I was at some pains to discover the opinions of these men, and their
reasons for entertaining them. They are held in great odium by the
generality of the public, and are considered as subverters of all
morality whatever. The malcontents, on the other hand, assert that
illness is the inevitable result of certain antecedent causes, which, in
the great majority of cases, were beyond the control of the individual,
and that therefore a man is only guilty for being in a consumption in the
same way as rotten fruit is guilty for having gone rotten. True, the
fruit must be thrown on one side as unfit for man's use, and the man in a
consumption must be put in prison for the protection of his
fellow-citizens; but these radicals would not punish him further than by
loss of liberty and a strict surveillance. So long as he was prevented
from injuring society, they would allow him to make himself useful by
supplying whatever of society's wants he could supply. If he succeeded
in thus earning money, they would have him made as comfortable in prison
as possible, and would in no way interfere with his liberty more than was
necessary to prevent him from escaping, or from becoming more severely
indisposed within the prison walls; but they would deduct from his
earnings the expenses of his board, lodging, surveillance, and half those
of his conviction.
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