Nor Was Another Part Of Our Domestic Economy Less Whimsical.
If a lucky man,
who had knocked down a dinner with his gun, or caught a fish by angling
from the rocks, invited a neighbour to dine with him, the invitation
always ran, "bring your own bread." Even at the governor's table,
this custom was constantly observed.
Every man when he sat down pulled
his bread out of his pocket, and laid it by his plate.
The insufficiency of our ration soon diminished our execution of labour.
Both soldiers and convicts pleaded such loss of strength, as to find themselves
unable to perform their accustomed tasks. The hours of public work were
accordingly shortened or, rather, every man was ordered to do as much
as his strength would permit, and every other possible indulgence was granted.
May, 1790. In proportion, however, as lenity and mitigation were extended
to inability and helplessness, inasmuch was the most rigorous justice executed
on disturbers of the public tranquillity. Persons detected in robbing gardens,
or pilfering provisions, were never screened because, as every man
could possess, by his utmost exertions, but a bare sufficiency to preserve
life*, he who deprived his neighbour of that little, drove him to desperation.
No new laws for the punishment of theft were enacted; but persons of all
descriptions were publicly warned, that the severest penalties,
which the existing law in its greatest latitude would authorise,
should be inflicted on offenders. The following sentence of a court
of justice, of which I was a member, on a convict detected in a garden
stealing potatoes, will illustrate the subject. He was ordered to receive
three hundred lashes immediately, to be chained for six months to two
other criminals, who were thus fettered for former offences, and to have
his allowance of flour stopped for six months. So that during the operation
of the sentence, two pounds of pork, and two pounds of rice (or in lieu
of the latter, a quart of pease) per week, constituted his whole subsistence.
Such was the melancholy length to which we were compelled to stretch
our penal system.
[*Its preservation in some cases was found impracticable. Three or four
instances of persons who perished from want have been related to me.
One only, however, fell within my own observation. I was passing
the provision store, when a man, with a wild haggard countenance,
who had just received his daily pittance to carry home, came out.
His faltering gait, and eager devouring eye, led me to watch him,
and he had not proceeded ten steps before he fell. I ordered him
to be carried to the hospital, where, when he arrived, he was found dead.
On opening the body, the cause of death was pronounced to be inanition.]
Farther to contribute to the detection of villainy, a proclamation,
offering a reward of sixty pounds of flour, more tempting than the ore
of Peru or Potosi, was promised to any one who should apprehend,
and bring to justice, a robber of garden ground.
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