To establish a System calculated to prevent criminals from returning to their evil practices after punishment is the very essence of good Police; but notwithstanding its importance to the Community, no measures have ever yet been adopted, calculated to attain so desirable an object.--It is however ardently to be hoped, that the period is fast approaching, when this great desideratum will be in a certain degree obtained; and that the suggestions offered in the subsequent Chapters, may tend to accelerate the renovation of this forlorn and miserable class of outcasts, by means of an appropriate _Penitentiary System_. CHAP. XVI. _On Punishments.--The mode authorized by the ancient laws.--The period when Transportation commenced.--The principal crimes enumerated which are punishable by Death.--Those punishable by Transportation and Imprisonment.--The courts appointed to try different degrees of crimes.--Capital punishments, extending to so many offences of an inferior nature, defeat the ends of justice.--The system of Pardons examined:--their evil tendency.--New regulations suggested with regard to Pardons and Executions.--An historical account of the rise and progress of Transportation.--The expedients resorted to, after the American War put a stop to that mode of punishment.--The System of the Hulks then adopted.--Salutary Laws also made for the erection of Provincial and National Penitentiary Houses.--The nature and principle of these Laws briefly explained.--An account of the Convicts confined in the Hulks for twenty-two years.--The enormous expence of maintenance and inadequate produce of their labour.--The impolicy of the system exposed by the Committee on Finance.--The system of Transportation to New South Wales examined.--Great expence of this mode of punishment.--Improvements suggested, calculated to reduce the expence in future.--Erection of one or more National Penitentiary Houses recommended.--A general view of the County Penitentiary Houses and Prisons:--their inefficacy in reforming Convicts.--The labour obtained uncertain, while the expence is enormous.--The National Penitentiary House (according to the proposal of Jeremy Bentham, Esq.) considered.--Its peculiar advantages over all others which have been suggested, with respect to health, productive labour, and reformation of Convicts.--General reflections on the means of rendering imprisonment useful in reforming Convicts.--Concluding observations._