Page:The London Guide and Stranger's Safeguard.djvu/255

Rh state of society which is doomed to receive again, in these our days, such a pestilence into its bosom, to contaminate entire masses of its most unprotected members;—those who look up for help, for advice, and assistance to the higher classes, and the higher powers are thus exposed to the cold-hearted callous-souled creators of crime, the murder-manufacturers of these sad times. We feel national shame, and express in weak terms our individual sorrow.

N.B. Since rewards upon conviction cannot be taken away (in sound policy) as has been proposed, the mode of distributing them must be altered; and also in the first place the power to dispense justice must be taken out of the hands of the officers altogether. What can be thought of the anxiety of an officer to convict capitally, arriving at that pitch as to employ a counsel, and pay the fees himself toinduce a jury to bring in a capital verdict, which might possibly have taken a milder turn? Yet this has happened, frequently where the prosecutor has evinced signs of clemency towards the accused.

The least guilty blood-hounds, are those who permit the escape of prisoners for lighter crimes, in order that they may be induced to commit those of blacker hue,—rewardable by statute; to say nothing of the hints, the put ups, the