“Although I did not think I had a right to intrude on
you with my acknowledgments for your obliging favour of the 16th June last, yet
I
LIFE OF WILLIAM ROSCOE.
217
assure you I was not insensible of the honour you had
done me in noticing my last publication on the treatment of criminals in terms
so favourable to the author. That this was accompanied by an observation, that
I had perhaps erred through too much lenity towards offenders, is an imputation
which, of all others, I can the most easily bear, as I am fully sensible how
much I am yet wanting in those feelings of Christian charity and kindness
towards our erring brethren, which I consider as the only solid basis on which
we must ever hope for an effectual reform in our criminal law. There is no
speculative truth of which I am more fully convinced, than that the real
interest of the criminal, and that of society at large, are inseparably united;
nor, although I may not live to see it, do I despair that a mode may be adopted
by which this speculative truth will be reduced to practice, and the evil and
the remedy rendered commensurate to each other.”
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INFORMATION FROM TEI HEADER
Source Description:
Author: Henry Roscoe
Title:The Life of William Roscoe 2 vols (London: T. Cadell, 1833).
Electronic Edition:
Series: Lord Byron and his Times: http://lordbyron.org
Encoding Description: Any dashes occurring in line breaks have been removed. Obvious and unambiguous compositors’ errors have been silently corrected.
Markup and editing by: David Hill Radcliffe
Completed May 2012
Publication Statement:
Publisher: Center for Applied Technologies in the Humanities, Virginia Tech
Availability: Published under Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 Unported
License
