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DISPOSAL of ACQUITTED CRIMINALS. 1
It may be averred without much danger of exaggeration, that what from the respectable scruples scrupulosity & tendency
of Juries, what from the defect of Evidence in not coming up to the strictly legal point of demonstration,
at least x/y + + many the acquittal the Sessions defer for a year back.
that are tried are returned back into Society under a moral certainty
of their becoming continuing a nuisance to it. Gangs are indeed reduced but very rarely extirpated
a remnant is Still even left behind to be as a center of morbid secretion: The vessel is lightened, but never fully
discharged: dregs are still left behind to continue the pestilential <add>never ceasing</add> fermentation. [without end.]
It must be a mortifying sight task to a Judge zealous for <add>to the interests of Society</add> to dismiss wretches from the Bar under the full assurance of seeing them in a short time return laden with additional crimes
If this inconvenience in all it's present magnitude is entailed by the nature of
things upon Society, we have nothing left but to submitt to it with patience — But there
is I think, a remedy which would go a very considerable way towards the curing of it, &
which has less hardship & inequity than what frequently attends a bold vigorous <add>great <add>radical</add></add> stroke of Legislation, & much less
than one at least in particular which we submitt to at present.
Good bye Keddies That part indeed of the people whose integrity is untouched, it fills with horror but of those who watch that behaviour is a signal <add> of the strength of those barriers they are that power</add> to profligacy it is a source [those Terms they are preparing themselves to withstand
What I would propose with this view is, that when as often as a man being accused tried for Burglary
Robbery Theft, [+] [+] Malicious mischief with or without force Arson, Coining, or false pretences [Qu] is acquitted, the Jury with the concurrence
of the Judge, who shall grant his Warrant for that purpose may at their discretion bind him to serve
in the Land or Sea Service:
of comfort & unconcern.
provided they cannot get too reputable Housekeepers to be bound
for their good behaviour for -- years under the penalty of .x. Pounds each. or if they are not satisfied
the recognizance
This is no more than what is actually done every day in compassionate cases, or from the apprehension
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of want of evidence by the single Justices without the warrant of the Legislature
The only difference is that in this latter case it is done before conviction & with their consent: but everybody
sees it is a consent extorted by the terror of their situation.
When . . . . . was leading to the Stake, he agreed with a Friend that when upon a by which he should know if the anguish of the Flames was tolerable [to the last]. The intrepid Martyr gave the signal & expired - Who can doubt how mighty the effect of this example must have been to the towards the salutary purpose for which it was designed? One cannot any more doubt of the insensibility or worse than insensibility so frequent among of convicted Criminals an equal effect is produced to this deplorable one
Every body must see that this is only sending persons who most probably have been guilty
of crimes for which it is at present thought necessary to extirpate them utterly from Society
& who for certainty cannot get any one to give that testimony to their character which as very
ordinary innocence & integrity will always command [from somebody or other connection or another] into a profession
which if they knew their own interest they would deem the most eligible for them
a profession which many embrace voluntarily & with pleasure: a profession which possesses
the happy secret Art of converting what is most worthless into what is most valuable —
Witness the excellent discipline of our Soldiery which like every other circumstance of felicity fails of being observed because it is so constant & so common - It would not however have escaped a Roman.
Witness the excellent incomparable discipline of our Soldiery, one branch <add>at least of that profession</add> which like every other circumstance of felicity [in a Nation] fails of being observed because it is so constant & so common: Those however who are versed in ancient History know It would
not however have escaped a Roman.
It is only I say sending such persons of this description I say, into [the this military profession] profession which many embrace voluntarily and with pleasure in the of persons who are guilty of
no crime who can get every such testimony, to whom it is ineligible from their having habituated
their thoughts their hands & their ways of life to another to which they are attached: for
[all] these must go when War (& we have too many Wars!) makes a speedy supply the completion of the number - - - - a matter
of necessity.
They will not carry with them the stigma of a conviction
At the very worst that can happen it is only making one innocent suffer a punishment, if it be a punishment
which some other innocent must infallibly have undergone: it needs not much logic to prove, the
Profession which by a happy possesses the happy has the art of converting what is most pernicious into what is most valuable
PROCEDURE. Disposal of acquitted Criminals
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