The Sun.
London, England, 1864-08-18 00:00:00

Penal Servitude.

The following circular letter has been addressed
to the Judges, calling their attention to the Act the
27th and 28th of Victoria, cap, 47, and explaining
the mode in which convicts sentenced to penal ser-
vitude in Great Britain will hereafter be treated :
WHITEHALL, Aug. 15.

I think it right to lose no time in transmitting to you a
statute which received the Royal assent at the close of the
last Session of Parliament, entitled an "Act to Amend the
Penal Servitude Acts."

In doing so I feel it my duty to furnish you with correct
information as to the mode in which convicts under sen-
tence of penal servitude will now be treated.
The principal change in the law which is effected by this
statute is the abolition of sentences of penal servitude of
lour and three years, leaving the sentence of five years as
the shortest that can be passed in any case, and authorising
it in those cases where only sentences of four or three years
could have been passed before. This will have the effect of
increasing the severity of the penal law, which, owing to
the very frequent use of the short sentences referred to,
had, in the opinion of the Royal Commissioners who lately
investigated this suhject, become too much relaxed. With
the same object another very important provision is added,
that a person convicted of a crime punishable with pen,l
servitude, after having been previously convicted of felony,
tf the Judge in his discretion thinks that the punishment
of penal servitude should be inflicted, shall not be so sen-
tenced for a shorter period than seven years.
It will be observed that in all these cases the alternative
sentence of imprisonment is not interfered with. In that
respect the law continues as it stood before the passing of
the late statute.

The remainder, and by far the larger portion of the Act
refers to the granting to convicts under this sentence
licences to be at large before its expiration, and introduces
various regulations for the purpose of preventing the mis-
conduct of such persons between the time of their release
and that at which they would have been by law entitled to
their liberty. Ido not think it necessary to occupy your
time with any observations upon this part of the subject,
except to remark that, among other safeguards of the
public, it is enacted that the conviction of a licence-holder
upon indictment of any offence involves not merely a revo-
cation of his licence, but a remission to his original sen-
tence as it stood when his license was granted, and this in
addition to any punishment to which he may be sentenced
upon such indictment.
It appears to me that the information which you really
require is rather as to the extent of the remission hereafter
to be granted in such cases, and the terms upon which it is
to be obtained. When you are fully informed upon these
two points you will see exactly the practical effect of the
sentences which you pronounce, and will feel confident that
nothing is left to accident or caprice, but that the punish-
ment inflcted is precisely that which you intended to inflict.

In accordance with the strong recommendation of the
Royal Commissioners, an important modification is about
to be introduced into the convict system in reference to the
granting of remissions.

Instead of these being granted as a reward of general
goud conduct as heretofore, they are now to be earned by
industry alone; general good conduct (such as implicit
obedience to all prison rules) will be as indispensable as be-
fore, but will of itself count as nothing towards the obtain-
ing a remission of a portion of the sentence ; that can only
be gained by steady and laborious industry, the degree of
which will be measured and recorded every day by the as-
signment to each convict of a certain number of marks.!
A maximum amount of remission is fixed (as hereafter
stated) as the utmost which can be attained by perfect in•
dustry, and the number of narks is so regulated that a
convict must obtain the maximum number of marks every
day (without any deduction for misconduct), in order to get
the maximum remission. The sentence, therefore, is abso-
lutely certain up to a certain point, but may possibly ex-
tend beyond that point, and will inevitably do so unless
the convict persistently and strenuously exerts himself.
The maximum period of remission for male convicts are
to be as follows :

Scale for Regulating the D,
Male Convicts eentel

ischarge on Orders of Licence of
❑eed to Penal Servitude.