The Express.
London, England, 1864-09-14 00:00:00

PRINCE:IB'S.

'nun amine°. BORN T 06006— LUCK. Mr. D. Murray.
And THE STREETS OF LONDON. Mews. J. W. Ray, David
Fiaher, D. Murray, J. Nelson, B. Forester, and R. Mellon ;
Mrs 11. Marston, Misses Barnett and Gainne.

BRITANNIA.
This LTENntfl. THE HARLOT'S PROGRES3A.— Slnglng by Mr.
H. Clifton an.l Mr. J. H. Steed Madame Pleon.—Mr. 0. W.
Je.ter.—Concluding with KENILWORTH.

HIGnWATER AT LONDON-BRIDGE.

.....
InteDAY Morning, Oh. 61n. Afternoon, Oh. iism.
Tw YORIAiW Steruing, Ih. 3m.. .Alterimot., lh. '27m.

LONDON, WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBEE 14.

Now that all prospect of transportation for
the future is practically at an end, the question
of the disposal of our penal servitude convicts at
home has acquired additional interest and import-
ance. So long as our colonies were willing to re-
lieve us of a great portion of the burden, it mat-
tered little, comparatively speaking, what became
of the remainder. But, when the whole weight of
it has to rest upon our own shoulders, it behoves
us to see that every available expedient is used to
lighten the pressure. Of course it is evident at
first sight that, utilise the labour of our convicts as
perfectly as we may, we can never expect to derive
from it the same compensating measure of advan-
tage which it unquestionably conferred, in the
earliest stages of their development, upon our
Australian colonies. In the struggles of an infant
society the value even of untrained labour in
supplying the essential conditions of material pro-
gress appears to outweigh the evil moral
influences which the infusion of a large cri-
minal element into the population must inevitably
create. But as these primary wants become gradu-
ally supplied, and the socialorganizationof the com-
munity becomes more complete, the material advan-
tages of convict labour are lessened at the same time
that its deleterious moral effects are proportionately
intensified. To expect that, in the present advanced
condition of English society, the industrial services
of our convictacaneverbe so far utilised as to make
them a source of ultimate gain to the community,
would be obviously absurd. But every well-di-
rected effort in this direction will, at least, tend
to make our penal system self-supporting, and wol
at the same time be attended with very beneficial
moral effects upon the convicts themselves. What-
ever objection may be raised against reformatory
efforts in general, on the ground of their assumed
antagonism with the primary deterrent objects of
penal discipline, that objection cannot ex-
tend to the system which adopts manual
labour as one of the chief engines of moral
reformation, and accepts industry as the sole test
of moral reform. In nine cases out of ten con-
tinuous labour is in itself the severest punishment;
at least it would be so invariably to the hardened
criminal whose ordinary life is an alternation of
sensual idleness and lawless adventure. On the
other hand, habits of industry are not orly the best
evidence that can be obtaned of goad intentions
on the part of the convict for the time being, but
supply the strongest possible antidote to the temp-
tations which will assail him on his relerse. The
last Report of the Directors of Convict Prisons
contains some very interesting and encouraging in-
formation bearing directly upon this questior, and
tending to show that convict labour is unquestion-
ably becoming more remunerative under the pre-
sent system. Writing of the condition and pro--
pects of the farm connected with the Dartmoor
Prison the Governor says :—"The farm bailiff's
" labour return represents a sum of 2,177/. 4a. 4d.
" for work done and estimated for at a fair
" price, and iu excess of the previous year by
" 323!. 19a. 11d., notwithstanding the daily ave."
rage number of prisoners employed at agri-
" cultural work is considerably below that of the
" year 1862, and is mainly to be accounted for
"in the manifestly improved industry of the
" convicts." The Reports of the Portsmouth and
Chatham prisons, in so far as they bear upon the
same subject, are equally satisfactory. From the
appended statements of expenditure and of con-
vict labour in these two establishments it appears
that in the latter the total expenditure for the
year has been 38,749!., and the estimated value
of the labour of the convicts 31,5561., whereas'',
the former the amount of work done by the con-
victs is estimated at 24,637!., against a total ex-
penditure in the prison of 32,4111. The Governor
of Chatham Prison tells us " that every exertion
" has been made to have the work executed by the
" convicts during the year, as far as parable,
" accurately measured and valued, and it is most
" satisfactory to find that in every case where
" more accurate measurement has been attained,
" the value of the work ascertained to have been
" performed has exceeded the approximate value-
" Lion given for similar work during the
" preceding year, and, in some instances, the
" excess has been found to be very considerable."
We are also told that, where the work cannot be
accurately measured, the lowest scale of wages
given by the Admiralty for the lowest description
of work is always taken as the standard of worth,
and that the Admiralty are now paying at least
half as much again to free men for doing work
of a similar character to that upon which the con-
victs are chiefly employed. Similar testimony to
the increasing value of convict labour is borne by
Admiral Ettfi,r, the superintendent of the Ports-

mouth Dockyard, who has recorded his opinion
upon the subject in a letter addressed to the Go-
vernor of the Prison, and inserted by b;,n in the
body of his Report. " I have to state," says the
Admiral, " that, taking a general view of the ser-
" vices of the Guo convicts employed in the dock-
yard, with the assistance rendered by the direct-
" ing superintendence of the convict officers
"in the execution of work, I consider
" that it is a very fair average to claim for the re-
" munerative labour of these men the same value-
" tion as it would cost the Government for an equal