But the main argument on which they rely is that of economy: for they
know that they will sooner gain their end by appealing to men's pockets,
in which they have generally something of their own, than to their heads,
which contain for the most part little but borrowed or stolen property;
and also, they believe it to be the readiest test and the one which has
most to show for itself. If a course of conduct can be shown to cost a
country less, and this by no dishonourable saving and with no indirectly
increased expenditure in other ways, they hold that it requires a good
deal to upset the arguments in favour of its being adopted, and whether
rightly or wrongly I cannot pretend to say, they think that the more
medicinal and humane treatment of the diseased of which they are the
advocates would in the long run be much cheaper to the country: but I did
not gather that these reformers were opposed to meeting some of the more
violent forms of illness with the cat-of-nine-tails, or with death; for
they saw no so effectual way of checking them; they would therefore both
flog and hang, but they would do so pitifully.
I have perhaps dwelt too long upon opinions which can have no possible
bearing upon our own, but I have not said the tenth part of what these
would-be reformers urged upon me.
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