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REMARKS
ON TRANSPORTATION,
AND ON A RECENT
DEFENCE OF THE SYSTEM
SECOND LETTER TO EARL GREY.
RICHARD WHATELY, D. D,
ARCHBISHOP OF DUBLIN.
LONDON:
B. FELLOWES, LUDGATE STREET,
MDCCC XXXIV.
U. CI-AV, llllN 11,11, UKKAD-hlKKtl-iULl.,
C O N T E N T S.
A 2 UJ5S
TACE
Recent Defence of the System 1
Discrepancy between its Advocates 4
Incompatible Objects aimed at 11
Reformation and Prevention 41
Demoralizing Effects of the System 48
Vindication of Authorities referred to 58
Alledged Omission of Religious Motives 67
The System condemned by its Advocates .... 80
Vague Supposition of Advantages 85
Apparent Benefit to Individuals 8(5
Interests of the Colony preferred to ours 93
Proposed Substitutes misrepresented 9()
Indefensible Character of the System 105
Commissioners for Inquiry recommended Ill
Objections urged against Commissions 114
Fallacies relative to humane Conduct 125
Advantages to be expected from a Commission . . . 130
Requisite Qualifications of Commissioners .... 133
APPENDIX— No. 1 143
No. II ; . 145
No. Ill 119
No. IV 153
No. V IGl
No. VI IGS
No. Vli. . . , 170
13135'r5
REMARKS ON TRANSPORTATION.
My Lord,
Having lately received from Van Dieman's
Land some pamphlets published there, (by
Col. Arthur, and others,) containing strictures
on my Letter on Secondary Punishments, I am
induced to take the liberty of again addressing
your Lordship on the same subject.
If indeed the measures recommended by
Col. Arthur had been altogether and avowedly
unthought of and untried, I should not have
deemed any reply from me necessary : since,
without any disparagement of that gentleman's
character or talents, it^nay safely be said that
there is not the smallest probability of any
totally new scheme being undertaken by Govern-
ment (at the present day) on the strength of
B
2 Bemarks on Transportation.
such arguments as he adduces. If therefore I
had been, in the present instance, the defender
and not the assailant, of an existing system, I
should have considered that enough had been
already said to make good my position.
But I have undertaken the unpleasant office
of pointing out — what no one willingly believes
of himself, — that we have been for many years
proceeding on an erroneous system ; — that we
have been throwing away much time, toil, and
capital, in pursuit of an object which we shall be
still the further from obtaining the longer we
persevere, and that it is only by retracing our
steps, that we can hope even to cease producing
positive evil.
Now men are in general so easily satisfied
where they earnestly wish to be satisfied, that I
cannot but fear a great portion of the public
who have not even read, or at least read with
close attention, my former Letter to your Lord-
ship, may be inclined to set their minds at rest,
on the mere report, that, that Letter has been
answered by a person on the spot, supposing no
reply should appear. They may perhaps be
disposed to take for granted, that an attempt
Recent Defence of the System. 3
at least has been made (though none in fact has
been made) to disprove my statements, and to
refute my reasonings ; and that a person in the
Colony must have a better knowledge • of all
matters connected with it, than any one in this
country, whatever he may adduce in the way of
arguments, can pretend to. That the pamphlets
in question rest their conclusions almost entirely
on conjectures respecting the future, (which is
the province not of knowledge but of reasoning)
is indeed apparent on the slightest glance ; but
even this slight glance is probably more than
will be bestowed on them by many, who may
yet be disposed to admit those conclusions with-
out inquiry.
Col. Arthur (whose courtesy of language I am
bound to acknowledge) transmitted to me, along
with the pamphlets, a MS. Letter, in which he
gives me to understand, not, that the system
hitherto pursued has led to beneficial effects,
but that he hopes more favourable results may,
hereafter, ensue from a material change of
measures.
My errors therefore, as he is pleased to desig-
nate them, appear to consist chiefly in speaking
B 2
4 RemarhH on Transportation,
of things as they have been, and as they are,
instead of substituting sanguine anticipations for
actual existences.
A pamphlet by Archdeacon Broughton, ap-
pended to that by Col. Arthur, coincides with it
so far, that both relate principally to expecta-
tions of the future, and indulge largely in what
Dr. Johnson denominates, " the triumph of hope
over experience." But here the coincidence
ceases ; for unfortunately the measures these
two gentlemen recommend with a view to the
realizing of their bright anticipations, are in the
most important points completely opposed to
each other. They agree in both expecting to
reach the desired port, though they are for
steering in contrary directions. I myself agree
with each of them only in condemning the
course recommended by the other : but at all
events it is impossible to pursue both.
This discrepancy, which I shall presently pro-
ceed to point out to your Lordship, is the more
remarkable from its occurring in two pamphlets,
one of which the author of the other appends to
Discrepancy between its Advocates. 5
his oze!?i : " I shall annex," says Col. Arthur
(p. 80), " a letter addressed to me, at my request,
by the Archdeacon of New South Wales, con-
taining the substance of his remarks during his
present visitation, upon the Convict discipline of
this Colony. His opinions and statements do not
entirely coincide with those I have advanced;
your Lordship," he proceeded to say, (his pam-
phlet being in the form of a letter addressed to
myself) " will therefore be enabled to compare
the results arrived at by individuals, viewing the
same object through different media."
I made accordingly, with the utmost care, the
comparison to which I am thus frankly invited ;
and the result of it was to remind me forcibly of
the story told of the Irish culprit, who was so
excessive in his anxiety to clear himself of the
charge by establishing an alibi, that he brought
forward witnesses to prove two alibis. For (to
omit minor differences) one of these writers
builds his hopes on the system of precluding
Convicts from the power of acquiring property ;
and the other, on that of conceding to them this
power.
The fact is, that the objects which the two
6 Remarks on Transportation.
writers respectively had in view, are, as I shall
presently shew, not the same, but two, distinct,
advantages ; the benefit of the Mother-Country ^
and that of the Colony; both of which, con-
jointly, we are taught to expect, on the system
of transportation, which is defended on that
ground ; but which are, in fact, by the reluctant
confessions of its advocates, totally incompatible
with each other.
But though it does not very unfrequently hap-
pen that opinions and statements which are at
variance and mutually destructive, are put for-
ward, separately, by different advocates of the
same cause, it did strike me as something novel,
to find them thus avowedly and designedly
brought into juxtaposition. I feel certain that
the Colonel would not, in his own profession,
have been guilty of so great a mihtary blunder,
as that of calling in the support of a body of
auxiliaries, who should, in the hope of annoying
the enemy, keep up a cross fire on his own
troops.
It may perhaps be thought by some of my
readers that I might safely have left the different
advocates of transportation to refute each other.
' Discrepancij between its Advocates. 7
And I should probably have done so, if I could
have been assured that the pamphlets in question
v^rould be read and carefully compared with my
former publication, by a large portion of those
persons in this country who are anxious for
repression of crime, and the welfare of the
British empire. Any one who, on such a peru-
sal and comparison, should conclude that my
first Letter to your Lordship is in any degree
refuted, must be beyond the reach of any argu-
ments that I can devise or conceive. But, as I
have already observed, the mere rumour of any
thing that professes to be an answer to a book
containing uiiwelcome positions, will often be
sufficient, unless met by an immediate reply,
to satisfy the minds of many, that all is well.
Indeed so easy is it to convince those who are
prepared and desirous to be convinced, that I
remember seeing in an article on the present
subject, in some Review, a cursory remark that
" We suspect Dr. Whately's representation to be
exaggerated;" and the writer then proceeds,
without even pretending to adduce any argu-
ment or evidence whatever, to assume that by
the expression of this suspicio?t, the whole of
8 Remarks on Transportation.
what I had brought forward was at once and
for ever overthrown.
To meet a multitude of plain arguments — if
not unanswerable, at least hitherto unanswered,
— and these, based on a mass of the most un-
impeachable testimony, some drawn from official
documents, and the rest from the statements
of men whose opportunities of knowing are
indisputable, and whose bias, if they had any,
was in an opposite direction — to meet all this
by the bare assertion of " We " {i. e. some
unknown individual) not that he knows, or is
convinced, but that he suspects exaggeration
— would have been on most subjects regarded
as perfectly ridiculous. But the writer pro-
bably in this case calculated rightly enough
as to the disposition of many of his readers ;
with whom the mere hint of a suspicion of some-
body might outweigh any amount of evidence
in support of what they were unwilHng to
believe. And considering how strong a bias
is thus produced in the mind, it is possible that
some may be found who may even rise from the
perusal of the pamphlets now before me, satisfied
that at least something may be said on both
Discrejmncy hetiveen its Advocates. 9
sides ; and that therefore it is keeping on the
safe side to leave things as they are; i. e. to
persevere in a system which, if it cannot be
satisfactorily vindicated, must be not only not
removing, but yearly and almost daily augment-
ing, evils of the most frightful magnitude.
I would not however be understood as dis-
paraging the merit of Col. Arthur's pamphlet,
considered as the composition of an advocate ;
especially when I consider that (as he informs
me in his MS. Letter) he was officially called
on to reply to my statements and arguments,
in consequence of the impression made by them
on the public mind. I can estimate the diffi-
culty of " giving a reason on compulsion." And
I am far from charging him with incompetency
to the task thus imposed. On the contrary, I
think that he, and Archdeacon Broughton, and
Dr. Ross, the author of another publication on
the same subject, have done full justice (taking
each of the works separately, and not as one
whole) to the cause they have undertaken.
They have omitted no topic that is likely to
have the smallest degree of influence ; and if
their attempt to vindicate the system of trans-
10 Remarks on Transportation,
portation be, as it appears to me to be, a total
failure, I would attribute this to the totally
untenable character of their position, rather than
to any fault of its defenders.
Col. Arthur indeed apologizes for inaccuracies,
on the score of haste : but in point of language
I do not observe in his Letter any such incorrect-
ness as to call for censure even from the most
fastidious critic. In point of matter and arrange-
ment indeed, it might at first sight be com-
plained that his assumptions are hasty, and his
arguments still more so ; and that various diffe-
rent topics are confusedly thrown together in
bewildering disorder : but I am inclined to think
that in reality (whatever may have been the
author's design) to have avoided this perplexing
confusion and apparently hurried inaccuracy,
would have deprived the whole work of every
approach towards plausibility that it may possess.
'* Then are xve in order," says Cade to his men,
" when we are most out of order." It will be
found, on examining the several statements, and
rejecting all that are either unsupported or irre-
levant, — erasing the arguments that are falla-
cious, and arranging the remainder distinctly
Incompatible Objects aimed at. 1 1
and perspicuously under their separate heads,
that all three of the puhlications in question
(either considered separately, or, still more,
taken conjointly) will afford, as far as they have
any force at all, the most decisive confirmations
of all I had advanced.
In confirmation of the remark I have been
compelled to make, I would invite particular
attention to one circumstance, which is also of
great intrinsic importance, from its general bear-
ing on the present question. It will be found
that, not only in the publications I have now
been alluding to, but in all vindications of the
system of Transportation that have appeared,
there is a perpetual confused intermingling of
two different questions, and whether from con-
fusion of thought, or from sophistical artifice) a
perplexing transition backwards and forwards
from the one to the other : I mean, the question
as to the benefit of Transportation as a mode
of punishment, and as a mode of Colonization.
Each ground of defence is occupied alternately,
as soon as the advocate is driven from the
12 Remarks on Transportation.
other ; and this continual shifting to and fro,
from the one topic to the other, hke the tricks
of a juggler with cups and balls, distracts the
attention, and sometimes wearies the mind into
acquiescence.
At one time the advantages of Transportation
as a punishment are set forth : then, when the
objections to it in this point of view begin
strongly to present themselves, — its defectiveness
as a discipline for the reformation of criminals,
and its still greater inadequacy for the more
important object of deterring from crime, the
advocate shifts his ground, and pleads the benefit
to the Colony from this compulsory emigration.
When the unfitness of such a mode of coloni-
zation, — the absurd, as well as ** shameful and
unblessed" character (as Bacon designates it)
of crowding an infant community with fresh
and fresh relays of the scum of mankind,
begins to strike the reader, immediately his
attention is recalled to the compensating con-
sideration of the mode of punishment thus
afforded ; and from this topic again, he is
called back to the other ; and so on, without
end ; till there is a chance that, if not con-
Incompatible Objects aimed at. 13
vinced, he will at least be bewildered, and his
attention exhausted.
To exemplify adequately what I have been
saying, would be to transcribe the greater part
of each of the works in question. The error,
or artifice (whichever it may be) which I have
described, will be found to pervade almost the
whole of every one of them. Indeed the perusal
of them strongly recalled to my mind a well-
known story which, though probably a fiction
invented and related merely for the joke's sake,
yet conceals, like many of the fables with which
childhood is diverted, an instructive moral, from
the close resemblance of many of the fallacies
which mislead men in the serious affairs of life,
to those which are repeated as jests.
An Oxford scholar, as the tale goes, in taking
a country walk, stepped into a rustic ale-house
for some refreshment, and, judging from the
physiognomy of the landlord that he was some-
what dull in intellect, resolved to make trial of
his own logical acumen. He called for a pot of
beer, which was brought; and, on asking the
price of it, which he was told was two-pence,
he said to the landlord, " Well, I have changed
1 4 Remarks on Transportation.
my mind : you shall take back the beer, and
bring me instead of it, a penny roll, and a penny-
worth of cheese." " Very well, sir." The bread
and cheese was brought ; which the scholar ate
and was departing. " Stop, sir, stop ! you have
forgotten to pay." " Pay !" said the scholar,
with affected surprise ; *' why what should I
pay for ?'' " Why for the bread and cheese
you have had, to be sure, sir." " My good
friend, you forget yourself ; you know I gave
you a pot of beer for it." " True sir, but you
never paid for the beer." " Why my good man
you must be out of your wits ; pay for the beer
indeed ! you know as well as I do, I did not
drink it."
" Quid rides ?" (one might say to one of the
New Holland advocates)
" mutato nomine, de te
Fabula narratur : "
What compensation do you offer for the evil
produced by maintaining a system of punish-
ment so inadequate, inefficient, and pernicious,
as Transportation ? Oh, the advantage of found-
ing and maintaining a Colony ! But the Colony
is by this means settled and stocked in the
Incomipatihle Objects aimed at. 15
worst possible way. Aye, but then you should
consider the advantage of having a place of
punishment for Convicts !*
I suspect however that the notion which is
lurking in the minds of those persons, is, that
these two parts of the system, which are thus
brought in to support each other, though sepa-
rately indefensible, yet conjointly may afford
sufficient advantages to justify it : — that though
neither the Penitentiary part alone, nor the
Colonial part alone, is worth the expense and
trouble and the numerous incidental evils, which
they cost, yet possibly the combination of the
two may produce a sum of benefit that may
compensate for the evils.
It happens unfortunately in the present case,
that the measures thus combined for the pur-
pose of supplying each other's deficiencies, and
affording mutual compensation for their respec-
tive inconvenience, are of such a character as
most decidedly to interfere with each other.
Of the two objects proposed, almost every step
that can be taken with a view to either, tends
* See Appendix A.
16 Remarks on Transportation.
in an equal or greater degree to defeat the
other ; so as to render the combined result of
the whole even a still more signal failure than
each part of the scheme separate. A Colony
stocked with worthless vagabonds, is in itself
bad, as a Colony : a Penitentiary again, in a
young settlement at the Antipodes, is, for many
reasons, likely to be, in itself, a bad Penitentiary ;
but each of them becomes incomparably worse,
when they are combined ; because in the most
important points, two not only different, but
even opposite, systems of management will be
dictated, by a regard for the promotion of this
object or of that. And thus, besides the other
evils inevitably consequent on the pursuit of
incompatible advantages, we might also have
anticipated (and experience shews with how
much reason) the evil of a course of perpetual
vacillation, and reiterated change of measures,
under different governors, according as each
may be inclined to look more to the welfare of
the Colony, or to the efficiency of Transportation.
Each accordingly has, to a certain extent, good
grounds for censuring and reversing the mea-
sures of his predecessor, as at variance with a
Licowpatible Objects aimed at. 1 7
part of what are, in truth, the contradictory
orders given to all.
Of the justness of what I have been now
saying, any man of candour and common sense
may convince himself, not from my reasonings
and reflections, or from his own, but from a
reference to the very advocates of the system
themselves. By their oiv?i shezdng it aims at
objects which are mutually inconsistent, and
each of which can be promoted only at the
expense of the other. I will extract, as one
specimen out of several, the following passage
from Archdeacon Broughton's Letter : —
" There is one consideration which appears to
*' me not to have attracted due attention, al-
" though by legislating without reference to
" it, we are exposed to all the inconsistencies
** which arise from acting without settled prin-
** ciples. It is most evident, that upon all
'* propositions which may afifect the condition
'* of prisoners after their arrival in the colonies,
" the mother- country and the colonies have
" separate interests. The interest of the for-
" mer is, that transportation should operate as
" a punishment, principally that it may act as
18 Reviarl's on Travsportation.
" a warning and a restraint. This is to render
*' it ' formidable/ not desirable, in the eyes of
" the nation at large. To effect this, it is
" evidently the policy of the mother-country
** not only to provide that the prisoners, while
" under sentence, should be under a course of
" punishment ; but also, that after their sen-
" tence has expired, they should at least not
" find readier means of rising in credit, wealth,
" and station, than under any circumstances
" they could have aspired to, if they had re-
" mained at home. Every instance to this effect
*' does prove that whatever suffering transpor-
" tation may cause, it affords to the individual
" an advantage which, but for transportation,
" he could not have enjoyed ; and it thus far
" undoes the designed effect of that punishment,
" and operates accordingly against the interest
" of the country which is seeking thereby to
" deter from and diminish crime. On the other
'^ hand, when we look at the interest of the
" community to which offenders are transported,
" we find that, for its advancement we ought
*' to hold out to prisoners an encouragement
"exactly the reverse of that which the state
Incompatible Objects aimed at. 19
" from which they are banished would approve.
* To call forth the resources of a new country
* like this, it is plain that every man should
* be encouraged to exert his utmost skill and
* industry ; which he will never do but in the
' hope of acquiring property. And if a pri-
' soner is in a capacity to acquire property,
' he must from the force of circumstances be
* able, in proportion to his endowments of
' mind and body, to acquire it more easily
' than he could in England. In the recent
' act which incapacitates the holders of tickets-
' of-leave from acquiring or holding property,
' the legislature has acted very advisedly no
* doubt, in furtherance of Enghsh objects; but
' the operation of that act will be to take away
* a great stimulus to industry and enterprise,
* and thereby to retard colonial improvement.
' So again, if we look exclusively to the interest
' of the colonies, it is plain that the prisoner
' whose sentence has expired, should be en-
' couraged to apply his utmost energies to
' the acquisition of property, by the prospect
' of sharing those civil and political distinctions
* which, unless a prohibitory law intervene, it
c2
20 Remarhi on Transportation.
" is the natural effect of property to confer,
" But on the other hand, if the road to honour
" as well as wealth be laid open to those who
" have been prisoners, it is evident that such
" exaltation will appear very enviable in the
" eyes of those honest people at home, who
" find that they cannot rise to the hke ; and
" thus again, what is good for the colony will
" be detrimental to the parent state. Their
" interests in this respect must ever remain
" opposed ; and therefore it is incumbent on
" those who legislate for both countries, to de-
** cide at once which of these interests shall be
'* preferred, and in all their measures to act
'* upon the principle of making the other give
" way."*
* Dr. Ross (p. 58) concurs with Archdeacon Broughton in
reprobating the recent alterations in the law by which it is
attempted to render transportation efficient as a punishment :
" The second section of the act of parliament recently passed
" for abolishing the punishment of death for certain ofFenceSj
" and substituting transportation instead, by depriving pri-
" soners, if we understand it right, of all power to hold pro-
" perty of any kind, and thus removing the main spur to
" reform, has already paved the way to obtain this most
" wretched end. To connect the sentence in England in a
" more intimate way than has hitherto been done with the
Incompatible Objects aimed at. 21
I fully concur with what the Archdeacon has
here said ; and have only to add the expression
of my unfeigned wonder, that he should not
have drawn the obvious conclusion from his own
premises ; viz. that the only thing to be done is
immediately to abandon a system which professes
" punishments to be undergone in Van Dieraan's land is both
" proper and commendable, but it must be done with discretion,
" not by legislating in the dark, and subverting, as if by acci-
" dent, the whole machinery of prison discipline formerly esta-
" Wished. If the section of the act alluded to had been framed
" to prevent persons who had been convicted of obtaining money
" by theft, forgery, fraud, swindling, or other false pretences,
" from possessing or enjoying it when transported to this
" colony, though that by the existing laws and regulations was
" already prevented, it could at least have done no harm. But
" when it goes on prospectively to deprive the convict of all
" future incentive to honest industry, or good conduct, by
" stripping him wholly of its fruits, the most superficial ob-
" server will discern how positively injurious it must. be. Be
" this, however, as it may, it points out the method by which
" the home authorities can, if they see fit, carry the rigour of
" punishment with regard to transported convicts to any length."
And again, (p. 61,) "What productive labour could prisoners
" in such a situation perform, that would in any way meet the
" expense of provision, clothing, superintendents and guards ?
" Besides, the circuitous or indirect advantages which Britain
" now derives in return for what the government expends on
" the colony, would, by the removal and dispersion of the
22 Remarks on Trcmsportation.
to aim at the mutual benefit of the mother
country and the colonies, on a plan which sets
the two in direct opposition. Instead of this,
however, he concludes his letter by expressing
sanguine hopes founded on the adoption of mea-
sures just opposite to what he himself recom-
mends !
" The course to be pursued therefore is to
" render transportation * something far beyond
" ordinary hard work ; and to cut off the hope
" of those advantages which have been indis-
" settlers, be gradually sapped away. By the custom-house
" return for the quarter endmg the 1 0th Oct. last, it appears
" that British manufactured goods were imported to Hobart
" Town from the ports of Great Britain alone, to the amount of
" 34,415/. sterling. If to this be added the imports at our
" other port of Launceston, with the amount of goods, the
" produce of other British colonies, on which duty is paid, we
" have an aggregate of imports for the whole year, of about
" 320,000/. Exports in colonial produce to the amount of
" about two-thirds of this value are sent to England. It would
" be needless for us to stop here, in order to point out to the
" intelligent reader the fiscal and commercial advantages which
" this reciprocal intercourse must confer, and which would be
" speedily swept away by the desperate and uncompromising
" species of prison discipline which we have imagined." Ac-
cording to these gentlemen, the interests of the colony and of
the mother country, arc antipodes to each other.
Incompatible Objects aimed at. 23
** creetly suffered in some instances to result
*' from it : detracting from its proper terror,
'* and leading many to covet it as a boon, rather
" than dread it as a punishment. When this is
*' done, transportation will operate as effectually
" as any instrument of mere punishment can do,
" in discouraging crime and reforming criminals."
" When this is done" which I expect will only
be " ad Grwcas Calendas," the author will have the
satisfaction of contemplating the beneficial effect
of setting at defiance all his own principles.
The astonishment with which I first read
the above extracts, became greater and greater
every time I recurred to them. Is it then pos-
sible, — I have several times asked myself —
almost distrusting the evidence of my own
senses, — that these passages should occur in a
pamphlet sent me, professedly, for the purpose
of " disabusing me of my errors " in respect of
Transportation and of vindicating the system ?
Or can it be that the whole is a piece of inge-
nious irony, sent to me by way of sport, to try
whether I can detect its true character, and
written by persons who, in the assumed charac-
ter of advocates, intend to hold up the system
24 Remarhs on Transportation.
to scorn and derision? I have several times
been half- inclined to take this view of the
matter ; recollecting the ridicule which Bishop
Warburton incurred by setting about seriously
the work of refuting the " Vindication of Natural
Society," by Burke, under the character of
Bolingbroke. I have resolved however, at the
hazard of being laughed at for credulity, to treat
the pamphlets as serious compositions ; though
I could almost pardon such of my readers as
may not have these publications before them,
should they entertain a momentary doubt whe-
ther I can have made a faithful extract. Perhaps
too, they may think it an affront to their under-
standing, that I should deem it necessary to
proceed any further, in exposing the absurdity
of a system which is thus condemned by its own
advocates. But besides that to a great part of
the public, these pamphlets (as I have already
observed) are likely to be known only by vague
hearsay, I should add, that, wiih the exception
of that frank avowal which I have cited from
page 99 of Archdeacon Broughton's Letter, both
he and the other defenders of the system,
generally keep out of sight the inconsistency I
Incompatible Objects aimed at. 25
have alluded to, and present to the reader
separately and alternately the supposed advan-
tage of "getting rid" (as it is called) of criminals,
and that of encouraging a growing Colony ; so
as to withdraw the attention from the real in-
compatibility of the two.
In other subjects as well as in this, I have
observed that two distinct objects may, by being
dexterously presented, again and again in quick
succession, to the mind of a cursory reader, be
so associated together in his thoughts, as to be
conceived capable, when in fact they are not,
of being actually combined in practice. The
fallacious belief thus induced bears a striking
resemblance to the optical illusion effected by
that ingenious and philosophical toy called the
Thaumotrope ; in which two objects painted on
opposite sides of a card, — for instance a man,
and a horse, — a bird, and a cage, — are by a
quick rotatory motion, made to impress the eye
in combination, so as to form one picture, of the
man on the horse's back, — the bird in the cage,
&c. As soon as the card is allowed to remain
at rest, the figures, of course, appear as they
really are, separate and on opposite sides. A
26 Remarks on Transportation.
mental illusion closely analogous to this, is
produced, when by a rapid and repeated trans-
ition from one subject to another alternately,
the mind is deluded into an idea of the actual
combination of things that are really incom-
patible. The chief part of the defence which
various writers have advanced in favour of the
system of penal Colonies consists, in truth, of
a sort of intellectual Thaumotrope. The pros-
perity of the Colony and the repression of
Crime, are, by a sort of rapid whirl, presented
to the mind as combined in one picture. A
very moderate degree of calm and fixed atten-
tion soon shews that the two objects are painted
on opposite sides of the card.
In aid of this and the other modes of defence
resorted to, a topic is introduced from time to
time in various forms, which is equally calcu-
lated to meet all objections whatever on all
subjects : — that no human system can be ex-
pected to be perfect; — that some partial incon-
venience in one part or in another must be
looked for ; and that no plan can be so well
devised as not to require vigilant and judicious
superintendence, to keep it in effectual ope-
Incompatible Objects aimed at. 27
ration, and to guard against the abuses to which
it is liable, &c. &c.
All this is very true, but does not in reality
at all meet the present objections. Though we
cannot build a house which shall never need
repair, we may avoid such a misconstruction
as shall cause it to fall down by its own weight.
Though it be impossible to construct a time-
piece, which shall need no winding up and which
shall go with perfect exactitude, we may guard
against the error of making the wheels neces-
sarily obstruct each other's motions. And though
a plan of penal legislation, which shall unite
all conceivable advantages and be liable to no
abuses, be unattainable, it is at least something
gained if we do but keep clear of a system
which by its very constitution shall have a con-
stant and radically inherent tendency to defeat our
jjrincipal object.
Now such is the case (as I have endeavoured
to shew, in my former Letter, and in this) with,
— what may be called our great Penitentiaries, —
those on which we chiefly rely, — the Convict-
settlements. The very system of a penal
Colony contains in itself, considered as a mode
28 Remarks on Transportation.
of punishment, a principle of self-destruction :
because it not only aims (as I have already
pointed out, and as one of its present advocates
acknowledges) at two objects essentially at variance
with each other, but also has a constant ten-
dency, in practice, to sacrifice the more im-
portant of these two objects, to the incidental
and subordinate one : I mean the efficiency of
the Penalty, to the prosperity of the Colony.
That this is and must be the case, is a matter
of complete moral demonstration. It is not
only what we might have had every reason to
expect, from the nature of the case alone, with-
out having tried the experiment ; but it is
also evinced by experience alone, independent
of all calculations of probability ; and lastly,
it is over and over again confirmed by the
admissions of those who wish to defend the
system.
I am the more anxious to press this con-
sideration on the minds of my readers, because
I cannot but think that any man of candour
and sound judgment, who will but sufficiently
attend to this one point, need hardly trouble
himself to examine any of the other numberless
Incompatible Objects aimed at. 29
arguments against Transportation. Let every-
thing else that has been said on that question,
in my former pubhcation, or in the present, be
supposed to be waived and to go for nothing ;
and the single circumstance I am here adverting
to, would, alone, be perfectly decisive.
For let any one but calmly reflect for a few
moments on the position of a Governor of one
of our penal Colonies, who has the problem
proposed to him of accomplishing two distinct
and in reality inconsistent objects ; — to legislate
and govern in the best manner with a view to
1st. the prosperity of the Colony, and also 2dly.
the suitable punishment of the Coiivicts. It is
well known that slave labour is the least profit-
able ; and can seldom be made profitable at all,
but by the most careful, difficult, troublesome,
and odious superintendence. The most obvious
way therefore of making the labour of the Con-
victs as advantageous as possible to the Colony,
is to make them as unlike slaves as possible ;
to place them under such regulations and with
such masters, as to ensure their obtaining not
only ample supplies both of necessaries and
comforts, but in all respects favourable and even '
30 Remarks on Transportation,
indulgent treatment; in short to put them as
much as possible in the comfortable situation
which free labourers enjoy, where labour is so
valuable, as from the abundance of land, and
the scarcity of hands, it must be in a new set-
tlement.
And the masters themselves may be expected,
for the most part, to perceive that their own
interest (which is the only consideration they
are expected to attend to) lies in the same direc-
tion. They will derive most profit from their
servants, by keeping them as much as possible
in a cheerful and contented state, even at the
expense of connivance at many vices, and of
so much indulgence as it would not, in this
country, be worth any master's while to grant,
when he might turn away an indifferent servant
and hire another. The master of the Convict-
servants would indeed be glad, for his own
profit, to exact from them the utmost reasonable
amount of labour, and to maintain them in a
style of frugality equal to, or even beyond that
of a labourer in England : but he will be sure
to find that the attempt to accomplish this,
would defeat his own object ; and he will be
Incompatible Objects aimed at, 3 1
satisfied to realize such profit as is within reach.
He will find that a labourer who does much less
work than would be requisite, here, to earn
the scantiest subsistence, and who yet is
incomparably better fed than the best English
labourer, does yet (on account of the great value
of labour) bring a considerable profit to his
master; though to employ such a labourer on
such terms, would, in England, be a loss instead
of a profit. It answers to him therefore to
acquiesce in any thing short of the most gross
idleness and extravagance, for the sake of keep-
ing his slave (for after all it is best to call things
by their true names) in tolerably good humour,
rather than resort to the troublesome expedient
of coercion,* which might be attended with
risk to his person or property from an ill-
disposed character, and at any rate would be
* " To give some idea of the serious loss of time, as well as
" of the great trouble caused by being far removed from a
" magistrate alone, I need only state, that when a convict
" servant misconducts himself, the settler must either send the
" vagabond to the nearest magistrate, not improbably some
" thirty or forty miles distant, or he must overlook the
" o^ewQe:'— Excursions in New South Wales, hy Lieutenant
Breton.
32 Bemarks on Transportation.
likely to make such a servant sulky, perverse,
and wilfully neglectful.
It may easily be conceived therefore what
indulgent treatment most of the Convicts are
likely to receive, even from the more respectable
class of settlers. As for the large proportion
who are themselves very little different in cha-
racter, tastes, and habits, from their Convict-
servants, they may be expected usually to live
(as the travellers who have described the Colony
assure us they do) on terms of almost perfect
equality with them, associating with them as
boon-companions. But to say nothing of these,
the more respectable settlers will be led, by a
regard for their own interest, to what is called
the humane treatment of their servants ; that is,
to endeavour to place all those in their employ
who are not much worse than such as, in this
country, few would think it worth while to
employ at all, in a better situation than the most
industrious labourers in England.
Now it is evident that the very reverse of
this procedure is suitable for a House of Correc-
tion, — a place of 'punishment. And it is no less
evident that a Governor must be led both by
Incompatible Objects aimed at. 33
his feelings, — by his regard for his own ease, —
and by his wish for popularity with all descrip-
tions of persons around him, as well as by his
regard for the prosperity of the Colony, to
sacrifice to that object, the primary and most im-
portant one, of making Transportation, properly,
a penalty. We can seldom expect to find a
Governor (much less a succession of Governors)
wilhng, when the choice is proposed of two
objects at variance with each other, to prefer
the situation of Keeper of a House of Correction,
to that of a Governor of a flourishing Colony.
The utmost we can expect is to find now
and then one, crippling the measures of his
predecessors and of his successors, by such
efforts to secure both objects as will be most
likely to defeat both. But the individual
settlers, to whom is entrusted the chief part of
the detail of the system, are not (like the
Governor) even called on by any requisition
of duty, to pay any attention to the most im-
portant part of that system. They are not
even required to think of any thing but their
own interest. The punishment and the re-
formation of Convicts are only incidental results.
34 Remarks on Transportation.
It is trusted that the settler's regard for his
own interest will make him exact hard labour
and good conduct from the servants assigned to
him. But if indulgence is (as we have seen)
likely to answer his purpose better than rigid
discipline, he cannot even be upbraided with
any breach of duty in resorting to it.
Of the many extraordinary features in this
most marvellous specimen of legislation, it is
one of the most paradoxical, that it entrusts
a most important pubhc service, in reference to
the British nation, to men who are neither
selected out of this nation on account of any
supposed fitness to discharge it, nor even taught
to consider that they have any pubhc duty to
perform. Even in the most negligently-governed
communities, the keeper of a house of correction
is always, professedly at least, selected with some
view to his integrity, discretion, firmness, and
other qualifications ; and however ill the selec-
tion may be conducted, he is at least taught to
consider himself entrusted, for the pubhc benefit,
with an office which it is his duty to discharge on
public grounds.
However imperfectly all this may be accom-
Incompatible Objects aimed at. 35
plished, few persons would deny that it is, and
ought to be, at least, aimed at. But this is not
the case in the land of ornithorhynchus paradoxus
and of other paradoxes. There each settler is,
as far as his own household is concerned, the
keeper of a house of correction. To him, so far,
is entrusted the punishment and the reformation
of criminals. But he is not even called upon to
look to these objects, except as they may inci-
dentally further his own interest. He is neither
expected nor exhorted to regulate his treatment
of convicts with a view to the diminution of
crime in the British Isles, but to the profits of
his farm in Australia.
It is true, the settler may sometimes be, like
other men, actuated by other feelings besides
a regard to profit : but these feelings are not
likely to be those of public spirit. When the
comict does suffer hard usage, it is not much to
be expected that this will be inflicted with a view
to strike terror into offenders in Great Britain,
or to effect any other salutary end of punish-
ment. His treatment is hkely to depend not so
much on the character of the crime for which
he was condemned, as on the character of his
d2
36 Remarks on Transportation,
master. Accordingly Colonel Arthur, (p. 3,) in
enlarging on the miseries to which a convict is
subjected, makes prominent mention of this, that
" he is conveyed to a distant country, in the
" condition of a slave, and assigned to an un-
" known master, whose disposition, temper, and
" even caprice, he must consult at every turn,
" and submit to every moment."
It is observed by Homer, in the person of one
of his characters in the Odyssey, that " a man
" loses half his virtue the day that he becomes
'' a slave :" he might have added with truth, that
he is likely to lose more than half when he
becomes a slave master. And if the convict-
servants and their masters have any virtue to
lose, no system could have been devised more
effectual for divesting them of it. Even the
regular official gaolers, and governors of peni-
tentiaries, are in danger of becoming brutalized,
unless originally men of firm good principle.
And great wisdom in the contrivance of a peni-
tentiary-system, and care in the conduct of it,
are requisite to prevent the hardening and de-
basing of the prisoners. But when both the
superintendant and the convicts feel that they
Incompatible Objects aimed at. 37
are held in bondage, and kept to work by him,
not from any views of public duty, but avowedly
for his individual advantage,"^ nothing can be
imagined more demoralizing to both parties.
Among all the extravagancies that are re-
corded of capricious and half insane despots in
times of ancient barbarism, I do not remember
any instance mentioned, of any one of these
having thought of so mischievously absurd a
project as that of forming a new nation, consist-
ing of Criminals and Executioners.
But had such a tyrant existed, as should not
only have devised such a plan, but should have
* Colonel Arthur (p. 2 3.) falls into an inaccuracy of language
which tends to keep out of sight a most important practical
distinction. He says : " With regard to the fact that convicts
" are treated as slaves, any difficulty that can be raised upon
" it must hold good whenever penitentiary or prison disci-
" pline is inflicted." If by a " slave" be meant any one who
is subjected to the control of another, this is true. But the
word is not in general thus applied. It is not usual to speak
of children as slaves to their schoolmasters, or to their parents ;
or of prisoners being slaves of the gaoler ; or soldiers, of their
officers. By slaves we generally understand persons whom
their master compels to work for his own benefit. And in
this sense Colonel A. himself (p. 2.) applies the term (I think
very properly) to the assigned convict-servants.
38 Remarks on Transportation.
insisted on his subjects believing, that a good
moral effect would result, from the intimate
association together, in idleness, of several hun-
dreds of reprobates, of various degrees of guilt,
during a voyage of four or five months, and
their subsequent assignment as slaves to various
masters, under such a system as that just
alluded to, it w^ould have been doubted whether
the mischievous insanity of wanton despotism
could go a step beyond this. Another step
however there is ; and this is, the pretence of
thus benefiting and civilizing the Aborigines!
Surely those who expect the men of our hemi-
sphere to believe all this, must suppose us to
entertain the ancient notion of the vulgar, that
the Antipodes are people among whom every
thing is reversed. The mode of civilization
practised, is of a piece with the rest.
*' They have been wantonly butchered ; and
" some of the Christian (?) whites consider it a
" pastime to go out and shoot them. I ques-
" tioned a person from Port Stephens concern-
" ing the disputes with the aborigines of that
" part of the colony, and asked him, if he, or
" any of his companions, had ever come into
Incompatible Objects aimed at. 39
" collision with them, as I had heard there pre-
*" vailed much enmity between the latter and
" the people belonging to the establishment ?
" His answer was, * Oh we used to shoot them
" like fun ! ' It would have been a satisfaction
" to have seen such a heartless ruffian in an
" archery ground, with about a score of expert
" archers at a fair distance from him, if only to
" witness how well he would personify the
" representations of St. Sebastian. This man
" was a shrewd mechanic, and had been some
" years at Port Stephens : if such people con-
" sider the life of a black of so little value, how
" is it to be wondered at, if the convicts enter-
" tain the same opinion ? It is to be hoped that
" the practice of shooting them is at an end, but
" they are still subjected to annoyance from the
" stock-keepers, who take their women, and do
" them various injuries besides." — ^r^ifow, p.200.
But to waive for the present all discussion of
the moral effects on the settlers, likely to result
from the system, let it be supposed that the
labour of convicts may be so employed as to
advance the prosperity of the Colony, and let it
only be remembered that this object is hkely to
40 Remarks oji Transportation.
be pursued both by governors and settlers, at
the expense of the other far more important
one, which is inconsistent with it, the welfare of
the mother country, in respect to the repression
of crime. This one consideration, apart from
all others, would alone be decisive against trans-
portation as a mode of j^unishmeni ; since even if
the system could be made efficient for that object,
supposing it to be well administered with a view to
that, there is a moral certainty that it never will
be so administered.
If there be, as some have suggested, a certain
description of offenders, to whom sentence of
perpetual exile from their native country is
especially formidable, this object might easily
be attained, by erecting a penitentiary on some
one of the many small, nearly unproductive,
and unoccupied islands in the British seas ; the
conveyance to which would not occupy so many
hours, as that to Austraha does weeks.
But as for the attempt to combine salutary
punishment with successful colonization, it only
leads, in practice, to the failure of both objects,
and, in the mind, it can only be effected by
keeping up a fallacious confusion of ideas.
Reformation and Prevention. 4 1
It is not, however, merely in respect of these
two points, the interest of the Colony and that
of the Mother Country, that this thaumotropic
blending of distinct pictures is needed and is
resorted to, in order to withdraw the attention
from the incompatibility of the several objects
proposed. The penal portion of the system,
considered alone, proposes to combine irrecon-
cileable advantages, each of which is, by turns,
represented as aimed at, and as attained. Each
objection, as soon as brought forward, is eagerly
met by such statements and representations as
the case may seem to call for, supported as
strongly as bold and vehement assertions can
support any thing ; and then the advocates
seem to calculate on the reader's not only being
perfectly satisfied with what is said, but im-
mediately afterwards forgetting the whole of it ;
so as to be prepared to receive from the same
pen representations the most opposite to the
foregoing, calculated to meet some different
objection.
At one time we find the situation of the con-
vict painted in the most favourable colours, as
one of considerable present comfort, and full of
42 Remarks on Transportation.
cheering confidence of speedy and complete re-
storation (on the supposition of tolerably good
conduct) to a respectable place in society, with
such advantages, in respect of worldly pros-
perity, as the individual could not elsewhere
have hoped. This is to shew the utihty of the
system as a mode of reformation. Then, to
shew its utility as a mode of deterring from
crime by terror, the picture is reversed, and the
same convict is represented as undergoing the
most galling and degrading slavery — as suffering
the most unmitigated misery, and branded with
the most indelible disgrace.* This latter repre-
* *' I think you will be constrained to admit that a punish-
" ment by which the offender is stripped of all his property —
" deprived of his liberty — shut out from intercourse with his
" family, totally separated from them, — denied every comfort,
" according to the idea entertained of that word by the lowest
" class — placed on board a transport — subjected there to the
" most summary discipline — exposed to ill usage from
" criminals still worse than himself — conveyed to a distant
" country in the condition of a slave — then assigned to an
" unknown master, whose disposition, temper, and even
" caprice he must consult at every turn and submit to every
" moment, or incur the risk of being charged with insubordi-
" nation, which if proved before the magistrate, will be followed
" by corporal punishment, or removal to the service of the
Reformation and Prevejition. 43
sentation, conveyed in the strongest and most
pathetic language, I found in a Hobart-Town
newspaper, which was lately transmitted to me.
" Crown, where his lot will be still more severe according
" to the degree and nature of his offences. He has indeed,
" by the regulations of the government, sufficient food and
" clothing, but the dread of his master's frown is to him,
" what the drawn sword was, over the head of Dionysius's
" courtier !" — Arthur's Secondary Punishments, p. 3.
Dr. Ross (p. 56.) adverts, apparently (for I do not very
clearly understand him) to some supposed objections to the
system such as I should never have suspected any one of
urging, and then proceeds to describe the vindictive severity
of the punishment. " Is it objected then to the system of
" Transportation that it produces in nineteen cases out of
" twenty the reform of the convict ? — that it opens the door
" for the recovery of character ? — that it converts a body of
" men into useful and industrious members of the community,
*' honestly obtaining their own support, and contributing their
" share to the general stock, whose crimes and propensities
" were otherwise a disgrace to their nature and a burden to
" the state ? Are we not to urge them to reform, because
" reform benefits their condition, and therefore Transportation
" will have no terrors to the ill-disposed in England ? Forbid
" it reason — forbid it state policy — forbid it common sense —
" forbid it humanity ! Virtue when embraced will benefit the
" condition of any man — much more that of the wretched
" convict whose misery is engendered and aggravated by
" vice. And yet we see punishment exists even upon the
" reclaimed convict. The weight of condemnation never till
44 Remarks on Transpo?'tation.
The editor, however, had mcautiously admitted
into the sa?ne newspaper an extract from an
Enghsh one, containing (what is not unfre-
quently met with) an account of some persons
who had committed offences purposely for the
sake of being transported, because they under-
stood that they were hkely to be better off in
New South Wales than they could hope to be
in England.* I would by no means be under-
stood to say that this amounts to a contradiction
of the preceding statement. It is certainly con-
ceivable (and such is Col. Arthur's distinct and
" the hour of his death leaves the unhappy man. When
" the judge passes the sentence of Transportation he opens
" an ulcer in the heart that neither time nor penitence itself
" can wholly heal. Nay, the unfortunate heing who has been
" innocently convicted (and we have reason to believe there
" are many such) still bears the shame upon his head,
" though a free pardon should reach him. The royal cle-
'• mency may mitigate or wholly emancipate the bondage of
" the body, but the liberation of the mind that is once
" enthralled by crime and its consequences, is beyond the
" reach of mortal means to accomplish. In a word, we can-
*' didly assure those in England who are ignorant of the real
" condition of the convict in these colonies, that his punish-
" ment is as complete as the most severe or even the vindictive
*' and unfeeling could desire."
* See Appendix, No. II.
Reformation and Prevention. 45
repeated declaration) that in England comfort
and enjoyment are anticipated, and in New South
Wales real misery is endured. If such be indeed
the case, our system of punishment is, so far, the
very consummation of absurdity, as well as inhu-
manity. The ground on which, principally, if not
exclusively, the infliction of pain is resorted to, ot
can be justified, being the prevention of crimes,
through the terror of punishment, our system,
if its advocates are to be believed, inflicts pain
which is even worse than gratuitous ; by sub-
jecting convicts to a treatment which, though it
is real suffering to them, yet is so much misap-
prehended at home, as to invite, instead of deter-
ring, those who are at all disposed to follow
the same courses. Nay more, the greater the
misery actually endured in the colony, the more
alluring, it seem.s, is the picture held out in
England. If such be the humane systeni of
punishment which these gentlemen so earnestly
recommend, surely the less we have of such
humanity the better. I subjoin some extracts,
lest it should be thought absolutely incredible
that such statements should have been made by
any advocate of Transportation.
46 Remarks on Transportation.
" Convicts, there can be no doubt, occasion-
" ally send home flattering accounts of their situ-
" ation ; but, in almost every instance within
" the last seven years, these have been prompted
*' more by the misery of the writers, than from
" any undue alleviation of punishment, or other
" circumstance affecting them favourably."
And again : —
" Many [favourable accounts] have been trans-
" mitted by convicts in a very miserable con-
" dition, with a view to induce their families to
" join them, in the hope that having decoyed
" them into a state of much wretchedness,
" they might thus excite the compassion of the
" government, and, as they selfishly expected,
" be assigned to their wives. Some very re-
" markable instances of this description have
" lately come under my notice."
And yet according to this very same author,
the remoteness from the mother country of these
penal settlements, of which such fallacious and
favourable accounts are sent home, — this very
remoteness is " a great advantage," and tends to
increase the terrors of transportation. I should
have thought the nearer home the place of
Reformation and Prevention. 47
punishment was situated, the more difficult it
would be to gain credit for these false accounts,
and the easier to disprove them.
" With regard also to the distance of Van
" Dieman's land from England, which you sup-
" pose renders transportation to it an ineffectual
" punishment, I regret that I am obliged to
" differ with your Grace, and to assert that it
" is, on the contrary, a very great advantage.
" Familiarity is the parent of contempt, and if
" secondary punishments be inflicted within view
" of the community, that part of the population,
" on account of which such examples are alone
" necessary, will soon learn to disregard them,
" however severe they may be. But if, as is
" complained by every one, severity is not at-
" tributable to them ; and if in many instances
" convicts would be better off in the peniten-
" tiaries than in their own homes, and if many
" persons would in consequence be glad to
" change place with criminals undergoing their
" sentences, the more secondary punishments
" are withdrawn from the public gaze, and the
" less intimate the knowledge of them possessed
48 Remarks on Transportation.
" by the community, the greater will be the
" chance of a beneficial result."
I must confess I am myself not disposed to
give full credence to these assurances of the
miseries endured by the convicts, and of the
falsity of their own accounts of their condition.
If however Col. Arthur's representation is to be
fully relied on, it is hard to imagine any more
decisive condemnation of the whole system. If
Capt. B. Hall, or any other traveller disposed
to take an unfavourable view of the American
penitentiaries, could have reported of them that
the prisoners suffered such extreme misery as
induced them to transmit to their friends (like
the fox in the fable) flattering pictures of their
comfort and happiness, so as to induce others to
endeavour to partake of the same lot, this would
have been, I imagine, triumphantly brought
forward as a proof that the system was alto-
gether a failure.
One portion of the misery inflicted on a Con-
vict (according to Col. Arthur's description in
Demoralhing Effects of the System. 19
a passage I have already extracted) is his being,
on board a transport, " exposed to ill-usage
**' from criminals still worse than himself." If a
native of this island had ventured to give such
a description, he would probably have been
asked, whether he intended it to apply to every
convict ; and if so, how it could happen that
each one of them should meet with " criminals
*' worse than himself"
But though (even when writing in Ireland)
I did not go such a length as to suppose that
every convict could find a worse, yet I was fully
aware that some of them are better than the
generality ; and that these would suffipr severely
and in more ways than one, by their inter-
mixture with "criminals worse than themselves."
If Col. Arthur will look to my first Letter to
your Lordship, (pp. 15, 16,) he will find that I
have by no means overlooked this circumstance,
though the inferences I have been led to draw
from it are, on the whole, far from bein^
favourable to the system.
Not however that I would reckon this par-
ticular portion of suffering, among those that
have no tendency, in any case, towards the
E
50 Remarks on Transportation.
great object, of prevention. On the contrary,
I have no doubt that there are persons, not alto-
gether proof against temptation, but of tolerably
decent habits, who may be occasionally deterred
from crime, by a dread of the disgrace, disgust,
and discomfort of being for four or five months
in a transport with the most abandoned society.
And persons of such a description, who do
endure this, suffer nq, doubt very great misery ;
so great that some might be disposed to say, it
would be, every way, a mercy to hang them
instead. The moral death which in all pro-
bability must result, is a heavier punishment
than physical. And (which is a strong objec-
tion to such a kind of punishment) the mischief
done far exceeds the pain suffered. The crimes
therefore which are in this way prevented (as
I have no doubt some few crimes are) will have
been prevented at an enormous cost. For it is
implied in the very character of the penalty de-
nounced, that the majority of the convicts who
crowd the transports shall be abandoned ruffians;
and that the miseries of this society shall be
such as each will feel the less in proportion as
his own character is the more depraved, and
Demoralizing Effects qftlie System. 51
consequently the more needing the restraint of
fear to deter him from crime.
One might indeed almost imagine that a kind
of perverse ingenuity had been exercised to
devise a system of (so called) penal law, which
should combine almost every possible disadvan-
tage. Nothing certainly could have been more
skilfully contrived to prevent a penalty, in most
instances, from either deterring from crime,
through the dread of disgrace, or again, re-
forming offenders through the influence of good
example. Suppose on the one hand, that a
criminal were placed in some situation in which
he should be constantly surrounded by such
as naturally regard him with scorn and abhor-
rence ; there would then be this disadvantage
indeed, in regard to the individual, that he
would be likely to become permanently har-
dened, from having been so openly disgraced as
to have irretrievably lost his character ; but
then, the dread of such disgrace would operate
favourably in regard to the prevention of crime.
If again, instead of this, he were placed in the
society of respectable persons who did fiot know
of his delinquency, then, there would indeed
E 2
52 Remarks on Transjjortation.
be this disadvantage, that the absence of dis-
grace, and the comfort of sympathy and of
social intercourse on equal terms, would tend
to render such a situation no very formidable
punishment : but the reformation of the indi-
vidual, who would thus have an opportunity
of establishing and maintaining a good cha-
racter among his new associates, might be hoped
from this plan, if from any. The one in short
of these methods, tends to prevention without
reformation ; the other to reformation without
prevention.
Now if the problem were proposed, how to
combine in the greatest degree, the disadvan-
tages, and exclude the advantages, of both these
plans, the solution I think would be found in
our system of Transportation.
The convict is shielded as much as possible
from the chance of reformation, by unrestricted
intercourse with multitudes who are setting him
in every possible way, the worst possible ex-
amples : who do know his delinquency, but
whose sympathy he must earn, — nay, whose
ridicule he must escape — by a display of expert
roguery and of hardened profligacy ; and again.
Demoralhing Effects of the System. 53
the terror of disgrace is as much as possible
done away, by the offender's removal from the
presence of any reputable persons for whom
he may feel respect, and placed in a society
in which there are abundantly enough to keep
him in countenance ; in which not only vice,
but convicted criminality, is the rule, and inno-
cence the exception.
No way could I think have been devised
more effectual for diverting the penalty, both
in prospect of the terror of disgrace, and, in
infliction, of all tendency towards reformation.
When Shakspeare made the soldier (in *• All's
Well that Ends Well,") say to Parolles, " If you
*' could find a Country where but women were
" that had received so much shame, you might
" begin an impudent nation," he little thought
probably that in the nineteenth century the
experiment would be actually going on. The
inipudent nation has been begun some time,
and there are abundantly enough in it of
''women who have received so much shame"
as to stamp and perpetuate its character :
though, for fear it should not increase fast
enough, we send out occasionally a few ship-
54 Remarks on Transportation.
loads of young girls not yet corrupted, to supply
the deficiency, and to become mothers to the
offspring of thieves ! By Lieutenant Breton's
account, who (like almost all the authorities I
have appealed to) is one of those rather dis-
posed to favour the present system, this last-
mentioned object seems to be the only benefit,
such as it is, likely to be attained by our recent
exportations : —
" Good servants, (says he,) especially those of
*•' the gentler sex, are in great request ; those
" free women sent out not long since by the
" government, have proved no great acquisition,
" except by increasing the population. This
" is, perhaps, a bold assertion ; but my infor-
'* mation proceeds from highly reputable sources.
" Of the children who were also sent out,
" some have conducted themselves well, but
" most of them indifferently.
" It is really inconceivable how difficult it
" is to procure steady servants, or work people ;
" as they all seem to be of opinion that the
" great charm of fife consists in getting drunk
" as often as possible ; and unfortunately spirits
** are so cheap that they can constantly indulge
Demoralizing Effects of the System. 55
" themselves in their inchnation. There are
" servants, who, though in every other respect
*' most commendable in their conduct, were yet
" entirely untrustworthy through this abomin-
" able propensity. Such too is the case with
" a large proportion of the mechanics, men who
" have it in their power to lay by considerable
" sums from the profits of their labours, and to
" make no contemptible provision for their
" famihes ; but who prefer instead, to waste
" their substance in inebriation at the public
" houses : they seem determined to take no
" heed of the morrow, eating and drinking as
" much as possible on the one day, for fear, I
" presume, of dying on the following !"
It is perhaps fortunate, if we will but use the
lesson before us, that the errors of the present
system are so very gross and palpable as they
are : — that the rocks on which we have hitherto
struck, are above water. We have hence some
reason for hoping that we may obtain some
different results from steering a different course
hereafter. And we have also, to a certain
degree, a direction pointed out for that course.
A chart of shoals and quicksands is not without
56 Remarhs on Transportation.
its use ill navigation ; and the plan we have
hitherto been pursuing, may, by the rule of
contraries, be made to furnish a profitable ex-
ample. For there is scarcely a feature in the
whole system, — scarcely a part, portion, or
circumstance, in the convict's life, which it
would not be requisite entirely to reverse, in a
well-regulated penitentiary.
And in no particular does this hold good
more strongly than (as I formerly observed) in
all that relates to the intercourse of convicts
with each other ; which, if left unrestricted
during their hours of relaxation, cannot fail to
lead to a variety of ill consequences.*
Under the present system these " hours of
*' relaxation " comprehend, in the first instance,
the four or five months of the voyage ; in which
multitudes are crowded together without em-
ployment. Col. Arthur indeed seems to suppose
that I attribute some specific effect to the
influence of the sea. He observ^es (in p. 2 1 .)
" Why, it may be inquired, should association
" in a ship be more injurious than association on
* Sec Appendix, No. III.
Demoi'alhing Effects of the System. 57
" shore?" Now as I never gave the least hint
that I supposed this to be the case, I am not
at all ashamed to confess that I know no reason
why it should be so. But I will take leave to
ask a converse question, which I apprehend is
rather more to the purpose ; Why should asso-
ciation in a ship be less injurious than on shore ?
No one in his senses, I conceive, would doubt
that the association of several hundreds of de-
praved characters, but of various kinds and
degrees of depravity, closely crowded together
in a small space, in a building on shore, with-
out any employment whatever, for four or five
months, but to talk over together their past
feats of villany, must be the most corrupting
process, to all of them who were not past cor-
ruption, that could possibly be devised. It is
therefore for the advocates of the present system
to shew why the evil should be less on board a
ship ; not for me to prove it greater. I advert-
ed to the evil tend('!'cy of the voyage, merely
because this involves ttie necessity of encoun-
tering this evil, which is what no one I suppose
would be so insane as to propose introducing
gratuitously.
58 Remarks on Transportation.
But this, it seems, is a case in which we are
to trust neither reason nor testimony. The
statements to which I have referred for the
existence of a state of things, such as might
have been fully expected from the nature of the
case, even independent of any testimony at all,
are, we are told, unworthy of credit. Mr. Cun-
ningham's work in particular, from which copious
extracts are given (though far short of what I
might have extracted to the same purpose), in
the Appendix to my former Letter, is charac-
terised (pp. 22, 23,) in terms which sound indeed
exceedingly mild, but which involve a charge of
the most wanton, deliberate, and mischievous
calumny.
*' Not having had an opportunity of witness-
" ing the condition and conduct of convicts
*' previous to their embarkation for this colony,
" I am of course unable to institute any com-
" parison betwixt their state before their voyage
'* and after its conclusion, but I have always
" been strongly impressed with the conviction
" that very considerable improvements generally
" take place. The Surgeons Superintendent are
" usually intelligent and experienced officers.
Vindication of Authorities referred to. 59
" who observe the men under their charge
" assiduously, keeping them under the strictest
" surveillance ; and Mr. Cunningham's obser-
*' vations which your Grace has honoured with
" your notice, appear to have been dictated by
" a desire rather to produce effect and enliven
" his work, than to convey correct information.
" His inclination to listen to and relate the
" marvellous stories to which he refers, and
" his fear lest by coercion he should make
" the convicts ' hypocrites,' and his opinion that
" it was better to allow them to remain ' open
" downright rogues/ seem to indicate that the
" discipline which he exercised was not cal-
'* culated to produce the very best results, and
'' that the men under his charge were not likely
" to afford an average example of convicts
" when under more serious and more prudent
'* management."
So Mr. Cunningham, it seems, wrote false-
hoods for the sake of producing an effect !
Most people I conceive write whatever they
do write, with a view to some effect. But let
us be permitted to inquire in the present in-
stance, what effect? To raise a prejudice against
60 Remarks on Transportation.
the system of Transportation for which he is a
decided advocate ? Or was it to gratify and
entertain his readers? He must have calculated
on readers of a strangely depraved taste, who
could take so little interest in being told of the
success of measuies designed for the most im-
portant and best purposes, and of " very con-
" siderable improvements" taking place in a class
of men most needing improvement, that it was
necessary to fabricate, for the amusement of the
public, details of the most abandoned and re-
volting villany.
I have used the word " fabricate," because in
the present case the plea of mere exaggeration
is of no avail. Let it be supposed that Mr.
Cunningham's representation is exaggerated ; —
though every conceivable motive would have
led him, if not perfectly correct and impartial,
to extenuate rather than exaggerate, the evils
of the system he advocates : — but let it be sup-
posed, in defiance of all probability, and on the
strength of Col. Arthur's unsupported accusation,
that the picture is overcharged : and then let
any one read, both what is extracted in my
former Letter from the work in question and from
Vindication of Authorities referred to. (> 1
others, and also, the other portions of these
works that are there referred to ; and let him
ask himself whether my conclusions are not
fully borne out, if even the half of these state-
ments be credited.
There may be found persons indeed (though
not so many I conceive now, as a few years
back) who suspect that in all points the un-
favourable representations of the penalty of
Transportation have been overcharged ; — that
its effect in deterring offenders has been ex-
tenuated, and the temptations it holds out, and
the corruption it produces, exaggerated. To
such persons it might indeed fairly be replied,
that I have every reason to believe I have 7iot
misrepresented its advantages and disadvantages;
having not only made careful inquiries, but ab-
stained from giving as shocking a picture of the
operation of the present system as I believe
might be given consistently with truth ; choosing
to confine myself chiefly to the testimony of
those who not only have had the best oppor-
tunities of observation, but also are avowedly
favourable to that system. This, I say, might
fairly be urged in reply to the objection ; but I
62 Remarks on Transportation.
am content to waive that plea. The case is so
strong that it can well aiford it. We need not
join issue on the question, whether the picture
presented be minutely accurate or not. Let any
one be left to allow for all the exaggeration that
can be thought conceivable, and to suppose the
evils of the system to be considerably less than
they are represented, and the advantages greater.
The conclusion, I think, would still be, to any
candid and considerate mind, the very same.
There are extreme cases, and this I think is
one of them, in which no allowance that can
reasonably be made for want of strict accuracy,
will perceptibly affect the result. It would not
be the "easier for a camel to go through the
"eye of a needle" if the camel were half the
usual size, and the needle's eye double. And
in this case the evils which I have pointed out
(though I have passed over no small part) are
so multifarious and monstrous, and the ad-
vantages so extremely minute, that if the one
were only half what they are and the other
double, I could not hesitate about coming to
the same conclusion.
Indeed I have sometimes been disposed to
Vindication of Authorities referred to. 63
doubt whether the number and variety of the
arguments on this question which are comprised
in the former Letter and in this, may not pre-
vent their being by some minds, duly appreciated.
For there are persons who when an accumu-
lation of reasons is presented to them, are apt
to take for granted that all, or nearly all of
them together, are necessary to establish the
conclusion ; and consequently if one or two of
these shall have been apparently refuted, they
regard this as a sufficient answer : though per-
haps (as in the present case) there may be
several other reasons, each of which would,
alone, establish the conclusion. — Sometimes
also even the very weight of the reasons urged,
will, with some minds, diminish their effect. If
a system, for instance, which has been adopted
and persevered in (as that of Transportation)
shall be proved not merely to be objectionable,
but to involve the most extravagant absurdity,
many are apt to infer that there must be some
(they know not what) strong recommendations
to counterbalance these ; or some lurking fal-
lacy, though they cannot perceive any, in the
arguments against the system, since a mere tissue
64 Remarks on Transportation.
of palpable errors could never, they think, have
obtained any countenance : forgetting that the
errors become palpable, only when clearly pointed
out ; and that there is no absurdity so gross
which even intelligent men have not readily ac-
quiesced in, when their attention has not been
directed to the question.
But so sensible are the defenders of the
system of the overvvhelmino; mass of evidence
against them, that they ieei it necessary, instead
of descending to particulars, and attempting
disproof, boldly to deny the whole, by sweeping,
unsupported assertions. The sixth, out of no
less than eleven statements drawn up in formi-
dable array (in pp. 3, 4, 5, of Col. Arthur's Let-
ter) is that *'the atrocities to which you have
" referred do not exist." For a iwooj of this and
of several other no less bold assertions, I have
turned over every page, again and again, in vain.
And this being the case, I should perhaps have
thought it unnecessary to notice it, could I have
been sure that no one would glance at that page
on opening the pamphlet, or perhaps meet with
it along with some other such extracts in a
newspaper, and then inquire no further, but take
Vindication of AutJwrities referred to. Gb
for granted that the evidence for so bold a state-
ment at the opening of the work, must be sup-
plied in the subsequent pages.
Had I given an ideal picture of atrocities such
as I conceived likely to exist, without any evi-
dence beyond antecedent conjecture, a simple
denial might have been admitted as an answer.
But besides Mr. Cunningham's testimony (and
that of several others) I adduced that of Mr.
Rutherford, who had sailed seven times in con-
vict-ships in the same capacity as the former, —
that of Superintendant Surgeon. " These are"
(says Col. A. himself,) " usually intelligent ex-
" perienced officers, who observe the men under
"their charge assiduously," &c. — P. 22. Was it
wonderful then that I should give some credit to
the statements of such men, when every proba-
bility was in favour of its correctness ? I will
take leave to add, that I still give credit to their
evidence, because it was uncontradicted till there
was a 'particular purpose to be served by the
denial.
It is about four years since the article ap-
peared, in the London Review, on the second
edition of Mr. Cunningham's book. Other
F
66 Remarks on Traiwportation.
evidence to the same effect had been still longer
before the public. Why then did no one, long
ago, step forth to denounce these witnesses as
pernicious slanderers ; which they must be, if
their statements are untrue? Why did those
wiio had the best opportunities of knowing the
truth, suffer such malicious misrepresentations
to circulate, all that time, uncontradicted ? The
answer is obvious : Because the inferences from
these had not from the first been insisted on,
and pressed on the public attention. As soon
as the conclusions are drawn, then it is that it is
found out, for the first time, that the premises
are false. The evidence, it seems, might have
remained for ever uncontradicted had not I
and others pointed out the obvious deductions
from it.
And, why again, is there, even now, no dis-
proof offered of this evidence ? — no attempt to
impugn it except by bare unsupported denial ?
The obvious answer is. Because it is true ; too
true to be disproved ; and yet too conclusive to
be admitted.
Some of these denials do in themselves sound
rather strangely : — " That little additional con-
Alledged Omissioti of' Religious Motives. 61
" tamination is contracted by any at that time is
" almost proved by the circumstance that the farm
" labom'ers sometimes sent out for rioting and ma-
" chine breaking retain for the most part on their
"arrival their original simplicity, and a dispo-
" sition to conduct themselves honestly." — P. 22.
That the " original simplicity " which consists in
a disposition to riot and outrage, is retained, I
have little doubt : of the general honesty of the
convict-servants Capt. Breton and others give
a different and I should fear a more correct
account.
My exposure however of the demoralizing
effects of our present system, both on the Co-
lony and on the Mother Country, Archdeacon
Broughton meets (p. 85.) by an answer which
greatly surprised me : — an insinuation that I
deprecate or overlook the moral effect of reli-
gious principle, in diminishing crime ; and that I
am proposing a system of punishments to super-
sede the fear of God ! At least if such be not
his meaning (though the general courteous and
candid tone of his Letter is greatly at variance
F 2
GS Remarks on Transimrtation.
with it) I cannot conceive what it is he does
mean.
After premising (p. 84.) his view of " the
" substance of my argument, that crimes have
" increased because Transportation has lost its
" terrors " (which by the way is totally unlike any
thing I ever did say ; for I have never implied that
it ever had any terrors to lose) he proceeds: —
" At the risk of being thought to make the
'' observation out of place, I will, nevertheless,
" state my opinion, that the very prevalent decay
" of faith in the truths of religion, and a propor-
" tionate abatement of its influence, are the
'' chief causes of that rapid increase of crime
" which we witness and deplore.
*' I do not introduce this as a mere customary
"■ common-place remark, which it might be un-
" becoming my situation to omit : but because
" I sincerely feel the subject in this point of
'' view has not been duly pressed upon the
" attention of those whose office it is to con-
"■' suit for the public security ; and that the
" theory of the Archbishop of Dublin has a
" tendency to sanction and confirm the pre-
" vailing error. His Grace appears to maintain.
AUedged Omission of Religious Motives. 69
" that all our distress arises from our having
" chosen the wrong preventive ; but that, by
** trying various experiments in secondary pun-
'* ishments, ' there can be little doubt that in
" the course of a very few years we should be
" enabled, by attentive observation, to ascertain
" what system worked best:' assuming that there
" is a system of mere legal coercion discoverable,
" which may greatly abate if not wholly eradi-
" cate the disease. Now, whatever may be the
" deserved character of transportation, and ad-
" mitting it for argument's sake to be as excep-
" tionable as it is represented, I have the
'' strongest conviction on my mind that no
'' substitution of another mode of punishment
" will operate perceptibly in lessening the amount
" of crime ; but that the same result will con-
" tinue if that substitution be the ojily change.
" In common with the Archbishop of Dublin,
" I have been in charge of parishes in Eng-
" land, and my experience has taught me that
" the relaxation of morality prevailing there
" has arisen, not from the inefficiency of any
" particular mode of punishment, but from a
" diminished prevalence of the fear of God.
70 Remarks on Transportation.
" So long as that fear governed the general
" mind of the nation, the dread of legal inflic-
" tions, coming in as a secondary restraint in
'' aid of that which was more prevalent and
" formidable, was quite sufficient to curb vio-
" lence and dishonesty, and to enforce a tole-
" rable regard for hfe and property. But so
** soon as the barriers of the law are exposed,
" as is the case at present, to the whole rush
" and pressure of men's unruly appetites, those
'* barriers will inevitably bend and give way ;
" and the wave, if excluded at one point, will
'' come pouring through with greater impetu-
" osity at another. I candidly confess, that the
" absence of all regard or reference to this cause
" of the prevalence of crime, appears to me the
" leading defect of Archbishop Whately's publi-
" cation. It is an omission which could not
" have been looked for in the work of a di-
" vine ; and unless it be taken into consideration,
" he will greatly mislead those who follow him
'' as a jurist and a politician." — P. 85 — 87.
This most extraordinary passage contains
some positions and insinuations which to say
the least are extremely rash. To the British
Alledged Omission of Religious Motives. 7 1
Public, and I may add, the American, (though
probably not the Australian) I have been for
about twelve years, not unknown as a writer ;
chiefly on religious subjects ; and those treated
practically and popularly. I have been occupied
chiefly, not in abstruse dissertations on points
interesting only to deep theologians, but on the
application of religion to moral conduct. And
especially I have laboured to counteract the bad
impression that such weak and absurd views of
rehgion as are often to be met with, may make
on the minds of ordinary readers ; not only of
those who reject but of those also who admit
such views. For I have long been convinced
that nothing tends so much to bring Christianity
into contempt, as the representations which some
of its professors give both of its doctrines and
of its application. Sceptics are apt to forget,
that where the generality of men are Christians,
it must be expected that a considerable portion
of Christians (and not a few even of Christian
writers') should be weak men ; whose religious
views will naturally partake of their own con-
fusion of thought. To judge therefore of the
character of the Religion itself, from the repre-
72 Remarks on Transportation.
sentations given of it, by such feeble advocates, is
no less unreasonable than to estimate the bright-
ness of the sun by viewing it through a smoked
glass.
Although, however, I could hardly expect to
be much known as an author, in a colony so
distant, (and, I may add, so constituted,) it
ought to have been supposed, in charity, that
I should not have omitted any religious topic
that might appear relevant to the question I was
treating of. But what would be thought of a
physician, who, in treating of some disease, —
suppose cholera, — and defending the practice of
a particular hospital against objections, should
reply, — " At the risk of being thought to make
the observation out of place, I will nevertheless
state my opinion, that a very prevalent decay of
health, and the proportionate abatement of the
injluence of the vital principle, are the chief
causes of that rapid increase of disease which
we witness and deplore ? " He would be
answered (if at all) by saying, that his obser-
vation was indeed quite ''out of place:" the
question being, by what mode of treatment
we were to increase or restore the influence
Alledged Omission of Religious Motives. 73
of the vital principle, — prevent or remedy the
decay of health, — and stop the progress of in-
fection.
If I had introduced some observations analo-
gous to the above, either " as a mere customary
" common-place remark, which it might be unbe-
" coming my situation to omit," or as solemnly
announcing the discovery, that the relaxation of
morality arises from a diminution of the fear of
God, I might have been answered, " How are we
the wiser for your telling us of the disease, without
suggesting a remedy ? That men who fear God
as they ought will not commit crimes, we knew
before ; but are you proposing an act of parlia-
ment to compel men to fear God ? Or have you
any plan for so promoting religious faith as to
do away all need for punishment ? Or do you
hold that all kinds of punishment are equally
efficacious, or equally inefficacious, in promoting
or in discouraging such conduct as religion for-
bids ? If all punishments are useless, let all be
abolished : if all are equally proper, let things
remain as they are : or if it is possible the system
may be improved, let inquiries and suggestions
be made with a view to improvement : but do
74 Remarks on Transjyortation.
not pretend to have set at rest a practical question
of legislation, by solemnly pronouncing a truism
on which you do not yourself propose to found
any legislative measure."
Your Lordship may remember that I began
my former Letter by complaining, in the capacity
of a religious and moral teacher, of the injury
done to morality, by a system which tends
rather to encourage than to deter criminals, by
holding out no penalty calculated to counter-
balance the force of temptation. And I subse-
quently dwelt on the several parts of that
system, shevv^ing, both from reason and from
experience, its tendency to corrupt rather than
reform convicts, and to demoralize both the
Colony and the Parent-state. I was well aware,
indeed, that there are persons whose rehgious
principle will preserve them from being led into
crime by external circumstances ; and others,
whom no external circumstances will deter from
it when opportunity offers. But surely it will
not be maintained that all mankind belong to
one or other of these two classes. It is with
a view, almost entirely, to those of an interme-
diate character, and consequently capable of being
Alleclged Omission of Religious Motives. 75
deterred from crime, and needing to be deterred,
that every community has had recourse to the
denunciation of penalties.
But though the demorahzing effects of our
system are what I have been so far from over-
looking, that I have chiefly dwelt on them, it
may be expected that a defender of that system,
who charges me with looking solely to the
" dread of legal inflictions," and disregarding
the influence of rehgion, — that such a defender
should see in the system, (however defective in
other points,) at least an efficient provision for
producing and keeping up the fear of God. Let
us hear what he himself says on this point.
" Upon the whole, I must say, that if there
** be no more serious objection to transportation
*' than the moral injury which the voyage occa-
" sions to the prisoners, very little stress can be
" laid upon this. Under the care of a vigilant
" and judicious surgeon, or of a clergyman, if
" there be one on board, they may not only be
'* restrained from going deeper into vice, but
" some of the number may be even instructed
" and improved."— P. 103.
It seems, then, that if there be a clergyman
76 Remarks on Transportation.
on board the transport, or if the surgeon be
vigilant and judicious, some of the convicts may
possibly improve. " Your IF is a great peace-
maker." *
But let us follow the convicts to the settle-
ment. There at least, we may expect to find
ample means provided for the religious improve-
ment of all classes.
" You will remember the occasion, not long
* To any one who wishes to know, without " ifs " or
" mays," something of the actual condition of convicts on
board a transport, I would recommend, if he be not resolved
to set testimony at defiance, to peruse an account, subjoined
in the Appendix, No. IV., of the wretched beings wrecked in
the Amphitrite. But the Archdeacon himself gives the sum of
what is there more fully detailed, in a brief statement of his
own. " I have conversed very extensively with the more
" respectable among the prisoners, and from a comparison
" between their statements, I am led to believe, that even
" while the outward conduct is brought to a forced regularity,
" great depravity does prevail in that class of prisoners : such
" as to render the association to which they are condemned
" exceedingly painful to men who have any sentiment of
" religion, or any remaining decency of character."— rP. 108.
In fact there is hardly a statement I have made or a conclusion I
have drawn in my former Letter that is not, after having been
vehemently denied by one or more of these authors, fully and
distinctly confirmed by their own testimony.
Alledged Omission of Religious Motives. 77
" passed, of our visiting a very numerous road
" party, before whom I performed divine service,
'' and you will testify, I think, that there could
" not possibly be a congregation displaying more
" fixed attention than these men, who continued
" standing during the prayers and sermon. I
" have not myself any such suspicion, but it
" mif^ht enter the minds of others, that the
" knowledge of your being present produced
" all this seriousness. But the many scores,
" perhaps hundreds, of occasions in which, in
'' travelling through the country, I have offici-
" ated with exactly the same result, to prisoners
" belonging to private estabhshments, or to
" pubhc road parties, and when there could be
*' no such cause assigned for their attentive
" demeanour, forbid my thinking it other than
" sincere and unaffected.
" The general lament among road parties in
" the interior of New South Wales, I have found
" to be the infrequency with which they are
" visited by a clergyman. In every such assem-
'' blage I have observed many who evidently
" prayed with inward fervency ; and my per-
" suasion is, that some good is effected, and
78 Remarks on Transportation.
" some comfort administered, on every such
" occasion ; nor can I despair of the condition
" of men among whom I find so much thank-
" fulness to the preacher for his services, and so
" much respect shown to him in consequence.
" It is not possible that visits so rare and casual
*' should generally produce any other than a
" transient impression. Indeed the best im-
" pressions, in every case, are produced, not by
" a clergyman preaching once and then going
*' on his way, but by his living and abiding
" among the people, and affording them oppor-
" tunity of seeing his life, and knowing how
" far he practises what he preaches. I feel
" assured, that if it were possible to have
" among the prisoners a number of clergymen
" stationed, so that every large assemblage of
** them might know their own minister, and see
" him day by day labouring for their improve-
" ment, the effect would be truly beneficial. It
" would be difficult, but surely not impossible,
" to find men duly qualified, both by piety and
" discretion, who would devote themselves to
" this work. And, indeed, when I reflect that
" the nation which discharges annually so many
Alledged Omission of Religious Motives. 79
" thousands of offenders from its shores, makes
" not the shghtest direct effort for their rehgious
" instruction in the colonies, I can find no argu-
*' ment which satisfies me, that such omission
" does not amount to even a national sin." —
Pp. 109, 110.
The Archdeacon then is aware, it seems, how
little opportunity is offered, even to those who
may be the most ready to receive religious in-
struction ; and how " transient must be the
" impression " produced by any means now in
operation : but, then, he thinks that " if it were
*' possible" completely to change the existing
state of things, good would result.
Just so, / think.
But is this, then, let us ask, — is this the best
conclusion we can arrive at, by " duly pressing
" on the attention," as the chief cause of crime,
the decay of religious faith and fear ? If I, it
seems, had sufficiently attended to this point,
I should have kept clear of the danger of " mis-
" leading those who follow" me, and should have
advocated a system, which does indeed leave the
rehgious condition of the convicts, and of the
colony generally, in the most deplorable state ;
so Remarks on Transportation.
but which might, if it were quite different from
what it is, or has any prospect of becoming, be
made " truly beneficial."
As I feel persuaded of the sincere good inten-
tions of the Archdeacon, I trust he will pardon
my regretting that he did not read over the
earlier part of his letter, (which, in that case,
I feel sure he would have erased,) before he
permitted the latter part to go to press.
Enough, your Lordship will perhaps think, if
not more than enough, has been already said,
in this and in the former Letter, to convince all
who are not resolved never to be convinced, of
the mischievous tendency, in all points of view,
of our present system. But I cannot refrain
from appealing to one authority on my side,
which is entitled to more weight in the present
question than that of Bacon, or of any of the
illustrious of sages besides ; — that of Col. Arthur
himself : who has pronounced the most decided
condemnation of the whole of our scheme of
colonizing with convicts.
This assertion may startle many of my readers.
The System condemned hy its Advocates. 8 1
and perhaps none more than the Colonel him-
self, who is evidently quite unconscious of the
tendency of his own admissions. But I will
proceed to make good my words : —
"Lord Bacon's declaration, to which I have
" already referred, has much force in it, as ap-
" plicable to the period in which he wrote. It
" is, as your Grace quotes him, ' a shameful and
" unblessed thing to take the scum of people
" and wicked condemned men to be those with
" whom you plant.' There was in his time an
" abundant field for labour in England, and the
" inducements to commit crime were not power-
" ful. The citizen and the husbandman could
" by industry bring up their families in inde-
" pendence and afford them an honest example.
** If they were compelled to obtain their bread
" by the sweat of their brows, they were also
" happily enabled to mingle with every drop of
" that sweat, blessed ideas of virtue and inde-
" pendence. The population had not then out-
" grown the means of employment, and he who
" committed crime, and persevered in it, could
" not plead as his excuse the cravings of hunger
" or the effect of habits derived from the example
82 Remarks on Transportation.
" of his parents, and the teaching of his fel-
" lows. To plant new lands with such charac-
" ters, would therefore, it was reasonable to
" suppose, be unsuccessful. The change effected
" by transportation, so far as they were con-
" cerned, would be one merely of place, not of
" circumstances. The advantages of labour
" would not be much greater in the colony than
*^ at home, and they therefore who had acted
" unblessedly there, were likely to continue so
" to do in their new places of abode." — P. 41.
Bacon's decision, then, against Colonies thus
stocked, is admitted to be just, in respect to the
state of things, hi his time. Let this be kept in
mind.
He would (Colonel Arthur conceives) have
judged differently in respect of a country less
prosperous, as far as regards the situation of the
labouring classes, than England then was. Had
he lived to see a great change for the worse
in this point, he might, it is supposed, have
approved of the system he then condemned.
I myself do not think he would. But let it be
supposed : for it is not at all material to the
argument. The average condition of an indus-
The System condemned by its Advocates. 83
trious labourer in England is not worse, but
better than in Bacon's time ; so that whatever
reasons justified, in Col. Arthur's opinion, his
disapproval of Convict Colonies then, exist in
at least equal force now.
As to the fact, Col. Arthur has been misled,
apparently, by looking only to the absolute
increase of population ; which is indeed greater
in proportion to the size of the country, than
when Bacon wrote ; but (which alone is the
important point) less in proportion to the na-
tional loealth. In particular that portion of it
which constitutes the fund for maintenance of
labourers, is greatly increased in proportion to
their numbers, since that period. Estimated
even in wheat, the week's wages of a common
labourer seems to have been, in Bacon's time,
equal to about from three to four pecks ; now,
to about five to six. In articles of clothing and
most other manufactured commodities, the dis-
parity is well known to be very much greater,
in consequence of the improvements in ma-
chinery.
Since then, a Convict Colony was, as Col.
Arthur admits, " a shameful and unblessed
G 2
84 Remark,'} on Transportation.
thing " in the days of Lord Bacon, much more
so must it be in these days.
I myself believe Bacon's objection to have
been of much greater extent than is supposed
by Col. Arthur : but, even according to his own
view of it, he is driven unconsciously to give
sentence of utter condemnation on the system
he advocates.
A still more strange mistake however, relative
to a matter of fact, seems to have been made by
Capt. Basil Hall, if his evidence before a Com-
mittee of the House of Commons be correctly
reported. That gentleman, who is described
by Col. Arthur (p. 9.) as taking " rather a favour-
** able view of the prison-discipline in America,"
but who is generally considered as rather lean-
ing towards an w/zfavourable view of all American
institutions, is reported as having heard many
Americans regret their zvant of penal colonies,
and as describing the " evil arising out of this
" singular state of things." So the Americans, it
seems, are singular in the absence of penal
colonies ; I had always thought the singularity
lay with us. If Capt. Hall really did persuade
any of the back-wood settlers in the United
Vague Sup2)osition of Advantages. 85
States, that all the nations of Christendom, ex-
cept themselves, had penal colonies, he must
have used the traveller's privilege v^^ith a boldness
and a success truly astonishing.
The intelhgent Commissioners whom the
French Government sent out to inspect the
American system of secondary punishments,
have made some brief remarks (which I subjoin in
the Appendix, No. V.) in a very calm and tempe-
rate tone, on our singular state of things. From
what they say, and from other considerations,
it may, I think, be anticipated, that if we per-
severe much longer in adhering to a system
which has of late been so fully exposed, our
legislature will become, not undeservedly, the
scorn of the civihzed world.
But the present system has sometimes, I am
inclined to think, been even the more readily
tolerated in the minds of some persons, from
the very enormity and the palpable character of
the mischiefs and absurdities which it involves ;
which must, it is thought, be counterbalanced
by some very great advantages : and these
86 Remarks on Transportation.
accordingly are taken for granted as existing,
even by many who would be at a loss to de-
scribe and estimate them ; but who conclude
that it is impossible a scheme should have been
persevered in for near half a century, in spite of
so many and such monstrous attendant evils,
were it not found to produce some important
benefits as a compensation.
And perhaps they are right in thus conjec-
turing that there are advantages ; but I would
caution them not to rest satisfied with this
consideration, till they have ascertained to whom
the advantages accrue : — to the public, or to
individuals, at the expense of the public. A
conflagration is a benefit — to firemen : a ship-
wreck is a benefit — to those on whose shore the
wreck is cast : a general mortality is an advan-
tage — to undertakers and sextons : and I have
no doubt that our system of Transportation has
its advantages (in the way of present projii) — to
many who are engaged in the agriculture and
commerce of New South Wales, or, in other
ways, employed in connexion with our penal
Apparent Benefit to Individuals. 87
colonies. And this, I suspect, constitutes one
great obstacle to our immediate abandonment
of the system.
I do not mean to impute to its advocates a
deliberate design to sacrifice the public good to
the private interests of themselves or their
friends. But it is proved by all experience
(especially in the history of every monopoly)
that in such cases men are apt to impose on
themselves, as well as on others, by confounding
together and identifying their own interests or
those of the class they belong to, with the
interest of the community. Whatever is a profit
or loss to themselves, they would be glad to
think must be the same to the nation ; and they
therefore endeavour (generally with success) to
convince both the nation and themselves that
this is the case.
Accordingly we find Col. Arthur (pp. 58, 59,)
placing at the end of a long list of the advan-
tages of the Transportation-system, those sup-
posed commercial benefits, which I believe to
have, in practice, the most weight in the defence
of that system. The other heads relate to
matters already discussed, and which therefore
88 Remarks on Transportation.
T need not again notice more particularly : such
as the utility of Transportation in the prevention
of crime, by the dread of the penalty — by the
removal of criminals (viz. from one part of the
empire to another,) — by the reformation of offen-
ders, &c. &c. ; in all which points he meets the
arguments and the testimonies already adduced
in my former Letter, by unsupported assertions.
But the enumeration of advantages concludes
M^ith —
" 7. An extension of the empire by the crea-
" tion of colonies possessed by free men, whose
" emigration is encouraged by convict assign-
" ment, and for whom the convicts have acted
" as pioneers."
" 8. An increase of the exports and imports
" of England."
" Aye, there's the rub!" Besides the great
object of extending the empire (like the exten-
sion of a human body by the growth of some
wen or other morbid and monstrous excres-
cence) there is the encouragement of settlers, by
the advantage of convict-assignment; and the
increase of commerce.
No doubt agriculture and commerce are good
Apparent Benefit to Individuals. 89
things : but gold may be bought too dear. Let
any one but take the pains to calculate the
total net profits of the " increased exports and
" imports of England," and compare this sum
with the mere cost to the nation (waiving all
other evils) of keeping up the whole establish-
ment for the supply of this slave-labour ; and
then let him compute how far the one over-
balances the other.
In this, and in numberless other cases, the
paradoxical appearance which such computa-
tions will often present, is explained by the
consideration, that the loss goes to one party, and
the gain to another. It is Government that
bears the expenses; they fall on the commu-
nity : the profits go to the individual settlers,
traders, &c. and the total gain thus occurring
to the nation, may be utterly inadequate to
the outlay, and yet may be a very important
and desirable object to individuals on whom
this outlay does not fall.*
* And yet it seems the expenditure is not sufficient, even
in Col. Arthur's own judgment, to render Transportation effi-
cacious, for its professed primary object as a penalty. " I
" admit that the condition of these men, (the educated
90 Remarks on Transportation.
But surely those who are deliberating with a
view to the public good, ought in all cases to be
very cautious in admitting the evidence of inte-
rested individuals, whose private advantage is
not (though they wish to persuade both others
and themselves that it is) necessarily coincident
with advantage to the public. Much greater
however should be our caution in respect of
individuals whose interest (as in the present
" convicts and specials) though by no means so desirable as
" it has been represented in England, has not heretofore cor-
" responded with that of other convicts. In fact the only
" hindrance in the colony to the perfecting of Transportation,
" as a measure of prevention, has had reference to expendi-
"' ture. The economy so much insisted upon in the present
" day, has led to the employment of educated convicts as
" clerks in public offices, and of expirees and emancipists as
" inferior overseers, an incidental not necessary adjunct of the ,
" transport system, originating in motives of economy, but
" attended by injurious consequences — consequences which
" however have been much exaggerated." — Pp. 52, 53.
That a little less attention to economy would remove " the
" only hindrance to 'the perfecting of Transportation," is
indeed a most rash conjecture : but many plans of wasteful
expenditure (like that of the penal colonies) are conducted
in detail with a penurious spirit which vainly seeks to re-
medy, by petty savings the ruinous extravagance of the
system.
Apparent Benefit to Individuals. 91
case) is manifestly and avowedly opposed to that
of the public.
The Australian settlers conceive themselves
to derive a very great advantage from the
convict-labour.* Any thing whatever that may
tend to diminish this source of profit, they
* *' In the Swan River settlement," says Col. Arthur, " the
" scarcity of labourers arising from the absence of convicts will
" compel all but the most opulent to work for themselves.
" Many an educated man and delicate female will have cause
" to regret the arrangement which deprives them of the
" advantage of having convicts assigned to them. It is to
" deficiency of labour that the rusticity of the Americans,
" most remarkable in the states where there are no slaves, is
" to be attributed, rather than to the thin sprinkling of gen-
" tlemen of birth among the first emigrants. And the great
" progress in the arts of life and in that decent and orderly
" way of living which is so generally to be observed in this
" colony, may with everj- truth be attributed to the advan-
" tage derived from its being a penal settlement." — P. 45.
As for the superior gentility of the New South Wales set-
tlements there may be different opinions. I should myself in
choosing a residence prefer the " rusticity " of a country in
which slavery of all kinds is unknown. • But those who are
accustomed to be served by slaves, probably think otherwise.
Surely this is a reason for us to receive with suspicion their
testimony in favour of a system, which secures to them ad-
vantages highly prized by them, but which may be purchased
at the expense of too great sacrifice on our part.
92 Remarks on Transportation.
naturally deprecate ; whatever tends to increase
the number of convicts is for their gain. Here
then is a class of men (we will suppose them
to be, individually, as respectable characters as
other settlers elsewhere) who have avowedly an
interest in keeping up, not whatever may appear
the best system of secondary punishment, but
the best for them. Nay, they have a direct
and manifest interest in the increase of crime. ^
And is it on the evidence of these men that we
are implicitly to rely, in an inquiry as to the
* The leading article in the " Sydney Herald" of May last,
in adverting to my former Letter, expresses apprehensions
that my " view of prison-discipline, which is diametrically
*' opposed to the present system, may probably operate against
" the advantages of 'prison-labour which we have hitherto
" enjoyed"
I should be sorry to interfere with their enjoyments, how-
ever I might differ in point of taste, were I not convinced
that they are purchased at too great a cost of evil as well as
expense to this country.
The projected new settlement in the southern part of New
Holland is on a plan designed to obviate some of the evils,
from which that at Swan River has suffered, without intro-
ducing those far heavier ones resulting from the introduction
of convicts or any other description of slaves. I have sub-
joined in the Appendix, No. VI. an extract from the Pro-
spectus.
Interests of the Colony preferred to ours. 93
most efficient system of punishments ? " For
fortifying a city," said the tanner, *' there is
nothing hke leather."
I repeat, that I am not attributing dishonest
motives to any individual. All who have
written on this question, may, for aught I know,
be as unconscious of any undue bias as I am
myself. But it is undeniable that there is, in
interested persons, a liability to such a bias ; and
that we are bound in prudence to make allow-
ance for its existence.
I am very far myself indeed from thinking,
that real, ultimate good, in the most compre-
hensive sense, accrues to the Colony from its
being stocked with " wicked condemned men ;"*
but present gain to many individuals does : and
this most men are apt to pursue in preference
to the ultimate and permanent benefit of them-
selves and their posterity.
The settlers accordingly, and others con-
nected with the Colony, led by a sort of pa-
triotic feeling for that Colony, to plead the cause
* See Appendix No. VII.
94 Remarks on Transportation.
of what they consider its good, (which, if it were
real, ought not to demand the sacrifice of our
good) are perpetually losing sight of that which
is, naturally, a very subordinate object at least
to them, though to us it ought to be primary, —
the efficacy of Transportation in the diminution
of crime, here. They feel called on indeed to
say something from time to time, in its defence
in that point of view ; shifting their ground
backwards and forwards, between the reforma-
tion of criminals and the prevention of offences ;
but it is evidently the prosperity of the Colony
that really occupies the chief part of their
attentk>n. One out of many indications of this,
is their strong and often repeated disparage-
ment of the judgment of all who have not been
on the spot. We, it seems, cannot possibly be
acquainted with the details of the system: — we
are destitute of experience : — our knowledge
must be imperfect and inaccurate : — in short, we
ought to have no voice in the question.
Now admitting all this ; — which would be
admitting far too much ; since I have stated
nothing but on the evidence of those who have
been there, confirmed by the admissions of the
Interests of the Colony preferred to ours. 95
advocates themselves ; — but admitting all this
local ignorance, it is evident that the whole
argument proceeds on the supposition, that the
Colony is the only thing to be attended to. The
settlers, we will suppose, must know best what
benefits the Colony ; but they cannot surely be
the sole judges as to what are the secondary
punishments that operate best for this country.
One of the writers before me recommends
Transportation, not on the ground of what it
has hitherto been, but of what it may hereafter
become, under the operation of some new regu-
lation. The others also recommend it, depre-
cating these very regulations, and reverting to
what it has been, but is likely to be no longer.
Neither party seems to speak in the present
tense, but the one in the past and the other in
the future. But supposing these advocates were
agreed in their views, as much as they manifestly
disagree, still, xoe also should be allowed to form
our own judgments on the system, as far as
relates to this country. It is only by making
the Colony the primary, and indeed sole object,
that they can maintain their exclusive claim to
practical knowledge and experience.
96 Remarks on Transportation.
When the advantages of any foreign com-
merce, that to China for instance — are discussed,
British manufacturers and tradesmen are accus-
tomed to speak of their experience respecting
the demand in England for Chinese commodities,
and the demand for ours as exports to China.
Now would it not be strange for any one to put
them all to silence, by saying, " You can know
nothing about the matter, because you have
never been in China ?" They would answer,
*' The residents in China may be the best judges
of the benefit of the trade to that country, but
we must surely know something of its effects at
home : and, to the British nation, this is the
important point."
So in the present case also, it is the effect of
Transportation, here, as a mode of secondary
punishment, that is confessedly the important
consideration.
And in this point of view, its advocates seem
so conscious of the weakness of their cause, that
their chief resource is to contrast it with other
plans which either have been actually tried, or
Proposed Substitutes misrepresented. 97
are attributed to me as my proposals by way of
substitute. Dr. Ross does, indeed, in one place,
break out into a florid description of the situa-
tion of a transported convict (which he had, a
little before, characterised as a " purgatory"
(p. 58), and as a punishment of " extreme seve-
rity," (p. 59), especially to the " unseared," —
the least hardened offenders) as greatly preferable
to that of persons sentenced to the tread-mill.
" How far more reclaiming than the tread-
" wheel is exercise of the very hardest kind
" among the works of nature ! Can the eye of
" the most wicked — most viciously inclined,
'' look upon the wide spreading lawns — the
" rising hills and mountains — the hanging, in-
" structive and eloquent forests — the flowing
" river or the trickling streamlet clothed with
*' the sweetest and most enchanting shrubs and
" flowers of this island, without self-reproach,
" without some sting of remorse ? * Can I,' he
" will say, ' be thus criminal, be thus so basely
" ungrateful, while nature with beneficent hands,
" with outstretched arms thus draws me to
"repentance?"'— P. 83.
Now when I consider how large a portion of
H
98 Remarks on Transjmrtation.
the labouring population of these islands are
compelled, not by their crimes, but by their
wants, to pass the day in mechanical toil, in
close workshops, in the midst of a crowded and
smoky town, I cannot but rejoice in the thought,
that the beauties of the New Holland scenery
are not likely to be so strongly felt by them, as
they are here warmly described. Otherwise,
there might be a danger of their being so dis-
gusted with the comparative closeness and
monotony of the scenes around them, as to be
weary of their life of honest industry, and envy
the picturesque punishment of the convict :
unless indeed they suspected some covert mean-
ing in the words " hanging forests."
But I am compelled to say there is an appear-
ance (arising perhaps from his having inadver-
tently confounded one author with another) of
disingenuous proceeding in Colonel Arthur's
representation of what I propose in the way
of secondary punishment, as a substitute for
transportation. He all along proceeds, as far
as I am able to understand his meaning, on the
supposition, that I recommend the present plan
to be superseded by one which shall maintain
Proposed Substitutes misre'presented. 99
the convicts at an expense of between 50/. and
60/. per annum, in a condition far preferable, in
respect of diet, clothing, and comforts, to that
of an ordinary labourer. " But if the trans-
' ports to Ireland were fed in the same man-
* ner as men in the penitentiaries are, how
' would their lot be envied by the half-clad,
' starving peasantry of that ill-fated country !
' and if to this were superadded, the antici-
' pation that after the period of their servi-
* tude had expired, each was to be rewarded
' with a gratuity for his labour, in order that
* he might associate with it the notion of inde-
^ pendence, or, in other words, that in return
' for his services he was not only to be fed
' and clothed, but also to be enabled to * save
* money,' the competition to obtain admission
' into the gangs would doubtless be very great,
' and an incentive to crime would be brought
* into operation, far more efficacious than even
' the prison and penitentiary discipline of Eng-
' land."*— Pp. ^^, 57.
* In my former Letter I expressed my apprehension that it
would not be possible completely to effect, in Europe, the
defrayal of the whole expenses of a penitentiary by the pi'o-
h2
100 Remarks on Ti'ansjwrtation.
And his argument turns almost entirely on
the superiority of the existing system to that
with which he compares it, as the only alterna-
tive. " The maintenance and discipline (he had
" before observed) in the penitentiary is stated
'* to cost about SQL per annum."
Surely any of his readers, who had not seen
my first Letter, would conclude from these
passages, that " the Penitentiary" meant some
particular establishment, either proposed, or at
ceeds of the prisoners' labour; as it appears is the case with
some of those in America. I have since learned, however,
that this object has been accomplished in Belgium.
In the Dublin Mendicity Institution the average cost per
head of the diet, together with lodging, fuel, attendance and
(partly) clothing, of adults (who are all kept at work as far as
they are capable of it) is less than three-pence a day. And
their food, though coarse, is wholesome and nutritious. Of
course, from the nature of this institution, able-bodied and
expert workmen will always form a smaller proportion to the
numbers, than may be expected in a penitentiary. But let
the inmates of a penitentiary be supposed to cost, over and
above the whole value of their labour, three-pence halfpenny
per day, or about 51. or (M. per annum ; even according to
this computation a convict would be maintained, for five
years, for less than the mere cost of the voyage alone to New
South AVales, independent of all the other expenses incurred
in the colon v.
Proposed Substitutes misrepresented. 101
least referred to, and recommended by me ; and
that the system of diet and treatment, and the
scale of expenditure, here alluded to, had re-
ceived my distinct approbation. But why did
not Col. Arthur refer to the precise page of my
Letter, in which this recommendation is to be
found ? Because (I am constrained to say)
there is no such page ! The whole system of
feeding and clothing, at such lavish cost, the con-
victs whose lot is to be so enviable, is, as far as
I am concerned, purely imaginary, and fathered
upon me without the slightest foundation.
It has indeed been shewn, on undeniable
evidence, by the Poor-Law Commissioners, that
the diet of a convict is superior to that of a
pauper, — and this, to that of a soldier, and still
more, to that of an independent labourer. But
where have / recommended an adherence to
this preposterous system ? It is possible, how-
ever, and I sincerely hope it will be made to
appear, that Col. Arthur has inadvertently con-
founded a portion of some other work with mine.
But not only is it untrue that I have recom-
mended the substitution for transportation, of
precisely such a penitentiary system as has been
102 Remarks on Transportation.
attributed to me : it is incorrect, altogether, to
represent me as advising the immediate adoption
of any particular system as a substitute. On
the contrary, I distinctly declared my conviction
of the impossibility, in the present state of our
knowledge on the subject, to come to any
well-warranted immediate decision, as to what
substitute would be the best. I recommended
accordingly, investigation and experiment, by
means of a commission appointed for the pur-
pose. I did, indeed, suggest some principles
which I thought it would be useful for such
a commission to keep in view, and some experi-
ments which they might, perhaps, think it worth
while to try. But if I had made up my mind as
to the expediency of at once fixing on a certain
specific system, what could have been the object
of the commission, ■ or of inquiry, or of experi-
ment f And yet both Col. Arthur and Archdeacon
Broughton (taking no notice of the commission,
which is what I did recommend,) refer again and
again to " the system which I propose ;" when it
is not only not true that I proposed any one, but
impossible that I could have done so, without a
palpable self-contradiction.
Proposed Substitutes misrepresented. 103
" I am inclined to think, therefore, that the
*' confidence with which several persons have
'' advocated each his favourite plan of prison
" discipHne as preferable to all others, must be
" somewhat premature. It is but of late years
" that the subject has engaged any large share
" (and it still engages much less than it de-
" serves) of the attention of active and intelli-
" gent men, at once philosophical, and practically
" observant : and I am convinced we have still
" much to learn, which experience, aided by
" careful reflection, can alone teach. In the
*' present state of our knowledge, therefore, it
*' would perhaps be our wisest and safest course
'* to establish, in different places, several peni-
" tentiaries, on different plans, such as may
" seem to have the most to recommend them ;
" and after a trial of a few years, to introduce
" modifications as experience shall suggest, and
" remodel the less successful on the pattern of
" those which may be found to answer their
" purpose better.
" I do not, of course, mean that we should
" try experiments at random, or adopt every
" suggestion of the wildest theorists : but if
104 Remarks on Transportation.
" we made trial of those plans in favour of
*' which sound reasons could be offered, and
" were careful to guard in every case against
" such errors as might plainly be shewn to be
" such, and to tend towards the defeat of our
" object, there can be little doubt that, in the
" course of a very few years, we should be
" enabled, by attentive observation, to ascertain
" what system worked best. And we might rest
" assured, in the mean time, that none could be
*' more exceptionable than the existing system
" of transportation."
" I will take the liberty, therefore, of most
*' earnestly recommending the appointment of
*' a Board of Commissioners, analogous to that
" which is now occupied with the no less im-
*' portant subject of the Poor-laws, and from
" whose labours every one, who is acquainted
" with the character of the individuals com-
'* posing it, must hope for the most favourable
" results.
" Whether the legislature is constituted in
"one way or in another, it is clearly impossible
" that it should be capable of going through,
** with proper care, all the necessary details of
Indefensible Character of the System. 105
** that vast and heterogeneous mass of business
" which belongs to its decision. And those
" who are at all acquainted with parliamentary
" proceedings, have no need to be reminded
" how much slovenly legislation has resulted
" from the non-adoption, or very slight and
'' imperfect adoption, in the highest department
" of all, of that important principle, division of
*' labour ; but for which, even the humblest arts
" could never have been brought to any degree
" of perfection."*
It will be plain, from the above extracts, how
utterly at variance with what I really did recom-
mend are the representations that have been
made of it.
But one point I certainly did consider as
already settled. The experiment of Transporta-
tion I considered as not only tried, but per-
severed in beyond the reasonable bounds of
experiment ; and to have proved a complete
and most mischievous failure. And if I had
had any lingering doubts on this point, they
* Thoughts on Secondary Punishments, pp. 10 — 12, 43, 44.
106 Remarks on Transportation.
would have been completely removed by the
publications now before me ; in which, besides
the many mutual contradictions, and the many
admissions fatal to the cause advocated, which
I have here extracted, there are many more of
a like character (as every reader of them may
easily perceive) which I have left unnoticed for
fear of wearying my readers with superfluous
refutation.
One more instance will suffice. These authors
agree in thinking the experiment of Transporta-
tion has not yet been sufficiently tried, but as
to the way in which it should be tried, they are
quite at issue : — The Convicts, Colonel Arthur
informs us, (p. 25.) " are made to work out their
*' bondage either in assignment, in the service of
*' Government, in the road gangs, in the chain
" gangs, in the penal settlements, or in the
" chain gangs in the penal settlements. This
" distribution is regulated by character and con-
" duct, and by no means by an arbitrary dis-
" posal. Of all the conditions in which they
" can be placed, that of private assignment is
" the most desirable, and that of being placed
" in a chain gang in a penal settlement, the
Indefensible Character of the System. 107
" most harassing, degraded and miserable !" And
again (p. 32), " Persons who for occasional pur-
poses obtain men from the loan gang, are
much more apt to abuse the trust confided
in them than ordinary assignees, and this is
an important objection to the system of con-
tracts, which has lately been brought into
operation in the colony. Contractors for
public works generally stipulate for a certain
number of men from the loan gang, as on
account of the scarcity of free labourers they
could not otherwise complete what they under-
take. And it is almost invariably found that
the convicts who have been put under their
charge, have by no means derived any benefit
from it."
And now what says Archdeacon Broughton?
I am no admirer of a state of servitude by assign-
ment, or of the exercise of summary jurisdic-
tion. I cannot hesitate in thinking that they
are in themselves great evils; and, when all
attendant mischiefs, direct and indirect, which
result from them, are taken into consideration,
I think that the community in which they
exist is paying a very heavy tax for the
108 Remarhs on Transportation.
" financial advantages which the convict system
" may confer." — P. 104.
Such is the mutual co-operation of these
brother advocates ; w^hose discrepancy extends
to almost every possible point, from the most
general view of the whole system down to the
minutest details in the working of it. *' Call
" you this backing your friends ? a plague of
" such backing ! "
Our present situation reminds me of that of
one of the unfortunate dupes of the projectors
in Alchemy, of whom there were so many, two
or three centuries back. One of these, eagerly
listening to promises held out of converting lead
into gold (which I believe will be effected when
convicts are transmuted into useful settlers)
pursued perseveringly his search after the philo-
sopher's stone, and in spite of repeated and
lamentable failures clung with unsubdued fer-
vour to the dreams of boundless wealth in which
his imagination revelled. Crucible after crucible
was broken ; his actual wealth melted away
before his eyes in his pursuit of ideal : yet
still the moment of projection was anxiously
looked for : and if at length, heart-sick from
Indefehsihle Character cf the System. 109
hope deferred, impoverished and disheartened
by the blowing up of one laboratory after an-
other, he seemed verging towards despair, the
insatiable transmuters rallied his hopes with
fresh and more confident assurances. They had
certainly been on the very eve of the discovery ;
and if he should now desist, all his past trouble
and expense would have been thrown away : every
failure could be accounted for : one said the
furnace had been too hot ; another, too cool ;
but all agreed that if he would but persevere,
and go the right way to work (though at variance
with each other as to zohich was the right way) he
would be sure of ultimate success.
To me, I must confess, it does appear that
we have been deluded by the dreams of this
legislative Alchemy quite long enough, and that
it would be our wisest plan to demolish at once
the whole apparatus, and begin, immediately,
some better course, while we are deliberating
and inquiring which is the best. But at any
rate, let us inquire. Should it be thought that
the question respecting Transportation is not
fully settled, let that be included in the inquiry :
let it be added to the list of other systems of
110 Remarks on Transportation.
secondary punishment, actual or proposed, that
shall form the subjects of examination and com-
parison by a Commission. But at least let us
not resolve, at once, in blind confidence, to
persevere at all hazards in a system whose ad-
vantages are, confessedly, prospective only, and
contingent on the successful adoption of new
and untried modifications ; for the very plea
of the advocates themselves is, that the experi-
ment has not yet been tried in the proper way.
If therefore we are resolved to admit of no
changes in any thing, but to go on, right or
wrong, in the course once adopted, then. Col.
Arthur's projected modifications must be aban-
doned : if, on the other hand, we think it right
to inquire at all, what plans will answer best,
let us inquire thoroughly ; and not take for
granted that we must, at all events, retain
Transportation, and have only to consider how
to make the best of that ; but compare together,
that, and other plans of a different character.
To concede that the Transportation-system
may be admitted, along with others, as a matter
for further inquiry, instead of being at once
rejected, is surely conceding a great deal ; con-
Commissioners for Inquiry recommended. Ill
sideling that by the unconscious admission of
its advocate, it is, at the present day " a shame-
" ful and unblessed thing," and that such a vast
amount of evils resulting from it have been so
long before the pubHc, in statements which were
then only denied, when there was a particular
object in denying them. But to cast aside all
doubt, — reject all proposals for further inquiry, —
and proceed confidently with the present system,
as if clear of all suspicion, would be a rashness
which might be characterised by a still stronger
term.
But since the main feature of my recom-
mendation — the appointment of a commission
for inquiry, — does not involve the immediate
abolition of Transportation, nor even its abo-
lition at all, should it appear, on a fair com-
parison with other plans, worthy of being
retained ; — since, in short, such a Commission
could not be inconsistent with the existence of
any plan that should be proved salutary, — why
have none of those who have undertaken to
defend the cause, attended to this circumstance ?
112 Remarks on Transportation.
why does neither Col. Arthur nor either of the
others suggest a modification of my proposal,
that penal colonies, as well as oilier peniten-
tiaries, should be subjected to the investigation
of the Commission alluded to : adding that
though such an investigation might perhaps be
superfluous, it would, at least, throw additional
light on the superiority of their system to the
rest ? And why, in short, have they never
alluded to the proposed inquiry at all?
I cannot but think we have good grounds for
suspecting a reason for this suppression ; viz. a
secret consciousness, that the system would not
stand the test of inquiry; — that it would not
hear investigation ; — and that the only hope of
maintaining it, was in deprecating inquiry and
persuading the public, by confident assurances,
to acquiesce blindly in things as they are. If
such a suspicion be unfounded, it is they who
have given a colour to it.
Be this however as it may, the fact of the
omission is before us. No reason is adduced
why the proposed inquiries and experiments
should not be made, under such a commission
as I ventured to recommend — inquiries and
Commissioners for Inquiry recommended. 113
experiments whose results must be to 'prove the
superior advantages of the present system, if
they have any real existence.
To accede to such a proposal would not (we
should remember) necessarily imply an imme-
diate condemnation of the system, but only bring-
ing it to trial : to reject the proposal, and refuse
inquiry, would imply an immediate and decisive
approbation. It would imply that there is not
even any prevailing doubt on the subject in
the public mind, nor any ground for doubt.
And which would be the more rash and which
the more cautious procedure, let any one
judge.
I am anxious therefore that it should be dis-
tinctly perceived what is the present state of the
question between the advocates of the system
and its opponents. If our conclusions be fully
admitted, the practical result must be, a reso-
lution, as the first step, to abolish at once the
system of Penal-colonies. If theirs be admitted, —
or rather some of them, to the rejection of others,
since they are mutually contradictory, — if we
fully make up our minds to acquiesce with un-
hesitating confidence, in Col. Arthur's views,
I
114 Remarks on Transportation.
in spite of what is urged by his auxiharies, —
then, we must persist in the system, without
further inquiry. But if a doubt remains in the
mind of any reader, whether they or we are in
the right — if he is not quite certain, which
party has the better of the argument, then it
is plain, he should decide in favour of the
investigation, and merely require that Trans-
portation should be included along with other
subjects of inquiry.
But against commissions of this kind a far
different class of objections have been urged,
and from a different quarter. The whole sys-
tem of appointing a commission to examine
into a particular class of subjects, — to digest
the evidence collected, — and to suggest le-
gislative measures, founded on the knowledge
thus acquired, — has been loudly condemned,
as tending to supersede the powers of Par-
liament. A cursory reader of these com-
plaints, in some distant country, would be apt
to conclude that such commissioners were in-
vested, or intended to be invested, with power
Objections urged against Commissions. 115
to enact laws. But what would be the astonish-
ment of such a reader, on learning that the
utmost legislative power given or proposed to
be given, to commissioners, amounts only to the
recommendation of laws ? — A power with which
the right of petition has long since invested everi/
individual in the realm ! And whatever weight
their recommendations can possess with Par-
liament must depend on the opinion which
Parliament itself may form of the dihgence,
uprightness, and good sense of the persons
employed, and of the soundness of the reasons
they may assign. As well therefore might it
be said that the authority of a General is sus-
pended by the aid-de-camp whom he may
despatch to procure intelligence : or that the
powers of a jury are destroyed by the pleadings
of the counsel on both sides, and by the judge's
summing up. If a jury were left to examine,
for themselves, all the witnesses, — to ascertain
unassisted all the points of law, — and to suggest
to themselves all the arguments for plaintiff
and defendant, — and if they were left to try,
on such a plan, a vast variety of causes of the
most heterogeneous kinds, in a short space of
I 2
1 1 6 Remarhs on Transportation.
time, they would then be in a situation analogous
to that in which Parliament is often left ; and
it might be expected that their decisions would
often be of that crude and hasty character
which, it cannot be denied, has but too often
been justly complained of in Acts of Parliament.
One striking instance, — or rather a long series
of instances, — of this defective legislation is
afforded by the case of the numerous acts —
amendments — repeals — and re-enactments, in
reference to the poor-laws.
The commission appointed to inquire into
this subject, (adverted to by way of example
in my former Letter,) has not hitherto dis-
appointed, but rather surpassed, any reason-
able hopes ; having even already laid before
the public more information, on points con-
nected with the inquiry, than had ever been
collected before. Indeed, one of the complaints
against this commission is, that it has obtained
us too much knowledge ; for even the specimen
already published, in one thick octavo, has been
censured as voluminous ; a censure which must
have reference to the quantity of matter com-
prised in the volume, not to its being verbose ;
Objections urged against Commissions. 117
as it evidently compresses into a comparatively
very small space a mass of evidence, which, in
the ordinary form of the Parliamentary Reports,
vi^ould have tilled several folios. And so great
is the advantage of merely enabling all to ob-
serve the immensely different consequences of
the different modes of administering even the
existing laws, and of shewing how each abuse
or improvement has been introduced, that even
if the whole benefit were to stop there, and no
legislative changes were to be made, still I am
convinced, that the spontaneous changes for
the better which would be introduced, merely
through increased knowledge, would be (though
far short of what I trust may be looked for,) yet
well worth all that the commission has cost.
There are even single parishes, in each of which,
(looking to pecuniary advantage alone, which is
far less important than moral improvement,) the
saving in poor-rates, through the adoption of
such improved management as other parishes
are thus taught to copy, would nearly, if not
quite, equal the whole expense of the com-
mission. And I fully anticipate, that the next
returns of the total amount of poor-rates will
118 Remarks on Transportation.
prove that the benefit of such examples has not
been entirely lost.
Such a statement will probably startle those
who have been taught to believe, that one great
objection to commissions of this kind is the
ruinous expense of them. We have heard com-
plaints, in reference particularly to the Poor-
Law-Commission, of '' an adequate quantity of
" salary and patronage." A two-fold evil has
thus been brought before the public mind ; not
only the actual pecuniary loss, but also the
probable danger that such lucrative situations
should be filled by incompetent men, selected
with a view to their own benefit, more than
to the public service ; in short, that the whole
business should have been made a job. And
" it is proved," we are assured on the same
authority, " that the commission was appointed,
" not for the investigation of truths but expressly
" for the purpose of finding only a preconcerted
*' class of facts, and recommending a predeter-
" mined line of opinions ; " and one suflfiicient
proof, it is added, of this, is, that one specified
individual was appointed the " chief acting man"
of the commission.
Objections urged against Commissions. 119
What must the nation think of those who
are believed to be thus squandering the public
money for such iniquitous purposes ? But what
will it think of the authors of this charge,
when it appears that the whole of it, from
first to last, is neither more nor less than
an absolute falsehood ? The salaries of the
Poor - Law - Commissioners, amount — as your
Lordship well knows, and as the pubhc ought
to know, and will know, — to nothing at all.
The coin in which they are paid consists in
the hope of benefiting their country, — in the
applause of the wise and good, — ^and in the
clamorous attacks of anonymous calumniators,
whose censures are the only honour they can
bestow. And as for patronage, it has consisted
in their inducing some of the most respectable
gentlemen in the community, in point of know-
ledge, talents, character, and station, to carry
on laborious and difficult inquiries, without any
remuneration, except the mere payment of their
travelling expenses !
Such is the dependence to be placed on
the statement oi facts by the assailants of this
commission ! I cannot but think that if such
120 Remarks on Transportation.
writers had resided but a few days among the
Houyhnhnms, they would have constrained that
innocent people to enlarge their vocabulary.
It is also false, that the individual whom these
unblushing calumniators designate, (or, I may
add, any one else,) ever was appointed the
" chief acting man " in the commission, or in
any way entrusted with any different office from
the rest of the members : as false as that the
commission was appointed, ** not for the investi-
" gation of truth ; " or that, if such a corrupt and
fraudulent design had been entertained, the re-
spectable individuals (including two distinguished
prelates of the established church) would have
taken a part in it.
But when it is considered what a multitude
of cases have been brought before the public,
each with the names of places and persons, and
all the particulars, distinctly specified, so as to
enable any one with ease to make such inquiries
as will verify or refute the accounts, it must be
admitted that there is something very curious in
the charge brought against the Commissioners,
of seeking '' not for truth, but for a precon-
" certed class of facts." As \i facts of any given
Ohjections urged against Commissions. 121
character, and that too to such an amount as to
be complained of as voluminous, were easily to
be found by any one who wished for them ! The
conduct either of the Commissioners, if their
statements are false, or else of their accusers,
exhibits an instance of audacity or falsehood
that is hardly to be paralleled.
When the opponents of a commission are
driven to resort to such foul slanders as these,
for want of better topics, may it not be fairly
suspected that their real objection is a fear lest
the commission should be found to woj'k too well,
and to reflect more credit than they wish, on the
advisers of the measure ? So great, it seems, is
the alarm felt, that further attacks on the Poor-
Law-Commission are threatened ; and, indeed,
I know not why they should not be carried on
to any extent that may be thought requisite ;
since such assailants need be at no loss for
matter of accusation, till their powers of inven-
tion are fairly exhausted.
And yet it is possible (for I would gladly
make the most favourable supposition) that the
propagators of these statements may not have
actually knoxon them to be false ; and may, on
122 Remarks on Ti-ansporiation.
their next return to the charge, retract them.
It is possible they may have proceeded merely
on conjecture ; not thinking it necessary to
verify by inquiry the conclusions drawn from
their experience of human nature ; that is, of
their own nature, and that of the persons they
may have been accustomed to act with. If
none of these have ever evinced such public
spirit as to undertake a troublesome office with-
out " adequate salary and patronage," or such
uprightness as to make the " investigation of
" truth" and the public good their object, instead
of some personal or party-advantage, it is but
natural they should take for granted that all
others are of like character, and should attri-
bute without hesitation similar views to such
men as the members of the Poor-Law-Commis-
sion :*
* The names of those individuals (which I suhjoin) would
furnish alone a sufficient answer to the calumnies with which
they have been assailed.
C. J. London. Henry Bishop.
J. B. Chester. Henry Gawler. ,
W. Sturges Bourne. W. Coulson.
Nassau W, Senior. H. Traill.
Objections urged against Commissions. 123
" Non vivitur istic
" Quo tu rere modo : domus hac nee purior ulla est
" Nee magis his aliena malis."
Painful as it is to contemplate the existence
of malignant detraction and party virulence,
those engaged in a good cause ought not only to
feel no discouragement at being so assailed, but
to congratulate themselves on finding such wea-
pons (which in the end are always hurtful to
the cause they support) employed against them,
rather than on their side. And in particular,
every one who is engaged in exposing and en-
deavouring to rectify any existing abuse, should
be prepared to encounter, from those whose
interest or prejudices enhst them on its side,
with opposition the more strenuous in propor-
tion as his efforts are the more likely to succeed.
So far, therefore, from being intimidated, he
ought rather to be encouraged by such opposi-
tion, as in some degree a favourable sign. And
if assailed with calumny and insult rather than
with calm and courteous reasoning, he should
consider that this furnishes, to a certain extent,
an indication which party is on the side of
124 Remarks on Transportatio7i.
sound reason, truth, and justice ; and should
regard it as an advantage when an adversary
of these hoists his true colours, and proclaims
himself such, by his language and demeanour.
Accordingly, in reference to the present sub-
ject, I observed in my former Letter, that
" that person is more truly and properly com-
*^ passio/iate (to waive all other considerations),
" who sets himself to devise means for the pro-
" tection of the unoffending, than he whose
" kindly feelings are bestowed chiefly on the
"■ violators of the law. And yet the former
" must prepare himself to expect from the un-
" thinking, who are, in most places, the majo-
" rity, to be censured as hard-hearted. In
** pleading the cause of the innocent in opposi-
** tion to the guilty, — in urging the claims to
" protection of the peaceable and inoffensive
" citizen, against the lawless plunderer or incen-
** diary, — and in wishing that honest men may
" be relieved from the misery of perpetual terror,
** by transferring that terror to the evil-doer, I
" am sensible that I expose myself (such is the
Fallacies relative to humane Conduct. 125
** strangely perverted state of many men's feel-
'' ings) to the charge of inhumanity." — Pp. 33, 34.
And never is the very existence of such a state of
feeling, as I there adverted to, likely to be more
strenuously and indignantly denied, than when
it is most prevalent. Whenever there happen
to be many who, either from a fellow-feeling
with the guilty, — from confusion of thought or
from a generally depraved state of moral senti-
ment, are disposed to deprecate the punishment
of offenders, and to compassionate them more
than innocent sufferers, and when there are
others who, from their own interested or ambi-
tious views, labour, for the sake of popularity, to
excite and keep up this depravation of the public
judgment, then it is that the exposure of it is
the most likely to raise an outcry, as a " hbel on
" the national character." Those who are them-
selves infected with this perversion of sentiment,
are of course unconscious of it ; and those who
seek to foster it, are the last that are likely to
acknowledge it.
In this accordingly, as well as in several other
points, the approbation, and the vituperation,
with which my views have been received, are, —
126 Remarks on Transportation.
considering the quarters they respectively come
from, — equally acceptable.
With respect to the share I have myself had
in calling public attention to the subject of
secondary punishments, and especially Trans-
portation, I need only remark, that though it
is no more my concern than that of many other
members of the legislature and of the commu-
nity, who feel an interest in the public welfare,
but who have not turned their thoughts to this
particular point, still, it must be admitted (with-
out casting any blame on others) that if no one
were ever to pay attention to any public object,
that did not officially fall within his own peculiar
province, and which therefore he could not
individually be censured for neglecting, many
more evils would remain unremedied, and many
more benefits to society unattained, than under
the prevalence of a more comprehensive public
spirit. My own attention was turned and often
strongly recalled to the subject, by several acci-
dental occurrences, which brought under my
notice facts connected with it ; chiefly, while rec-
tor of a parish in a populous district. And if to
reflect and inquire as to the means of remedying
Fallacies relative to humane Conduct. 127
or alleviating important moral and political evils,
be officious and indecorous for any one on
whom that particular duty does not officially
fall, I must plead guilty to the charge.
But the odious subject of punishments, it may
be said, is one which a person in my station and
profession, ought as much as possible to shrink
from. However productive of misery and of
demoralization, any practice connected with this
subject may be, I ought, it seems, to avert my
eyes from a painful spectacle, in order to obtain
credit for humanity.
I adverted, in my former Letter, to the mise-
rable sophistry that is afloat in reference to what
is considered as humane conduct. " Humanity
" in punishment, i. e. care to avoid the infliction
" of any useless suffering, is one of the points
" which I have mentioned as claiming our atten-
" tion : but though no one can have, strictly
" speaking, too much humanity, it is very pos-
" sible to be led by an injudicious and mis-
" directed humanity. Neither compassion, we
" should remember, nor any other feeling of
" our nature, is, in itself, either virtuous or
" vicious, but only so far as it is or is not under
128 Remarhson Transportation.
" the control of sound principle, and under the
" guidance of right reason. But the word ' hu-
" manity,' being applied loosely and indiscrimi-
" nately to the feeling, and to the virtue, leads,
" in many cases, to such conduct as is absurd
" and pernicious." — Pp. 13, 14.
Now the real state of the case is, that the
truth of the above maxim is either denied, or
doubted, or more or less clearly perceived, in
proportion, generally speaking, to the deficiency,
or greater or less endowment, of a benevolent
disposition in each individual. Those in whom
that disposition is not strong, but who are
accustomed to act on principle, are disposed to
regard benevolence only in the light of a virtue ;
because with them, every manifestation of it, is
a virtuous effort directed against their natural
selfishness. They are perhaps startled at being
told of benevolence ever being, by any possibility,
in whatever way indulged, a weakness ; because
they are not prone to any weakness of that
description. They find themselves called on
to guard against a deficiency, but seldom or
never, a misdirection, of kindly feelings. And
their indiscriminate approbation of such feelings.
Fallacies relative to humane Conduct. 129
which is in fact the result of their scanty endow-
ment with it, they not iinfrequently regard as
a proof of their superiority in this point, over
others who judge differently, in consequence of
the very circumstance of their having a more
benevolent disposition.
For, those whose temper is the most humane,
and who are at the same time accustomed to
study ^their own character, and to act on prin-
ciple, are sensible that their feelings, in this
as well as in other points, will be an unsafe
guide, except under the direction of a well-
regulated judgment. " But those (I added) who
" act from feeling, and not from principle, are
" usually led to show more tenderness towards
" the offending than the unoffending : i. e. to-
" wards the culprit, who is pj-esent, and the
" object of their senses, and whose sufferings
" or apprehensions they actually witness, than
" the absent, unknown, and undefined members
" of the community, whose persons or property
" have been endangered by him. We feel for
" an individual, especially if before our eyes,
" even though guilty ; for the public no one has,
" or can have, any feeling. Public-spirit, there-
K
130 Remarks on Transportation.
" fore, implies a benevolent habit ; and that com-
bined
-P. 14.
bined with something of reflective abstraction.
With regard, again, to the mode of proceeding
recommended, — the proposed appointment of a
Commission, the benefits even already apparent,
resulting from the labours of some of those
that have been appointed, and, much more, the
benefits which may be fully anticipated, when
their reports and suggestions shall be laid before
the public complete, will supply a much stronger
and more popular argument, in favour of such
a mode of proceeding, than any reasoning from
probabilities could afford. I am content to stake
the whole question, as to the reasonableness of
this portion of my conclusions, on the success
of the experiments, which, partly, have been
tried, and partly, are now in progress, as to the
utility of the Commissions which have been
hitherto appointed on a similar principle.
I am not without strong hopes that such a
Commission may succeed in devising some modes
of secondary punishment, even preferable to any
that have anywhere hitherto been in use. That
Advantages expected from a Commission. 131
they will be able to point out several, each far
superior to Transportation, I have the fullest
confidence. That they will find any, quite
unobjectionable, and combining -all conceivable
advantages, without any drawback, I have little
hope. Where do we find a law on any sub-
ject, — a tax, — form of government, — or human
institution of any kind, of which this can be
said ? And yet it is common for the advocates
of Transportation, when hard pressed on the
evils of that system, to ask what you would
substitute for it : and when any substitute is
suggested, to raise objections (often valid)
against that ; and require that till these are
removed, the present system should continue.
It seems modest to ask only that we should
go on as we are, not, for ever, but only, till
some plan perfectly free from all objections shall
be fixed on ; which is, in fact, " for ever." If
we were to proceed universally on this principle,
we should enact no laws, — no punishments, —
no taxes, — no mode of government at all ; since
none ever has been or can be devised, against
which there are not objections. The fair
requisition is, to suggest some system less
k2
132 RemnrJi's on Transjwrtation.
objectionable than the present. Whenever this
cannot be done, I admit that the presumption
against a change holds good. But in the
present case, the difficulty would be to find
any system that should not be less objectionable
than Transportation.
On the grounds here stated then, and on
those briefly set forth in my former Letter to
your Lordship, I feel justified in earnestly re-
peating my recommendation of the measure of
appointing a commission, for such purposes and
with such powers as I there described ; viz. to
inquire into the nature, apparent effects, and
all other circumstances, of the various modes of
preventing crime, that are now in operation, —
whether by punishments of different kinds, or by
police-regulations; — to introduce such changes
as may promise to lead to advantage into the
detail of the management of any of the existing
penitentiary-estabHshments, or other systems of
penal labour and confinement; — and to recom-
mend such legislative enactments for the im-
provement of any portions of our preventive,
penal, and corrective system, as may appear,
from the inquiries made, to be called for.
Requisite Qtialifications of Commissioners, 133
To recommend that the persons appointed to
act under such a commission, should be men
of uprightness, activity, and inteUigence, looking
rather to the public good than to " salary and
patronage," would be superfluous. And it might
seem no less superfluous to point out that they
should be honestly devoted to the " investi-
gation of truth ;" not to the promotion of some
" preconceived scheme " for the advancement
of party purposes. But, strange as it may seem,
an ardent entire devotion to the cause of truth,
has been held up to suspicion, if not to repro-
bation, as a dangerous quality. I myself in
particular have been denounced as a person
hardly fit to be trusted in such a station as I
occupy, on Recount of (what I certainly am not
disposed to disclaim) an uncompromising zeal
in seeking for and maintaining truth ; a quahty
which must render, it is said, my alledged errors
the more dangerous. And such a principle, it
should be remembered, is applicable, not to the
case of a single individual only, but universally.
For since no man, unless claims to infalUbility
be admitted, can be exempt from liabihty to
some errors, and these, it seems, become more
134 Remarks on Tranaportation.
mischievous in proportion to his sincerity, it fol-
lows, that, universally, a thorough devotedness
to truth is to be regarded with distrust as a
pernicious and dangerous endowment.
But notwithstanding any plausibility this rea-
soning may possess, I cannot but heartily wish
that such a love of truth were much more
prevalent than it is. And I feel convinced that
if those who think otherwise, would but agree
fairly and fully to try the experi?nent, they would
find the dangers they apprehend from that
quarter to be much less than they suppose.
For, in the first place, it should be recollected,
that the sincere lover of truth is somewhat the
more likely, from this circumstance, to attain
truth. Though by no means exempt from
liability to mistake, he will at least (in propor-
tion as he is of the character supposed) be
guarded against one class of delusions ; —those
which are so apt to bias the judgment of the
insincere. For it is notoriously common for
those who persevere in maintaining any false-
hood, to bring themselves at length to believe it.
This indeed is described in Scripture as the
appropriate punishment, according to the course
Requisite Qualificaliotis of Commissioners. 1 35
of providence, inflicted on insincerity. On
those who ** do not Hke to retain truth in their
hearts," God " sends a strong delusion, that
they should beheve a lie."
In the next place it must be remembered
that a real lover of truth will at least maintain
710 errors but his own ; whereas men of an
opposite character, besides any errors of their
own judgment, (to which they are as liable, we
should remember, as other men,) are ready to
maintain other errors also, which they perceive
to be such, but on the side of which their in-
terests or passions may enlist them.
We should consider likewise that he who
honestly proceeds on conviction, is the more
likely to be open to conviction ; and if satisfied
by fair proofs that his opinion is erroneous, will
at once abandon it. But a person of a contrary
character, is, — by argument at least, — incurable.
He who even happens to believe any false
notion he may be maintaining, yet maintains it
not because he believes it, but because it suits
his purpose, will be never a step the nearer to
removing it for all the reasons that can be
adduced. It is lost labour to attempt shaking
136 Remarhs on Transportation.
his conviction, even if real, when that conviction
is not so properly the cause of the course he
pursues, as the effect of it. This observation
indeed is so trite as to be embodied in the
Proverb :
" He that's convinced against his will
" Is of his own opinion still."
I would further observe, that one sincerely de-
voted to the cause of truth, though he has in
some sort an advantage, even in pleading the
cause of an error, in that air of sincere behef
which it is so difficult to assume, yet, on the
other hand, is so far the less dangerous when
he happens to be on the wrong side, that he
feels himself debarred from the use of one whole
class of weapons, which are so often found ser-
viceable in the cause of falsehood ; — from all
the dishonest artifices, of suppressing, disguising,
and inventing facts, or employing fallacious ar-
guments whose unsoundness he himself perceives.
All such arts are indeed hurtful in the end' to
the cause, at least, of truth ; but they often
produce a temporary effect ; and are often avail-
able for the support of such errors as could not
Requisite Qualifications of Commissioners. 137
otherwise be maintained at all. Accordingly I
should say, that, as far as my own observations
have extended, those most sincerely devoted to
the pursuit of truth, are, though in that cause
the most powerful advocates in the end, yet
not on the whole the most formidable defenders
of any mistaken views.
And I would add, lastly, that I have also
observed in those who are the least scrupulous
in respect of truth, a much greater degree of
malignant bitterness of hostihty towards op-
ponents. It is a matter of common remark,
that the opposition arising out of passion of
any kind, or self-interest, is incomparably more
fierce, than that which proceeds from mere
difference of judgment. And hence, each in
proportion as the principles which he upholds
are adopted rather from the dictates of passion,
or of interest, than from a sober conviction of
their truth, is liable to increased feelings of
rancour against those who differ from him.
And the more forcibly the falsity of any thing
he maintains is brought home to his under-
standing, the more will his half-stifled con-
sciousness of being in the wrong, incense him
138 Remarks on Tratisportatioji.
against those who excite this inward feehng of
self-reproach, by detecting to himself his own
sophistry. There is something pecuHarly pro-
voking in being required, on what we feel to
be good grounds, to abandon some position
which yet we have resolved at all events not
to abandon. Those, on the contrary, who agree
in their love of truth, and honestly differ in
a matter of judgment only, are not usually such
acrimonious opponents of each other : and
each, in proportion as his opinions on any sub-
ject have been formed on the more diligent and
cautious investigation, is the better qualified to
estimate the causes of mistake, and the readier
to make allowance for others who may have
fallen into such mistakes. It is only towards
the manifestly insincere, — and towards them
with more of disdain than of acrimony,^ — that
the feelings of those devoted to the cause of
truth are usually excited. But to that per-
turbation, and agitating alarm, which commonly
lead to intemperate violence, or malignant bitter-
ness, they are less and less liable, the longer
and the more earnestly they are devoted to
the cause. For to him who is engaged in that
Requisite Qualifications of Commissioners. 139
cause, it is one of the rewards of unflinching,
undeviating, unwearied perseverance in it, that
he will obtain more and more of a full and calm
confidence in its ultimate success : he will be
more and more satisfied, that though sophistry
and calumny will often, for a time, overlay and
disguise the truth, as snow-drifts and frost-work
do the surface of the earth, they are no less
certain, if we wait patiently, sooner or later, to
melt away.
In defending, even thus briefly, a quahty
which I regard as so important, from the charge
of being pernicious or dangerous, I shall per-
haps appear to many of my readers to have
undertaken a superfluous task. I have only to
add my most hearty wish, that in thinking so
they may be in the right. But fully expecting,
as I do, that the proposed Commission, if ap-
pointed, will be assailed, from various quarters,
with unsparing obloquy of various kinds, I could
not but thus proclaim my conviction that its
defence must be sought in a strict adherence
to the cause of truth ; and that, that cause will,
in the end, prove triumphant. That Commis-
sioners of undeviating uprightness and intrepid
140 Remarks on Transportation.
public-spirit must be sought for, and that such
may be found, I am fully persuaded. That
they may be censured by some as not being
devoted to the " investigation of truth," and
by others, perhaps, as advocating some erroneous
conclusions, the more dangerous on account of
their devotion to truth, and that they will be
exposed to every other reproachful imputation
that the factious, the prejudiced, and the selfish
can heap upon them, is highly probable. But
I can have no doubt that if they persevere
undaunted in the discharge of such duties as
I have supposed entrusted to them, they will
bring about the most important public be-
nefits, and obtain, sooner or later, the nation's
gratitude.
I fully trust that his Majesty's ministers will
not be intimidated by declamatory and ground-
less vituperation, from perseverance in any
course of measures which calm reason may
dictate and experience sanction, as beneficial.
And I trust they will be deterred neither by
vehement, but unproved assertions, nor by the
clamour of those who are either interested in
the support of abuses, or courting by the lowest
Requisite Qualifications of Commissioners. 141
means the lowest kind of popularity, from fully
and fairly investigating a subject, which, in the
opinion of a large and intelligent portion of the
community, calls loudly for inquiry ; or from
adopting boldly whatever measures may seem
best adapted to remove or to alleviate evils
which have been already too long submitted to
in thoughtless apathy.
I have the honour to be.
My Lord,
Your Lordship's faithful •
and Obedient Humble Servant,
R. DUBLIN.
Dublin,
January 25, 1834.
APPENDIX, No. I.
At the end of my former Letter I extracted, among
other passages, from the Report of the Committee of the
House of Commons (1832) on Secondary Punishments,
the following: —
" The punishment of mere transportation to New
" South Wales, as they will hereafter have occasion to
" show, is not sufficient to deter from the commission of
" crime, and as yet no means have been suggested of
" inflicting adequate punishment in the penal colonies
" without entailing a very great additional expense on
" the country. It is therefore necessary, that the more
" exclusively penal part of the sentence of criminals con-
" demned to transportation, should be inflicted before
" they are sent to New South Wales."
On this passage an intelligent writer in the Law
Magazine [No. XIX. pp. 10, 11,] remarks: —
" In other words, because transportation is sometimes
" a reward, and never a punishment, therefore it is to
" be used as a means of punishment : because transpor-
" tation is not formidable, therefore it must be added to
" imprisonment, which is formidable, in order that the
" legislature may not too much discourage the commission
" of crime in England ; that it may found a colony with
146 Appendix, No. \.
** the dregs of a large nation, to be a spectacle of licen-
" tiousness and crime, such as the world never saw ; that
** the thieves may be drafted in order to injure the colony
" by the indulgence of their vicious propensities, and the
" mother country by the example of their prosperity.
" Such an arrangement would be like that of a shipowner,
*' who, finding his vessel to be leaky and unsound, should
" purchase a new one, but continue to perform half the
" voyage in the old and dangerous bottom : or of the
" madman, who constantly put on the clean linen which
" his servant prepared for him, but resolutely refused to
" part with the dirty linen which he had already worn.
" When we consider the manifold evils which the trans-
" portation of convicts necessarily occasions, both to the
" society which sends, and that which receives them ;
" the incurable corruption caused by the close association
" during the voyage, the long delay arising from the dis-
" tance of the colony, the impossibility of punishing
" persons at large, the uncertainty and inequality of the
" lot of convicts quartered upon different persons in town
*' and country, the remoteness of the pilace of punishment
'' from the persons on whom the example is to work, the
" disproportion of the sexes on account of the greater
" number of male convicts, the necessity, in governing a
" convict-society, of making the maintenance of order
" and the avoiding of expense, primary objects, and the
*' punishment of convicts only a secondary object ; the
" necessity of establishing subsidiary Penal Settlements,
*' in order to punish convicted convicts : when we con-
" sider all these and many other mischiefs, inseparable
From the "Examiner'' 145
" from every shade and modification of this pernicious
" system, we cannot forbear from entertaining the strong-
" est conviction, that nothing short of its entire aboHtion
" ought to be acquiesced in, or from expressing a most
" anxious hope, that the legislature of this country will
" never be persuaded merely to add, instead of substitu-
" ting, a real infliction of pain and suffering for this
" shadow and mockery of a punishment."
The addition proposed, of an efficacious to an ineffi-
cacious sentence, reminds one of the well-known tale of
the man who pretended to make good soup of pebbles,
by boiling them a sufficient length of time, along with
sundry other ingredients, among which was a neck of
mutton. In this case, however, the pebbles had at least
the merit of doing no harm.
APPENDIX, No. II.
{From the " Examiner," Sept. 15th, 183,}.)
Surrey Sessions. — Tuesday, Sept. 10th.
A Candidate for Transportation. — George Jones
was indicted for stealing a telescope, and a trifling amount
of money, the property of an old man named Stevenson.
The prosecutor was in the habit of attending fairs, and
at the late fair at Mitcham he employed the prisoner,
who was in a destitute condition at the time. On the
L
146 /Ippendix, No. 2.
last day of the fair the prisoner, taking advantage of the
confidence reposed in him, broke open a box, from which
he took the property mentioned in the indictment.
The Jury returned a verdict of GuiUy ; and, it being
the first offence, the Chairman sentenced the prisoner to
six months' imprisonment. The prisoner implored the
Court to send him out of the country. " There is no
use," added he, " in locking me up in prison for a little »
time, for I shall come out worse than I went in, and
must then, in earnest, be compelled to seek my bread by
plunder. I therefore entreat the Court to transport me ;
for I shall do better in a foreign land than here." The
prisoner's father here ascended the witness-box, and
urged his son's request with great earnestness ; at the
same time saying, that the lad could not obtain work,
and that he (the father) being unable to support him, he
was therefore desirous that he should be sent to the
Colonies, where he would have some chance of doing
well.
The Chairman told the prisoner's father, that if the
Court had sentenced his child to transportation for the
offence, his life abroad would be that of slavery, in every
sense of the word. The Chairman then inquired, if it
was not the first time the prisoner had been tried, and
the answer being in the affirmative, he said that the
sentence could not be reversed ; and added, that when
the prisoner had undergone the punishment of his im-
prisonment, it was the duty of his parent to obtain
employment for him, and keep him out of bad company.
Fro7n the ''Examiner.'' 147
{From the " Examiner" Oct. 6th, 1833.)
Marlborough Street.
A Candidate for Transportation. — A labouring man,
named Golding, nearly blind, was charged with having
committed an act of felony.
A policeman said the defendant came up to him on
Saturday, in Regent Street, and told him he had just
stolen two pieces of sponge, which he produced. The
policeman asked where he took them fi-om, and he
pointed out the shop of a tradesman in that street. The
prisoner told him, that if he did not take him into
custody, he would do something worse, for he was in
such a state of destitution, that he wanted to be trans-
ported. The sponges, when produced, could not be
identified ; upon which Mr. Chambers said, the prisoner
would, perhaps, find some difficulty in getting his wishes
accomplished, as the law was not now so accommodating.
The Magistrate thought the best way of ending the
matter was by selling the sponges, and giving the prisoner
the money, to help him to his parish at Carlisle. One
of the officers gave five shillings for them, which were
handed over to the prisoner, and he left the office very
much astonished at his good luck.
{From the " Exatniner," Sept. 8th, 1833.)
Old Bailey. — Friday, Sept. 7th.
W. Higan, a private in the first regiment of Guards,
was convicted of stealing a small bag, containing two
L 2
148 ^ppendir, No. 2.
shillings and sixpence, and some halfpence, from a
woman whom he accosted in the street.
He cross-examined the prosecutrix very sharply, as
to her habit of attending the barracks, and the degree of
intimacy that existed between her and the soldiers. The
Common Sergeant having sentenced him to seven years'
transportation, he coolly answered, — " Thank you, my
Lord ; transportation is better than soldiering."
{From the " Exaumier,'' Oct. 20th, 1833.)
Marlborough Street.
The Condition of a Convict jtref erred to that of a
Soldier. — Robert Blakie was charged, on Tuesday, with
having stolen a silver watch, belonging to Ann Lamb.
When the prisoner was first taken into custody, on Tuesday
week, the prosecutrix betrayed such evident reluctance
to press the charge, and prevaricated so grossly in her
account of the transaction, that Mr. Conant directed he
should be remanded until Tuesday last, in order that
a full investigation should take place. When brought
up for re-examination, the prosecutrix admitted that the
statement she had made on the previous day was entirely
false ; and, in fact, that the prisoner, Robert Blakie, had
stolen her watch. Policeman A. 77, who took Blakie,
said he had every reason to believe that his prisoner was
a deserter from the 90th Regiment of Foot, as he found
a description in the Hue and Cry which exactly applied
to him. Blakie said he was willing to save all further
trouble, by confessing to the felony. He had taken the
Report of the Prison Discipline Society. 149
watch, in the hope of being sent out of the country.
Some time ago he had enhsted as a soldier, but he had
lately got disgusted with the profession, and in order to
make himself clear of the army, he preferred being sent
to trial, and transported as a felon. Mr. Conant asked
him if he had really committed the offence from a dis-
taste to the military profession? The prisoner replied
that it was really the case. While he was a soldier he
felt himself little better than a slave ; but if sent to
New South Wales, he hoped in time to get his living
at the trade he had been bred to, and, as a mechanic, to
become a useful member of society. The prisoner was
fully committed.
APPENDIX, No. III.
Extract from Report of the Prison Discipline Society.
An agent of the Prison Discipline Society, at the
request of the warden of the prison, visited Montpelier,
during the session of the Legislature, and, at the request
of the governor, urged the importance of the measure
upon the members of both branches of the Legislature,
in joint meeting in the Representatives' Chamber, by a
disclosure of many appalling facts from the interior of
prisons, showing the necessity, in all such establishments,
of solitary dormitories. A law was passed within a fort-
150 Appendix, No. 3.
night, with almost entire unanimity, in favour of the
measure.
As soon might you expect to turn from his wanderings
an unfortunate youth, by introducing him into the com-
panionship of a den of thieves, as into a penitentiary, in
which opportunities for social intercourse, either by day
or night, is admitted. The old offender takes delight in
relating to his companions his cunning devices, his daring
exploits, and his hairbreadth escapes ; and the young,
ever ready to seize upon the marvellous, rather than to
nurture wholesome maxims, commit to memory lessons
of depravity, as the foundation of their practice and
future destiny. It has been very justly observed, that
" our penitentiaries are so many schools of vice. They
*' are so many seminaries to impart lessons and maxims
'' calculated to banish legal restraint, moral consideration,
" pride of character, and self-regard. They have their
" watch-words, their technical terms, their peculiar lan-
" guage, and their causes and objects of emulation. Let
" us ask any sagacious observer of human nature,
" acquainted with the internal police of our prisons,
" to suggest a school where the commitment of the most
" pernicious crimes can be taught with the most effect;
" could he select a plan more fertile in the most per-
*' nicious results, than the indiscriminate society of
" knaves and villains of all ages and degrees of guilt?"
" It is in the cells that every right principle is eradicated,
" and every base one instilled. They are nurseries of
" crime, where the convict is furnished with the ex-
" pedients and shifts of guilt, and, with his invention
Report of the Prison Discipline Society. 151
" sharpened, he is let loose upon society in a ten-fold
" degree a more daring, desperate, and effective villain ! "
It is not yet four years since the passing of the law,
providing for the present organization of the prison, and
not quite two years since the completion of the new
building, enabled the government to carry into full ope-
ration the system contemplated by that law. Even in
this short period, the success of the system is obvious to
the most careless observer, and is more and more con-
spicuous as the institution is more closely scrutinized.
The nature and extent of the improvement can be
realized only by comparing the former with the actual
condition of the prison. Formerly, the facilities for the
intercourse of the convicts with each other, and even
with strangers, their controul of the money allowed them
under the name of over-stint, and, above all, the confine-
ment of several in the same cell, without superintendence
during the night, gave them means and opportunities, for
corrupting each other, for evading the regulations, and
defeating the objects of the prison, and for endangering
the public peace. They were constantly engaged in plots,
not only for their own escape, but for the perpetration
of felonies by associates without the walls, or by those of
their own number who were about to be liberated ; so
that many of the most flagitious crimes committed in this
vicinity, were contrived or suggested within the prison
itself; and it was by no means uncommon, immediately
after the discharge of a convict, to hear of some new
atrocity in the neighbourhood.
The recent and not yet hardened criminal, being here
152 Ap2)enclix, No. 3.
exposed to the steady influence of the worst intercourse
and the worst example, and far removed from every
moral restraint, soon became familiar with every species
of guilt, reckless of punishment, and the slave of vices
which at once brutalized his intellect and prostrated his
strength, till all were brought down nearly to a level
with the most abandoned. At the same time, their
various offences exposed them to frequent punishment,
and kept them in perpetual apprehension of being de-
tected by some officer, or betrayed by some companion.
Devoted to such pursuits, and absorbed by such feelings,
they seemed to regard themselves as the irreconcileable
enemies of society, and became entirely inaccessible to
all human sympathy, and to all moral or religious im-
pressions. Obduracy was to them manliness, and every
thing like compunction was a subject of ridicule. This
state of things was not peculiar to our own prison ; it
belongs to all which are conducted on the same principles
by which that was then regulated — to all in which the
controul of money, a ready communication by day with
each other, and unrestrained intercourse with several of
their companions by night, are allowed to persons guilty
of every crime not capital.
On the other hand, by the system now in operation
here, the convicts are precluded from all intercourse with
each other or with strangers, and are confined each in
his solitary cell at night.
153
APPENDIX, No. IV.
To the Editor of " The Times"
Sir, — I have been urged to give publicity to the facts
contained in the following paper ; and if it be calculated
to excite in others the same profound interest and pity
which led me to record them, it is, perhaps, my duty not
to withhold them from the public; for among your readers
there must be some who have the power to give some-
thing better than tears and sympathy to the unhappy
beings whom England is, or believes herself to be, com-
pelled to drive from her bosom. If any such read these
details, it is possible that the abandonment of these poor
offenders to all the desperation of inevitable and reckless
vice, may in time become less absolute. If so, the hun-
dred victims who perished in the Amphitrite, before my
eyes, will not have perished wholly in vain.
It is, perhaps, necessary that I should say something
as to the credibility of the evidence on which the sub-
joined statements are founded. What I can say is this :
from the time that Owen and Rice, the two rescued
seamen, were taken into the Marine Hotel, the one
insensible, the other nearly so, to the time the former
embarked for England, exactly a month, he was much
within my sight or hearing. Having written to his
friends at his dictation, and rendered other little services
to him and his shipmate, it is natural that they should
154 Appendix, No. 4.
have talked with greater freedom before me than before
most other persons. Expressions which they let fall
incidentally aroused my curiosity as to the condition of
the women, which I saw had strongly excited the com-
miseration and disgust of both those men, — commiseration
of the youthful, the penitent, the decent, and quiet, —
disgust at the atrocious and the hardened. Even to these
two young men, with no better lights than those of
nature and humanity (the one having lived on the sea
from five years old, and having taught himself to read
and write, the other not having even that degree of in-
struction,) it was evident that there was cruelty and
injustice in thus binding together half-extinguished virtue
and inveterate vice, in this fore-dooming of female in-
fancy to foulness and destruction. To those acquainted
with men of their class, I need not say that this sentiment
was not expressed in any general propositions, but was
obvious from the manner of relating individual facts.
Both told me that nothing on earth would induce them
to sail again in a female convict vessel.
For my own satisfaction (if I may use the word) I
therefore requested Owen to let me write down his
answers to some questions on the subject, which he
willingly did. What follows is the sum of his answers ;
my questions I did not write, they may be inferred. I
am bound to add, and I am glad of any occasion to do
justice to these poor men, that I never saw reason, in any
one instance, to doubt their veracity, — that Owen's state-
ments, particularly, from his superior intelligence and
experience, had the greatest distinctness, and never, on
Loss of the Amphitrite. 155
any one point, varied or conflicted, — that of the nume-
rous inhabitants of the Marine Hotel, there is not one
who will not gladly bear testimony to his constant
sobriety, good conduct, and honourable feeling. Your
English readers will pardon me for talking of the honour
of a poor man, of which I could cite more than one in-
stance, known to few besides myself. I think, therefore,
such a man, having no conceivable interest to falsify the
facts, may fairly be regarded as a credible witness, par-
ticularly as his evidence is confirmed by his shipmate.
It will be sufficiently obvious, that I wrote down what he
said nearly verbatim.
There is one passage which I hesitated to publish,
from the fear that it might wound the most excellent lady
mentioned in it; not for her own sake, for ingratitude
can wound her only as an indication of failure in her
benevolent attempts at the culture of virtuous feelings,
but for the sake of the unhappy beings whom habitual
vice has steeled against such cares as her's. But till we
know the extent of the evil, we cannot resort to new
remedies with any chance of success ; till we see how
and why one system had failed, it is pains thrown away
to look for another. It is therefore right that this excess
of depravity, in one class of convicts, should be known
through its peculiar symptoms.
I have only to add, that no individual whatever has
had the least share in the preparation of the following
paper, and that whatever of blame may attach to it, is
due solely to myself. I am, Sir, yours obediently,
Boulogne-sur- Mer, Oct. 7.
156 Appendix, No. 4.
P. S. I ought to have mentioned that Owen said he
had a Ust of the women's names, the places they came
from, and, I think, their offences. This, with every
thing he possessed, was lost.
Facts relating to the Condition and Treatment of Female Con-
victs, on their Passage to Botany Bay ; collected from the
Mouth of John Oiven, Boatswain of the Amphitrite Female
Convict Vessel, wrecked off Boulogne, Aug. 31, 1833, and
confirmed by John Richard Rice, Seaman of the same.
There were 108 female prisoners on board the vessel :
twelve of these women had children with them. The
ages of the prisoners were from about twelve to about
fifty ; those of the children, from about five weeks to
about nine years, excepting one girl of fourteen.
The children were always with the women ; there was
no attempt at separation ; they were all together. The
women slept three in a bed. The beds ran the whole
length of the ship, fore and aft. Between every three
beds was a board. The women who had a child had
two other women also in their beds. The women all
seemed very tender mothers, with the exception of one
old Scotchwoman, who treated her child very cruelly ; it
was a boy of three years old. Owen remembers only one
woman who instructed her child — a boy of seven or
eight. She used to teach him to read regularly every
day. He was a natural child. The woman had been a
prostitute, and came from Ratcliflfe-highway. Her name
was . The language and behaviour of some
of the women was outrageous and disgusting beyond any
Loss of the Amphitrite. 157
thing the men had ever heard. Owen has frequently
been obhged to throw pails of water over them, as the
only means of keeping them at a distance from the crew.
All this language and behaviour the children were ex-
posed to hear and see night and day. He believes it to
be the general rule on board female convict vessels, that
there should be no communication between the prisoners
and the crew, and that the former do not go to the fore
part of the ship. The women on board the Amphitrite
had the range of the deck. The doctor let them go
where they liked; he never took any notice if they did
not make a riot. The doctor had the sole management
of them ; never heard him expostulate, advise, or in any
way converse with them. There was no attempt at
restraint, instruction, or government of any kind ; only,
if one was riotous, he had her brought upon deck, and
put into a thing like a watch-box, in which they could
not sit, and could only just stand upright. It was very
strongly built: no opening, except some small holes
at the top to admit air. The women were sometimes
shut up in this for hours at a time. This was the only
punishment. There was no reward or encouragement
for good conduct: no attempt to keep them employed.
The captain never interfered with them in any way ; it
was not his business. The only order he ever gave them
was, to bring up their beds on deck every fine morning.
That was the only thing they were ever set to do : all
their other employment was at their own pleasure. The
doctor's wife never spoke to any of them, nor took any
notice of them, except to call Poole, the woman who
158 Appendix, No. 4.
attended upon lier. There was no divine service on
board. Each woman had a Bible given her at Wool-
wich, by Mrs. Fry, and two other Quaker ladies. Most
of them could read and write. Those from Newgate
had been taught in the school there. Mrs. Fry and the
other ladies came on board at Woolwich four or five
times, and read prayers. Most of the women sewed a
good deal. Almost all had a trunk or box of clothes.
Part of these were furnished by Government, or by the
counties from which they came.
In reply to my inquiries as t& the previous life and
habits of the women, the sum of Owen's answers was as
follows : — Forty of the women were from Newgate.
Most of these were very young; the oldest did not
seem above thirty. Many of them were from Ratcliffe-
highway and from Westminster ; some from Chelsea.
Most of them had been prostitutes : some were very
hardened and outrageous. Those who had been in New-
gate the longest were the worst. It was Owen's place,
as boatswain, to sling the chair for Mrs. Fry and the
other ladies, when they came on board. He heard the
Newgate girls wish she might fall overboard and be
drowned. Some of them appeared very well disposed.
He thinks if they had been kept from the bad ones, and
taken pains with, they would have behaved very well.
All the girls on board, under the age of fifteen or sixteen,
were from Newgate.
There were eighteen women from Scotland. These
were the worst, and most ferocious and hardened on
board. They wei'e almost all above forty : only one
Loss of the Amphitrite. 159
young woman among them. There was not one tolerably
decent. Then* language was the most disgusting that
can be conceived, and they were always quarrelling and
fighting, and stealing from the other women. Owen
does not remember what were their offences. Several
of them had children. One had a daughter on board,
fourteen years of age ; she had been in the hospital
nearly from the time they sailed, and was not expected
to live.
Owen does not recollect how many Irish women there
were. The number was not great. There were none
remarkably bad among them. None of them had
children.
The best behaved of the women were from the coun-
ties of England, particularly three from Worcestershire.
They were all young. They had all been prostitutes at
Worcester, and were transported for some acts of violence
towards the police. The eldest was twenty-three. Her
name was . She was extremely beautiful. These
three girls always kept together, and did not associate
with the others. They were always quiet and well
behaved. They used to sit together constantly, reading
the Bible and other books, sewing, and singing hymns
When they sailed, two of them were put into the same
bed with one of the Newgate women. The next morn-
ing they complained to the doctor, that they could not
bear to sleep with her, her language and behaviour were
so indecent and offensive to them. They were then
allowed to sleep with the other Worcester woman. Two
were enceinte, and would have been brought to bed on
160 Appendix, No. 4.
board. When the ship struck, was the only one
who did not go down to fetch a bundle of clothes. They
expected to go ashore in the boats. Owen asked her
why she did not ; she said, if she could save her life, she
did not mind the rest. He fetched her bonnet for her.
After this he saw no more of her.
There was one woman, of about twenty-eight, from
Nottingham ; she was very quiet and steady ; she used to
wait on the doctor's wife ; her name was Poole ; she had
a great quantity of clothes. There was one from Hull,
of about twenty-two, very quiet. Several from Man-
chester and from Norwich. Remembers nothing remark-
able about them. Two from Liverpool, extremely bad;
never saw more abandoned girls ; the eldest was not
more than seventeen. Does not remember any from the
west of England. There was one Welch girl, not above
nineteen ; she could not speak a word of English : the
others robbed her the first day she came on board. She
was the most dejected of the whole. She used to stand
at the gangway from morning till night, looking on the
water, and crying. For a fortnight they could not get
her to eat ; she would take nothing but a drink of cold
water, or now and then an apple or a pear. Owen thinks
she was from Beaumaris. Forgets what was her crime.
She was perfectly quiet.
Owen observed very little kindness among the prison-
ers. They did not generally seem to be dejected, nor to
regard transportation as a punishment. A great many
said they never meant to go back to England. Only
three were transported for life. One of them was from
Appendix, No. 5. 161
Newgate, and one from Scotland ; foi'gets where the
other came from. Some had been in Newgate four or
five months : these were the worst.
APPENDIX, No. V.
Extracts from Remarks of the French Commissioners on
the American System of Secondary Punishments.
The pmiishment of Transportation intimidates no one,
and emboldens many in the path of crime. To avoid the
immense expense incurred by keeping the convicts under
guard in Australia, England, as we have just seen, re-
stores a great number to liberty, soon after they set foot
in the penal colony.
*******
*******
It is true, that from this combination of efforts, it
sometimes results, that the man, rejected by the mother-
country, becomes a useful and respected member of
society in the Colony ; but we still more frequently see
him, whom the fear of punishment would have forced to
lead a regular life in England, infringing the laws which
he might have respected, because the punishment with
which he is threatened, has nothing to terrify him, but
often rather flatters his imagination, than checks him in
his career.
" Numbers of convicts," says Mr. Bigges, in his Report
M
162 Remarks of the French Commissioners
to Lord Bathurst, "are detained in Australia much more
" by the facilities for subsisting, the chances of gain they
" there meet with, and the freedom of manners which
" prevails, than through the vigilance of the police, — a
" singular punishment, we must allow, from which the
*' condemned fear to escape! In fact, to many English-
" men, transportation is little more than an emigration
" to the Austral settlements at the expense of the state."
This consideration could not fail to occur to a people
justly renowned for skill in the art of governing the
community.
We also find, in an official letter, written by Lord
Bathurst, on the 6th of January, 1819, this declara-
tion, — " The terror at first inspired by transportation
" gradually diminishes, and crimes increase in the same
*' proportion." They have increased beyond all calcu-
lation. The number of those condemned to transpor-
tation, which in 1812 was 662, had, in fact, successively
risen to 3,130, in the year 1819, the period of Lord B.'s
letter ; and in 1828 they amounted to 4,500.
The partisans of the system of transportation cannot
deny these facts ; but they say that the system has,
at least, this result, — the rapid foundation of a Colony
which quickly returns to the mother-country in riches
and power more than it has cost her. Thus considered,
transportation is no longer a penal system, but a method
of colonization. In this point of view it deserves to
occupy, not only the attention of the friends of hu-
manity, but of statesmen, and also of all those who
exercise any infiuence over the destiny of nations.
on Secondary Punishments in America. 163
We do not ourselves hesitate to say, the system of
transportation appears to us as ill appropriated to the
formation of a colony, as to the suppression of crimes
o at home. Without doubt it pours into the country
they wish to colonize, a population who would not,
perhaps, of themselves, have gone there ; but the state
gains little from these precocious fruits, and it might
have been desirable to leave things to follow their own
course. And first, if the colony really increases with
rapidity, it soon becomes difficult to maintain the penal
establishment with little expense. The population of
New South Wales, in 1819, consisted only of about
29,000 inhabitants, and the care of them was already
become difficult ; already the idea of erecting prisons
to shut up the convicts has been suggested to the govern-
ment, being precisely the European system, with its
vices, at the distance of 5,000 leagues.
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
The colonies of Australia will be the more ready to
renounce their connexion with England, as there exists
in the hearts of the inhabitants little good-will towards
her. And this is one of the most fatal effects of the
system of transportation applied to the colonies. In
general nothing is more tender than the feeling which
binds the colonists to the soil which has given them
birth. In spite of the ocean which divides them, early
recollection, habit, interest, prejudice, all still unite them
to the mother - country. Many European nations have
derived, and continue to derive both strength and glory
M 2
1G4 Remarks of the French Commissioners
from these distant connexions. One year before the
American revolution, the colony whose fathers had, a
century and a half back, left the shores of Great Britain,
still spoke of England as their home. But the name of
the mother-country only recalls to the memory of the
transported the remembrance of miseries sometimes un-
merited. It is there that he has been unfortunate,
persecuted, guilty, dishonoured. What ties unite him
to a country, where, most generally, he has left no one
who is interested in his fate? How can he wish to
establish commercial or friendly connexions with home ?
Of all parts of the globe, that in which he was born
seems to him the most odious. It is only the place
in which his history is known, and where his shame
has been divulged.
We can scarcely doubt but that these hostile feelings
of the colonist are perpetuated in future generations ;
and in the United States, we may still recognize the
Irish, among this rival people of England, by their hatred
to their former masters. The system of transportation
is, then, fatal to mother-countries, as it enfeebles the
natural ties which ought to unite them to their colonies ;
it also prepares for these infant nations a futurity of
storm and misery.
The partisans of penal colonies do not fail to cite the
example of the Romans, with whom the conquest of
the world was preceded by a life of plunder. But the
facts of which they speak are remote ; others more
conclusive have passed almost under our own obser-
vation ; and we cannot think it necessary to refer to
on Secondary Punishments in America. 165
examples given at the distance of 3,000 years, when
the present speaks so loudly.
Some few sectaries landed, towards the beginning of
the seventeenth century, on the coasts of North Ame-
rica; they there formed almost in secret a society
founded on liberty and religion. This band of pious
adventurers has since become a great people, and the
nation created by them has remained the freest and
most faithful in the world. In an island depending on
the same continent, and almost at the same epoch, a
band of pirates, the scum of Europe, came to seek an
asylum. These depraved, but intelligent men, also esta-
blished there a society, which soon forsook the predatory
habits of its founders. It became rich and enlightened,
but remained the most corrupt people in the world,
and its vices prepared the bloody catastrophe which
terminated its existence. In fine, without seeking the
examples of New England and St. Domingo, it would
suffice us, in order to make our view of the subject
better understood, to expose what passes in Australia
itself.
Society in Australia is divided into different classes,
as distinct and inimical to each other as the different
classes of the middle age. The criminal is exposed to
the contempt of him who has obtained his liberty ; he,
to the outrage of his own son, born free ; and all, to the
pride of the colonist whose origin is without blemish.
They resemble four hostile nations meeting on the same
soil. We may judge of the feelings which animate these
different members of the same })eople, by the following
1 66 Remarks of the French Commifi si oners
extract from the Report of Mr. Bigges : — " As long as
" these sentiments of jealousy and enmity subsist," says
he, "the introduction of trial by jury into the colony
" must not be thought of. In the actual state of things, a
"jury composed of former criminals cannot fail to combine
" against an accused person belonging to the class of free
" colonists; in the same manner, juries chosen from among
" free colonists, will always think they show the purity of
" their own class in condemning an old convict against
" whom a second accusation should be directed."
In 1820 only an eighth of the children received any
instruction in Australia. The government of the colony,
however, opened public schools at its own expense ;
knowing, as Mr. Bigges remarks, that education only
can overcome the fatal influence exercised by the vices
of their parents. In fact, what is most wanting in the
Australian society, is purity of manners. And how can
it be otherwise? In a community composed of simple
elements, the force of example, and the influence of
public opinion, can scarcely restrain human passions.
In 1828, out of 36,000 inhabitants of Australia, 23,000,
or nearly twb-thirds, belonged to the class of criminals.
Australia was then placed in this singular position, that
vice had the support of the majority. The women also
had lost those traces of modesty and virtue which cha-
racterize their sex in the mother-country, and the greater
part of its free colonies ; though the government en-
couraged marriage as much as possible, and often at the
expense of discipline, the fourth part of the children
were bastards. There is also a cause, in some degree
on Secondary Punishments in America. 167
material, which is opposed to the establishment of good
manners in penal colonies, and which, on the contrary,
facihtates irregularities and prostitution.
In all countries women commit infinitely fewer crimes
than the men. In France, women only form a fifth of
the condemned ; in America, only a tenth. A colony
partly founded by the aid of transportation, necessarily
presents a great disproportion in number between the two
sexes. In 1828, out of the 36,000 inhabitants of Aus-
tralia, they could only reckon 8,000 women, or less than
a fourth of the whole population. Now we may easily
conceive, and experience also proves, that if the manners
of a people are pure, the two sexes will be found pretty
nearly on a level with each other. But not only in-
fringements of moral precepts are frequent in Australia ;
more crimes are there committed against the positive
laws of society, than in any other country. The annual
number of executions in England is about sixty, while in
the Australian colonies, which are governed by the same
legislation, peopled with men belonging to the same
race, and which yet contain only 40,000 inhabitants,
they reckon from fifteen to twenty executions every
year.
In fine, among the English colonies, Australia is the
only one deprived of that precious civil liberty which
has constituted the glory of England, and the strength
of her children in all parts of the world. How could
the functions of a jury be confided to men who have
just been condemned in an English court ? And can
the direction of public affairs be entrusted without danger
168 A2)j)endix, No. 6.
to a population harassed by its vices, and divided by
a mutual hatred?
We must allow that transportation may succeed in
rapidly peopling a desert country ; it may form free
colonies, but not solid and peaceful communities. The
vices which we thus remove from Europe are not de-
stroyed, they are only transported to another soil ; and
England only expels a part of her refuse to bequeath
them to her children of her Austral dominions.
APPENDIX, No. VI.
Extract from the Prospectus of the South Australian
Association.
It will be proposed for the consideration of His
Majesty's Government, that the Charter of Incorporation
shall contain provisions (amongst others) to the following
effect :
I. The Colony to be erected into a Province under the
name of South Australia, extending from the 132d to
the 141st degree of East longitude, and from the South
coast including the adjacent islands northward to the
tropic of Capricorn.
II. The whole of the territory within the above limits
to be oi)en to settlement by British subjects.
South Australian Association. 169
III. Provided that within the said limits, no waste or
public land shall become private property, save by one
means only ; viz. by purchase at a fixed minimum price,
or as much above that price as the competition of public
auction may determine.
V. That the Trustees be empowered, within certain
limits, to increase the minimum price of land from time
to time, so as to adjust the ratio between the appropriated
land and the population of the colony, as experience may
dictate.
VIII. That the whole of the purchase money of waste
or public land be employed in conveying labourers, natives
of the British Isles, to the Colony.
IX. That the emigrants conveyed to the Colony with
the purchase-money of waste land, be of the two sexes in
equal numbers, and that the Corporation be bound to
give a preference amongst the applicants for a passage
cost free, to young married persons not having children ;
so that for any given outlay of their money, the pur-
chasers of land may obtain the greatest amount of
labour to cultivate the land, and of population to enhance
its value.
X. That until the Colony be settled, and the sales of
waste or public land shall have produced an emigration
fund adequate to the want of labour in the Colony, the
Corporation of Trustees have authority to raise money
on loan by the issue of bonds or otherwise, bearing
colonial interest, for the purpose of conveying selected
labourers to the Colony ; so that the first body of emi-
grating capitalists going out to buy land, may, from the
N
170 A])j)endix, No. 7.
first, be supplied with labour. And that until such loan
or loans be repaid with interest, the Corporation be held
bound to apply all the net proceeds of the sales of land
in repayment of such loans.
APPENDIX, No. VII.
The sentiments of Bacon on this point are probably
what a writer in the Law Magazine thus expresses : —
Colonies are subordinate political societies belonging
to the society which is their mother-country, si^^ject
with her to one sovereign power, and equally entitled
to its protection and consideration. To establish a
colony, therefore, in order to serve as a drain for the
impurities of the mother-country, is to do an act which
no casuistry can defend ; nor has any one a right to
complain if, as unquestionably must happen, it redounds
to the mischief of the mother-country. Even if it
were possible, by founding a new society with the
worst outcasts of a large nation, to exterminate or
greatly reduce the body of persons who live by the
commission of crime, nothing could, in our opinion,
justify such a measure. In a large nation, the dis-
charged convicts, whether criminals or not, could
never, under a tolerable penal system, make a large
part of the whole population ; and if criminals are
Law Magazine. 171
** mischievous when they form a small part of the com
" munity, what must they be when they form the whole?
*' The fable of the old man and the bundle of sticks, it
" should be remembered, is as true of the union of bad
*' as of good men ! But it is not possible to reduce the
" number of criminals by drafting off convicts to a place
" of reward; and we may say of transportation without
" punishment, what has been said of emigration without
" amendment of the poor laws, that ' to attempt to dimi-
" nish crime by removing a portion of criminals, and yet
" leaving in full force the most powerful machinery ever
" applied to the increase of crime, is to attempt to ex-
" haust by continual pumping the waters of a perpetual
*' fountain.' There is no doubt that wicked men, intent
*' oiiFthe commission of crime, whether they have been
" convicted or not, are an evil to a country ; nevertheless
*' they are a less evil in the mother-country than in a
*' penal colony. Poisons which are almost harmless,
" when extenuated and diffused in a large mass, work
" with a fatal vigour if taken in a concentrated and
*' separate form. Nor is it a simple question of nume-
" rical proportion, whether a bad man is more mis-
*' chievous with ninety-nine good men or ninety-nine
" bad men ; but the future increase of the one bad mqji
*' is likewise to be considered. In the midst of a large
" society, discountenanced by the general opinion,
*' neglected and shunned by their relations and friends,
" outstripped by the industrious, opprest with the sense
" of disgrace, blighted in all their prospects by the
" knowledge of their dishonesty, rarely marrying on
172 Ajypendix, No. 1 .
" account of their bad character and irregular habits,
" criminals commonly terminate by an early death their
" career of riot, dissipation, debauchery, wretchedness,
" and outrage, and sink into the great ocean of society
" ' without a grave, unknelled, uncoffined, and unknown.'
" Such is the way in which the propagation of vice is
" hindered in the regular order of society ; we, however,
" in our wisdom, thinking to improve on this arrange-
" ment, and too impatient of the presence of the vicious
" to await their natural extinction, save them from this
'* moral shipwreck, and collect them into one spot, where
'* there is no example to deter, no virtuous public opinion
" to discountenance, no honest industry to compete with
" them, no odious comparisons to be undergone ; and
" then insuring always a regular supply of additional
" recruits from the gaols of the mother-country, like the
" physical philosophers of antiquity, from this corruption
" we generate a new society."
THE END.
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