This is
confirmed by the inmates of the place being, on all other nights of the
year, peaceable after they have been locked up in their respective
wards. Those who suppose there is any real mirth or indifference among
them at any time, have taken but a superficial view of these wretched
men. Heaviness and sickness of heart are always with them; they will at
times make an effort to feel at ease, but all their hilarity is
fictitious and assumed--they have the common feelings of our nature, and
of which they can never divest themselves. Those who possess an unusual
buoyancy of spirits, and gloss over their feelings with their
companions, I have ever observed on the whole, to feel the most internal
agony. I have seen upwards of two thousand under this sentence, and
never conversed with one who did not appear to consider the punishment,
if it exceeded seven years, _equal to death_. May, the accomplice of
Bishop and Williams, told me, the day after his respite, if they meant
to transport him, he did not thank them for his life. The following is
another striking instance of the view they have of this punishment.
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