The Sun.
London, England, 1857-05-18 00:00:00

THE NEW PENAL SERVITUDE BILL.

A meeting to consider the propriety of petition-
ing Parliament for the insertion into Sir G. Grey's
bill of clauses to secure the employment of convicts
in reproductive l•ibour was held in the Egyptian-
hall, Mansion-house, on Saturday. The Lot d Mayor
presided, and there was a full attendance of mem-
bers of the Legislature and other gentlemen inte-
rested in the iinprovetnent of the criminal law.

The LORD MAYOR briefly explained his object in
convening the meeting, and referred to the commu-
nications he had received from all parts of the coun-
try on the suttject of our criminal population. Ad-
verting to the destitution of the metropolis and his
own p.rsonal visits to the. refuges and asylums re-
sorted to by its poor, he urged as a point of para-
mount importance the necessity of dealing promptly
with the case of offenders who on being discharged
from prison had no ostensible means of living.
Mr. C. PEARSON then addressed the assemblage
at great length, expounding in detail the views he
has previously advocated on prison discipline. The
gist of his argument was that criminals should be
made to support themselves by working at their
own handicrafts. Reciting the principal provisions
of the Government measure, he said he was willing
to concede the large discretionary powers with
which it would invest the Home Secretary. Indeed
he was anxious to extend those powers further, so
as to enable Sir G. Grey to give a trial to his (kr.
Pearson's) own scheme. He denied that his views
had yet been practically tested, and repudiated
with some indignation the absurd attempt to raise
crops by convict labour from the bleak and granite
soil of Dartmooor, which had been passed off in his
name., The experiments at Dartmoor and Port-
land were wretched caricatures and travesties of
the plan he had enunciated. At present the aver-
age cost of a prisoner's keep was 261. per annum,
against which the only set-off from his reproductive
labour was 1/. 4s. 'Td. By making each convict
work at the calling he followed before lapsing into
crime his average earnings would be 10s. per week,
and the cost of his food 3s. To maintain a proper
balance of industries in our various gaols magis-
trates should be authorised, with the consent of
the Home Secretary, to transfer their prisoners
from one county to another.

Mr. M. D. 'HILL (Recorder of Birmingham)
vouched for the perfect practicability of Mr. Pear-
son's plan, which he contended would inflict the
most salutary punishments in the form least bur-
densome to the tax-paying community. Having
enlarged upon the disciplinary effect of useful la-
bour, he concluded by moving a series of resolutions
recommending-1, the substitution in certain cases,
in lieu of fixed periods of imprisonment and trans-
portation, of a proportionate number of hours of
labour to be performed by the convict either at
home or in the colonies ; 2, the holding out of such
inducements to criminals as, in conjunction with
proper moral and religious instruction, would ren-
der them the " voluntary instruments of -heir
Own maintenance, pu,nishment, reformation, and
release • " 3, enabling justices of counties and
boroughs to exchange prisoners, with a view to a
better industrial classification ; and, lastly, the
appointment of a committee to, carry out the fore-
going resolutions.
The motion wasseconded by Mr. G. CRITIKSHANK,
and supported by the Rev. J. DAVIS, of Riche-ter,
the latter gentleman insisting that restitution
slrould lie exacted from the criminal not only for
his or.ginal offence, but for making himself a bur-
den to society while in custody.
Mr. SIDNEY advocated the assignment system
pursued in the earlier history of our colonies, illui-
trating its beneficial working even under peculiarly
unfavourable circumstances by the example of New
South Wales. There settlers of the convict class
who us€ (I to be paid for their labour contracts in
" rum" were now its possession of a bank that had
never failed, and also kept their own carriagds.
(Laughter.) Reformatory institutions should be
introduced into the colonies, where they would
work even better than at home.

. .
Mr. ELLIOT caused some merriment by making a
vigorous onslaught upon the "humanity-mongers,"
Who built splendid palaces for our thieves, pamper-
ing them with every luxury enjoyed by the noble-
man, while they neglected the misery of the honest
labourer, and taught him to speculate on the supe-
riority in point of comfort of crime over steady
indastiy. Characterising Mr. Pearson's scheme
as one of many " quack recipes" for curing the
same evil, and throwing ridicule on his ,prop..sed
" exchange of prisoners," which he remarked
would require the setting up—perhaps in the Lord
Mayor's own official residence—of a " criminal
clearing-house," he wound up a lively speech by
moving an amendment in accoriauce with his views,
which failed, however, to find a seconder.
Lord HANELAGH avowed himself an adherent of
the much-decried system of transportation, de-
nouncing, at the same time, the practice of allow-
ing notorious thieves, with no ostensible means of
gaining an honest livelihood, to roam at large in
tail country.
Mr. ERNEST JONES came to the rescue of " the
humanitarians," and cieed his own, personal experi-
ence to prove that the prison discipline to which
misdemeanants of the second chss are subjected is
now sufficiently severe. He also protested against
clothing the Horne Secretary with the unprece-
dented powers sought to be vested in him by the
new bill, and advised the setting of our convicts to
reclaim the waste lands.of this country.
At this stage of the proceedings the audience be-
gan to thin rapidly, the members of Parliament
present being the first to depart to attend to their
legislative duties, and in a short space but a few
gentleman remained, to prolong the business. Con-
currently with this falling off in numbers the dis-
cussion grew more desultory and even somewhat
acrimonious.
Mr. POWNALL complained that the meeting hal
been too much tied down to the consideration of
Mr. Pearson's plan, and no .time was left for enter-
ing into the more general question at issue.
Mr. LEMAITRE 7 who offered to second Mr.
Elliot's amendment, but was informed by the chair-
man that he was too late, also alleged it as a
grievance that, though they had been invited by
• the card of admission to ,a consul4tioe, the fleet
hour and a half had been taken up with a " lec-
ture."
An adjournment wits also mooted by several
speakers, and though Mr. Pearson, backed by the
Lord Mayor, at first urged the propriety of agree-
ing to the resolutions before separating, in order
that the meeting might have its due effect upon the
discussion in Parliament that night, the proposal
to hold another sitting was strenuously persevered
in. An additional element of acerbity was imported
into the proceedings by a ttunt thrown out in the
heat of the moment by Mr. Pearson against Mr.
Pownall for his "newly-born zeal in behalf of the
reformation of juvenile offenders"—a sarcasm which
the worthy gentleman assailed repelled with some
warmth. Perfect harMony was, however, soon re-
stored; and the meeting, which lasted from one till
half-past: four, ivas'at length adjourned till Monday
at twelve. The usual compliment was paid to ti .e
Chairmaxii