The Sun.
London, England, 1857-01-08 00:00:00

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r'PRIInt 4D. STAMPED 5Li

so a, to reduce by their combined influences the great
number of recommittals.
• A continuance in a career of petty crime leading to
more serious resnits is encouraged by not giving the
tullest effect of which they are capable to sentences of
'imprisonment.
3. Effective assistance to deserving prisoners on dis•
charge ; for what can a man, woman, or child do if
turned out in the street to starve or steal ? Yet in this
country it may be said that some 70,000 or 80,000 are
k_eo.ttirned out every year. It is not by congregating them
at work that as,isiance will best he given, but by aff rd•
ing opportueities of &ding employment when dispersed.
4. We now come to the class termed convicts.
There is no greater mistake than to regard all who
receive a sentence of transportation or penal servitude es
being irreclaimably bad or Bunk to the same depth of
moral turpitude. The fact is not so. There ie every
shade of difference in character as well as in the circum-
stances of temptation under which their crimes may
have been committed.
The opinion expressed in the resolution of the select
committee of the House of Commons, 1850, that " the
great majority of convicted prisoners are, open to the
same good motives and good impulses which influence
Other human beings" is in accordance with all experience
of convicts under a good system of discipline for lung
periods.
I have said thus much in the hope of impressing more
deeply the truth and importance of the following obser.
cations in yonr leading article of the 6th of Jan. You
_justly observe, "The reformation of criminals is a
high, holy, and noble, object, worthy of any Legislature,
but the criminals which it contemplates are those of a
corrigible nature." You go on to say, " When it weighs
the tredtn3eiat,of criminals it discriminates between their
various character, misdeeds, and ebaticeetof amendment.
It punishes those w'honi it despairs of amending. It
instructs and moulds those who are susceptible of refor-
mation."

Keeping in view these admirable remarks will greatly
facilitate a satisfactory solution of the question, " What
are we to do with our convicts I"
I have said it is a great mistake to consider them all as
one irreclaimable mass; there is little affinity between the
cluntry clodhopper, who begins with stealing a hen and
rises to a goose, as compared with the finished swell-
►nobsman, the rascally receiver of stolen goods, or expert
London burglar.
Prisoners of the former stamp and others not following
crime as a profession have been reformed to the extent of
acquiring industrious habits by hundreds ; the latter are
professional men, and their craft will not be easily relin-
quished for any less exciting employment, either at home
or abroad.

With respect to the more hopeful of the convicts, what-
ever might be the means of eventually disposing of them,
it would appear an essential condition that some fixed
portion of their sentences of penal servitude should be
endured in this country, so that certainty of punishment,
which is of the greatest importance with a view to a re-
pressive effect out of doors, might replace in the criminal
mind the dreams of gold fields which the very name of
iiransporation now inspires.
After undergoing the probationary period they might
be removed or banished to any colony where suitable pro-
vision could be made for absorbing their labour, and
Western Australia probably affords more facilities than
any other place for this purpose. Such a means of dis-
po-al would be alike advantageous to the mother country,
the colony, and the convict.
Lord Campbell, however, jusqy observes in his evi-
dence—" I think that it the country is to send people
abroad as emigrants, and you call that transportation,
that, instead of being a punishment, it may be a reward.'
Hence the importance of demanding some fixed mini-
mum period of penal infliction before any convict is so
disposed of.

As regards the worst class—if a man is dangerous
when at large society has a right t take care of itself,
and a, in the case of a lunatic, any such man should be
prevented doing mischief, either at home or abroad. It
appears unreasonable to inflict upon others that which
we cannot bear ourselves. But how is this to be effected
In my view, it might to a great extent be accomplished
by carrying out such sentences of penal servitude as will
at least break up associations and habits, and expending
the energies of the burglar, the highwayman, the receiver
of stolen goods, and others of that stamp, for terms of
3 or 10 years, or for life when necessary, on useful public
works, where there exist scope for employment to any
extent that is likely to be required, and the means of
making all who are so disposed of earn almost the entire
cost of their maintenance.

There is no reason whatever to fear the inconvenient
accumulation that marry suppose. Convict labour has
not yet been developed to the extent of its useful effect,
and the supply has never yet been equal to the demand.
After undergoing such a punishment, which I think
would be calculated to produce a marked effect in the
repression of crime, the question of disposing of them so
as not again to be troubled with their presence in this
country remains to be solved.

SIR JOHN PAZINGTON ON °RIME AND
TICKETS OF LEAVE.

Sir J. Pakingtoo, as chairman of the Worcestershire
Court of Quarter Sessions, addressed the grand jury at
the commencement of the trial of the prisoners at those
sessions on Tuesday, referring to the increase in the
police force of the Dudley and Stourbridge district
which had been ordered on the previous day. He said
he thought it his duty, consipering the state of alarm
—he might call it panic—which pervaded the public
mind just now with reference to the ticket-of-leave sys-
tem and the increase of crime, to make some observa-
tions to the grand jury upon those subjects. Now,
looking to the.as.ize and sessions calendars, and to the
other means of information which they possessed, he
thought this alarm and panic were exaggerated. "It
is impossible," continued the right hon. baronet, "to
deny that throughout the country generally—and the
northern I ortion, the manufacturing portion, of this
county is no exception to this rule—there has of late
been an increase of crimes, and those of the most
serious character ; but this I think may be accounted
in several ways, for, whatever may be the action
of the ticket-of-leave system, I think there are
other causes which will account for the increase.
At this season of short days and scarcity of em-
ployment such increase may be looked for, nor
can we shut our eyes to the fact that the prices of
provisions have for some time been very high. More-
ever, we must not omit to remember that during the
past year a great reduction has taken place in the army
and navy, and that the militia has been disbanded. These
are some of the results of the restoration of peace, and no
doubt to these causes we may trace some of that increase
of crime which we deplore. But, after making allowance
for these causes, I am not indisposed to admit that there
still remains behind a considerable amount of crime
whice may undoubtedly be traced to the practice of
turning loose upon the public men of the worst character,
who have a'rea ly been convicted of grave offences.
But, admitting this, I think the public are in error
throwing the whole onus on what is called
the ticket-of-leave-system. I think it may appear
that the real evil does • not consist so much in the
prac • Lice of granting tickets of leave to convicts as in
superseding the practice of transportation by a system of
penal servitude. The effect of this system is that these
offenders are set loose upon
,society as soon as the period
of their sentences expires ; and it becomes a grave ques-
tion for consideration whether, when these men are so
liberated, it would not be better to free them with a

ticket of leave than without. For my own part, lam
very much inclined to think that such discharges under
a ticket of leave, with proper regulations, will be better
for the interests of society than an unconditional release,
and I think that the ill effects are to be attributed rather
to a defect in the law than to the system of 'granting
tickets of !cave. It is well known to all who are ac-
quainted with the working of the system of prison dis-
cipline that it is not well to exclude the element of hope
in the treatment of prisoners under sentence ; it is found
to be productive of good effects for a prisoner to he led
to expect that better treatment will follow good con
duct. At the same time, however, I must say that,
from what I have seen in the public newspapers, and
from my owu personal knowledge, I am in-
duced to think that a practice has obtained of mitigating
sentences and advising the exercise of the prerogative
of mercy in a manner not altogether conducive to the
interests of the public. It was only at the late War-
wickshire winter assize that Mr. Justice Willes called
attention to the case of two men who were convicted of
a serious offence in January, 1855, and sentenced to
four years' penal servitude, but were released in August,
185 G. This is an error in practice, not of NA. It was,
stated in the House of Commons that it had been deter-
mined not to issue tickets of leave to men seenatdeenicsed to
penal servitude ; but here is a case where offenders
loose
upon
society
za, casew heel-
tenced to four years' penal servitude were
society at the expiration of considerably. less. than one-
attheoirur
luatteen
ch ua rl one-
half
eodf
a man convicted at the summer assizes of 1855 of high-
Wee.orceAsteBrrhierewhwaitntsel
was sentenced. to the mild punishment
way robbery
of 15 months' imprisonment, and after undergoing
nine months of that punishment he was liberated. There
may possibly be reasons for investigation of which I am
not cognisant, but I have been led from causes which
have come to my knowledge to form the conclusion that
the practice of remitting the sentence of penal servitude
has been too indiscriminately exercised, I should be very
way the exercise of the pre-
averse from fettering in any
rogative of the Crown, but I feel that this matter requires
to be placed on a more satisfactory basfe. Tne panic
which at present pervades the public mind on the sub-
ject will, no doubt, lead Parliament to demand of the
Government that the subject shall be fairly considered,
and the whole question of secondary punishments be
thoroughly revised. There is a desire in the public mind
and, no doubt, one of the principal questions will be
whether there shall be a return to the system of trans
portation. As far as England is concerned, transporta
tion has undoubtedly worked beneficially ; but I doubt
whether it will be possible to again adopt it to the name
extent as formerly. In any case, however, I think there
should be a reconsideration of the present scale of sen-
tences. The law, in my opinion, was hastily altered and
badly revised. Penal servitude is by no means an equi-
valent for the sentence of transportation ; but four years'
penal servitude is now the sentence inflicted where seven
years' transportation was formerly imposed. It is thought