These were the materials on which a system of amendment was to be tried; and it must be confessed that when every circumstance was considered, the task 34could not but be deemed repugnant. A general character of violence and desperate daring had long been identified with the inmates of prisons; and here were presented crimes of a description not likely to remove such an unfavourable impression.

The opinion universally prevailing for many years of the irreclaimable state of convicts, both male and female, rendered the superintendence of them on board the vessels which conveyed them to the colony, in every respect a heartless undertaking, if any thing like reform were had in contemplation. If at any time an experiment to that effect had been made, its failure only contributed to make a renewal of the attempt useless, or even mischievous; for the depr. . . Read More