MEMOIR OF THOMAS BEWICK. 217 



ported to the West Indies, there to undergo a 

 purgation till they have redeemed their characters, 

 in which case they should be allowed to return 

 home. It has also appeared to us that the law 

 is defective, in not, somehow or other, protecting 

 men, who could not be convicted of the crimes 

 laid to their charge. Some association should be 

 formed some friends to them and to humanity 

 might be invited forth to pass their word, for a 

 time, for their good behaviour, to prevent their 

 being thus cast friendless upon an unforgiving and 

 censorious world ; for it matters not how fervently 

 a man may wish to redeem his character, no one 

 will employ him, and he is thereby driven to the 

 necessity of flying to some villainous scheme to 

 enable him to live. 



It is painful to speak about punishments to be 

 inflicted upon one's unfortunate fellow men : it is 

 equally so to contemplate their self-degradation. 

 But, when it is considered what a voluminous 

 mass of laws we have, neither understood nor 

 explained, we cannot wonder that they are broken ; 

 they are so multifarious and complex, that, as to 

 the illiterate description of persons they are meant 

 to keep in order, they are almost useless. An 

 abridgement of the laws of England would perhaps 

 fill fifty folio volumes. These laws, at the time 

 they were made, might be good and proper, but 

 most of them are now inapplicable and obsolete. 

 To amend them seems impossible, and an act to 

 amend or explain an act, by adding confusion to 

 confusion, is truly farcical. It is a pity that the 

 whole of them cannot be abolished at once, and 

 short and clear new ones substituted in their stead. 



As they stand at present, few men can understand 



2 C 



