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to nail them to this or that sort of work, the work they would natural
have fallen upon, under the hands of a Contractor would be that whatever it according to some other provision of this Bill would
might be, by which there was more money to be made: for the more the prisoner workman
have been the works they could get most by: for the Governor ever
got, the more his master would get out of him:
to have his share of the profits, and the prisoner workman
to have his: so that, upon that point, I should have had little fear
of their not agreeing.+
+Nor do I see why
labour should be the
less reforming for
being profitable. On the
contrary, among working
men, especially
among working men
whom the discipline of
this house would so
effectually keep from all
kinds of mischief, I
must confess I know
of no test of reformation
so plain or so
sure as the improved
quantity and value of
their work. I
It looks however as if the authors of this the above provision had not quite
so much faith in such an arrangement its efficacy as I must confess I have. For the choice of
the track was not to be left to the Governor of the prison, much less to the prisoner workman,
but was given to superintending committees of Justices of the Peace.
In choosing among the employments exemplified and other similar one
(for if I mistake not this restriction of similarity was subjoined) the
it was indeed recommended to those Magistrates magistrates were indeed instructed to take "such employments as they
should deem most conducive to profit." But the profit here declared
to be in view was, not the profit of the workman, or his master the
Governor, but I know not what profit of "the district," the "convenience" of
of which (though I know not what convenience there could be distinct
from profit) was another land-mark given them to steer by. If you ca
an eye on the trades exemplified, (as I believe I must beg you to do
presently) you will scarcely, I think, conceive that, in the choice of them, the
article of profit could have been the apparent uppermost consideration.+ But had
the matter been left to the Contractor Governor, who was to have one sha
the and his prisoner workmen, who was to have another they would have been
pretty sure to pitch upon and to stick to what would be choose what was most conducive to their profit, and by
that means to the profit of the district, and that without any such recommendation.
With them the consideration of their own interest is what has been.
I say pretty sure of having its due weight and with my Contractor
and his workmen it would be, if possible, still more sure, in proportion
his and their interest , you will see presently, will be inseparably
connected would be greater. Whether the effect of that recommendation woul
have been equally sure upon the above mentioned Magistrate, would have
remained to be decided by experience. Understanding me to be spea
-ing merely of a Magistrate in the abstract, you will forgive my saying
that in this one point I have not quite so great a confidence in a set
of Gentlemen of that description, as I have in that sort of knave called
a Contractor. I see no sort of danger that to the Contractor there should
be any object upon earth dearer than the interest of the Contractor; b
I see some danger that there may be now and then some other object
rather dearer to the Magistrate. Among these rival objects, if we do not alw
reckon the pleasure of plaguing the Contractor, should he and the
Magistrate chance not to agree, we may however not unfrequently reckon
the exercise of his, the Magistrates, own power, and the display of hi
own wisdom: the former of which, he may naturally enough conceive,
was not given to him for nothing, nor the latter confided in without
cause. You must I think before now have met with examples of men
that had rather a plan of the publick's, or even of an individuals for whom
they had a more particular regard, should miscarry under their
management than proper under a different contrary one. If you have not, I give you much
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