Star.
London, England, 1827-08-17 00:00:00

14 -1. •' .4
are guilty of poaching would cortainly havl great reluetanee t •
commit what they would adder avi 6l private property. '
The great majority of • r offences against the
Came Laws are young unmarrie a wirers, hough same poachers
are dissolute character who uld remain such even if good wages
l'i %le e rat n is, that game is not private pro.
. my, a he game of the land free, and
left It free. The farmers, injured by the game, do not diacoueage
this notion. When punished for offences against the Game Laws
they are apt to think they have not had a tab- trial; when they have
been convicted by strict preservers of game, who frequently
been sufferers. Poaching and comniitment to platon..brins them
acquainted with dissolute characters, they proceed to petty thefts,
anti thus poaching tends ion various ways to Injure the moral feelings
of the labourer.
Dr. Hunt is of opinion that the Mindoro Trespass Act, arid
other Acts which give summary jurisdiction, have greatly increased
the number of commitments- He is also of opinion that these
commitments tend to the increase of crime; because a person once
sent to prison gets into a course of criminal habits by associating
with dissolute persons he meets there. With regard to priion dis-
•cipline, he adds. " After long and attentive oissetvoion of prison
discipline, and after a great deal of cooversatlon with the very ex-
cellent Chaplain of the primns of the county of Belford, I fear that
very little improvement is ever made in the moral habits of a pri-
soner by even the best forms of pri-on clikipline and instruction
that have yet been tievised." The classifieation is as perfect in the
Bedford gaol as it can he made in a country of that extent. Ile
afterwards %Ices his opinion in these words—" I do not think that
prison discipline has increased crime, but that sets •ing to prison-at
all for a small crime rather tends to increase crime of every des-
cription ; a man becomes a worse subject by being sent to prime' ;
but he is not made so much worse now as formerly, in coon-tonnes
of the improved dlacipline of prisons." He allows that " the dis-
cipline of prisons Whetter thin it evee was formerly, but thinks
that punishment of thit or any other kind has not a fair trial; be-
cause the prisoners have not been able to return to a state of regu-
lar employment at gond wages."
With regard to education, Dr. Hunt stater, that domestic disci-
pline and parental contrived have not been so touch attended to as
formerly, arising perhaps from t' e great increase of schools, patents
expecting (torn those schools more than they have bee* Muted to
reelize The r 'phi-education given in them is seldom accompanied
with much moral boatuetion. Sometimes when he has reproached
the parent of a chltd; who had shewn early depravity, the parent
has thrown the fatilt upon the whore!, saying, " I sent the child
to a school where it ought to have been instructed better:
I have nothing to reproach myself with." He has always ob-
served that educated ptisoners have been better behaved in
proportion to thy, education they have received, particularly
if moral di-ciidine and inettuetion have accompanied it; but
no very perniapent good results unless parental controul bad also
been exere.sed• lie is of opinion that a very great improvement in
the moral character of the poor might he affected by a more general
diffusion of the system of infant ,chnois.
Mr. Ortidge, who has been Governor of the Gaol and House of
Correction at Flury St. Edmund's fur very near thirty years, has
given very valuable information to the Committee. The number
of prisoners committed to the House of Correction has been-
-1805 . 221 1815 • 387 1824 . 457
1806 . 192 1816 . 476 1825 • 4 9
I
1807 . 173 1817 . 430 1826 • 573
This witness state, that the great increase in the number of corn-
nate:tents began in the year 1816, from the depression of agricul-
ture and the great dearth of employment. Men are employed upon
the to.ds at a very lOW rate. They consider it a matter of right to
be paid from the poor'seate. When the unemployed pour are put
by the parish to work an the roads, they become lazy ; they know
that whether they sit on the wheelbarrow all the day, or work hard,
the result on Satuido slight would be the sante. The continuance
atf this practice has a bad novel effect. He remembers the time
when a Own considered himself disgraced by taking the allowance,
hut that feeling is now gone by, and the independent spirit has been
all desttu.yed. Single men receive from eightpence to tenpeoce a
day from the parish. Next to the want of tniploymetit, and the in-
adequacy of the price of labour, be attributes the increase nt crime
to the fact, that there is an abundant market for game, and nobody
to compete in that market with the poacher. The quantity ot
game is meetly increased. When first be went to the Gaol there
were lour packs of fox hounds kept in the district; there are stone
now. fence the fox-bounds have been laid down, Gentlemen have
turned their attention to the preservation of game; and awociationa
fur this purpose psy fur the ter-vices of thosevilin giveinformation that
le sd s to a conviction. Until game became strictly prewar:4ond game
associations formed, the number of commitments:under the Game
taws was loconsitlable,-1810, 5 ; 1811, 4 ; 1812, 2 ; 1824, 60;
482.5. 41 ; 1.826, 71 ; 1622 (a year of grvit agricultufal eii-tre66),
18. Some poachers commit offence...of this kind tram the I. ye of
soots ;
_but the greater part of them are sink men who do out re-
c. eve adequate wages. He believes, that if game could be legally
Itnuihr, the major part of the purchasers would not deal with the
-41 heal traders in ir—how far th..t would drive them into the far-
mer's pig and l'oneltry yards he will nut pretend to determine.—
While the fist C.Aisie raises there will be ntiolenteratours of some
chnact ror other. Ile observes, however, that iu the article of
.roaching, there is a general underetaieding amongst the lower peelers
sit people that there is no moral crime cat it; au that they go to it
with a feeling that they are duiteg no nowt' wrong. •• I b. liter
I tote am many men go to poaching w' o would not steal, but I ant
,raid there are many non, who, when they have been out and
taken no game, would take poultry on their return, from their
necessities. I have known instances where men have as-ured nee
after cuseviction, that they write out fur the purpose of taking game,
but having been disappointed. they have ou their return taken
duels, or pigs, or something else. I think that it leads to a great
stied of crime, and so tar affects the nowalsuf the people. I think
:there are poachers who would shudder at what they considered a
felony ; but from congregating with idle characters, wben they carry
l''e game for sale, Cori( minds get corrupted, and their mural feel-
ings bluuted."
This witness attributes a part of the increase in the number of
reitottitments to the Tre.pass Act, which gives a power to Magis-
trates to commit and convict ; he is likewise of opinion that the
improved discipline of gaols induce many Magian ales to commit,
where formerly thty would not have done it. There used to he a
seprimand from the Magistrate, and a power of Ragging them at
'the stocks for minor offences. Ile thinks that the 'ft tips. Act ha.
done great good, and has tended to diminish the numbet of atrocious
crimes. The county of Suffolk, when he first knew it, hid more
crime' of atrucicus character than it has at present. Formerly the
gaol had but two rooms, one for debtors, and one far ci intinals of
all denominations. The doors were opened in the morning and not
shut till night; there was a constant intercourse with chow abru,d;
there was no prohibition of liquor ; there was a tap in the prison;
the whole was a scene of riot. Now, all is order ; the prisoners
are kept on the treadmill, and there is more dread of coming to
gaol. The treadmill, when administered mildly, is nu effectual
punishment; iticistry, regularity, and order. are inculcated by it,
when properly applied. The men work between nine and ten hours
a day, two-third. ou, and one-third off; he calculates they walk
from forty-eight to flay steps in a minute, each step seven inches
apart. As regards juvritilx offenders, a less term of imprisonment
Mean that usually applied, with private whippings, is more effectual
than longer terms. The sense of Shaine is not gone off with the
short impriiontnect. and combined with the pain of feeling, makes.i
a lasting impression; but if they are kept for a long time, commu-
i icating. as they must do, however the gaol is managed, thee tends
to lessen the sense of Annie, and perhaps to harden them. With'
respect to poaching, he observes, that the commitment for poaching
is a commitqlent for non-payment of money,. and does not enforce
hard labour. "We may employ them, but then the Act says in
something not severe. Unless we can employ them to as to fatigue
the body, tlie.other is an amusement, and wears away the term of
imerisenmetie; and in respect of moral instruction, where you do
sine fatigue the body by labour you do not affect the man's mind;
and I think there is a defect in the Game Laws—if It is necessary
to commit at all, it is necessary to attach hard labour to it. I think
it would be extremely wholesome if the power of hied labour was
given with inspect to almost all convictions." As to any labour less
severe than the treadmill,' he thinks it would be a sort of einem-
meat, and would be rather desired by the prisonegs than otherwisi,
to pass time away. Whenever in prison any sort of labour is intro-
odoctel thst requires art, they must be watched, or they will spoil,
4•• " ptisoners can be employed in scarcely any thing but as mere
op:adviews; when they are to finish any-article of value, if they are
:rod out of humour they will spoil it. I think, in that case, their in-
a :Magnet% 'Mitt he consulted, rather than forced by disci, line, which
as wrong."—As to solitary confinement, it operated en different indi-
-vidnals very differently. A sluggard would sleep the greater part
'of the time, whereas, it would drive an . active person nearly to
•matlness. As to moral improvement, Mr. Orridge seems in some
doubt. Ile observes that hypocri.y goes to a great extent in pre-
sent ; that these are many whom be Liss never known propefly till
it, had no power or. r then, ; that a complete scoundrel conceals
Irneself. •• I had thooebt that after thirty years I had a knowledge
ot criminal character. but I believe I shall die a novice at last."
With respect to classification, judging from thirty years espefience,
the classes them by chat...esti- and conduct, and nor by crime; always
itiformitig the Magistrate if he deviate' notch horn the rule laid
dead r• its the Act of Psrliament. Tie thinks the clamineation ac-
coedit% to law does no good at all; a man of the most atrocious
character may be mut to prison for a vcty slight offence. With