed, that it is in imagination, and not always in fact; for, certainly great riches have sold more men than they have bought out. Seek not proud riches, but such as thou mayest get justly, use soberly, distribute cheerfully, and leave contentedly; yet have no abstract or friarly contempt of them, but distinguish, as Cicero saith well of Rabirius Posthumus, In studio rei amplificandæ, apparebat, non avaritiæ prædam, sed instrumentum bonitati quæri.'" Hearken also to Solomon, and beware of hasty gathering of riches: Qui festinat ad divitias, non erit insons.' The poets feign that when Plutus (which is riches) is sent from Jupiter, he limps, and goes slowly,

[blocks in formation]
[ocr errors]

2 Eccles. v. II.

'It was your pre-surmise, That in the dole of blows, your son might drop.'

4 Because. For the reason that; in order that. See page 249.

5 Proverbs x. 15; cf. xxviii. II.

6 In his desire of increasing his riches, he sought not, it was evident, the gratification of avarice, but the means of beneficence.'-Cic. P. Rabir. 2.

7' He that maketh haste to be rich, shall not be innocent.'-Prov. xxviii. 20.

« ПредыдущаяПродолжить »