The Press.
London, England, 1858-09-25 00:00:00

THE PRESS, SEPTEMBER 25, 1858.

After four years' trial this Act was mitigated
by another Bill, introduced in 1857. The prison
authorities found that the most powerful agency
of reformation was taken away when they could
no longer offer to prisoners the hope of speedier
liberation as an incitement to industry and
morality. So the measure was passed restoring,
to some extent, the former privileges, and this ►s
the Act under which convicts sentenced to penal
servitude have since entered upon their terms of
punishment. It does not extend, of course, to
the prisoners previously convicted, whose sen-
tences must be strictly carried out, in pursuance
of the Statute of 1853.

These vacillations in the punitive system fos-
tered the discontent which culminated in the
late emeute. By lapse of time the great majority
of the prisoners confined in Portland now comprise
the convicts under the Act of 1853. Frequently
have they occasion to witness the departure of
some senior comrade whose sentence dated from
an anterior period, and who has earned a mitiga-
tion of punishment .The last corners, again, have
brought intelligence that, if they behave well, a
similar indulgence will be extended to them also.
The unlucky prisoners of the intermediate
regime are alone without hope. For them is no
remission possible. Their sentence must run to
the last day before they can expect liberation.
Hence has arisen a predominant feeling of unjust
treatment. Convicts do not read the Parliamen-
tary debates. They cannot understand that the
apparent inequality is rectified by the judge at
assizes. They look only at the broad facts of the
case, and brood over their supposed wrongs until
they arrive at the desperate determination to
strilre for redress, or, at all events, for revenge.
That such were the influences which generated
the conspiracy among the Portland prisoners, we
have positive as well as negative testimony. In
all other respects they had no cause for com-
plaint. Their treatment was based upon the
most philanthropical principles; their food was
so good as to excite envy among the soldiers who
guarded them ; their labour was comparatively
light, and a liberal system of gratuities, payable
upon their liberation, gave them a consolatory
idea that, convicts as they were, they neverthe-
less worked for wages.

The history of the outbreak can fortunately
be written in a few words. Formidable as any
attempt of the sort may appear when made by
twelve or fifteen hundred stalwart and desperate
men, armed with tools which were readily con-
vertible into offensive weapons, the mutiny in
point of fact was suppressed as soon as it began.
The authorities were forearmed, and their
arrangements were skilfully made. The Port-
land prisoners were chiefly employed in the
quarries whence we derive the masses of granite
of which Plymouth breakwater was constructed,
and which constitutes so large an element in our
metropolitan architecture. In these quarries about
a thousand convicts, more or less, are daily em-

1

e trhi sic;
bearing
ployed. On Monday the 13th inst. the sass~
p
ainngd pdaisrttrieibsuwted b
ere
anirutlitheed d
quarries. down from
stbal work
strange and defiant in theiras they
came down revealed what it seems
every one
knew already, that an outbreak was
take place. The intention had attaineda tobout
notoriety. The very car-driver who drove il'Eubli)
witness" to Portland on the previous Saturday
had spoken of the event as being shortly
k to
" come off." The prison authorities-
about the conspiracy, including the n
manner,knew all
the
means, and even the moment of its explosion.
On the morning in question, after a
sulky
pretence at work, a large body of convicts
rushed with a yell towards some central point in
the works. This was the summons upon which it
had been agreed that the whole muster of
prisoners should concentrate upon the same slot,
with the further intention of overpowerin or
mar& riag their guards, burning the villages in
Portland Island, and then escaping to the main-
land. But the atrocious scheme was crushed in
the first moment of attempted execution. On the
earliest symptom of overt action, a quiet signal
passed from sentinel to sentinel, and a line of
Wexford militiamen with loaded rifles and fixed
bayonets marched down upon the mutineers.
The affair was the work of a few seconds. The
convicts stopped in their rush, staggered, fled
befbre their opponents, though only twelve in
number, and were quickly hunted into a shed,
where the ringleaders were put in irons. At the
same instant a bugle call sounded through the
quarries which produced the same magical effect as
ROB ROY'S whistle, since we are told that armed
men sprang from behind rocks and out of places of
concealment on every side. Before the con-
spirators could recover from their surprise every
salient point was occupied, the communication
between different quarries cut off, and a cross
fire established in every direction. The out-
break was in fact quelled almost as soon as it
began. For two days afterwards disaffection still
prevailed among the convicts. Small " rushes"
were made at intervals, and instantly put down.
From time to time some convicts would throw
down their tools, and in a most unaccountable
way give themselves up as prisoners--as if they
were not prisoners already. The authorities
deserve much credit for the admirable disposition
of the limited force at their disposal. They had
only 200 warders and guards in the prison, aided
by 120 of the Wexford Militia. Yet they con-
trived to meet the outbreak with a resistance so
prompt and overwhelming, that the conspirators
were subdued without a life lost, or even a blow
struck. The result is that a few of the chief
offendors have been flogged, others taken off to
Milbank to be dealt with as their conduct
requires, while the rest of the convict com-
munity have sullenly surrendered, and quiet
again reigns in the Portland establishment.
We derive, however, from this incident a
singular proof how impossible it is, with the best
arrangements, and by the strictest discipline, to
impress upon the minds of convicts the idea that
they have forfeited their place in society, and
have become mere recipients of a penal system
designed as chastisement for their own oneness
and a warning example to others. The law
may declare that the convict has no "rights,"
may incapacitate him from suing or being sued,
from inheriting or devising property. It may
even for a time deprive him of his name and
recognize him only by a number. But the
prisoner himself will not consent to this annihila-
tion of his personality. Though a culprit and
convict, he still claims rights and mists
grievances ; and if allowed intercourse with his
fellow-prisoners they form among them a com-
munity, endowed like other communities out of
doors with its peculiar code of morality.
iu
notions of justice and injustice, its rights and
duties, and its atmosphere of " public opinion.
These characteristics are invariable in all Eng-
lish prisons. They militate sorely against every
attempt to realise the ideal formed by many ex-
perts in criminal jurisprudence ho look ups a
prison as a mere place of retributive punishmen
t
or reformatory discipline. They lead occasionally
•illgt
to deperate attempts like that which
has
uell
occurred at Portland. It is much easier to q
the trueute than to devise a system which wouirde
prevent its recurrence, and at the same tune mo r
effectually accomplish the end and aim of ou
penal legislation.

joteig►t au (Colonial 3nttlligentt.

FRANCE.
THE FIRST NAPOLEON.
A copy in bronze of the equestrian Napoleon at
Cherbourg has been ordered from the artist, M.
Lavect, to be conveyed to St. Helena, and set up at
Longwood.
MARRIAGE OF THE DUKE DE MALAKOFF.
The following is the text of the banns of marriage
between the Duke of Malakoff and Mlle. de la Paniegs,
published at the Mairte of the lst arrondissement of
Paris :
His Excellency Aimable Jean Jacques Pelissier, Duke
de Malakoff, Marshal of France, member of the Privy
Council, Vice-President of the Senate, Ambassador of his
Majesty the Emperor of the French to her Majesty the
Queen of Great Britain and Ireland, Grand Cross of the
Legion of Honour, decorated with the military medal, dtc.,
residing at Paris, in his hotel, Avenue des Champs
Elysees, son of the defunct Pierre Pelissier and of
Catherine Chartier, his wife ; and Mlle. Maria Isabel
Sophie Andrea Francisca de Paula Valera de la Paniega,
residing at Paris, Avenue des Champs Elysees, S 7,
daughter of Don Jose Valera y Viana, Marquis de Paniega,
landowner, and of Donna Maria de los Dolores Alcala
Wham) y Pereys, Marquise de Is Paniega, his wife, residing
at Madrid.

PRUSSIA.
THE REGENCY.

The King of Prussia has consented to appoint the
Prince of Prussia regent, with unlimited power. The
(berme of his Majesty has been declared incurable.

BARON DE HUMBOLDT.
Baron de Humboldt has just celebrated at Berlin
the ninety first anniversary of his birthday, in the
enjoyment of full health both of body and intellect.
He has just finished his celebrated work the
"Cosmos." Congratulations have poured in on bum
from all classes of society. Among the persons who
visited him were the Princess Frederic William and
her brother, Prince Alfred, who came from Potsdam
for that purpose.

AUSTRIA.
DEATH OF THE ARCHDUCHESS.
The Archduchess Margaret of Austria caught
typhus fever whilst making a journey in Italy, and
died at the early age of eightoen. Her royal high-
ness was dauahter of the King of Saxony, and
married in 1856 to the Archduke Charles Louis,
brother of the Emperor of Austria.

THE ARMY.

A letter from Vienna says it is again in contempla•
tion to reduce the Austrian army, and that the
Emperor had acquiesced in the measure.

RUSSIA.

POLITICAL ITEMS.

The Emperor and Empress at Russia arrived at
Moscow on the 6th instant. Prince Gortschakoff
accompanies their Majesties. During his absence
the Ministry of Foreign Affairs is intrusted, by
Imperial ukase, to M. Tolstoi. An Imperial rescript,
dated from Moscow, confers upon General Mon-
mvietf, Governor-General of Eastern Siberia, the
dignity ot Count of the Empire, with the title of
Amourskii, es an acknowledgment of the services
rendered by the General, who negotiated the recent
treaty with China, and to whom, according to the
terms of the rescript, Siberia owes the commence-
ment ot her civil regeneration.