The Sun.
London, England, 1857-02-10 00:00:00

have this advantage, which the committee of the House
of Commons which last eat on the subject did not pOssess
—that I have the experience of some eight or nine
months more than it had. With respect to the immediate
effect of the act of 1868—the effect contemplated by Par-
liament—namely, the material reduction of the sentences
of transportation, the fact is, taking the three years be.
ofcirteralnBssp3;
and 1852 was 2,149.
rtthataito
nt h
ienaEv esrgaigien
da tif
on
rn
the
en uymeba
re
sr
loBfssz tienBsc
have elapsed sthisnacne
fewerbB6.
rke sentencesth eNvai
I find that in the three years which
riotfudtrea27l%2,r,tamtiaoknining England was 293 ; and of
spenalenten
servitude
atvherage annual number of
totalirne regard
sa rodft2o
stated,s4oeoot
term
Scotland
:le
di
ninon
and
ad
dthiffeearcetnpcaesosefd2
Ireland there are no complete returns for all the years
I have mentioned, and I will therefore take the year
1852, and compare it with the year 1856. In Scotland in
1852 the sentences of transportation were 861, and in
the last year they were only 53. The sentences of penal
servitude in 1856 were 174, making a total of 227 with
the sentences of transportation, showing a diminution of
134 sentences as compared with 1852. With regard to
Ireland the returns are very remarkable, and show that
a great diminution of crime has taken glace there.
(Hear, hear.) In the year 1850 the number of sentences
of transportation in Ireland was 1,849, in 1851 it had
increased to 1,978, and in 1852, the year before the act
of 1853 passed, it had decreased to 1,411 ; but in the
year 1855, which is the last for which I have got a full
return, the number was only 33--(laughter) —in the pre-
vious year it was 39, and I should not be surprised if the
return for 1856 showed a diminution as compared with
that of 1855. We might expect that a very large
number of prisoners must have been sentenced to
penal servitude in lieu of transportation, so as to
make the number approximate to the 1,411 sen-
tences of transportation in the year before the act passed ;
but find that in the year 1855 there were only 485 pri-
soners sentenced to penal servitude, and 33 to transpor-
tation, making a total of only 518, and a difference of
nearly 900 as compared with the year 1852. This is so
remarkable a difference that I think it is owing to some
peculiar improvement in the morality of the people of
Ireland, and therefore it would have manifested itself if
the act of 1853 bad never been passed. The main feature
produced by that act in Ireland is the decrease in the
number of sentences of transportation. But in England
and Scotland there has been, corresponding with the de-
crease inthe number of sentences of transportation, a very
large increase, as might have been expected, in the num-
ber of those sentenced to penal servitude. The average
member of sentences of penal servitude in England and
Scotland since the act of 1853 was passed is 2,300, and
of those nearly three-fourths were for feur years penal
servitude in lieu of seven years' transportation. But it
must be borne in mind that simultaneously with this reduc-
tion in the number of sentences of transportation there
has been au increase in the average character of the
crime for which these sentences were passed. The num-
ber of prisoners sentenced to transportation during last
year in England was 263, and in Scotland 53. All of
these were sentenced for 14 years at least, and some of
them were for life. These sentences were passed for very
grave offences, and many of the prisoners had been re-
peatedly convicted. The number of convicts under sen-
tences of transportation •in England and Scotland when
the act of 1853 was passed was 9,850. Regulations were
made as to the disposal of these prisoners. Expectations
were held out to them when they were p!aced in separate
confinement, and afterwards when sent to Portland or
Portsmouth, or any of the other places in which convicts
are employed on public works, tbatif they conducted them-
selves well they would, after a time, be sent to some penal
colony with tickets of leave, or, at all events, with the
expectation of receiving a qualified discharge within a
short period after their arrival in the colony. That
expectation could not be fulfilled, and it therefore be-
came necessary to consider what should be done with
them. A provision was inserted in the act of 1853 which
permitted such of them as had been sentenced to seven
years' transportation to be discharged with tickets-of-
leave, after they should have undergone about half the
term of their sentences in strict confinement in this coun-
try, instead of discharging them without any qualifica-
tion, as was formerly the case with reference to those
pi isoners who underwent the very imperfect discipline of
the hulks. These tickete-of-leave are revocable at the
pleasure of the Crown in case of the misconduct of those
who hold them. Those sentenced to seven years' trans-
portation were discharged with tickets-of-leave after an
imprisonment of three years, and those sentenced to ten
years atter an imprisonment of four years, in the event
of their having complied with the prison regulations.
Those were the minimum. terms ; and the prisoners
were told that, if they did not conduct them-
selves well, they might be detained for longer pe-
riods. But good conduct in prison is a very imperfect
test. (Hear, hear.) The vast majority of those prisoners
who have been discharged upon tickets of leave are those
who complied so faithfully with tho prison regulations
that the governors (who, I believe, have endeavoured to
discharge their duty honestly) recommended that they
should be discharged after having undergone the mint.
mum period of imprisonment. But the mere fact of a
man's good conduct when he is removed from the ordi-
nary temptations of life, placed in an unnatural position,
and required to conform to prison rules, to be industrious
in the occupation assigned to him, to be respectful to his
superiors, affords no proof that his character has become
improved; for it may be that, as soon as he is released
f_om the restraints placed upon him while in prison, and
returns to the scenes of his former temptations, he will
associate with his former companions, and soon make it
evident that his morals have not been improved. (Hear.)
I do not, however, mean to say that there has not been
an improvement with regard to many of the prison-
ers ; but, as to several of them, it is to be feared that
the very object which they have in view in complying
strictly with the prison regulations is to obtain an early
r, lease, in order that they may rejoin their former as-
sociates in crime. The number of convicts under sen-
tence of transportation has been reduced by the actual
transprtation of about 1,050 of them to Western Aus-
tralia; 7,002 have been discharged on licenses tin to the
present time ; about 1,200 have been sent to Bermuda
and Gibraltar ; and the total number of those who re-
main in this country under sentences of transportation,
and who, in case of their good conduct, will receive
tickets of leave in the course of the next two or three
)ears, does notamount to 5,000. Tho number of licenses
which have been revoked for misconduct up to the same
time is 466 ; but to this mast be added the number of
license holders who have been reconvicted and sentenced
to terms of imprisonment which exceed the margin of
their original sentences, and the revocation of whose li-
cen,es could therefore have no effect. The number of
these is 583. In addition to these there are 95 who -have
been reported for misconduct, but who have not yet been
convicted of the crimes with which they are charged.
This, with the two previous numbers, gives a total of
1,144 holders of tickets of leave who have been convicted
of or charged with crime, being a proportion of 16 per
cent. of the whole number of licenses which have been
granted. As a general rule, I have thought it desirable
to act with ekreme caution in the revocation of licenses
in cases where no charge could be made against the
holder before a magistrate, so that he might have an
opportunity of defending himself. I have had frequent
reports from the police, and have in many cases desired
them to go to a person suspected of living dishonestly,
and warn him that the eye of the police was upon bin],
and that a persistence in illegal courses would lead to
the revocation of his ticket-of-leave. In 41 cases licenses
have been revoked without judicial inquiry ; but, as a
rule, I have thought that it would be putting too much
power into the hands of the police if, merely upon their
report that a man was associating with thieves, the
Secretary of State were to cancel his ticket of
leave. (Hear, hear.) There may, however, be cases
in which it is so glaringly evident that a man is living
dishonestly and leading others into crime that his ticket
ought to be revoked. On the other hand, while in some
cases of slight offences, such as trifling asaaults, tickets
have not been revoked, yet, as a rule, they have been
cancelled in all cases of felony or other offences against
the law, whether the conviction was summary or at the
sessions or assizes. Looking at the principle on which
the shorter terms of penal servitude were substituted for
the longer periods. of transportation, and considering
that persons sentenced to penal servitude had no such
hopes extended to them as I have represented as having
been held out to those who were in this country under
sentences of transportation at the time of the passing
of the act of 1853, it has been determined that, as a
rule, no tickets-otleave should be granted toe
servesuoh
persons, but that they should be required
the full period of their sentences. No such li°onset,
special
in num-
circumstances, and these
have
have been granted to persons. slenetenndoedextcosptpieenneall
servitude, except under
ber to but 53, To have habituallyranted these licensee
place upon it, conceived
mcseohnnotcuetlidhvae
that two.
te ho-
instance a
and to defeat the intention
at the act of Parliament
gentleman, for whom.
without the
to such persons would hwavee
all
fl been
thheat
have
eetwrgi.flrlee
anwtointrhee
respect, the
judges
the
slightest commu-
annngtiaoln
servitude
Parliament
opinion
tanßhei eicd.readot.tsirhodoenef
trdwtheohai :tete!
debates
ernwnetwi,ael
sentence
geiuteehthheaol looking o
tookktpei
re-
mitted as the reward of good conduct in prison. I
received from some prisoners who had been sentenced
by him petitions complaining of the severity of the
referred,l
I received a
as ul
estut
ea
toa
hrg.
tha lullst hfaromhevwehr o ma
13,
tiine
irpea
tp leva,
sentences which had been passed upon them. These
that these sentences would be carried out ; that he un-
derstood that, if the prisoners behaved well, a large por-
tion of their sentences would be remitted ; and that, if he _
had acted under an error, he should in these and inagreat
many other cases feel it his duty to submit recommen-
dations for the mitigation of the sentences. I asked him
what mitigation he thought necessary to reduce the sen-
tence to that which, had he believed it would be full,:
carried out, he should have passed upon the prisoners 1'
In reply I received from him a letter in whio_h I unsen.
stood him to say that he wished one-third ofeach
that, he
tence to be remitted ; but on my
ytorgrea
and that what
titled
on referring to it I found that that so,was
birds of the sentence
educing
respect,
themspec t,
said that I must have read his letteterlittourately, and
t
he desired was theremission of two-thirds
nd to commute the
Under these circumstances
I felt
boubut b
told me he should have passed
to those which the judge
sentences, not by ticketswohfoleaisveent
would be fully ca • d •
had he known that they
Mr. Hill is a gentlemanefforts for thereformation of •
and whose benevolent . of ple-
spoken of too highly. He acknow-
ledgedßoners cannot be
a had made a
that h mistake, and perhaps
ought to have communicated with the_ judges—h"n
n
g •the rest—and have intimated to them that it
::::the intention of the Government that sentences
of pens.
l servitude should be fully carried out. Itie e
traordinary how much information prisoner,' even in on
best managed gaols, obtain of what is goingon out of
doors; for, immediately after this I receivedtat the judges
numerous
memorials from prisoners, all saying h
who had sentenced thembad told them that if they be-
haved well in prison a large part of
the punishment
would be remitted, These memorials I referred to the