Particularly so
must it have proved to the gentleman who was in the chief direction of
the settlement, who found himself either obliged to punish with severity,
or to be fearful even of administering justice in mercy, lest that mercy
should prove detrimental in the end, by encouraging others to offend in
the hope of impunity.
There can scarcely be recorded a stronger instance of human depravity,
than what the following circumstance, which happened in this month,
exhibits. A convict, who had formerly been a school-companion with the
Rev. Mr. Johnson, had been taken by that gentleman into his service,
where he reposed in him the utmost confidence, and treated him with the
kindest indulgence. He had not been long in his house before Mr. Johnson
was informed that his servant, having taken an impression of the key of
his storeroom in clay, had procured one that would fit the lock. He
scarcely credited the information; but, being urged to furnish him with
an opportunity, he consented that a constable should be concealed in the
house, on a Sunday, when all the family, this servant excepted, would be
attending divine service.
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