Page:History of New South Wales from the records, Volume 1.djvu/349

m THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY. 239 To which Boswell thought it necessary to add : — I perfectly agree with Dr. Jolinson on this head, and am per- and suaded that execirtions now, the solemn procession being discon- ^*^^ *" tinned, have not nearly the effect which they formerly had. Magistrates, both in London and elsewhere, have, I am afraid, in this had too much regard to their own ease.* While Phillip and his immediate successors in office have teen unsparingly criticised here for the apparent severity with which the law was administered during their time, it is clear that, in the eyes of their contemporaries in England, their administration would probably have been considered rather too lenient than otherwise. The prerogative of prerogative mercy was frequently exercised by Phillip, and his example was followed by Hunter and King. A striking illustration of English opinion on the subject presents itself in a letter written by Sir Joseph Banks to Governor King in 1804, in which he referred to this matter with marked emphasis : — There is only one part of your conduct as Governor which I do not think right — that is, your frequent reprieves. I would have Banks on justice, in the case of those under your command who have already '^p™^®*' forfeited their lives and been once admitted to a commutation of punishment, to be certain and inflexible, and no one instance on record where mere mercy, which is a deceiving sentiment, should be permitted to move your mind from the inexorable decree of Blind blind justice. Circumstances may often make clemency necessary ^^ ^' — I mean those of suspected error in conviction, but mere whimper- ing soft-heartedness never should be heard. The plain inference from this language is, that every Blind convict who committed a second offence, for which he was " ^^ liable to death as the law then stood, should be hanged without mercy. We have only to recall the long list of capital offences at that time to understand what Sir Joseph • Bosweirs Johnson, by Napier, vol. iii, p. 297. The public procession from Newgate to Tyburn was not abolished untill 1783 ; from that date executions took place in front of Newgate Gaol. Lecky (Eighteenth Cen- tury, vol. vi, p. 251) speaks of the "disgusting scene of ribaldiy and profanity which habituidly took place when the criminal was carried for more than two miles through the most crowded thoroughfares in London. So brutal and biTitalising a spectacle could be seen in no other capital in Europe." It is well described in Griffiths, vol. ii, p. 246. Digitized by Google