Star.
London, England, 1810-05-10 00:00:00

r4k-icleobe.

OP did not
much %verse.
Mr. WARBLE explained that he did not mean
tq accuse the Right Honeurable Gentleman and his
friends of defending the purchase of seats i that.
House, but of maintaining in the case of Lord Castle..
reagh and the Chancellor of the Exchequer, that such
purchases ought not to be punished.
The House then divided, and the numbers Torre—
roe receiving the Petition, 36—Against 128.
Majority for rejecting the Petition, 92.
PENAL. LAWS.
Sir SAMUEL ROMILLY rose according to no-
tice, and stated that what he was going to propose
was not to alter, but to carry into execution laws
which already existed. It was not his intention to
surprise the House, if it was its pleatthe it might
postpone the derision till it had taken time to cofiiider
on the merits of what he was abbot to advance; it :
was a measure not leis important than that which he ;
had *toady proposed. The object of punishment
was to prevent the commission of crimes, and this by
three methods ; Ist, by terror of punishment ; 2d, by
riutting it out of the power of an individual to corn.
,settcrimes ;.• end 3d, by the reformation of the often-
der. With the exception of some county gaols, this
last mode could be .seldom found to exist here. A
Irve
steem of reform had been proposed, to put which in
was, with the consent of the House, his inten-
tion. It was necessary to take a view of the circum-
stances relative to the transportation of convicts to
New South Wales. It was not till the time of Charles
11. after the Restoration, that transportation itself
was Hrst adopted and carried into effect; those cri-
minals who were clersyable were sent to North Awe.'
rids. The first case is instanced in Justice Keeling's
Reports, which weze well worthy the attention of the
House. He says, that " those persons who were not
sent away as perpetual slaves. but to work for seven
years io the plantations, the three last of which they
received wages, in order to enable them to raise a
stock for defraying the expellees of their return
home." It will he seen that this was carefully attended
to till the 4th of Ceo. 1. then transportation was first
ad ipted for p:a.sons guilty of petty larceny. Grand
larceny,it was known, was the denominatiem for all rob-
beries above toe value of 12d. while every thing
under that value was called petty larceny. In this
way things rested till the revolution in America ren-
dere.: transportation there impossible. Previous to
this, he would observe, that certain persons had been I
contracted with there to receive the convicts, bound
by iudentur, so that by this means the poor were
subjected to labour, but the rich were only exiles, as
they had it in their rawer to purchase their slavery.
1'1,1779, when open war was declared, the new sys-
tem was adapted ; helore that, however, in 1776, the
power was first given of employing convicts to la-
boor in the dock-yards, or on board the ktilki In
-
17711, an Act of Parliament was pasetl, giving power
to transp- rt convicts to any part. of the world ; at the
same time, it embraced another, object, that of estab-
lishing a mode of imprisonment, at once tending to
cultivate habits of industry and improve the Morals,
so that at the close of imprisonment the individual
would come forth reformed. The virtue of this Act !
had been lesnit,d by persons whose names command-
ed respect—by Mr. Howard, Lord Auckland, arid
Judge Blackstone. The latter, in an edition of his I
Commentaries, which he published shortly alien ob.
served, that the prime objects of the plan which had
!will formed were to ent;irce labour and cultivate re-
litions instruction ; to praserre the health and re-
form
the habits of offenders by accustoming them to
serious retLrction. The House must be surprised to
hear that this Act remained a dead letter.; from 31 I
years since it was instituted, nothing had been done,
and. it was now a monument of the wisdom of those
who framed it, and a reproach to those who
neglected it. In the mean while, the project of
transportation to New South Wales was adopted,
which he would venture to say was the boldest and I
most unpromising ever undertaken; it was a project ;
forinfinencing the hearts of mankind ; of establishing
a colony from Cie refuse of society ; not like the tram, I
portation to North America, which, from the popu.
lotion of this country, was but a drop of water in
the ocean. Every one must acknowledge the difficulty
of establishing a colony without diligence and zeal in
the undertaking ; and how-this could be accomplished
by those who were sent out on that expedition is truly
wonderful. It was in February 1787, that '267 per.
sons were first embarked, and those were selected j
from the Hulks, a place more calculated then to ins
'guilt—at present indtled it was better regu-
lated. In this statement lee was justified by tt Report
gi a Committee of that House, which declares, that
rtnong the circumstances which contributed to the
increase of crimes the system of the Hulks was a great
source ; they termed them seminaries for Vice and
wickedness. At that time the number of persons on
board amounted to 14.19. Another part of the report
condemns the method of mixing the hardy offenders
of the town with those who came from the Country.
On this point, too, Mr. Howard had made a remark,
which was, that the convicts who came from the
country were so sunk in despondence that they were
ready to put an end to their existence, till by corn-
munication with the offenders of the Metropolis,
they were completely hardened in iniquity. In,
stead of sending- persons to the colony who were
acquainted with a country life, those embarked in
February, 1787, and in June, 1789, were selected froth
the criminals of London and Middlesex. In proof
of all this he could adduce the publication of Mr.
Collins, who was a panegyrist of this system. Great
anxiety seems to hare been used to keep the prisoners
in New South, Wales, and it appears that in the next
embarkation it was expresSly stipulated, that none of
the prisoners should be brought back ; one man who
had a wife and child there would not be allcared to
return unless he could provide for them. In the year
1801 this system was carried to such an'eatetiar that
forty persons who had already suffered six, and amen
sentenced for seven years, were transported t?
tang Bay, and'what
Makes this
.remarkable is, tt
.
7 different embarkations had taken place dnring.that
period, and all bees suffered to pass by without sea-

soIKONI

in gescrilsed as =Weedy Petending.totke
pc ion of iiitties, he' expressed his ap-
p that.ptftelision might prove to be unfoun-
fact, hearts rather &posed to qttestion this
I *Lowther, because, from the whole ezpe-
his Sfo he nerd. knew a Matt who pretea- •
much better than 3111 the rest of saankinif;:
not at some period of his life prove to be`T