The Sun.
London, England, 1849-04-10 00:00:00

CONVICT DISCIPLINE.

TO THE EDITOR OF THE TIMES.
Sir,—lt gives me more concern than I can ex-
press, that, though you recur again and again to the
difficulty now experienced in disposing of our
convicts, you yet abstain from giving prominence to
my suggestions regarding them. You say that these
show more benevolence than shrewdness ; and it ap-
pears to me that they show more common sense than
either.
The colonies reject our convicts at present because
we systematically make them worthless as colonial ser-
vants. The common expression of colonists regard-
ing them is, "We would rather have the article
neat, as we used to get it, than as you now deliver
it." "We do not like your present whitewash."
And they are quite right in say ing so. We
do not deny that our present forms of secondary
punishment deteriorate. We admit that men are
the worse for passing through our gaols and other
penal establishments ; and yet contend for our right
to distribute them afterwards over our colonies.
Surely, not much shrewdness is required to object to
this ; nor is any unreasonable spirit evinced in re-
sisting it. England, in her comprehensive dominion,
has an undoubted right to overrule mere scruples in
order to gain a general good; but she can have no
right to keep up a great manufactory of vice and use-
lessness, and distribute its products afterwards among
her colonial children. Nor will she find it by any
means possible much longer to maintain such a
system.
In preparing our criminals for becoming eventually
good colonial servants, we commit at present almost
every error of which the subject is susceptible. We
systematically enervate both their bodies and minds.
We seek only to make them good prisoners—we do
not advert to the far higher object of preparing them
to become good free men. We thus impose upon
them sentences measured by time, which give an in-
terest in merely whiling away and cheating that time,
instead of sentences measured by labour, which would
give an interest in employing it. We also impose
mouths of separate imprisonment, crushing the very
life out of men, and giving them habits of the idlest
supineness, instead of days, which would subdue but
not enfeeble, and prepare for exertion, instead of
unfitting for it. We give fixed gratuitous rations,
irrespective of exertion made to earn them, which
take from a man all charge of his own main-
tenance, instead of requiring extra labour for
all supplies issued to him, thereby making him
feel the cost of his support, and thus reconcile
him to the coarse because cheap fare. We
exhaust our invention in protecting prisoners from
variations of temperaturesubeec and exposure instead or
hum '
systematically
where it thiso, an re s
free labourers. \ 'Aid.) `tie thusnatge 3 111oewm to
our both,
like I"..,inary
it where it would both be.!-weakn:ss • t -t-o them
subject our men top • ...adecris
..nern every occasion of
asn-tdflwi eYw it h h ovl d
create, 1 e
e;atl4nstead
taking from 0 - strict military disciplineof
ovfic
ihviicnhg,
,
self-guidance,
necessar.;.iy enfeebles its
in
•
tt-bh::rinebyaobdtiariencitnBi,ntitieerseateipnuntchteuiraloitwynb
ygooothddecromndeaunest,
and strengthening the powers of self-gui ance by
habitually exercising them. No wit or wisdom could
have devised more effectual nl9ans of utterly destroy-
ng and enfeebling our men than we have thus stunt.
I
bled on while seeking, conveniently to ourselves, to
punish them ; and till we recognise this truth, and
act on the conclusions to Which it noYaduots, it is quite