Hence it is, that, calculating on all the different chances, encouragements to commit crimes actually arise out of the System intended for their prevention:—first, from the hope of avoiding detection and apprehension;—secondly, of escaping conviction, from the means used to vitiate and suborn the evidence;—thirdly, from the mercy of the Jury, in considering the punishment too severe;—and fourthly, from the interest of persons of rank or consideration, applying (under circumstances where humanity becomes the friend of every person doomed to die), for the interference of Royal Mercy, by Pardons.
God forbid that the Author of these pages should do so much violence to his own feelings, as to convey an idea hostile to the extension of that amiable Prerogative vested in the Sovereign; and which His Majesty has exercised with a benevolent regard to the feelings of Humanity, and a merciful disposition truly characteristic of the mind of a great and good King.
These animadversions are by no means pointed against the exercise of a privilege so benign, and even so necessary, in the present state of the Criminal Law;—they regard only the impositions which have been practised upon so many well-intentioned, respectable, and amiable Characters, who have, from motives of humanity, interested themselves in obtaining free pardons for Convicts, or pardons on condition of going into the Army or Navy.
If these humane individuals, who exert themselves in applications of this sort, were to be made acquainted with one half of the gross impositions practised upon their credulity, or the evil consequences arising to Society from such pardons, (particularly unconditional pardons) they would shudder at the extent of the cruelty exercised towards the Public, and even, in many instances, to the Convicts themselves, by this false humanity.
In a Country, where, from the great caution which mingles in that part of the Criminal Jurisprudence which relates to the trial of Offenders,—it is scarcely possible that an honest or an innocent person can be convicted of a capital offence.[136]—It would seem to be a good criterion, that the Royal Mercy should only be extended on two indispensable conditions.
1. That the Convict under sentence of death should, for the sake of Public Justice, (and to deter others from the commission of crimes) discover all his accomplices, and the robberies, or other crimes he has committed.
2. That he should be transported; or make retribution to the parties he has injured by being kept at hard labour for life; or until ample security shall be given for good behaviour after such retribution is made.
The precaution not having been used of knowing for certain, before pardons were granted, whether the parties were fit for His Majesty's service or not; the Convicts themselves carefully concealing every kind of bodily infirmity;—and the pardons containing no eventual condition of ultimate Transportation, in case the persons should be found unfit for the Army or Navy;—the result has been, that many Convicts, who have been since actually Thieves upon the Town, were almost instantly thrown back upon the Public.—Some, even before they were attested by the Magistrate, in consequence of the discovery of bodily incapacity; and others, in a very short time after they had gone into His Majesty's Service, from the like unfitness being discovered; from some artful device practised to procure a discharge—or from desertion.—A professed Thief is never deficient in that species of artifice and resource which is necessary to rid him of any incumbrance.
This, however, is seldom taken into the calculation when Humanity urges philanthropic Characters to interest themselves in behalf of Criminals; nor could it perhaps otherwise have been known, or believed, that so many of these outcasts of Society have found means again to mingle with the mass of the people.
What impression must these facts make on the intelligent mind!—will they not warrant the following conclusion?