The Sun.
London, England, 1822-07-24 00:00:00

[MORNING POST.]

Several plans are under consideration, and, we
understand, likely to be adopted, with the view
to deter from crime, and improve the administra-
tion of our criminal code. The expence of trans-
porting convicts to New South Wales, and the
idea which has been disseminrted of the excel-
lence of the climate, and other circumstances in
that colony (holding out inducements to the guilty
to commit acts liable to the punishment of trans-
portation), have rendered some change in this
respect highly necessary. Well known cases have
occurred in which the principal object of the
offender has been to get sent to Botany Bay ;
and thus, instead of dread, the law has only
inspired hope, and instigated the vicious to de-
linquency. It has been proposed to substitute
for this exile to Bermuda, and the employment
of the convict on the large Government works
undertaken at that island. The expense will be
greatly diminished, and the prospect of incessant
labour, on fortifications and other public designs,
will hold out no bonus for the commission of
burglaries and robberies. Another important
matter will be, that the punishment awarded by
the law will certainly visit the crime. The
chances of escape, so numerous at present, will
be annihilated, and the sentence will be executed
as pronounced, without depending on contin-
gencies and accidents. According to the existing
system (and one of its chief evils,) the uncertainty
of the ultimate determination of the law ope-
rates powerfully to the injury of society. It is in
human nature to calculate on the fortunate side,
and no beings can be more apt to indulge in such
a train of thought as those whose lives are spent
in continual apprehension and risk. Thus the
thief flatters himself that he will be spared, be-
cause some deeper guilt demands the heaviest
visitation of the Assize : his chance is that mur-
der, or rape, or arson must be punished, and not
to overload the calendar with death, house-
breaking, sheep-stealing, highway-robbery, &c.
which, under other circumstances, would be con-
signed to the gallows, will be mildly dealt with.
The same reasoning pervades the whole coarse
from transportation down to imprisonment and
whipping, and no man can doubt that crime is
thereby promoted.—Another of the alterations
contemplated is also, in our opinion, well devised
to strike a salutary dread into the minds of youth-
ful culprits, and effectually to punish the depre-
dations of this lamentably numerous, desperate,
and depraved class. The project is to free
society from these pests, to interrupt their
progress to the scaffold, and to combine pu-
nishment with, an opportunity of reforming,
by sending juvenile offenders to our settle-

meats on the coast of Africa, there to be re-1
gimented and disciplined, and, if possible,
converted into useful members of the common-
weal. Cut off while young from vile habits and
associations, their morals may be improved, and
by being inured to the climate so fatal to persons
more advanced in years, colonization in these
parts may be effected in a manner not to distress
humanity. Upon the whole, from what we have
learnt concerning these plans, we consider them
to be eminently calculated to diminish crime,
purge the Metropolis of its greatest nuisances,and
ultimately benefit the guilty themselves,