POSTSCRIPT.

INTO the account of the causes of crimes must be taken, at the present moment, the want of employment, and the consequent low rate of wages. A poor man should earn twelve shillings a week, instead of eight. Nor can I omit the circumstance, that ten mil lions of acres are UNCULTIVATED in this country, and that twelve millions of money have gone, during the last year, to pay the laborers of other countries for that, which our own fields should have been made to supply.

I know the delicacy and difficulty attending any discussion of this topic; but it will be sufficient to have touched on it.

In our gaols, what appears universally to be admitted, the most necessary provisions, are, the separation and classification of criminals constant industrious employment-religious instructionand, if possible, some refuge or means of employment when the prisoner returns to society, lest absolute want compels him again to break the laws.

Frequency of Capital Convictions.-I was witness, this day, March 11, to eleven capital convictions. In this number were four boys, not more than 13 or 14. After judgment was passed, I went to the gaol, and saw them as they entered: only one seemed affected, and the boys absolutely laughed, saying, it was as well to laugh as cry.

All these were convinced, notwithstanding the conviction, that they should only have, what they call "seven pen'worth ;" a cant expression for seven years' transportation to Botany Bay. When this.communication is announced to them, it is generally received with expressions of " that is what I expected; I am very glad of it." -For myself, I profess to have no other guides of judgment than common sense and common humanity; but the prisoners know, that if, according to the law, they must be condemned-not two out of ten will be hanged, and transportation is a matter of exul

tation.

Transportation is even to many a bounty, and the condemnation to death loses its awful and most solemn effect, as the law itself is infinitely more severe than the administration !

Those who had been acquitted, at these assizes, were discharged, men, boys, and women together, at six o'clock in the evening; come twenty, some thirty or forty miles from home, and without a

penny. Twenty-two of the whole list were under the age of

twenty.

of

The circumstance which I would wish to press on the attention of every humane person, is this: though only two were left for execution, seventeen persons, in the whole, were CONDEMNED at these assizes TO DEATH! Two women were put on their trial for the same offence; but as it appeared to the Judge that no possible guilt could be attached to one of them, she was taken from the bar during the trial. The scene I shall not hastily forget: I had remarked the earnest agony of this poor girl's countenance. When, during the course of the trial, she heard something mentioned about acquittal, her countenance was lifted up with an expression eager and most earnest solicitude. She was doubtful whether it was possible that the humane observations of the Judge could apply to her; she leaned over, with a flush in her pale face, and spoke to the jailer; who, in a whisper, confirmed her hope. She fell down instantly insensible, and was taken from the Court in strong hysterics, from the impression of the awful scene, and the narrow escape she had. She was taken back to the prison with the other felons; and though pronounced "not guilty," detained till the Judges left town; and she was among the number of those, who, at that time in the evening, had to pass over a wild down of thirty or forty miles to their home.

I was too late to give such assistance as I should have instantly done to fellow creatures under these circumstances, nor did I know their situation till the next morning. Neither humanity, nor even the letter of the law, sanction this detention! On enquiry of the jailer concerning the girl, whose appearance was so impressive at her trial, he told me, to show the necessity of classification, that for the first eight or ten days after she came to the gaol she appeared almost heart-broken; but after this could talk and swear as well as the rest!!

Whilst we point out what appear to be the chief causes of the increased criminality of the present day, let us not forget ONE MOST MATERIAL CIRCUMSTANCE: owing to a better regulated and more active police, there are twenty detections of crime, at least in London, when, twenty years ago, there were not ten; and after all, if the INCREASE perceived may be owing to the greater number of offenders, some appearance of that increase may be owing to the more vigilant activity of the police.

Atrocious depravity.-I have been credibly informed, that when the woman who was condemned at Winchester for the murder of her husband, was brought to the place of execution, she preserved the same tone of assurance, and said, "they might do what they pleased with her, as she was one of the elect !"

These are deplorable and visible effects of a horrid spirit; but, let it not be forgotten, that though these effects are visible in a few instances, the spirit that produced them may be nursed in secret among thousands; for these things are not, and cannot be, the effect of the mere criminal disposition of those concerned, but the effect of teaching. Terrible as is the volcano that bursts out once in a hundred years, it is a proof of the existence of elements of combustion under the soil. Let me not be supposed as bringing such instances forward by way of "Hints to the Legislature." The spirit of evil must depart as it comes. My object is to recommend that mode of religious instruction in which, as far as human wisdom can provide, the spirit that produces these enormities does not mingle!!

Lest it might be thought that I have the least exaggerated in what I have said respecting the religion of this woman, I extract the following from the printed, plain, unvarnished account of her end :

"This unhappy woman, during her confinement, manifested the greatest reluctance to say any thing of the crime with which she was charged; but although she appeared fully alive to the consoLATIONS OF RELIGION! and evinced the GREATEST FIRMNESS even to the last moment, there is too much reason to apprehend that she was laboring under a most fatal delusion, from an opinion that having been ONCE in a STATE of GRACE, she could never finally fall !!!"

Spirit of the God of Mercy! when such "fruits" appear, can any real Christian doubt for a moment the author of them? This creed is preached by thousands, and believed by tens of thousands. Many who profess this belief would tremble at the consequences; but thousands profess it, regardless of its consequences, as an axiom of religion. The fruits may be visible in one instance, but the deplorable effects may remain on the heart without being visible, in numberless instances This was the unction that Cromwell put to his wounded heart on his death-bed, for the murders which he committed after "seeking the Lord!", "By their fruits shall YE KNOW THEM."

I cannot avoid adding two most remarkable facts, which have come immediately under my own cognisance, respecting the immoral effects, and that mode of preaching and teaching, to which I have alluded; and at the same time to point out the effects of that mode of common education, pursued by the Church of England. Mrs. Bowles, at the place from whence this is written, has for upwards of fifteen years, (ever since I came to this preferment) been in the habits of teaching herself the poor female children of the parish, on Sundays. They all assemble after morning service

can say,

on the lawn before the house, and the improvement, which has taken place in their dress, manners, &c. is almost inconceivable, when it is considered how destitute, and ragged, and ignorant, these children appeared when we first came to the village, which has been for so many years the retired scene of my humble pastoral labors. Nearly fifty children are constantly so educated. Many of those who were taught in this manner, long before any parochial education was generally thought of, are now grown women; and I with some pride, that NOT ONE, of all the number, (from forty to fifty, being every year in the course of instruction, for fifteen years) of all this number NOT ONE GIRL has turned out ill. Many are in service, and patterns of industry, honesty, and morality, as I could bring their masters and mistresses to prove; others are married. Now, mark the reverse! In the same parish, but in a distant hamlet, a girl, not yet sixteen, of the most flagitious and abandoned character, though yet so young, at fourteen years of age began this life of premature debauchery: of course she was not one of those children who ever attended my church or our school. Some time ago, she came before me as a magistrate, and I then spoke earnestly to her respecting her mode of life. I asked her, if she could read? "Yes, any chapter in the Bible." Did she ever go to church to hear any religious instruction? No! but she went to "meeting" in another parish. "Then if you have been instructed, and go to any religious place of worship, what can you say, in excuse, for being, at so early an age, so abandoned and shameless a young woman

She answered, with a simper, which none can conceive, unless they have witnessed that kind of pertness, which is the effect of what is called being "enlightened;" "Oh! sir, the Lord CAN turn ME, as well AS THE best, WHEN HE PLEASES!!!" Another circumstance is this:—a teacher of a village school, superintended by the amiable wife of the incumbent, went to see some friends at Reading, a town, of which it is said that if every genus of dissent from the apostolic age to the present, was lost and forgotten, it might there be found. This young woman went to this place for a short time, and showing on her return that kind of pertness which I have described, so different from any thing in her character before, Mrs. said, "I am sorry to see you so much altered." Yes," madam," was the reply, "I hope I am; for I was in a SAD MORAL condition before!!" Whether she has recovered from this sad moral style, and made the best use of the time she has lost, I know not, but I have little doubt of what will follow.