Reid's New South Wales. 
giiiM form the most wretched, and con¬ 
sequently the most vicious portion of 
the black population. 
Mr. Coles, a native of Virginia, and 
for some years secretary to Mr. Jeffer¬ 
son, lately removed a black colony into 
the state of Illinois. On the death of 
his father, this gentleman found him¬ 
self in possession of seventeen slaves, 
valued at from eight to nine thousand 
dollars. His property was small, but 
he hesitated not a moment to relinquish 
his claims upon his negro vassals. He 
purchased a tract of land near the set¬ 
tlement of Edwardsville, in Illinois, 
where he supplies his former bondsmen 
with employment, encouraging them 
to lay up their earnings until they shall 
have realized sufficient to enter upon 
their own farms. * * * * spent some 
time at Edwardsville last summer, and 
often visited Mr. Coles’ settlement. 
The liberated blacks spoke of their 
former master with tears of gratitude 
and affection, and two of them, who 
were hired as servants by the family 
with whom * * * * resided, never 
omitted to pay a daily visit to Mr. 
Coles, anxiously enquiring if there 
teas nothing they could do for him ? I 
envy more the feelings of the man who 
hears that question than those of Caesar 
in the capitoi. 
TWO VOYAGES 
TO 
NEW SOUTH WALES, 
AND 
Tan 23temen’s> JLanb, 
WITH 
A Description of the present Condition of that inte¬ 
resting Colony ; including Facts and Obser¬ 
vations relative to the State and 
Management of 
CONVICTS OF BOTH SEXES. 
ALSO 
Ref ections on Seddction, 
ANl) ITS GENERAL CONSEQUENCES. 
> By THOMAS REID, 
Member of the Royal College of Surgeons in London, 
And Surgeon in the Royal Navy. 
[The author of this volume is evidently a w ell- 
intentioned zealot. But he reasons badly ; 
he seems to think, that men who have 
fallen under the restraint of the law, do not 
reason at all—and he forgets that every case 
of conviction involves as great a difference 
of personal turpitude as the nature of the 
various crimes themselves. All his reason¬ 
ings, therefore, apply only to old offenders, 
and to persons often convicted ; but in the 
eases of the 170 convicts on board the Nep¬ 
tune, and of the 121 on board (he Morley, 
we entertain little doubt that two-thirds 
were first convictions! What effect, 
63S 
therefore, but what arises from interested 
feelings or personal fear, can the sermons 
and preachings of persons have on reasoning 
beings, when the teachers themselves are 
violating the primary doctrines of our blessed 
Saviour, who exclaimed to a convict— 
“ Go and sin no more and who teaches 
true Christians to forgive the sins of their 
brethren “seventy times seven times !” In 
this respect, the laws of England require 
immediate and thorough revision, and their 
administration constant amelioration. Till 
this is done, and till severe punishments are 
inflicted only on the incorrigible , no feeling 
but sympathy for the sufferings of objects 
of legal vengeance, will be found in the 
minds of real Christians and benevolent per¬ 
sons. Yet such is the present horrid con¬ 
fusion of right and justice, that the punish¬ 
ment of minor offences is made equal to 
that for the greater ones ; and this author 
tells us, without an apostrophe, of fifty-two 
in one ship, and forty-eight in another, 
being transported to the antipodes for periods 
within seven years, which, as they can only 
return by paying 150 or 200 pounds for their 
passage, is virtually a transportation for 
life ! Let us practice towards others those 
duties which we expect from them. If Mr. 
Reid, Lord Sidmouth, or Mr. Capper had 
committed some one of those offences, or 
in some incautious moment, got into a le¬ 
gal scrape for the first time, which, by con¬ 
struction of law, imposed upon them a sen¬ 
tence of transportation for seven years, what 
would they think, if, after one, two, three, 
or four years, they were shipped off to the 
antipodes, with no probability of ever being 
able to return ; and what would they think 
of the canting about principles, which in 
their own persons were so barbarously 
mocked ? We know something of prisons 
and convicts, as well as those who quack 
themselves, like the Pharisees of old, into 
so much nolice on the subject; and w'e 
give it as our solemn opinion, that, although 
every prisoner in England may really, in 
strict law, be guilty of the offence with 
which he is charged, yet if one-half of them 
were told to “ go and sin no more,” they 
would never again become the objects of 
legal cognizance. Yet of such objects, 
perhaps one half of the cargoes to New 
South Wales consist; and, under the gene¬ 
ral term convict, it is by this gentle author 
considered as a concession, to allow that 
some of them have the qualities and feel¬ 
ings of our common nature ! We blame 
no one—but we call on the legislature to 
revise the laws, and till then we think it 
grossly insulting to u flog gee and preachee 
too t” We give Mrs. Fry and her excel¬ 
lent committee full credit, but we went 
over the same ground years before her, and 
set her the example which she has nobly 
followed. She must know that, in some 
respects, she is but varnishing and keeping 
in countenance a system which calls lor ra¬ 
dical change. She knows that, in our worst 
prison, 
