SW_WH1793_Page_177

nals productive, to a degree more than equal to theirmaintenance, and what is of more importance, ofrestoring them again to society with amended morals,and in a situation to become useful instead ofnoxious members of the community. The criminal police is an object of the greatest im-portance in all countries, but particularly in America,not only as a new country, but as a Republic, ex-posed, from peculiar circumstances, to be contami-nated by importations of the scum and outcasts ofall Europe. This, and other considerations, haveexcited great doubts in my mind, whether the intro-duction of Europeans in the present state of the popu-lation of America, is not, upon the whole, injurious.This is exemplified in no inconsiderable degree inthe comparative view you have given of the coun-tries to which the different classes of convicts belong.It might be difficult and invidious to exclude thewhite people of Europe, and might be a reflectionupon the national character; but, surely, this policydoes not apply to the negroes of the West Indies,who, I perceive, tend, in no inconsiderable degree,to increase the calendars of delinquency. You have been rightly informed, that several very expensive Houses of Correction have been estab-lished in England, within the last twenty years,under the authority of acts of Parliament, the out-lines of which I have laid before the public; butalthough the expense has been excessive, (in one in-stance 80,000l. sterling,) I am sorry to say, that, how-ever excellent the theory, by a fatality which is noteasy to be explained, no results that can be held outas an example, can be exhibited. In one or two, inparticular, Oxford and Gloster, where, (like the Peni-tentiary House at New-York) some benevolent cha-racters have devoted much time and attention to theeconomy of the establishments, the labour of the con-victs has been rendered, in a certain degree produc-tive.—We have a superb establishment in Middlesex,