AND HIS STAFF. 207 be believed tbat bis influence with the Governor was not l7»-96 seldom exerciBed for the purpose of tempering justice witb mercy. Perbaps notbing could more forcibly illustrate the prevalent opinion witb respect to the criminal code tben in The criminal force tban the fact tbat, altbougb it was administered by a *^' man wbose personal sympatbies must in many cases bave revolted against its extreme severity, be bad not a word to say in condemnation of it, the inference being tbat it did not present itself to bis mind as more severe tban it sbould be. On tbat point the Judge- Advocate probably beld the same judicial opinion as the Judges in England, who were so mucb in the °^* babit of passing sentence of deatb for trifling offences at tbe Criminal Assizes, tbat tbey learned to look upon sucb sentences as absolutely necessary for the protection of society.* Every sentence of deatb or flogging imposed by tbe Criminal Court for the first eigbt years of its existence was pronounced by Collins ; and in many of tbose cases be knew, and recorded the fact, tbat the crime for wbicb punisbment was exacted bad been committed under the Hunger and pressure of starvation.t Tbe terrible penalties demanded by the law for sucb offences — ^in some cases deatb, in otbers many hundreds of lasbes — seem so inhuman at the present day tbat the men who administered the law are too often held responsible for its severity. But tbey were no more accountable for it tban the man who guides a steam-engine can be held to answer for its movement. His position as
- Sir Samuel Romilly relates that when he introduced a bill, in 1808, to
repeal the Act of Elizabeth which made it a capital offence to steal privately from the person of another, the reform met witn determined opposition from many emment lawyers. Burton, a Welsh Jud^e, objected to it because it proposed to leave the offence mere larceny, punishable with only seven years transportation. He thought the punishment should be transportation for life ; and said that unless that alteration were made in the bul, he would vote a^inst it. ^ Lord EUenborough was of the same opinion. t "Their universal plea was hunger; but it was a plea that, in the then situation of the colony, could not be so much attended to as it cer- tainly would have been in a country of greater plenty "; p. 210. While thefts were common at Sydney Cove, " at Rose HiU the convicts conducted themselves with much greater propriety ; not a theft nor any act of ill- behaviour having been for some time past heard of among them." To which he added, in a foot-note—" they had vegetables in great abundance "; p. 112. Digitized by Google
