it, nothing but the weakness
of human nature could represent to me as worth holding at all; the world
may, I believe, without envy, allow me all the praise to which I have
any title. My aim, in fact, was not praise, which is the last gift they
care to bestow; at least, this was not my aim as an end, but rather as a
means of purchasing some moderate provision for my family, which, though
it should exceed my merit, must fall infinitely short of my service, if
I succeeded in my attempt. To say the truth, the public never act more
wisely than when they act most liberally in the distribution of their
rewards; and here the good they receive is often more to be considered
than the motive from which they receive it. Example alone is the end
of all public punishments and rewards. Laws never inflict disgrace in
resentment, nor confer honor from gratitude. "For it is very hard, my
lord," said a convicted felon at the bar to the late excellent judge
Burnet, "to hang a poor man for stealing a horse." "You are not to be
hanged sir," answered my ever-honored and beloved friend, "for stealing
a horse, but you are to be hanged that horses may not be stolen." In
like manner it might have been said to the late duke of Marlborough,
when the parliament was so deservedly liberal to him, after the battle
of Blenheim, "You receive not these honors and bounties on account of a
victory past, but that other victories may be obtained."

I was now, in the opinion of all men, dying of a complication of
disorders; and, were I desirous of playing the advocate, I have an
occasion fair enough; but I disdain such an attempt. I relate facts
plainly and simply as they are; and let the world draw from them what
conclusions they please, taking with them the following facts for their
instruction: the one is, that the proclamation offering one hundred
pounds for the apprehending felons for certain felonies committed in
certain places, which I prevented from being revived, had formerly cost
the government several thousand pounds within a single year. Secondly,
that all such proclamations, instead of curing the evil, had actually
increased it; had multiplied the number of robberies; had propagated
the worst and wickedest of perjuries; had laid snares for youth and
ignorance, which, by the temptation of these rewards, had been sometimes
drawn into guilt; and sometimes, which cannot be thought on without the
highest horror, had destroyed them without it. Thirdly, t