The Sun.
London, England, 1858-10-12 00:00:00

on the offences for which death is only the nominal
punishment. Leaving this consideration, a question
of the utmost consequence to society arises in the
present state of the. law. The punishment of death
being nearly discontinued, and transportation to a
colony virtually abolished, it has become a necessity
for us to consume our own crime, and not to send
it forth to contaminate other parts of the world.
Hence it is a problem of the deepest interest to us
to ascertain in what manner the thousands of crimi-
nals whom we used to send to Australia • can be
most effectually punished for the sake of example,
and most effectually reformed for their own sakes
and that of the community. Considering how re-
cently this problem has been submitted to us, and
how difficult is its solution, we may, I think, be
satisfied with the progress we have made.
Under an Act passed at the suggestion of
the Duke of Richmond more than 20 years ago
inspectors of prisons were appointed, of whom Col.
Jebb was the chief. Under a subsequent Act a
Board of Directors of Convict Prisons in Ireland
was established, of which Board Captain Crofton
is-the chairman, Col. Jebb has been for some years
intrusted with the. charge of all the Government
prisons in England. He has made several very able
, reports on the system he has pursued. Mr. Hill,
the recorder of Birmingham, read in the Town hall
at our meeting 'of last year a most instructive paper
on the Irish system in which he declared that the
question, " What shall we do with our convicts ?"
had been practically solved. There are, indeed,
some differences of opinion as to the results ob-
tained between Col. Jebb and Capt. Crofton. Leav-
_ing them aside for a moment, it is sufficient for our
purpose to record the following net product of our
experiments When a person charged with a
criminal offence is sent to prison before conviction
for safe custody, it is essential that he should be
kept separate, and not turned loose into a company
of notorious offenders to corrupt and. be corrupted.
2. That after conviction the criminal should be con-
fined separately for a limited time in such a manner
that solitude, enforced sobriety, and the exercise of
industry as his, sole resource against weariness, may
prepare him for a better course oflife. It would be
unwise to transfer him at once in his subdued state
to a condition of freedom, when his very want of
energy would probably lead him back to crime.
3. After separate imprisonment the convicts in
England and Ireland have with the best effect been
removed to prisons where each has a separate cell
for sleeping, but where the work is in common. 4.
The board of directors in Ireland have introduced
a plan of intermediate prisons, where the best con-,
ducted prisoners are relieved from military or police
guards. The convicts have, however, their appointed
work, their rations, and their gratuities. At this
period they are allowed to obtain by inquiry pro-
mises of employment on their discharge. When
these promises have been ascertained to be trust-
worthy the, prisoner is set free, but for the unex-
pired period of his sentence he remains under the
supervision of the police. 5. The passage from one
class to another and the distribution of gratuities is
regulated by the number of marks obtained for
good behaviour. The' principle of this plan was, I
believe, originally suggested 'by Captain
Maconochie. The general results of these sys-
tems of discipline are spoken of with much
satisfaction by those who have put them in force.
Col. Jebb thinks that 75 per cent. may be reformed.
He says, " Almost the-whole of the men go back to
the parishes from which they came, and in a great
proportion of instanggs they obtain employment':
Capt. Crofton says—al am far from. assuming that
the 75 per cent., draughted into the intermediate
prisons . . . . get their bread honestly, or are en-
deavouring to do BO ; but I do know, and am pre-
pared at any moment to prove by police and per-
sonal reference, that the great majority are getting
their bread honestly, and frequently under circum-
stances of some considerable hardship, and that
included in this great majority are some of those
known to the police formerly as the most reckless
and daring burglars." This is a very encouraging
result. Nor is its value much diminished by the
knowledge that it has been obtained not merely by
the adoption of a sound system, but by
,the in-
creasing active exertions of those engaged. in carry-
ing it into effect. It is true the officers employed
have not only been remarkably vigilant in watch-
ing the conduct of each man under confinement, but
they haye also been singularly zealous in procuring
employment from . private persons for those who
have been liberated. With less care and intelligence
it may be admitted the system would_ not have suc-
ceeded, but the same thing is true of the reformed
administration of the poor laws, and of every de-
partment of Gevernment which is well conducted.
We may surely presume that the country will al-
ways furnish men of ability and- energy competent
to such a task. It must be left to our responsible
rulers to make their ability and energy a title for
employment. We may now look to the other part
of the system, the convicts- who are to be the sub-
jects of this discipline. Among them will always be
found-1. Young persons who have been brought
up, or rather left to themselves, by vicious parents,
and who, without wickedness of character, have
adopted from habit a mode of life they saw preva-
lent around them. 2. The offspring of good parents
whn, having a strong propensity to vice, have been
led astray, but who now, contrite and repentant, are
ready to say with the prodigal son, " Father I have
sinned • before Heaven and before thee, and am no
more worthy to be called thy son." 3. Criminals
who are actually weary of the vicious life they have
led. Virtue appears-monotonous to the young pro-
fligate, but vice is often far more monotonous to the
old offender. Criminal indulgence is to him no
longer a temptation, and nothing but want of effort
and energy to escape from confirmed habits and
begin anew keeps many a reprobate in the ruts of
his old road. It is this energy which a well-con-
trived course of prison discipline should supply.
Indeed, the treatment of a criminal is not very dif-
ferent from-the treatment of a patient attacked by
fever. The first' object is to subdue the fever ; the
next is, by strengthening the diet, to raise the sys-
tem again to a condition of sound health. There re-
mains, however, a further problem. Supposing with
Col. Jebb that 75 per cent., or, with Capt. Crofton
that a majority- are induced to get their living ho
nestly, what is to be done with. the irreclaimable
minority ? Admitting that this is a problem of
great difficulty, that difficulty is much lessened when
the whole body has been so sifted that the portion
of husk and refuse remaining is comparatively
small. Would it be too much to say in reference
to persons whom the law 50 years ago condemned
to the loss of their lives, that those lives should be
spent in public labour, and that no period should be
assigned for the remission of their punishment ?
This portion would, of course, consist of only the
irreclaimable few, but while the punishment would
reach few, the fear would extend to all. There is
another portion of our convicts separated from the
whole body by their age. The maxim that militia
supplet eetatem, though long admitted by our law,
is not consistent with reason or humanity. It is
ascertained that 3-4ths of the criminals under 17
years of age are the children of bad parents. It
may be that the disposition of these children is, in
a majority of cases, quite as -good as that of those
who are untainted with .rime, and have never been
brought before the court of justice. Yet it is of
such as these that Miss Carpenter says, in 1856,
" Within three years a little boy of eight years old
was solemnly sentenced in open court to six years'
penal servitude for housebreaking A diminutive
girl of ten, and her brother, a couple of years
older, were placed at the bar of their country to
answer for the once capital crime of housebreak-
ing."* This subject has, however, for some time
attracted the attention of the Government and of
the public. In 1834 Mr. Goulburn, Home Secretary,
designed the prison of Parkhurst as a place of de-
tention and reformation for boys, who were to be
taught, instructed in trade, or employed in agri-
culture, and sent to the colonies. Twenty years
afterwards an act of Parliament was passed estab-
lishing the reformatories which the benevolence of
individuals had founded as places of legal detention
for children and young persons under 17 years of
age, authorising that detention for a period not ex-
ceeding five years, and allowing a contribution of
ss. a week in aid of the sums collected from private
sources. It cannot be denied that the principle upon
which this act is founded is sound, nor can it be
said that success has not attended the efforts made by
the benevolence of individuals thus aided by the
State. Lord Stanley, whom I name with honour
and regard, addressing the National Reformatory
Union at Bristol in 1856, says, speaking of foreign
as well as home reformatories:—

" At Mettray 85 per cent. by one account, 89 per
cent. by another, of the inmates sent out into the
world are doing well. These fats are taken from
the reports of 1855, when 900 youths had passed
through the institution. Of the 11 per cent. who
had relapsed (vagrancy being reckoned as a relapse
—without proof of actual crime), one-fourth or about
21 per cent. had recovered their lost position. At
Redhill, where 720 boys have been discharged since
the opening of the school in 1849, Mr. Turner states
that 70 per cent. have been reclaimed, adding that
of all who have left there, the emigrants have done
best, and that the proportion of relapses among
these is lower than among those who stay at home.
In the Glasgow House of Refuge, out of 400, 85 per
cent. have been reclaimed."

By the Acts of 1857, of which the first was passed
through the House of Commons by Sir S. North-
cote and. Mr. Adderley, and the second by Sir G.
Grey, magistrates were empowered to commit vag=
rant children to industrial schools for a term of
years, and counties and boroughs were enabled to
grant pecuniary aid to reformatory schools. In the
report of Mr. S. Turner, Inspector of•Refoimatories,