The Press. — London, England, 1858-09-25 00:00:00

916 No doubt the feeling which forbids a lavish outlay on our workhouse arrangements has its origin in a highly respectable and plau usible theory—viz., that in proportion as the Union becomes attractive, the incentives to persevering industry are removed, dissolute and intemperate habits encouraged, and the general high tone of the poor demoralized ; nor can it be denied that there is much force in what is laid down . as the inevitable result of greater liberality on the part of the Poor-law Hoards; but without the slightest wish to graft the lazzaroni as a Fifth Estate upon our social system, it will, we think, be conceded that that system is more extensively degraded by the existing situation of a workhouse inmate. Every one who has studied this question attentively must have felt shocked at a recent exposure of the English laisser-aller habit of mind glanced at in a Paper on the Condition of Workhouses which was lately read before the Association for the Promotion of Social Science at Birmingham. It appears from this brochure that " in one of our " large London workhouses the broth for the " sick was tbund to be hot water with oatmeal " floating on it, and the soup was declared by " the guardians to be unfit for use ; the bones " and meat were nowhere to be found." A poor needlewoman of seventy, worn out with weak ness and heart-complaint, was discovered by the writer above quoted in the "shed" with the ablebodied, where she remained a fortnight before her removal to the infirm-ward. Her occupation consisted of picking hair and oakum amid the " sweepings of six parishes ;" the language and behaviour were fearful ; the bread frequently contained alum. Here even the commonest articles of furniture were wanting—cups, saucepans, boxes there were none. Old men deprived of flannel, and dying women destitute of necessary clothing, complete this terrible picture. Surely sonic line of de marcation might be drawn between the poor man's helpless old age and the stalwart penury of a workman temporarily out of employ. But we have small faith in Boards and Visiting Justices unless the workhouse staff of officers be raised to a nearer level with that of the pet British insti tution—the Model Prison! CONVICT DISCIPLINE-THE PORTLAND OUTBREAK. Tuorun many years have passed since we prac tically ceased to transport our convicts beyond the seas, we have not yet satisfactorily learnt how otherwise to dispose of them. Transporta tion was discontinued—and necessarily discon tinued—when Australia became auriferous, and other settlements refused to become cloaca for British crime, but the abandoned system has never been replaced by an efficient sub stitute. All our devices have proved unsuc cessful to provide criminals at home with what they found so abundantly in the con vict colonies--remunerative labour by which they could be rendered immediately useful to the State, and prepared ultimately for restoration to liberty and a career of honest industry. The recent 6meute among the Portland prisoners shows very strikingly the strange and unexpected diffi culties which are encountered in attempting to accomplish this object, and the description of that affair, so admirably given by an " Eye witness" in Thursday's Times, affords a curious glimpse of what we may call the ethics of prison society. For the origin of the outbreak we must travel back some year' in the history of penal legisla tion. Before 18S3, convicts undergoing the nominal sentence of transportation enjoyed the privilege of being able, by good conduct in gaol, considerably to abbreviate their term of detention. A criminal condemned to transportation for seven years obtained his release at the end of four, and if for ten at the end of six years, if he behaved well in the eyes of the prison authorities, under liability of having the remitted punish- THE PRESS, SEPTEMBER 25, 1858. After four years' trial this Act was mitigated by another Bill , introduced in 1857. The prison authorities found that the most powerful agency of reformation was taken away when they could no longer offer to prisoners the hope of speedier liberation as an incitement to industry and morality. So the measure was passed restoring, to some extent, the former privileges, and this ►s the Act under which convicts sentenced to penal servitude have since entered upon their terms of punishment. It does not extend, of course, to the prisoners previously convicted, whose sen tences must be strictly carried out, in pursuance of the Statute of 1853. These vacillations in the punitive system fos tered the discontent which culminated in the late emeute. By lapse of time the great majority of the prisoners confined in Portland now comprise the convicts under the Act of 1853. Frequently have they occasion to witness the departure of some senior comrade whose sentence dated from an anterior period, and who has earned a mitiga tion of punishment .The last corners, again, have brought intelligence that, if they behave well, a similar indulgence will be extended to them also. The unlucky prisoners of the intermediate regime are alone without hope. For them is no remission possible. Their sentence must run to the last day before they can expect liberation. Hence has arisen a predominant feeling of unjust treatment. Convicts do not read the Parliamen tary debates. They cannot understand that the apparent inequality is rectified by the judge at assizes. They look only at the broad facts of the case, and brood over their supposed wrongs until they arrive at the desperate determination to strilre for redress, or, at all events, for revenge. That such were the influences which generated the conspiracy among the Portland prisoners, we have positive as well as negative testimony. In all other respects they had no cause for com plaint. Their treatment was based upon the most philanthropical principles; their food was so good as to excite envy among the soldiers who guarded them ; their labour was comparatively light, and a liberal system of gratuities, payable upon their liberation, gave them a consolatory idea that, convicts as they were, they neverthe less worked for wages. The history of the outbreak can fortunately be written in a few words. Formidable as any attempt of the sort may appear when made by twelve or fifteen hundred stalwart and desperate men, armed with tools which were readily con vertible into offensive weapons, the mutiny in point of fact was suppressed as soon as it began. The authorities were forearmed, and their arrangements were skilfully made. The Port land prisoners were chiefly employed in the quarries whence we derive the masses of granite of which Plymouth breakwater was constructed, and which constitutes so large an element in our metropolitan architecture. In these quarries about a thousand convicts, more or less, are daily em- 1 e t r h i s i c; bearin g ployed. On Monday the 13th i nst. the sass~ p a in n g d pdaisrttrieibsuwted b ere anirutlitheed d quarries. down from stbal work strange and defiant i n theiras they came down revealed what it seems every one knew already, that an ou tb rea k was take place. The intenti on h a d attained a tobout notoriety. The very car-driver who drove il'Eubli) witness" to Portland on th e previous Saturday had spoken of the event as being shortly k to " come off." The prison authorities about the conspiracy, in c l u di ng the n manner, knew all the means, and even the m oment o f its explosion. On the morning in question, after a sulky pretence at work, a large b o d y of convicts rushed with a yell toward s some central point in the works. This was the su mmons upon which it had been agreed that the whole muster of prisoners should concentrate upon the same slot, with the further intenti o n o f overpowerin or mar& riag their guards, burning the villages in Portland Island, and then escaping to the main land. But the atrocious scheme was crushed in the first moment of attempted execution. On the earliest symptom of overt action, a quiet signal passed from sentinel to sentinel, and a line of Wexford militiamen with loaded rifles and fixed bayonets marched down upon the mutineers. The affair was the work of a few seconds. The convicts stopped in their rush, staggered, fled befbre their opponents, though only twelve in number, and were quickly hunted into a s h e d, where the ringleaders were put in irons. At the same instant a bugle call sounded through the quarries which produced the same magical effect as ROB ROY'S whistle, since we are told that armed men sprang from behind rocks and out of places of concealment on every side. Before the con spirators could recover from their surprise every salient point was occupied, the communication between different quarries cut off, and a cross fire established in every direction. The out break was in fact quelled almost as soon as it began. For two days afterwards disaffection still prevailed among the convicts. Small " rushes" were made at intervals, and instantly put down. From time to time some convicts would throw down their tools, and in a most unaccountable way give themselves up as prisoners--as if they were not prisoners already. The authorities deserve much credit for the admirable disposition of the limited force at their disposal. They had only 200 warders and guards in the prison, aided by 120 of the Wexford Militia. Yet they con trived to meet the outbreak with a resistance so prompt and overwhelming, that the conspirators were subdued without a life lost, or even a blow struck. The result is that a few of the chief offendors have been flogged, others taken off to Milbank to be dealt with as their conduct requires, while the rest of the convict com munity have sullenly surrendered, and quiet again reigns in the Portland establishment. We derive, however, from this incident a singular proof how impossible it is, with the best arrangements, and by the strictest discipline, to impress upon the minds of convicts the idea that they have forfeited their place in society, and have become mere recipients of a penal system designed as chastisement for their own oneness and a warning example to others. The law may declare that the convict has no "rights," may incapacitate him from suing or being sued, from inheriting or devising property. It may even for a time deprive him of his name and recognize him only by a number. But the prisoner himself will not consent to this annihila tion of his personality. Though a culprit and convict, he still claims rights and mists grievances ; and if allowed intercourse with his fellow-prisoners they form among them a com munity, endowed like other communities out of doors with its peculiar code of morality. iu notions of justice and injustice, its rights and duties, and its atmosphere of " public opinion. These characteristics are invariable in all Eng lish prisons. They militate sorely against every attempt to realise the ideal formed by m an y ex perts in criminal jurisprudence ho look ups a prison as a mere place of retributive punishmen t or reformatory discipline. They lead occasionally •illgt to deperate attempts like that which has uell occurred at Portland. It is much easier to q the trueute than to devise a system which woui r d e prevent its recurrence, and at the same tune mo r effectually accomplish the end and aim o f ou penal legislation. ment duly enforced should he commit fresh offences. This privilege had always been granted to convicts in the penal colonies, and was ac corded to them at home, when the transportation system was abandoned, in a spirit of justice, and in order that the penalties consequent upon their sentences should not be aggravated by the change in their place of punishment. In 1853 an Act was passed almost entirely abolishing this pri vilege. A general outcry had arisen against the " tickets of leave ; " while arguments were stoutly urged upon the abstract question to prove that the judicial sentence lost its terrors, and ceased to operate as a deterrent from crime, if it was not executed with rigorous exactitude. A cul prit condemned to transportation, it was said, would laugh in his judge's face, while knowing, or fancying, that he was sure of getting free in a few years if he only humbugged the prison chaplain. Under these influences the Act passed, giving stricter enforcement to the sentences pro nounced from the bench. Convicts under that statute could not shorten their term of detention by their good conduct ; while the judges, it was presumed, would modify the penalties they awarded when aware that their decisions ex pressed a real and not a nominal measure of punishment.