So grave which had led up to such an outburst. The results of this investigation have left no doubt upon my mind and on record - I have no hesitation in placing my opinion that a very important public safeguard had been withdrawn when the system of branding ceased to be adopted.
5 Had I only to consult my own judgment, the stringency of the measure now under discussion would have been very much increased. For my own part I would prefer to deal with every criminal who had shown an inveterate habit of crime by branding them in some conspicuous way, sending them to a penal settlement, and deporting them from the Colony. The only objection I have heard urged against this treatment is that it deprives the branded man of his locus penitentiæ, an objection that has little weight with those acquainted with the class which supplies the bulk of our criminal population. Nothing is better established than the fact that by far the greater numbers of these professional criminals show tenderness of any sort not only misplaced, but is construed by them into a sign of weakness, inducing them to resume their course upon their release with more audacity than before.
The theory of the locus penitentis would, I think, be speedily dispelled by a glance at a few of the dogged, evil, and sullen countenances which belong to the ruffians to be found at any time within the walls of the prison. It is more than assertion, it is evidence, to say that such men, having taken to criminal callings, have heard of and may have supported by no ease of the kind, while on the other hand their frequent reappearance in the dock of the Police Court affords tangible proof of their inveterate habits of depredation.
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