The Sun.
London, England, 1858-10-14 00:00:00

NATION AL ASSOCIATION FOR THE
P1?030TION OF SOCIAL SCIENCE.

PUNISHMENT AND REFORMATION.

On the return of the members from their visit to
the Akbar reformatory ship the Earl of Car-
lisle proceeded to deliver his address to the members
of this department. He said—As I did not invite
myself into the place which I have now the high
honour to fill, and which confers upon me at once
the privilege and duty of presiding over the coun-
cils of the Punishment and Reformation Section of
the present meeting of the association, I will not
enlarge upon the inadequacy of my pretensions to
such a distinction. This responsibility must wholly
rest with those from whom the invitation originally
proceeded. It appears to me that I shall best enter
into the spirit of the functions which thus devolve
upon me if, in now offering some remarks of my
own, I entirely forbear from meddling either with
the history or the philosophy of the reformatory
movement or system. The history has become
matter of general notoriety ; and several of those
who are now here have been among its most pro-
minent actors. As to the philosophy, I do not
doubt that this will also meet with very admirable
exponents during our approaching session, attended,
as I perceive it to be, by many reformatory wor-
thies, with Mr. Adderley to head them—one who
has practically and legitimately taken the lead on
the subject ; it may, at all events, suffice that I feel
myself unequal to such high argument, and I think
that it will be a more acceptable, as I am sure it
will be a politic course, for me to confine myself,
as much as I am able, to such points connected with
this all-important subject as happen to have in
some measure fallen under my own personal ex-
perience and observation. It has so occurred that
I have been brought into some contact with refor-
matory processes, as applied both to adult and to
juvenile criminals ; to the adult, during the period
of my holding the office of Lord-Lieutenant of
Ireland; to the juvenile, at my own Yorkshire home.
I begin, as would seem more decorous, with the
vice-regal experience. My task, however, upon this
head is materially lightened, and might indeed
have been almost wholly superseded by the very
full and very able statement which was delivered
at the last meeting of the association by Mr. Hill,
the learned recorder of Birmingham, who is justly
esteemed a foremost authority upon the whole sub-
ject of prison discipline. It appears that Mr. Hill
thus pre-eminently adapted to the office by his
talents, his experience, his zeal, and his benevo-
lence, had been induced, by what had reached him
respecting the system in the Irish convict prisons,
to inspect minutely the different establishments in
that country, and to test the soundness of the prin-
ciples adopted by what he could ascertain of their
actual operation. It was inexpressibly gratifying
to the friends and well-wishers, but above all to
the founders and originators of this system, to find
that a man like Mr. Hill should have thought him-
self warranted to declare, as the result of his in-
vestigations, that the board of directors of Irish
convict prisons had practically solved the problem
which had so long perplexed our Government and.
our Legislature—" What shall we do with our con-
victs ?" To such a verdict I can have little indeed
to add beyond the slight supplement which the in-
tervening period may furnish, and the small glean-
ings derived from my own personal opportunities of
approach. The opening of my recent term of admi-
nistration in Irelandwas nearly contemporary with
the first experiments in the system of convict dis-
cipline which has excited so much attention in that
country. Whatever may be the merits of that sys-
tem in the main features of its conception, and
whatever the success obtained in its practical work-
ing, the credit, as the responsibility, must princi-
pally rest with the chairman of the board of direc-
tors, Capt. Crofton. He has been largely aided by
the practised experience and intelligent zeal sue-
cesssively of Capt. Knight and Capt. Whitty, and
throughout. by the benevolent ardour of Mr. Len-
taigne ; he has been perseveringly seconded, as I
know he will be most ready to admit, by the different
members of the Irish executive, and by the exertions
and adaptability of some of his officers and agents.
No one, however, who has watched the progress of
the proceedings, will fail to acknowledge the per-
vading influence and inspiration which have been
derived and caught from the perseverance, the
enthusiasm, the determination to succeed, the dis-
belief in the possibility of failure, which have dis-
tinguished the administrator in chief; and looking
back, as I now can do, to the series of our con-
ferences and expeditions in connexion with this
object, as among the most gratifying recollections
of my official career, I feel most happy in having
this opportunity of publicly recording my admira-
tion, my regard, and my gratitude. It can hardly
be a secret to those who have taken an interest in
Matters relating to prison discipline, that state-
ments of rather a controversial character have re-
cently been put forward by Colonel Jebb and
Captain Crofton upon the respective merits and
tendencies of the English and Irish systems.
Speaking upon general grounds, and under the
influence of old official associations, I should have
been naturally inclined to deprecate any disposition
to bureaucratic pugnacity, a cross-firing between
departments ; but upon a field of inquiry so wide,
so important, so imperfectly defined, as this whole
new philosophy of prison or reformatory discipline,
forced too upon our attention, in part by our growing
population, in part by our stationary insular limits,
in part by our colonial and geographical relations,
and next of all probably by the increased spirit of
conscientious and reasoning benevolence which
happily distinguishes our age, I think it is a ground
for satisfaction that there should be such a thorough
sifting of opinions, and evensif requisite such a col-
lision of authorities, as to leave the least risk of
prepossession, partiality, or mistake, and the best
chance of ascertaining and adopting truth. Colonel
Jebb comes into these honourable lists, recom-
mended by a long series of active and meritorious
exertions ; Capt. Crofton flushed with the achieve-
ment of a recent and brilliant success. Assuming,
indeed, for the moment, that the Irish experiment
has been entirely satisfactory, I have always felt
persons entrusted with the responsibilities of Eng-
lish or Scotch administration must decide upon the
moment or extent for similar experiments in Eng-,
land and Scotland. It is certainly not impossible
that there may be circumstances in the condition
of these countries, or even in the national character
which would yet ensure corresponding results from
the same methods. My own means of observation
have been almost wholly confined to Ireland, and
it remains for me to state, as succinctly as I can,
the impressions left upon my own mind. Mr. Hill,
in the able paper already referred to, has suffici-
ently explained the successive stages or gradations
of imprisonment now subsisting in that country,
and which constitute a sort of criminal or convict

hierarchy, beginning with Mountjoy Prison, in
Dublin, fot the early periods of every sentence, and
for the further detention of the wholly unpro-
mising and 'inelastic classes ; thence passing to
Spike Island for the able-bodied, to Philip's Town
for those better adapted for handicraft, both
being appropriated to associated labour and cel-
lular dormitories ; ascending from Spike Island
to Camden Fort, at the entrance of Cork Har-
bour, where a greater degree of reliance on
good behaviour is exhibited, as, for instance, in
allowing some of the men to form the crews of
boats despatched about the harbour upon the busi-
ness of constructing the fortifications ; and, finally,
culminating in Smithfield Prison, in Dublin, or on
the commons of Lusk, intended to form the inter-

mediate stations and transitional periods before

emerging into the outer world and entire freedom,
Smithfield and Lusk, in fact, constitute the distin-

guishing novelties:of the Irish systems and it is with
Smithfield mainly that, the neighbourhood of my
own residence naturally brought me into most fre-
quent contact. As I know that too great reliance
ought not to be placed upon the mere outward de-
meanour of prisoners, on any superficial symptoms
that may attract the eye, it may be well just to re-
capitulate, in passing, the dry actual results which
it has yet been possible to obtain of the working of
the system since its very recent origin. It appears,
then, that from the month of Jan., 1856, up to the
latest date to which accounts have been made up,
the number of the discharged from the intermediate
prisons is 1,327, of whom 511 were discharged un-
conditionally, and 816 on tickets of license. Of the
511 unconditionnaly discharged, only five have
been re-committed to convict prisons. Of the 816
discharg ed on license, 45 have had their licenses
revoked, out of whom 15 were so dealt with for
keeping bad company, drunkenness, or failing to
report themselves ; the re-convictions amounted to
30, which is under 4 per cent. The majority of
these last 816 cases have been made the subject of

special reports from the police charged with the
supervision of prisoners discharged on license, and
therefore, so far, the whole truth is known con-
cerning them. Captain. Crofton augurs most
favourably of the effects of this system of police
supervision, as it has been tested in Ireland in the
cases of prisoners discharged on license, and would
evidently wish to apply it in great measure equally
to those discharged. unconditionally. On the first
blush our prepossessions might naturally be rather
against such a proposition as militating against the
freedom of the subject then under no sentence of
law. However, I think that society is clearly
entitled to give the full benefit of its scru-
ples on the side of its honest members
against those who, by the ascertained commission
of crime, have rendered themselves legitimate
objects of suspicion ; and Capt. Crofton insists very
powerfully that this supervision, when rationally
and discreetly exercised, has, within his own expe-
rience, proved to be, and in the nature of things is
calculated to be, of real service to the well-disposed
convict himself, as both coming between him and