tax New York received large numbers of felons and vagrants both from the English and Dutch governments.
In 1718 a regular statute in England provided that all persons found guilty of such capital offenses as burglary, robbery, perjury, forgery and theft might at the court's discretion have their sentence commuted to seven years exile in America. Butler estimates the total number of criminals sent to America between 1717 and 1775 as ten thousand. Franklin protested bitterly, and called the emptying of British jails upon the colonies as a cruel insult.
But so it went till the outbreak of the Revolutionary War, when many of the convicts were placed in the ranks of the British invading armies. After the recognition of American independence, when convicts could be shipped neither as servants nor as soldiers, it was found necessary in 1787 to form the penal settlement at Botany Bay to receive the refuse of the jails.
Dr. Samuel Johnson, who was connected with the Gentlemen's Magazine, which regularly published lists of criminals transported to America, once said, with his notorious acerbity that he could love anybody bui an American, and in 1769 burst out in denunciation of American presumption in claiming certain rights "Sir, they are a race of convicts," he said, "and ought to be content with anything wc may allow them short of hanging." A more complimentary allusion to the results of transportation was made by Dr. Ferguson in 1844, of whom Dr. Francis Lieber} says, "I remarked how curious a fact it was that all American women looR so genteel and refined, even the lowest; small heads, fine silky hair, delicate and marked eyebrows. The doctor answered , 'Oh, that is easily accounted for. The superabundance of public women, who are always rather geod-loking, were sent over to America in early 'imes."
CAVELL, EDITH—Shot by the Germans at Brussels in October 1915, after a fair trial at which she was convicted of being tlie head of an extensive organization which was secretly working in understanding with English and Belgian authorities. It was proved that Miss Cavell was an English professional nurse employed onlyj by people well able to pay for her service. She imposed upon the German officials for a long time in the character of a devout Christian who, was taking a disinterested share in the relief work for the good of humanity until it was discovered that she was the head of a widespread organization which assisted hundreds of English and Belgians to escape from the country and enter the armies of Germany's enemies. In court she admitted all charges and contemptously shrugged hr shoulders when the presiding judge asked her if she wished to make any statement that might influence the verdict. She was confined in prison about ten weeks before her execution. Her case gave rise to much comment ixi the press, th enemies of Germany in the United States, prompted by a London propaganda, endeavoring to show that it was a case of exceptional harshness. The Germans presented proof that two German women, Margaret Schmidt and Otillie Moss, had been shot by the French in March , 1915, on similiar charges, and this was admitted later by the
^Francis Lieber, Life and Letters.
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