Page:The A. B. C. of Colonization.djvu/22

17 stamp feels more than the gibes and sneering cheers of his fellow men; the finger of scorn, or a bare allusion to a discreditable transaction of the nature alluded to, would have a more deterring effect than the apprehension of any consequence in a court of law, or the severest censure the gravest judge could pass upon him. I do believe a person guilty of this act could hardly exist or remain in a district in the Australian Colonies. He would be known—he would be scouted and avoided— the stigma would attach to his very children—it would follow him wherever he went. His name would appear time after time in the column "Not Paid" of the Quarterly Return Book published by the Society. It would be seen at home, and it would be seen abroad; his changing his very name would not save him from the opprobrium. In thus viewing it, it must be borne in mind that this money is not lent to them by Government—not lent to them by their late landlords or masters—not lent to them by the parish; but that it is a fund raised and devoted by a benevolent public to the relief of struggling families and individuals at home—that it is, in fact, the money of the poor—that they are for a time the treasurers of a sacred trust. It must not, too, be overlooked, that, as each member of a group will have to pay his share of thefees due by any of its defaulters, that this will brand such defaulters more deeply, and give additional security, to the Society. If, for instance, a group consisted of twenty-one persons, and that one became a defaulter, each would have to pay a sixpence for his dishonesty; the insignificancy of the amount would only make his delinquency the more pointed. I cannot, believe, then, that our people are so fallen in honesty and in feeling as to brave the guilt and the shame of all this. To show how this grouping-sys-