The Dorset County Express and Agricultural Gazette.
Dorchester, Dorset, England, 1867-07-02 00:00:00

TIM FENIAN CONVICTS AT PORTLAND.

Through the courtesy of one of our representatives
in Parliament, we have received the report of the
commissioners on the treatment of the treason.
felony -ootteiete in the English convict prisons. it
contains mach of interest ooncerning the establish-
ment at Portland, and we propose to give the
salient point.: to reproduce the rerort is exiasso
would be wearying to the reader, and
occupy undue spies in our columns. There are 19
treason-felony convicts at Portland, and the orders
'riven as to their treatment by the Secretary of
State, then Sir George Grey, were that they
were to be considered as ordinary convicts,
but the Chairman of the Bard of Directors
of the English Convict Prisons says that
they have been in point of fact treated with
all humanity and oonsideratioa, being placed at
Portland in a clam apart, save in two instances
where two had beau associated for a very brief term ,
with the ordinary convicts ass paniehment for gross
insubordination, mid in two other mess where two
of the number had been associated at their own
request with the ordinary convicts. "Be added
that not only had they been treated with exceptional
kindness in the important particular of non-alexia-
lion with the ordinary couviota, but that on mere
proonds of humanity their term of separate confine.
is. at at Penthaville bad been shortened by many ,
womb.; that at Portlai,cl • lase amount of work led '
I em required of them thao from other convicts; and
finally, that they bad not been subjected to the
same severity of punishment as ordinary *melts for
infringement of the rules and reputations of the
;rim
The statemeetsessid the chairman, which had been
made with regard to the inhuman treatment of the
treason-felony convicts on the part of the oonvict
setamities were a teens of falsehood and miarepre-
entatioa. Where the aseertoons contained • grain
of truth, the troth had for the most part hem so
warped and distorted as to lose the charmer, of
truth altogether; and Sealy, that • few of the
grammess aospisiated of (es for asses* the
calareiney Mahe out at &as fa adman

weather), were tbe ordinary incideota of cooviet
life. The tree/on/dog eOfttidO had NO greater
grieraaces j,I Sava reapeeta than the ordinary
.mpeiclal op'sum tundreda apex hundreds of free
MOt rem into, Us the, Wald of Pon!,tri.l, v-ere
porsiep isixtilsood ty the labuars if Ark ON%
hqpia, and by honest indwell-it."
Tbe Uotbuitsalonets visited Pentonville prison,
May 13. and the mutt of the inquiry, was
that the treatment of the treasoo-felony conricta
woe Mums and just.. Two complaints mads
I show the character o tha wen, Briao
, alleged "that be, had vet hten allo4ied to bee
hle bed driving toe day, although be suffered
from some weakness or deformity of the spine, lie
fornt to tell us that he had been instantly supplied
, with • stool suitable for his infirmity. Murphy
complained that the glare of the whitewashed cell
affected his eyes; it was instantly colored of a
darker hue." This.don't.look like harsh treatment.
. .

i Concerning Portland the Commiseioners remark
on the difficulty of managing convicte on public
works as compared with tiros in close prisons, from
Lb. feet of their heing perpetually intoned to tale h)
the mere presence and close proximity of others on
the works, and the buts facilittee it affords
for the offence of "trafficking." either by peeping
oat letters or obtaining tobacco, materMla for writing,
and such like things ill an underhand way. Of the
prison itself and its arrangements, the Commissioners
emphatically say—
" Whatever else might be hypothetical on the
subject of dispute, what follows is fact. We had
been conducted into every bole and onrner of the
establishment on Portland, and we had found it far
more perfect in all its arrangements than we could
believe it possible such an insti.ntion could be, The
sanitary arrangememe were esoellent fso was the
food ; the hours of lsOotir not unreasonable ; clean-
lineal end order every Where. As coatiested with
similar itistittitiobil on thy continent of Europe. the
superiority of Portland *As bo Marked thal ooni•
parisoii ewe* *ea out of the question. Th. hospital
atrangements were as good as in any London b.wpitaL
Every care was shown for the spiritual welfare of
the convlcta. Protestant and Roman Catholic, it was
all alike. Books of recreation, as well as those of •
religious character, were to be fund in all the cells.
I The superior officers of the prison, who were all
!perfect strangers to us, were all gentlemen of kind
and conciliatory manners • the governor was an old
and wal-tried servant of ;lie Crown, who had risen
to his priesest rank simply by the meritorious
I earvice of yiars ; the too deputy governors were
officers in Her Majesty's WON of tank and
ffilitineter."

When the convicts reached Portland some of them
bad about them crosses, beads, and meariee, the
proper term to be applied to which is "emblems."
The governor, in speaking of them, unwittingly
celled them "oharme' or "amulet.." Of this.
00606.113 k Wan rode on WO ground that Dm espies-
moo wounded their feelings. The chief instigator
to most of these complaints appears to have been
!O'Donovan Roma. This man has givrip constant
! trouble to the prison officials, who loek upon him as
! wholly intorrikible. A letter written by him to be
!secretly conveyed out ot the princ6 gave nee to one
of the most important of the charges into which
! inquiry has been made. "He bad the most
ingeitious contrivthoes for secreting fragments of
paper, for banging ink-bottles out of his oell window
by wires, and obviously managed to maintain
tolerably waive relations with the etternal world.
He haa driven matters at last to this point, that he
has beet retnitteditom Polalid to %Munk, and at
Millistett the authorities Ire obliged to keep him,
leven at hours of exercise, apart from his fellows."
Of the food supplied to them at Portland, the
Commissioners say
" If not enough to satiety the fall desire of the
, convict', it we. at least sufficient to sustain them in
the strong roStist health It, which me found theib.
If 'mold be math to be dented Ural all the labouring
population of these Woods had as good and Wad.-
some a diei as dre 1.500 coavicis now kept to laboar
OD the island of I'r:inland. ernaphatata were
made .of .tbe tyranny of the froverner and his
; Subordinates, and of grievances is to letters, but
the oommisioners emphatically record their
; approbation of the governor's arrangementa, and the
1 general discipline of thia prison. "We believe not
only that the charges against him ere without
foundation, but that the reverse is the truth. tie
, is a strong disciplinarian, in his position he can be
I nothing des, or there would be a mutiny in twenty.
four boors. On the other hand, from what we saw
during the three days we spent in the prison, we
have no drAbt that he Is pre-eminently a kind and
humane man. With regard to these treason•felony
convicts he has done all that lay in his power to
treat them with every consideration; we are bound
to add that unhappily they have treated him in
return with signal ingratv ode. Hie office is at
time. very painful, always one of tn• highest
responsibility, and the Crown has in him a most
ethellent servant. Of the other officers directiv
connected with the prison we have nothing but good
to say. Each man most work well in his degree to
prodooe such results." The report itself concludes
as follows —"ln opeaklne of the treatment of these
°wieldy in general, we have neither the right nor
the wish to °eased the bounds of our Commitinon.
As convicts we found them, and as o .uviets we have
thought of them, and spoken of them throughout..
Viewed in this light, wear. satisfied that they have
been treated with expectional kindness and for.
hearanoa There is not the smallest foundation fur
the charges of seventy and cruelty which bane been
brought against the convict authoritisa The very
reveres of !this lathe truth. Save in the ease of a
very few timers labouring under chronic infirmities,
for which they are receiving the most eareful treat-
ment, the treaeon-felonv militias are men in rude
robust health, and this alter. oonrinerneut of one
year and a half in English convict prisons. Let the
matter be inquired into by any board of medical
dithers in the country. Cruelty and harsher.
are just as possible in Piccadilly as at Portland ;
let any one who doubts the fact take the
train and walk round the public works
and visit the prison for himselL We have
no hesitation in saying that the stories which have
been running the round of the papers have DO
foundation in fact, but are the mere cootrivthoes
of five or sit amongst the moat turbulent of the
convicts.
A convices bread is bitter food at the best. Place
him under the best sanitary tonalities*, treat bins
with what humanity you will, the privation of
liberty, the enforced seclusion, and equally compel.
imory labour; the terrible monotony of the life; the
stern order, and the instant obedience, °noel:Unto •
very terrible punishment. We know that these men
have a better diet, sleep in better beds, are more
oared for in sickness, have lighter laboer than the
bulk of the labouring classes in the three kingdoms,
and that tbe stories of their ill-treatment are simple
falsehoods; bet the meanest and poorest labourer in
the empire would scarcely cues.) places with them.
Penal servitude, we repeat it, is • terrible punish-
ment ; it is intended to been, and so it la. The
convict authorities, however, most do their duty to
all alike. The only true cause of complaint the
tierenn•feloay convicts have against them is that
LW owl get otit "