The Sun.
London, England, 1850-10-24 00:00:00

THE PREVENTION OF CHIME.

LETTER

TO THE milt HON. SIR GEORGE GREY,
BART., MT., &a. &c.
Sir,—ln pointing out one mode by which niy pro
posal could be fairly carried into execution, the first
point, and assuredly it is one which I da not mean to
shirk, is the question of transportation, how far it
should be considered a proper mode of punishment,
with reference to the criminal, the mother country,
and to the colony to which the convict is transported.
- After the most attentive perusal and re•perusal of
the evidence taken before Sir William Molesworth's
Committee, I am unable to refer to one single sen-
tence, containing either a fact or an opinion, the
latter with a, reason attached or anything purporting
to be one, against a proper sy stem of transportation ;
although every page is replete wi.h the most conclu-
sive testimony against the system adopted by Govern-
ment, proving that it has produced the most diabo-
lical results.
'And atiain I would remark, that if the wit of the
wittiest, combined with the judietnent of the most
sagacious, were asked to reply ti the question, What
is the beat poseible mode to adopt in order to render
a convict the greatest posible curse to the colony to
which he is sent ? there could be but one answer,
Do as we have done, adopt our sy stem and the result
must be similar.
Before your convict is sent abroad take as much
care as possible that he is well practised in every
crime ; let him have gone the round of many prisons,
in order that his acquaintance among the votaries of
guilt may be most extensive; when you find that he
has well advanced in crime, from his first offence of
picking pockets to that of an expert housebreaker,
then send him to the colonies and if you should
happen to be an hereditary legislator, and your assur-
ance is equal to your ignorance, express your unqua-
lified surprise, that a colony should be so regardless
of its interests as ungratefully to decline -receiving
those with whose criminal education you had taken
such unwearied pains.
But at the same time be mindful of the paramount
claims of the mother country on so accomplished
convict ; transport him in the first place for seven years
only, and then you kceß, his mind well occupied with
the pleasing thought, how soon the time will pass by
when he will be restored to his mother country, to
whom he.will show his gratitude by recounting to an
admiring audi,,lice how delightful is the residence in
a tropical climafe, where it is unnecessary to work
bard to obtain all the comforts of life.
One point you must not lose sight of; in establish-
ing your colony take the greatest care that for the
first fifty years you send out no minister of religion,
no schoolmaster, and appoint your governors, not on
account of their capacity, but because they have been
useful to your parrteding paragraph, and deny thaty.ce
linCeainn. ythoeu,foStiir p
Sir George Grey, put your finger on one
such is the eysecm we have practised, and I ask you
if it he not just as illogical, and just as untrue, to say
that the infamous state of our penal colonies is owing
to a wise and judicious system of transportation, as
it would be to attribute the massacre of St. Bartho-
lomew, or. the atrocities of the Inquisition, to our
blessed Saviour, for having been the Founder of the
Christian Religion, in whose name such abominations
were perpetrated.
But fortunately we have on this very question,
The Prevention of Clime," examph is precisely in
point; in Howard's work on the State of Eisons,
dated 1775, you will learn that practices just as
infanroui as those narrated before Sir William
Molesworth's Committee were of daily occurrence
in every gaol in the kingdom; yet that Christian
philosopher did not propose the abolishment of prisons,
a most easy suggestion, but devoted his time, his
energies, and his fortune to improve them.
So also with respect to the hulks. In 1785 a Com-
mittee of the House of Commons reported, "That
they had singularly contributed to improve the prac-
tice of vi11any."...." That efter the expiration of
their sentences they returned into the mass of the
community, not reformed in their prirciples, but con-
firmed in every vicious habit; that when they
regained their liberty no parish would receive them,
and no person give them work ; that being shunned
by their former acquaintance, and baffled in every
attempt to gain their bread, the danger of starving
almost inevitably led them to a renewal of their
former crimes."
And yet the bulks were not abolished, but reformed,
so slowly, however, that Mr. Milford, speaking in
the House of Commons upon the subject, used nearly
the same language, at various times from 1814 to
1825 ; but the truth is that in dealing with criminals
there is only a choice of evils before us, and the only
judicious mode of solving the question, What system
will produce the least evil and the most good ? is to
compare their effects upon the criminal, upon society,
and upon the colony. . .
I have the honour to-remain, Sir, •
Your most obedient and faithful servant,
RIGBY WASON.
Corwar, Oct. 19, 1850.

TO THE RIGIIT HON. SIR GEORGE GREY
BART., M.P., &c., &c.
Sir,—ln The Sun paper of the 17th inst., I ob-
served a letter addressed to you, signed "Rigby
Wason," which for its deep imperial import should
he circulated through every vein of 01 our empire,
because it recommends an awful experiment as an act
of preventive justice--" that all persons should be
transported for the first offence." I have not the
honour of knowing the worthy writer, either person-
ally or by reputation, but, from circumstances, infer
that he is a gentleman and a scholar, and entitled to
credence when he asserts his intention to be one of
kindness to the prisoners. Be he right or wrong, 1 .
respect his moral courage, and will leave his concep-
tinn, i!s consummation, and its consequences, to the
estimate of every human heart, wherever that heart
may beet and pour out the " Lord's Prayer" to
Heaven.
The power which judges•now have to transport for
life for the second offence, should be, in his opi-
nion, not discretionary, hut imperative. As it is pos-
sible that these suggesaions may lead to a Parliamen-
tary narrowing of the nieses of the legislatorial web,
I will respectfully submit to You, Sir, as a legislator
and lawyer, the very intelligible and ingenious—some
senses are so blunted as to believe it ingenuous--plan
to make escape the second'offence hopeless, which
has been long practised in Devon, with almost infal-
lible success.
The certificate of former conviction, written on
white paper, very frequently more spacious, con-
sequently more attractive to the eye, is affixed to the
face of the yellow parchment on which the bill is
w""e en-
grossed, and in this 1:
-ng state sent up to thy-grand jury, who, having doubtless well digested both,
return them 'to the court, whose efficer opens them
before the petty jury, who from practice will interpret
the " rider ;" but lest they should not, he tells them,
nt on arraigeint, that the crime they have to try was
committed after a former offence.
country too deeply to offer a single
I respect your judgment, Sir, and that of myh
coraequences, for nafure instinctisely and intuitively
recoils frorn its contemplation.
Legislatures are often condemned when the error
is
in the legal construction. Here, Sir. can he no doubt,
though the law be disregarded by the ; there it
stands, a monument of legislative justice and flume.
nits, in section 111 of the 6 and 7 Win. IV., which
offence shell he deferred until after
enacts " that the reading ( f the etattment of a former
petty jury." Why ? To prevent if from being pre-
judicial tei the prisoner..
To this aw I last week respec
call the attention
I was, by his Lord-
dully ende evoured to
root!
I,l‘)he ec et :I sh lie ro; ontue.l itr'eLambvon)lerel'.'dnhdpCsivtreo. ietie
i°fliasioTtreeliftcootttunihivoisEett.
Quarter Seseione
Courttnay was Sessions,
When
ship, rather peremptorily pilt down].
lcomparisonshre . e
will
eos
living, even in this'
underuuns(:°rm%which
thosebcl.°e. of a mad
for bad as things are,
I prefer a misguided and i
legal Beetle, under the laws o re s-
and murderous." Dre.co."
honour to he, ,
chiortctizi,nfistrednc.t
. _
guiding " Drake," rather rtahteher than
Your obedient servant,
CHARLES BIRD:

ANDSrp:::::::exel3reuit:
impulse by a wondrous during
develo-
o that
PENNY POST 7.-7-AGE
penny postage has been established.
, i,
tn,er
htshea3ics.rifi year that
the last ten years, the natural desire to learn to write, of that
part of the eontliful ropulation which education can reach,
the whole number of letters delivered in the
merit of the most useful and
gPa'fArnoist
ttihtee great
annual delivery has reached the prodigious numbereioletrhraecet
hundrdd and thirty-seven millions- in 1838, a Committee of
hasl:loll%t:hre :en. :;:t.ehrde.i. aBu3gBnr,ist:
uniform
o, moral
United Kingdom was seventy-sx millions; in
the House of Commons thus denounced,
commercial evils of the WI rates of postage, their injurious
little earnings to the pleasure and advantage r
on ea effects eac tgsrtilepyronui thegrievous
ta xg roena tt
bbeu
poor,lk ot tchleups
ienogp
correspond-
ing with their distant iriends, or compel them to forego such
thus su
btractira!
intercourse altogether ;
enjoyments, and o structing the
amount of their enjeY growth and
maintenance of their best affections).". Ilotioured be the man
I who broke down these barriers! I raised be the Government
that, for once, stepping out of its fiscal tram-way, dared
boldly to legislate fur the domestic happiness, the educational
progress, and the moral elevation of the masses! The steel
pen, sold at the rate of a pe);a
a ez..t.n, ie the creation, in a
conAdt rabic degree, of the
Penny l'estvge stamp, as the
Penny Pcstao-e stamp was a rept:fEditative, if not a creation,
of the new educational power. Without the steel pen, it may
feasonabl,y be doubted whether there were mechanical
means
within the reach of the great bulk of the population for
writing the three humircd and thirty-seven millions of letters
that now annually pass through the Post-oel
ee. - Dickenss
" household Words."
By an advertisement in another Column it will be
seen that the plan for establishing another bank in the me-
tropolis on the Scotch system, under the title of "The
London and Suburban Bank," has been matured. The head-.
quarters will be at the West-end, it having originated, as
we understand, in the desire of the inhabitants of Marvle •
b die, St. Pancras, and Paddington, to obtain greater Wink-
ing accommodation than they at present possess, and who
have already taken up a large portien of the shares,