The Sun.
London, England, 1850-03-14 00:00:00

The Grand Stand Stakes.

Mark Tapley •••
Timothy

••• ••• •l • ••• • • •
The Grand National Steeplechase.

Rachael
Lucy Neale

The Municipal Stakes.

Peasant Girl
Theory ...

... 1
... 2

... 1
... 2

TATTERSALL'S—THIS EVENING.
Six o'CLocit.

NORTHAMPTANSHIRE STASES.
13 to 2 agst Osterley
13 to 2 agst Harriott
8 to 1 agst Mahratta
12 to 1 agst Belus
13 to 1 agst Fernhill,
METROPOLITAN HANDICAP.
2 to 1 agst Cheerful
WARWICKSHIRE HANDICAP.
3 to 1 agst Defaulter
4 to 1 agst Dart
4 to 1 agst Ballinafad
6 to 1 agst Keleshea
CHESTER Cur.
40 to 1 agst The Flea
100 to 1 agst Tarn Wadlin
DERBY.
13 to 2 apt Ghillie Callum
7 to 1 agst Bolingbroke
22 to 1 agst Mayors
30 to 1 agtst William the Conqueror

IMPERIAL PARLIAMENT

(THIS EVENING.)

HOUSE OF LORDS.

The LORD CHANCELLOR took his seat upon the Woo,
sack at Eve o'clock.

The Archbishop of YORK presented a petition from
Selby a,2aimt a Sunday delivery in the Post-office.
Lord PORTMAN presented a petition from Somer-
setshire in favour of the Bill authorising marriage with a
deceased wile's sitter.
L,)rd BROUGHAM moved fir certain returns relat-
ing to the practice of the Judicial Committee of the
Frivy Council.

TL NOBLE and LEARNED LORD also presented a pet:.
ticn in livcur of an rxtensiou of the jurisdiction o:
county courts.

CONVICT PRISONS BILL.

Earl GREY moved the second reading of this Bill.
At present the prisons for the reception of persons un-
der sentence of transportation were Milbank, Park-
hurst, Pentcnville, and Portland. They were calcu-
late t) ecconamodate 5,400 prisoners, and
ware under four separate authorities. With a
view of introducing an uniformity of manage
msnt, the same gentlemen had been appointed es in-
spectors by ell those authorities. It was :intended
by this Bill to plane ai those person under the autho-
rity of visitors apt Anted by the Crown. The difficulty
of devising an c fficient system of secondary
punishments was grc a', and the utmost that
could be expected was, that they could only
arrive at a sitisf:ctory result after a long series of ex
peaiments, all tending to progressive improvement. A
Committee of the House of Commons sat on this sub-
ject in 1338. and opened the eyes of the public to the
existence cf many evils, and soon after the report
of that Committee Pentonvilie Prison was erected
as an experimental prison. A reformation took
place in the year 1844, in the plan of punishment
adopted for convicts in Van Diemen's Land, by
which the assignmesar system was done tinny with
and a system of discipline under the superintendence of
the authorities substior el for it. The measures then
adopted failed for want of ac'equate means in Van Die-
men's Land for carryii g them out, and from the large
number of convicts sent out It had been the intention
of Lord John Russell, when Secrstary of the
Colonies, to transport only a small proportion
of convicts, and to keep the greater portion at
the hulks, but in consequence of a resolution of the
H -,use of Commons in 1841, condemning the retention
in this country of convicts sentenced to transportation,
a number of convicts were at once thrown upon Van
Dietnen's Land amounting to 7,942, and in the
three subsequent years, 17,637 male convicts
were transported there. The consequence was
a Test extensive system of demoralization,
ta) remedy which his predecessors had determined to
stop transportation fur two years. The present Govern-
ment had approved of that measure, and had determined
that penal labour in this cour.try, Bermuda, or Gib-
raltar, should always precede transportation to dis-
tant lands, such pellet labour to be always pre-
ceded fn. .a certain period by separate confinement.
At the same time it was determined to adopt a system
of sending out persons under sentence to the distant
colonies not as convicts, but as exiles, with conditional
pardons. This system had cot succeeded as its framers
could have wished. It had always been found that mere
removal without regal labour was not effectua',
and it was found that it was impossible to
organiz ) a system of penal labour and co-
ercion in the Australian colonies. Hence it was con-
cluded that that part of the sentence which included
coercion and penal labour ought to be inflicted at home,
and that a portion of that punishment should consist of
separate imprisonment. There were some who held
that separate imprisonment was efficient because they
looked only to the physical condition of the
convict. It had however been found in practice
anything bat a light punishment; the great fault was
that it could not be carried out for a sufficient length of
time. Human nature could not bear it beyond eighteen
months, and the evidence of medical authorities went to
show that it ought not to be continued beyond twelve
months. It inspired great horror and dread in cri-
minal persons who had undergone it and were again
convicted than of those who had undergone any other
secondary punishment. A criminal would rather undergo
any discipline than suffer separate imprisonment. It
was therefore proposed that all persons sentenced to
transportation should undergo a certain period of
separate imprisonment, and the means now existed for
applying it. A considerable portion of Millbank had been
filled up for that purpose, and in certain county gaols
cells bad been fitted up, so that there was now accom-
modation for the seperate imprisonment of 2,000 per-
sons. It was proposed that afterwaids these convicts
should be employed f, r a certain period on penal labour
or public works in Gibraltar or Bermuda, or
other places. It was certainly necessary to
devise some punishment additional to eighteen
months' solitary confinement for great crimes.
He thought a useful method had been devised by the
engineering uflicers of Bermuda, who had devised an
excellent system of task-work, which had answered
admirably. The greater number of criminals
were averse to continuous labour, and when
they found that the consequences of crime
were to subject them to continuous labour of
of a much harder character than any to which an honest
man was subjected, the consequence could not but be
most beneficial; be-ides, continuous hard work so
fatigued the convict, that at the conclusion of the day he
was not inclined to indulge in immoral conversa-
tion, but was too glad to take his rest.
He objected to the hulk system as at once inefficient
and costly, and he preferred employing convicts on
public works. There was a convict prison at Portland,
the situation was such es to enable the authorities to
keep the convicts completely isolated, and they had there
at presect 3, con vaos employed in the construction
of that most useful of public works the Portland Break-
water and hentS)our. .of refuge, and the experiment had
hitherto been attended with the most complete
success. He hat after grave consideration come to the
reluctant conclusion that it was necessary to
maintain the convict settlement at Norfolk
Island to that settlement a small portion, and
a _small portion only of the worst convicts should be
removed. He thought that the dread of transportation
to Norlolk Island would produce a wholesome effect
upon the other convicts.
(LEFT SITTING.)

HOUSE OF COMMONS.
The SPEAKER took the Chair at Four o'clock.
THIRD READINGS.
The following Bills were read a third time and passed :
Birkenhead Improvement—Liverpool Cattle Market
—West Bromwich Rates.
The report on the Buckinghamshire Railway Bill was
considered and agreed to.