Page:History of New South Wales from the records, Volume 1.djvu/346

 236. CBIME AND PUNISHMENT Sydney Cove the current doctrine of his times. When, for instance, in the heat of his indignation at a deliberate mur- der committed by the natives at Botany Bay, he instructed Captain Tench, before setting out on an expedition in "HatchetB s®*^^'^ ^f the murderers, to "cut off and bring in the andbftga." heads of the slain, for which purpose hatchets and bags would be provided," he was manifestly influenced by the eighteenth century belief in the efficacy of ghastly spec- tacles. His idea was that, by fixing the heads of the natives on poles around the settlement, he would deter others from committing similar outrages. The effect of such a spectacle would probably have been just the reverse. The feeling of repulsion provoked by exhibitions of that kind on minds not accustomed to them was shown in the case already referred to, when a convict was flogged in the presence of the natives. The only result was to make them sympathise with the sufferer and turn against those who punished him, whom they had not yet learned to look upon' as " the officers of justice." Romiiiy and The reform of the criminal law made no appreciable progress until it was taken in hand by Sir Samuel Romilly, who identified himself with the cause as zealously as Wilberforce devoted himself to the abolition of the slave trade. Compared with his design, however, Romilly^s actual achievements were very limited ; the greatest con- sisted in having thoroughly awakened men's minds on the subject, and so prepared the way for his successors. The determined opposition he met with, even in places where he might reasonably have looked for sympathy, if not with active assistance, is enough to show the nature of the task he had undertaken. In 1808, he succeeded in passing a bill to repeal the old Act which punished pocket-picking with death ; but he met with very different results two years afterwards, when he introduced bills to substitute transport- ppi»rftion ation for death in cases of stealing in shops or dwelling- Lonto. houses. The bills were passed in the Commons, but were thrown out by a majority of nearly three to one in the Digitized by Google