Page:Paul Clifford Vol 3.djvu/286

278 "My Lord, it was the turn of a straw which made me what I am. Four years ago, I was sent to the House of Correction for an offence which I did not commit; I went thither, a boy who had never infringed a single law,—I came forth in a few weeks, a man who was prepared to break all laws! Whence was this change?—was it my fault, or that of my condemners? You had first wronged me by a punishment which I did not deserve,—you wronged me yet more deeply, when (even had I been guilty of the first offence,) I was sentenced to herd with hardened offenders, and graduates in vice and vice's methods of support. The laws themselves caused me to break the laws! first, by implanting within me the goading sense of injustice; secondly, by submitting me to the corruption of example. Thus, I repeat,—and I trust my words will sink solemnly into the hearts of all present,—your legislation made me what I am! and it now destroys me, as it has destroyed thousands, for being what it made me! But for this the first aggression on me, I might have been what the world terms honest,—I might have progressed to old age and a peaceful grave, through the harmless