did not commit. I went thither, a boy who had never infringed a single
law; I came forth, in a few weeks, a man who was prepared to break all
laws! Whence was this change? Was it my fault, or that of my
condemners? You had first wronged me by a punishment which I did not
deserve; you wronged me yet more deeply when (even had I been guilty of
the first offence) I was sentenced to herd with hardened offenders, and
graduates in vice and vice's methods of support. The laws themselves
caused me to break the laws: first, by implanting within me the goading
sense of injustice; secondly, by submitting me to the corruption of
example. Thus, I repeat,--and I trust my words will sink solemnly into
the hearts of all present,--your legislation made me what I am; and it
now destroys me, as it has destroyed thousands, for being what it made
me! But for this, the first aggression on me, I might have been what the
world terms honest,--I might have advanced to old age and a peaceful
grave through the harmless cheateries of trade or the honoured falsehoods
of a profession. Nay, I might have supported the laws which I have now
braved; like the counsel opposed to me, I might have grown sleek on the
vices of others, and advanced to honour by my ingenuity in hanging my
fellow-creatures! The canting and prejudging part of the Press has
affected to set before you the merits of 'honest ability,' or 'laborious
trade,' in opposition to my offences. What, I beseech you, are the props
of your 'honest' exertion,--the profits of 'trade'? Are there no bribes
to menials? Is there no adulteration of goods? Are the rich never duped
in the price they pay? Are the poor never wronged in the quality they
receive? Is there honesty in the bread you eat, in a single necessity
which clothes or feeds or warms you? Let those whom the law protects
consider it a protector: when did it ever protect me? When did it ever
protect the poor man? The government of a State, the institutions of
law, profess to provide for all those who 'obey.' Mark! a man hungers,--
do you feed him? He is naked,--do you clothe him? If not, you break