and they are merciful and equitable. It would be found, I believe, on examination, that nearly one third of the amount of the sums for which persons are confined in the various prisons of England, has arisen from the dreadful expence of law proceedings; — an evil of destructive magnitude, which the wise policy of the Dutch has carefully guarded against.
The number of criminals in the prison of the stadthouse of Amsterdam, forms a pleasing panegyric on the morals of the inhabitants of that great city, or the vigilance of the police. Since the year ninety-fix, a period of the greatest national calamity, which has been most severely felt by the lower orders of society, only three criminals have suffered by the hand of the executioner. The yearly average of executions for London and Middlesex exceeds forty[1] a lamentable<references>
- ↑ From December 1783, to December 1783 (vide Howard's Works, vol. 2.), the number of executions in London and Middlesex amounted to 324, which
