Page:History of New South Wales from the records, Volume 1.djvu/348

 innovation. 238 CRIME AND PUNISHMENT To minds fed on such diet as that, any proposals for reform, which had the appearance of relaxing the iron grasp Dread of of the law, Seemed to be so many dangerous innovations, threatening the security of property and therefore the foundations of society. Proposals for the education of the poor in public schools were looked at in much the same light and met with almost as much opposition. Every other move- ment in the direction of reform — ^we might, perhaps, except John Howard's agitation for the improvement of the prisons — met with a similar fate. It was sufficient to stigmatise any scheme for reform as an " innovation " in order to enlist against it every one who believed in things as they were, instead of things as they should be. Even the proposal to do away with the procession to Tyburn met with opposition ; and the kind of argument which was considered good logic in 1783 may be seen in Dr. Johnson's remarks on the subject: — Dr John- " "^^^ ^S® ^^ running mad after innovation ; and all the business aon's opinion of the world is to be done in a new way : men are to be handed of Tyburn,. _, .,-. «*^- ,/. •. in a new way ; Tyburn itself is not sate from the fury of innova- tion." It haAdng been argued that this was an improvement : — "No, sir," said he, eagerly, "it is not an improvement: they object that the old method drew together a number of spectators. Sir, executions are intended to draw spectators. If they do not draw spectators, they don't answer their purpose. The old method was most satisfactory to all parties ; the public was gratified by a procession ; the criminal was supported by it. Why is all this to be swept away? " country which prided itself on the mild and indulgent principles of its laws " ; and again, of '* the mild spirit and principles of the English laws." Post, p. 491. Paley furnishes a curious illustration of the "wisdom and humanity" of the laws in another part of his work, in which he treats of relative duties in cdnnection with property. If, he says, you should see a flock of pigeons in a field of com, nmety-nine of them gathering all they got into a heap for one, and that the w^eakest, perhaps worst, of the flock ; and if one of tnem, more hardv or hungry than the rest, should touch a grain ef the hoard, and if all the others should instantly fly upon it and tear it to pieces, you would see nothing more than what is every day practised and established among men; "nmety and nine toiling and scraping together a heap of superfluities for one, oftentimes the feeblest and worst of the whole set ; and if one of the number take or touch a particle of the hoard, the others joining against him and hanging him for the theft." Digitized by Google