The Sun.
London, England, 1857-02-11 00:00:00

THE GAOL OF IV WlrdATE,—ClaltE IN

THE METROPOLIS.

The Rev. John Davis, the ordinary of the Gaol
of Newgate, has just presented to the Lord Mayor
and Court of Aldermen his report for the year
1856 upon tue condition of the prison and the state
of crime in the metropolis, and the following ex
tracts from that report will, no doubt, be read with
interest at the present moment, when the subject
of the best means of dealing with the criminal por-
tion of the population excites so much public at- •
tenti on.
Mr. Davis commences his report by expressing
his satisfaction.that the corporation of the City of
London have taken up the question of improving
the interior of the gaol, so as to prevent old offenders
from corrupting and depraving the minds of lesS
experienced criminals, and to protect youth over-
taken by some sudden temptation from the pollu-
tion and defilement of prison residence. Upon the
subject of the ticket-of-leave system, the Ordinary
says :—" In the present year many ticket-of-leave
men have appeared among us. Those proved in
open court to have been at liberty on tickets-of-
leave from their exemplary conduct in prison have
had their names transmitted to Government. The
calculations made public are br=ed on these returns,
and it is attempted to be shown by such me ins what
the propertion is between the liberated convicts who
reform and those who fallagain into crime. I greatly
doubt the accuracy of such returns as indicating what
the facts of the case are. On one occasion during
the past year, when we had forty-eight men in
Newgate under sentences of transportation or penal
servitude, the governor took the trouble to inquire,
from numbers among the police, from conversa-
tions among the prisoners themselves, from the
officers who are constantly with them, and various
other sources of information, how many out of the
eight-and-forty might be ticket-of-leave-men, and
he had reasonable proof that somewhere about
twenty were so. Not more than one-third of this
number could be reported to the Government under
the present regulations. Beyond be number that ,
thus escape detect ion we must add those who by their ,
dexterity avoid conviction, either by keeping in the _
background or changing the scene of their operations
The Birmingham men are unknown in London,
and the thieves of the metropolis are not recognised
at Manchester, Leeds, Edinburgh, or Dublin. I
still think, however, that under proper limitations,
the ticket-of-leave system should be persevered in,
and continue in force. It acts well upon many .
first offenders, such as letter-carriers in the Post-.
office, bank or merchant clerks, young men who
under the strong influence of some passion fall into
vices, then into crimes, and get transported, or sub-
ject to penal servitude. It is a rare circumstance
for such persons when liberated after three or
four years' imprisonment to fall again into crime;
they return again to society, once more become
useful in those duties, and while their real
circumstances are unknown, they prosper and
are as well off' as ever. By extending mercy to
these young men, and taking off a portion of their
heavy sentences, no harm is done to any one. The
prisons are relieved, society is uninjured, and real
contrition for great offences is encouraged. .To this
extent I earneetlyhope the system may be continued.
There is every public reason why it should be, and
the good done is immense. But from my experience
among criminals, I think the instances very rare in
which a thorough and entire alteration takes place
in criminals by habit. Many get tired of a life of
imprisonment ; its long tedium wearies them, and
the privation from drink, tebacco, and women
are felt severely by them. But habits of crime, '
with their enterprise, great plunder, and, in too
many cases, impunity, are very diffi.ilt to eradi-
cate. After long periods of apparent change, and
promise from years of good conduct, sudden re-
lapses are frequent. As a general rule the ticket-
of-leave system fails with men of habitual crime,
and should never be applied to them except in rare
instances of exemplary conduct. There is nothing
so much dreaded by habitual thieves as perpetual
imprisonment, and to lessen such a sentence there is
nothing they would not have recourse to." With
regard to this class of offenders the ordinary says—.
" What I think would apply to these cases would be
to sentence habitual thieves to perpetual imprison-
ment. Something must be devised which thesewn-
principled men dread. Harshness will not answer, and
ingenuity therefore must be taxed to devise what
will so operate upon the general mass of habitual
thieves as to diminish, to the lowest extent possi-
ble, conduct so detrimental to the best interests of
Society. With practised habitual thieves, the pun-
ishment they most dread next to death is that of
perpetual imprisonment, and it is my opinion that
if it was once known that habitual crime would in- •
evitably meet that punishment, the number of ha-
bitual criminals would be wonderfully diminished."
With regard to the garotte robberies, the Ordinary'
says—" I have oft en thought, and stilt think, that
the origin of garotte robberies took place from
the exhibition of tl.e way the Thugs in India
strangle arid plunder passengers, as exhibited in the
British Museum. However valuable as illustra-
tions of Indian manners such representations may
be, I could heartily wish that these models were
placed in some more obscure position, and cease to
be that which I fear they have been, the means of
giving to men addicted to crime and violence an
idea how their evil purposes may be accomplished."
In reference to the case of Daniel Lorden, who
was convicted of the murder of les wife, but who
was ultimately respited, he says :—" The conduct
and demeanour of this man were most correct ; he
made no reservation about his guilt, but freely
admitted it, and said that his being asked to
take some drink as he was going, to his work
in the morning was the exciting cause of his crime.
' Had I gone to my work, and kept at it, I should
never have murdered my wife,' was his repeated
declaration, while the tears streaming down his face
indicated the intensity of his feelings." The next
case referred (o by the Ordinary is that of Corrigan,
who murdered his wife in the Minories r and with
regard to this criminal he says :—" Nothing could
be more exemplary than the conduct of Thoma
Corrigan while in Newgate. He spent much time
in devotional exercises, and seized with avidity the
promises of Heaven to true penitents. His respite
from death did not reach Newgate till late in the •
afternoon of Saturday, when Monday, at 8 o'clock'
in the morning, was appointed for his exec('
tiers. The barriers had all been erected in the
Old Bailey, and the preparations for an execution
forwarded. When the favourable result of the in-
terference of his many and influential friends was
gradually communicated to him by me, in the
presence of the sheriffs, he was on the point of
fainting, and immediately fell on his knees and
thanked God for his mercy. He didndot entertain-freely
ad
a hope of being spared, and fully
an
mated that he did not deserve it. Some of the
earnest warnings he wrote to his friends while
tinder sentence of death, and fully expecting to be
executed, were very affecting,
since he has left us his conduct hashbae
e
ven
eh
xe
ea rind p tl
ah
ra
yt
in the Government Prisons. I never saw a man
while a prisoner in Newgate whose entire conduct
was more correct than that of Thomas Corrigan.
sad
and advise
that
a man who could b--
13
haveut howsowel
well -
voiced and cruel
assassin of his own wife and the
mother of his own four children."
The next case
referred to is that of Wile,m Bousfield, who was •
executed for the murder of his wife and four chil- •
dren, and the
following extraordinary observations
are made respeetng the criminal. The Ordinary
says The besetting sin of William Bousfield
was an inve' erate habit of idleness. His family
and himself in part were supported by the labour
of his wife and the assistance of her friends.
His sole occupation was to take supernu-
merary characters at different theatres, where
soldiers or some such personages had to ap-
pear, but not to speak. In all my experience •
among so many thousands of criminals, I never •
saw such an instance of the power of idleness pros-
trating all the manly fee'ipgs of our nature. Some
of the facts on which this opinion is founded are
fir too gross to be mentioned. He would sit for
hours without speaking, listlessly turning over the
pages of inspiration or other suitable book placed
before him, in hope, if possible, to lead his mind
to good and solemn considerations. The daily in-
struction given to isbn- on these subjects seemed
totally lost. He was buoyed up against our con-
stant warnings with a hope of pardon, and tried
to persuade some of us that his wife had killed
his children, and that he had murdered her
because she had done so." The next casts of mur-
der to which the Ordinary refers rs are those of Mary
Anne Harris for the nnuder o •
f her two children by
drowning them in the canal et U brideand Cle e s tina Sommers for cutting the x
throat of her child •
and he states that the •
cause of both these crimes
appe ired to be the want of means to provide for
the support of the children, adds that there
is hardly a crime that brings
and he
offenders to Newgate
that does not sometimes
arise from the pressure of
wan t, and while that.
and highway robber
pleads this as his excuse, it
occasionally urges the
the foule-t murders. greatest culprits to commit

Tc-rnorrow
First evening Mr. Warren, M.P., will ask the
Commissioner of Works whether any and what
steps remain to be taken by her Majesty's Government
to complete the monument to Lord Nelson, in Trafalgar-
equare ; and, if so, when the completion may be ex-
PUGILISM,—CONTEST BETWEEN SAYERS AND JONES
FOR 2001. A SIDE.—Yesterday the ring was formed on a
fine piece of turf on the Roex shore, near Sheerness.
The contest lasted exactly two hours, during which time
eighty-five rounds were fought. Sayers was declared
the victor,