The Express.
London, England, 1850-04-13 00:00:00

IMPERIAL PARLIAMENT.
-
HOUSE OF LORDS—FRIDAY, Ann 12.
The tows u.t st Ars Vieek. Lord Cason= sa* as
Spanker.
............. oomp•

Dm ow firterr.—By the Earl of EGLINTON, from
Arbeesth, eamplaeing the payment the duty in tall ma
•b red Lett is fiewhead, sad praying that it might be pet
em the mama Poetics as enamel spirit:
Pore orslo3.—By the Esti of REMAND, from several
piece, spinet Seaday labour Ia pest.ollimrs.
SPECIAL PLEADING.
Lori CAMPBELL laid en this table • bill to amend
epeeist pli edema, or the ere of peopesly fram'as Ike written
otatemeats of plastid,, aid the replioi of &teatime in deb
astione The shiest edger bill was to enable the judges to
levies the p mon give& le thane to reels. the system of
Brad pleading, sail" the net at Vs. IV reserving mho
• power to both bemuse parliament to .mend ar saaa
as, espalatiemo whisk might be made by the judges.
CONVICT PRISONS BILL.
Esrl GREY moved the third rembeg of this MIL
Lied LITTELTON kad aot enifeestotd that epos the
Mend readfrg of the bill the noble eel, the Seentavy Sir
the Offieeles, would go into the whole question of trouper.
talon; sod as he had not ezpreleed his epee* se that see
wise, he weed venture to do ea very briefly now. He wee
too well swan of the frioletful evils of the ea system of
tree sp,r mem., aad the formidable difficulties which the sub-
ject (sr...tented sot to wish heartily well to mil attempt, at
reformation with referees* to It. The plus now peopased by
the it he earl held eat the hope of great amendment. with
regard to all that th- goverament intended to do at home,
namely, the "operatics of prepuce, aid their employment is
relic loks. Tee sole islij ct of the old system was to deter
pawns who bed sat committed crime. If they Cork the
two extremes et opinion on this subject—Archbiehop
Whitely ( with whom. it srpsared, S r Win.lleaisen *greed)
on the o. s site, and Capt. /Imamate on the other, they
would fled from the former that is almost all cases the idea
of lb. reformation of the prisoner was treated as an amiable
delusion ; and they won'd almost be led to imagist, from
Capt. NI tenothies opinions, that it was hardly WWI to
seek to deter from the commission of Mee—that this view
Of the gelation was to be altogether pet on see side—for the
beadle which cotoricr must derive from passing through
his system of re ormaion. The ohject in the present day,
however, was to combine both—to deter from the COMMAI.
Poe of crime, sod to reform the criminal. The system of
transportation, as now carried into effect, namely. that el
eonveyiag prisoners to penal settlements with Utkirts
leave, was vry little better than the old asetind
et amigennat. Tone was nothing pima la
the movies bad s free passers to a country el
loam:ado, happiiess and plenty ; but if men severe aad
formilable punishment could be devised which would IMll-
terbtlanto the advantages whelk the colony held out, the
effect weld he meals more teneficial. With reformers
to the district of Pon Phalle, which wonted labour perhaps
more the. any other colony, there could he no doubt that the
Colonials hail been sot against ref:fists, convict Wooer in
consequesceof the neglect of the government in not providing
proper regulates, far the reception of the movie emigres's.
And now hi wool my a word or two as to Vii
Dieseen's land it was impossible to reed the papers'on the
w•bjeet, wi host seeing the precarious prospect of continuing
transportation to that eol-ny even is it was now proposed
lobe carried on. The whale of the pipers teem that colony
osadanned the putties e f sanding convicts there altogether;
sad it the was the feeling et primal, how much wronger
would it become when the colsaists possessed the free heti-
tutiots wh ott it we. proposed to give them. (Hess. hoar.)
The government hut t that k themselves for this freest, is
oonsequeoee of toe otiatou they ex, reseed in 1848, that
transporatim to that colony shoe:Meese*. In every offs of
the petiii-ses which bad been received from the eilony, the
stron,,est assertions were mule that, ia the years 1846.7,
the colonists had been assured by the govern-
ment that trump:ration won'd not in any shape
or foem he gent need to Van Diemen's land. What
the goverment prep toed to do with reference to Norfolk
Islam seemed to blue to be perfectly right. It was nothing
more than • largo gash • very good owe it was, and he
thought it right that is shon'd be motioned for the punish.
=ant of the ecru of the convicts. In 1848, however the
govern can declared their intention wholly to abolish Sot-
tole Wend aloo ; but es to Vas Di-nitre's L led, le the same
year, the noble earl, is a despatch to Sir Wm Demean,
clearly stet• d the: the government. would no Lager make
that coleoy a penal settlement. He would not dwell
en the indiscretion of his noble freed in propodag to
send oat will the convicts an equal nuwber of free
easigraate. He thought mach greater evil would be
dose by the degradation of the free emigrants then would
be cenatorbahmeed by any good which eonld arise from such
a cow*. How would their lordships like to be sent oat as
makeeweigots for coneise ? No high zoiaded roils could
submit t le

Lord WODEHOUSE, who was somewhat inaudible, said
that in the cor.sidersaon of this important subject every
allowance ought to be made for this difficulties which the
government ha:: had to encounter is grapplicg with the
guide's. The ..ob!e le cl then gave a hasty summary of tbs
provieinm of the li2. and prow eded to a.l that its object
was threetald, namely. toe prevention of trMe—
the ref. nnstion or aiminsa—and finally the benefit
whisk the col*. ha would Its suppceed to derive from
the lattoduct in of emeriti la' oar. It appeared to him that
the measure was dr Sereina of el praise, and w a mare sera
heed to r: rim orimines than soy other scheme which had
ever hven devised. (H at, bear) It was obvious that the
severity of every punkin:lint must vary socanlint to the
lossen character and the nature of the crime ; but as a gosh
gel puntshmert, zothing was so calculated to reform the
minute solitary eculneseent, in which he must radars
the lash of an awakened ennient e. This and the employ-
sent of convicts in public works were two modes of pinkie-
moot adapted to easy out the objects which rceiety
bed is view wit% reference to the punishment and ref araaa-
tion of a pains. As to transportation, he thought there was
a serious objection to almost every mode yet proposed for
carrying f into *IL et. He believed the great repugnant* to
aMvatics bat sew n from the dbaut which the emigrants
felt at being asrmi.ted with nitrites. That repugnance
was, however, becoming weaker every day. Great, r sum.
ben lora to emigrate, and this also *out,' tend to deprive
traesponedlom of its terror as a moans of preventing grime.
Bat whatever plan th. y adopted with regard to thsk
criminals, they should sot forget that the pcsossich of wide
and catenary* regime carried with .t pave and serious re-
sponstbitities ; sad should beware lest, if they founded
nations is them regions, stained with the vine 'Meter than
the virtues of the masher country, the evil 'lnlaid recoil apes
themselves, end they should one day or other receive a well-
merit d r nitration. (Hoar. teem)
The E .r 1 w ILCHESTER thought that transportation,
as a loco:Levy piserament, not be entirely given up ;
for be believed it to he a great mesas of deterring Iron
crime, whkti theuid be the chief red of ul potniannanst.
The rtfcrumioa of the olkader warn certainly a desirable oh
jest, but it was scarred to, and Include' in the Ether prune;.
pie. He knew that tramegoetatien was booked ;'on as a
great p ankh:mate en! et that period when exag-
gerated ate Anna bad best 'retired from their pane
settlemmts or tee great prosperity and various en-
joyments to bs kind there. He knew that the criminal in
many ten, having bens anted en by his hmpthions in
guilt, or Excited by what tad pass, d about him in court, had
kaveg and jstreel at the whom of transportation, but after
twin; a at pinta tell for a few weeks his
opinion was very much changed. The experience of
pokes, and or the chaplains to 'nob, justified
Ike nee rthea that prison. vs looked with great dread limo the
. panisemont of transportation. (Hear, hear.) With respect
to tie preliminary confinement in Pentnnvillo Prison, be
could state, es me of her birjes,j'a ciarnisioners, that the
prsoners looked upon it with fear, and they were only vs-
wank to the neat stage of that punishment they bad to
undergo, by bang is atnimed as to the circumstances of the
calory to which they were going, and the menrance that if
they conducted ttoeseelvee well they would r nits tidos*
of leave, ov be placed in the !nom el thee of
" exiles." All the experience which they bad hod
ef the separate system for the last sever yesn
proved net only its great moral effects as a hinishonot
on the elf win. het its value as a means of Ewen*,
from crime Oct of doors. (Hear, inst.) He was
glad to find from the report of Portland prism,
which had been laid on the table of the hew,
that the smp!nymtnt of cantina on public works there
had proved eatistsetory. But he stud considered teat they
required to ha more timely and vigilantly watched than
erhert, and that was a rtaeon why be thought this part of
the punishment should taki_place rather In the mother
town thanin the rickey. (Hear.) He hoped that by
an teems that word of all penal snablistimants, the hulk,
would be abalistsi altogether. (Hear.)
Lord STANLEY rejoiced that the nobh eel had
modified the plan weak he had negated to their lord-
ships two Teen ego for esioptih ; benne*, with regard
le the ;meat prop:tins cf convicts, he c tnoid red that
the punishment of transportstias carnal with it • dean* c f
terror shish had a mannal tit a is preventing permns
from the erommissionol crime. (Hear, hear.) That w tithe
cgieloa of almost ail the judges, and it was the unauintoue
episioa of the committee of that house which sat on the
subject. He bell. v. d there was one class of convict* in petti-
fogs, far whom the pualebment of transportation had terrors
whisk no other would produce. Another important reason
why he tinned that tampon ition west* be continued—and
011Mtillge4 Is Es great an extent as ever—wag this,
that be. atm, however w, lleolp teed carnets might
be to ten to as honest mode of Ille, till they
were conveyed out of this country all honest kinds
of employment ware clotted against them; sod hew.
ever well inehned to lend an honest life, they were unable to
di so, from being eapuseti to the talus-PM of old awn
elates in crime sad old ttirouati ns. (Hear, hear.) lie
knew ,d ihstanne in which pero.n.s Lved is this country
aft, r having Men convicted of clue, and who caned at.
honest heidilio .1 onder I roployers who were emir yeeint.-d
with their !Fenian. lite, hut en" wen driven huh to the
re c of crime by the three s of form r ace
that oil• es they gave a mom at money, or joined wit', them
in tees c imes, they well inform their employers of their
former CALMS ir Hear, hear Therefore it was of in-
hales leaportame Os.. in the first thrum., or afur
umbrae ng a tole d of netts punishment an this
eamatry, perms convicted of crime 'hued be is

paerai hint Iran this c.untry to a penal a ttirment
Us cur meld *ph both the tiob'e lords who had siok.n,
thet 1! tran•portatios was still to br continued to a great
*lfni tr ern was nue% amore to .1,. Goeogantent w. re only
at the bVismillit yr 'Ws diffieulties. They had pa tpotied or
meson tor the pe. a as the pressure tithe gelation with retied
le lesatyrerta•km, hut they had sot disnisished the libiseate
urgency of the dillicalty. la tLis atuntry the dm stage was
to be earried en in separate seallameat ; the second in
employment nu nubile works. Thoy had a largo building in
1•t.•..', ere shore wes entploysneat f. 4r ;