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TUESDAY, DECEMBER 18,18°°'

CRIMINAL PUNISHMENTS•

A rEw days since, The Times published a letter' iO,
the Chairman of the Middlesex Sessions, on t: Cb is
portant subject of criminal punishments, eor
entitled to serious attention, owing to the nial ;via
plaints of the substitute for transportation ill :ts-of-
convicts to be 'at large in this country with ticks
o 00'
leave. Mr. SERGEANT ADAMS, whose ple ,yell'
Of
known in our criminal annals, retains his feeja he
opposition to the abolition of transportation, wi,„-•iiie,
considers afforded a far more effectual check t°
by the dread of its infliction, than 3°YufiPtaviiie
ment by imprisonment in this country
he admits the impossibility of its °Dr-h.:our
owing to the strong opposition manifested .;10 to
colonists in Australia, he attributes that OPP°-,ed of
the discontinuance of a practice formerly obserf,n-oid
assigning convicts to respectable colonists as
hits
labourers. The mischief, if it can be so
been done, and it only remains to make the P:ropple
of the means within our power, in order t° La of
with an evil which threatens to increase i9sl*-

diminish.
rtioDs
It is a melancholy fact, that after all the es e
paler
which have been made for the extension al levies'
education, by schools for the young and by 'see pow'
institutions, free libraries, and other aids i°forola.
ledge for the more advanced in years, all thei:no, that
tion derived from criminal statistics is to order
crime is increasing. A third Assize is he la 1-ef
to relieve the gaols from the great nulubernt bse
mates, and the necessity for the arraugefenaui.
been shown not only in the 'number but °ear has
tude of offences. Education, it would al3Pe eb'srse-
not diminished crime, but rather changed itsbees
ter; and for the simple reason, that it ' -
directed towards intellectual rather than oel— joid
provement. Too much stress has beencl too
upon the mere aids to human knowledge, °ear of
little upon that, the beginning of which is t„bhea body
the Lord. We have consequently to deal and as'
of criminals increasing instead of dimini6hingo: tation'
the suspension of the punishment of tr 3115: re at
except in extreme cases, has kept them as ": jiltf
our own doors, the best mode of meeting the 7crrt•
s become a question of more than ordinal 'l4
ance.
Within the last few years considerable atteuti,°;
has been paid to the state of our gaols, many of 11113
have ,/,
been newly erected in order to carry out ari
ticular system. Separate cells have been prOCI
3
supervision has been unremitting, dietary tables 0
been prepared by medical advice, and every care 31),
parently taken to maintain the health if not to cost;,'
the convenience of the inmates. It would be as well'
however, to take into consideration whether this
regard for the welfare of criminals,
in order to
re _n
Yted _
.a morbid, humane feeling, may
not have orated
some degree to augment, if not produce, the mischief
against which it is professed to provide. It is
well
known that of the inmates of our prisons by
far gra_tif
r•
. e
the great majority are from the lowest classehads, whileo
other resource for subsistence than crime or the nuet
sunk to the lowest depths of destitution, have
house. To such characters the dull monotony of tn
and excitement of a criminal career ; while the nr?.0130
poor-house offers no temptation against the freedom
offers rather an agreeable variety to the Privarjoe
suffered by the vagabond tribes. The CO ,e
gaols Pro
luxuries and warm regular meals of model
luxuries to those who have been sleeping dese and
sheds, on straw in cellars, or under dry arehes,wert
feeding on garbage ; so that instead of iranriseerd of
being a punishment, it is more often the rewa.
crime, d be so
If education, as far as it has been condue'e' agues
manifestly inadequate to the emergency, and ir:;es that
of repression have become urgent, it is imnere".:ebly
imprisonment should be really, as well as ustellsi,,s;eo
punishment, so that a dread of the eonsecllly
00.
should have more efficiency in checking tbe,etior
mission of crime. Instead of a dietary table 9111;xof
in quantity and quality to what is enjoyed by
thousands of the honest and industrious—those ti
can feel no other influence should be reached is be
not
way. Hard fare, and a scanty supply, may -traiat
without its effect on many who need a strong re%noae
from temptations to pilfer, as a more intelligible dogs
of teaching than admonitions. We hear of offel',:ol
being sentenced to hard labour ; but what is the Pcrbo
labour of a gaol compared with that of very wala; a'F
are earning an honest livelihood ? It is mere 0%9
play—a relief from the fatigue of idleness rather tube
a burden—and, by prison regulations, entitling to
offender to a better class of diet. Something el
wanted widely different from the treatment in mod
gaols ; and where the offences are brutal assaults o
.a,
women, and other helpless victims, corporal n1111,';
ment might be added with wholesome effect.
ral
wretched pretence of humanity to decry c(°
, i):;, it
punishment as degrading, when those to wl'e';‘,es
should be applied have already degraded therasej. it
in a still greater degree ; and the opposition te
shows an utter disregard for the miserable vieti°s4l
their brutality. To temper justice with mercy; sbe
be at all times a paramount consideration ; but l, e,
no mercy to the wretched wife who has been bel'Ati':);
perhaps within an inch of her life, by her fielitio
husband, to allow her no other protection than ftj
brief incarceration of her tyrant, to repeat bra I

treatment of her the first opportunity.*
A most judicious improvement was made whereotl
French prison, in the centre of Dartmoor, WO
cip
available for the detention and punishment of e°ll/ber
Separated by miles of barren wastes from °bile
human habitations, it offered many advantages, /109
the labour of the prisoners might be devoted t°
conversion of the surrounding peat to useful Purr:tly
The system has, however, not been sufficaea4
extended ; for at Dartmoor, as well as at P°rti:
where convicts are employed in hewing stole '°o
harbour of refuge, they might be made to feel
i,icil
consequences of crime in really hard work,
should be some remuneration for the cost of ",beit
maintenance. It is false humanity to make
somnent other than a punishment. If no other uleit
will restrain offenders from the repetition of j
offences, the influence of fear should be all°/:_e_aer
operate ; and really hard labour will have this l'into
beneficial effect, that it will compel the indolent ~e 0
habits of industry, which will prove of service to wfoc,
on the termination of their sentence. But it is, ullool
tunately, with the very youthful that our criPliies(
courts have so much to do ; and for this class we ;00
the Reformatory Institutions as one of the best f:601
which have yet been adopted. They tend considers
to remove the great temptation to crime eauv;gill
want of employment ; and it is to be hoped tile'
t f
meet with that encouragement the good fre e bet °
which will be seen in the diminution of the ruin
juvenile offenders.