The examiner. [volume] (Louisville, Ky.) 1847-1849, 1848-10-14
noe,.r rr,.r..r ana DC lsaas..s..

There had been, in light amusing fiction,
no such scene as that where Doctor Prim.
rose, surrounded by the hooking ielons OF
the gaol into which his villainots c'ediior
has thrown him, finds in even those wretch
ed outcasts common nature TO appeal to.
minds to instruct, sympathies TO bring back
to virtue, souls to restore and save In
less than fortnight had formed them into
something social and humane Into how
many hearts may this have planted desire
which had as yet become no mans care!
Not vet had Howard turned his thoughts to
the prison, Romilly was but boy OF nine
years old, and Elizabeth Fry had not born.
In Goldsmiih's day, as for centuries before
il. the saol existed as the gallows' portal; IL
was crimes high school, where Law presid-
ed over the science of law-breaking. and
did its best to spread guilt abroad. This
prison, says DIR. Primrose, makes men
guilty where il does not find them so; st
encloses wretches for the commission oil
one crime, and returns them, if returned
alive, fitted for the preparation OF thou
sands With what consequence! New
vices call for fresh restraints; penal laws,
which are in the hands OF the rich, are laid
upon the poor; and all our Paltriest pos
sessions are hung round with gibbets.' Ii
scaIes men now to be told Of what no man
then took heed. Deliberate murders were
committed by the State. IL was but four
years after this that the government which
had reduced a young wife to beggary BY
pressing her husband to sea, sentenced her
to death for entering diapers shop and
taking some coarse linen off the counter.
and laying it down again as the shoPman
gazed at her; listened unmoved 10 adelence
which might have penetrated stone, that IN
asmuch, since her husband was stolen from
her, she had had no bed to lie upon; moth,
ling 10 clothe her children, nothing to give
them to eat, perhaps she might have don't
something wrong, for she hardly knew
what she did: and finally sent her TO Ty
burn, with her infant sucking at her breast
Not without reason did Horace WalPol'
call the country zone great shamble. Hard
lily Monday passed that was not BlacI
Monday at Newgate. An execution cam
round as regularly as any other weekl
show, and when it was that shocking sigh
of fifteen men executed whereof Boswell
makes more than one mention, the intere:
! was Of course the greater, Men not 9th
erwise hardened, found here debasing do
light. George Selwyn passed as mnc
time at Tyburn as at Whites and Nj
Boswell had suit Of execution black, I
make decent appearance near the sea
fold. Not uncalled for, therefore, thong
!, solitary and as yet unheeded, was the war;
ing Of the good DR.. Primrose. Nay, M
. uncalled for is it now, though eighty yea
: have passed. Do not. he said, draw tn
: cords Of society so hard that convulsio
must come to burst them; do not cut ava
} wretches as useless, before you have tTie
!, their utility; make law the protector. N
y the tyrant Of the people You will the
y find that creatures whose souls are held |
Il dross, want only the hand Of re6ner; an
: that very little blood will serve to cemei
our security.-Life and adventures Of o
: irer Goldsmith.