The Sun.
London, England, 1856-12-05 00:00:00

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The public is indebted to 111r.-Wilson OverentV,if , ~..,
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one of the chairmen of Qtfroarrtaenr
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West Riding of Yorkshire,
of the evils which have been inflicted on his ownt''''''''
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district by the ticket-of-leave system. Not that , a S
private experience or official testimony has been
hitherto silent on this subject ; the nuisance has
been too frequent, too palpable, too irritating, and
too absurd, to admit of long endurance or indif-
ferent connivance. Its fruits have been so early
and so prodigally devel"nea that few could profess
either ignorance or indifference. But, inasmuch as
a large class of humanitarians, who have neither
been plundered nor garotted, still repel all com-
plaints against their pet penal system by imputa-
tions of ignorance or falsehoods on its opponents,
it is a gain to the cause of common sense and com-
mon honesty when we can adduce practical infor-
mation like that of Mr. Overend in opposition to
their obstinate incredulity. When, therefore, Mr.
Overend informs us that in the period which has
elapsed since the inauguration of the system there
have been, in one Riding alone, no less than 160
committals of ticket-of-leave men for fresh crimes,
and that this number is far from indicating all the
crimes in which they have been concerned, we have
one strong fact, which, combined with others
equally strong in other districts, speaks loudly
against the perpetuation of the scheme.
And how could it be otherwise ? Let us follow
the ordinary operation of the scheme. A man (on
conviction) is sentenced nominally to transportation
for seven years. Here the first blunder is made.
The law begins with a lie. The sentence of the
Judge is a nullity. The convict is not transported,
and he knows that he will not be the very moment
when the sentence is passed. He is sentenced to
transportation for seven years ; he is, in fact,
doomed to penal servitude for four years ; and,
finally he is liberated at the end of three. Some
portion of this time is devoted to solitary confine-
ment. Dunng this period he is learning, or prac-
tising, some laborious occupation, and in daily
communication with the chaplain or some officer of
the gaol, whom he endeavours to dupe by flattery,
simulation, or docility. After the lapse of some
time he is allowed to mix and talk with other pri-
soners. A gratuity of one penny is credited to his
account for every day of good conduct. When he
leaves the prison, which is generally before the
term of his original sentence, he receives the
half of this sum. Three months later he receives
the other half, if he has observed the conditions of
his discharge. These conditions are, that he neither
be convicted of committing crime nor detected in
associating with criminals, and that he receive a
certificate from some clergyman or magistrate. On
leaving prison he is accompanied by one of the offi-
cers to the train which is to take him to his future
residence. After the expiration of the term for
which his original sentence was commuted his
ticket-of-leave ceases to have any virtue, and before
that time it depends entirely on the convict him-
self whether he be known to possess one or not.
In strange districts, therefore, he can commit freak
crimes without risk of suffering the penalty of a
second conviction.

There is much of excellent theory in this plan.
It is redolent of the deepest benevolence and the
strongest faith in the goodness of human nature ;
but its practical inutility is proved by the increase
of crime, as it might have bQen discerned by ordi-
nary apprehension of cause and effect. The scheme
makes no allowance for previous habits, confirmed
tastes, the excitement of prison " dodges," the
force of association, and the goadings of suspicion.
Lastly, it makes no allowance for that which all of
us are too often forgetting—the market wages and
remuneration of crime. It forgets that the man
who is sentenced to four or six years' penal servi-
tude has in many cases been associated with the
worst men and worst misdeeds since the age of 12
or 14 ; that he knows only two languages and two
crafts—the language and the craft of the habitual
criminal, and those of the habitual prisoner ; that
his good behaviour under sentence is a " dodge ;"
his conversation with prisoners a summary of past
or a sketch of future atrocities ; kis return to
honest courses simply impossible, because he never
made them the starting point of his earser; and
his assumption of them nearly as impossible, in
face of the vigilance of the police, the suspicion of
neighbours, and the lengthening chain of habit.
They, more than this, forget that it is a matter of
calculation to a criminal whether it would " pay'
to reform or not. Crime is a vocation just as much
as law, commerce, shipowning, brokerage, or in-
surance.