“With this I send you a book calculated to excite a great
diversity of opinion. It begins with an attack upon a very worthy and excellent
friend of ours, and it calls in your assistance to knock him down, which you
have effectually done. It then proceeds to plead the cause of all the rascals
in the nation, and it sets you up as their advocate. It not only objects to any
more hanging, flogging, &c., but proposes to get clear of punishments
altogether, and even presumes to treat the proportioning of
punishments to crime as an Utopian scheme, which never can be carried
into effect. After all this, the author turns short upon you, his great support; and presumes to criticise you in a manner
that it will require all your good nature to pardon. For all this he has only
one apology, viz. that the importance of the subject was such that he could
neither suppress nor accommodate his opinion. He can, however, explicitly
declare, that in the course of his researches on the subject, he has found no
writer who has entered so deeply into it, and with such a true feeling for
human nature, as yourself; and on this account you must
not be surprised to find your nom de
guerre frequently introduced. I am sensible, my dear
| 202 | LIFE OF WILLIAM ROSCOE. |
