The Sun.
London, England, 1849-03-09 00:00:00

experiment', the one of the most conspicuous cha-
: was tl. r r'• inent ; and t
art. that that this Oar, oilt be fairly and deliberat
tested such noble and almost palatial buildings, as
the Model Prison at Pentonville, were erected.
A considerable period has since then elapsed, and
Lord MAnort takes occasion to demand of her
MAJESTY'S Government some further explanation as
to their intentions, now that their benevolent and
patriotic endeavours have been illuminated by experi
ment and experience.
In answer to the inquiries made last evening by
the Noble Lord the representative of Hertford, Sir
GEORGE GREY, plainly avowed at once that the
system of transportation would be renewed with the
unanimous consent of the Cabinet. Neverthe-
less, it was almost in the same breath declared
by the Right Hon. Baronet the Secretary for the
Home Department that every year increased the con-
viction in his own mind, and in that of his colleagues,
of the efficacy of the separate system of imprisonment,
whether considered as a punishment for offences, or
as a means of reformation. With the maintenance,
moreover, of the Model Prison, and of the system of
diminished transportation, the Government is pre-
pared to insist upon the continuance of the plan in
accordance with the regulations of which bands of
convicts are retained in the United Kingdom for the
purpose of labouring upon public works. Of the latter
resolution we cannot speak too highly, as expressive
of a principle. While we would by no means desire
to see convict labourers brought into direct competi-
tion with labourers who have never incurred the
penalties inflicted upon the violators of the law—we
would in a modified degree behold the employment
of certain classes of convicts upon public and remu-
nerative works, because through the medium of that
employment so many admirable advantages might
be secured. Among other effects—and this
is certainly not the least important in
these days, when financial retrenchment
is everything—the economy of the plan would be
conspicuous ; for although it is projected as an en•
couragement to the convict labourers that certain
wages shall be awarded to them in proportion to the
amount of their exertions, or to the extent of their
sobriety, those wages would be considerably less than
the wages required by masons, or carpenters, or brick-
layers, or navvies, differently situated. By this means
there would ultimately be an appreciable reduction in
the cost of the criminal establishment.
Numberless as have been the nostrums hit upon of
late for the effectual correction of offenders against
the laws of their country and of their GOD, but few
of them have been held in any estimation after the first
scrutiny of their nature, and the first detection of their
inadequacy. One system seems to have been singled
out by almost unanimous consent as not unworthy of
being adopted with some slight alterations and of
being incorporated when so modified in our improved
code of criminal jurisprudence. That system is one
we ourselves have long since commended to the
public—we mean the Mark System, contrived and
carried out in one of our penal settlements by Cap-
. tain MACONOCHIE. While we coincide in the
opinion expressed by the Noble Lord the
Member for Hertford, that the practical
suggestions of Captain DlAcortocazu must not all
of them be adopted with implicit credence, we are
satisfied that very few will dissent from us in assert-
, ing that the views of that distinguished officer are
, entitled to no slight consideration. Actual experience,
indeed, has shown that the working of his scheme
has mitigated, in a great degree, the evils of impri-
sonment, and ameliorated to a considerable extent
, the horrors of transportation. On the whole, we are
convinced that the country will regard with satisfac-
tion the remarks extorted by Lord MASON from one
, of the chief Ministers of her MAJESTY'S Government.