[Footnote 137: That able and excellent Magistrate, the late Henry Fielding, Esq. (to whose zeal and exertions in the exercise of the duties of a Justice of the Peace, in the Metropolis, the Public were under infinite obligations)--manifested, half a century ago, how much he was impressed with the injuries arising from frequent pardons.--Those who will contemplate the character and conduct of this valuable man, as well as that of his brother, the late Sir John Fielding, will sincerely lament that their excellent ideas, and accurate and extensive knowledge upon every subject connected with the Police of the Metropolis, and of the means of preventing crimes, were not rendered more useful to the Public. It is to be hoped, however, that it is not yet too late, since the state of Society, and the progress and increase of crimes, call loudly for the establishment of a responsible preventive System.] Nothing can sanction the punishment of death for crimes short of murder, _but the terror of the example operating as the means of prevention_.--It is upon this principle alone that one man is sacrificed to the preservation of thousands.--Executions, therefore, being exhibited as seldom as a regard to the public interest really required, ought to be rendered as _terrific_ and _solemn_ to the eyes of the people as possible. The punishment now in use, considered in point of law to be next to that of deprivation of life, is _Transportation_. It has been already mentioned that Parliament authorized this species of punishment in the year 1718--when the general plan of sending Convicts to the American Plantations was first adopted. This System continued for 56 years; during which period, and until the commencement of the American War in 1775, great numbers of Felons were sent chiefly to the Province of Maryland. The rigid discipline which the colonial Laws authorized the masters[138] to exercise over servants, joined to the prospects which agricultural pursuits, after some experience was acquired, afforded to these _Outcasts_, tended to reform the chief part; and after the expiration of their servitude, they mingled in the Society of the Country, under circumstances highly beneficial to themselves and even to the Colony. Possessed in general (as every adroit thief must be) of good natural abilities, they availed themselves of the habits of industry they acquired in the years of their servitude--became farmers and planters on their own account; and many of them, succeeding in these pursuits, not only acquired that degree of respectability which is attached to property and industry; but also in their turn became masters, and purchased the servitude of future Transports sent out for sale.[139]