The Express.
London, England, 1852-04-14 00:00:00

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LONDON, WEDNESDAY, APRIL 14.

Silt JAMES MATHESON'S offer to the government
of the Island of North Rona as a penal settlement,
suggests some views on convict discipline, which
may possibly lead to practical and useful conclusions.
M
uy we not, by the use of some such isolated spot
near home, secure all that is advantageous in the
transportation system, without incurring its manifold
and palpable evils ? The reason why our criminals
were sent to the antipodes was not to obtain the
mere security of distance, but an opinion that excel-
lent colonies could be raised out of the moral refuse
of our home society. Reasoning and fatal experi-
ence have, however, shown how evil a thing it is to
sow new ground with such seed. Tho colonising ad-
vantages of the penal settlement have been aban-
doned us fallacious, for reasons too obvious and well
known to be repeated. The penal disadvantages of
the system were numerous and flagrant. It was im-
possible to make punishment sure and commensurate
with the offence, under a system which gave so
much influence over the convict's fate to accident, his
own ingenuity, and the temper and inclination of
irresponsible individuals. The gambling propensity
—the inclination to brave anything that is a risk
only and not a certainty—is deep-rooted in the cri-
minal nature, and is one of the main causes of all its
miseries. In rumours of the fate of transported con-
victs. the good luck of the minority stripped of all
its premonitory horror the misery of the majority.
Nor were the sanguine, reckless fools—of whom
our criminals mainly consist—without substan-
tial encouragement to qualify themselves for a
passage to the land of promise. Rumour from
time to time told of convicts who hail made for-
tunes by keeping whiskey stores, who drove phaetons,
kept pucks of kangaroo hounds. and gave great din.
nen, to the envy of the poor magistrates who had
despitefully used them. Finally, distance removed
the control of the responsible home authorities over
one of the must delicate and difficult of all opera-
tions. Abuses, and mistakes leading to such condit-
ions .is the horrors of Nortelk Island. went on year
after year unrectitied. But we need not enlarge on
evils so, generally admitted.
An extensive penal system in the bosom of society,
has its evils also. One—and a very considerable
one—is that the people in general do not like it. They
feel uneasy in having to rub shoulders with a cluster
of knaves and ruffians. The employment of convicts
under immediate and visible physical coercion in the
middle of the population, after the manner long pur-
sued in France and Germany, is too obviously de-
moralising and disgusting to be attempted here. But
wren when they arc confined within walls, there is a
feeling of apprehension that it is dangerous—con-
templating the possibility of popular outrages--that
a number of the worst men, and the bittenit ene-
mies of society, may ho at °lice enlisted by am bear-
gent mob strong enough to break down the ttlrmisr
fortifications of some
_great prison. The reeelleellse
of the Lord GEORGE GORDON riots makes seek ep
prehension' not quite unreasonable, and the amiss-
fifty of dispersing convicts through many compara-
tively small prisons renders large, and therefor,
economic, plans of penal discipline impracticable.
One good reason for the prison system undoubtedly
is its furnishing a living testimony to the criminal
classes that punishment is in actual operation ; that it
is not a mere myth wafted over from distant and un-
known regions. The thief passing the prison wall
knows to a certainty that his brother thief is inside,
and the assurance is salutary to society in general.
But we cannot have all our prisons in the haunts of
all our criminals, and the crowded city districts fre-
quented by the clan are, for obvious reasons, ill
suited for a safe and well regulated prison. It has
been found necessary of late to seek comparatively
isolated spots for the great penitentiaries; but if the
place of punishment be out of the way of the daily
walk and observation of the St. Oiles's bird, it
may as well be at Rona, or any other place
in the extremity of the United Kingdom.
The fact that his convicted brethren are
there will be one on which he can feel little
doubt, and be will know veer well that a stony island
off the north-west coast of Scotland has no Pergolas,
and cannot to the most sanguine open up visions of
inexhaustible gold diggings. Wherever we place a
prison in any of our rural districts or smaller towns,
we are sure to disturb the economy of the place by
competition with its labourers, and in many other
shapes, while we set an odious object, fall of dreary
associations, before the neighbourhood. It is well to
get the system out of sight if we can do so without
getting it out of mind.
Few can believe that the offer of Sir Jeans
Marne-sox is a 'elution of the oxtails's)/ dillsalt
question of penal discipline; but it tom be be
worthy of thoughtful exaeliesdahod we have seen
many schemes less capable et abreiller at least
immediate scrutiny.
It is not necessary to hold that the island offered
to the government is the best for the purpose; and,
should it not turn out to be the most suitable, and a
better be suggested, the purchase money would not
be likely to weigh in the selection. It would, for
instance, manifestly save expense that the island used
for a great penitentiary should be naturally inacces-
sible to vessels, except at some one point which
might be easily guarded. It is said that the island
in the wild sea between Orkney and Shetland, called
(haws a nom legends) the Fair Lk, is of this cheese-
ter. At all events, it would bo quite practicable to
make the chances of escape from such a settlement
infinitely fewer than they can possibly be made in
distant colonies like Sydney and N'an Diemen's
Land.

WE printed on Saturday • letter addressed to the
President of the Board of Trade by McGurn COLE
and REDORAVZ, the new supenntandsats of the
Department of Practical Art. This hater, which
is to accompany the miseilluneous estimates for the
year,. contains remote maw the preesal state of As
existing schools of awls%sae sgapetisas as to the
future orpeimation dems leslitallens. Now, both
these reamhe and seigestise me regularly sine-
borative dee seldom widsh ws have item time to
time mined with regard to theeshele in inseam,
and yds roes
in demolishing a ilea wide his
bees sat up by a Mr. Women's in oiliation to the
strislarie el ourselves and ethers.
This gintimae, who hatnese the guide is ems
of thee @sheds, on the Mee Mot sPrehl
letter to a ripe jest remold te Ise Besse ea the
" state and perm dee Ids* of Deign: This
letters' occadsaid by the writer's convhdon of the
" utter of the ?pinions which have
raha in the hdeentisi labia eine te the
discredit of the selissis; sad ie Weed le pp
that their " mussed inefieieney end anisialerity"
is di a mistake. Now, es the Deb Nal ma the
frets draw attention to the simbandeps of the
Behests of Design, it is satieletary to he she to dew
the our strictures at best were esemiensill by bets
while impar to Menai in Pliiesmeois sad RED-
mempesisely the mew impedes as visa ourselves.
Our fleet eliediea was that assassin were in many
tens mime dew* may, nine that sothing could
be impeded km Am mid it and be made a goo-
die'. that soma ahead enter the. who had sot re-
eked a geed ilanakhry ideation in drawing.
What say the impirielsedeate P
We Wilk that the gadilleatien he *Minim to the pu-
ma Imbeds if esmassial set she d& be the psimmies, et
Piet um pewee ef amnia esseesitm sod that the
siodi be eoliested aeoitm Seim itteles.
etemiti eeleit* et eimeollory wheels is the
only een
bistro gibe* of bole la Ibendios
art. Mate oho* of design, or
_ _

Oar next Alma= was founded the utter
alonw of ear enE.eritlMiNw. In an
artiele on the en which which spveired in this paper
on Dee. 17th, we remarked The came Cl the
want of success atT the shook of theign are various.
In the first plea, there was the whit of aspirin-
tandems. Ups no Asia! person et body of pee-
• • one wan plead the *bility of assing that the
Maid worked t6er with wishing like
r , unity of purples, What was every beVe bagasse
• was nobody's benbara and the schools were left with-
.