The Sun.
London, England, 1856-12-09 00:00:00

♦BDUCTION.

Richard Morris, a farm labourer, was charged with
abducting from her home and parents' custody a young
girl, aged 15, named Anna Humphreys, the daughter of
John Humphreys, farmer, Billingsley. The prosecutor,
a respectable looking farmer, stated that the prisoner
had been in his employ, as a labourer, from May last up
to the 26th of ,November. Shortly after 8 o'clock on
that night he went to bed, supposing that the 'prisoner
and the rest of the servants had gone also. About half-
past 8 his elder daughter came to him, and told him that
Anna and the man Morris were missing. He got up
and went after them, but did not succeed in catching
them. He found several articles of wearing apparel
belonging to the prisoner and his daughter, ready placed
for conveying away.
Margaret Humphreys, daughter of the prosecutor,
stated that on going to bed on the night of the 26th she
missed her sister, and gave the alarm.
Benjamin Parton, farm labourer, and brother-in-law
of the prisoner, stated that he lived at Harpswood, in
Marrille parish, and that on the night of the 26th of
November, between 12 and 1 o'clock, the prisoner came
to his house, in company with a young woman. Pri-
soner told him she was a daughter of his master's, who
bad turned her out of doors. Prisoner asked for the
girl to stay all night, and he consented to allow her.
Prisoner said he would go back to his master's, and get
him to take the girl home again.
Superintendent Baxter, of the county police, said he
took the prisoner into custody upon a charge of abduc-
tion. He said, "They will do no good with her (the
girl) if they force her home, for she vowed and declared
to me last night she would make away with herself if
they did. lam going to marry her in May, and she is
going to service till then." Prisoner was then locked
_ _

The defence was, that the girl had desired the prisoner
to take her away, as she was afraid of her father.
The jury found the prisoner guilty.
Mr. Baron Watson having alluded to the baseness of
the prisoner, who was 25, in enticing so young a girl
from her home, sentenced him to be imprisoned for nine
months.

NORTHERN CIRCUIT.— LIVERPOOL, Deo. 8.
This morning the business of the Assizes commenced
before Mr. Baron Alderson and Mr. Serjeant Channel!,
the former of whom presided in the Crown Court, and
the latter in a second criminal court. Out of a calendar
of 105 prisoners there are no base than eleven ticket-of.
leave men for trial. On the present ticket-of-leave
system his lordship made the following observations :
" Gentlemen, there is in the calendar a class of cases
which I am sorry to see are common throughout Eng-
land—cases of what they call
garotte robberies—where
people %re subjected to considerable violence, and rob-
bed, generally speaking, by two or three together, like
the Thugs of India. These are cases in which, if brought
, before you, you will find bills; and I will, to the extent
of my power, punish the prisoners with the greatest
severity, for the protection of society. Gentlemen,
. those cases having been disposed of, you will find a good
many—l don't know how many cases—in which people
have been pardoned, so to speak, and come back into
the country with what is called at present a ticket-ef-
leave, which certainly seems to me —in its effects I
mean—an unwise arrangement. They are let loose, you
see, upon society; and the reason, the cause of it is,
that it is impos:ible to keep persons for so long a time
as they were usually transported for before in this
country. People get tired ; and than the chaplains of
the gaols become extremely attentive ; the offender
turns up the white of his eyes, and pretends to
be a converted sinner. The chaplain considers him-
self complimented in the effect of his administration,
and recommends him to be Bet free. A pardon is
given, which is nothing but an incentive, and then
you have the result its a greater number of crimes cot'
mitted by these people who are not really reformed, but
pretend to be so for the purpose of escaping punishment,
Gentlemen, this arises from the medium of our having
active but I cannot help think not very judieiolls phi-
lanthropists, who have been attempting tt., abolish the
punishment of transportation altogeter. Now, that
[ transportation was subject to co-.,Siderable evil, sal re-
quired considerable reforu
but it is, after all, the 13' el,fic,,,
was perfectly true;
~st punishment for the cotr which inflicts it,
and the criminal who, receives it unfor
I believe it was
pert well known that the persons
who recovered a
good name, and lived a decent and
respectable life, formed a large per centage of the total
sent out ; whilie' of those who remain in this country,
and who, after a time, are turned adrift, there is a very
lectra f d,
ealait, if . rot an infinitesimal per centage only. I recol-
in
years ago visiting the Millbank Penitentiary,
''-' lie, ondon, where they receive, and only receive, I be-
:,. ye, persons destined to transportation. I went over
'• . with the late Rev. Mr. Whitmore Russell, a gentleman
of considerable eminence, and who had paid great atten-
tion to criminal statistics. He showed me over the
gaol, and I went over it, there being at the tithe 500,
600, or 700 prisoners therein ; and he bad been there
doing his duty actively and energetically for 15 or 16 I
years. After I had ese n the whole gaol, and observed 1

whole means by which p,nitence and reform we):e to
be induced, I said to Mr. Whitmore Pessoll, "Flay,
now, you have been, heet for r Jor 16 years, and how
many people do you think you have reformed in those 15
ut 16 years out of the 700 generally here ?" Now what do
you think was his answer? "Possibly two ; I am sore of
one." Now that was the experience of a gentleman ill
the greatest penitentiary in London, of a class of persons
subject to transportation, but almost impossible here of
reformation ; but if those persons were sent abroad] sent
to the colonies, and turned out in the colonies after
their period of transportation had elapsed, perhaps
subjecting there to the systt sa of ticket-of-leave,
which, though very objectionable here, is not so there, I
think that 40 or 50 per cent, would be reformed, for such
has been the case. 1 say, therefore, it is really a hu-
mane proceeding to transport persons with these means
of redemption before them, rather than, by keeping them
in this country, to cut of all chances of redemption.
Surely that is more humane and wise. I do not doubt
what answer you would give me. What is a man to do
after you have subjected him to a long series of impri-
sonment in this country ? What is he to do ? You
turn him out with a ticket-of-leave ! I will presume he
has behaved well in gaol, because persons who cannot
behave ill are very apt to behave well. Then what are
they to do ? Would you take them into your employ-
ment ? It would be an act of the greatest philanthropy,
and at the hazard of your own comfort in your homes,
and of your servants, who would not associate with that
description of persons. They cannot obtain employ.
ment ; what are they to do ! You turn them among
their old associates. They have the cleverness which
belongs to that description of persons, and they place
themselves at the head of some new gang. Then evil
arises. The men are punished perhaps for a second
time, and it ends probably in death. .Now that is the
fact. But turn him out in a colony where the capital
of the counts y requires an additional quantity of labour ;
the residents would take those persons more readily and
could avoid them with greater ease; they would be rid
of their old associates in England, and would go into a
new place, where they might distinguish themselves, as
they are really capable of doing, by their talents and
conduct ; and they have often recovered themselves alto-
gether, and become good men. Then why should we
abolish instead of reforming transportation ? This sys-
tem is a better one than the other. It is given in
exchange for a great good, though that great
good is accompanied by some evil, no doubt ; and
the difficulty is to obtain a place where settlements
may be made. A good deal of that has arisen from
the real want of a good understanding and sense
on the part of this country in former times. I
believe no reason has been given which shows
that we ought to transport the incorrigible criminals,
sod try and separate them from one another previously in
reformatory prisons where they could obtain instruction.
You cannot enter into the minds of prisoners ; you can-
not say this is a hypocritical man ; but you can teach a
man to read and write accounts. His hypocrisy cannot
extend to that. You may teach him a new trade, or two
trades. I have seen at Pentonville people taught two
trades. Well, then, if you send a man out capable of
reading and writing accounts, and of following some
trade in the colony to which you send him, you send him
out a useful colonist, if you do not send him out a good
colonist altogether—not that I would neglect the whole-
some necessity of affording him religious teaching. I
know that you may be deceived as to them ; it is true
you cannot be deceived as to the others, because you
have the test open to you, and you have the advantage
of the others ; the undoubted advantage of having
learned a trade. All that can be done. All those may
be taught at least outward decency of conduct, and may
deserve to be classed among the corrigible criminals, and
those criminals, if you send them abroad— with the
ticket of leave if you will, when yon send them out—are
good colonists, being well trained, and able to distinguish
themselves by trade when they get out. You send them
out as useful colonists, and with the chance of being good
men, and with God's blessing they may be delivered from
the temptation to do evil. That is the best chance you
can give them for the purpose of removing them from the
state in which they originally stood. No doubt that is
a great chance. With respect to your incorrigibles, you
ought to keep them at home. We have no right to ire
flict on the colonies people who are incapable of being
reformed in any country at all. Your corrigible criminals
being taught to be useful colonists, you have a right to
send abroad, and you will have no difficulty in getting
colonies to receive them. The objection before was that
we accumulated them in such numbers in one unfortu-
nate colony that the colonists could not bear with them
any longer ; for they became part of the colonists
themselves, and instead of being such men as the colo•
nista could depend on as servants, they were the worst
of characters. That was the reason why the colonists
rebelled, s• to speak. Well then, I think there ought
to be this distinction. I cannot help thinking, when you
have reformed the criminal as much as possible in the
gaol, and when you transport him, you should take care
as much as possible to send his wife and family with
him. It ought to be a burden upon him, in a certain
fixed amount, for carrying out with him his wife and
children ; and within a limited period after arrival in the
colony the expense of conveying them should he repaid
by the criminal. If he is willing to pledge himself to
that, you ought to assist him, for it is one of the beet
ways of reclaiming a man, when you bring him back to
what may be called his domestic duties and his domestic
obligations. Gentlemen, I did not intend to occupy
your time so long, but I wish your minds to be employed
upon the consideration of these subjects. They are
much at heart with me ; I hope they will be at heart
with you ; and I am sure if I have the concurrence and
the confidence in this matter of the kind and intelligent
people of the country—amongst whom you figure so
conspicuously—we shall have some chance of coming to
a right conclusion upon this matter. We wish to have
a report on the subject, as far as it extends to adult
criminals. The young criminals are to be reformed by
reformatory schools, which are really doing great service,
and I don't wish to make any alteration in that respect.
I speak of the adults, for whom the establishment of a
right system of transportation would be the greatest
blessing that could be conferred upon them.
The grand jury then retired to the consideration of
the various bills of indictment.