The Express.
London, England, 1864-12-14 00:00:00

BA VII ARIECT.

T 111.9 KTEernso. MADEiiiI;ELIrDE BELLE ISLE. Messrs.
Howe. Farrell. Braid, Gordon, and Coe. Mesdames Beatrice
and AngeL soNO NO SUPPER. Messrs. Compton and
Arthur : Mimes Reeky and Moore—And OCR MARY ANNE.

?MINCERS'S.
Tam ammo. BORN TO GOOD LUCK. Mr. D. Murray.
And THE STREETS OF LONDON. Mews. Vining, J. W. Ray,
D. Fisher. D. Murray, J. Nelson, H. Forrester, and H. Melon
Mrs. H. Marston, Misses Barnett and Gwynn,.

LYCEY M.
Pttl9 Marro). MY WIFE'S OITT. Mr Widdlcomb.—RYY
BLAB. Meun. reamer. Ryder, Fitzpatrick, Charles, Melntyir,
Raymond, Moil:oil. Collett, Clifford Miss C. Leclercq, Mrs.
Wiustanley.—And KERSEY CHICKWEED. Mr. Widdicomb.

SIITA NNLA.
Tnte Erman. DICK WIITITINGTON AND MS CAT.
.—gtoglng by the Great Vance, the Little Steele,
WI/a and the celebrated ITAubans,—Atid aupyßA
Miles.—tornmence at half-past O.

lIIGII WATER AT LONDON-BRIDGE.
TIM PAY Morning, 2h..26in Afternoon, 'AL •:m.
Tu.monnvw Morning, 3h. 9m Afternoon, 3h. 29r0.

LONDON, WE DNESDA Y, DECEMBER 14.

OUR convicts seem inclined just now to re-
cur to an old and favourite idea of their class,
that of casting upon society the responsibility of
their repeated offences. Crime brings punish-
ment, we, the unconvicted, are in the habit of say-
ing ; our convicted brethren wish us to understand
that it is punishment that produces crime. This
was the thesis maintained by Mr. ROSSITER, who
was convicted of robbery at the Gloucester Assizes
on Friday, and again by Mr. JOHN WILLIAMS,
who was found guilty of arson at Chelmsford
yesterday. Itossivea, whose energy of character
and fertility of resource have crowded into twenty-
four years the experience of a long life, narrated
to the Court the leading events of his career, in en
address full of pith and point, which appeared
yesterday in our columns, and which, bearing wit-
ness to his distinguished intellectual ability, makes
us feel grateful that he is content to dabble in those
grosser forms of depredation which lie most ob-
vious to detectiou. The hand that drafted that
speech was equal to drafting a City prospectus or
forging a will, and perhaps nothing but a constitu-
tional impatience hindered its master from figuring
in the world with as much distinction as a REDPATII
or a Pottezzi.. Eight years ago, when only sixteen
years of age, R. r:SITER. was convicted of burglary ;
and as he had just before been committing highway
robbery, he was sentenced to fifteen years' penal
servitude. The impression made on him " was
" deep and terrible, and from that moment," he
says, " a continuous resolution set in to raise my-
" self to such'a position that theft would be an
" infinite descent therefrom, and temptation
"to it impossible." This declaration is
the key to all that follows. There
was no l';,• di,f for ROSSITER. Only " pOSi-
" tion" could compensate him for the renun-
ciation of crime. Unluckily for him, society was
not a party to the bargain, and he disdained
the holiest mediocrity of station which by his
own showing was repeatedly offered him. He
laboured through his term of imprisonment, and
was held to have merited by exemplary conduct
remission of servitude and a license, under which
he set up at Fremantle, near the mouth of the
Swau River, a school which soon became the
best in the town. He states :—" I rea-
" heed inolicient to support me in a respectable
" position. My pupils were of both sexes, and the
" children of all the respectable inhabitants and
"government officials of the place." At this
time our hero cannot have been much more than
one-and-twenty, and burglary and high way robbery
had helped him to a position which many an
honest schoolmaster iu England might envy. tut
this higO degree of success did not satisfy him.
" Your Lordship would imagine that I had rc•
" covered elan timre than the position I had lust.
"Not so; I recovered nothing at all." What po-
sition he had lost is not very clear ; all that is
known of him being that he burst upon public no-
tice as a felon at an age when moat lads have no
character at all. Hut let him explain :—" To
" state the matter clearly, it is a Medish law with
" West Australian society not to admit nor recog-
" vise any person who has once been a convict. I
" stood uninvited at their doors to transact any
" business ; cards of compliment assumed the form
"of turgid epistles, barely initialled. I passed
" unrecognised in the streets, even by my lady-
" pupils and the older boys. Ah ! the shrine of
" society re.iiiires more atonements than the law."
All this is to llos-sirLic incomprehensible. Of a
natural, instinctive, personal, and just distaste for
the company of convicted criminals he has no idea.
He procured a pardon, but that of course made no
difference. lle sought marriage with a respectable
lady, and then be crew upon himself the displea-
sure of the whole free community, who looked on
him as " SAT ‘7, sue mg the sons of G.•!.." He is not,
however, touclied only with the feeling of his own
wrongs. I others, he observes, fared worse than him-
self. " Poor IG,:.- 'N, Reorient, and 111:111,1 URI) are
" treated with every indignity and repulse. The
" free ciassei have triumphed and set up their
" throne of tyranny there." What a pity that
these meritorious and ill-used persons cannot
have a coleny to themselves where they may
assign to one another whatever " position" they
like. " could not stand it," and went
to Singapore. i lere be was refused a landing, and
was obliged to co back to Fremantle, 4 1. out of
packet. He next tried to smuggle himself into
Sydney, cone 'algid in a box as merchandise, but the
voyage lastinc: three days beyond the usual time,
and the emit; Lenient becoming intolerable, he was
obliged tii mare himself known, upon which he
was fined '2% Lc the magistrates, besides forfeiting
his freight. Aii American coal ship afforded him
a passage to the Islands ; hut there, again,
his "position" was unsatisfactory, for the rough and
miscellaneoua crew were as fastidious as "society"
in Australia, slid nailed his ticket of leave to the
mainmast. From the Chinch& Islands he went to
Lima, and thence by the Isthmus to New York.
In the States he rashly took the oath of allegiance,
and so bee itiT liable to the draft, to escape which
he left for England. It is acarcely surprising that