On this page
-
Text (6)
-
Untitled Article
-
Untitled Article
-
Untitled Article
-
Untitled Article
-
Untitled Article
-
Untitled Article
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
-
-
Transcript
-
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
Additionally, when viewing full transcripts, extracted text may not be in the same order as the original document.
Untitled Article
Tine first is gone , we hope , for ever ; the secon d is fast going , and would , perhaps , be already a thing of the past , if the third were clearly and practically understood , undiscredited by maudlin philanthropy . It therefore becomes an important question to know what steps , down to' the present time , have been taken to carry something like a self-supporting system of criminal labour into execution . Ireland , for once , lias beaten England in this race of progress . "When in 1854 tlfe
new penal acb ( 16 and 17 Vie . cap . 99 ) came into operation , the directors of convict prisons in Ireland inspected the establishments placed under their direction , and found , as their first Keport declares , 3427 prisoners confined , though there was accommodation only for 3210 . What was to be done ? Unable now to draft them to the
colonies , the directors had to look at home for means , not to punish criminals , but to make useful , honest men of them ; and they set to work accordingly with an earnest , determined will . The Chairman of the Board of Director ? , Captain Chofton , took the lead in the great undertaking , and resolved to test the following plan in . the Dublin house of correction known as the Smith field Prison .
Finding that this place was no longer needed as a prison , he assembled all employed within its walls , and told them that he Avas about to use it in a peculiar manner , and that turnkeys , so-called , would be no longer needed , lie described his plan thus : He was about to collect , from all the convict establishments in Ireland , the men of the very-best character as prisoners , who should be entitled , at an early day , to tickets of leave . These men were to receive the suit
of clothes given to ticket-of-leave men on quitting prison ; and were to be brought to JSmithfield ; bat although he could not make them free men , he would not , by any means , lot them consider themselves prisoners . Each of these men ignorant of a trade should be taught one . Fo man should leave the establishment until , if possible , some means of honest livelihood had been obtained for him .
Each of the turnkeys should know some trade , and lie should act ns foreman of his craft , and sit and work with his pupils ; in fact , he told the prisoners that all within the establishment should be usefulty employed . Having made the necessary arrangements , Captain Ciiojttox began his operations on the 1 st of February , 1856 . The inmates of Smithfield wore taught the trades of shoemakers , tailors , netmakers , carpenters , brushmakers , nailers , and other employments of an
in-door kind ; and at tho end of December , 185 G , the success had been such that IG 7 men had been discharged , 55 free , and 112 on ticket of leave . Of the 112 ticket-of-leave men 5 have relapsed ; but of the free men none . Of the total of 167 , 40 of the ticketof-leave men and 3 of the free men are working in Dublin and tho county of Dublin , and are emplo 3 od , aorao as tradesmen , others as labourers , at wages averaging from 7 s . to 20 s . per week . *
Tho account of tho roceipts for tho year ending 31 st Dooember , 1850 , t shows that of the inmatos of Smithfield , 16 tailors gained the sum of < L ( KV . 16 a . ; 16 shoemalcors , 151 / . 19 d . ; ( 5 mattrcss-makora , 109 ? . 3 s . ; 1 enrpentor , 23 / . 4 s ., &c . ; and that altogether tho establishment is very nearly selfsupporting . Compare with this tho sums spent on transport od convicts . According to Mr . M . 1 ) . HiiiL , a Tnsmaninn convict costs 35 / . ayonr ; n Woat Australian convict , 41 / ., besides the expense of shipping ; and , worst
of all , in spite of this heavy outlay , the convict does not become a better man , but often , very often , sinks deeper into crime . At Spike Island , another Irish convict establishment , the prisoners are employed on works under the Hoyal Engineers Department , connected with the fortifications on
the stations-masonry , earthwork , quarrying , and the like and under the same department , at Forts Camden and Carlisle , at the entrance to the harbour , and at Qaeenstown ; also at Haulbowline , under the Naval Department ; and in various works requisite for the repairs of the prison buildings at Spike Island .
At Philipatown a portion of the convicts confined have been employed in' new buildings , and in alterations necessary towards the completion of that invalid establishment ; and in the same place the Directors have latterly purchased some land adjoining the prison , for giving additional means of employment , in its cultivation , to a class of convicts not altogether suited for heavy labour on the public works .
The most valuable result of the whole movement is conveyed in the official statement * that , generally speaking , the industry of the convicts has been very satisfactory , especially of those in the intermediate stages at Smithfield , and at Forts Camden and Carlisle . The record of industry is known to effect their progress in the classification , and it thus acts as a constant stimulus ,
which we hope will become still more powerful with the men now under sentence of penal servitude , when we are enabled to place before them some more tangible reward than is afforded by the mere increase of earnings consequent on their attaining higher classification . So much for Ireland , where indeed they seem to go ahead of us in this question , at least for the present .
And what is England doing ? Old England is habitually rather backward in trying new schemes ; but when once fairly persuaded of their intrinsic worth she does sometimes carry them out . It has been so with great ideas and discoveries during the last three hundred years , and will be most certainly the same with this important question of convict reform . At present the state of transition from the lock-up to the self-supporting system is clearly visible . Many of our convicts are , at this time , engaged in the
construction of a harbour of refuge at the Isle of Portland ; and undertakings of a similar kind might givo them work for a century to come , if the public , the Parliament , and the Government could only be brought to appreciate the fact that more than a thousand vessels are annuall y shipwrecked on tho coast of the British Isles , involving many hundreds of lives ; a loss chiefly arising from the infrequency of such harbours of refuge . There , and in the millions of acres of waste land , of bogs and
swamps to bo reclaimed , is a field certainly wide enough for convict labour . Lot nobody object to tho cost of such enterprises , for the present system is most decidedly the costliest of nil . It appoars from tho report of tho Committee on Transportation , appointed during the last session of tho House of Lords , that , although transportation to Tasmania has coasod for years , 4000 convicts yofc remain there , at an annual cost to this country of 142 , 236 / . ; and in "Western Australia 2000 convicts cost 82 , 000 a year .
" To send convicts , " exclaimed Mr . M . D Hill , in his charge to the Birmingham Grand Jury in 1856 , " thousands of miles , to remain in prison at the end of their voyage , does appear to me repugnant to the most obvious dictates of common sense ; to say nothing of its being condemned by all authority . If the convicts cannot , with propriety , be scattered abroad , but must be congregated upon public
works in anticipation of the wants of further future colonists , who , the moment they become strong enough , will deprive us of our depot for our criminals , thus constructed at an enormous outlay , surely it would be far more expedient to keep them at home , labouring at public works on our own shores ; especially when the absence of such works is a national disgrace . "
Untitled Article
WHERE ARE THE BRITISH BANK DIRECTORS ? We hope it is not true that several of the British Bank Directors have been frightened beyond the seas by the Attoe . net-Geneeal ' s promise of a prosecution . It would be a strange miscarriage of justice that Sir Richaud Bethei / l should give public warning to an accused person , a very natural consequence of which would be that the offender would put himself beyond the reach of -warrants and detectives — perhaps join James Sadleie ., or wander in search of John . When a great crime was committed in Dublin the police made such a mystery of their suspicions that all clue to the criminal was lost ; but the misdemeanants of London stand in happier circumstances . First , Mr . Linki-ater publicly advises their impeachment ; then the Commissioner at Basinghallstreet intimates it as a probability ; next the AxTOENEX-GENEEAii declares that it will take place ; and it is supposed—so justice pretends—that the culprits will wait in meek expectancy until the law pleases to lay its hands on ' their neck . We fancy , however , that some at least of the British Bank will not be forthcoming when the agents of the Central Criminal Court are in want of them .
Untitled Article
THE TYRANNY OF SILENCE . What is tho Times if not a faithful record of events ? The leading organ , however , relies on its privilege of suppression , not less than on its power of publicity . It has positively burked two notices of motion bearing on the administration of the Duchy of Lancasterone by Mr . Wise for certain returns connected with the revenues , another by Mr . Contngelam respecting Mr . Bertoxaoct's
petition . We are forced to ask whether a public journal has a right to make this use of its superiority . To taboo an expression of opinion is one thing , to burk a parliamentary incident is another . It has been believedand we should not care to believe otherwise , —that the Timos is a complete and accurate chronicle of events , but if two notices of motions are omitted from one evening ' s report , how much is suppressod in the course of each rcvolving year ?
Untitled Article
Bishop Vili . ikhs at Exbtbh IIaix . —Tho first of tho aorios of special roligious services for tho working classes , originating with certain evangelical clergymen and laymen of tho Established Church , took plaoo last Sunday night . Tho gvoat hall was well filled ; but tho audience consisted only in a very small part of tho working classes , and presented protty much tho aspoot of our ordinary congregations . Some surprise waa occasioned by Mr . Arthur Kinnaird ( who , with tho Eurl of Shaftosbury , iiccompaniod tho Bishop on to tho platform ) introducing to a seat next tho proachor a very poor and dirty-looking old man , with a largo bundle in hla hand . MOHUMBST TO TUB DuivlS QP Wl £ I . UNaT ( Mf .- i-H « r 0 » Marochottl in nt present engaged in a colorful nicnumont to tho Duko of Wellington , which will bo rnlHod In 31 . Paul ' s , if ( ho doHign should moot tho approval ol tlu » Govornmont .
Untitled Article
* Murray ( P . J . ) Tho Transportation Question . ( Dublin , 18 H 7 . ) t Third Annual Report of tho Diroctora of tho Convict Prisons in lroliuul ..
Untitled Article
* Third Annual Report of tho Dirootors of Convict Prisons in Troland . ( Dublin , 1 . 857 . ) Moro details about Ireland , and chiofly about , Captain Croflon ' s treatment of criminals , ore to bo found in a oloar and well-written Jotter of Mr . Alfred Hill , from Cork , April 8 , 1857 , to hiri futhor , tho . Recorder of Birmingham . Sea M . D . 11111 : titttjgaatioiin J ' ov t / ta Jiejiroaawn uj' Crime , pp . 07 ' 2-tJ .
Untitled Article
m May SO , ' 1857 . ] THE LEA 3 ) ER . 519
-
-
Citation
-
Leader (1850-1860), May 30, 1857, page 519, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse2.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2195/page/15/
-