tion cannot send away her criminals, and yet make their punishment
exemplary; she cannot detain them in masses, without rendering them a
scourge; she cannot discharge them to live under a clement sky and
amidst abundance, without meeting everywhere the reproaches of the
honest poor. Thus beset on every side, she is taught that crime is not
an excrescence to be cut off, but a disease to be cured; and that to
increase the comparative penalty of guilt, more than liberty must be
forfeited. She must offer something better to her paupers than the
benefits of disgraceful exile.

In reference to practical results, almost every theory may be sustained
by the records of transportation, if one class of facts only are
admitted into view. Thus it has been pronounced by men distinguished and
intelligent, as an expedient worthy an enlightened statesman, and
gratifying to the most ardent though scrupulous philanthropist; but they
have often omitted sections of facts which, resting on evidence not less
deserving regard, excite astonishment, disgust, and horror.

Whether the judgment of Governor Arthur was correct on the main
question, or not, he doubtless pointed out the great difficulty. His
words are well worthy remembrance:--"Sanguine as I am of the beneficial
results of transportation, and confident as I feel that it may be made
to surpass any other secondary punishment, both as relates to the
criminal and to the country from which he is banished,--I cannot lose
sight of many imperfections of our present system, some of which are
bottomed on a state of things which no human ingenuity can
rectify:--'you cannot make that straight which God hath made
crooked.'"[276]

A few men of the generation survive, which witnessed the departure of
the first fleet of convict vessels to a country then a wilderness, and
inhabited only by savages. The stranger, who lands where they first
pitched their tents, will survey the scene and consider the question of
transportation determined. The shipping which crowd the harbour; the
public and private buildings rivaling the architecture of Europe; the
spacious churches, filled with well-dressed families; the extensive
thoroughfare, thronged with business and equipages, and adorned with
elegant shops and offices; the courts of law; the public markets; the
London cries; the noise of the hustings; the debates of the assembly.
Such are the alleged results of transportation: as if by some vast
effort the peopl