Jo. University of California. r AKY 938 3 2 154 5 987 1809 6,622 52 127 19 348 1810 5>449 26 210 18 303 1811 8,797 24 3 66 8 1,099 1812 17,885 52 344 23 777 1813 15,315 5 2 295 17 901 1814 14,722 44 334 6 2,453 1815 17,765 59 301 ii 1,615 1816 24,849 104 9 18 1,380 1817 31,180 128 243 18 i,732 1818 27,209 227 120 24 i,i33 1819 23,035 J93 119 14 i, 6 45 1820 29, 35 35 2 82 21 1,382 1821 18,126 J 34 T 35 16 i,*33 1822 3, 6 42 16 227 6 607 1823 1,648 6 275 2 824 Total . . 263,99of i,574 One in 167 263 One in 1,003 1824 965 5 *93 I 965 1825 77 2 385 _ Nil 1826 2,038 22 93 1827 1828 2,038 1,170 24 IO 87 117 2 2 1,019 585 1829 1830 1,117 613 14 I 80 613 I 1,117 Nil 1831 3 6 4 3 121 1832 424 4 106 1833 447 *3 52 Capital 1834 262 i 262 punishment S 279 223 Nil 279 Nil abolished. 1837 267 3 89 Average 10,977 103 One in 106 6 One in 1,583 Note. On the first division of the above table (18051823), the numbers executed are those for forgeries of every description; the returns not distinguishing separately the executions for forging and uttering forged bank-notes. In the latter division (18241837), the numbers executed are of those who were convicted of the offences in the second column, while they continued capital. * First Report of the Commissioners appointed to inquire as to the lest means of establishing an efficient Constabulary Force in the Counties of England and Wales, 1 839. t It appears from a return laid before Parliament in May, 1818 (Paper No. 296), and also from one moved for in June, 1821 (No. 673), that of 200,995 forged notes presented for payment during the years 1812 to 1820 inclusive, J 73,241 were notes for one pound, 19,367 for two pounds, 7,628 for five pounds, 544 for ten pounds, 2 for fifteen pounds, u6 for twenty pounds, and 35 for sums above twenty pounds. Sequel to Charge of July, 1839. 43 By reference to the foregoing table it will be seen that there have been no executions for forgery since the year 1829, although capital punishment for that offence was not abolished until the year 1833. At first, the proportion of convictions to offences does not appear to have greatly changed ; but now that the state of the law is well understood both by prosecutors and witnesses, it would appear that such proportion has been wonderfully raised. The following table I owe to the kindness of Mr. Richard Mullens, the solicitor to the Association of London Bankers. Experience of the London Bankers 3 Association in Cases of Forgery, and the Prosecutions and Convictions thereon, during 1 8 years (1836 1853). Date. Number of Subscribers. Cases of Forgery Paid. Stopped. Number of Prosecutions. Convic- tions. 1836 2 9 12 6 6 5 5 37 29 14 13 i 2 2 38 23 16 10 6 4 4 39 2 4 12 9 3 3 3 1840 24 19 14 5 5 4 41 23 18 15 3 4 3 42 23 14 ii 3 4 4 43 2 9 21 18 3 6 6 44 45 26 26 15 30 12 20 3 10 1 46 26 23 20 3 5 5 47 25 25 14 ii 7 7 48 2 5 27 20 7 7 7 49 27 14 7 7 12 IT 1850 27 21 7 8 8 5 1 24 16 9 7 5 5 52 23 20 10 10 7 7 1853 24 21 9 12 8 8 Totals. . . 338 231 107 105 102 From this table it appears that the total number of forgeries on the bankers who subscribed to this institution was 338, and that the number of convictions was 102, so that nearly one- third of the offenders were detected and prosecuted to convic- tion. It also appears that the indisposition to convict, which was so strong during the later years of capital punishment, is at an end, as there were only three acquittals in 105 prosecu- tions. The following questions to Mr. Mullens, with their answers, will throw some additional light on the subject : 44 Sequel to Charge of July, 1839. QUESTIONS. i. The number of bankers in the United Kingdom ? 2. Number of subscribers? 3. Do forgeries upon sub- scribers comprise a very large proportion of forgeries on all the bankers in the Kingdom ? 4. What are the instruments usually forged cheques, bills of exchange, or bank notes ? 5. Does the circulation of provincial notes increase the number of forgeries in the country ? 6. Has the disuse of i notes anything to do with the result, or is it attributable to any other change in commer- cial transactions ? 7. Is there increased vigi- ANSWERS. 1. The number of bankers in the United Kingdom is 630 (this includes London bankers, viz., 76). 2. The subscribers do not include all the London bankers. The number varies annually from 24 to 29. The Associa- tion does not include any country banks. 3. As the Association in- cludes the principal city bank- ers, there is no doubt that the forgeries on the subscribers comprise a very large propor- tion of the forgeries committed in the metropolis ; but it will be difficult to estimate from them the forgeries in the whole kingdom. No. of City bankers . . 54 No. of City subscribers . 26 4. Cheques and acceptances to bills of exchange. 5. Hardly so. The forgery of country bank-notes is very rare ; a few cases have occa- sionally occurred, but they are very few. The 'Country Bank- ers' Association for the Prose- cution of Forgeries' is discon- tinued. 6. The disuse of i notes has doubtless tended to dimi- nish the forgeries of notes ; but that offence is of comparatively rare occurrence now. 7. The increased vigilance of Sequel to Charge of July, 1839. 45 lance in the police, so as to the police has assisted greatly in make the offence more dan- the detection of actual forgers, gerous by reason of the greater But I doubt whether the pro- probability of detection ? bability of detection has any influence whatever in the re- pression of this offence. 8. Has the abolition of the 8. Certainly ; there is now punishment of death produced scarcely any difficulty whatever the expected effect of render- in obtaining the proper evi- ing injured parties more willing dence. to prosecute, witnesses to give evidence, and juries to convict? The preceding papers having been submitted to the Messrs. Freshfield, solicitors to the Bank of England, they were so good as to write me the following letter : 5, NEW BANK BUILDINGS, London, 28th September, 1854. DEAR SIR, We have no record of the convictions of persons pro- secuted by the Bank for uttering forged bank-notes ; but there is no doubt that the proportion of convictions is greater under the new than the old law, and we should think that the convictions had of late years amounted to 9 in 10 of the number of cases tried. We attribute the increase in the rate of convictions, in a great degree, to the causes mentioned by you,* to which you may add the stronger disposition towards conviction evidenced by the judges, in the case of offences in which the punishment does not affect life. We are, dear Sir, your faithful servants, M. D. HILL, Esq., &c. &c. J. C. & H. FRESHFIELD. The information furnished by Mr. Mullens and the Messrs. Freshfield shows, doubtless, a greater approach towards certainty of punishment following npon crime than has been hitherto found to exist. It must, however, be remembered that forgery, or rather the utterance of forged instruments, is an offence peculiarly hazardous to the criminal ; and it would be therefore rash to argue from the improvement to which attention has been drawn, that the proportions between other crimes and their convictions have been changed in any degree approaching to that which applies to forgeries. It is probable, however, that some amendment has taken place; yet my hopes are still very slight that, without many * Absence of reluctance in prosecutors, witnesses, and juries. 46 Sequel to Charge of July, 1839. changes, to which. I cannot stop even to advert, we shall ever see detection and punishment dogging the steps of crime with the promptitude and certainty which alone can give to deterrent punishment the efficiency which has been so long and so vainly attributed to its influence ; and I have often had occasion to remark how rare it is to find any person who has had expe- rience of criminals attach weight to deterrents. Mr. Mullens, it will be observed, thinks that the augmented number of detections and convictions has but a limited effect upon the forger. OBSERVATIONS Arising out of the Charge delivered in May, 1840. THE UTTERING OF COUNTERFEIT COIN. THE circumstances now incidental to the offence of putting counterfeit money into circulation, are so different from those of 1840, that it would only encumber this volume to reprint a Charge of this remote date. I have had occasion to observe for many years, and always with great concern, how carefully the criminal watches the inventor, and with what promptitude he avails himself of every new facility for the exercise of his calling afforded by the progress of science or of art. But the coiner stands at the head of his nefarious class, in thus turning the best means to the worst ends. To fabricate a coin bearing a sufficiently close resem- blance to the genuine issue from the Mint, it was formerly necessary for the coiner to have command of dies and machinery for working them. The die is a mould wrought, or sunk as it is termed, in a block of steel, a pair of dies being required for each class of coins; crowns, half-crowns, shillings, &c. The die-sinker, however, a skilled workman, was not readily per- suaded to prostitute his talents to a purpose so vile, exposing him, also, to consequences highly penal. Dies, which to the honest manufacturer are very expensive implements, were costly indeed to the coiner. Again, the machinery by which the dies Observations arising out of Charge of May, 1840. 47 were made to operate upon the metal required a fitting place for its erection ; and much care was necessary to prevent discovery through the noise or concussion which accompanied the employ- ment of so much force as is requisite to raise, in due relief, figures and inscriptions displayed on the faces of the coin. The manufacture of base money was, therefore, an expensive and hazardous trade. But now, since the invention of the beautiful process called electro-type, both cost and danger are most perniciously diminished. The coiner takes a genuine piece of money, by the aid of which he constructs a pair of moulds in plaster of Paris. He then makes a compound of certain white metals, fusing at a low temperature, for which a common fire suffices. These he may melt in a spoon, and so fill his moulds, repeating the operation according to the number of coins which he desires to produce. The compound is principally of tin, together with a small portion of zinc. To these a little regulus is added, composed of iron, tin, and antimony. The object of this addition is to give hardness to the coin, whereby it emits, when rung, the sharp sound of silver. The coin is now to receive a thin coating of real silver, which is deposited upon the surfaces of the base metal by the aid of a rudely-constructed galvanic battery. The manufacture is now completed. The whole apparatus the criminal may carry from place to place in a handkerchief, or even in the crown of his hat ; and, if he can obtain the command of a garret for a few hours, he may provide himself, at scarcely any cost, with the means of imposing his trash on the shopkeeper and the publican as genuine coin of the realm. The victims of these frauds are usually the humbler tradesmen. The utterer makes a small purchase with the intention of obtaining as great an amount of change as he can out of the false money which he offers in payment ; and thus, even if he should throw away the article bought, he is amply recompensed by the good money which he receives in lieu of the valueless tokens given in return. In the cases brought before me, the utterer has generally succeeded both in effecting a purchase and in leaving the place without exciting suspicion. His detection is most frequently the consequence of his venturing to resort a second time to the same shop, before he has given himself any reasonable chance 48 Observations arising out of Charge of May, 1 840. of being forgotten, although the interval has been quite sufficient to afford occasion for examining his base coin. To persons unacquainted with the habits of criminals, this recklessness will appear scarcely credible, the rather as a disposition exists in the public mind to associate ideas of ability, (or, at the least, of so much cleverness as may be implied in the possession of great cunning,) with the criminal class. But without intending to deny that it contains individuals of con- siderable talents, who, in addition to their talents, must be capable of exercising much prudence and caution, or they would not enjoy the long impunity which some of them can boast, yet criminals, taken as a body, are far below the average of every honest class, both in natural and acquired endowments. Their inferiority is so obvious on the mere view of any considerable number of them collected together, as quickly to dispel all prejudice in favour of their powers, mental or physical. Phrenologists, as my readers are doubtless aware, have not seldom affirmed the capacity of their science to direct the special treatment suitable to the differing requirements of each prisoner. But whether it be that no sufficient opportunity of trying experiments on prisoners has been afforded to them, or whether it be that their science in its present state can give us no practical directions of much value, I am not aware that they have established any principles, drawn strictly from their own resources, upon which the officers entrusted with the control of criminals would do right in acting, until they were fortified in each case by indications on which reliance had been placed before phrenology had ever been heard of. That enough has been done by phrenologists to justify their being allowed to make further experiments on the treatment of criminals, I am not prepared either to affirm or deny ; but, assuredly, nothing has yet been satisfactorily established and added to the common store of working knowledge which entitles physiologists to assume quite such high ground as they have taken with regard to criminal legislation and prison discipline. These remarks have been called forth by a certificate attached to a work on this subject by Mr. George Combe;* a docu- ment which informs us, that ' criminal legislation and prison * The Principles of Criminal Legislation and the Practice of Prison Discipline Investigated. By George Combe. London : 1854. Observations arising out of Charge of May, 1840. 49 discipline will never attain to a scientific, consistent, practical, and efficient character, until they become based on physiology, and especially on the physiology of the brain and nervous system/ This position is laid down for our government by seven most eminent physiologists, Sir Benjamin Brodie, Sir James Clark, Sir Henry Holland, Professor Owen, Sir John Forbes, Dr. Conolly, and Dr. William Carpenter names worthy of pro- found respect, most deservedly enjoying the highest reputation, and upon whose opinions on all matters within the ample boundaries of their own wonderful science, I, for one, should always repose unhesitating and implicit confidence. But, says the Digest, ' Extra territorium jus dicenti impune non paretur/ And truly, if we seek to turn the principle here enunciated with oracular authority to profit, we meet with the disappointment which has in all ages followed attempts to extract from the inspira- tions of the Tripod a lesson for the guidance of human action. It might be supposed, at first sight, that the certificate vouches the soundness of Mr. Combe's theory, which is derived from phrenology, as taught by the fathers of that fashionable study. But when it is read with attention, we find that the certifiers are not to be understood ' to become answerable for the accu- racy of all the facts, or the soundness of all the reasonings / which highly prudent saving clause, inasmuch as no distinction is drawn between one fact and another, or one piece of reasoning and another, relieves the subscribers from the danger of warrant- ing any one fact or any one argument in the whole book. Indeed, looking carefully to the frame of that very curious instrument, it will be found to bind them to no other position than this : That physiology ought to furnish the basis of laws against crime, and of rules fo. 1 the discipline of criminals. Now, the gentlemen who have thus given to Mr. Combe the benefit of their names, are either acquainted with the secret of extract- ing from physiology truths which will guide us through our difficulties in legislating against crime, and in discovering right methods for the treatment of the criminal, or they are not. If they have made this invaluable discovery, why withhold it ? If they have not made it, on what grounds do they base their dogma, that physiology is able to redeem the pledge which they have made in its behalf? Surely they were bound to sustain, by some evidence, a thesis promulgated with such an overwhelming E 50 Observations arising out of Charge of May, 1 840. force of assertion. For, even if the proposition of the learned subscribers shall, in the fulness of time, be demonstrated, yet, until the proof is given, and the practical deductions which are to flow from it, are brought before our eyes, we can only regard it as a barren dictum, and must think that it might as well have remained in retentis until its authors had qualified them- selves to lead us at once to definite results. To say to us, ' be ye fed be ye clothed/ without offering either food or raiment, is a proceeding condemned by the highest authority. Turning to the book itself, we find it contains much useful matter regarding the treatment of criminals, which may be read with great advantage by students who are not acquainted with the non-phrenological authors to whom Mr. Combe is indebted for his information ; but I am not aware that he has him- self added much if anything to our stock of available know- ledge. The most that Mr. Combe can ask on behalf of his own department, so far as he has enabled us to judge of its pretensions, is, that phrenology harmonizes with the principles which have been arrived at by moral reasoning and common observation on the capabilities and defects of criminals, and on the treatment arising out of these characteristics. To the adepts in phrenology this must be a gratification, as confirming their belief in the soundness of their favourite science. But for the aid which phrenology thus receives, I am not aware that as yet it has made any commensurate return. Of its future I do not presume to form an opinion. Let it establish its pre- tensions by ascertained facts and sound arguments, and I will follow its leading in all humility ; until then I must remain a disciple of those who have furnished us with such knowledge on the subject as we possess, and I shall think it right to pursue their track. The relations between moral action and physiology are, for the present, nearly as obscure as those between that science and the vital forces, of which Mr. Joseph Hodgson, himself an eminent physiologist, speaks thus : ' All speculations respecting the intimate nature of the nervous force, though many of them have proceeded from the greatest philosophers who have ever lived, prove only that hitherto the endeavour to comprehend its nature is vain and fruitless. Many anatomical truths have been discovered, and some physiological facts have been observed, but Observations arising out of Charge of May, 1840. 51 no principle by which the nature of this power can be explained. All the trains of research to which this inquiry has been subjected have begun in exact examinations of organization and function, and have ended in conjecture and hypothesis. As it has been eloquently observed by a learned author, ' the stream of know- ledge in all such cases is clear and lively at its outset; but, instead of reaching the great ocean of the general truths of science, it is gradually spread abroad among sands and deserts, till its course can be traced no longer."* Hunterian Oration for 1855, p. 12. * Whewell, History of the Inductive Sciences, vol. iii. p. 451. CHAKGE OP APBIL, 1841. charge at these Sessions contained, among other matter, J- a short account of the Recorder's visit to the Warwickshire Asylum for Convicted Boys at Stretton-on-Dunsmoor. * * * This county, I am happy to say, is honourably distinguished distinguished, I believe, above all others in the country by an establishment which has hardly yet gained its fair share of attention. I mean the asylum for the reception of boys convicted of felonies. It was begun in the year 1818, by some of the benevolent gentlemen of the county, engaged as magistrates in the admi- nistration of justice, and though upon a small scale, so that the good wrought by it is necessarily very limited, it has had con- siderable success, and it has shown that much may be effected by such means : and probably this result of the experiment is even of more value than the actual benefit conferred on the persons brought under its operation, notwithstanding the im- portance of that benefit to the individuals who have been its recipients. I have thought it my duty, as the Recorder of this borough, myself to visit the institution, and to judge, as far as I am able, from personal observation, of the success of the experiment. Accordingly, I went last week to Stretton-on- Dunsmoor, where it is situated. It is, gentlemen, no fine edifice there is no grand portico to astonish the traveller as he passes along it is simply a farmhouse, and one of rather an humble description. In this farmhouse, to which some buildings are attached, by way of workshops, about twenty boys reside, under the care of a master, Mr. Johnson, who, from his appearance, might be supposed to be a farmer. He is a man of great intelligence, and admirably fitted by nature and experience for the office he has undertaken. I found that he and his wife treated the boys under their charge almost as members of their own family. These poor lads, there- fore, have the advantage enjoyed, perhaps, by them for the first time in their lives of witnessing in the arrangements of Charge of April, 1 84 1 . 53 a domestic establishment the prevalence of order, the comforts and the virtues of a home. I saw some of the inmates engaged in learning the business of a tailor ; some that of a shoemaker ; to one or other of which trades all the boys apply themselves, besides cultivating the large garden attached to the house. I examined their work, and, judging from the small experience I have in such matters, I thought it done well. Of course the articles in tailoring and shoemaking were of the humblest kind, but all seemed to be well executed. The countenances and general appearance of the lads gave me much satisfaction. While they were respect- ful in their behaviour, there was nothing of fear or servility about them, and they looked healthy and cheerful. I also examined their lodging and table, and here I found everything wholesome, without anything like luxury, which would be improper. The master showed me his little library, to which the boys have constant access; where I was pleased to find, not only works on religion and morality, which are indis- pensable, but others of an entertaining description ; in fact, the selection appeared to be well suited for engaging the attention of those who, perhaps, up to this period, had had no opportunity or motive for reading at all. Another part of the system that pleased me very much was the absence of all attempt at imprisonment, of all physical obstacle to the boys departing at any moment ; and the infrequency of desertion is a proof not only of the excellence of the principle adopted, but of the success of its application. There are instances, it is true, in which boys, on being first brought t unhappy condition the ignorant sufferer but too often flies for relief to the stimulus of ardent liquors; and snatches from time to time a few moments of exhilaration and activity, bought, however, at the price of a more lamentable depression, gradually bringing the doomed victim under the curse of an enthralling habit of intemperance, alike fatal to estate, to body, and to soul. And thus the popu- lation of these districts is year after year, and generation after generation, exposed to the accumulated sufferings of disease, drunkenness, indigence, and criminality. That many must escape these dangers only shows that even among the lowest of our kind there is much of good ; and this consideration should urge us onward in our exertions to aid them in freeing themselves from that crowd of adverse circum- stances by which they are surrounded and oppressed. With regard to the first of those conditions, insufficient drainage, it is quite clear that society in its aggregate capacity is mainly answerable for this crying evil. Even the richest among us has no absolute mastery over the drainage of his neighbourhood; the consent and co-operation of others being necessary to such arrangements as will enable him to attain his object. But with regard to the poor man, he is the helpless victim of public neglect ; add to which he is also at the mercy of private cupi- dity, for even if the municipal authorities of the town which he inhabits have perfected a system of street drainage, he may yet have no benefit from it by reason of the ill-construction of his dwelling ; or because the owner declines to take advantage of the appliances which have been placed at his command. Now I am not disposed to turn round with stern severity upon any particular class for conduct in respect of which all in our station of life are more or less responsible ; all of us therefore needing the protection of a general amnesty. Our excuse has hitherto been our ignorance, but that excuse we can plead no longer. Each of us must forthwith shake off lethargy; and when we have done our best we may then, but not till then, turn to the class of house owners, and justly warn them, that as they have most in their power, so the country will mainly look to them for prompt and efficient aid in the great work before us. From a pamphlet which I hold in my hand, written by Dr. 302 Charge of March, 1854. Southwood Smith, and published, I believe, under the sanction of the General Board of Health, I learn that the annual mor- tality in houses which have been erected in various parts of London by the Metropolitan Association for Improving the Dwellings of the Industrious Classes, is only 7 in 1000; while the average of the whole metropolis is more than three times as large, namely, 22 in 1000 ; and the author goes on to state, that the mortality of one of the worst portions of the metro- politan districts, a mass of houses called the Potteries, in the parish of Kensington, rises to the fearful height of 40 in iooo_, being nearly six times the proportion of that in the houses erected by the Association ; although these latter dwellings, in- asmuch as they are built for the accommodation of the working class, are necessarily placed in neighbourhoods which are the resort of that order, and consequently not in the most open and salubrious parts. But to convince the most sceptical that it is from the circumstance of these houses having been built upon sanitary principles that they are found to stand thus high in the scale of salubrity, the author cites a most conclusive fact, which I will lay before you in his own words : ' Lambeth Square is situated in the "Waterloo Road district of the parish of Lambeth. It consists of 37 eight-roomed houses, which let at about-28Z. a-year, and are chiefly occupied by the foremen of large establishments, and the more skilled and highly- paid class of artizans. In outward appearance, and in their general aspect within, these houses are very superior to the ordinary abodes of the same class in other parts of the metropolis, and present no obvious cause of peculiar unhealthiness. ' According to the last census, this square contains a population of 434 souls. Among this number, on a house-to-house examination, it was found that in one year (1851) there had occurred 80 attacks of disease, and 24 deaths ; that is, nearly one person in every five had been laid up with sickness, which had proved fatal in the proportion of between 50 and 60 in 1000. 'When built, about twenty years ago, these houses had been fitted up with untrapped closets, communicating with flat-bottomed brick drains, then in universal use. A number of the drains passed directly under the houses ; they were wholly unprovided with any regular water-supply for cleansing ; consequently, instead of carrying away the ordure, they retained it within the houses ; and the emanations arising from the stagnant mass of putrifying matter were carried back into the houses, through the open closets, in a proportion increasing with the obstructions in the drains. 'At the beginning of 1852 a new system of drainage was applied to the whole square. Water-closets were substituted for cesspools, and stoneware pipes for brick drains, and the apparatus was provided with an adequate supply of water. ' By these improvements the houses were placed in the same sanitary condition Charge of March) 1854. 303 essentially as the Society's dwellings. The result on the health of the inhabitants was strikingly similar. On a re-examination of this property in November of the present year (1853), it was found that the mortality had been reduced from 55 in 1000, to 13 in 1000.' Let no imputation, Gentlemen, rest upon the proprietor, who- ever he may be, for the original construction of the houses. Let that error be ascribed to the general absence of knowledge relating to the sanitary conditions to which I have adverted ; let us rather give him praise for being among the first to rectify the mistake which he had committed. Yet even he, I am per- suaded, will never be able to look back on the waste of human life which that mistake has caused, without feelings of the keenest regret; however free that regret may be from any tinc- ture of remorse. By the change in the drainage it appears that the deaths had been reduced in the proportion of 4 to i, so that we may conclude that if it had taken place prior to the year 1851, the 24 deaths of that year would have been reduced to 6 ; and consequently, that the number of lives spared to their families and their country would have amounted in one year to 18 ! I shrink from dwelling upon the carnage which its 20 years of noisome drains must have inflicted on the community of Lambeth Square. But now that the causes of this destruction are understood, it well behoves every proprietor of such tenements to ask himself how he can, for the future, answer it to his con- science to let a similar mischief remain. Or if the state of the public drainage should offer impediments, how he can justify himself for not doing all that in him lies towards a mitigation of so fearful an evil. It is a curious fact with regard to our mral perceptions, that so far from our indignation being en- hanced in proportion to the amount of crime committed, it seems frequently to be weakened and dissipated by the magni- tude of the offence sometimes indeed changed into admiration. To say that ' one murder makes a villain, millions a hero/ is but the pardonable exaggeration of an incontestable truth, not altogether inapplicable to the question before us. For myself, I do not fear but that one of two events will assuredly come to pass ; either self-reproach and the power of public opinion will prevent any proprietor from inviting or permitting human beings to dwell in a house infected by the poisonous exhalations from cesspools and foul drains, or he will as assuredly be brought 304 Charge of March, 1854. under the animadversion of the criminal law as if he adminis- tered strychnine or arsenic. But our immediate concern is with the relation between sanitary arrangements and crime ; and you will rejoice, there- fore, to learn that the results of an improved sanitary condition of dwellings, are not only advantageous to the physical, but to the moral health of those among the indigent classes who have enjoyed the advantage of this reformation. In the year 1851, we obtained from the Legislature, by the exertions of the Earl of Shaffcesbury, what is called the ( Common Lodging Houses Act/ which gives to the local authorities power to remove com- pulsorily in those hives or dens of population, the lodgings resorted to by the migratory, and oftentimes by the stationary poor, many causes of complaint connected with the neglect of sanitary measures. This enactment has been, Dr. Smith informs us, grievously neglected in many towns ; but still it has been applied, he says, in a sufficient number to indicate the kind and amount of good it is capable of effecting. * From the following examples,' he proceeds, 'selected from a great number of similar statements contained in a return recently presented to Parliament, it will be seen that the Common Lodging Houses Act, by enforcing certain conditions of cleanliness, and by preventing overcrowding, has extended to vagrants and others, forming the very lowest portion of the population, the like immunity from disease which the improved dwellings have secured to the industrious labourer and artizan. ' In the town of Wigan, for example, there are 24 lodging houses, through which have passed, during the last year, 29,655 lodgers. The Superintendent of Police reports, ' There has not been a single case of fever in any one of those houses since the Act has been in force.' ' The town of Wolverhampton affords a still more striking instance. In this town there are 200 lodging houses, through which [are said to] have passed, during the year, the incredible number of 511,000 lodgers. The Superintendent of Police reports, ' There has not been a single case of fever in these houses since the Lodging Houses Act has been in force, in July, 1852.' ' Statements to the same effect have been received from Morpeth and Carlisle. ' From a return made to the Secretary of State for the Home Department by Captain Hay, one of the Metropolitan Police Commissioners, who has been entrusted with the execution of this Act in the Metropolis, it appears that, in the week ending 23rd of October, 1853, there were reported within the Metropolitan Police district 7253 lodging houses. At that time the keepers of these houses had all been served with notice to register in conformity with the Act. Of this number 1308 had permanently registered, and were under efficient regulation. In the houses thus reported, the lodgers numbered at least 25,000. During the quarter ending the 23rd October, there had not occurred a case of fever in any one of these houses ; yet, before they were under regulation, twenty cases of fever have been received into the London Fever Hospital, from a single house, in the course of a few weeks. Charge of March, 1854. 305 ' In the whole of the improved dwellings the exemption from cholera has been as complete as from typhus. During the entire course of the epidemic in 1848 and 1849, no case f cholera occurred in any one of these dwellings, though the pestilence raged in all the districts in which they are situated, and there were instances of two, and even four, deaths in single houses close to their very walls. Since the reappearance of the pestilence this autumn, it has numbered as many aa twenty victims in one street in the metropolis, and six even in one house, but as yet no case of the disease has occurred in any of the improved dwellings.' Gentlemen, this gratifying passage well introduces another which I had principally in view in making the citation : ' Moral pestilence has, at the same time, been checked. The intemperate have become sober, and the disorderly well conducted, since taking up their abode in these healthful and peaceful dwellings. No charge of crime, no complaint even of disturbance, has been lodged at any police station against a resident in these dwellings since their first occupancy. ' On the classes resorting to common lodging houses the change effected is still more striking. 'Their whole conduct,' says [Mr. James] one of the magistrates of Birmingham, 'is far better since the Act came into operation. Before that time, their manner towards the police and magistrates was sullen and coarse ; now it is respectful, candid, and open they seem to be satisfied that they are doing right.' ' ' Since they have been under regulation,' says another highly-competent witness, * neither the houses nor the inhabitants could be recognised as the same ; the lodgers take an active part in assisting the police in enforcing the regulations the value of the improvement effected to society generally, and to the parties immediately concerned, is incalculable.' 'The Superintendent of Police at Carlisle says, 'Vice and immorality are much less ; crime has decreased to a great extent.' ' The Inspector of Common Lodging Houses in Wolverhampton bears the same testimony. ' The Clerk of the Local Board of Health of Morpeth says, ' Since inspection under the Act, crime has very much diminished ; since the Act was applied, there has not been one case of felony or misdemeanour in the borough, an exemption from crime which I never knew before.' ' Thus far, Gentlemen, I have been reading from Dr. South- wood Smith, on whom I place great reliance, having had the honour of his acquaintance for many years. Still, however, it is fair to observe, that every new remedy, whether physical or moral, is apt to be over-estimated at first ; and I certainly do not expect that, however perfect the sanitary arrangements of Morpeth may be, it will remain for any long period altogether exempt from crime ; especially as I find by the last census that it contains a population exceeding ten thousand in number. It would have been a dereliction of duty on my part to give circulation, from the bench, to statements however high the x 306 Charge of March, 1 854. authority by which they are sanctioned without taking mea- sures to test, so far as my opportunities permit, the accuracy of the facts alleged. As respects this town, I have consulted Mr. Stephens, the Superintendent of Police, and Mr. Simons, one of your medical officers. Each of these gentlemen is known to you for his experience, his intelligence, and his zeal in exe- cuting the duties of his office. The one is peculiarly conversant with the hotbeds of crime in the borough, and the other with the sanitary state of its various quarters ; and they both agree that the abodes of disease and the abodes of criminals are the same. I have instituted a similar inquiry with regard to Bristol, and the results very nearly correspond. We must, however, beware of raising our hopes too high, or we shall suffer from disappointment, not unfrequently the parent of languor and indifference. Part of the amelioration must, I think, be attributed to a change in the class of lodgers or occupants of the improved dwellings. Mr. Simons, in a letter to Mr. Stephens, written very lately, makes the following statement : ' In reference to the condition of the Registered Lodging Houses, I have no hesitation in saying that they have much improved in every respect since the introduction of the Act. They are cleaner, better ventilated, much more free from disease, much more orderly, and appear to be inhabited by a better class of people. I seldom or never see intoxication or hear profane swearing. The persons inhabiting these houses appear to be hawkers, tramps, and labourers. I was much struck, during the late inclement weather, with the appearance of comfort in most of these houses, by reason of the association together of persons warmed by the same fire, and amused by the general conversation of the party. In this way they are kept at home, and protected from what would otherwise be the irresistible attraction of the public-house. The class of dwellings where disease and poverty most prevail are Unregistered Lodging Houses : these are to be found in most of the low courts in my district, and are principally inhabited by the dirty and low Irish. When the house consists of three rooms, each will have its family; and thus each room is occupied as a sitting, working, and sleeping room : the consequence of such a system is dirty habits, immorality, disease, and indifference to all improvement. The accommodations for purposes which do not admit of being specified are bad in every respect : too small, badly constructed, and not fit to be used six months in the twelve ; exposing to view the most revolting sights, and utterly destructive to all sense of decency in both sexes. Very little fever exists in the Registered Lodging Houses ; much more in the Unregistered. I think there is less illness in Registered Lodging Houses than in other houses not under supervision.' To this letter from Mr. Simons let me add a curious anec- dote related by a London Missionary : Charge of March, 1854. 307 'I was much struck a short time ago, while visiting one of these houses in Westminster, with the improved condition of the place ; so much so, that the keeper herself seemed to have become a new woman. I asked her if she were the same party who kept the house twelve months ago ? She replied in the affirmative, and expressed her surprise that I did not know her ; she asked the reason. I told her she looked so much more comfortable and younger like. She said, ' You know, sir, they have made a new law for our houses : now we must keep them much cleaner and more comfortable for our lodgers, and it would never do for me not to look clean and tidy too ; I like it much better now, although I did not like it much at first." Gentlemen, some light has been thrown by these extracts on the manner in which sanitary improvements operate in the diminution of crime. With restored health, temptations to indolence and inebriety diminish in force, one amendment prompts another : self-respect is taught, gradually the aspira- tions are elevated, and a general course of improvement set on foot. But again, let us guard ourselves against extravagant expectations; and especially against hoping that the moral results will always keep pace with the physical benefits. It would be rash indeed to expect that the best conducted drain- age or the most perfect ventilation will on the sudden produce any signal change in habits of intoxication or profane swearing. Whoever has given due attention to the subject must, I think, have arrived at the conclusion, that the aggregate of crime in any age or country is produced by a multiplicity of causes, and asks for a multiplicity of remedies. Early training, the general spread of knowledge, and of sympathy between class and class, more earnest and practical convictions, moral and religious, with a better observance of all that relates to the health of body and mind, and an improved system of police jurisprudence and reformatory discipline it is to all these various appliances, acting together in harmony, and not to any one alone, that I look forward, as I do with confidence, for the gradual but cer- tain diminution of crime. That we shall move on but slowly is what I expect and believe. Long experience has made me but too well acquainted with the numerous impediments which encumber our path, to admit of my entertaining expectations of a rapid progress. That we shall somewhat amend our pace I venture to hope, for indeed it has hitherto been that of the tortoise. But if it should be found that in spite of our endea- vours we cannot excel this type of slowness in speed, let us at all events emulate him in perseverance. X 3 308 Charge of March, 1854. To return, Gentlemen, to the dwellings of the poor. Let such of us as may have no property of this kind remember that we ought not to shrink from taking our share of the burden; which, though it must necessarily fall heavier on some classes than on others, must not be evaded by any who are possessed of competent means. The Improved Dwellings in London, to which I first called your attention, were erected by a Society which raised a capital for that purpose by virtue of a Royal Charter, limiting the liability of every Shareholder to the amount of his shares, but restricting also his possibility of profit to 5 per cent, on the capital expended. The privilege of limited liability was granted in consideration of the benevolent purpose for which the Society is founded ; and it is to be regretted that the Crown was unable to take another step in this course of liberality* The cost of the two Charters, granted to the Society to enable them to accomplish objects essential to the public welfare, amounted, we learn from Dr. Southwood Smith, to the exorbitant sum of I43O/. / Gentlemen, we shall not, I am sure, deny that nothing can be more delightful than ' To taste the luxury of doing good.' "We shall also admit that we must pay for our enjoyments, and we are told by financiers that luxuries are fair subjects for taxa- tion ; yet, in spite of the demands which must be made on our fiscal resources by the War, I cannot but hope that the enor- mous rate of duty which is thus levied on the article ' bene- volence/ will be found safely to admit of considerable and immediate reduction. Under one of the Society's Charters, Branch Institutions may be founded in any part of England and Wales, and they will be clothed with a like privilege of limited liability ; the parent Society receiving the gratuity of a half per cent, on the outlay, and another half per cent, from year to year on the same amount ; as a compensation for the use of the Charter, and also for some other facilities which it supplies to those affiliated bodies. Four Branches have been already formed. From two of them the one at Brighton, which has been in action for some years, and the other at Dudley, which is preparing to build I have received assurances that their connexion with the parent Society is highly satisfactory ; relieving them from Charge of March, 1 854. 309 the expense and delay of obtaining a Charter, and giving them, all the benefit of the somewhat costly experience of those who led the way in this good work; while on the other hand the .Branch Institutions do not feel themselves under any constraint, being left to the exercise of their own discretion. Into the financial results, either of the Parent or of the Branch Societies, I shall not enter. Already a return of mode- rate interest has been obtained ; and as the classes sought to be principally benefited become more and more aware of the advantages in store for them, it may fairly be expected that the profits will be augmented. At the same time, I do not feel myself justified in suggesting these undertakings as affording the means of gainful investments. In the present state of our experience they should be instituted on other grounds, and the expectation of profit should be a secondary consideration. Another means of accomplishing the same purpose is fur- nished by the 'Labouring Classes' Lodging Houses Act, 1851.' By the powers of this Act, Municipal Corporations and some other bodies are enabled to borrow money, on the security of their rates, for erecting new dwellings or for altering existing houses. I have not been able to learn that this Act, which appears to me to be well framed for the attainment of the end in view, has yet been adopted in any instance. Representative bodies are excusably reluctant to increase the burdens which press upon their constituents ; and although it seems quite clear that after no long period the outlay of capital in any town, which should have the effect of rendering it more salubrious, would, in various ways, operate in relief of the rates yet, as at first it would produce some slight augmentation of their amount, it may be that these bodies are waiting the growth of a public opinion in favour of the measure. In justice to your municipal authorities I feel bound to remark that the call for their interposition is not so pressing in this place as in many others. I have examined the returns of the last census for every town in the Island containing more than 100,000 inhabitants; and I find that, as regards the proportion of houses to population, Bir- mingham stands, with the single exception of Leeds, at the head of the list. We have also, in the site of our borough, in its elevation above the sea, and in the subsoil of a great portion of it, sanitary advantages over other places. Great merit must 310 Charge of March, 1 854. also be conceded to the Council for the vast improvements which they have effected in the drainage. But I am sure you will agree with me, that whatever may be our comparative state, the positive evils existing among us are such as to demand immediate attention, and unwearied exertions for their extirpa- tion; and I think it cannot be denied, that as the proposed changes would remove many dangers from which no inhabitant, high or low, can be sure to escape, and would tend to the dimi- nution of pauperism and crime, which throw heavy burdens on the borough, justice points to the expense being levied on the whole community which is to receive the benefit, rather than it should be cast upon the few who happen to feel more than an ordinary interest in the welfare of their neighbours. But, passing by the particular means by which the object is to be accomplished, I am led to believe that you and your fellow- townsmen have it in your power to make Birmingham as dis- tinguished for the health and morals of its inhabitants, as it is, and long has been, for their industry, their perseverance, and their ingenuity. Let me, then, in conclusion, invite your attention to the whole subject. Investigate for yourselves. Inquire first whether any interposition, either by benevolent institutions or by local authorities, is desirable ; and if you find, as I firmly believe you will, that such interposition is not only expedient, but that it stands before you as an imperative duty, you will next have to consider which of the two modes pointed out should be selected ; and having made up your minds on the whole question, I would respectfully but most earnestly call upon you to act, each in your own position, and according to your own means and influence, as your consciences may direct. Gentlemen, one word more and I have done. The awful scourge of cholera hangs over our country while I speak, or rather, it is at this moment descending upon us. We must abide the visitation in our actual state, such as it is. But let the nation at least draw this lesson from past neglect, that if we pause during the rage of the pestilence, we shall, when it relaxes its force, come again under the old temptation to pro- crastinate yet further, until it gathers up its virulence anew, and still finds us defenceless against its assaults ! On the other hand, if we forthwith make a right use of our affliction, we Sequel to Charge of March, 1854. 311 may turn our punishment into a blessing : we may insure to thousands, nay, millions of our brethren, a larger measure of health to body and to soul than it has ever yet been their lot to enjoy, or our privilege to witness. SEQUEL. INFLUENCE OF DWELLINGS FOR PROMOTING TEMPERANCE OR THE CONTRARY. [Memorandum of a conversation with Dr. Southwood Smith, June, 1854.] THE bettering of dwellings, by improved drainage and venti- lation, produces a marked effect on the drinking habits of the inhabitants. The atmosphere being relieved of its heavy and poisonous ingredients, the dweller is also relieved from that craving for stimulants produced by living in bad air; and if the habit of drinking has not become inveterate, as the craving passes away, so does the indulgence ; or at least, it is very much lessened. The wish for improvement arises in the mind. The luxury of a table is aspired to, a couple of chairs follow, by and by a few ornaments appear on the chimney-piece, and last of all, one or two flowers in pots are placed outside the windows. Meanwhile, cleanliness and neatness have made progress within- side the room, and the flowers, like the rainbow after the flood, show that the poor depressed human being, sunk in the deluge of misery and vice, has at length seen dry land, the waters have subsided, and his future is brightened with the prospect of happiness. In spite of all that has been done for the sanitary improve- ment of our large towns, a careful inspection of the statistics of mortality, combined with information which I have obtained from persons of the highest authority, who have made statistics in general, or sanitary investigations in particular, the study of their lives, has convinced me of the mournful truth that all our large and dense populations are steadily becoming less and less healthy. Doubtless, the exertions which have been made since 312 Sequel to Charge of March, 1 854. the subject has attracted public attention have done much towards diminishing the rate of downward progress, but far more must be accomplished than has yet even been attempted, before that progress can be arrested. Even yet the popular feeling has not been sufficiently roused ; municipal bodies, which must be taken to reflect the opinions of those whom they represent, are by no means so sensitive to the necessity for checking pre- ventible disease, by every means which money and science place at our disposal, as to be willing to incur the outlay requisite for success. I copy with much pain the last Report made by Mr. Town- send, the late medical officer of Birmingham : ( BOROUGH OF BIRMINGHAM. ' At a Monthly Meeting of the Council, held on Tuesday, the Third day of October, 1854, the Mayor laid before the Council a communication from the Officer of Health, addressed to the Borough Inspection Committee ; which that Committee by reso- lution and deputation had requested him to lay before the Council. ' The communication having been read and received, was ordered to be printed, and a copy forwarded to each member of the Council. f To the Borough Inspection Committee. ' GENTLEMEN ( In compliance with the request contained in your minute, No. 809, I beg leave to offer the following suggestions for additional precautions against epidemic disease. ' i. That the Medical Officer of Health be supplied with the weekly death returns from the local Superintendent Registrar, on the terms proposed by him to your Committee, until the Town Council is enabled to obtain them by other arrangements. ' 2. That there should be an immediate increase in the number of assistants in the Inspector of Nuisances department, the duties of that office being very inadequately performed, for the want of a sufficient staff. ' 3. That all streets, alleys, and courts should be periodically inspected; all accumulation of filth removed; all houses in a dirty or otherwise unwholesome condition, cleansed and lime- Sequel to Charge of March, 1854. 313 washed ; and where contagious or infectious diseases prevail, the sick removed if practicable, and urged to obtain immediate medical aid, parochial or other gratuitous assistance being ren- dered easily accessible to those whose means require it. ' 4. That the attention of the Borough Surveyor be imme- diately called to all cases where bad drainage is found to exist, or the pavements are in an improper state ; and that means be adopted for giving an adequate quantity of the best attainable water to those courts and houses where the present supply is insufficient in quantity, or unfitted for domestic use. ' 5. That strict supervision be exercised over all slaughter- houses, knackers' yards, boiling houses, manure depots, and all such other places, where trades prejudicial to public health are carried on; and reports made of any circumstance arising from their condition, requiring attention. ' 6. That no open midden, cesspool, or pigsty, in crowded courts, or in close contiguity to dwelling-houses, be permitted after the expiration of two days' notice. ' 7. That no dwelling-house or workshop be suffered to be occupied over privies or cesspools. <8. That the Medical Officer of Health should personally inspect, if possible, all those localities in which deaths from fever, cholera, or other zymotic diseases are known to have occurred. ' 9. That the lodging-house system be revised by the Medical Officer of Health, the -minimum number of cubic feet to each lodger increased from 450 to 600 feet, and the number of lodgers regulated by him according to the locality, cleanliness, and general means of ventilation. ' 10. In the event of a sudden outbreak of epidemic cholera, that a complete and efficiently organized system of house to house visitation by medical men be immediately adopted, and such medical men and the Inspector of Nuisances to report daily to the Medical Officer of Health during the continuance of such epidemic. ' It must so frequently have occurred to every member of your Committee that many houses are constantly being erected, back to back, with very insufficient ventilation, and in defiance of, or with an utter disregard to, all sanitary considerations ; to meet this, I deem it of the greatest moment that your next 314 Sequel to Charge of March, 1854. bill should contain a clause, requiring all houses to be erected on certain approved principles of ventilation and drainage, and that every court should have a sufficient number of privies, capable of being well flushed, by means of self-acting apparatus. 'The preceding suggestions embrace all that I am desirous of bringing under your consideration at the present moment, but I cannot allow this occasion to pass without making a few observations on the debate which took place in the Town Council, on the application of your Committee for the weekly death returns, as reported in the local papers of Saturday last. ' You will observe that I have placed this suggestion first on the list, and I have done so notwithstanding the result of the debate, from a conviction of their great importance, and a sense of the solemn responsibility which devolves upon me, as your Officer of Health, in the performance of my duties ; and I must again urge you to use every argument to induce the Council to re-consider their decision on this momentous question. f I cannot say that I felt great surprise, that your report should not have received the approval of a larger number of the Town Council : for much as is said of reform in the present day, the Corporation of this Borough have exhibited no undue haste to promote it in relation to sanitary questions; yet, surely it might have acted not unwisely by following the example of those towns in which this subject has engaged public attention with so much satisfaction during several past years, and with still more future promise. Here, unfortunately, we have evidence of how much may be said, and how little accomplished, by those who, though their motto is ' Forward/ hesitate to advance one single step, whilst the fate of thousands awaits their decision. ' I regretted to observe the name of one member of your Committee as expressing an opinion that such returns ' were unnecessary; but as that gentleman has not in any instance been present at your meetings since my appointment to this office, I must presume that he was unacquainted with the facts presented by me, and which, had he known them, might possibly have led him to an opposite conclusion. ' It was also remarked, that ' we might pay too much for statistics, and that the parish weekly returns of sickness and Sequel to Charge of March, 1 854. 3 15 death afford a very sufficient knowledge of the health of the Borough ;' to this I reply, that the weekly death returns form the very basis of the usefulness of Medical Officers of Health ; from them it is ascertained where deaths from preventible causes have occurred, and would almost of necessity again occur if those causes were not removed. Having served this most valuable purpose, I certainly cannot see why they should not be made available for further use, unless, indeed, any advantage could be hoped for by not suffering the public to know how much, or how little the health of the borough had improved under the watchful superintendence of its faithful guardians. ' To the other assertion I may remark, that the parish records of Birmingham and Aston, of which the Officer of Health can now avail himself, show the average weekly number of deaths to be about 20, whilst the weekly average of the entire borough was last year about 128. What then can be the reason for remaining satisfied with a knowledge of the cause of death in one-sixth of the number only ? ' There is one other point which merits passing notice. It was remarked that my deservedly ' esteemed predecessor did not require these returns, yet he was always ready to give statis- tical information of the health of the borough ;' I apprehend, statistics of death not based upon the returns could be of little service indeed ; and I beg with the utmost respect to inform your Committee, that not one of my predecessors either took the title or performed the customary duties of Medical Officer of Health ; neither has the Council, at present, accorded to myself the means of fully and satisfactorily carrying out the object of my appointment in its fullest sense. Let us note the consequences, in 1849 the death rate for the Parish of Birmingham was 23.26 per 1000. Parish of Aston, 19.61. Parish of Edgbaston, 11.80. What would your statistics show it to have been four years later, from June 3oth, 1853, to the same period in 1854? ' Parish of Birmingham . . . . 30.84 per 1000 Aston .... nearly 27 Edgbaston, including the whole of King's Norton 23.06 Whilst, if we take the first half only of the present year, we find that in the Parish of Birmingham the mortality has even reached 31 6~ Sequel to Charge of March, 1854. the unprecedented rate in Birmingham of 33.86 per 1000 ! ! Gentlemen, I leave these facts to your own consideration ; it is needless for me to make any comment, I will but remind you, that in consequence of our increasing death-rate, from fifteen to eighteen hundred more persons died in one year, 1853-54, than in 184950, after allowing for increase of population or than ought to have died, according to the rate of mortality in the last-named period, distant only four years ! ! Suffer me then to inquire where and with whom does this fearful respon- sibility rest ? Is it with the Corporation of Birmingham and their Officers of Health, or is it not ? Yet will I say that half a score of murders, or the sacrifice of so many lives from a single accident at our Central Railway Station, or the falling of a house, would create far more consternation, far more sympathy, than have these four times let us say TEN hun- dred lives ; which, in as many years, death has prematurely and silently snatched from among us. It is much to be appre- hended, that in four years hence the same sad tale of past neglect, with its terrible consequences, may be repeated, with- out the aid even of that much dreaded disease, cholera ; which is, in truth, even less to be feared than other diseases produced by similar causes, and annually destroying many hundreds of our population. ' As to the question of making this a paid appointment, and inviting the most eminent members of the profession to become candidates, permit me to say that it is one to which I shall feel no sort of objection ; and I trust the public will duly ap- preciate so wise a decision. Whenever that is arrived at, I shall have infinite satisfaction in resigning the trust which the Council has reposed in me, to place myself on the same equa- lity with others for re-election, should the proposed salary be adequate to the heavy labours of the most important office that can be filled by any member of the medical profession. e I shall offer no apology for the length of these remarks, which I trust your Committee will think of sufficient moment to diffuse among the entire body of the Corporation. f l remain, Gentlemen, your very obedient humble Servant, ' CHARLES TOWNSEND, Medical Officer of Health. '70, Newhall-street, September soth, 1854.' Sequel to Charge of March, 1854. 317 I grieve to have to record that the answer given by the Council to this earnest appeal was, not the adoption of the recommendations contained in the Report, but the dismissal of its author by the abolition of his office ! If the language of the Report had attacked individuals, I should have been reluctant to reproduce it here ; and it is due to Mr. Townsend to insert his own comment upon it in a letter to myself, dated January n, 1856 : ( I beg to enclose the last copy of my Report to the Borough Inspection Committee, which I have only this moment laid hands upon. With regard to the figures, I think you may fully rely on their accuracy, but a re-perusal of the pamphlet, which was not intended for other readers than the members of the Committee to whom it is addressed, convinces me that it possesses faults, for which I must claim your indulgence. I perhaps had no right to criticise the conduct of the Council, and may have erred in the excess of my zeal to perform the duties of a most responsible and important office at which time I imagined that language milder than I then used would probably fail to make any impression on the Council/ There is no reason for believing that the inhabitants of Birmingham rank below those of other towns in their appre- ciation of the importance of sanitary measures, and of the necessity for accurate information on which to found them. I fear we must look upon the apathy evinced in this town to be the exponent of the general indisposition to expend money, except with a niggard hand, for objects on which scarcely any outlay could be too large. It is right also to state that, if we may trust to existing data, the rapid increase of mortality, to which Mr. Townsend adverts, must be referred to some temporary cause ; as it would seem, by later accounts, that the rate has fallen back to what it was in 1849. But, although the perils of delay may not be so alarming as they appeared to Mr. Townsend, no man who has examined the subject can doubt that the number of deaths by preventible disease is enormous that every addition to our towns adds force to those causes already but too powerful, which injure the public health and that every year calls for more strenuous efforts to contend against our potent and insidious enemy. 3 1 8 Sequel to Charge of March, 1 854. I subjoin certain questions which I proposed to Mr. Town- send about the commencement of the year 1856, together with his answers : Question i. Can you state the rate of mortality in Birming- ham and its suburbs ? Answer i. I have no means of ascertaining the positive rate of mortality in Birmingham and its suburbs later than the date of my Report to the Council. Though the Borough has un- questionably participated in the general diminution of mortality which has prevailed throughout the kingdom in the past year, it will as certainly rise again to the high rate of former years. Q. 2. Whether such rate is on the increase or decrease ? A. 2. My calculations do not extend over a sufficient series of years to determine very precisely what is the exact ratio of increase in our death-rate ; but that it is progressively increasing, if we take the last half of any decennial period, particularly in certain parts of the town, I have no manner of doubt. Q. 3. Will comparison with the neighbouring disconnected parishes tend to show that the cause of a high rate of mor- tality in Birmingham is confined to Birmingham ; or extends to the district in which Birmingham is situated ? A. 3. I believe a careful comparison with the neigh- bouring disconnected parishes will show that the cause of the increased rate of mortality in past years is confined to Birming- ham. The rate of mortality in the surrounding districts will probably be found somewhat higher, but not relatively so. Q. 4. If confined to Birmingham, to what causes should you attribute the high rate ? Bad ventilation ? Imperfect sewerage ? Height above the sea, as regards pulmonary complaints ? &c. A. 4. I attribute the high rate of mortality in Birmingham, in part, to the same causes which influence it in the manu- facturing town populations of the midland districts generally, namely, the old, dirty, ill-constructed, and badly-ventilated dwellings of the poor in our courts and alleys, and certain inefficiently-drained localities. To our over- crowded graveyards, numerous offensive trades and others injurious to life, the prejudicial effects of carbon from the non-consumption of smoke from almost countless manufacturing chimneys. To the insuf- ficient supply of water, in many places, as also to the quality of the water itself, whether derived from the source which at Sequel to Charge of March, 1854. 319 present supplies the town, or from private wells, many of which derive their impurities from the leakage or escape of gas, and the percolation of animal matter through the porous subsoil, from the numerous privies, cesspools, dumb-wells, &c. Neither can the temptations to drunkenness, which here exist in such superabundance, be omitted from the list of causes bearing so largely on the health of the town. As regards the elevation of the town above the sea, it is highly probable that this circum- stance most favourably influences the mortality by carrying off rapidly the noxious vapours emanating from some of the above- mentioned sources, whatever influence it may exercise in the production of certain diseases of the respiratory organs. Q. 5. Has the employment of women in manufactories any, and what effect, on the rate of mortality in children ? A. 5. I am greatly impressed with the conviction that the employment of women in factories is productive of a large amount of physical suffering from overcrowding and its usual attendant consequences; but more especially from its influence on the infant mortality of this and other manufacturing towns similarly situ- ated, by reason of the withdrawal of the mother from attention to her children, where in some dirty, ill-ventilated dwelling they are frequently shut up for hours, under circumstances but too surely provocative of disease; whilst the infant, deriving its sustenance at long intervals from the breast, is plied with nar- cotics to procure sleep and quiet in the mother's absence. The facile manner in which these destructive agents are obtained is much to be regretted, and the pernicious effects of the system much to be deplored. Q. 6. Has the late improvement in the sewerage been pro- ductive of results decidedly beneficial, so marked as to be con- sidered as facts instead of inferences ? A. 6. I do not think any appreciable advantage to the health of Birmingham can be justly attributed to the present plan of deep sewerage ; nor is it likely to arise until house drainage into the sewers is generally adopted, and the present plan of privy accommodation and open cesspools abolished. As yet, the deep sewers serve scarcely more than the old ones for the street drainage rainfall, with a very limited number of water-closets. Q. 7. Please to enumerate the localities in which disease is accompanied with crime ? 320 Sequel to Charge of March, 1854. A. 7. I am altogether unable to determine as regards the close connexion which undoubtedly exists between crime and disease in very many parts of this borough, which fact depends on the other. Possibly, and I am inclined to think it is so, each often gives rise to the other, but on which side the pre- ponderance lies I know not. Of their co-existence I have no doubt; but I have not given sufficient consideration to this subject to enable me to speak from my own knowledge of more than a few of the principal localities in which they seem chained together. T will instance the few following : John- street, the Gullet, Slaney -street, Drury-lane, New Inkleys, North- Wood-street, Thomas-street, Lichfield-street, Park-street. Allison-street, Green's Village, Livery-street (part), Staffer d- street, Steelhouse-lane, Brick-street, Old Inkleys, and Cheapside. There are many others in which disease prevails to a great extent that I am not aware possess a close affinity to crime ; more particularly in the district of St. George's, and some parts of the parish of Aston. Seventeen years of experience as Recorder enable me to corroborate the enumeration given by Mr. Townsend of the seats of the criminal population in the Borough. The Lodging Houses Act, by thinning the number of lodgers in each house registered, has a tendency to drive the poor in greater numbers to those houses which registration has not reached, either because they are not within the Act, or because their occupants have not complied with its requisitions. It is, indeed, self-evident that if no additional houseroom is provided, the improvement by the lessened numbers in the registered lodging-houses cannot be looked upon with anything like unal- loyed satisfaction, when we know that it is bought at the expense of still further overcrowding the class of houses below them. A few extracts from Mr. Godwin's tract, London Shadows, will sufficiently confirm my statement : ' The following case shows the operation of the Act in this respect : A widow, very poor, with three children, the eldest ten years of age, is charged 3$. 6d. a week for lodging in a house in ' Short's Gardens/ Drury-lane. This is an amount of weekly rent which it is totally out of the power of this woman, Sequel to Charge of March, 1854. 321 in her present circumstances, honestly to pay. The lodging- house keeper says that, having known the woman for some years, he has, since his house was licensed, let her and the chil- dren sleep there for 35. 6d. a week a sum less than he ought to charge ; the ordinary charge would be \d. a night for the mother (2s. ^d. a week), and half-price for the children (35. 6d. a week) ; in all 55. lod. This is a startling amount of rent, but the lodging-house keeper, as he observed, since he dare not admit more than a certain number of inmates, must charge the amount allowed by law to enable him to live, and at the same time pay his rent and taxes. 1 Immediate and large provision of lodgings is required by the present condition of things, particularly for the very poor who have families of children. - ' In a small room in Rosemary-lane, near the Tower, fourteen adults were sleeping on the floor, without any partition or regard to decency j and in an apartment in Church-lane, St. Giles's, not fifteen feet square, were thirty-seven men, women, and children, all huddled together on the floor. ' The house was dirty, dilapidated, and swarming with vermin : this was the condition of two houses after they had been thinned by the police. The following is an account of part of a house of ten rooms in this neighbourhood (Rosemary- lane), let to the poor Irish at is. 3d. per week : One of these rooms, kept by Daniel Jones, contained five beds, as they were called, but which, in fact, were nothing but bundles of rags, similar to those described in Clerkenwell. In 'Bed' No. i, Daniel Jones, the keeper, his wife, and children, aged eight, seven, and five years. ' Bed' No. 2, occupied by Cornelius Toomy (paid 6d. a week to the keeper), John and Peter Shea, in the same bed, paid 6d. each is. 6cl. for this bed. 'Bed' No. 3, John Sullivan and his wife, paying jd. per week. f Bed' No. 4, Cornelius Haggarty, his wife, boy, thirteen, and girl, eleven, pays is. per week. 'Bed' No. 5, Patrick Kelly and wife, paying lid.; in all fourteen persons in one room; the original rent is. 6d. The keeper received from lodgers 4$. per Sequel to Charge of March , 1854. week. At the time of Sergeant Price's visit (24th of August, 1852) the greater portion of these persons were in a state almost of nudity, huddled in this manner together. ' Let us look into a house in an adjoining street. This consists of five small rooms, and a back kitchen or washhouse, and is occupied by five families, numbering thirty -three indi- viduals, distributed as follows, viz. : Seven in the kitchen, which is underground a man, his wife, and five children; seven in the room over the kitchen a man, his mother, wife, and four children ; in the room behind this are four labourers, who sleep upon two small beds, which fill the room; eight in the top front room a shoemaker, his wife, and six children ; seven in the top back room six men and women, with one child, occupying only two beds. The kitchen is very dirty, has two sinks, both unt rapped, communicating with the drain, and contains the waterbutt for the supply of water to the several families. The house itself is filthy, the walls besmeared with dirt, and the yard contains an open cesspool and stagnant water. No wonder that cholera has already been busy in this house. ' Persons congratulate themselves on the removal of ' rooke- ries/ and look with complacency at the noble warehouses and streets which rise to occupy the sites of the wretched hovels. But what has been done in this great metropolis to provide for the living creatures who, by the improvements, have had their hearths destroyed ? Literally nothing. A short time ago we witnessed the ejectment, from Orchard-place, Portman-square, of nearly fifteen hundred men, women, and children ; the place was in a bad condition, and fever was a constant visitor; yet the people were sorry to leave the place, knowing the difficulty of obtaining, with their limited means, a better lodging, or even any lodging at all. Single men could manage well enough, but it was distressing to see the wretched furniture, if so it could be called, and families in the muddy street on a rainy day, the parents hunting in all directions to obtain shelter. These poor people would go, as a matter of course, to the Sequel to Charge of March, 1854. 323 already thickly crowded parts of Marylebone, St. Pancras, Clerkenwell, &c., for no provision had been made for them of an improved kind/* It is worthy of remark, that whenever the Legislature attempts to promote the welfare of any class of the community, by means of restraint upon their freedom of action, there is too often a large drawback to be made from the apparent good produced, by reason of the alternatives to which those intended to be favoured are necessarily driven. The following passage from a Report of Mr. Frederic Hill, late Inspector of Prisons for Scotland, affords an instance of the evil caused by Legisla- tive interference : ' The following is an extract from a letter I have received from a lady residing in this district [Newcastle], who takes a warm interest in the welfare of the working classes, especially those of her own sex : ' ' When Lord Ashley's Bill first took effect here, it caused a great many females who had previously wrought in the coal- pits, to suffer from the pressure of want (as you are well aware that there is no relief for able-bodied persons by the provisions of the Scottish Poor-law). This bore particularly hard upon widows with young families, of which there are always a great many at all collieries, from the circumstance not only of mining being an unhealthy occupation, but also from the many casual- ties destructive of life to which colliers are liable. I am happy to say that in this district the distress was less felt than it would otherwise have been, from the fortunate commencement, shortly after Lord Ashley's Act came into operation, of exten- sive iron-works in the neighbourhood, which have hitherto given employment to a number of females in the simple occupa- tion of assisting in turning a windlass used in sinking the shafts to get at the ironstone, and also in removing the iron- stone from the baskets to the truck provided for carrying it away from the pit-mouth. This is, no doubt, a degrading occupation for women; but you will observe, they do not con- travene Lord Ashley's Act by so working, their employment * London Shadows : A Glance at the ' Homes ' of the Thousands. By George Godwin, F.R.S. London: Routledge. 1854. Price is. Y 2, 324 Sequel to Charge of March } 1854, being above ground; and unless they could learn to live, like chameleons, on air, they must and will find the means of evading the most stringent Acts of Parliament which ingenuity can devise.' '* Another example occurs in one of the Reports of Mr. Senior. He mentions a poor boy who sat in a mine, in the dark, to open and shut a door as the railway trucks, by which the coals were drawn along the driftway to the perpendicular shaft, passed and repassed; and who, on being asked why his parents set him to such an irksome task, answered, that it was because he was too young for admission to the cotton factories ! By the kindness of Sir Richard Mayne I am in possession of documents which show the working of the Lodging-House Act to January, 1856. They are too long to admit of insertion even in abstract. It would seem, however, from the Report of Mr. R. Reason, Chief Inspector, that the over-crowding of inferior houses, to which reference has been made, has been diminished to some extent by the operation of new causes. ' The decrease of the evil of over-crowding is very apparent in all the lowest class of sublet houses, without any known increased burden upon the rates of the several parishes. This may in part arise from an improved rate of wages paid to the poorer class of the Irish population in their own country, which lessens their migration to England, and from the large number of men who have by enlistment, or by employment on works connected with the present war, been withdrawn from the metropolis. The majority of over-crowded rooms were, and now are, occupied by the poor Irish. Many houses have been erected or converted into Model Lodging-Houses for the work- ing classes by societies, &c., but few of these lodgings are cheap enough for the means of the classes who have been found as lodgers in common lodging-houses, or in over-crowded sublet rooms. Upon inquiry, it has been ascertained from the police doing duty in the neighbourhood of the courts and alleys where many of the lowest class of lodging-houses are situate, that since the Act came fully into operation, a visible change has taken place in the habits of the people, drunkenness and gross acts of obscenity having materially lessened.' Eleventh Report of the Inspectors of Prisons. 1846. p. xviii. Sequel to Charge of March } 1854. 325 It is quite obvious, however, that a vast increase of house- room for the lower classes of London is much to be desired. Yet, unless it can be furnished on the commercial prin- ciple of demand and supply, it would seem almost hopeless to contend with the difficulties of the case. The labours of bene- volent societies have as yet done little more than offer models to the observation of capitalists a most important service no doubt, but only the first step towards the accomplishment of the end in view. It might be supposed that the high rents exacted by the keepers of lodging-houses would invite competitors into their trade; and it is to be presumed that such an effect is in pro- gress. But there is a fallacy in the use of the term rent to designate the payment made by the lodger, which, when it is understood, will tend to damp the hopes of those who may be sanguine in their expectations that the demand for accommo- dation will be adequately met by a natural supply. The keeper has to be paid for a most revolting task. His inmates are noisy, quarrelsome, drunken, sometimes ferocious, and often dishonest. And thus a very large proportion of the total payment goes to remunerate him for exposing himself to the perils and discomforts of his vocation ; but when this remuneration is sub- tracted from the payment, the remainder, which alone can be truly denominated rent, shrinks into a comparatively small amount. Yet that amount is the fund to which the capitalist must confine himself, in his estimate of the return to be expected upon an investment in dwellings for the class under consideration. The late Captain Hay, in his last Report, dated April, 1854, speaks of 'the prevailing habit of intemperance' as absorbing ' those means which could be applied to the payment of the required minimum of decency in human habitations/ Here, then, is the great obstacle. Intemperance is the chief agent in producing that state of manners and morals which enhances the remuneration demanded by keepers; while on the other hand it diminishes the means of payment. How to get rid of intemperance the impediment which thwarts us at every turn is the problem to be solved. Into whatever path of benevolence the philanthropist may strike, the Drink-demon starts up before him and blocks his way ! Early in the year 1855 the Mayor of Bristol, Mr. Shaw, Sequel to Charge of March ^ 1854. endeavoured to engage the Council of that city to bring the 'Labouring Classes' Lodging Houses Act, 1851,' into operation; but notwithstanding a clear and forcible statement of the advantages to the city likely to accrue from such an under- taking, he was unsuccessful. In the same year, at the instance of Dr. Monk, the late Bishop of Gloucester arid Bristol, a Society was formed to accomplish that object. It became a branch of the Metropolitan Association for Improving the Dwellings of the Industrious Classes, and it has now (December, 1 856), built thirty-three small houses. These are placed round an airy court in Christmas-street, communicating with a garden which is being prepared for a drying ground. The court, which has more than 6000 square feet of superficies, is paved with flag- stones, and is kept clean at the expense of the Association. There is a convenient washhouse, and pumps with hard and soft water for the use of the tenants, who may require a greater supply than is taken from the Water Company. This Company's Works supply each house with twenty-two gallons per diem for household purposes, including the flushing of the water-closet, with which each tenement is furnished. The houses are in three tiers or flats; the communication with the upper tiers being by outside galleries. Each contains a living-room, eleven feet by ten, a bed-room, and a scullery. Some of the houses have two bed-rooms ; the rent of the latter is 35. 6d. per week; of the former, 3$. This sum, which is paid weekly in advance, includes taxes, repairs, painting, water-rates, and indeed every other outgoing. The sanitary arrangements, includ- ing ventilation, are excellent. The houses have now been ready for habitation twelve weeks, but as yet they are only half filled, although the average rent through the city of a single room, without any of the advantages enumerated as belonging to the Society's dwellings, is is. yd. per week ; some of the houses so let being in a dilapidated state, and in other respects uncom- fortable and unwholesome. The reluctance of the classes for whom these dwellings have been erected to avail themselves of the boon thus offered to them, is believed to be their dread of interference with their liberty of action by rules and regula- tions. This, however, is a mere prejudice, and is passing away. The Association makes a strict scrutiny into the character of their tenants, as the introduction of a single ill-conducted family Sequel to Charge of March, 1854. 327 might destroy the comfort of the whole body; especially as the children associate together in the court-yard. Of the financial results, nothing of course can be said at present. The So- ciety contemplates further erections in other quarters of the city. The recent changes in the law, which authorize the establish- ment of associations involving only a limited liability on the part of members, render the cost of a Charter, like that referred to in the Charge, unnecessary. It is impossible to revert, without regret and disgust, to the spoliation inflicted on the benevolent persons who founded the admirable Society for Improving the Dwellings of the Industrious Classes. In the following paper, communicated by a friend (being the summary of a larger work), the suggestions are founded on the duties and responsibilities of house-owners ; and it may, there- fore, properly be inserted in this place : ( SUMMARY. ' i . That there exists in most, if not all, our large towns, a numerous class of habitual depredators, cheats, forgers, and others, who make crime their ordinary, and, for the most part, their sole occupation, having no dependence for a subsistence except upon the plunder of their fellow-men. Further, that many persons, possessing more or less capital, employ them- selves and their means, wholly or partly, in harbouring, traffick- ing with, or otherwise aiding and abetting, the said class of habitual depredators. ' 2. That the evils, moral and economical, inflicted on society by this class are almost incalculable, the mere expense of repression, imperfect as this is, amounting in London and Middlesex alone to more than half a million sterling per annum, in the shape of Police and County Rates, and allowances from the Consolidated Fund; whilst the value of the property injured and stolen is probably much greater still ; and to all this must be added personal injuries, and sometimes the loss of life itself. '3. That all classes of society, the unhappy criminal class most especially, are deeply interested in the speedy and total suppression of habitual criminality. The wealthy for the safety of their persons and property. The honest poor for the safety of their families from that contaminating influence which now 328 Sequel to Charge of March, 1854. but too often pervades the neighbourhoods in which they are obliged to dwell. The wretched criminals themselves, that by a salutary compulsion they may be at once and for ever rescued from that fearful network of criminality in which they have become so fatally entangled. ' 4. That the efforts of society to repress and to procure the ultimate extinction of this class, whether by means of religious and moral instruction and training, or by penal legislation, police establishments, and other repressive measures, much as they have undoubtedly accomplished, are still far from having attained a satisfactory success ; seeing that thousands still con- tinue to live in open defiance of the law, cheating, robbing, and sometimes even murdering their fellow-men ; their persons, residences, and guilty occupations being for the most part well known, and their absolute number actually increasing in spite of every effort made for their repression. Hence it is surely the part of wisdom (whilst nowise relaxing the vigorous use of the recognised means of repression) cheerfully to accept the aid of any suitable auxiliary means that may be pointed out, and shown to be really at our command. '5. That children and youths in large numbers (the rising generation of criminals) are well known to be now growing up in habits of dishonesty; being in many cases trained and actually by force driven to beg and steal for the support of their idle and profligate parents. '6. That no plainer legislative duty, none that is more imperatively dictated by feelings of humanity, or that can have greater or more obvious moral and economical advantages, can well be imagined, than that of stepping forth to rescue these most unhappy beings from the deplorable fate of thus being scourged into crime in their tender years, with the sure prospect, unless mercifully relieved by death, of ultimately falling into the grasp of the law, to be then scourged out of crime ; if indeed this has not, by that time, become so deeply ingrained as to defy the process. ( 7. That to effect the rescue of these miserable children would be to intercept and stop at its source that supply by which the criminal ranks are mainly recruited; and thus, in time, happily to set at rest that most painful and perplexing of questions, ' how to dispose of our convicts/ Sequel to Charge of March, 1854. 329 ' 8. That taking the estimated numbers of the criminal class in a given town (London, for instance), and assuming that the number of crimes they commit amounts upon the average to only one crime per day for each member of the class, the total number of crimes obtained as the result is so enormous as to justify the conclusion, that such total must necessarily constitute an overwhelming majority of the whole number of crimes therein committed. Ex. gr., the predatory class in London is, at the lowest estimate, 5000 persons, who, at the rate given, will commit 5000 crimes a day, or 1,825,000 a year ! a result that would lead one to suppose that no large number of crimes can be assigned to mere casual offenders. ' 9. That the common impression that this vast multitude of plunderers consists mostly of unconnected individuals, each fol- lowing his own course of crime without any necessary concert or even concurrence with others, is erroneous; the truth being that (allowing for such restriction as arises from the necessity of concealment), the business of depredation has, and of necessity ever must have, its division of labour, just like any other business ; and that those engaged in depredation neither do nor can any more carry on their operations without the concurrent action of others, than persons engaged in honest pursuits. The business of depredation combines the operations, amongst others, of the capitalists (who, finding ready money for stolen property, are virtually the employers of the thieves) , the trainers of thieves, the burglars' instrument-makers, the keepers of flash houses, of thieves' lodging-houses, and of brothels, the coiners, forgers, passers of counterfeit money, illicit distillers, and, lastly, the great body of mere operative criminals, as burglars, thieves, pickpockets, &c. The mutual dependence of the opera- tives, receivers, trainers, implement-makers, and harbourers, is obvious ; nor would it be difficult to show that, without concert or concurrence, habitual criminality must be rare, if not impossible. ' 10. That this necessary connexion and mutual dependence of the various kinds of criminals and their abettors makes it proper to regard their collective operations as the working of a single great mechanism, the efficient action of which can only be maintained so long as its various parts continue to move in accordance with each other, each correctly performing the function assigned to it; and therefore, in order to bring such 33 Sequel to Charge of March, 1854. action to a stand, it will be enough that any one essential part of such mechanism be withdrawn or disabled. ( u. That the use of premises adequate to its purposes is an essential condition of the continued operation of the predatory class"; so absolutely essential, indeed, that it may be correctly likened to a main wheel of a machine, the withdrawal of which must necessarily disorganize such machine, and stop its action altogether. A predatory class, utterly destitute of house and home, must, in a populous district at least, very soon become, like the gipsies, virtually extinct. Macaulay's narrative of the instantaneous and easily-effected dispersion (when once fairly set about) of that horde of robbers and cutthroats, who, a century and a half ago, had gathered themselves together in the Sanc- tuary of Whitefriars, furnishing us with a striking and instruc- tive instance in point. ' 12,. That the house property in a town (excepting so far as it may virtually compete with possible suburban extensions) really bears the burden of the rates levied for the repression of crime. For although these rates are collected of the tenants, yet every one knows that a tenant looks simply at the total amount he has to pay, not concerning himself what proportion of such total falls to his landlord and what to the tax-collector. The tenant will not go beyond a certain sum in the whole ; and therefore the more the rates absorb, the less (in the long run) will the landlord receive. Indeed, cases were not un- known, under the old Poor-law, in which the rate -collector, took the whole rental, driving the landlord fairly out of the field. Further, a notorious want of security in any neighbour- hood is a direct injury to the owners of the property, since it scares away valuable tenants. ' 13. That consequently the existence of a predatory class presses with peculiar severity upon the owners of house pro- perty; inflicting upon them the double injury of disheartening acceptable tenants by the fear of violence and robbery, and of intercepting an important fraction of their annual returns in order to meet the expense of magistrates, police, gaols, &c. Hence the owners of house property, as a body, have a much greater pecuniary interest in getting rid of the predatory class than any other body of men whatever. 1 And since no landlord need accept any one as a tenant Sequel to Charge of March, 1854. 331 until satisfied that he is nowise connected with the predatory class, it is clear that if the body of landlords were one and all to refuse admission to any one who should fail to satisfy them of his non-complicity with that class, the whole predatory class, together with their aiders and abettors, must become utterly houseless; and unless they at once took to honest courses (an attempt which should receive every encouragement and help), would be left without alternative other than the workhouse or the gaol. And if any large town, being infested by such a class, were to become the sole property of some one man, who, thoroughly understanding his own interest, was determined to protect it by the best means in his power, there can be no doubt that he would at once adopt the most energetic measures for thoroughly clearing his property of a class from whom it was suffering such serious injury. Further, if such a property, instead of thus falling into the hands of one man, should fall into those of a corporate body (also well knowing their interests and resolute to protect them), the result would, doubtless, be the same. ' 14. That the Sutherland Estate in Scotland presents an instance, as regards the offence of smuggling, of the successful application of the principle of making tenancy depend upon abstinence from offence. Complete abstinence from smuggling having been for these many years, and ivith perfect success, made a binding covenant in all the leases granted upon houses and lands adjacent to the sea. '15. Although the perfect freedom of our towns from resident plunderers, were it once acquired, could be thenceforward main- tained without hardship to any one, yet, as the first expulsion of the predatory class must necessarily dislodge and render homeless a large number of individuals, and thereby cause a great though temporary pressure upon the workhouse system, some temporary expedient will probably be required to meet such pressure, as has been found necessary during the visitations of cholera. '16. That thus to deprive the predatory class of harbourage (upon the withdrawal of which they must thenceforth neces- sarily cease to infest our towns), is not only a subject of deep importance to the interests of the great body of house pro- prietors, but also a matter of plain and obvious duty to every 33^ Sequel to Charge of March, 1854. individual proprietor. For surely no man has a right to allow his property to become in effect the accomplice of crime, he receiving a portion of its proceeds as rent. Enjoying his pro- perty under the shadow of the law, how can he be justified in suffering it to shelter those by whom the law is broken and defied ? '17. That however earnestly the large majority of the house proprietors, when rightly understanding their interests in this matter, may desire to protect them (and with their own, the pub- lic interests also), they are without the necessary means of doing so, since they have not the requisite legal power to bind the careless or unprincipled minority, through whose default the whole mischief is let in upon them. e iS. That since, but for such default, the predatory class must be speedily extinguished, and the heavy expense of their repression become thenceforth needless, it would be nothing more than a simple act of justice to throw the whole weight of such expense upon such defaulters, so long as they voluntarily remain in default. And it would be as politic as it is just ; since the pressure of such a burden must very soon constrain such delinquents to yield obedience to the dictates of justice, and to pay due attention to the common interest. ' Therefore, to discover and to apply the means of concen- trating the whole expense incurred in the repression of crime, upon the shoulders of those, but for whose default such expense might cease, would, in effect, be to discover and apply the means of totally extinguishing the predatory class } together with their aiders and abettors ; in other words, to accomplish the object in view. '19. That since all house property is now subject to the Police and County Rates, one mode of carrying out the principle in question (and, for the reasons hereafter stated, probably the best mode), would be to provide means by Act of Parliament for exempting from so much of these rates as may be required exclu- sively for the repression of crime all property concerning which reasonable proof can be furnished that it is not now (nor for a given time back has been) tenanted by any one connected, whether directly or indirectly, with the practice of crime. ' 20. That the plan of making exemption a privilege, instead of making the payment of the rates a punishment, is greatly to Sequel to Charge of March, 1854. 333 be preferred, ist, because exemption is the most natural step from the present state of things, under which every one pays ; and 2ndly, because it would impose the task of making out the case upon the party who must needs be best acquainted with the facts, viz., the applicant himself; the good effect of which would be to render unavailing those manifold equivocations, refusals to answer pertinent questions, falsifications of names and dates, pleas of ' non mi recordo' &c., by which the cunning are but too often enabled to evade a direct accusation, even when the case is too clear to admit of any moral doubt. For the least reluctance to afford the information asked for, or the smallest attempt at double dealing, things which would be but little noticed in a case where conviction and punishment were im- pending, would be quite enough to ensure the refusal of a privilege; or, at least, to induce its postponement, until the arbiter could become better satisfied of the propriety of granting it. ' 2 1 . That since no dwelling, however great or however humble, can be either concealed or protected from the inroads of the rate-collector, and since, to every place he reaches, he must necessarily convey the influence of the principle, in its full, unbroken force, it would follow that those places (the f Hells ' amongst others) which have hitherto been the shame and reproach of the law, scorning its threats and foiling its attacks, must speedily succumb under the accumulating burden which the operation of the new principle would inevitably bring down upon them. ' 22. That with an object before us of such unspeakable im- portance, both morally and economically, as the suppression of the whole body of habitual depredators (the expenses and losses inflicted by whom cannot be less in the aggregate than several millions per annum), no ordinary difficulties, nothing indeed short of impossibilities, ought to bar our way. Arid since experience ever shows that the impossibilities of the timid, the feeble, and the resourceless, are often nothing more than the healthfully stimulating difficulties of the energetic, the perse- vering, and the ready-minded, it would surely be the part of wisdom, in order to insure success in carrying the principle into effect, to secure the services, in devising and working out the necessary measures, of men well known to combine such 334 Sequel to Charge of March, 1854. qualities with sound practical knowledge in the highest degree. A plan adopted with such eminent success in the case of the Common Law Procedure Act. ' 23. That in order to avoid opposition, to give a reasonable choice, and that too much may not have to be done at once, it might be advisable to make the adoption of the proposed Act (like that of some existing Acts) optional with the several towns and districts; offering, however, as an encouragement to its early adoption, the help during its initiation of men of experience in the conduct of such affairs; together with the loan of a moderate sum of money to cover the immediate expenses ; such sum to be repaid by easy instalments out of the future savings. ' Many valuable improvements as, for instance, the reduc- tion of the Rates of Postage, and the repeal of the ' Taxes on Knowledge/ have, in the outset, necessarily presented the un- palatable condition of an important, though perchance tempo- rary, relinquishment of revenue. Other great measures, as the repeal of the Corn Laws, and the Reform of the Municipal Corpo- rations, have necessarily called for the abrogation of long- cherished privileges, clothed with something of the sacredness of vested interests. Again, in the accomplishment of certain great changes, as those brought about by the Poor-law Amend- ment Act, the Public Health Act, and the Building Act, the creation of new authoritative bodies, armed with highly excep- tional powers, has been deemed unavoidable. 'No relinquishment of revenue is called for by the plan herein proposed ; but, if successful, it must cause a large saving in our local expenditure. And seeing that few things could act more healthfully upon our general prosperity than the effectual suppression of the predatory class, the transformation of the thousands of enemies and destroyers who now lurk amongst us, into friends and fellow-workers, and since an increase of national prosperity invariably tells upon the revenue, it is clear, that if successful, the plan must increase the copious- ness of its purest sources. Nor is any surrender of vested interests asked for, since no one can pretend to a vested interest in the promotion of crime. Nor is exceptional authority wanted, the decisions required being altogether of a judicial nature/ 335 CHAKGE OP SEPTEMBER, 1854. From the 'Midland Counties Herald. 3 ' BOROUGH SESSIONS. ' A SESSIONS of the Peace for this Borough was held at the JLA. Public Office, Moor-street, on Monday last, hefore the Recorder, who was accompanied on the Bench by the Mayor and the Hon. and Rev. Grantham M. Yorke. Lady Noel Byron was present during the delivery of the Charge/ GENTLEMEN OF THE GRAND JURY, ONE of the duties of our local courts in early times, was to promulgate new statutes to the people collected in these assemblies; and prior to the invention of printing, such a usage, it will be conceded, was founded on imperative necessity ; unless the laws were to remain altogether, what in truth they have too much remained, a sealed book to the body of the nation. Customs, when harmless, are often valuable posses- sions ; and may frequently be turned to good account, even when the causes from which their origin is derived have passed away. But the usage of which I am speaking, to be made practicable in the present age, must be greatly qualified. Every Session of Parliament produces a whole volume of public statutes of general operation, to say nothing of a huge mass of local and private Acts. We are driven, then, to a narrow selection ; and probably you will agree with me, that our choice ought to rest upon such only as call into action some new principle affecting large classes of our fellow- subjects. And perhaps you will further agree with me in thinking that if the changes which have been thus wrought in the law touch the administration of criminal justice, they will possess an addi- tional claim to our attention in this place. In exercising the duty of selection, no particular regard can be had to that fleeting excitement indicated by the multiplicity of speeches, or the warmth of debate, which may have ushered the new measure into the world. For while questions of temporary interest. 336 Charge of September, 1854. but of no real moment, often absorb attention both in and out of Parliament, the Legislature not unfrequently passes Acts with little discussion in either House, and with less observation by the public, whose effects on society are nevertheless as deep and permanent, as the jarrings which fill the columns of the newspaper are trifling and evanescent. Lasting and progressive will, I trust, be the action of the statute, entitled ' The Youthful Offenders Act/ to which I now respectfully invite your attention. During many years, as some, if not all of you, can testify of your own knowledge, the doctrine that reformatory treatment of criminals ought to be substituted for retributive punishment, was often impressed 011 the public mind; and latterly, by the aid of the public itself, it has been urged on the attention of the Government and of the Legislature. Neither the fact of such a pressure, nor the arguments by which it was justified, need be dwelt upon in this town, which has been chosen as the scene of two most important Conferences, of whose debates and resolutions the statute which I hold in my hand may justly be considered the fruit. After many struggles and disappointments, and much delay, this all-important principle, so far as it applies to the young, has at length obtained the solemn recognition of the greatest Legislature on earth; and is henceforward withdrawn from the troubled regions of controversy, to take its place among esta- blished and undeniable truths. And, so far as relief can be given by the provisions of an Act of Parliament, judges and magistrates are now relieved from the odious necessity of ex- posing children to treatment at once revolting to humanity, and condemned by experience, as inevitably leading to conse- quences the very opposite of those which its administrators had vainly contemplated. Gentlemen, it is not an easy thing to fix upon that class of the community which ought most to rejoice over this revolu- tion. The mind naturally turns first to the poor children themselves, the objects of the new enactments. But, if lan- guage did not fail me, I would ask to speak for the ministers of justice; and I would attempt to convey to your minds a due appreciation of the boon conferred upon us, in our release from the odious task of inflicting pain, to be followed, not by good but by evil. What, Gentlemen, is the waste of gold, or of Charge of September, 1854. 337 precious stones, or of any earthly treasures, compared to the waste of human suffering ? If it savour of presumption for erring man, deliberately and by law, to inflict pain upon his brother (as it assuredly would do were it not justified by abso- lute necessity), how awful is the duty cast upon him to look well to the consequences of such infliction, and to abstain from any unprofitable exercise of this fearful prerogative, as he would abstain from self-destruction ! Can we, then, who preside in courts like this, be too grateful that we are no longer to be the agents of these absurd and cruel visitations ? Nor, Gentlemen, while congratulating myself upon what has been gained, can I repress the desire to look upon the position we have reached, more as an earnest of further progress than as a place of rest. Providence has endowed children with a potent influence upon our sympathies, but as they advance to manhood the talisman drops from their hands. As then public opinion is more easily won over when approached by sentiment than by argument, it was wise on the part of the philanthropist to put into the front of the battle the cause of the young, and to keep back that of the adult until vantage-ground had been secured. That the treatment of children must differ from the treatment of men is obvious, whether the children and the men are at large or under legal coercion. But as regards the propriety of applying the same principles of punishment to each class, no valid distinction between the two can be established. The solid foundation on which the claims of the young to reformatory treatment must be based, is that it has been proved to be advan- tageous, not merely to youthful offenders, but to the community at large not to a part only, but to the whole. Yet this ground being once conceded to the young, it will be found, on examina- tion, to support the claims of the adult to similar treatment. That greater difficulties will have to be surmounted, and that the incurable will constitute a larger proportion in the latter class than in the former, may be admitted. Yet these admis- sions can safely be made without at all disturbing the general conclusion ; which is, that, as to both classes, reformatory disci- pline ought to be regarded as the rule ; leaving the exceptions to be dealt -vyith as best they may. But the claim of the adult portion of the offending classes, even upon our sympathy, will be strongly felt by all whose charity can be awakened by reflec- 33 8 Charge of September, 1854. tion, and is not altogether dependent on outward impressions or instinctive impulse. The little outcast of tender years, stand- ing at a criminal bar, over which he can scarcely lift his eyes, becomes, upon the instant, and without time being given for thought, the object of our compassion. But suppose years to pass away ; suppose him still to remain the creature of ignorance and abandonment; all this time will evil habit be doing its work ; slowly but surely reducing him to a slavery hopeless of redemption. Let us now suppose the period of life to have arrived when appetites and passions, which had slumbered through his adolescence, awake to urge him on to his ruin, with a force which his unhappy training has deprived him of all power to resist ; even if the desire for better things should still survive. Is such a being, I ask you, Gentlemen, less an object of commiseration to the thoughtful Christian, than the neglected child ? If pity, in minds well regulated, has relation rather to the depth of the misery which calls it forth, than to the aspect winning or repulsive which that misery may chance to wear, the neglected and ill-trained man has even a stronger claim on our consideration than belongs to his younger competitor. And if, as it has now been solemnly admitted, the community is bound to take charge of the child, with the intent to reform him, can it be relieved from that responsibility by permitting him to remain in his vicious courses until he grows up a man ? Surely, if by our indifference we have sinned against the youth, so far from expiating our offence we double it, if we persist in our apathy until he is mature in years as well as in crime. I ask you, then, Gentlemen, to give your aid in this good work. Let us, like our brave countrymen and allies, having seized one position, use it to complete our conquest over the whole fortress of error. The next great principle established by this Act is that the State, while it assumes, as it ought to assume, the parentage of the child, neglected or perverted by those who have brought him into existence, has a right, and is called upon by duty, to prevent the father and the mother from creating for themselves a benefit out of their own misconduct. To this end the Act invests the Court which consigns the child to a Reformatory Institution, with authority to impose a weekly payment for its sustentation on every parent able to contribute to its main- tenance. Doubtless, in many instances, this authority will be Charge of September, 1854. 339 inoperative, by reason of the poverty which the parents may have brought on themselves by indulging in vice and indolence ; or which may have fallen upon them by some calamity for which they are not responsible. But no pains must be spared to prevent the parent from throwing off a burthen imposed upon him by every law, human and divine, under any pretence, how- ever specious. The third great principle sanctioned by the Legislature in this Act, is that of voluntary guardianship. In various parts of this country, as in others, earnest and benevolent men and women have already taken upon themselves the duty, hitherto neglected by the State, of reforming juvenile offenders. They began, and they persevered in this noble enterprise under cir- cumstances of all but insuperable difficulty. Their control over their young wards not being recognised by law, they have had to depend upon their power over the hearts of such of these poor, ill- trained, wayward, and rebellious children and youths, as they could persuade to remain under their care and guidance; and when we consider that the end in view is to change the aspirations and the habits of the pupil ; to make him hate that which he has loved, and love that which he has hated ; to induce him to submit to wholesome control, instead of indulging the caprices of an unbridled will ; to become laborious where he had been indolent ; and to abstain from all gratifications incon- sistent with his position, and consequently not merely from those condemned by religion and morality, but also from such as are too expensive for his narrow means and expectations, or dangerous from their tendency to dissipate his attention from the imperative duty of learning the art of self-support, we shall feel that these faithful guardians imposed upon themselves a labour which demands for its endurance a philanthropy the purest and the deepest one perpetually to be urged forward and solaced by Christian zeal and Christian hope. Remember, Gentlemen, when you estimate their toils, that neglect and ill-usage has sealed up, as it were, all inlets to the confidence and affections of those outcasts ; that proffered gene- rosity would excite suspicion; and that the objects of this high benevolence would at first be engaged in casting about to discover sinister motives, hidden, as they believed, under such a display of compassion. True it is that this coldness, after a 340 Charge of September ', 1854. time, thaws under the genial warmth of kindness, which the young person finds, by experience, has no motive except the desire for his good. But the conduct of this experiment is not the work of a day ; and it has been consequently found that the hard problem to be solved is, how to retain the recipient of the benefits of good training, until he can be convinced that he is under treatment which has his welfare for its object, un- adulterated with any taint of selfish interests. That examples, without number, can be adduced, both at home and abroad, in which these distressing impediments, even under their most aggravated forms, have been surmounted, is now an indis- putable fact ; but that the proportion of failures would have been far less, had a power of legal detention been conferred on the managers of private Reformatories, cannot be doubted ; and this power, by the provisions of the Act under review, they will now possess. Let me, however, pause for a moment, to explain why I do not consider the absence of such power up to the present time as altogether a misfortune. I am of this opinion, because the absence of coercive authority concentrated the aims of experi- mentalists endowed with the richest gifts, intellectual and spiritual, upon forcing a passage to the human heart, even in its most hardened state ; and of bringing vicious habits and the mutinous will under subjection, with no weapons but those fur- nished by faith, by charity, and by good sense. The efficiency of these weapons has thus been manifested to an incredulous world, too prone to fly to coercion as the sole expedient ; whereas \ve have now abundant proof that it should only be called into action as a last resort, and even then employed with reluctance and reserve. And no doubt caution and forbearance will be requisite hereafter, lest too much reliance should be placed on the legal control which the Act supplies. The walls of the gaols have not only kept the bodies of prisoners in durance, but have had a somewhat analogous effect on the in- tellects of gaolers j confining them within the narrow routine of a discipline whose only resources are pain of body or of mind. As Reformatories will not be surrounded by walls, the reliance on force never can approach the degree to \vhich it has attained in prisons ; but should force ever come to be regarded as a substitute for an alliance with the will and the affections Charge of September, 1854. 341 of the patient, sound cures will cease to be wrought. For as the discipline of the Reformatory is of no avail unless it fructifies into good conduct in the after-life of the ward, when its restraints and artificial motives are withdrawn, so the object of the conductors must continue to be, first, to make the ward or patient desire to do right, and then to give him habits of industry and self-government which shall enable him to act up to his convictions. And this brings me to the last, but, in a practical sense, the most important topic of my Charge. The Legislature has now placed Reformatory Schools established by voluntary societies among the recognised institutions of our country, and is ready to bear the expense of the board and instruction of the inmates ; or at least so much of that cost as cannot be exacted from the parents. In furnishing us with these provisions, it has offered us most important facilities to the multiplication of such establish- ments. And this is all that can be done without infringing on the voluntary principle, which is wisely kept sacred from intrusion. It will depend, then, upon those who are duly impressed with the obligation which our Christian brotherhood with the poor outcast imposes upon us, whether this noble statute, which breathes the very spirit of our holy religion, shall operate as widely as the necessity for its application is spread ; or whether, by our supineness or by oiir quailing before the difficulties which always beset a new enterprise, the Act shall remain a dead letter, proving against us that we are of those who know their duty, but fail in performing it ; who set at naught the de- nunciations which hang over the servant that ' knew his Lord's will, and prepared not himself, neither did according to His will/ Gentlemen, I have done. I am in no frame of mind to dwell on the few spots which fell upon the Bill in its passage through the Houses of Parliament. These blemishes are not of its essence, nor can they obscure its beauty; and, believe me, many an eye which has long and anxiously watched for this auspicious dawn, will be too much dimmed by emotion even to discern them. Let me, then, in the words of Milton, ex- press my confidence that ' the ethereal mould, Incapable of stain, will soon expel Her mischief, and purge off the baser part Victorious.' 342 Sequel to Charge of September, 1 854. SEQUEL. From the 'Quarterly Review' December, 1855. f IN the year 1851 three distinguished leaders of the Reforma- tory cause Miss Carpenter,* Mr. M. D. Hill, and Mr. Sydney Turner 'invited all persons interested in the matter to meet and discuss it. A Conference was accordingly held at Birmingham in December of that year, the proceedings of which were after- wards printed in the form of a pamphlet, and widely circulated. At this Conference the subject of Reformatory Schools was placed in almost every possible light by the various speakers. Some, like the Rev. W. C. Osborn, Chaplain to the Bath House of Correction, brought forward striking facts to show how the unfortunate children that once enter the criminal class, take up crime as a profession, and ebb and flow into and out of our gaols with periodical regularity ; others, like the Rev. J. Clay, Chaplain of Preston Gaol, showed to bow great an extent the sins of these children were chargeable on parental neglect, and also to what a large amount society was a loser by juvenile depredations. Mr. Sydney Turner described Red Hill, and gave a sketch of the state of the law bearing on young offenders. Mr. Wolryche Whitmore entered into details as to the system of industrial education successfully pursued in the Union School at Quatt. Mr. Power, the Recorder of Ipswich, gave an interesting account of the exertions of John Ellis, a shoemaker, in a very humble position of life, who had opened a sort of Industrial School in the neighbourhood of the Regent's Park, and had succeeded in reclaiming several confirmed and expert London thieves, and putting them in the way of obtaining an honest livelihood. The Chairman himself, Mr. M. D. Hill, the * ' Miss Carpenter is chiefly known by her books ; but she has been a labourer in the field of juvenile reformation for twenty years, and has much practical acquaint- ance with the condition of the lower classes. She is now managing the Red Lodge School for girls, established by Lady Noel Byron, at Clifton.' [The above statement is slightly incorrect. Red Lodge is situated in Park Row, Bristol. It was purchased by Lady Noel Byron with the intention that it should be converted to its present use, and is let to Miss Carpenter at a very low rent : she must, however, be regarded as the Founder of the school. She also suggested the first Conference at Birmingham.] Sequel to Charge of September, 1 854. 343 able Recorder of Birmingham, than whom no one has paid more anxious attention to the whole subject of criminal legisla- tion, clearly laid down the principles upon which all were agreed, and summed up in a convincing manner the evidence which proves both that criminal children are, for the most part, capa- ble of being reformed, and that the cost of their reformation is as nothing when compared with that which is entailed upon society by their maintenance as criminals. ' These, and many other interesting particulars, were thus for the first time brought under the notice of a great portion of the public. The attendance at the meeting had not been very large, and those who had assembled in the most sanguine frame of mind felt a little disappointed, we believe, at the apparent poverty of the result of their Conference ; but they soon found that the publication of their proceedings was to produce effects far beyond their hope/* The following resolutions were unanimously adopted at the Conference : ' i st. That the present condition and treatment of the ' perishing and dangerous classes' of children and juvenile offenders deserve the consideration of every member of a Chris- tian community. ' 2nd. That the means at present available for the refor- mation of these children have proved totally inadequate to check the spread of juvenile delinquency ; partly owing to the want of proper Industrial, Correctional, and Reformatory Schools; and partly to the want of authority in Magistrates to compel attendance at such Schools. ' 3rd. That the adoption of a somewhat altered and extended course of proceeding, on the part of the Committee of Privy Council, is earnestly to be desired for those children who have not yet made themselves amenable to the law, but who, by reason of the vice, neglect, or extreme poverty of their parents, are not admitted into the existing Day- Schools. ' 4th. That for those children who are not attending any School, and have subjected themselves to police interference, by vagrancy, mendicancy, or petty infringements of the law, legis- lative enactments are urgently required, in order to aid or * Quarterly Review. December, 1855. pp. 57-8-9. 344 Sequel to Charge of September, 1 854. establish Industrial Feeding Schools, at which the attendance of such Children shall be enforced by Magistrates, and payment made for their maintenance, in the first instance from some public fund, power being given to the public authorities to recover the outlay from the Parents of the Children. ' ^th. That legislative enactments are also required in order to establish Correctional and Reformatory Schools for those Children who have been convicted of felony, or such misdemeanours as involve dishonesty; and to confer on magistrates power to com- mit Juvenile Offenders to such Schools instead of to Prison/ * The sixth appointed a Committee, to adopt measures for obtaining the requisite Parliamentary enactments, and for memorializing the Committee of the Privy Council, with a view to the attainment of the objects laid down in the foregoing resolutions. Thus it will be seen that the Conference contem- plated preventive as well as reformatory schools. Public atten- tion, however, being mainly absorbed by the desire of saving young offenders brought to the bar from the contamination of a gaol, it w r as thought advisable for the Committee principally to employ themselves in promoting such a change in the law as would facilitate the establishment of Reformatory Schools. Chiefly by the exertions of Mr. Adderley, 'in the year 1852, a Committee of the House of Commons was appointed to take into consideration ' the present treatment of criminal and desti- tute juveniles in this country, and what changes are desirable in their present treatment in order to supply industrial training, and to combine reformation with the due correction of juvenile crime/ The Committee sat during two sessions of Parliament, and in 1853 presented a Report strongly advocating the refor- matory system /f The conclusions at which this Committee had arrived received effectual support from a second Conference held at Birmingham, in December of the latter year. The increased attendance showed the progress which the question had made in the public mind in the two years which had elapsed since the former Conference. A morning meeting for dis- * Report of the Proceedings of a Conference on the subject of Preventive and Reformatory Schools, held at Birmingham on the 9th and loth December, 1851. London : Longmans. f Quarterly Review, p. 59. Sequel to Charge of September, 1 854. 345 cussion was held under the able presidency of Sir John Pakington ; and in the evening of the same day a vast concourse thronged the ample spaces of the Town Hall, and listened with attention and ardent sympathy to appeals from the Earl of Shaftesbury the Chairman, Sir John Pakington, Mr. Adderley, the Rev. John Clay, the Earl of Harrowby, the Recorder, Lord Lyttelton, Mr. Wolryche Whitmore, Mr. R. M. Milnes, Mr. Arthur Kinnaird, the Rev. Sydney Turner, Lord Calthorpe, Mr. Joseph Sturge, and Mr. Morgan, calling on the assembly and the country at large to promote the objects of the Conference. ' In 1854 an Act was passed (17 and 18 Viet., c. 86) which has placed that [the Reformatory] system upon a recognised basis, by empowering the managers of Reformatory Schools to apply to the Secretary of State for licences, and by authorizing judges and magistrates to commit children under sixteen years of age to such institutions, for periods varying from two to five years ; the managers being free to choose whether they will accept the children consigned to them or not, and being armed with fall authority to control them while under their care, and, if necessary, to send them to prison for any attempt to abscond, or for any gross breach of rules. No child is to be sent to a Reformatory School without undergoing a previous imprisonment of at least a fortnight, which may of course be made as much longer as the judge thinks right. A power is taken of charging the parents or guardians with a weekly contribution towards defraying the expense ; and the Treasury is also authorized to assist. The practice, we believe, is for the latter to pay the school managers at the rate of five shillings a week for every child; the sum assessed upon the parents being levied from them afterwards (if at all) in aid of the Treasury contribution/* It may as well be added here, that in the Session of 1856 the Young Offenders Act was amended by a Bill carried through Parliament by Sir Stafford Northcote. In the autumn of the same year the allowance out of the Consolidated Fund made to the managers of Reformatory Schools was raised from 55. per week to 75. A large number of these establishments have been opened in Great Britain ; and preparations are making in Ireland for Quarterly Review, p. 59. Sequel to Charge of September, 1854. adopting the system there, but at present [November, 1856] Irish philanthropists labour under the disadvantage of being without the facilities afforded by the English Acts ; which, with suitable alterations, have been extended to Scotland. In August of that year the National Reformatory Union held its first Provincial meeting at Bristol ; Lord Stanley pre- sided. His Inaugural Address, together with twelve papers which were read on that occasion on various branches of refor- matory science, are published under the title of The authorized Report of the First Provincial Meeting of the National Refor- matory Union* The authors were Miss Mary Carpenter, Lord Brougham, Mr. E. B. Wheatley, Mr. Frederic Hill, Captain Crofton, Mr. Alfred Hill, Mr. Handel Cossham, Mr. Thomas Philpotts, Mr. Brougham, Rev. Sydney Turner, and Sir Staf- ford Northcote. The reader, on comparing the speeches at the Birmingham Conferences with the carefully- written papers of Lord Stanley and his coadjutors, will probably arrive at the conclusion that, for conveying ample and exact information, written compositions have a great advantage over spoken addresses. On the other hand, it may be well doubted whether, when the object is to impress an audience and induce them forthwith to act, an oral appeal is not far more efficacious. In April, 1 855, the Sheriff" of Warwickshire called a meeting for the establishment of a County Reformatory School, at which the following speech was delivered. It is inserted here because it pursues the topics of the Charge, and because it contains a succinct history of the reformatory movement in Warwickshire: From the 'Leamington Spa Courier.' ' M. D. Hill, Esq., Recorder of Birmingham, then addressed the meeting as follows : Mr. High Sheriff, Though neither a magistrate nor a freeholder of Warwickshire, I have been honoured with an invitation to this meeting, and with a request to take part in your proceedings. Sir, I offer my hearty support to the motion before you. Not only do I feel that the * London: Cash, Bishopsgate-street. Bristol: Arrowsmith, 29, Clare-street. Price Two Shillings. Sequel to Charge of September, 1854. 347 establishment of a Reformatory School for this county is greatly to be desired, but I must be permitted to say that it stands before my eyes as an imperative duty on the inhabitants. It is difficult, if not impossible, for me to produce in other minds the deep impressions which, in my own, have been the work of many long years, and of a large experience in the treatment of criminals. My best chance, however, of showing in a clear light the practicability of reformation, and the value of Reforma- tory Schools in effecting that object, will be to yield myself up to the train of thought which the town where we are assembled, the audience I address, and the object which has called us together, have set in motion ; and to recapitulate very briefly the steps by which I arrived at these conclusions. Eive-and- thirty years ago I joined the Bar of the Midland Circuit, and became an attendant at the Warwickshire Sessions. At that time the whole judicial business of the county, including that which arises at Birmingham, was transacted at Warwick; with the exception only of such as belonged to Coventry and the small district forming the county of that city. Such being the case, I hardly need say that the docks of the two courts in the neighbouring Hall were, every sessions and every assizes, filled, emptied, and replenished many times in the day, and for many successive days. It is needless, also, to tell you that a young barrister, whose friends were not numerous, and whose pre- tensions were humble enough, was not so encumbered with briefs but that he had sufficient leisure to observe what was hourly challenging his attention, and to reflect upon the conse- quences which flowed from the administration of criminal justice as the law then stood. Then, Sir, as now, the great majority of offences were slight in character, and were not visited with heavy punishment ; especially at our sessions, over which a tone of great humanity uniformly prevailed, at least, during the fourteen years of my attendance a fact which those who re- member the three Chairmen before whom I practised will have no difficulty in believing. When I joined the Sessions Bar, I found the Court under the presidency of the venerable Wriothesley Digby, whose clemency was proverbial. His successor was Sir Grey Skipwith. The urbanity of this gentleman made him a universal favourite, even among those who knew him but slightly; while a more intimate acquaintance disclosed the secret of his winning manners, which had their origin in 348 Sequel to Charge of September , 1854. genuine kindness of heart. The third whom, on quitting the Warwickshire Sessions, I left still presiding as Chair- man, was Sir Eardley Wilmot, a very early, zealous, and able supporter of the principles on which the Meeting is this day assembled to act principles which you, probably, know are inherited by his son, the present Baronet, my excellent friend and neighbour. The feelings of the Chairman and his brother magistrates were in unison, and all prisoners yes, even poachers ! were dealt with in a merciful spirit. The Court, however, strove to make their sentences efficient as well as humane; and if they succeeded but ill in these praiseworthy attempts, the fault was not theirs it was in the law which they were bound to administer. Experience came in aid of the promptings of a kindly nature, to disincline them to inflict long imprisonments. They knew but too well that our prisons, as then conducted, were schools not of reformation, but of de- pravity ; and that the longer the prisoner remained under the tuition which he there received from his companions, the more confirmed he was in a guilty career. The expedient to which they had resort was, to lash the culprit not with rods, but with sharp words ; to assume a severe aspect : as if a counte- nance which beamed with good nature the moment before and the moment afterwards, could have its permanent characteristic so obscured by a transitory frown, as to impose upon the pri- soner ! Alas ! Sir, he received all this objurgatory eloquence with impatience and inattention. He wanted to know his fate ; and when the punishment was announced, it was often so much in contrast with the awful sounds in which it was conveyed, that the effect was almost ludicrous. The lesson was quickly forgotten ; as was proved by the speedy re-appearance of the prisoner in the dock, perhaps, even at the next sessions. "We, of the bar, recognised our old acquaintances ; and if their names were such as to attract attention, as they sometimes did, from their oddity or uncouthness, we knew, when we read over the calendar which we found on our arrival, whom it was we should have the pleasure of meeting. Even at this distance of time I remember lads, with whom I became acquainted by their frequent re- appearance in the court ; but, as they may now fill respectable positions in one or other of our Colonies, I will not run the risk of hurting their feelings by mentioning their Sequel to Charge of September, ] 854. 349 names, some of which, however, are too well fixed in my memory ever to be forgotten. ' Sir, The frequent repetition of scenes like those which I have described, could not fail of driving me to reflect upon the great and humiliating contrast between the means employed and the end attained. Let us, for the reasons given by Sterne, take a single case many such daily passed under my observation. An urchin, with or without a little schooling, but certainly without religious and moral training, is wandering about the streets of Birmingham. Some article attracts his eye, which a shopkeeper has placed outside his door to draw the attention of customers. He carries it off, escapes detection, and repeats his offence, until he is caught at last. Perhaps he knows that he has been doing wrong; perhaps, on the contrary, the applause of bad companions and wicked parents who share his plunder im- press him with the belief that he is doing right, worthily filling his appointed place in society. Again, in the benighted state of his moral perceptions, it may be that he is uncertain as to whether he is doing right or wrong. The goods were in the street, he took them up ; and who had taught him to know where finding ends, and stealing begins ? What instruction did he ever receive as to the limits which divide trover from lar- ceny ? Or, Sir what is more to the purpose who had culti- vated in his soul those fine and noble instincts, which, without giving him time to reason upon what he was about, would have checked him by the unhesitating conviction that he was falling into crime? He then finds himself, after a time of impunity not unfrequently a long period grasped by the strong hand of a policeman, conveyed to the station, brought before the presiding constable, thence despatched to the lock-up-house ; and in due course he is ushered into the awful presence of the Magistrate. Here, witnesses are examined, their evidence taken down in writing he is called upon for his defence, which his attorney, if he has one, advises him to reserve for his trial ; and he is brought away to Warwick, enjoying perhaps, for the first time, the luxury of travelling in a carriage ; he is taken to the County Gaol, and there introduced to a society, who receive him, not as one deserving censure or reproach, but with the feeling of ' Hail, fellow, well met !' After a while comes the trial ; and what is the result ? It is his first offence ; that is to say, his 35 Sequel to Charge of September, 1854. first detected offence. That circumstance and his youth enable the Court to indulge their sympathies; and he receives a light sentence, a month or two, or a week or two, no matter which. He is then turned out on the world. If by accident he brought any remnant of religious or moral impressions into gaol, be sure none went forth with him. If he came regretting the loss of his position in the society of the honest and well-disposed, depend upon it the new community of which he has become a member has reconciled him to his lot. Yet, thus morally frail to the last extremity of weakness, he is turned adrift and called upon to make the choice of Hercules. Honest Industry stands on his right, but, alas ! she is perched on an inaccessible rock; and, moreover, he feels that she must be a very dull companion, even if he could climb up to her; while the evil genius who personifies a short life and a merry one beckons him from the bottom of an easy slope, a tankard in his hand and a pipe in his mouth. And this is the object attained by the complicated and expen- sive machinery of the law ! Here is the result of the labours of policemen, attorneys, counsel, justices, recorders, judges and juries, grand and petit grand and petit indeed vast in the means, miser- able in the end ! How we are reminded of the verses of Young ' An ocean into mountains rais'd To waft a feather or to drown a fly !' Nay, it is worse, for the fly is not drowned. He is soon cast upon the shore, dries his wings, buzzes away as troublesome as ever, and what is worse, finds out that he has a sting. His offences become the less tolerable as he grows older ; and, after many trials and many convictions, a penal colony or the gallows is his destination. Sir, I am not here to dispute that five- and-thirty years have made many changes in this picture changes at which no man rejoices more than myself. But as regards even the youngest criminals, until the last Session of Par- liament, the legal principle of retributive punishment was alone recognised ; and hence all your improvements only mitigated, in some slight degree, the evil which I have depicted it was by no means rooted out. { To return, however, to the magistrates of the Warwickshire Sessions, in whose court I practised. Their kindness and good Sequel to Charge of September, 1854. sense, let me hasten to say, led them to discard this illusory treatment in the few instances in which opportunity was favour- able. Sometimes they ventured, when the prosecutor came before them and humanely consented to receive back his dis- honest young servant or apprentice, to consign the youth immediately to his care. On these occasions I have narrowly watched the countenances of the prisoner and his friends, including the prosecutor his best friend to enable me to form a conjecture as to whether the experiment was likely to be successful ; and the conclusions which I drew from the imperfect evidence at my command were favourable to the plan. But it was tried under many disadvantages. It frequently happened that the evidence of the prosecutor not being required, he remained at home, and in such case his assent could not be obtained. Again, the magistrates had no means of forming an estimate of the prosecutor's respectability but from his appear- ance; and, if that were against him, they felt, and rightly felt, bound not to entrust the prisoner to his care. But the most serious defect of the plan was that they had no sure means of learning the results of their clemency ; except that, in case of failure, it sometimes happened that the prisoner came again before them, but not always, as he might have chosen a field for the exercise of his calling in a district out of their jurisdiction. Being, however, much impressed with the value, or what, with all its drawbacks, I considered to be the value, of this mode of disposing of juvenile prisoners, I determined, when I was ap- pointed Recorder of Birmingham, to try the experiment myself, under circumstances more favourable than those under which the County Magistrates acted; because at Birmingham the master or the parent was at hand, even if not in court ; because inquiry could readily be made as to their character ; and, above all, because by keeping a register, the failure and success of the plan, in each instance, could be recorded. Aided by the Chief Superintendent of Police, I have had inquiries made, from time to time, as to the conduct of the prisoner ; and the result of these inquiries being reduced to writing, I am possessed of all the means necessary for accurately testing the value of such a measure. I hold in my hand an abstract of my register, which dates from the beginning of 1842. The abstract was made after the April Sessions of last year, 1854, and, con- 35 2 Sequel to Charge of September, 1854. sequently, extends over the space of twelve years and a quarter. The total number of prisoners during that period consigned to their friends is 417. Of these only 80 are known to have been reconvicted. Of the remainder, 94 bear a respectable character ; many of them retaining this character after long years of proba- tion. Of 343, the best we can say is that they are not known to have been in custody since they w r ere so given up to their friends. 68 could not be found. 15 were given up to friends residing at a distance from Birmingham, and, therefore, the periodical inquiries which have been made as to the others do not apply to them. But as they were taken away from the evil associations of a large town, I consider them placed under very advantageous circumstances for redeeming their character. 17 were dead; thus making up the total number of 417 of which I have been speaking. These results, I submit, would, of themselves, prove the fact which, to be sure, has been abundantly proved by a varied experience, both at home and abroad that the reformation of youthful offenders is far from being so difficult and hopeless as was formerly the prevalent belief, a belief still entertained by many; although, as popular opinion is now strongly with us, they are loth to exhibit themselves in the ungracious and invidious light of opponents. ' Sir, when considering the hope of reformation which the plan I have adopted holds out, we must never forget that it is in truth but a rude expedient, labouring under one enormous defect. The young person is sent back into the same position exactly as that which he occupied when he fell. He is open to the same temptations, it is difficult to keep him aloof from the same companions ; and thus, while he is too often exposed to the scorn and reproach of persons whose ill opinion he most dreads, he has the far greater misfortune of being open to the seduc- tions of those whom his former errors have armed with a pernicious influence over his actions. It, however, has one redeeming feature, which is worthy of the most attentive consideration the young offender is received into the bosom of a family ! And the head of that family is moved to this act of Christian benevolence, by feelings which give no slight guarantee that he will faithfully execute his trust. ' Sir, the various dangers and difficulties to which I have Sequel to Charge of September, 1 854. 353 adverted, as impeding the course of the magistrates in making these humane consignments, and the large number of youths for which no family Asylum can. be found, may have suggested to them the good and great work which they began nearly forty years ago; by contributions furnished by themselves, and by other benevolent persons influenced by their example. I, of course, refer to their founding the Reformatory Establishment at Stret- ton-on-Dunsmore ; an Institution which has conferred on the magistracy of this county the distinction of being the first of their body throughout the whole country, to turn their feelings of commiseration to good account to ripen benevolence into beneficence. ' The history of the School or Refuge at Stretton is very instructive. Its progress in effecting its object was slow but sure. At first the failures exceeded the number of cures; but gradually the balance was turned. I cannot enter into the statistics. The various accounts which I have received do not quite agree ; and by the death of that excellent and zealous friend to the Institution, the Rev. Townsend Powell, the Secretary, we have, perhaps, lost the means of verifying the results with sufficient exactitude to justify a reference to figures, without qualifications which would produce a tedious detail ; I may, however, say that for many years they were highly satisfactory. The number of successful cases constantly increased, while, of course, the pro- portion of failures as regularly diminished. Sir, I must deny myself the pleasure of specifying magistrates whom I remember as actively engaged in the management of this Institution ; because I cannot mention all, and to select would be in- vidious. But I am sure the meeting will feel that I could not advert to the labours of the lamented Secretary without a passing tribute of respect labours well known to me, often brought as I was into communication with him ; though perhaps the fact that at his death the Institution languished and soon itself came to an end, affords the most conclusive testimony to his worth. I mourned his loss, and I still deplore its con- sequences. f But, Sir, to-day you are assembled to revive this Institution ; not, as I am informed, as it originally stood, but by uniting your project to that which, mainly through the munificence, and what is even better than munificence, the zealous and persevering A A 354 Sequel to Charge of September, 1854. exertions of my friend Mr. Adderley, lias been already set on foot at Saltley, in the neighbourhood of Birmingham. This will be indeed a consolation for the loss of Stretton; and cordially do I hope that the proposed union will answer the ex- pectations of this most respectable meeting, if it should be your pleasure to adopt it. As I have already addressed you at con- siderable length, and as I am to be followed by gentlemen who will direct your attention to the school at Saltley with more particularity than it would be proper for me to do (while the question is as yet undecided as to whether you shall establish a Reformatory or not), I will limit myself to a few brief remarks on the principles on which it appears to me these Institutions ought to be founded and conducted. ' Sir, it is quite clear that the resources of private benevolence would be inadequate to the maintenance of the juvenile offenders with which our gaols are crowded. Nor would it be right to tax the generous with a burden which ought to be borne by the whole community. If these young creatures must be maintained at the public expense, either in our gaols or by their plunder when at large ; if they are indeed the children of the State, as they surely are, the cost of their sustenance and training ought to be borne by the State, and not by individuals. In passing the Juvenile Offenders Act, the Legislature has sanctioned this principle; and it is already, to some extent, carried by the Government into practical effect. I look forward with confidence to the time when that effect shall cease to be partial, and become complete, till when we must not be disheartened, however practice may lag behind acknowledged principle; meantime one advantage of no slight importance results from managers bearing a portion of the cost. It lets in the operation of the voluntary principle under wholesome checks. Contributors who prove the sincerity of their zeal by giving their money, may be well entrusted with the management of these Institutions ; subject of course to Government inspection, which I consider no burden or draw- back, but a great benefit. Then, Sir, with regard to the tone which should pervade the discipline of these schools. Many who have heard it said that kindness must be the principle of treatment, immediately picture to themselves a system of false and pernicious indulgence ; but there are no two qualities more opposed to each other than these. Indulgence of the present Sequel to Charge of September, 1854. 355 desires, of the evil passions, and of the impatience of labour of the criminal, is not kindness, but rather the worst cruelty. Let the discipline in these schools resemble that exercised by a wise, firm, and Christian father. Let no present ease or pleasure be granted to the lad at the cost of his future welfare. Let his nerves of body and mind be well braced. Let him be armed within and without for the battle of life. But let all be done in a parental spirit. Let no pain be inflicted but that which is essential to produce the change from evil to good that mighty and arduous revolution. Such a discipline faithfully wrought out must be accompanied, in its early stages, at least, by many a severe struggle of the poor outcast with his former habits and desires ; and the pain of mind and body that he will have to suffer from restraint and labour, both new to him, will be amply sufficient to prevent the probation of the Reformatory School acting as an incentive to crime, although it betters the condition of the criminal a danger to which some, for whose opinions on many subjects I have the highest respect, have feared it liable. Sir, it has been hastily assumed that a benefit must operate as a temptation. But this is not so. The highest conceivable good, immortal happiness, is contemplated by the depraved without more than a listless and idle wish to attain it ; while, on the other hand, the most alluring temptations do not draw us towards real benefits, but decoy us into vices which by and by bring us to sorrow. The youth who is hovering on the verge of crime is not tempted to plunge into the abyss by the hope of reaching the toil, the restraints, and the privations of a Reformatory School. Does he desire to go to a place from which all vicious indulgences are banished, where indolence must become industry, where there can be no debauchery, and where his coarse luxuries must be exchanged for a diet which, though wholesome, never pampers his appetite; where the vagrant, accustomed to roam wherever his will may prompt, discovers that he is fixed to one spot, and where his days must, to his thinking, be a perpetual round of austere and slavish observances ? But then it is said that all this, though no temptation to him, must be one to his parents. We admit the danger, and we have guarded against it. At our instance the Legislature has adopted the principle of casting the pecuniary burden, or a portion of it, on the parent. The provi- sions by which this responsibility is to be enforced are, it is A A 3 356 Sequel to Charge of September } 1854. true, very imperfect. Mr. Adderley, however, has undertaken to bring in a Bill to remedy this defect, and it is impossible that the duty could have been confided to better hands. At the same time, I trust the meeting will clearly understand that it is a moral effect which we seek when we fix responsibility upon the parent ; and that we are by no means sanguine as to the financial results of this responsibility. Many of the outcasts are orphans. Many the children of persons who, from vice or misfortune, are themselves destitute. But, in these cases, as the poor child subsisted upon what he could pick up in the streets, or obtain from charity, he was in truth no burden upon his parents, if he had any ; and, consequently, there was no sinister motive to procure his admission into a Reformatory School. Again, objectors forget that, before the passing of this Act, if a parent were so abandoned as to plunge his child into crime, so soon as the lad found his way to prison the parent was eased altogether of his maintenance. Now, however, if the parent have anything wherewith to pay, he will be called upon to con- tribute; and if he have nothing, why, then, you know, it has passed into a proverb, that in such cases even the King must lose his own. I shall advert to but one principle more, and that is what I would call the Family principle. The abstract which I have laid before you will enable you to form your own judgment of its power, even when contending with many difficulties. Its value is highly appreciated in those Reformatories which have been most successful. Mettray, in France, is a collection of small communities, in which, the essentials of a family are as far as pos- sible combined. So at the Rauhe Hans, near Hamburgh ; so at lied Hill, the Farm School of the Philanthropic Society. By these sub-divisions the dangers attendant on the aggregation of large numbers are averted, while the advantage of high and skilful superintendence is preserved. Mettray, the most splendid ex- ample of reformatory success which the world has yet seen, contains from six to seven hundred young offenders; and surely it must be obvious that a Demetz, a Wichern, a Sidney Turner, or last, not least, a Mary Carpenter those gifted philanthropists are not found in sufficient numbers to justify us in confining their tutelage to a few. I would speak as I feel, with respect and admiration, of the smaller establishments, which able and benevolent men, like Mr. Baker, of Hardwicke, have set on Sequel to Charge of September, 1854. 357 foot on their own responsibility. It is for them to regulate the extent of their own labours. I rejoice in every new Institution of a similar kind ; but, where numbers are to be provided for out of subscriptions which experience tells me it is not easy to keep up, I would venture to suggest that the economy which results from uniting them in one establishment (if you provide for sub- division), is of itself a strong motive not to depart from the pre- cedents which I have cited Mettray, the Rauhe Haus, and Red Hill ; the more especially when such a departure enhances the difficulty, already most perplexing, of finding superintendents who have the gifts essential to the performance of their arduous duties. ' Sir, I cannot come to an end without asking you and this meeting to unite with me in grateful rejoicings. All here present will have shared that depression of spirit into which the abortive results of our criminal jurisprudence have so often thrown every reflective mind. The worthy magistrates who surround me know how this feeling is embittered, when we have to administer laws in whose beneficial operation we have no confidence. But a good time is coming nay, is come. The labourers in a good cause, if ever cause were good, among whom it has been my privilege to be enrolled, have proved by indisputable facts that the reformation of offenders, and espe- cially of the young, is not the dream of visionaries ; but a task to which, under Providence, human agency is fully competent. This truth our friends in Parliament have urged on the Legisla- ture, and urged with success. The Youthful Offenders Act, no doubt, is capable of great improvement, but with all its defects it stands and, please God, shall ever stand a noble sea-mark to direct the difficult and intricate course of criminal jurispru- dence. For myself, Sir, my reward is ample indeed I have lived to witness this glorious triumph I am invited to stand this day among the chief men of my native county, not chief simply in rank and wealth, not chief even merely in talent and knowledge, but chief in that which is better than rank, better than wealth, and better than talent chief in benevolence, and in the consciousness of the duty which man owes to man. They themselves ardent and powerful friends of Reformatory enterprise call upon me to plead the cause of the young outcast before a tribunal which will cordially recognise his claims. His coun- 358 Sequel to Charge of September, 1854. teriance may be darkened by ignorance ignorance botli of the head and the heart it may be disfigured by evil passions and unbridled appetites, but you feel, and you will not shrink from avowing, that he is still your brother. You are his keeper, and you will not repudiate your charge ; but, like good and faithful servants, execute your sacred trust V In what follows I have put together such proofs as I had at hand, and which are not furnished elsewhere in the course of this work, of good effects flowing from the establishment of schools, whether Reformatory or Preventive. This, I trust, will hereafter become a task, demanding for its execution much time and space. At present we are in the day of small things. ' To the Honorary Secretary of the National Reformatory Union. 1 Chief Constabulary Office, Newcastle-upon-Tyne, Aug. i6th, 1856. ' SIR, As I hold the appointment from the Secretary of State for the Home Department to proceed, under the Acts of Parliament 18 and [9 Viet., c. 87, and 17 and 18 Viet., c. 86, with the view of enforcing parental responsibility in connexion with the children confined in the Reformatory establishments of the north of England, I shall be most happy to supply you with any information which I can give in connexion therewith ; and perhaps I may be permitted to say, that I know from my own personal knowledge and observation, that, since parental respon- sibility has been enforced in the district, under the directions of the Secretary of State, the number of juvenile criminals in the custody of the police have decreased one-half. I know that many of the parents, who heretofore were in the habit of sending their children into the streets for the purposes of stealing, begging, and plunder, have quite discontinued that practice, and several of the children so used and brought up as thieves and mendicants, are now at some of the free schools of the town, others are at work, and thereby obtain an honest liveli- hood ; and, so far as I can ascertain, they seem to be thoroughly altered, and appear likely to become good and honest members of society. I have for my own information conversed with some of the boys so altered, and, during the conversation I had with them, they declared that they derived the greatest happiness and satis- Sequel to Charge of September, 1854. 359 faction from their change in life. I don't at all doubt the truth of these statements, for their evident improvement and indivi- dual circumstances fully bear them out ; and I believe them to be really serious in all they say, and truly anxious to become honest and respectable. I attribute in a great measure this salutary change to the effects arising in many respects from the establishment of Reformatory Schools ; but I have more parti- cularly found that greater advantages have emanated from those institutions since the parents of the children confined in them have been made to pay contributions to their maintenance, for it appears beyond doubt that the effect of the latter has been to induce the parents of other young criminals to withdraw them from the streets, and, instead of using them for the pur- poses of crime, they seem to take an interest in their welfare ; and I know that many of them are now really anxious to get such employment for their children as will enable them to obtain an honest livelihood ; and it is my opinion, that the example thus set to older and more desperate criminals, belong- ing in many instances to the same family as the juvenile thief, has had the effect of reforming them also, for many of them have left off their course of crime, and are now living by honest labour; the result is, that serious crime has considerably decreased in this district, so much so, that there were only six cases for trial at the recent Assizes, whereas, at the previous Assizes the average number of cases were from 25 to 30, which fact was made the subject of much comment and congratulation by Mr. Justice Willes, the presiding judge ; and I have to add, that the six cases embrace all the offences reported to the police since the preceding Assizes, so that the usual distinctions made betweeen committed crime, the proportion of it detected, and the number of offenders brought to justice, cannot be used in estimating the crime of this district for the period referred to. ' Hoping I will be pardoned for the observations I have ven- tured to make, ' I have the honour to be, Sir, ' Your most obedient humble servant, ' J. DUNNE, Chief Constable.'* * Authorized Report of the Bristol Conferenca, p. 29. 360 Sequel to Charge of September, 1854. 'ABERDEEN FEEDING SCHOOLS. ( The effects of the schools have been most gratifying. The com- mittals to the Aberdeeiishire gaols of children under twelve years old were, during the first ten years of the schools, as follows : j8 4 i 1842 1843 1844 1845 61 30 63 1847 1848 1849 1850 1851 27 J 9 16 22 8 1846 . . . f It will be observed, that in ] 843 there was a serious increase in the committals. At this time the first interest taken in the schools had passed away, and the public in general had not yet appreciated their value. The subscriptions had consequently fallen off; owing to this circumstance, admission to the schools was necessarily much restricted, and many destitute children were left unprovided for. The increase in committals therefore is not to be wondered at. In 1854, unfortunately, there was a great increase of juvenile crime in Aberdeen, and a belief was entertained by many persons that the schools had failed ; upon examination, however, not only does this belief prove to be unfounded, but the soundness of the principle on which the institutions are based is ascertained. This increase of juvenile crime was not peculiar to Aberdeen ; at other manufacturing towns, such as Paisley and Dundee, an increase is observable, though to a less extent. For this, various causes are assigned an important one is a restriction in the administration of Poor-law relief, which was made about this time. By a printed table which I have received from Aberdeen, I find that in three years ending with 1852, the expenditure for Poor-law relief in that city amounted to 19,930^, and the average number of paupers on the out-door roll to 1762; while in the three years ending with 1855, the expenditure in relief was only 16,525^, and the paupers 1465, although the latter period was one of less prosperity (particularly at Aberdeen, where several of the spinning-mills had stopped), and of dearer food than the former one. This alteration was owing, I am informed, to a refusal of relief to able-bodied women having each not more than one child dependent on them. ' Another cause of the increase of youthful offenders was the establishment of a class of shops called ' wee pawns/ at which Sequel to Charge of September, 1854. 361 small articles may be easily disposed of. At Aberdeen, indeed, some receivers of stolen goods actually copied the system of the Industrial Schools, took in destitute children, and fed and trained them, but to evil instead of good. However, the main cause of the great increase at Aberdeen was owing to the restriction of admission to the Boys' Schools. On account of the general dis- tress in the town, the subscriptions fell off, and at the same time a large increase in the price of provisions enhanced the expenses of the establishment. In consequence of this, the committee of gentlemen who manage the Boys' Schools, felt themselves con- strained to restrict the admission to the most destitute. The committees of ladies who manage the Girls' Schools acted upon a different principle, and the consequence is, that far more girls than boys have, during the last few years, been maintained in the schools. At present there are in all the establishments 202 girls and only no boys; now, assuming that there are as many destitute boys as girls in Aberdeen (and the experience of other Scotch towns proves that the boys are more rather than less numerous), it follows that there are 90 destitute boys at large who are probably engaged in vagrancy or crime; and, indeed, this has been found to be the case. Mr. Sheriff Watson informs me that the Superintendent of Police reports ' there has been a great increase of thefts during the year, chiefly by boys of tender years. In the female column of thefts there is a great de- crease, which I attribute solely to the Female Industrial Schools/ ' Dividing the last fifteen years into three equal periods, we find that the juvenile committals in them were as follows : ist period. 2nd period. 3rd. period. Boys 189 ... 1 88 ... 134 Girls 55 ... 24 ... 9 Total . . 244 212 143 ' The numbers of children under twelve committed for crime* to the Aberdeen prisons during the last six years were as follows : Males. Females. Total. 16 1850-51 . 8 . . 1851-52 6 2 . . 8 1852-53 . . 24 1853-54. 1854-55 . 4.7 2 . . 40 The return does not distinguish the sexes of vagrant children. 362 Sequel to Charge of September, 1 854. ' It will be observed, that in the last three years there has been a great increase of boy crime, contemporaneously with an almost total absence of girl crime, though formerly the amount of the latter was considerable. Now, since this extraordinary difference coincides in point of time with the fact of full Girls' Schools and half-empty Boys' Schools, the inference can hardly be avoided, that the two facts bear the relation of cause arid effect, and that so far from the late increase of youthful crime in Aberdeen anywise impairing the soundness of the principles on which the schools are based, it is its strongest confirma- tion. In moral as in physical science, when the objections to a theory are upon further investigation explained by the theory itself, they become the best evidence of its truth. Indeed, it is proved by the experience not only of Aberdeen, but, as far as I have been able to ascertain, of every town in Scotland in which Industrial Schools have been established, that the number of children in the schools and the number in the gaol, are like the two ends of a scale-beam, as the one rises the other falls, and vice versa.'* The following list of imprisonments of children attending the schools of the Bristol Ragged School Union shows con- siderable progress in the right direction : f Year. 1847 l8 4 8 1849 26 1850 1851 1852 1853 1854 1855 Imprisoned. 12 J 9 9 i i i > ist 4years, 66, averaging 16.5 per year on number of 417 children, In subsequent 5 ,, 3 0.6 728 Difference 15.9 16.5 : 15.9 : : IOO ; 96.36. ' Thus/ says Mr. Thornton, ' it appears that the diminution of the average annual number of children attending our schools imprisoned in the latter period of five years, as compared with the annual average of the previous four years, is 96 per cent. a striking fact, which is, I think, a manifest proof of the benefit conferred on them by the religious and secular instruction they * On the Industrial Schools of Scotland, and the working of Dunlop's Act. By Alfred Hill, Esq., Barrister-at-Law. Authorized Report of the Bristol Conference, p. 95. f Authorized lleport, p. 40. Sequel to Charge of September, 1 854. 363 receive in our schools ; or, at the very least, of the advantages of rescuing them from the temptations of idleness, and from evil companionship and example/* THE ST. JAMES'S BACK RAGGED SCHOOL, BRISTOL. 1 The commencement of all Ragged Schools presents nearly the same difficulties and aspects, yet this record by the master is too graphic to be omitted : ' I shall never forget/ he wrote, ' that afternoon only thirteen or fourteen boys present, some swearing, some fighting, some crying, one boy struck another's head through the window ; I tried to offer up a short prayer, but found it impossible ; the boys, instead of kneeling, began to tumble over one another, and to sing ' Jim Crow/ ' This school now comprises a juvenile day school for about eighty children ; an infant school for eighty or one hundred ; an evening school for older boys and girls. The afternoon of each day is devoted to the industrial training of both schools, under competent instructors. A playground and playroom are connected with the school, where the children may remain, bringing their dinners to eat during the interval between morning and afternoon school ; there is a bath-house, where the children are bathed in rotation, some each afternoon, also a washing apparatus in the school-room; the premises are cleaned by the children, under proper superintendence, as a means of industrial training. The houses adjoining the school in the court being the property of one of the committee, security is given that no external injurious influences will be allowed to interfere with the working of it. # # # # # * ' In visiting this and other Ragged Schools in the city, a stranger will probably inquire with some scepticism whether these are really children of the class contemplated, so orderly and so clean, though poorly dressed, do most of them appear. Were he to inspect the neighbourhood during holiday time, he would hardly recognise the same children in their ordinary condition ; and if pointed out to him, he would forcibly perceive the benefit such schools were conferring on society, as well as on the children * Letter, dated 26th March, 1 856, to her Majesty's Inspector of Schools, the Rev. H. W. Bellairs, from Lee Thornton, Esq., Honorary Secretary to the 'Society for establishing Educational and Industrial Ragged Schools in Bristol and its Vicinity.' 364 Sequel to Charge of September, 1854. themselves, by bringing under good influences and habits so large a mass of our juvenile population, who would otherwise be on the road to ruin. Of the positive good effects of this and similar schools in Bristol,, it is difficult to speak; there will always be great disappointment, owing to the irregular attend- ance of the children, and the apathy or bad example of the parents. Yet in numberless instances children may be seen growing up decently, who owe their only training and instruction to the school; young persons are noticed in regular work who, before they attended the Ragged Schools, were vagrants, or even thieves; not unfrequently a visit is paid at the school by a respectable young man, who proves to have been a wild and troublesome scholar of former times. Not the least encouraging instance is that of a wild lad who was the plague of his neigh- bourhood, and had been twice in prison, but over whom considerable influence had been gained, and who owed all his instruction to this school. After having been for a time at Red hi 11, through the kindness of the Rev. Sydney Turner, he emigrated to America, and subsequently enlisted in the British service. Having been ordered to India, he is now going on most steadily, is employed by the schoolmaster to help him, and writes regularly to his friends at the St. James's Back School most intelligent and interesting accounts of the country, the last received speaks of this once wild youth having been appointed as one of the guards of the royal treasury at Lahore. He evinces constant anxiety for his younger brother, who has been brought up from his infancy in the school, and is now a steady carpenter's apprentice, the efforts made for the elder son having produced on the parents the effect of stimulating them to greater care in the education of the younger one/* The following extract from an address to the Literary and Scientific Institution of Paulton, in Somersetshire, furnishes a glimpse of the difficulties to be overcome by the conductors of Ragged Schools. That referred to is St. James's Back : 1 Put a stop to drunkenness, and Ragged Schools would be relieved of nine-tenths of their scholars. A terrible instance of the present state of things among the class of which he (the * Paper on the Reformatory Institutions in and near Bristol. By Mary Car- penter. Authorized Report, p. 40. Sequel to Charge of September, 1854. 365 Lecturer) was now speaking came to his knowledge recently. It occurred at a Ragged School in Bristol, in the management of which he and other members of his family took part. One of his daughters was present a few days ago when a little fellow, nine years old, applied to the master for leave to go home. He was asked why he wanted to go home, when he replied c he must let mammy out/ and on further inquiry it appeared that this poor lad, shortly before coming to school that morning, had found his mother drunk in a public-house; he had contrived to get her home, and then, in order to save her from injury in his absence, he had locked the door of her room, and put the key into his pocket. It was now time, he calculated, for her to have so far recovered from her intoxica- tion as to be set at liberty. The Lecturer besought his hearers to reflect upon this hideous inversion of natural duty, in which the little child became the warder of his loathsome parent. What must be the feelings of the boy towards his mother ! What must he himself become with such an example before him !'* St. James's Back, built on the site of an ancient wharf, as the name implies, is one of the least reputable parts of Bristol. Prior to the opening of the school, it was considered dan- gerous for a policeman, unsupported by a comrade, to enter its precincts. The ladies interested in it, when first they visited their establishment, were encountered by the neigh- bours with repulsive, and even insulting language : ' Why do you come here? We don't want big folks here to look down upon us. Be off!* The ladies, however, were Christian gentle- women, showed no resentment, returned courtesy for insolence, proved by their works that they had the good of the poor at heart, and now they find themselves guarded by the respect and attachment of the inhabitants from any approach to ill- treatment. Wherever, in our large towns, a population is found entirely, or mainly, of the lowest class, it would be worth while to establish a school, if only to furnish a reason and a justification, in the eyes of the dwellers, for those who stand higher in the social scale to visit their quarter. * Lecture by M. D. Hill, Recorder of Birmingham. Literarium, December 1 7th, 1856. 366 Sequel to Charge of September, 1854. The subjoined table is self- explaining : BEISTOL POLICE FOECE. ' Return of Juvenile Offenders, 16 Years of Age and under, Apprehended in Bristol during the folloiving Years. Years. Number Appre- hended. Number Committed for Trial. Summarily Convicted. Discharged. 1847 1004 69 348 587 1848 1849 775 487 59 37 III 439 284 1850 44 8 38 166 244 1851 422 40 140 242 1852 373 40 114 219 1853 453 33 92 328 1854 449 32 119 298 1855 l8 5 6 473 584 29 18 155 218 348 'Superintendent's Office, January 6th, 1857.' Mr. Wheatley, one of the Chairmen of the "West Riding Sessions, and the Manager of the West Riding Reformatory School, in a letter to Mr. Baker, of Hardwicke, dated February 28, 1857, says, that going to bed the night before at one o'clock, he was awakened half-an-hour afterwards by the cracking of slates upon his stables, which were on fire ; but that the boys "fromt he school, who ( worked like Trojans/ got the fire under before the engines came. Mr. Baker cites this instance to show that certain gentlemen of Monmouthshire, who object to the establishment of a Reformatory School in their neighbour- hood, may be foregoing an advantage ; his own experience at Hardwicke, and the inquiries which he has made regarding every similar school in England, have convinced, him of the harmlessness of such establishments as regards the neighbours.* * The Merlin and Silurian, March 14, 1557. INTRODUCTION TO CHARGE OF JANUARY, 1855. IN the summer of 1 854 I was, by the kind aid of an American lady, resident in England, placed in communication with Dr. Stone, a Physician, of Boston, in the State of Massachusetts; to whom I am indebted for answers to various queries on the subject of the Maine Law, and its working in the United States. The extracts from his letter, which will be found below, furnish a sufficient introduction to the following Charge. 1 There is a difference of opinion concerning the working of the [Maine] Law, but its friends generally control the temperance organizations of this State [Massachusetts], and throughout the country. Clergymen, anti-slavery, and total- abstinence men are almost unanimously friendly to the law. Hotel-keepers, liquor-sellers, grocers, apothecaries, and regular drinkers are about as unanimously opposed to it. Moderate drinkers are divided in sentiment. My own opinion can be very briefly expressed. Naturally shrinking with aversion from some of the more stringent portions of the law, in consequence of an early and unrepressed feeling in favour of the largest phase of personal liberty, which includes an opposition to general sumptuary legislation, I looked upon the law, when first enacted in our sister State, with some suspicion. But the statistics exhibiting its remarkable effects in securing the diminution of crime, of intemperance, and of pauperism, early compelled me to waive all my scruples. I therefore believe it to be, in the main, widely beneficent in its operation, at the same time that I regard it to be subject, as is all other human legislation, to such amendment and improvement as the course of time and the wisdom of experience shall best evince to be necessary, in order the better to accomplish its important objects. ' From time immemorial, persons charged with crime, and whose principles are not firmly fixed, have endeavoured to avoid the consequences thereof, by evasions and subterfuges. As in the past, so it will be in the future, until human nature under- goes transformation. The law in question was early subject to 368 Introduction to Charge of January, 1855. this criticism. Yet I know not why it should be more pro- perly amenable to it than any other law has been or would be, which has exerted, or which can exert, over the passions and the follies of men an equal control. It is one of the peculiarities of this law whatever theories drawing a different conclusion we might, in advance, apply to it that where it has been most efficiently executed, where the greatest results in the suppression of crime and pauperism have been most satisfactorily achieved, it has seized with such strong hold on the hearts of the people, that its popularity has there and then become invincible. ' From the best evidences that I can gather concerning the influence of unaided moral measures, the average effects of pledges to total abstinence is, that fifty per cent, adhere for a single year, thirty-three per cent, for five years, and twenty- five per cent, permanently. In procuring the most decisive results from moral suasion, organization into permanent asso- ciations has undoubtedly been productive of much good. And the Temperance Societies of the country have, generally, long since given up, as a failure, the early efforts of organization for the sake of partial abstinence, and now strenuously advocate total abstinence only. ' There can be little doubt that the moral means resorted to, for the purpose of repressing intemperance, have at once pro- duced good results, and at the same time have prepared the public mind for compulsory measures. ' The opposition of those previously engaged in the traffic, where the law has been thoroughly executed, has been some- times removed by a very simple process. Many, acting as law- abiding citizens, among the law-loving people, in a law-main- taining State, have at once relinquished their sales, and com- menced other occupations. Others have been indicted, and their liquors destroyed. They have resumed business, and the enactment has been again enforced. Then, deterred either by the prospect of the loss of means, or the nearer vision of the State-prison, they have transferred their capital into other branches of industry, and thereupon a twofold object induces them to maintain the law : first, their interests are no longer engaged in its infraction ; and second, being themselves pre- vented from violating the law, they are naturally desirous of Introduction to Charge of January, 1855. 369 prohibiting others from exercising privileges which they do not themselves possess. 1 No considerable class of our citizens maintain that beneficial results accrue from the constant use of alcoholic drinks as a beverage. The radical difference between the Temperance men and their opponents, is rather upon the question, ' Do injurious results follow such use? one class of the community con- tending for the affirmative, and another class for the negative of the proposition ; while the latter class do not generally go so far as to maintain the absolute improvement of the health and strength from such use. e As a general rule, in different parts of the country, the character of the water exercises a greater ostensible control than the climate [over our habits in the use of wines, &c.]. West of the principal eastern cities, the water is, in many places, either impregnated with lime, discoloured by the soil, or offensive to the taste ; and it is the custom of many, seeking an excuse for their luxurious habits, to attribute the cause to the water, rather than to their perverted appetites. ' To allude to my own experience, allow me to say that, while travelling in different parts of New York State, South Caro- lina, Kentucky, Missouri and Canada, many of my acquain- tances have insisted upon it that it was unhealthy to drink the water of the place, and have therefore strongly urged the use of wines and brandies ; but it was observed that, while refusing myself to follow their kind advice, those of my travelling com- panions who were more fearful, or less scrupulous, were also much more liable to temporary illness than myself. * But why, after all the efforts that have been made, does drunkenness, and the crime and pauperism consequent thereon, still continue ? The answer is, the law has not yet been carried into complete effect. The cases have not yet been adjudicated before our highest courts. Obstructions have been constantly placed in the way. Great improvement of morals has, however, been made. 'Not many years since, many artisans and employers, such as shoemakers, stage-drivers, &c., were habitually accustomed to drink freely. Now, the practice has much abated, and we even hear of ( Stage-drivers' Temperance Conventions/ and the money formerly devoted to the purchase of liquor is now used B B 370 Introduction to Charge of January, to elevate them into a higher position in society, and to satisfy those wants which that higher position originates. ' No branch of the Temperance reform has more thoroughly succeeded than that which had reference to public entertain- ments. It is only, I think, since the time of Mayor Quincy, now [1854] about eight years, that the public dinners of this city [Boston] have been prepared upon a temperance plan. And at this time nearly all the great public festivals and enter- tainments in this vicinity, at which several hundred people are expected to be present, including the time-honoured Commence- ment-dinner of Harvard University, are conducted upon tem- perance principles, no beverage being provided but lemonade, water, and coffee. The transformation of public opinion that would allow of this change, has only been gradually achieved. But its accomplishment has been the result of the expenditure of much labour, time, and money/ The following extracts bearing upon the operation of the Maine Law may not be considered out of place here. The first occurs early in the very interesting work from which it is quoted. The second is taken from the summary of what the author observed in the United States, with which she concludes the narrative of her tour in America : [The author had just arrived by sea at Portland, in Maine.] ' A polite custom-house officer asked me if I had anything contraband in my trunks, and, on my reply in the negative, they were permitted to pass without even the formality of being- uncorded. ' Enlightened citizens they are truly/ I thought ; and with a pleasant consciousness of being in a perfectly free country, where every one can do as he pleases, I entered an hotel near the water, and sat down in the ladies' parlour. I had not tasted food for twenty-five hours, my clothes were cold and wet, a severe cut was on my temple. These circumstances I thought justified me in ringing the bell, and asking for a glass of wine. Visions of the agreeable refreshment which would be produced by the juice of the grape appeared simul- taneously with the waiter. I made the request, and he brusquely replied, ' You can't have it. It's contrary to law.' In my Jialf-drowned and faint condition, the refusal appeared tanta- Introduction to Charge of January, 1855. 371 mount to positive cruelty, and I remembered that I had come in contact with the celebrated ' Maine Law/ That the inhabi- tants of the State of Maine are not ' free ' was thus placed practically before me at once. Whether they are ' enlightened' I doubted at the same time, but leave the question of the prohibition of fermented liquors to be decided by abler social economists than myself. ' I was hereafter informed that to those who go down stairs and asked to see the ' striped pig/ wine and spirits are pro- duced ; that a request to speak with e dusty Ben ' has a like effect ; and that on asking for ' Sarsaparilla' at certain stores in the town, the desired stimulant can be obtained. Indeed, it is said that the consumption of this drug is greater in Maine than in all the other States put together. But in justice to this highly respectable State, I must add that the drunkenness which forced this stringent measure upon the Legislature was among the thousands of English and Irish emigrants who annually land at Portland/* ( The larger portion of the crime committed is done under the influence of spirits ; and to impose a check upon their sale, that celebrated enactment, known under the name of the ' Maine Law/ has been placed upon the statute books of several of the States, including the important ones of New York, Maine, Massachusetts, Connecticut, and Nebraska. ' This law prohibits, under heavy penalties, the manufacture or sale of alcoholic liquors. It has been passed in obedience to the will of the people, as declared at the elections ; and, though to us its provisions seem somewhat arbitrary, its working has produced very salutary effects/f * The 'Englishwoman in America, ' p. 90. London: Murray. 1856. t Ibid., p. 442. B B 373 CHAKGE OF JANUABY, 1855. GENTLEMEN or THE GRAND JURY, THOSE among you who bear in mind the Charges which have been delivered from this Bench, on the causes of crime, will naturally ask how it is that the enormous con- sumption of intoxicating liquors which prevails through the land a source of crime not only more fertile than any one other, but than all others added together should have been hitherto passed by ; or only have been brought under notice as incidental to some other topic. Let it not be supposed, Gentlemen, that such an omission has been the result of inadvertence. The subject has occupied my thoughts for years ; strange, indeed, must have been the state of my mind if it had not forced itself on my attention ; since the evil arising from the abuse of intoxicating drinks meets us at every turn. And for myself, I cannot pass an hour in Court without being reminded, by the transactions which are put in evidence before me, of the infinite ramifications of this fatal pest. In truth, almost every form of suffering which is common to any large class of our fellow -creatures, is connected with vicious in- dulgence in these ensnaring stimulants. Indigence, over- whelming temptation to crime, insanity, bodily disease, and death, such are the retributive consequences which wait on drunkenness. Individual drunkards may and do escape some portion of this retribution ; the instances, however, are rare indeed, if not fabulous, in which they run a career of in- toxication arid remain wholly unscathed. But what is the too frequent lot of their families ? At first sight it would strike us as impossible to discover a more unhappy being than the virtuous wife of a drunkard, and the mother of his offspring. Yet, if we turn our eyes towards the children of drunkenness, to little creatures, both of whose parents have become the victims of the tempter, we shall indeed contemplate human nature in its deepest affliction, short of the misery of guilt. Charge of January, 1855. 373 Take the description, Gentlemen, of one who well knew the class of which he \vas writing, Samuel Johnson : ' Nor does the use of spirits/ says he, ' only impoverish the public by lessening the number of useful and laborious hands, but by cutting off those recruits by which its natural and inevitable losses are to be supplied. The use of distilled liquors impairs the fecundity of the human race ; and hinders that increase which Providence has ordained for the support of the world. Those women who riot in this poisonous debauchery are quickly disabled from bearing children, by bringing on themselves in a short time all the infirmities and weakness of age; or, what is yet more destructive to general happiness, produce children diseased from their birth by the vices of their parents; children, whose blood is tainted with inveterate and accumulated maladies, for which no cure can be expected, and who, therefore, are an additional burthen to the community ; and must be supported through a miserable life by that labour which they cannot share, and must be protected by that community to whose defence they cannot contribute/ Gentlemen, so long (I may add) as such a family remains in existence, struggling against the wholesome harshness of those natural laws which condemn it to early extinction, it is driven to find its maintenance in crime ; and, if not brutified by ignorance, disease, and a guilty life, remorse is added as the culminating stone of this pile of suffering. But I will not pursue the theme for the reason assigned by the great writer \vhose \vorks I have just quoted. ' It contains [says he] such a concatenation of enormities, teems with so vast a number of mischiefs, and therefore produces in those minds that attend to its nature, arid pursue its consequences, such endless variety of arguments against it, that the memory is perplexed, the imagination crowded, and utterance overburdened. Before any one of its pernicious effects is fully dilated, a thousand others appear. The Hydra still shoots out new heads, and every head vomits out new poison to infect society, and lay the nation desolate/ But, Gentlemen, imbued as I have been with the deepest concern that intemperance should be so widely spread among us, T have been deterred from entering at large into this topic from my utter inability to point out any legislative measures 374 Charge of January, 1855. which, as it appeared to me, would furnish reasonable hope of subduing by force of law, the enormous evil which we are now contemplating. Law, however, has not been wholly inoperative ; and other weapons drawn from the armoury of religion and morals have been launched against the foe with indomitable zeal, and with some effect. So that the state of the country, although bad indeed, compared with what it ought to be, is nevertheless better than it was in the time of Johnson. To interpose from the Bench in a contest in which the law took such a minor part would, I felt, be passing beyond the widest limits assigned to the duty which I am now performing a duty, I apprehend, confined to the enforcement of con- siderations arising out of the law as it is ; or to suggestions which have for their object to produce such a tone of public opinion as shall have a tendency, more or less direct, to bring the law into conformity with our convictions of what it ought to be. Any interference by me with the duties of the pulpit would be uncalled for and presumptuous ; especially in this town, where your religious ministry is so richly endowed with all the qualities demanded for the conflict in which it is engaged. Nor would I willingly pass by the services of the various Societies, which, under the leadership of earnest and able men, have sought to alarm the consciences of drunkards ; and teach those who are yet free from the toils of the enslaver to elude his arts and withstand his temptations. But since I began to lay this matter to heart, a great change has come upon us. The Legislature is in motion. During the two last Sessions of Parliament Bills have passed into law, by which restraints have been placed, as to one day of the week, on the sale of intoxicating liquors, throughout the whole island. Since the third day of June, it has been unlawful in Scotland to sell, except to travellers, any species of intoxicating liquor on the Sunday. The English Act, which came into operation on the seventh day of August, does not go so far. It only puts a narrower limitation than heretofore existed upon the hours, during which it is lawful to furnish by sale a supply of such beverages. These Acts, and the recom- mendations of a Committee, of which I shall speak hereafter, pointing to further changes, seem likely, if we may judge from symptoms already visible, to bring two powerful and very Charge of January, 1855. numerous parties into conflict ; those who are of opinion that the cause of temperance may be advanced by law, and those who,, for whatever reason, and urged by whatever motive, are adverse to such an exercise of legislation. The latter party will probably be composed of various and heterogeneous bodies. The first of such bodies will be naturally formed of the producers and vendors of alcoholic drinks, brewers, publicans, or licensed victuallers, and the keepers of beer-shops, distillers, wine and spirit merchants, and the keepers of dram-shops. These we may expect to form a corps by no means insignificant even in mere numbers ; but far more powerful by its wealth, by its organization, and by the magnitude of its pecuniary interests, which are at stake upon this contest. Another body will be formed out of those who, confiding in moral influences, fear lest these may be weakened by an alliance with coercion. And certainly it must be conceded, that it is only under a happy combination of circumstances, that force and persuasion can be coupled together without conflicting action as the consequence. Then, again, there will be many who will object that such laws are an unjust attack on their per- sonal liberty ; and are imposed upon them by those whose superior wealth and station will practically exempt their hands from the fetters in which they are seeking to bind all below them. The last of the bodies, composing the second party to which there is need to advert, is that made up of hard and obstinate drinkers; although, on grounds which I shall by and by lay before you, I believe this division of opponents will not be so numerous as might naturally be anticipated. That a review of our course of legislation relating to the sale of alcoholic drinks, is not calculated to inspire unlimited confi- dence in the salutary power of law to restrain the abuse of stimulants, cannot be denied. On the other hand, a careful examination of the various measures adopted by the Legislature, together with the effects produced by them, would disclose so many errors which might have been avoided, that, while the particular statutes cannot be defended, the great question of the policy of legislative interference may perhaps be found to remain undecided. It will also appear that the state of society in which former experiments were tried was so different from that which now exists, and still more from that towards which we are 376 Charge of January, 1855. tending, as very much to weaken the force of any conclusions against the possibility of efficient legal control which history, superficially read, might seem to furnish. In the year 1729, it so happened that by the defective framing of an Act of Parliament, the ardent spirit, gin, was relieved from taxation. The passion for this liquid poison, which had already attained a fearful height, was thus urged on by a new incitement; and scenes of disgusting profligacy, infinitely repeated, were the result of the unhappy blunder. Seven years were permitted to elapse without any endeavour to stem the tide of excess that swept over the land; when the Legislature suddenly interposed by prohibiting all sales of less quantities than two gallons, except by persons paying fifty pounds per annum for their license, and also paying twenty shillings a gallon on the liquor itself so retailed. This ignorant and rash attempt at prohibition, for such was the object in view, had the most deplorable results. In the seven years during which the Act encumbered the statute- book, the consumption of gin was greater than it had been in the seven years when all control was abandoned. But, Gentle- men, the causes of this failure are not far to seek. The governing orders, small in number, were haughty, devoid of sympathy for their inferiors, ignorant of their ways, and disdainful of their opinions. The lower classes could only exercise the power inherent in numbers, by turbulence leading to insurrections, more than commonly dreaded in those times by reason of the assistance which might thus be given to the great Jacobite party of the nation. If, then, it were an easy thing for the aristocracy to pass at their pleasure laws to curb the populace, it was scarcely less easy for the populace to resist the execution of such laws, and to deprive them of all their intended effect; the more espe- cially in the absence of any body of peace officers, who, either in extent or in discipline, deserved the name of a police. For the execution of this most stringent measure, which declared instant and uncompromising war against habits which the Legis- lature had fostered by its own supineness, the statute and the Government depended on the vigilance of informers, whose rapacity was awakened by an offer of a large share in the penalties. It was, however, soon found that illicit vendors and their customers were too numerous to be so dealt with. Informers were marked, cruelly maltreated, and, in some cases, murdered Charge of January, 1855. 377 in the streets, none daring to interfere in their behalf. Even the personal safety of the magistrates was endangered ; until at length the drunkard reigned supreme over the la\y and its ministers. How complete was this victory may be gathered from the fact, that, during the seven years of restriction, only two licenses for the sale of spirituous liquors were taken out in England and Wales ! And, Gentlemen, when we calmly consider the law, and the circumstances under which it was passed, we can hardly regret its fate. In those days drunkenness was the prevailing vice of all classes, in truth, it was not deemed a vice in itself, but was looked upon by the higher orders rather as a privilege attached to wealth and station, which was not to be invaded by those below. And whoever shall read the debates of that period will find that, in the arguments employed against permitting excesses among labouring men, the speakers treated these, their fellow-creatures, very much as we now treat our horses and cattle. Their limbs were required for the toils which enabled the rich to live in luxury, their blood was required to carry on the wars in which the country might be engaged ; wars, as we all know, having little relation to the welfare of the people, or little care for any such object. In conformity with such views, the prohibitory Act left this same pernicious liquor, when sold in considerable quantities, almost or altogether untaxed; evincing thereby a very clear intention not to interfere with the vices of any above the level of the meanest in rank. In short, while no measure was ever devised more difficult of execution, so no measure was ever framed in a manner to enlist such a host of passions against it. And, doubtless, it could only have been successful among a people who, to the sensuality and ignorance of the English populace, should have added the slavish obedience of the Russian serf. But whether we deplore this failure or rejoice at it, certainly it will cause no surprise ; nor shall we be led to depreciate the power of legislation, exercised in what Shakspere calls ' a learned spirit of human dealing/ by examples presented to us by such botchers in the art of law-making as the Parliament of 1736. One inference we may safely draw from these occurrences, because it will be corroborated by the experience of all history; and it is this, That laws affecting our daily habits of life can never be enforced, unless they have Charge of January, 1855. the hearty consent of the people at large ; as evinced by the opinions of a majority vastly preponderating in numbers,, and in every other element of power, over the dissentients. The limits of a Charge do not admit of my tracing the history of legal supervision over the traffic in drinks. I must be satis- fied with indicating a few salient points. The experience of a century had shown that although attempts at prohibition had failed, yet that the impediments thrown in the way of the vendors of alcoholic drinks, partly by the imposition of duties on the manufacture or importation of the article, and partly by the system of licenses, had diminished, or at all events kept in check, the consumption of intoxicating liquors. We need, Gentlemen, no statistics to prove to us that the state of the country in 1830 was much better in regard to temperance than it was a century before that period, an improvement which none will attribute to education -who are acquainted with the slow progress which it made during that interval, however it may have aided us since. At the latter date a great change was effected. Complaints had been prevalent that malt liquor was supplied to the labouring class of a quality far from genuine, and in other respects inferior to what ought to be furnished for the price demanded. It was considered that this evil augmented the desire for ardent spirits; the increased consumption of which article had produced great anxiety, in the minds of all to whom the welfare of this invaluable class was an object of regard. The unsatisfactory state of the beer trade was imputed to monopolies exercised by brewers ; who, as we all know, have by means of large capitals invested in the ownership of public-houses, ob- tained a control over landlords in the purchase of the article which they vend; and, it was thought that a free trade in beer would raise its quality, and thus the customer who had been seduced by the insinuating poison of gin would return to his former beverage. Unerring experience has demonstrated the fallacy of these expectations. Malt liquor is no better than it was formerly, and the sale of spirits has increased; while, on the other hand, the establishment of the beer-shop, which was to check these evils inoperative to that end has introduced mischiefs of its own ; and indeed is universally denounced as a curse upon the land. One truth, however, one important truth, Charge of January , 1855. 379 it has thoroughly established, viz., that to increase or diminish the number of places where liquor may be had, is to increase or diminish the quantity of liquor consumed ; and the experi- ence of the last few months has satisfied me, that the same rule governs restriction upon the hours of sale. In Scotland, where the whole of Sunday is put under prohibition, the fact is too palpable to be denied, by any inquirer who will carry an unbiassed mind into the investigation. In England, where the prohibition is not so stringent, the effects are less obvious. But yet, after some inquiry, I have encountered nothing which goes to show that the tendency is otherwise than might a priori have been expected. Gentlemen, we have thus made the discovery, or rather the truth has been forced upon our attention, that the traffic in alcoholic drinks obeys that great law of political economy which regulates all other commerce ; viz., that any interference with the free action of manufacturer, importer, vendor, or purchaser, diminishes consumption. Whether the restriction has revenue for its object, as in the imposition of duties, or whether it has morals and good order for its purpose, as in regulations respect- ing the number of vendors, and the hours during which they may exercise their vocation, still the effect is found to be the same, diminution of the quantity consumed. But the restrictions must not only be imposed by the Legislature, they must be carried into effect by the ministers of the Law ; and that they should be efficient, they must not be opposed by a dominant public opinion. The history of the struggle in the early part of the last century, puts, as I have already said, that truth beyond a doubt. Yet, even where, through the agency of a better organized police, opposition by open force would be unsuccessful, failure might still arise from evasion. In short, from whatever point of view we regard the subject, we shall see that our hopes of improvement have no solid foundation, except in the enlight- ened sentiment of the people. And we are to remember that evasion, practised as it would be, if practised at all, by large masses of the community, would bring in its train a host of evils arising out of a systematic contempt of the law. Neither are we to forget that to find the means of evasion and to establish its habitual practice are an affair of time ; and that restrictive laws, which may be enforced while of recent enactment, will be eluded 3 So Charge of January, when the requisite knowledge has been diffused, and the requisite machinery supplied, for setting them at defiance. Doubtless no probable amount of evasion could bring up the consumption to what it would be if the trade were free; but no diminution attainable in the face of such a sinister influence would compen- sate for the mischiefs which would thus be incidentally produced. So far, Gentlemen, I have walked by the light of history ; but I am now called upon to consider the recommendations of the Committee on Public-Houses, which sat during the two last Sessions of Parliament. That the labours of these gentlemen are highly valuable, that some of their suggestions will approve themselves to all candid men, and that whoever differs from any of them is bound to a most careful examination of the points of such difference, cannot be denied. Such examination I have made; and I must not shrink from stating that I entirely dissent from one of their most important conclusions, which is, that the sale of all intoxicating liquors ought to be made free; the limitation upon this freedom being, that the vendor must be a person of good character, and must pay a high price for his license. Practically speaking, the only impediment to the sale of liquor would be the duty upon the license, added to the duty paid by the importer or the manufacturer. Now, it may be that the free-trade ingredient of the new rule will overpower the effect of the new fiscal restriction ; or, it may be that the new fiscal restriction will be too strong for the free-trade por- tion ; in other words, the restriction created by the imposition of a new duty, which would have a tendency to raise the price of the article, might diminish consumption in a greater degree than would be countervailed by annulling the limitation on the establishment of public-houses : or, on the other hand, the power of multiplying public-houses might increase the sale so as to overbalance the effect of the new duty. Gentlemen, I must confess myself unable to find the data on which the Com- mittee resolved this question in their own minds ; nor can I be quite sure that they arrived at their conclusion upon any con- sideration of it at all. It appears to me possible that their thoughts were distracted by the introduction of another element into their decision, calculated, as I think, to lead them astray. Gentlemen, from various portions of the evidence, I am led to believe that the free-trade principle was contemplated as likely Charge of January, 1855. 381 to check adulteration, and that such contemplated effect was a principal motive for introducing it. Now, on this topic I have two observations to make. The first is, that the public evil of adulteration in alcoholic liquors has been over-estimated ; since, for the most part, the ingredients appear from the investigations of the Committee to be innoxious, as where water is used, which it is to a large extent ; or if not entirely innoxious, yet less deleterious than the alcohol which they displace; and even in those instances in which they are more injurious, the propor- tion of adulterating matter appears to be very minute. I may add, that if any drinkers are alarmed or disgusted by the adul- teration of liquor, and so led to abstain, it would not be very easy to deduce a public misfortune from such a fact, however severely we may condemn the dishonesty of the trader. But admitting that the adulteration of intoxicating liquors is an evil against which it is wise to legislate (a proposition which I am not about to dispute), upon what ground is it to be inferred that free trade will correct that evil ? Free trade introduces competition, competition lowers price universally ; but its effect on quality is far more limited. Where differences of quality are very apparent, some such consequence may be pro- duced; but where the detection requires knowledge and skill, the experience of every day shows that it is beyond the com- petence of free trade to ensure the supply of a genuine article. In this very town, a most important Conference has been held, with a view of obtaining legal provisions for ensuring that articles of food and medicine shall be suppled only in a genuine state, articles which it is notorious have been for years adul- terated in every possible manner ; and yet their manufacture and sale is, and has been, subject to no restraint. Concurring, therefore, in the recommendation for a high duty upon licenses, I can see no sufficient ground for throwing the trade open. Gentlemen, I am very suspicious of free trade. I know too well its potency in stimulating the demand for any article which comes under its influence ; and when, therefore, I desire to see that demand languid and attenuated, I much prefer the reverse principle, protection, or as we should call it, restraint. I desire then to retain the discretionary power of the magistrates, which it is much easier to keep now that we have it, than it will be to restore when once abandoned ; and before I conclude, I shall 383 Charge of January, 1855. submit facts to your notice, drawn from the experience of another country, which may lead you to think it probable that the restraining power of the magistracy over the sale of drinks, may be in future more efficiently exercised than heretofore. Gentlemen, from what has already fallen from my lips it will be evident, that while I regard existing restrictions as too valuable to be relinquished, I have no very sanguine expecta- tions that any great or striking results will follow from mere regulations. A few years ago I should have ventured upon a bolder proposition. I should have held that it was beyond the art of man to frame a restrictive law which should be very efficient in lessening consumption ; and even supposing a great effect could be produced, I should have had but little hope that the good would be purchased, except at the price of a more than countervailing amount of evil. But since that period a momen- tous experiment, on a vast scale, has been in trial across the Atlantic. In the year 1851, Maine, one of the States of the Republic of North America, enacted a law entirely prohibiting the sale of intoxicating liquors. This law, with some modifica- tions, has been adopted in six of the other States. Nor is that all, for the State of New York, the most powerful member of the Union, is, after a protracted struggle, on the eve of coming under the dominion of the Maine Law. Already has the measure passed both the Senate and the House of Repre- sentatives of this great community, called, from its pre- eminence, the Empire State. The late Governor put his veto upon the Bill, and prevented it from becoming law ; but he has been replaced by another Governor, chosen expressly on the ground that he is a supporter of the measure. Gentlemen, I have carefully investigated, by all the means open to me, the progress and operation of this extraordinary movement. I have read all the printed documents which I could procure on the subject. I have sought interviews with intelligent and well- informed Americans, some of them of high position, I have corresponded with persons in the United States, who have been kind enough to aid my inquiries. To say that I have arrived at conclusions free from doubt, on all the questions involved in the enactment of a Maine Law, would be far from true. But I have satisfied myself that the Maine Law is a reality, that it has wrought great effects in many cities and large districts, Charge of January, i%$$. 383 that it has had very decided success in diminishing pauperism, and in emptying prisons, that no countervailing evils have as yet sprung up to any alarming extent, that no State where it has been once adopted has abandoned the measure, and that it is destined to make progress, if not throughout the whole Union, at least over a very considerable portion of. I may add, that it has received a favourable reception in the Legislature of our own Province, Canada. These matters being, as I believe, indisputable, I was led to inquire how such marvels had become possible. And this is the explanation. Five-and-twenty years ago the scourge of drink was intolerable, all classes appear to have been sufferers ; and hence it was in America that Societies arose for the promotion of temperance, by enforcing on the minds of men the disastrous consequences of indulgence, and by administering pledges to abstain. The labours of these institu- tions spread abroad an earnest desire to lessen, and even to extinguish, the consumption of intoxicating drinks; and the vendors being, as in England, subject to a licensing system, when public opinion had in any district pronounced strongly against the traffic in these beverages, the authorities (them- selves elective officers) refused to .grant any new licenses, and eventually even to renew those in operation; until in various places, beginning where the sentiment was strongest, no liquor could be retailed without a breach of the law. Thus, Gentlemen, you will observe that the change was not suddenly made, but that the policy which now prevails rose up gradually, and gathered strength by degrees ; so that when the Maine Law came into the Union, it was no great shock to the habits of the people. I hardly need inform you that in the United States every law must of necessity be popular, at least in its institution ; as otherwise it could not pass a popular Legis- lature, nor would it receive the sanction of a Governor popu- larly elected. Indeed, a very extensive popularity will alone account for the existence of this measure, and for its now being maintained after trial. And, Gentlemen, it is impossible to contemplate the astonishing fact, that it has come into existence, and that it has spread from State to State, without our being led to inquire how, in a country in which drinking habits had widely prevailed, and where the people themselves are their own law- makers, the general good- will could have been gained towards a 384 Charge of January, 18 55. coercive law such as no despot has ever dared to contemplate, a restriction on personal liberty, which, I must own, I should have predicted would be so opposed to American instincts (at all events as regards the actions of white men) as must have ren- dered any such enactment a political impossibility. Gentlemen, this is the solution. At all times, and in all countries, one half the human race will gladly support a measure which gives hope of rescuing their husbands, their brothers, and their sons from the tyranny of liquor. I do not stay to estimate the necessary deduction for the number of women enslaved by the same habit. Some deduction, how- ever, must unhappily be made; and yet it does not follow that the cause of temperance will lose the good wishes even of those unhappy beings who have degraded their sex by becoming drunkards. For it must be remembered that even drunkards, whether male or female, in the hours of sobriety may hate their vice, bitterly feel their humiliation and enthralment, and ardently desire to be protected from their own infirmity of pur- pose. Thus, Gentlemen, we see how intemperance itself may furnish a large class of earnest advocates for a measure of coer- cion ; and this fact, united to other considerations, may diminish our astonishment at the existence and spread of the Maine Law, and our incredulity with regard to its alleged success. It is true of the laws of all nations, that their satisfactory working very much depends upon whether they are in harmony or in discord with public sentiment. But this is emphatically trua of the laws in the United States, and most emphatically true of one which hourly interferes with the routine of ordinary life. In districts where the stream of public opinion does not flow in the direction of the Maine Law, or where it moves but slowly, the law is very much a dead letter ; while, on the other hand, even in States which the Maine Law has not yet reached, there are districts where the sale of intoxicating drinks is so generally condemned, that no vendor is willing to brave the odium attendant on such a traffic. The Maine Law is then altogether the creature of popularity. Unless there had been in its favour a large majority of whatever State has adopted it, such an enactment would never have found its way into the statute-book; and unless its sup- porters are thoroughly diffused throughout the adopting commu- nity, it will receive only a partial enforcement. So deeply are the Charge of January, 1855. 385 American Legislatures penetrated with the belief that an over- whelming majority is required to support a law which thus materially interferes with personal habits, that the practice has arisen among them of calling on their constituents to meet at the poll, and give a vote of adhesion to the measure before they will pass a Maine Law Bill. Gentlemen, this review of the circumstances under which a Maine Law, instead of remaining the dream of some benevolent visionary, has become a practical truth in the Western hemisphere, will, I apprehend, also show that the time is far distant, if it can ever arrive, when such a measure will be adopted at home. Voluntary Societies have not produced the abiding effect among us which they appear to have done in America. To one indica- tion I may advert as showing the permanent hold which the principle of abstinence has obtained throughout the Union. It is, I am informed, held disreputable, even in States which have not adopted the Maine Law, for a clergyman to touch an alcoholic beverage of any kind. Public opinion then is feeble here as compared with its action in the United States, and its progress is but slow and wavering; we therefore cannot be sur- prised that it has not yet acted, or only slightly acted, upon the licensing bodies : nor that we should find in this country no single district in which the experiment of prohibition has been tried or approached. You will agree with me, Gentlemen, that it will be necessary for those who have taken up the advocacy of a Maine Law in this country, well to consider these facts. It is quite true that they repudiate, and I am sure repudiate with sincerity, the notion of calling on Parliament to force such a law upon the people; but they have not yet succeeded in pro- tecting the popular mind from the fear of coercion; and thus they are in danger of encountering a popular hostility fraught with consequences most perilous to their enterprise. The people will be led to believe that the wealthy and powerful are about to make them abstain by the rigors of an Act of Par- liament, which will not affect the enjoyments of the upper classes. It will be said that so long as importation is per- mitted, the rich man may enjoy his bottle of wine, while the poor man's tankard of ale is put under the ban of the law. The facts of the case raise the same argument in the United States; but the answer of the million in the great Republic would c c 386 Charge of January, 1855. be^ t -y\f e kayg CB \\ e {[ for this law for our own protection. We look upon it as a shield to guard us from harm not as a sword to smite us. If the higher classes choose to leave themselves and those who are dear to them open to temptation, so be it : theirs is the fault, and theirs will be the penalty. Our offspring will never pray at night not to be led into temptation, and yet arise in the morning to contend that temptation is a birth- right; and that withholding it from them is an invasion of their liberties/ But, Gentlemen, you will perceive that the American people have had a long training to this doctrine ; and that the demo- cratic form of their government, with all its drawbacks (and they are numerous), assuredly confers one advantage. It becomes impossible for the many to believe that any law can be thrust upon them by the few ; on the contrary, they must see that legislative acts are but the formal expression of the popular will. The chief lesson, then, to be drawn from what has been submitted to your consideration is, that until the sale of alcoholic drinks has fallen into public disfavour until those who feel themselves and their families exposed to temptations which they may not be able to resist, are willing to submit to privations for the sake of closing the door against the tempter, and until that smaller class, which feels strong in the power of self-control, is willing to make some sacrifice for the benefit of their weaker neighbours, to enact a Maine Law in England would be only to repeat the fearful error of the last century. Although something has been done, the public mind is yet incredulous of the indisputable truth, that the utility of alcoholic drinks is far more limited than we have any of us, until lately, been taught to think ; while their abuse is far more extensive than can be even imagined by those who have not thoroughly investigated the subject. These two great facts must every day, in season and out of season, be impressed on the English head and heart. And here the labours of the advo- cates for the Maine Law are, like those of other Societies for the promotion of temperance, working for good, and they deserve our grateful acknowledgments. But, Gentlemen, it is easy to desciy new dangers to be avoided, which may possibly accelerate our speed. From a Charge of January, 1855. 387 combination of causes we are exposed, as a manufacturing people, to an extent and severity of competition to which we have hitherto been strangers. Improvements in navigation, and in other means of transport, have made it competent to all nations to command raw materials whereon to exercise their industry and their skill ; while, on the other hand, that super- fluity of labour which enabled us to meet any amount of demand without an inordinate rise of price, is now, by the exten- sion of our trade, and of emigration, to say nothing of the war, very much diminished, if not exhausted. It behoves us, then, to economise our stock of labour; and our working men we must hope will, by increasing their individual efficiency, aim at compensating for inadequacy in their numbers, f a consumma- tion devoutly to be wished/ even more for their welfare than for our own ; because the profit of such augmented efficiency will, as it ought to do, fall in larger measure to them than to us. Gentlemen, how deeply the value of a working man, to himself, to his family, and to his employers, is inj ured by intem- perance, some whom I have now the honour to address may probably, in their own manufactories, have but too much reason to know and to deplore ; and this injury will, I presume, be more and more keenly felt as we make way in that course of gradual change, long since begun, which, by the extended application of machinery, is constantly substituting for the rude, uncultivated labourer, the trained and skilful artizan. Birmingham, Gentlemen, is so intimately connected by commerce with the United States of America (soon perhaps to become our chief competitor), that you know, far better than I can tell you, how quick is the progress in that land of the changes to which I .have adverted, and perhaps you would receive it as no extravagant proposition, if I were to affirm that the retention of our manufacturing superiority is absolutely dependent on our ability, by some means or other, to remove from among us the foul reproach of intemperance. That we are an intemperate people, no man, who has honestly given his rnind to the subject, can deny. The truth is self-evident, and stares us in the face on every side. Two facts, however, I will lay before you. The cost of stimulants (alcoholic drinks and tobacco) is upwards of fifty millions sterling per annum. Indeed, according to the deliberate opinion of Mr. Clay, the able and c c 2 388 Charge of January, 1855. experienced Chaplain of Preston Gaol, than whom no man has more carefully studied the question, the true cost to the British nation is little short of a hundred millions, aggravated as it is by the profits of retailers, and by those fraudulent additions to the price which are the result of adulteration. Again, this enormous expenditure is not to buy strength or lasting welfare ; but to purchase disease and debility, poverty and death. Let me contrast this hideous waste with our outlay in what is good. I learn from the highest authority on the subject, Mr. Charles Knight, that the whole annual sum expended on literature, including newspapers, is no more than five millions sterling; a small fraction indeed of that wealth so much of which is worse than thrown away ! Let me earnestly and affectionately entreat the working classes of our town to ponder well this contrast between the cost of poison for the body and food for the mind ! In asking for their attention I am addressing myself to thoughtful men, who comprehend all the evils of intemperance. Many of them, I know, offer in their own persons and families bright examples of perfect freedom from this odious vice. I would fain hope I may venture to speak so of the majority; yet of a large minority I grieve to say none but their flatterers can speak thus, none but their flatterers can say that they have not wilfully so mis-used by excess in drink the prosperity which Providence has vouch- safed to us of late years, as to make it a curse instead of a blessing ; for although, thank God, the criminal class is com- paratively small, yet in absolute numbers it is enormous, and is constantly fed from the classes who begin their course of error by giving way to drinking habits. Crime, Gentlemen, is the extreme link in the chain of vice forged by intemperance, the last step in the dark descent and thousands who stop short of criminality, yet suffer under all the other miseries (and manifold they are), with which the demon Alcohol tortures his victims ! I fear, Gentlemen, my Charge, which has now come to an end, is open to the objection that its views are scarcely settled, and its recommendations by no means definite. If such a complaint should be made, my justification, or rather excuse, must be, that, although I have spared neither time nor labour of inquiry or of thought, I have not been able Charge of January, 1855. 389 to gain a full mastery over this most difficult and perplexing subject. Nevertheless, if what I have submitted to you shall have furnished useful materials for reflection, I am willing to hope your patience will not have been altogether abused; and that you will pardon my long intrusion on your valuable time. On Saturday afternoon, when the Grand Jury came to be discharged, Mr. W. E. Hunt said he had, on their part, 1 to thank the learned Recorder for the very admirable ad- dress which he had delivered the day before. The Jury entirely concurred in that address, and believing it well calculated to promote the object of the Recorder, they hoped that he would allow it to be published and circulated as widely as possible/ The Recorder said he should take care that the Charge was published forthwith. ADDENDUM. More than one eminent writer having misapprehended the opinions intended to be set forth in this Charge,, it is reasonable to presume that some ambiguity, or other want of distinctness, has clouded the expression of the Recorder's views. That he may do his best to guard himself from being misunderstood, he subjoins the following short abstract : ist. He desired to show that the consumption of alcoholic beverages is so excessive as to make it of the highest moment that it should be greatly reduced. 2nd. That all schemes for effecting such reduction must, to be efficient, be founded on the desires of a largely preponderating majority of the people. 3rd. That restraint on the sale of intoxicating drinks, when made in conformity with public opinion, diminishes consumption in proportion to the stringency of the law. 4th. That the experience of six of the United States of North America shows that, under similar conditions as to public opinion, such restraint may be tightened into absolute prohibition; and yet remain effective. 5th. That very decided good results have already been pro- 39 Sequel to Charge of January, 1855. duced in the six States by such prohibition, in diminishing pauperism and crime. 6th. That the progress in America towards a Maine Law had its beginning many years ago ; while in England we have scarcely taken our first step in that direction. 7th. That consequently the institution of a Maine Law in this country, must be deferred to a distant future. 8th. That it can only be safely enacted when it shall be demanded by large numbers, who desire to protect themselves against temptation; or desire a similar protection on behalf of their families and those in whose welfare they are immediately interested. 9th. That to such numbers must be added the smaller, but more powerful, body, who, not feeling the necessity for such control, are yet willing to forego their moderate use of alcoholic beverages as the necessary condition of a great national benefit. loth. The controversy between the advocates of total absti- nence and of moderate use, is meant to be left (as a question of health) altogether untouched; the medical authorities being in conflict on that part of the subject. HEATH HOUSE, STAPLETON, NEAH BRISTOL, Jan. v^rd, 1855. [The extracts from Dr. Johnson's Reports of debates in Parliament, it will have been observed, are cited as the language and sentiments of Johnson himself; and, whoever has read BoswelFs account of the manner in which these lleports were concocted, will think it very unsafe to ascribe the matter to the speakers from whom it purports to have proceeded.] SEQUEL. t Remarks in answer to Objections advanced against a Charge on the Abuse of Intoxicating Liquors, delivered by the Recorder of Birmingham, in January, 1855. ' THIS Charge satisfied neither of the contending parties. The prohibitionists, although they concurred in the principles laid down, were of opinion that the period at which a Maine Law had a chance of being obtained was relegated to a future far Sequel to Charge of January, 1855. 39 x more distant than consisted with the reasonable prospects afforded by a public opinion advancing, as they think, rapidly in that direction. The opponents of prohibition, on the other hand, passed over almost without notice the conditions on which alone I contemplated the possibility of a Maine Law; namely, that it should be demanded by a majority of the people so large as to ensure the smooth working of the measure; and they consequently treated my Charge as if it had been a call for immediate action on the part of the Legislature an action which, if it should not go the length of prohibiting the traffic, was yet to tighten all the restraints upon it. I there- fore think it may be useful to examine the grounds on which the question ought to be discussed, and upon which it must eventually be decided. ' Inquiry as to the propriety of enacting any proposed law ranges itself under two heads. Is the contemplated object one to be desired ? And if so, will the attempt by the proposed law to attain such object yield a balance of good over evil, or of evil over good ? Many wrongs must go unredressed, many evils remain without a remedy, because we are not able to frame a law which would not inflict greater wrongs, and produce worse evils, than those against which it is to be directed. Ingratitude is a cruel wrong to the benefactor; and, inasmuch as it weakens the motives to benevolence, is a great evil to the community. Yet who can devise a law for the punishment of ingrates which shall not be a remedy worse than the disease ? Again, how cruel are the injuries which the husband can inflict on the wife, or the wife on the husband. Some of these are, it is true, cognizable by law, not only law as it may be, but law as it is. But others, however exquisite the pain which they cause, are not cognizable at all; and in the Courts which have jurisdiction over conjugal strife a preliminary question often arises, whether the scandal, or, in other words, the injury to public decency which would flow from the inquiry, does not outweigh the benefit to the individual consequent on aiding him or her to obtain the justice which is demanded. ' Before the principle, thus indicated, can be applied to the present question, several branches of inquiry must be pursued. It is obvious that the first of these branches is that which will enable us to determine the value of the enjoyment which it is Sequel to Charge of January, 1855. proposed to limit or extinguish, as compared with the amount and intensity of the injury of which indulgence in that enjoy- ment is the cause. As regards this branch I must rely, for the most part, on the physiologists. I have taken some trouble to inform myself as to the preponderance of opinion entertained by medical men on the subject ; and I find the belief among them to be all but universal, that to man in his normal state alcohol imparts no strength ; and that its good effects are confined to an exhilaration of the animal spirits ; that all good purposes, except this one of exhilaration, may be comprised under the head of medical purposes, in short, that alcohol in its many forms of ardent spirits, wine, beer, cider, and so forth, neat or diluted, can only be used without injury when required as medicine ; unless when taken in very small quantities. As a medicine, alcohol is efficient in a high degree, and to abstract it from the pharmacopoeia would be to cripple the curative resources of our physicians to a very serious extent. But physiologists, T believe, will agree that the office of food and that of medicine are essentially distinct, and even repugnant. Aliment supplies the fuel for a species of combustion essential to the maintenance of life. Medicine, on the contrary, is a sort of poison intended to act hostilely against some deleterious substance or influence which has found its way into our bodies ; and medicine, as we all know, ceases to be useful, or even harmless, the moment the enemy is overcome. It is one poison counteracting another, and becoming itself injurious as soon as its legitimate functions are at an end. No pro- hibitionist, I believe, ever went the length of desiring to put any fetters on the discretion of the medical man, whether he give general directions to his patient, or govern his case by a specific prescription; and, therefore, whenever the recipient is acting on medical authority, no law would seek to interfere with him. ' The only sacrifice, then, which would be demanded, relates to that very moderate use which the majority of physiologists might permit, as not injurious to the constitution; but which, at the same time, they tell us, conduces in the healthy subject neither to the preservation of that health, nor to the increase of strength. The sacrifice demanded, then, by the sternest law of prohibition ever proposed, is simply the pleasure arising from Sequel to Charge of January, 1855. 393 the exhilarating effect of alcoholic drinks. Now, I do not mean to undervalue this or any other source of enjoyment. I desire to estimate it fairly I may say liberally. I will put it at the highest amount at which it would be placed by any reflecting person. But let me be permitted to call attention to some considerations which may qualify our estimate of its intrinsic value. Probably it has been found by every one trying the experiment, that the quantity of alcohol imbibed must be very small when it is not followed by consequences, which, although they may not be serious, are yet sufficiently disagreeable to overbalance the enjoyment obtained by the exhilaration produced. Again, it is in the nature of a stimu- lant gradually to lose a portion of its force, and consequently to require augmentation from time to time; so that although exhilaration may be at first produced by a harmless quantity, to continue the effect that quantity must be increased until it ceases to be harmless. Neither is it quite clear that exhilara- tion from alcoholic drinks is a real addition to our stock of animal spirits. It may be only drawing upon it; as we draw a cheque upon our banker at the expense of our stock of money remaining in his hands. Persons who abstain altogether from alcohol do not appear, so far as I have observed, to be on the whole less joyous than those who avail themselves of moderate indulgence; while, as compared with those who indulge im- moderately, it will be admitted that the abstainers have, in this respect as in all others, the advantage. Voyagers have from time to time discovered whole communities which had never tasted alcohol in any shape ; and certainly their descriptions do not lead to the conclusion that the hilarity of these primitive tribes had suffered from their privation. We must, however, in taking our account add to the loss of the enjoyment whatever that may be the irritation produced by the con- sciousness of restraint which would be felt under the operation of a prohibitive law, by such as differed from the Legislature in their opinion of its necessity. ' Let me now inquire what is the nature and amount of the evil which is sought to be cured, or greatly lessened, by legislation. ' The first item on this debtor side of the account is the huge pecuniary cost of the indulgence, ten or fifteen times as large 394 Sequel to Charge of January, 1855. as the total cost of literature, including newspapers. We may make a very ample deduction for all that portion of the expen- diture which may be reasonably estimated to belong either to medicine or to harmless consumption ; and yet, looking simply at drinking as a question of finance, how frightfully does it absorb and turn to waste the productive efforts of our capital and industry. Consider how all other means of happiness might be augmented, what a cheerful and salubrious dwelling each family might command, what leisure might be purchased, what studies might be pursued, what recreations enjoyed, how easy it would be for every man to provide for his old age; his abstinence acting doubly, first enabling him to accumulate more rapidly than he does now, and again making a less accumulation necessary for his wants. But while on the question of money, let us remember that not only are our earnings wasted, but our power of earning is grievously weakened by this baneful indulgence. I am not at the moment speaking of that excess which runs into drunken- ness. Even when it stops far short of intoxication visi- ble to by-standers, indulgence in liquor injures and ulti- mately destroys the health, relaxes habits of industry, and makes labour harder to bear. But when we come to the drunkard we see that he not only paralyses his own power of creating property, but he diminishes, and often just as much destroys, that of his family. His children, ill -taught and ill- trained, grow up unskilled and idle; and, even if they remain honest, cannot be called useful members of the community. Thus to the waste of acquired property we must add a quantity of wealth not to be measured, which indulgence in alcoholic drinks precludes us from acquiring. Surely, if there were no other item in the account, a very moderate share of patriotism would impel us all to forego the evanescent enjoyments of alcohol, for the sake of accomplishing so much public good as would result from its disuse. ' But let us proceed. If the poverty into which the drinker plunges himself were borne by him alone, and if its evil consequences did not press on his neighbours, it might be contended that the mischief did not fall within the province of legislation to remove or control. But every civilized people has either found or is finding the necessity of providing for the Sequel to Charge of January, 1855. 395 subsistence of all its members, deserving and undeserving. Want in this country forms an unanswerable claim to the necessaries of life, such necessaries being furnished by the industrious. It follows also, from the doctrine that all must be maintained, that you cannot relieve any self-supporting class from sharing the burden of sustaining those who cannot or will not support themselves. At all events, such is the state of our law; and, as I believe, a state which cannot be altered. The consequence is, that labouring men artizans and small shop- keepers, are called upon to diminish the pittance which ought to belong to their families, in order to feed the pauper. This is no place for sentiment ; and I shall expose myself fearlessly to any censure which I may draw down for using harsh language, when I assert it to be a notorious fact, that the proportion of the destitute who are reduced to pauperism by their own mis- conduct, or the misconduct of their parents, is vastly greater than that which is brought to the poor-house by misfortune. And it is equally notorious that the misconduct to which I refer is, in the main, indulgence in drink. ( Let us then, when we speak of the pain produced by legal restraints on the moderate use of alcohol, reflect for a moment on the bitter feelings with which the honest, hard-working, and temperate man must regard the spoliation of his property, to feed his once riotous neighbour ; whom he has often seen reeling home at the early dawn, when he himself, after a scanty night's rest, has been returning to his daily toil. And while on this topic, let me remind my readers of the far deeper affliction which bows down the drunkard's wife ; who, day after day, beholds her husband wasting his substance, and leaving her, and what she finds much harder to endure her children, bare of food and clothing; and moving on towards a future still more gloomy than the past or the present. Surely if the pain caused to the innocent by indulgence on the one hand, or by restrictions on the other, is to be made the criterion, prohibition is far more merciful than licence ! 1 Descending still further in the scale we come to crime. Now it is part of the definition of crime that it is an injury to others. If, then, the inflictions of crime upon the community are in any great part the creatures of alcoholic drinks, who is there that, supposing absence from crime, or a considerable diminution of Sequel to Charge of January, 1855. it, were the only good consequence to arise from prohibition, would not be ready to sacrifice his alcoholic exhilarations as a trifling contribution towards the purchase of such a blessing ? But on this head the testimony is so full and so uniform that it cannot possibly be gainsayed. Every person whose avocations in life have brought him frequently into a Criminal Court, must admit the truth of what is stated by our judges, day by day, and year after year, that by far the greater number of all the offences committed have their origin in the love of drinking ; generally in the intemperance of the offender, not seldom, how- ever, in that of the injured party, who thereby affords an oppor- tunity for attack. ' But, it is objected that, according to the proverb, we must not argue against the use because of the abuse. I venture to question the soundness of the maxim. It appears to me that if the abuse cause more of evil than the use does of good, it is wise to sacrifice the latter to get rid of the former. I grant that if it be practicable to put away the abuse and yet retain the use, in such case the sacrifice is not necessary. And this is the point to which I will now call attention. It cannot be denied that whenever alcohol has been accessible, it has offered to a very large proportion of all who partake in the indulgence an overwhelming temptation to go beyond the limits of moderate enjoyment. In many of our pleasures satiety furnishes a limit soon reached. But, in drinking, every glass appears to create far more thirst than it assuages. And thus the use draws on the abuse by an irresistible force. The principle, that where use has a strong tendency to become abuse abstinence is the legitimate remedy, is no novelty. Every one feels that Dr. Johnson was quite right in refraining altogether from wine, for the reason which he himself gives that he found it much easier to abstain than to be temperate. Perhaps he meant to intimate that he was able to abstain, but could not be temperate. He was, however, a man of resolute will, and might therefore intend no more than his words literally import. ' Still in a very large number of cases, the question does not lie between that which is easy and that which is difficult ; but between that which is possible and that which is impossible. This class can resist if they steer clear of the temptation arising from tasting liquor. But there is a class of weaker men. These Sequel to Charge of January, 1855. 397 may have tlie same desire to escape the enthralment of alcohol as the former, but they are unable to resist the temptation of opportunity. If drink be within their reach they must have it ; and, if they have it at all, they plunge into excess. Thus, then, there are three classes of drinkers. The first can indulge without losing their self-command. The second cannot indulge without losing their self-command, but they can abstain. The third cannot abstain, and always indulge to excess. Now, if all drinkers were of the first class, and could be sure of remaining in it, there would be no abuse ; and, consequently, the use need not be sacrificed. So, again, if all drinkers fell into one or other of the two first classes, there need only be a partial sacrifice namely, the one which the second is willing to make; and thus the objects of prohibition might be gained without the aid of law. The difficulty, then, is created by the existence of a third class, which cannot be protected by any power of its own ; while on the other hand the evils resulting from the abuse of drink are almost altogether the work of these unhappy persons. What power, then, short of prohibitive law are we to invoke for the control of this third class ? We are told that the progress of improvement has lessened the quantity of drunkenness in the world, and I hope the statement is true. It is certainly lessened in the upper and middle ranks by that amelioration of manners which is the result of a higher civiliza- tion. But I am by no means sure that any improvement which has taken place in the ranks below, is in any great degree to be attributed to the same cause. It seems to me rather to be the consequence of legal, and more especially fiscal restraints. And I judge so, because we do not find that in time of prosperity the labouring classes are able to withstand the temptations to drink ; high wages giving them a similar command over intoxi- cating liquors as would be caused by repealing the tax upon them. At all events, the improvement, if perceptible, is very slow ; and any hope of great effects is consequently postponed to a future so distant as to be out of the range of prevision. ' Thus the hope must be abandoned, as it appears to me, of eliminating the use from the abuse. They must both go or both remain. But the moderate drinker is supposed to say, ' Why should I, who am endowed with self-command, give up an enjoyment which works me no ill, that my neighbour, who 398 Sequel to Charge of January, 1855. has no self- command, should be protected from the consequences of his own infirmity of purpose ?' One answer is, that the consequences of his misconduct will reach you, and cause you more discomfort than will be counterbalanced by the pleasure you will derive from alcoholic exhilaration. While Ilobinson Crusoe lived alone, he might apply to his case bottles now and then with impunity ; but when he was joined by Friday, if that model servant had been given to drink, it would have been a wise act in his master to pour out his rum upon the sand. That we suffer from the misfeasances and nonfeasances of those about us, is the great tax we pay for living in society ; and if we are of opinion that on the whole we do not gain more than we lose by associating with our kind, our obvious course is to seek the desert. ' But have we not an interest in banishing this temptation, far higher than any which belongs to money ? If mature habit may have given us a right to feel secure, that in our own persons we can resist all inducements to excess, have we none dear to us to guard from peril, whose habits have yet to be formed ? Have we not our children ? Let not parental fondness close our eyes to their dangers. Let us not indulge too much in those day- dreams of their future, in which they are always to do better than we have done, because they are to be made wise by our advice and experience. If we cannot but look upon them as 'Our little selves re-form'd in finer clay/ we must not act on such vain imaginings. No, not even as to him, the little paragon of the nursery, so pure and sensitive, so gifted with talent, so rich in animal spirits, so ardent and suc- cessful in the studies of childhood, and who so revels in its innocent enjoyments ! Beyond a doubt 'Spirits are not finely touch'd But to fine issues/ and murmuring these exquisite lines, we project ourselves into the future with a confidence which disdains all misgiving; looking forward to the day when father, mother, brothers, and sisters shall be chiefly known and respected as members of his family, and as bearing his name. Alas ! how many proud hopes arid confident anticipations has accursed Alcohol dashed to the ground ! The son and brother whose steps were watched Sequel to Charge of January, 1855. 399 with such affectionate interest, whose slightest word or gesture was noted with love and praise in the household circle, is become an object of shame, reproach, and fear ; and the mourners learn the bitter truth that the more delicate the organization the keener is the relish for pleasure, the greater is the danger, and the more hideous the ruin. Who has not himself known many a hearth so desolated ; and who then shall affirm without presumption that his own peace of mind will never be so blasted ! 1 We should now be sufficiently advanced in our journey to be able to see that if it could be done by voluntary acts it would be wise in any community to abstain from intoxicating drinks. But an objection has been raised in this part of the case which must be disposed of before the conclusion can be finally proffered for acceptance. It is said that to get rid of temptation by removing the tempting object precludes us from acquiring the power of self-government ; and consequently deprives us of all the advantage resulting from that great acquisition. To this I answer, that the necessity of self-government is felt every hour of the day. In action and repose, in pleasure and in suffering, in our desires and in our antipathies, we ever stand in need of self-control, and man must thoroughly change his nature before that noblest of faculties will cease to be his most urgent want and inducements to yield when we ought to stand firm will always abound. Even if religion had been silent, philosophy might have taught us the wisdom of avoiding temptation. There were Grecian sages, we are told, who maintained an opposite opinion ; and who exposed themselves to certain moral dangers in order to test their capacity for resistance. But as I never heard that their example has been followed in modern times by any who aspired to a reputation either for sound morals or for good sense, I do not think it necessary to enter into any controversy upon such a doctrine. ' I submit, then, to my readers, that I have proved national abstinence to be desirable. And most assuredly it cannot be obtained on the voluntary principle. For although it might not be a hopeless, though certainly it would sometimes be a difficult undertaking, to persuade the drunkard to consent that the doors of the tavern should be closed against him, yet we shall always have an opponent in the tavern-keeper himself, 400 Sequel to Charge of January, 1855. on whom the arts of persuasion will be exercised in vain. The drunkard, in his intervals of sobriety, is another being as com- pared with himself when under the dominion of his insane thirst for liquor; and often longs for protection against his own weakness, even with stronger aspirations than those which urge him on, at other moments, to his destruction. But the trader who makes his livelihood from the manufacture or sale of alco- holic drinks, is subject to no such alternation of opposing desires. He steadily seeks from morning to night, and from night to morning, to augment their consumption. To him the advantage is permanent ; and so great that his share of the public mischief arising from the trade is as nothing compared to his particular benefit. Until, therefore, the patriotism of this body reaches a height which it would be absurd to expect, and of which no other class of the community is likely to set an example, we must not look for their voluntary co-operation in destroying the traffic. ' Repulsed, then, in every other quarter, we seek, though not without reluctance, the aid of the law. But here again we are met with an objection which it may be well to dispose of at once. Such a prohibition, we are told, is not within the province of legislation ; but how and upon what principle the limits of that province are defined, we are not told. I know of no other principle than this, which I have already in sub- stance enunciated. The object must be right, and the law must work more good than harm; or, to simplify the pro- position, more of good than of harm must flow from the law when it is put in action ; a result which can never be obtained unless the law is rightly directed; although, as we know to our cost, a law may be rightly directed, and yet may produce more of harm than of good. ( It cannot be denied, and ought not for a moment to be con- cealed, that to make the action of a prohibitive law, interfering in the daily affairs of private life, work well or even tolerably, is a task of great and of all but insuperable difficulty. But having regard to the immense importance of the object to be obtained, the question remains, Is it quite insuperable ? For if the difficulty can be surmounted, by any degree of exertion, the enterprise ought not to be abandoned. And here we arrive at a stage in which theory is more likely to mislead than to render Sequel to Charge of January, 1855. 401 us useful assistance. Theorists have usually been considered as tempting us to undertakings beyond our strength; and that they frequently err on that side is perfectly true. But they sometimes err on the other side, and condemn, as futile, endea- vours which are eventually crowned with success. The world was deprived of locomotive engines for many years by a belief, I might almost call it a superstition, which prevailed among mechanists that the friction between the wheel and the rail would be too slight to ensure a progressive motion. And, after experience had proved this belief a delusion, a very eminent professor of mathematics limited the attainable speed of trains drawn by such engines to thirty miles in the hour : all higher velocity, he said, would be found impossible, from the resistance of the atmosphere. I myself, as late as the year 1841, while experiments were making in England for the establishment of the electric telegraph, asked the opinion of a foreign electrician, one of the most celebrated in Europe, as to the feasibility of the undertaking. He answered at once in the negative ; giving as his reason that the electric influence would die away after having been carried a very short distance along the wire ; and that, consequently, stations must be repeated at intervals so frequent as to make electricity, as a vehicle of communication, both too slow and too costly for adoption. It seems to me, therefore, but reasonable to declare a truce with theoretic objections to a Maine Law, until we learn the success or the failure of the grand experiment, now trying in the United States and the British Provinces of North America. And I own I am not a little disappointed by the tone and the temper in which this great struggle to attain an object of the highest value, is contemplated from our side the Atlantic. That a contest in which strong appetites are allied with great pecuniary interests should be waged with fierce determination, was to be expected. That in such a war there should be some fluctuations of victory and defeat is also in the ordinary course of events ; yet every little advantage obtained by the opponents of the Maine Law is magnified, not from fear lest a great enter- prise in favour of human happiness should prove hopeless, but in triumph ; as if it were a fine thing to discover that society is not sufficiently advanced, or that human nature is too unchange- ably perverse, to enable us to bear a restraint so much for our D D 403 Sequel to Charge of January, 1855. benefit. The undertaking may prove itself beyond human ability to accomplish. I trust not ; and, at all events, the contest is not yet brought to a conclusion. The fight, ' Now leaning this way, now to that side driven,' is still raging, ' And none doth know to whom the day will fall.' Doubts and misgivings I can comprehend. I, myself, am by no means free from them. But how any mind, not biassed by sinister interests, can desire a termination to the American controversy adverse to the Maine Law, I must confess I no more understand, than that it should have been hailed as a triumph if the experi- ments on the electric telegraph, had demonstrated the suggested incompetency of the electric influence to perform the required service. In the United States, a land of democracy, no such law can be passed unless it is the will of the majority to put themselves under the restraint in question. Nor can it remain on their Statute-book unless that public opinion, to which it owed its origin, is permanent. Again, that majority must be very large; it must be supported by the wealth, the intelligence, and, above all, by the moral and religious convictions of the nation, All these are elements of power, and every element must concur to enable such a law to work itself into the habits and manners of the people. For supposing it only to be desired by a bare majority, the recalcitration of the minority, and the countenance which would be given by so large a body to evasion, would produce mischiefs more than counterbalancing the good which could be effected by the prohibition. These consequences would act on the opinions of the majority; which would gra- dually melt away and leave their antagonists in the ascendant. The Americans of the United States, then, are, at their own cost and peril, conducting a momentous experiment, from which we may draw a lesson of inestimable value. I have already pointed out in my Charge the advantages which they possess over any other nation, for instituting that experiment successfully. If, nevertheless, they fail, I for one should accept the result as conclusive evidence that to seek the attainment of prohibition in England, would be to engage in a vain quest. On the other hand, if our American friends prove it to be feasible, it would ill become us to abandon the cause and confess our inferiority ; Sequel to Charge of January, 1855. 403 although, certainly, we have some difficulties to encounter which do not stand in their way. The greatest of these arises out of the fact that the legislative power in our own country is in the hands of the minority; a state of things which leads even minds the best disciplined, erroneously to assume that every law must be forced upon the people ; and, throughout the whole contro- versy, I have observed a tacit assumption of this kind perpetually intruding itself into the argument. Now, I not only admit, but most earnestly contend, that any law which interferes with the habits of private life, cannot in our age and country be thrust on the people. We must wait until they demand it for themselves. This demand, it is predicted by the opponents of the law, will never be made. Such as are of this faith may sit themselves down in tranquillity ; assured that no Government, even the most despotic, could impose it on the nation against its will. The enactment of prohibition, then, pre-supposing a popular demand for it, the question is narrowed to this : Ought that popular demand to be resisted ? And I am persuaded that if the proposal of a Maine Law were considered from this point of view, it would be seen at once that hostility is out of place. There is all the difference in the world between the legislator imposing his notions of right and wrong on the people for whom he is making laws, and his yielding to theirs. In the latter event, the objector, instead of representing the desires of a whole nation, and pleading the sound policy of leaving their own affairs in their own hands, now represents only a minority, which, rather than unite with a majority in a small concession, oppose themselves to the entreaties of the many for the removal of evils, the magnitude and enormity of which they cannot deny. To me this is the pivot upon which the whole contro- versy turns. If, therefore, I could be permitted for a moment to suppose myself clothed with dictatorial power, I would not use it, for the enactment of prohibition, until the minority became small enough to ensure that all opposition to the law should be so borne down, by the stream of public opinion, as to be unable to set up any counter current of its own. What, then, are the probabilities that these very stringent conditions of a Maine Law will ever be satisfied ? They rest on the suffering which flows from the present state of things ; on the hopelessness of that suffering being assuaged to any very D D 2 404 Sequel to Charge of January, 1855. large extent without the aid of law; on the fact which certainly has not been sufficiently considered, that many, perhaps even the greater portion, of those who are enslaved by habits of indulgence, would consider prohibition as their protector and not their op- pressor; on the deep interest and intense desire of all who are connected by family ties with the miserable victims of intoxica- tion, to place them under this valid safeguard; on the small sacrifice which is required to purchase the inestimable blessing of temperance for the whole nation ; and finally, on the growth of enlightened philanthropy which, to those under its influence (a body daily increasing), makes a thousand such sacrifices as that of intoxicating drinks felt as nothing, when put in com- parison with the delight with which they would contemplate the mass of happiness of necessity arising from the extinction of drinking habits among their countrymen. And, coming down from speculation to experience, I cannot but consider the pro- gress already made in the United States and the adjoining British Provinces, though insufficient both as to time and extent to set the question at rest, has, nevertheless, placed it in a position in which I believe no man on this side the Atlantic, until within the last two or three years, ever expected to find it. I will now address myself to one or two objections which have been urged against the enactment proposed. The first is usually thus expressed. l You cannot make men sober by Act of Parliament/ Now this, as a universal proposition, is not true. We make our prisoners sober by denying them intoxi- cating drinks ; and we obtain the power so to deny them by Act of Parliament. At the moment I am writing, journals of great influence, directly opposed to a Maine Law, are demanding the suppression of canteens in the Crimea. What, then, is meant by the objection? The meaning, probably, is, that you cannot inculcate the love of sobriety by Act of Parliament. But even in this sense the objection is fallacious ; as it does not apply itself to the conditions, without which it is admitted that no Maine Law can or ought to pass. I am supposing a Maine Law demanded and supported by public opinion. Would not the beneficial consequences of such a law in diminishing poverty, disease, and crime, augment and strengthen that love of sobriety on which the law was founded ? But assume the law inoperative to change the desires of those who, but for legal impediments, Sequel to Charge of January, 1855. 405 would fall into pernicious indulgence. Is it, therefore, of no use ? Are the laws against theft of no avail because you cannot make thieves love honesty by Act of Parliament? Indeed, a little consideration will show us that if the impolicy of the law is to be determined by the test implied in the question so trium- phantly proposed, reasons far stronger might be urged against the prohibition of theft than the prohibition of drink. The law would operate on the drunkard by putting intoxicating liquors out of his reach ; but it cannot so operate on the thief. Our goods and chattels cannot be placed out of his reach ; and con- sequently every increase of our wealth, in adding to opportunities for larceny, has a tendency to augment the number of our thieves; a tendency by the force of which we should be overwhelmed, but for our constant endeavours, by improvements in our system of police, and now by preventive and reformatory checks, to coun- teract the fecundity of the species. Another objection rests on the fallacy that if you cannot do everything, you must be held to have done nothing. That the good ship Prohibition would leak a little is very probable. Can any law be specified which is never broken ? What are our Courts of Justice, our Assizes, our Sessions, and our Police Offices, but so many testimonies that laws are not expected to extinguish offences ; but only to keep down their number by dealing in the best manner we are able with offenders. If, then, laws are to be considered as useless because they are not unfrequently broken, our best course will be to put the Statutes at Large into the fire, turn out the lawyers, and apply West- minster Hall to some new purpose. ' It is evident/ says Arch- bishop Whately, ' that every instance of the infliction of a punishment, is an instance, as far as it goes, of the failure of the legislator's design. No axiom in Euclid can be more evident than that the object of the legislator in enacting that murderers should be hanged, and pilferers imprisoned or trans- ported, is not to load the gallows, fill the gaol, and people New Holland, but to prevent the commission of murder and theft ; and that, consequently, every man who is hanged, or transported, or confined, is an instance, pro tanto, of the ineffi- ciency, i.e., want of complete efficacy of the law/* * Appendix to Lectures on Political Economy. J. W. Parker and Son, 1855. Sequel to Charge of January, 1855. A further objection is, that by bringing the power of law into the field, we shall weaken the force of moral persuasion. If such an effect were to follow, there would be much to deplore ; although most assuredly moral persuasion has no great success to boast in the war against intoxicating drinks. But I confess I cannot see the danger. The law itself would be based upon moral convictions ; and the conservation 'of those impressions will always be necessary to its maintenance. The two forces will be moving precisely in the same direction ; and instead, therefore, of the one force being subtracted from the other, both will be added into one sum. I am not sure that the next objection which I am about to answer has ever been very broadly or very clearly put forth ; but I understand the doctrine suggested to be, that to remove temptation is not within the legitimate scope of jurisprudence. In holding out temptation it may be said neither fraud nor violence is exercised. The tempted is free to stand or fall. The Legislature, therefore, in making laws to prohibit a temp- tation, is, in truth, guarding a man against himself; and thus going beyond the functions of society, which was formed solely to protect men from each other. In answer to this objection I would submit, that whether the victim is ensnared by fraud or overcome by violence, or falls a prey to allurements which he cannot resist, although not deceived as to the consequences which he is bringing upon himself, is immaterial. The true question remains untouched, Is an injury inflicted which law can prevent without the introduction of a greater evil ? Are the objectors, I would ask, prepared to leave the sale of alcohol entirely without restriction? Are they prepared to permit brothels to be opened, or gambling to be practised with im- punity ? If not, the principle of interference is conceded ; and that being so, the quantum of restraint, from the slightest inter- meddling up to prohibition itself, must be determined entirely by the consideration of how the law may be made most effec- tive for its object, with a never- sleeping caution, however, against letting in consequences which overbalance the benefit produced. But a distinction has been taken. It has been said you may legislate against temptation to do that which is wrong ab initio, or, in other words, which has no use attached to it, but is alto- Sequel to Charge of January, 1855. 407 gether abuse; and thus they would justify the suppression of brothels and gambling. But is this a valid distinction ? Cer- tainly it is not one sanctioned by usage either in this or in any other country ; and is in contradiction to the doctrine of the objectors themselves, who justify the moderate use of alcohol, and at the same time admit that its manufacture and sale cannot be put on the footing of other articles of consumption, like bread, meat, and so forth. Again, it would not be easy to prove that all gambling is morally indefensible. The Vicar of Wakefield's twopenny hits at backgammon with his clerical brother, were not only an act but a habit of gambling, yet he must be straitlaced, indeed, who would reprehend it. Our law does not ; thus tacitly acknowledging that there may be a use, and legislating only against the abuse. And if by this moderate exercise of control, gambling can be so kept within bounds as to work no great amount of public injury, a sound discretion is exercised ; for in no case ought coercion to extend beyond the requirements of the general welfare. So in regard to the sale of alcohol ; if regulation had been found sufficient, prohibition would not be justified. It would, however, be a want of candour to conceal that in bringing temptations within the scope of criminal jurisprudence, the Legislature is treading upon ground which demands extreme wariness at every step, that personal freedom of action is a sacred right and of immeasurable value, not merely to the indi- vidual, but to the community of which he is a member ; and that the law must overlook many aberrations, rather than weaken the spirit of enterprise and self-reliance, created and fostered by this high privilege. I now arrive at the crowning objection by which the advo- cates of a Maine Law are sought to be placed between the horns of a dilemma. You admit, say the objectors, that you will not even ask for a Maine Law until you have secured an im- mense preponderance of power in its favour ; that power con- sisting not only of numbers but of property, of intelligence, and of moral sentiment. But, they continue, if you have won over these potent allies, why ask for a Maine Law at all ? Why not depend on that overwhelming public opinion which you concede must come into existence before a Maine Law is admissible ? This, they say, is your dilemma. While your cause is unpo- 408 Sequel to Charge of January, 1855. pular, a Maine Law cannot be obtained. When it becomes popular, it is not required. What is your answer ? My answer is, that the dissident minority still retain the power of inflicting great evils on the majority by excesses, of which their innocent families and their sober and well-conducted neighbours must bear the consequences ; and that the minority will be joined in their mischievous acts by that large class of which I have already spoken, whose capacity for self-government is unequal to the task of making their conduct conform to their convic- tions. So long as this class is not protected from temptation by a Maine Law, although their sober opinions coincide with those of the majority, their practice will go to swell the public mischief caused by the minority. ( There remains only to consider the aids and the obstacles which present themselves for and against the enactment of a Maine Law in this country. The aids are limited to that growing conviction of the necessity for such a measure which, so far as I can judge, is making its way among all classes ; a sentiment which I expect will be quickened by the competition for supplying the markets of the world with manufactures, which we shall have to encounter from other nations not so enthralled as ourselves by the vice of drunkenness. The late Exhibition in France must have shown our manufacturers, that foreigners lack neither skill nor enterprise; and if we are for the present protected by our enormous capital, and our won- derful means of distributing our products throughout the world, yet we must not forget that capital has often changed her metropolis. That her Western progress, from Venice through Genoa and Amsterdam, may not have arrived at its termination in London ; but may be continued to New York. That on all sides thick-coming portents indicate that we shall have to encounter a severe struggle for pre-eminence ; and that in the race for commercial existence with young and active compe- titors, we shall not be first at the goal if we cannot shake off the weight of intemperance. With respect to the obstacles to the progress of Maine Law doctrine, they are indeed mighty and numerous. As regards the press, a fearful majority of those journals and periodical works which are most conspicuous for their talent, or most formidable from their popularity, are earnestly, not to say vio- Sequel to Charge of January, 1855. 409 lently, opposed to prohibition. And so long as Minerva throws her 545 2 Much obstructed at first, has since been improved, and is now in beneficent operation. Vermont . . 1852 8000 314,120 3 Adopted at the earliest date, by unanimous acclamation ; this law has always been effectively sustained. Michigan 1853 56,243 397,564 4 The legal difficulties which at first obstructed this law have given way ; the Supreme Court, with one dissentient voice, having pronounced the law constitutional. Connecticut . 1854 4750 370,792 4 After repeated efforts, this State rejoices in an effective admi- nistration of the law. Delaware 1855 2I2O 9 r >532 i The first of the Slave States to adopt prohibition. Iowa . . . NewHampshire 1855 1855 50,914 9280 192,214 317,976 2 3 Ratified by a popular vote. Completing the list of New Eng- land States. States in which PROHIBITION is the Law, but in which its operation has been impeded or set on one side by hostile legal decisions : STATE. Date of Law. Area in Square Miles. Population (18^0). Repre- senta- tives in Con- gress. REMARKS. Indiana . . New York . 1855 1855 33,809 46,000 988,416 3,097,394 II 33 Is practically useless, having been declared in its present form unconstitutional. The difficulty is, however, merely technical. After six months of most bene- ficial operation, the law has been decided to be unconsti- Sequel to Charge of January, 1855. STATE . Date of Law. Area in Square Miles. Population (1850). Repre- senta- tives in Con- gress. REMARKS. tutional. The points raised were, of course, purely techni- cal and local such as a colli- sion between State and general law, the peculiar difficulty of a Federal Union, and the power given by the State Con- stitution to the Legislature as regards confiscation of pro- perty. The law will be amended, not repealed. Minnesota . 1852 141,839 6,077 The Supreme Court decided (Territory) that this law was unconstitu- tional, on the ground that it had been submitted to a direct vote of the people. The people, however, having sustained it by a large majority, the Legis- lature has not repealed it. In the following States PROHIBITION has suffered temporary popular disaster : STATE. Date of Law. Area in Square Miles. Population (1850). Repre- senta- tives in Con- gress. REMARKS. MAINE . . 1851 35> 583, 1 6 9 6 The Pioneer of Prohibition ; complicated with the Nebraska and Kansas questions, the cause of prohibition was de- feated in 1855, an d a law of the most stringent and severe restriction was substituted. The results even of this were so alarming as to result in the indignant rejection of the Go- vernor of 1855, and the elec- tion of representatives unani- mous for prohibition, which will be immediately re-enacted by larger majorities than ever known in the State on any question. Illinois . . 1855 55.409 851,470 9 An ill-constructed law, since repealed, to be replaced by a better. Sequel to Charge of January, 1 855. States and Territories in progress towards PROHIBITION, or in which Laws of Partial PROHIBITION, or severe Restriction, have been already adopted: STATE. Date of Law. Area in Square Miles. Population (1850). Repre- senta- tives in Con- gress. REMARKS. Ohio . . . 1854 39>964 1,980,329 21 A stringent law prohibiting sale of all liquors, except wine and cider, made from native pro- duce. Pennsylvania 1855 46, 000 2,311,786 25 Retail trade prohibited, but legal difficulties obstruct the full operation of the law. Wisconsin . 53,924 305,391 3 The elections of 1855 resulted in the choice of a Governorfavour- able to prohibition, but the law Maryland . 1855 11,124 583,034 6 was lost by a narrow majority. Passed by the Representatives, but lost in the Senate (Slave State). New Jersey . 8,320 489,555 5 The law recently lost by an even or tie- vote. The Council of Jersey city have carried out a sort of prohibitory ordinance among themselves by a vote of ten to one. South Carolina 1856 29,385 668,507 6 Slave State. Total prohibition on Sundays. Tennessee . I8 5 6 45,600 1,002,717 10 Slave State . Prohibition of sales in quantities of less than one quart. Texas . . . 237,504 212,592 2 A law prohibiting retail sales was sustained by an over- whelming majority in 1854, and has since received exten- sion. Nebraska. . 335,882 Almost unanimous petitions all the females joining. Mosquito (INDIAN). Total prohibition, as stipulated expressly in the treaty recently signed by Lord Clarendon and Mr. Dallas. BEITISH AMEEICA. NEW BEUNSWICK. A law of partial prohibition in 1853 repealed in 1854. Total prohibition adopted 1855, and enforced in 1856. The hostility of the Lieutenant-Governor to the law enabled its enemies to repeal it. The province is now under most stringent licence. Prohibition will shortly, in all probability, be re-enacted. NOVA SCOTIA. Narrow majorities in some technical points of order have delayed the measure in this province. PRINCE EDWARD'S ISLAND. Narrowly defeated in 1854. CANADA. Lost in 1856 by 51 to 50. Many counties are under 'No-licence' authorities, and are consequently without the sale of intoxicants. Sequel to Charge of January, 1855. 415 These tables came to me from a highly respectable source. Still, it is right to avow that my informant holds pro-Maine Law opinions. A table, nearly similar, dated April, 1856, I sent to the Honourable George Boutwell, late Governor of Massachusetts. In November of that year, he returned me an answer, from which I give the following extract : ' The Maine Law movement has been entirely overshadowed by the contest upon slavery, yet there is no reason to suppose that public sentiment has retrograded, though there may have been no progress since the repeal of the Missouri prohibition. ' The principles of the Maine Law are, however, firmly fixed in the policy of the Eastern (I mean the New England) States, and will not be abandoned. Changes there may be, as in Maine itself last year, but they will be temporary. The people will secure the power to close any dram-shop whenever they please. And this is a great conservative force of society, and practically used or neglected, according to the local public sentiment. You are, no doubt, told that in the cities and large towns the traffic is almost uninterrupted. This statement is not entirely false ; indeed, it may seem to some to beliterally true, yet, even in the cities, the dealers are obliged to preserve an appearance of respectability, while in the rural districts the traffic is broken up, or carried on in secret. Your table seems to me to be correct, though I have not the authorities by which I can verify all the statements/ ' On the Effect of Good or Bad Times on Committals to Prison. BY THE REV. JOHN CLAY. [Read before the Statistical Section of the British Association for the Advancement of Science, at Liverpool, 23rd September, 1854.] ' It has long been a popular opinion that committals to prison increase under the pressure of ' bad times, 3 and diminish when that pressure is removed. This opinion appears to be in many respects erroneous ; and it may not be useless, therefore, to show how, in reality, crime and disorder, as indicated by committals to prison, are affected by the vicissitudes in the industrial and social state of the working classes. ' The facts and observations which I have to submit are 41 6 Sequel to Charge of January, 1855. drawn from the Annual Reports which it has been my duty to present to the magistracy of Lancashire since 1824. They relate to the County House of Correction at Preston the chief prison for the northern division of Lancashire which division includes the large manufacturing towns of Preston, Blackburn, Burnley, Chorley, Haslingden, Accrington, &c. The population of North Lancashire was 402,600 in 1841, and 461,400 in 1851.* My report for 1826 contained the first notice of the connexion between distress and committals ; and I therefore venture to quote the following passage in it : ( The interval between July, 1824, and July, 1825, was one of general prosperity and comfort among the labouring classes of the sur- rounding district; that from July, 1825, to July, 1826, included a period of perhaps unprecedented distress. Yet in this latter period, the felony list presented no augmentation While 40,000 or 50,000 of the poor were existing upon charitable contributions, it cannot be ascertained that a single theft (recorded in the calendar) was caused solely by hunger. The few persons who pleaded distress as an excuse for their offences were, in every case, old offenders/ ' During the prevalence of this distress, I had many oppor- tunities of witnessing what I have often seen since the fortitude and patience exercised by the working-classes in times of suffering, and the admirable self-denial with which many, who were themselves in poverty, assisted the utterly destitute. From a table given in my Report for 1830, it appeared that, during the four ordinary years ending with June, 1824, the annual average of committals to the sessions was 119; the prosperous year 1825 produced 177 committals; the following year of distress, 172; and the year of reviving prosperity (ending July, 1827) no less than 269. 'This lamentable anomaly in the moral condition of the working classes can only arise from the fact that high wages, to the ignorant and uneducated poor, bring with them the means of gratifying the propensity to intoxication, which is so fatal to their comfort and character/ * 'The Hundred of Lonsdale commits cases for trial to the Lancaster sessions. These cases few in number are therefore excluded from consideration. All offenders convicted summarily are sent to Preston. This having been the inva- riable practice, the question treated of in this paper is not affected by it. ' Sequel to Charge of January, 1855. 417 f The opinion thus expressed a quarter of a century ago has been but too well confirmed by the experience of every suc- ceeding year. 1 The ten years ending with June, 1 844, were marked by several events greatly prejudicial to the moral and industrial welfare of the working classes in North Lancashire. In 1836-7, a spinners' 'strike' at Preston threw nearly 9000 hands out of employ for about four months. Nearly two-fifths of these hands were under nineteen years of age; and the consequence was, a great increase in the number of young offenders com- mitted to the sessions. It was noted, however, at the time, that ' idleness, and not want, had been the immediate cause of crime in almost all the cases which could be clearly referred to the 'strike.'* And even in this year of distress, the com- mittals to the sessions were less by fifty -nine than those of the corresponding period ten years before, when ' employment for the poor had again become pretty well distributed /f From 1838 to 1842 (with a favourable interval in 1840), want of em- ploy, and consequent privation, gradually pressed more and more upon the manufacturing population of North Lancashire, until, in the winter of 1842-3, their sufferings became severe almost beyond example. At this time, also, a spirit of sedition and riot had loosened the restraints which the masses in North Lancashire are usually willing to acknowledge ; and the autumn of 1842 was marked by an amount of agitation and violence which betokened no slight danger to the permanent welfare of the manufacturing districts. Two years before this time, how- ever, and owing, no doubt, to the growing (and providential) conviction of the necessity for such a measure, the County Police Force had been organized ; and it was now found capable of arresting and of permanently subduing the dangerous spirit which had been excited into action. Under all these circum- stances, therefore, a considerable increase in committals might be expected. The zeal and activity of the new constabulary added to the number of apprehensions and committals, though there might be no corresponding increase of actual crime. Political disaffection encouraged dishonesty and violence to an extent which poverty alone would not have provoked : at this * Report for 1837. t Report for 1830. E E 4 i8 Sequel to Charge of January, 1855. time, also, prison discipline in North Lancashire was in a state calculated to promote rather than repress crime ; and to all this it may be added that, hitherto, little or no progress had been made in efforts to extend the benefits and blessings of education. ' ' Of ninety-six men tried for riot, &c., in the Chartist out- break in the autumn of 1842, sixty were unable to read, and thirty-six were ignorant of their Saviour's name/ ' I present a sumnmry of the committals for the ten years now treated of, in which it will be observed that, in the year of greatest distress, the ordinary committals were 20 per cent, below those of the preceding year. Tn order to free a com- parison between the several years from the effects of temporary or accidental influence, the following offenders are excluded : i, soldiers under sentence of court martial; 2, debtors; 3, females under summary conviction ;* 4, Chartist rioters. The remarks are literally or substantially quoted from the reports of the respective years : Year ending ist July. Committed to Sessions. Committed summarily. EEMAEKS. 1835 1 68 6 4 2 1836 187 7 r 5 1837 277 62? ' Spinners' strike, which lasted from the end of October to February.' 1838 302 762 ' Suffering among band-loom weavers.' 1839 36l 655 ' High price of provisions and scarcity of employ.' 1840 394 937 ' Increase of committals mainly attributable to the establishment of the County Police.' ' No want of employ, and times favourable.' 1841 485 901 ' Trade in a depressed state. ' 1842 611 io53 ' Great and prolonged suffering.' 1843 497t 1215 ' The depression at its lowest point.' 1844 433 894 ' Full employ. Prison discipline well esta- blished.' 'The next ten years, ending with June, 1854, embraced two seasons of great manufacturing prosperity, and one of extreme distress. The following is a short summary of the period, framed on the same principle as the one given above : * These are excluded because at one time they were committed to Lancaster Castle, and at another to the Preston House of Correction. f This number is exclusive of 123 Chartist rioters. Sequel to Charge of January, 419 Year. Sessions Cases. Summary Convictions. EEMAEKS. 1845 301 700 ' Abundance of work. Prison discipline in beneficial operation.' 1846 289 666 ' Occupation at the factories not so readily obtained. Many hundreds of hand-loom weavers out of employ.' 1847 366 646 ' Never have the combined evils of scarcity of food and scarcity of employ pressed so heavily.' 1848 343 843 'The distress at its maximum.' 1849 339 1279 'Times greatly improved.' 1850 2-2? 1323^1 1851 O 387 O O I 1456! ' A period of great and continued prospe- 1852 417 1226 f rity.' 1853 442 IOI2 J 1854 470 957 ' The Preston strike.' 'The first season of prosperity (ending with June, 1845,) occurred at a time when a vigorous and reformatory prison discipline had begun to develop highly satisfactory effects in the decrease of committals, and especially of recommittals. The manufacturing distress which followed in 1847-8, unlike that of 1842-3, was attended by no Chartist excitement, nor by any other influence likely to aggravate whatever tendency to crime distress might have created. ' In my Report for 1847, 1 observed : ' Never within the term of my chaplaincy have the combined evils of scarcity of food and scarcity of employ pressed so heavily as during the last winter ; and never to the great credit of thousands of suf- ferers have offenders, pleading distress for their faults been fewer in number/ Yet, in these very hard times, the com- mittals to the sessions were not increased to the extent which might have been expected, and the summary convictions were fewer than they had been for ten years. ' The increase to the sessions, as invariably the case in times of compulsory idleness, and as previously exemplified in the strike of 1836-7, consisted almost entirely of boys. 'It is chiefly from among the idle, not the hungry, factory-boys that the additions to our year's calendar are drawn/ e Juvenile delinquency (as compared to the preceding year) was increased to the amount of 92 per cent/* In the winter of 1847-8, dis- Eeport for 1847. E E 2 42O Sequel to Charge of January, 1855. tress pressed upon the operative classes with a severity never before exceeded, perhaps never before equalled. My report for that year contains a table framed from data collected by the Chief Constable of the County, Capt. Woodford, ( showing the absence of any marked connexion between poverty and crime, as well as the creditable disproportion between sufferers and offenders. 3 It appeared from the returns in question that, during this disastrous period, 45,000 mill-hands in North Lan- cashire, irrespective of other operatives, were either working short time, or were altogether unemployed, and that in the Preston Union nearly 12,000 adults were receiving out- door relief; yet the committals to the sessions,, so far from exhibiting an increase, showed a decrease of nearly 7 per cent, on the committals of the preceding year. ( The excess of summary convictions in 1847-8 arose chiefly from vagrants and workhouse disorderlies.* In 1849, the prosperity, which had ebbed so far and so long, began to flow once more through our manufacturing districts, until in the summer of 1853 it reached a height seldom equalled in the in- dustrial history of the country. But the figures in the preceding page bear witness that this tide of material benefit was produc- tive of at least accompanied by no little moral wreck. When the season of suffering had passed away, it became too manifest that the wholesome lesson which it might have taught had been neglected. Thousands who had resisted the temptations of distress yielded to the temptations of prosperity. Good wages were too often squandered in vicious indulgence ; and commit- tals for offences occasioned by drunkenness began and increased with lamentable rapidity. If a comparison be made between the crime and disorder attendant on the three years of operative distress (1846 to 1848) and the four years of abundant work and high wages (1850 to 1853), it will be found that the * In the very valuable Eeport of Capt. Willis, the Chief Constable of the Borough of Manchester, for 1847, that gentleman expresses his satisfaction that 'upon the expiration of a year marked by almost unexampled prostration of the trade and commerce of the country, and consequent distress amongst the working classes, ' he can produce ' returns which will bear advantageous comparison with those of pre- vious years.' A table given by Capt. Willis shows that the committals for trial and under summary convictions in the Borough of Manchester, for the two prosperous years, 1844 and 1845, amounted to 10,436; and that for the two years of distress which followed, 1847 and 1848, they amounted only to 7635, Sequel to Charge of January, 1855. 421 average yearly committals to the sessions during the hard times were 33 2, while during the yood times they were 390. The yearly average of summary committals during the hard times was 718, during the good times it was 1249 or j taking all the committals together, 1051 was the yearly average from 1846 to 1848, and 1639 the yearly average from 1850 to 1853.* The com- parison now made rests on conditions only affected by good and bad times. No social or political agitation interfered with those conditions; no changes in police or in prison discipline influ- enced the number of apprehensions or of committals ; and the ten years now under consideration may therefore be regarded as well calculated to show the true relation which subsists between crime and disorder on the one hand, and good or bad times on the other. ' The last of the ten years under consideration the year ending ist July, 1854 saw the town of Preston, with its 70,000 inhabitants, suffering from a contest which will leave its disastrous consequences behind for many years. 1 The Preston strike threw out of work about 1 8,000 factory hands, to say nothing of other operatives whose employment depended more or less directly on the mills. The results in respect to committals from the town were such as the experience of similar events in past years prepared me to anticipate. On comparing the six months of the strike with the corresponding six months of the previous year, it appeared that the committals to the sessions, of youths under 21, rose from 18 to 36; youths committed summarily decreased from 49 to 40. The committals of male adults to the sessions rose from 42 to 52 ; male adults summarily convicted decreased from 71 to 47 . The committals of young females decreased from 30 to 10; the decrease in the committal of older females was from 68 to 40. As a general result, committals of all kinds from Preston during six months of the strike (from ist November, 1853, to 3oth April, 1854) diminished 227 per cent, as compared to the corresponding six months of the preceding year ; they diminished 32 per cent, as * ' During the four prosperous years the committals were much more affected by Irish immigrants than during the three years of distress. Putting the Irish out of the question for both periods, and taking sessions and summary cases together, the discrepancy remains very striking : viz., average of three bad years 946 ; of four good years 1,346.' 422 Sequel to Charge of January, 1855. compared to the committals of the six months immediately preceding the strike. ' To be taken in connexion with these facts is one which will serve to explain them, viz., the diminished squandering of money in public-houses and beer-houses to the amount of iooo/. per week during the time the strike lasted. ' In order also to do justice to the good conduct during the strike of those who had been misled into the deplorable act, it should be remembered that while only 86 young persons under 21 years of age were sent to prison, more than 8500 young persons of the class to which they belonged had been living for more than six months in complete idleness, and in considerable suffering. e The general conclusions deducible from the facts now detailed appear to be, that ( bad times' may add a few cases to the sessions' calendars, and that 'good times' greatly aggravate summary convictions; that the increase to the sessions consists of the young and thoughtless, who, when thrown into idleness, are liable to lapse into dishonesty; and that the increase of summary cases arises from the intemperance which high wages encourage among the ignorant and sensual. f In my Report for the prosperous year 1 845, it was shown ' that when, in 1842-3, the operative was suffering most severely from want of employment, intoxication, as a cause of crime, was, compared to other causes, less than 17 per cent.; while now (1845) that labour and skill are in the greatest demand, arid wages are unusually high, the criminality attributable to this debasing propensity has swollen to 41 per cent/ In a previous Report (1843), in noticing the small proportion of females committed during the distress of 1842-3 (i female to 6 '6 males), it was suggested that ' in it we find what strengthens the opinion as to the inadequacy of poverty alone to account for the amount of crime. Every one conversant with the con- dition and habits of the poor knows that when distress falls upon their families, it is the mothers who feel it most poignantly. Too often they and their children are wanting necessary food while their husbands are spending the last sixpence in the ale- house. Too often, when the husband is on the tramp seeking employ, or still worse, when he has entirely deserted his family, the poor wife is left to resist as she may the temptation to Sequel to Charge of January, 1855. 423 obtain by dishonesty the bread for which her children are crying. When, further, the large amount of destitute widow- hood is taken into the account, the conclusion appears to me irresistible, that 'want and distress, uncombined with dissolute habits, are rarely operative in producing crime.' ' 'I venture to hope that the truths which I have now endeavoured to establish will not be regarded as the barren results of a mere statistical investigation, but as a matter of deep moral and social significance. ' In this country, and at this time, it ought to be felt as a grief and a reproach demanding anxious attention, that the material prosperity of the industrious classes should be so con- stantly accompanied by the moral degradation of a large portion of them. In the tendencies and habits of many of our artizans and labourers, there must be something deeply wrong when ' what should have been for their wealth is to them an occasion of falling' The deplorable truth is, that the wide want of moral and religious instruction, and of really useful knowledge, debars MILLIONS of our working population from the true use and enjoyment of the advantages within their power. The money earned by their toil and skill, instead of being employed in accordance with the dictates of prudence and the requirements of civilized life, is dissipated in rioting and drunkenness ; and the results are misery, crime, and the gaol/* EFFECTS OF PROHIBITION IN THE UNITED STATES. The information which the reader will derive from the following extracts, is due to Dr. Frederick Lees, from whose work on ' Prohibition' they are drawn. The book itself is a highly instructive and interesting repertory of facts and argu- ments in favour of adopting the Maine Law in this country. I regret to observe that the learned author is now and then betrayed by his zeal into personalities^ 148. Let us now indicate, by some facts and figures, and by official, political, and professional testimonies, beginning with * Journal of the Statistical Society of London, vol. xviii., part. I., March, 1855. Parker & Son. f An Argument for the Legislative Prohibition of the Liquor Traffic. By Dr. F. R, Lees. London; Tweedie, 1856. Price is. 6d. 424 Sequel to Charge of January, 1855. NEW YORK STATE, what have been the social results of an imperfect because initial and impeded prohibitory law. { In publishing statistics on this question, we shall, so far as is possible with the documents before us, eliminate or distinguish sources of fallacy and confusion For example, we shall not, in estimating crime lessened by the law, take account of the cases of violation of the law itself which, are for acts that, in their relations to the public, were the same before they were treated as offences as now, only vastly more numerous and mischievous. Sometimes, even, we shall not notice ' Drunken- ness/ first, because, in this argument, we treat of drunkenness, not so much on its own account, as for that to which it leads and, second, because, in very many places, before the law was passed, simple drunkenness was left unheeded by the police, but offer the law it was narrowly watched, and instantly pounced upon. In both such cases, the acts of offence might be greatly diminished, while the committals were somewhat enlarged.* ' The returns in the following table, illustrating the partial operation of the New York Law, are for the same period (save Utica), which is but for four months, instead of six namely, from the 6th July to the 3ist December inclusive of each year, excluding cases of simple drunkenness : Committals for Offences excluding Drunkenness. 1854. . Decrease in favour of the Law. Cayuga County Gaol 85 H8 59 IO3 26 2 7c -28 J.7 Ontario ,, 80 A? Albany Watch-house Syracuse (Police Record) .... Auburn . oy 1974 778 IO4. 1278 515 CQ 696 263 C A Rochester ,, J C 2 *7JO 812 Utica 165 80 8< 4960 2898 2062 * ' Some one quoted Judge H. W. Bishop, to prove that the Law made bad worse. ' Criminal business has very largely increased under the New Law.' Was this true ? Quite true for one side of truth. Turning to his Charge, we find he goes on to explain, ' I had, in my last term in the county of Middlesex, no fewer than 104 indictments under the new law. I say, without fear of contradiction, that nine- tenths of all crimes of personal violence are committed in a state of intoxication ; and if the source; of the evil is dried up by the new law, Judges by-and-by will have little criminal business to attend to.' ' Sequel to Charge of January, 1855. 425 ' Such results, however, were nothing new. In the County of ONTARIO, under the operation of No-licence, the inmates of the gaol were reduced from i 2$ in the year 1 845, to 53 in 1486. In 1847, licences were again granted, and the inmates of the gaol increased to 132. In the County of GENNESSEE, a similar course of things No-licence succeeding to Licence produced similar issues. ' So in Potter County, PENNSYLVANIA, the traffic has been for a considerable time suppressed, the Judge refusing to grant any licence. The consequences have been, that the prison has become tenantless ; there is not a solitary pauper in the county ; the business in the Criminal Court has ceased, and taxes have been reduced one-half. ( PORTLAND CITY, MAINE STATE. ' Ten Months' Effects (June ist to March loth). 1851. 185-2. Decrease. ' Committed to Alrahouse . . . .252 146 106 Inmates of Almshouse on March 2Oth . . 112 90* 22 Outdoor aid to Families . . . . 135 90 45 Committed to HOUSE OF CORRECTION for Intem- perance ....... 46 iof 36f ' 'At the term of the District Court, in March, 1851, there were 17 indictments; at the term for 1852 there was but one (for petty larceny), and that the result of a mistake/ ' In the time of Mayor Dow, the House of Correction was empty : but some relaxation in the police (the seven-years electoral justices, be it remembered, yet contain rum-men amongst them, who wink at evasion) having followed, we find that in 1854, nearly one a week was sent to the House. In a pamphlet of 100 pages, published at Toronto, entitled The Maine Law Illustrated, being the tour of investigation made in February, 1855, by Mr. A. Farewell and Mr. G. P. Ure, 011 behalf of the Canadian Prohibition League, we find a vast number of testimonies to the same effect, from persons of the highest character, including bishops, judges, governors, mayors, marshals, magistrates, ministers, professors, physicians, counsel- lors, representatives, &c. Their own conclusion is thus stated : * N.B. 75 of these came here through intemperance. f Notwithstanding much greater activity of the police under the new law. 426 Sequel to Charge of January, 1855. f It is almost universally acknowledged to be as successful in its operations as any other penal law that was ever enacted/ At Calais, on the New Brunswick border, N. Smith, Jun., of the Executive Council, says : ' Where enforced, the results are good ; the only places where it can be said to have failed are where they have had Anti-Maine-Law Justices irresponsible for seven years, save by impeachment. Many of those who sold liquor have turned their attention to other businesses, and are now better off than when selling liquor. They have far fewer bad debts, and more reliable customers/ Mr. Sydney Perham, Speaker of the House of Representatives, says : ' My know- ledge of the workings of the law extend over a large section of the State : I can assure you, the law works well' Professor Pond, of Bangor, says : ' I have not seen a drunken man in our streets for the last six months. The House of Correction has been, at times, almost empty ; I know not but it is so now. The expense of paupers is greatly diminished/ 1 Under date of September, 1 854, the Edinburgh News Com- missioner thus writes of Water ville : 1 Ten or eleven years ago the cost of pauperism rose in a manner unaccountable, but for excessive drinking, from 700 dollars to 1800 dollars a year. I am told that this year, with twice the population, the public payments for the poor will not exceed 1000 dollars. The amount of crime is also greatly lessened. Those who still deserve the name of drunkards are mostly Irishmen and French Canadians, the latter people having settled somewhat extensively in the northern parts of Maine/ ' On the 8th of March, 1852, the Marshal of Gardner reports that ' at the commencement of the official term of office, there were in the city 14 places where intoxicating liquor was sold ; some of them the habitual resort of drunken, riotous, and disorderly persons. But one person has been convicted of drunkenness for the last four months ; but two sent to the watch- house for the last six months. The law has been rigidly and quietly enforced/ ' The Marshal of Augusta reports for 1852 as follows : ( ' Augusta had four wholesale stores ; business worth 200,000 dollars a year ; retail-shops, 25. The city was (officially) exempted from the New Law for 60 days ; one dealer made a profit of 900 dollars. As soon as the 60 days were out, three Sequel to Charge of January, 1855. 427 of the wholesale dealers sent off their liquors to New York. The remaining firm persisted in selling, until about 1000 dol- lars' worth of their liquors was seized. Liquor may be sold at the principal hotels, but stealthily : one of the keepers has been twice convicted. The police used to be called up 100 nights in a year : since the passage of the law, they have not been sum- moned once.' ' A gentleman well known to the philanthropic world, and who has several times visited the Western hemisphere in the interests of the slave, writes us as follows : ' Near Chelmsford, 8th month nth, 1856. Esteemed friend, Dr. Lees. In the early part of the year 1854, whilst travelling in the State of Maine, we came to Augusta, its capital. We were driven through the city in a sledge, by our friend, J. B. Lang, of Yas- salboro', who, as we passed along, pointed out to us the city gaol, the ivindows of which were boarded up. ' This/ he said to us, ' is owing to our Maine Law/ I think he remarked, c It is empty now/ I remain, thy assured friend, JOHN CHANDLER/ ' The Mayor of Bangor, in his Message to the Council, April 22nd, 1852, says: ' On the ist July, when I gave notice that I should enforce the law, 108 persons were selling liquors here, openly; 20 of them have left the city. Of the remain- ing 88, not one sells openly/ He furnished the following statistics : 1850-1. Inmates of Almshouse and House of Correction . . 12,206 1851-2. Ditto ditto ditto . . 9,192 Decrease 3,014 1850- r. Number of public prosecutions ..... 101 1851-2. Ditto ditto . . 58 Decrease 43 ' 150. Southward, we pass to MASSACHUSETTS, regretting that want of space compels us to abridge. The Hon. H. W. Bishop, Judge of the Court of Common Pleas, says : f The violations of the laiv itself add to the criminal business. The operation of this new law has diminished the other class VERY MUCH. Crimes of personal violence have hitherto constituted two-thirds of all our criminal business. Several years will pass before the Courts are satisfied as to the bearing of this new law/ 428 Sequel to Charge of January, 1855. 1 The Rev. Mr. Seeley, of Springfield, says : ' Its beneficial effects are very remarkable. It evidently made a very great change in the moral state of the entire city. Its effects are very marked upon our young men. Our Lyceum lectures were never half so well attended.' 1 Mr. Chapman, Counsellor-at-Law, says : ' There is not the one-hundredth part of the drinking in Springfield that there was before the temperance movement commenced. Even those who in their own families use their wine, give their influence in favour of the Maine Law. Assaults were almost always com- mitted under the influence of drink, and already that class of crime has nearly ceased. Legal and moral agencies should be combined. They are like the soul and body, and cannot act well separately/ Mr. Morton, Police Justice, says : ' The law has not yet had a fair trial with us. It is a fact that the city is muck more quiet than it used to be. The police books will give no correct information at present in regard to drunkenness, because persons now seen intoxicated are arrested, which was not the case before, and persons now sell in violation of the law. In this way the criminal business appears to have increased, but as the other class of offences, which formerly constituted the chief business of the Police Court, has almost entirely dis- appeared, THIS NEW CLASS WILL SOON BE WORKED OUT. It is a certain fact, that nearly all the 45 cases brought before me during the past month, January, 1855, have been under the new law.' ' In January, 1856, an address of the Temperance State Con- vention announced that ' the law has evidently driven the open liquor trade out of three-fourths of the State. There has been a decrease of 50 criminals in the State Prison/ ' In Worcester, the number of commitments for drunken- ness, from June to September, was 64 less than in the same months in 1852 ; 106 less than the same in 1850. ' The Marshal of Salem reports of the law : ( There is a decided improvement in the moral condition of the poorer classes of the community, as the reduced number in the Alms- houses would indicate. There are fewer persons in the Salem Almshouses now, than there have been for eight or ten years past/ { In various parts of the State there have been held musters, Sequel to Charge of January, 1855. 429 cattle-shows, public celebrations, at which the peace and order have surprised all spectators, and opened a new era in the history of such assemblages. The diminution of arrests for drunkenness was 77 per cent. If there has since been a relapse, it is from no defect in the law ; it was enforced long enough to show its power. ' In the city of LOWELL, according to the Hon. Mr. Hunting- don, the Mayor, for the two months ending September 22nd, 1851, there were committed to the watch-house no in a state of drunkenness : there were, besides, reported as being seen drunk, not arrested, 390; total, 500. In the corresponding period of the next year, when the law came in force, there were committed to the watch-house for drunkenness, 70 ; reported as seen drunk, but not arrested, no; total, 180; diminution, 320. The amount of drunkenness for the month ending October 22nd, 1852, was 67 per cent, less than the corresponding months of the previous year. * * # # * * f 151. Proceed we next to CONNECTICUT. First, of Hartford, Mr.H.Y. Phelps says (February, 1855) : ' The fighting and riot- ing, before so common, have entirely disappeared. Open drink- ing is stopped/ Rev. Dr. Clarke says : ' The general effects of the law are good : very apparent in connexion with our City Mission/ Chief Justice Williams says : ' There are more prosecutions for drunkenness. [The fact is,] under the old law, persons drunk were paid no notice to. The practice was growing very bad. Since the ist of August, 1854, I have not seen more than one or two instances of intemperance in the streets. Several parties have formed clubs, and get their liquors from New York. Judge Bulkeley says : ' There is much less drunkenness, much less liquor sold now. It is not sold openly at all, but is driven into secret places. The number of misdemeanours is far less/ Mr. B. Mann, Counsellor-at-Law, says : ' I have been Police Justice here for 20 years, and / knoiu a very great difference since the law went into effect. The parties brought before the Court will average 8 out of 10 Irish/ Mr. L. S. Cowles says : ' I have seen ten men drunk before this law passed, for one seen since. It was only when a drunken man was making some assault, that he was taken up formerly/ Mr. D. Hawley, City Missionary, says : 1 1 have a 430 Sequel to Charge of January, 1 855. Mission Sabbath School. Since the ist of August it has increased one-third. I have seen in my rounds, wives, mothers, even young women, the worse for liquor but all that has changed ; and in my conversations with the poor, many of them say that the law must have come from heaven it is too good to have been framed by man/ Mr. J. W. Bull says ' Property- holders take a deep interest in maintaining the law/ ' Of Hartford, containing 20,000 people, a resident says, he has not seen a single intoxicated person during the year ! "The Hartford Courant of December 2ist, 1854, has the following : ' July, 1853, Committals to Workhouse . . . . . .16 July, 1854, ditto . .... 20 August, 1854, ditto 8 August to December, Discharged from the House . . .23 On September 9th, there was not a single male person in the workhouse which except for two females would have been tenantless. There has not been a parallel to this at any season, for eight years at least how much longer we do not know; but we presume there never was. Is there a sane person who doubts for an instant what has caused this result ?' * In Middleton, police expense was reduced by j 200 dollars. For year ending October, 1854, cost of paupers, 2218 dol- lars; for 1855, 1644 dollars. Vagrancy lessened. ' Rev. J. C. Dickerson, of Plainville, says :- ( No open sale. Expenses of town poor considerably diminished/ ' Mr. Freeman, of Haddam village, says : ' Paupers reduced from 10 to 4. Quite an improvement in the sale of necessary articles of life/ Mr. Day, of East Haddam, says : ' Drunken- ness diminished decidedly. Persons in almshouse, previously, 24; now, 1 6. No person sent to gaol since the law enacted/ six months before. ' Dr. F. Farnsworth, of Norwich, under date of January, 1856, says : ' The amount of disease in poor families is not one- tenth what it was ; casualties are largely diminished/ The Norwich Examiner gives the following statistics : (August i to July 31.) 1853-4. 1854-5. Decrease. Sent to Norwich Almshouse 61 40 21 Sent to New London County Gaol . . 220 127 93 Of the 220 cases, 73 were for drunkenness, and four for Sequel to Charge of January, 1855. 431 selling; of the 127 cases, 35 were for drunkenness, 2 for getting liquor under false pretences, and 16 for selling : and these cases must obviously, under the continued operation of the law, grow 1 Small by degrees, and beautifully less.' 'Number in gaol, August ist, 1855, 16. Four times as many sellers have been committed the past year as during the previous year ; but only half as many drunkards. ' The Home Journal , of July 7th, 1 855, says : { The Maine Liquor Law has ruined the gaol business completely. The gaol at Wyndham is to be let for a boarding-house.' ' Mayor Brooks, of Bridgport, gives emphatic testimony in favour of the law, in his report to the Common Council. He says that when Mayor, three years ago, he was called up three nights out of five, throughout the entire year, to disperse brawl- ing and noisy mobs. ' During the past year, I have not been called upon in a single instance, by the watch at night, to suppress or disperse any assemblage of riotous persons. All this change I attribute to the working of the new Liquor Law. It is a rare sight to see a person drunk in our streets/ 1 Chambers' Edinburgh Journal, January 20, 1855, cites as follows : ' ' On the ist of August, 1854, the law came into operation in Connecticut, and was carried out in a very stringent manner. A great change was visible immediately after, in Newhaven, the capital. The noisy gangs of rowdies disappeared, and their midnight brawls ceased ; our streets were quiet night and day ; and the most violent opponents of the law said: f lf such are the effects of the ]aw, we will oppose it no longer/ A few persons got intoxicated upon liquor from New York, and were promptly arrested, and fined twenty dollars and costs, which they paid or went to gaol. As to the prisons and almshouses in the various parts of the State, they are getting empty. A large number of our most desperate villains, who formerly kept grog-shops and gambling-houses, have emigrated, finding busi- ness so bad. Several who kept gambling saloons and disorderly houses in defiance of law, declared that neither one nor the other can be supported without liquor, and have moved to New York, where they can continue their infamous business advan- tageously/ 433 Sequel to Charge of January, 1855. ' The Puritan Recorder, in the spring of 1 856, contained a letter, from which we transcribe the following paragraph, showing how the law cherishes charitable feeling and fore- thought : 1 ' Another characteristic has marked the past winter. There was less complaint than usual on the part of the poor. The attention was more awake on the subject ; more had been con- tributed and done to secure the relief needed. The poor more economically husbanded their own resources. The operation of the Maine Law had sensibly counteracted the sources of want. These beneficial effects have been perceived to be increasing ever since the law began to take effect. Another fact tells with emphasis. It is the marked diminution of fires. Since August i, 1854, the loss of property from this cause has been fully one-half less.' 1 The testimony of the Rev. Leonard Bacon, D.D., Newhaven, will also be read with interest : ' ' The operation of the law for one year is a matter of obser- vation to the inhabitants. Its effect in promoting peace, order, quiet, and general prosperity, no man can deny. Never for twenty years has our city been so quiet and peaceful as under its action. It is no longer simply a question of temperance, but a Governmental question one of Legislative foresight and morality/ ' Kev. Dr. Kennady says : ' The law has produced the hap- piest result. A great improvement in Sabbath School attend- ance. 3 ' His Excellency Governor Button says : c At the late State Agricultural Fair it was estimated that, on one day, from 20,000 to 30,000 persons of every condition of life were assem- bled, and not a solitary drunkard was seen and not the slightest disturbance made. Criminal prosecutions are rapidly diminish- ing. The home of the peaceful citizen was never before so secure' ( RHODE ISLAND comes next : where, however, various ob- stacles have been placed in the way of the enactment. Mr. Barstow, the mayor of Providence, says : ' After the law had been in operation three months, I published statistics, showing that the law, in that short time, had made a reduction of nearly sixty per cent, in our monthly committals, while the Sequel to Charge of January, 1855. 433 number of insane paupers in Butler's Hospital, was reduced one-fifth/ 1851. 1852. Decrease. Committals to Watch-house for drunkenness and assaults ...... 282 177 105 Committals to County Gaol . . . 161 99 62 ' The Hon. W. R. Watson, Secretary of State, says : ' ' Its effects, I cannot doubt, have been greatly to diminish crime, pauperism, misery, and that large and dark catalogue of moral, social, and physical evils which result from intem- perance. The Sabbath is better observed the attendance at public worship increased and individual comfort and public prosperity promoted. It has had to work its way through all the technicalities of the imported English Common Law, and all the delays, quibbles, and subtleties of those whose business it is to interpose between violated laws and merited punishment/ f 153. In VERMONT the law has been still more successful. f lri July, 1853, Mr. L. Underwood, States' Attorney of Chittenden County, wrote from Burlington : ' The law has put an end to drunkenness and crime almost entirely. Within this town, from December ist, 1852, until March 8th, 1853, com- plaints were made to me, almost daily, for breaches of the peace ; and, on investigation, I was satisfied that nine-tenths of the crimes committed during that time were caused by drunken- ness. Since the 8th of March, two complaints only have been made for such offences, and only one was caused by drunken- ness. The law is more popular now than when first enacted/ 'Mr. M. L. Church says (February, 1855): 'I am very much pleased with the law. You might stay here for a month, and you would not see a drunken man in the city/ 1 ' The Grand Jury/ says Mr. J. L. Adams, the County Clerk, ' not composed of friends of the law, in their last report say: f We feel highly gratified to find the gaol destitute of in- mates a circumstance attributable, in a very great measure, we believe, to the suppression of the sale of intoxicating liquors/ Everywhere the law is popular, in proportion as it is carried out/ 1 Professor Pease, of Burlington University, says : ' There is a very great diminution in the use of liquors by the students. We have not had, for a year past, any rowdyism/ F F 434 Sequel to Charge of January, 1855. ' 154. Nor must we forget the last of the New England States that has adopted the Prohibitory Law NEW HAMPSHIRE which has been so long the ' grog-shop' for the ' thirsty souls' of the bordering States. ' In March, 1856, the Journal announces that 'the Law works admirably in all parts of the State. Pauperism and crime are almost unknown. 9 1 In June, Rev. E. W. Jackson writes : ' The Law is accom- plishing all that the most sanguine of us expected/ ' R. R. Brown, hotel-keeper at Carthage, NEW YORK, says that by abolishing the liquor bar } he is brought in contact with a better class of customers, and all the duties and associations of his business are improved to a degree which affords him a four- fold compensation for the ' unprofitable profits' which arose from vending f the drink of the drunkard/ ' The Tribune, INDIANA, publishes the following, in April, 1856. Committed to Penitentiary, five months preceding June, 1855, when the law went into effect, 83. Committed during seven months after, 51 a reduction of 50 per cent. Since the law was annulled by the Court, drinking and gambling have held carnival. The annual Report of the Indiana Hospital for the Insane, out of 910 cases, assigns 59 cases as follows: Intemperance, 28 ; dissipation, 9 ; abuse from drunken hus- bands, 15; mania a potu, 7. Each inmate, says the Indiano- polis Gazette, costs 125 dols. a year; so that, for the storage and care of this one item of the rumsellers' harvest, we pay 6 1 25 dollars annually. ' IOWA. From this young, but rapidly rising State, a letter from the States' Attorney, says : ' The Prohibitory Law in this State is doing considerable good. It works well. If vigorously carried out it will effect more than all the moral- reform lectures that can be mustered into the service/ ' Under a knowledge of such facts as we have detailed, can we wonder at the recent expression of the Rev. John D. Lawyer, Chaplain to the New York State Prison, at Auburn ? ' Give us the Maine Law, and in five years Auburn Prison is no more/ 1 How striking is the remark of the Canadian Commission, Messrs. Ure and Farewell, after their tour through New England and New York : ' We saw more drinking in the City Hotel, Sequel to Charge of January, 1855. 435 in Hamilton, iu the space of seven minutes, one morning before eight o'clock, than we had seen in all our perambulations through the seven States/ ' I may aptly conclude this subject by an extract, showing the effect in Edinburgh of Forbes Mackenzie's Act, prohibiting the sale in Scotland of intoxicating liquors on the Sunday. From the 'Edinburgh News' of January loth, 1857. ' As drink is the fountain of nearly all crime in Edinburgh, we must show that as drunkenness decreases so crime diminishes. The Forbes Mackenzie Act, and its effects, will no doubt be ridiculed by the publicans and their organs ; but if we can show that crime diminishes along with drunkenness, it will be for doubters to show any more reasonable cause for the remarkable amendment. In Sunday cases, the number is slightly increased last year over 1855, and this is accounted for by the notorious relaxation of the Act in certain localities. ' Number of Cases on Sundays. 1852. 1853. 1854. 1855. 1856. Cases taken to the Police-office and Station-houses for protection . . 729 641 455 3^9 446 Cases of parties Drunk when appre- hended for offences 623 664 423 379 333 Total . . . .1352 1305 878 768 779 ' Number of Cases from Eight o'clock on the Sunday mornings till Eight o'clock on the Monday mornings. 1852. 1853. l8 54- 1855. 1856, Cases taken to the Police-office and Station-houses for protection . . 401 333 176 82 119 Cases of parties Drunk when appre- hended for offences 308 315 165 61 66 Total .... 709 648 341 143 185 ' But even with the relaxation, which will now be at an end, the number of 185 persons, drunk in 1856 under the Act, com- pares most favourably with the 709 Sunday drunkards found by the police before the Act was brought into operation. But that general crime follows the ratio of general drunkenness is demon- strated by the more general tables. The number of persons 43 6 Sequel to Charge of January, 1855 found drunk, whether charged with special crimes or not, were 1852. 1853. 1854. 1855. 1856. 9767 9730 8749 8095 7736 And about one-half of these were charged with crimes, the other taken to the police-office for protection. Contrast these figures with the number of persons brought under the cogni- zance of the police, and it will be seen that just as drunkenness declines, so those brought under the notice* of the police are diminished. The gross number of persons taken cognizance of by the police were 1852. 1853. 1854. 1855. 1856. 18,932 18,300 15,749 15,320 14,353 So that, in 1852, while there were 7962 drunkards, there were 18,932 required to be looked after by the police; so, when in 1856, the public drunkards had diminished to 7736, the persons to be looked after fell to 14,353 & fact which goes to show that drunkards not only require looking after themselves, but that every two drunkards increases by four those whom the police require to watch or apprehend. This shows, beyond all doubt, the effect of drink in the production of crime, and ought to convince all unblinded by interest or love of intoxicants, that the temperance reformer is a true regenerator of his country. { After the passing of the Forbes Mackenzie Act, it was often asserted that, although the working classes were prevented drinking on Sunday, they would make up for that by increased drunkenness on Saturday and Monday; and we know individual cases where workmen have been open to this charge. But that these cases are exceptional, while the general rule is in favour of increased Saturday and Monday sobriety, the following figures abundantly demonstrate. On Saturdays the numbers were 1852. 1853. 1854. 1855. 1856. 1933 l8 79 l8 53 1783 1744 On Monday, however, the figures are even more encouraging, showing what we, and all who have any knowledge of the habits of working men, always declared, that the most dangerous temptation to a debauch was the Monday morning dram ; and since the public-houses have not opened till eight o'clock, the Sequel to Charge of January, 1855. 437 effects are most conspicuous on Monday sobriety, the numbers of Monday drunkards being 1852. 1853. 1854. 1855. 1856. 1169 1236 1164 1038 852 This is most encouraging progress in the right direction; and we shall conclude our review of the diminishing drunkenness and crime of last year, as compared with former years, by asking the earnest attention of all parties to the facts thus given. These are worth volumes of arguments, and any amount of interested abuse or distorted ingenuities ; and an Act that exists under such favourable coincidences, if you will, but we say which produces such favourable results as these, will not be easily blotted from the statute-book/ [Communicated by Mr. Duncan M'Laren, who guarantees its accuracy.] MARCH, 1857. The Journal of the Statistical Society for this month contains a paper by Professor Walsh, of Dublin Univer- sity, the eminent Political Economist, opposed to the views or what he considers the views propounded by Mr. Clay. f A theory has lately grown up/ says the Doctor, 'that when the people suffer privation they refrain from crime, but fall into excesses when prosperity returns. This notion, opposed to the malesuada fames of the poet, is based on some criminal statis- tics, principally composed of the records of summary convictions in a few localities/ * I am not aware that this general proposition has been laid down by any writer: certainly not by Mr. Clay, who, though not mentioned, is obviously pointed at by Dr. Walsh. Neither has Mr. Clay fallen into the error of depending simply upon summary convictions for petty offences, as the reader has already seen. The apparent difference of opinion between these two able writers, may perhaps be adjusted by taking into account that, as regards crime, opposite causes will sometimes produce identical effects. Hard times create forced idleness and desti- tution j my experience, however, leads me to the opinion that the latter, taken as a motive to crime, is greatly overrated. I * Journal of the Statistical Society of London, Vol. xx., Part i., p. 77. March, 1857- 438 Sequel to Charge of January, 1855. could almost count on my fingers all the cases which have fallen under my observation, either at the Bar or on the Bench, of crimes originating in the pressure of want. Still the idle- ness and destitution which are the natural offspring of adversity, are undoubted incentives to crime. But these incentives may also have their origin in sudden prosperity loosening the bands of self-control, and inveigling the population enjoying it, or suffering from it whichever expression best accords with the truth into extravagance, and impatience of labour impatience of labour leading to idleness, and, when combined with extra- vagance, to destitution. But as great prosperity is rarely diffused on the sudden among the lower classes, except in the seats of a few manufactures, it is to be expected taking the whole nation as the basis of comparison that prosperity will be less productive of crime than its opposite; and the Professor is supported by the tables in drawing this conclusion. A 439 CHAEGE OF APEIL, 1855. From the 'Midland Counties Herald,' April ]2, 1855. T a Sessions held on the 9th of April, the Recorder thus addressed the Grand Jury : GENTLEMEN It is characteristic of the present age that no insti- tution of the country is held to be so hallowed by time as to be exempt from scrutiny; for although it may have been sufficient for its purpose at the date of its origin, changes in the structure of society and in other portions of our state machinery, may have rendered its continuance inexpedient. Or, if its retention be desirable at all, it may only be desirable after great modifications shall have been made, to bring the old institution into harmony with the new arrangements with which it has become associated. Recent events, which are so deeply impressed on our minds that the slightest allusion brings them before us with painful vivid- ness, must have a strong tendency to aggravate that desire for changes which had, perhaps, become sufficiently intense without the aid of such a stimulus. Gentlemen, I should belie the tenor of my whole life, if I were to undervalue the advan- tage of adapting our institutions to the progress of human affairs, or to doubt the necessity for such adjustments. If, from a superstitious fear of innovation we do not advance, we must for all practical purposes fall back. Of the arguments against novelties, Lord Bacon says, ' All this is true, if time stood still ; which, contrariwise, moveth so round, that a fro ward retention of custom is as turbulent a thing as an innovation; and they that reverence too much old times are but a scorn to the new/ But then he calls upon us ' to beware that it be the reforma- tion that draweth on the change ; and not the desire of change that pretendeth the reformation/ These, Gentlemen, are golden words ; and in the present excited state of the nation cannot be read too often, or pondered with too much care. Changes are inevitable, but let them be made cautiously, I might almost say 44 Charge of April, 1855. tenderly, and with anxious discrimination. In what belongs to this world, the maxim that ' whatever is, is right/ must always be a pernicious error; but the public mind, when inflamed, sometimes acts upon a worse ; and if not in terms, yet in deeds, pronounces that ' whatever is, is wrong/ Gentlemen, we should read the signs of the times with but little attention, if we did not perceive that the venerable insti- tution of the Grand Jury, of which you are to-day the living representatives, is about to take its trial ; and that charges are made against it which may lead rather to its destruction than to its improvement. It has not infrequently happened in London, that gentlemen filling the position which you here occupy, have denounced Grand Juries, and called for their abolition; and Bills have from time to time been introduced into Parliament, under high sanction, framed in the same spirit; which, although they were limited to the metropolis, could hardly have re- mained so restricted in their application, for any great length of time. Being of opinion myself that much alteration in the functions of the Grand Jury is imperatively called for, arid being also very strongly of opinion that these functions ought to be reformed, and not swept away, I proceed at once to treat in their order both branches of this proposition. It will probably suffice to raise in your minds a presumption that modifications must be required, when I state that the duties of the Grand Jury, as prescribed by the law, are at the present day precisely what they were many centuries ago. It would, however, be rash to innovate on merely presumptive arguments. I must, therefore, ask your permission to go somewhat into detail. In early times, Gentlemen, an injured party did not apply to a Justice of the Peace, for the best of all reasons there was no such minister of the law in existence. He waited until the time came round for assembling a Grand Jury ; made his com- plaint to that body, who, if he established his case to their satis- faction, presented to the Court to which they were attached an indictment against the party accused ; and this indictment, so found, became an authority by which the Court was empowered to issue its warrant for apprehending the defendant. At first sight, it would appear difficult to comprehend how society could hold together, when criminals had so great a privilege as im- punity from restraint until a bill was found against them by a Charge of April, 1855. 441 Grand Jury ; and, certainly, if no better provision had since come into existence for ensuring the attendance of the accused at the hour of trial, than that which satisfied our ancestors in the primitive times of which I am speaking, we should find the number of absentees very considerable. Circumstances, Gentle- men, arising out of habits, manners, laws, and indeed the composition of society itself, mitigated, to our early forefathers, an evil which we should find intolerable. To lay these before you at length would demand a volume. Suffice it, therefore, to state, in general terms, that every member of the community was retained in his position in life, and for the most part in the district in which he was born, by motives, many of which have ceased to operate; and that to be an exile or outlaw was a calamity far greater with them than it is with us. Moreover, the juries of numerous local courts exercised the right of finding bills of indictment against criminals ; so that the intervals between the offence and its prosecution, were shorter than we should find them, if deprived of our recourse to the Justice of the Peace. The jurisdiction of this valuable and important magistrate has grown up slow r ly. It has been partly derived from statutes which have been accumulating on this branch of our jurispru- dence for at least five centuries ; but at first it owed its prin- cipal increase to usurpations, tolerated from the necessity of the case, and from the weakness of the class chiefly obnoxious to the exercise of this vigour beyond the law; until they had ceased to be novelties, and had become too well established by usage to be successfully opposed. Thus, Gentlemen, by slow degrees, a tribunal gathered strength which, taking cognizance of offenders immediately oil their detection, and by such promptitude guarding against their flight from justice, could not fail of being brought into exten- sive operation. But, as I have said, its rise was slow. Hence, probably, it was, that the stages of its progress were unmarked by the public and the Legislature. Otherwise, it is difficult to account for the curious fact, that the onerous duties of that preliminary investigation which has for its object to determine whether or not there is sufficient evidence against the accused to put him upon his trial, should have continued for ages to be per- formed twice over ; first by the Justice of the Peace, and again 442 Charge of April, 1 855. by the Grand Jury. Some weight must, no doubt, be given to the wholesome attachment of Englishmen to their ancient con- stitutional courts ; and to their reliance on the protection of Grand Juries against false and oppressive accusations. But, making all reasonable allowance for these motives, they will scarcely account for the burthen having been so long and so patiently endured. In our own times I may say, without the slightest disparage- ment of the gentlemen on whom the duty is cast, that Grand Juries are called upon to repeat the inquiry already made before the committing magistrate, under almost every conceivable dis- advantage. They hear the witnesses in secret, who may, there- fore, in comparative safety, withhold or pervert the truth ; and thus, in the metropolis, it is found that whenever evidence is bought off, the scene of perjury is neither the police-office nor the sessions court, where the witnesses must speak under the check of publicity, it is laid in the chamber of the Grand Jury, Hence, this body is called ' the first hope of the London thief/ Another source of miscarriage is that the Grand Jury is led into errors of law, for want of legal advice. The Judge of the Court to which they are attached is, no doubt, ready, at every moment, to render his aid in cases of difficulty; but it is, I presume, felt that frequent reference to him would inconveniently arrest proceedings, and, consequently, it is not often made. Let me, Gentlemen, avail myself of this opportunity to assure you that I shall always be ready to give you my best assistance; and shall think little of any interruption so fully justified by its cause. Another difficulty arises from the Grand Jury being left without instructions as to what facts the witnesses are coming to prove. How, Gentlemen, you make your way among these various impediments, and perform your task with so little damage to the interests of justice, I am not quite able to explain ; but most assuredly, the praise of doing less harm than might reasonably be expected, is the only compliment which exist- ing arrangements permit me to offer for your acceptance. Perhaps it will enable me to place the defects of the present system in a clear light, if we imagine Grand Juries to have been instituted after, instead of before, Justices of the Peace. Suppose it had been alleged that the inquiry before the magistrate, which precedes a commitment, was insufficient for Charge of April, 1855. 443 the due protection of the accused; arid that the second inquiry by you, conducted as it now is, had been suggested as an addi- tional safeguard. Is it possible, Gentlemen, that the Legislature could adopt such an expedient? Is it not obvious that the main injury resulting from a commitment which ought not to have been made, is the imprisonment before trial to which the accused is thereby subjected. Surely, when this injury has been consummated, it is a poor and equivocal benefit to an innocent prisoner, to discharge him without that public investi- gation by which alone his innocence can be manifested to the world ; exposing him by such a course to all the doubts and misgivings incident to every decision arrived at in secret, but attaching itself, in an especial manner, to one, subject to so many liabilities to error, as you have seen belong to inquiries before a Grand Jury. Nor must I omit to remark, that this relief to the prisoner, if such it is to be called, is attained by overruling the conclusion arrived at after a public inquiry. Gentlemen, I feel certain that if you or I were unjustly charged with a crime, upon evidence which had induced a magistrate to send us to the bar evidence which, according to modern usage, is printed in the newspapers we should desire a trial as public as that preliminary examination; so that all men might not only know that we were acquitted, but be in possession of the grounds on which we had met and defeated the charge. We should also desire that the proofs of our innocence should be as widely diffused as the allegations of our guilt. Second to the considerations to which I have called your attention, but still of no mean importance in itself, is the tax on the time of witnesses, caused by the additional inquiry before the Grand Jury. In every case prosecuted, three attendances are necessary ; and it may so happen that each one involves the witness in loss or inconvenience, but poorly compensated by his pecuniary allowance ; which allowance, indeed, will remind you that each attendance is not only a private inconvenience, but a burthen on the public fund out of which the costs are defrayed. Again, the greater the number of attendances required, the greater the chance cf absence; and, by consequence, of miscar- riage in the conviction of offenders. In these happy times, Gentlemen, when we can repose with confidence on the desire of the administrators of our laws to 444 Charge of April, 1855. do justice, I am utterly unaware of any valid benefits to be weighed in the balance, against the various mischiefs which I have pointed out to you, as resulting from the employment of Grand Juries to revise the decisions of committing magistrates ; and consequently I am prepared to see your jurisdiction over cases sent to trial by Justices of the Peace, ancient as it is, brought at once and for ever to an end. But, Gentlemen, let me call your attention to another grievance. There is no legal necessity that a case should be carried before a Justice of the Peace at all. The prosecutor may wait until the Grand Jury is assembled ; and then, without notice to the accused, he may present a bill against him, support it by secret evidence, and when it is found by the Grand Jury, he may sue out a Bench warrant, apprehend the defendant, and put him under the necessity of either going to prison until the time of trial shall arrive, or of finding sufficient bail to ensure his appearance at the bar. And it not seldom occurs that, when the prosecutor has a sinister object in view in preferring a charge against his neighbour, he takes this mode of gratifying his malice ; thus placing the accused under the cloud of suspicion which must hang over every man against whom a bill of indictment has been found, during the whole interval which precedes his opportunity of clearing himself, by the publicity of a trial before the Petit Jury; where, for the first time, his witnesses will be heard. Again, it has sometimes happened that the prosecutor has presumed upon what he knew to be the prejudices of a Grand Jury, secure that their prepos- sessions would not be removed by the arguments of counsel, or dissipated by the summing-up of the Judge. A notable instance in point will be found in a recent speech in the House of Lords by our great leader in law reform, the revered Lord Brougham; who calls for various changes in our Criminal Procedure ; and, among others, for several in the jurisdiction of Grand Juries. ' I recollect/ says he, ( being Counsel, one of the last times I ever attended the Criminal Court, for a gentleman of great property and high respectability, a man of io,ooo/. or I2,ooo/. a-year, who stood in the dock, and was arraigned for wilful murder, because the Grand Jury sagaciously deemed him crimi- nally accountable for the neglect of one of his bailiffs, who had thrown a rope across a road that was under repair, and forgot Charge of April, 1855. 445 to put a lantern upon it; so that, unfortunately, a woman coming from market was thrown from her cart, and broke her neck. The instant that Mr. Baron Wood heard the case opened he directed an acquittal, of course ; and desired the officer of the Court to summon the Grand Jury into his presence. They were discharged, and his lordship said, ' I am extremely sorry for it ; this is a most shameful case/ The Jury were not, however, rebuked; but had they been so, the censure would have fallen exceedingly light, because no one could possibly tell which of them had agreed in finding the bill. Here, however, was this respectable man, who had held up an arraigned hand in the dock with felons, and who went down to the grave with the stigma which any spiteful neighbour or adversary at an election or in the heat of religious controversy for he was a Roman Catholic could fling in his teeth, that he had once stood his trial for murder/ In this case, Gentlemen, it is evident that the Grand Jury, uiicorrected in their view of the law, and stimulated perhaps by religious animosity, perpetrated a wrong so monstrous as not to be credible, except on such high testimony as that by which it is proved. Now, Gentlemen, while I would not prevent a complainant who had brought his accusation before a magistrate, and had failed in obtaining a commitment of the accused, from again preferring his complaint before a Grand Jury, I would assimilate the proceedings in their chamber to those in the police-court. Let the investigation be public ; let the accused have the benefit of legal assistance, and let him have the right of adducing evi- dence in his defence. If, after thus hearing the whole case, a Grand Jury should be of opinion that it ought to be sent to trial, the accused would have no just ground for dissatisfaction ; and as the trial might quickly be had, the hardship upon him if the ultimate result should be an acquittal, would be reduced to the smallest possible amount. Gentlemen, it must be obvious to all who have had much experience in criminal courts, that the class of cases to which I have just called your attention would be extremely rare ; and if the changes which I propose were adopted, your functions, as they are at present exercised, would be all but annihilated. The question, then, would arise as to whether what would still remain, would justify our calling you from your homes and affairs, to give your attendance in our 446" Charge of April, courts. Certainly, if I had enumerated all your duties, you ought not to be summoned, except where notice had been given that a case would be presented to you, which a Justice of the Peace had refused to send to trial. But, Gentlemen, I would release you from labours, in the performance of which you can scarcely be useful to your country, while you may be the cause of much injury, not with a view of dispensing with your valuable assistance, but to employ you upon inquiries in which your aid and sanction might confer signal benefits on the public. It will not be supposed that one who, like myself, belongs to the official class of the community, would undervalue the merits of the order of which he is a member. Still I cannot but feel, that although in so advanced a stage of civilization as that at which we have now arrived, the labours of persons unskilled by training must in many departments of the public service be little better than useless, nevertheless the official mind is liable to certain disqualifications, which do not attach themselves to citizens who, like you, are selected at the moment from a wide circle ; and who return again into the society from which you came, without having had time to acquire official habits. There is a keenness and freshness of perception about you, which with us is often worn out. Let me give an instance which occurred in this Court some years ago. A prison then existed not far from the place at which we are assembled, for the detention of debtors sent there by the Court of Requests ; and inasmuch as the jurisdiction of that Court did not extend beyond 5/., it is easy to see that this was a prison for the poor and for the poor alone which perhaps may account for its escaping the observation of the classes who would have had sufficient influence to prevent the scandal to which I am about to direct your attention. It so happened that a riot broke out within the walls of the prison, in which the turnkey was roughly handled; and the offenders were indicted in this Court for assaulting him. Their trial led to a disclosure, which showed into what a miserable and disgraceful state the gaol had been permitted to fall. This disclosure filled the jury, and indeed all who heard the case, with disgust and indignation. The sentiments of the auditory spread through the town, and quickly reached the Commissioners of the Court, in which body the Charge of April, 1855. 447 management of the prison was vested; and with great prompti- tude they commenced alterations at a large expense, by which the evil and the opprobrium were both removed. Gentlemen, I knew that the prison must have been visited by the Inspector, and I was curious to ascertain what had been his report. I found it in print ; and it was such as most assuredly ought to have engaged the attention of those whose duty it was to turn the labours of the Inspectors and the contents of their blue books, to account. Overwhelmed, however, with business, and their minds jaded, and made to a certain extent indifferent by the multitude of claims upon their attention, they had suffered the evil to continue untouched ; and, but for the circumstances just narrated, it probably would have remained utterly neglected and unredressed until the extinction of the Court, which after- wards took place. Again, a few months ago, a case was brought before this Court, in which it was proved that, during a very long period, a yard in this town, used for the slaughtering of horses, had been suffered to exist in a most revolting state of filth; diffusing its poisonous exhalations through the neighbour- hood, and carrying sickness and death into many a family effects which had been made the subject of complaint to official persons, whose motions, however, were so sluggish that years elapsed before any step was taken to protect the unhappy suf- ferers against the continuance of their wrongs. Now, Gentle- men, it occurs to me that if men like yourselves, who, col- lected from all parts of the town, must, some or other of you, be cognizant of whatever occurs among us, were relieved from the drudgery to which I have adverted a drudgery, like that of the treadmill, at once monotonous, toilsome, and useless, engrossing your time and exhausting your strength so that you might have leisure for inquiries like those to which I point ; if, I say, you were relieved from this irksome duty, we might have, through your means, a flood of light thrown upon all the dark spots in the Borough ; and might bring the force of general opinion to act with us in removing whatever is injurious or dis- creditable, in the town in which we perform our respective duties. Nor would your attention, Gentlemen, be confined to painful or invidious tasks. It would be your privilege to suggest various useful undertakings ; as wants may arise in our con- stantly advancing progress. Gentlemen, I hold in my hand a 448 Charge of April, report of the presentment of a Grand Jury in the city of Phila- delphia ; the capital, as you know, of the important State of Pennsylvania. It relates to their House of Refuge; a noble institution, which has now been for many years very successful in reforming youthful offenders of both sexes. Their language is as follows : ' Few charities, as the Grand Inquest believe, have higher claims on the public, and few, perhaps, will be more permanently useful, than the House of Refuge. Here the mis- guided and neglected, rather than guilty child, will find an abode where religious and moral principles and industrious habits will be inculcated; where virtue will be cherished, and vice repressed. When the pupil leaves the institution, it is to be hoped he will go forth into the world, with such a character for honesty and integrity, as may lead the virtuous portion of society to receive him among them. Instead of being a weight upon the com- munity, supported either in our gaols or almshouses, he will be enabled to bear his part of the public burthens/ These senti- ments, Gentlemen, are admirable ; and I trust you will agree with me, that your time and attention would be far better em- ployed, on the inquiries and discussions which must have pre- ceded such a presentment as that of the Grand Jury of Philadelphia, than in revising (and revising, as it were, in the dark) decisions which the justices have arrived at, aided by means for discovering the truth, from the employment of which you are shut out. You cannot but feel, Gentlemen, that it would be a privilege, and not a burthen, to be called upon to exercise your minds upon the many important questions, which would suggest themselves as proper to engage your delibera- tions. And the conclusions at which, after careful investiga- tion of the facts and the reasons which led to them, you should arrive, would have great weight with your fellow-townsmen, and lead to many a valuable result. In my first address from this Bench to a Grand Jury of Birmingham, I used these words : ' Although the original utility of the Grand Jury may have decreased, or even passed away, it is nevertheless an institution of great impor- tance ; it is of the genius of our constitution to interest and employ all ranks and conditions of men, in the administration of justice. By this provision courts are made really public; not only as they are open to all to become auditors, but inasmuch Charge of April, 1855. 449 as the representatives of the various classes are called upon to give their attendance. In an assembly so collected, you have a right to be heard. You have a right to address to the Bench any matter connected with the administration of the law, which in your opinion requires public animadversion; and your sugges- tions will be in this Court, as they are in all others, received with respect. It is through you, also, that the Bench addresses the public at large ; knowing' that what you consider worthy of your attention, will be treated with deference by all those whose duties or interests are involved in what is laid before you/ Gentlemen, sixteen years of experience have not shaken my belief in the truth of this representation. The advantage of intercommunication between the men of office and those who are chosen for the moment, and for the moment only, from among their fellow-citizens, may be followed by profitable results ; while, on the other hand, they can scarcely lead to any abuse. The suggestions thrown out on either side have no power of themselves ; but if they are adopted by those who become acquainted with them, they affect more or less the public opinion of the nation ; and if they will bear the test of scrutiny, they will at length find entrance into the statutes of the realm. But if they should turn out to be unfounded in fact, or untenable in argument, they die away and are forgotten. In this latter instance, we may be employing to little purpose a portion of our time ; but that appears to be the limit of any inconvenience which the intercourse between Courts and Grand Juries is likely to produce. Thus there is nothing to put into the balance, against the weighty benefits which may arise from these reci- procal communications. The Foreman of the Grand Jury, on the conclusion of their duties, read the following observations : ' Before we retire, sir, permit us to express the pleasure we felt in listening to your opening address an address characterised by the same clear- ness and distinctness, the same large and expansive views, the same benevolence and philanthropic feeling, which have been embodied in all that we have heard or read of yours, and which have been so nobly illustrated by you in practice. With regard to the observations made relative to the inutility of Grand Juries, we perfectly agree that there may have been a time when G G 45 Charge of April, 18 55. Grand Juries were thought necessary, and indeed were so ; when party spirit, bigotry, and intolerance ran so high that ignorance and unqualified presumption were elevated most unworthily to the bench ; but that day is past, and the selection of magis- trates is at the present time generally the preference of ability and intelligence, which would scorn to lend themselves to the abuse of power for the advantage of any sect or clique ; in addi- tion to which, the influence of the press, and the diffusion of information, is so general, as to exercise a salutary restraint against the abuse of power. The office of the Grand Jury appears to us to be to judge more of the wisdom and prudence of the magistrate in committing, than of the merits of the case ; and to be useless as regards the relief afforded to the prisoner. The bill of indictment is not brought before the Grand Jury until a few hours, perhaps minutes, before the prisoner is called upon to take his public trial ; therefore, as stated by you, sir, if the bill is ignored, relief is not afforded until the injury has been inflicted. Under these circumstances, we consider the institution useless and effete, occasioning to gentlemen called upon to undertake duties (merely futile) a loss of valuable time, which should be, either privately or publicly, more profitably employed. ' The Jury regret to observe the number of cases brought before them in consequence of the injudicious exposure of goods outside the shop-fronts; being a temptation to crime, and a pernicious practice, which they most strongly condemn/ The Recorder thanked the gentlemen for their kind appre- ciation of his Charge ; telling them at the same time that he understood their disapprobation of the employment of Grand Juries to apply only to their revision of cases sent to trial by the magistrates, and that it did not extend to the institution itself; to which qualification they assented. f Recent events' * * * 'must have a strong tendency to aggravate that desire for changes, which had, perhaps, become sufficiently intense without the aid of such a stimulus/ Allusion is here made to the eager demand for changes in the administration of military affairs, which the sufferings of our Army in the Crimea, during the winter of 1 854-5, had called Charge of April, 1855. 451 forth. This has now happily subsided into a calm but earnest desire for gradual and well-considered ameliorations in a department, the importance of which to the safety and honour of the country can scarcely be over-estimated. May, 1856. The following brief tract, from the pen of Mr. Oakley, the Governor of the Somerset Gaol, was circulated among the Magistrates of the County, in the year 1853. As embodying the suggestions of an intelligent person, of much experience, I have thought it advisable to insert it in this place. ' Observations on the Grand Jury System ; with Suggestions for Simplifying Proceedings on Criminal Trials. ' Although desirous of speaking with all due respect of the gentlemen composing Grand Juries, both at Assizes and Quarter Sessions, there are many instances of justice having been per- verted by the evidence taken before them. True bills have been returned in cases that had not been previously investigated before a magistrate; and at the trials, the judges have been known to declare that the accusations were entirely unsubstan- tiated. Bills in other cases have been ignored in consequence of witnesses having, either from ignorance or deficiency of memory, omitted important facts. The same result has fol- lowed f where witnesses, from collusion with the friends of prisoners, have wilfully misstated their evidence. ' In one case, where a tradesman was charged at the sessions with receiving stolen goods, some members of the Grand Jury were so much interested, that the bill was ignored, although the clearest evidence was offered against him; and, immediately they came to a decision, the foreman rushed from the room and congratulated the prisoner. ' The most serious evil, however, under the present Grand Jury system is the inducement held out to prosecutors, wit- nesses, and constables (particularly the latter), to strain or exceed the true evidence, in order to obtain the committal of a prisoner, and thus to secure payment of their own expenses. The constable, besides the sum granted for attending the magis- trates, and for pursuing and apprehending the prisoner, has a liberal allowance for conveying to gaol. ' In London, an officer of the Court attends with the deposi- G G 2 452 Charge of April, 1855. tions before the Grand Jury, and thus false evidence is, to some extent, prevented. But in the country, particularly in counties, where only one witness at a time is called before the Grand Jury, there are no means of testing the evidence of a witness, and no protection for persons against whom indictments are im- properly and unjustly preferred. Notes of the evidence are not systematically or regularly taken, and therefore false wit- nesses escape the punishment they deserve, and the valuable time of gentlemen, selected from the higher grades of society, is uselessly wasted, and often injuriously employed. < It it ' That it should be considered by Parliament whether, with the improvements effected by the Administration of Justice Act, and the publicity and care with which examinations before magistrates are now conducted, any tribunal is necessary between the committing magistrate and the trial. ' Should it be determined that an intermediate tribunal is to exist, then, as the attendance of the magistrates at assizes will always be necessary for performance of duties unconnected with bills of indictment, a board of five or seven magistrates might inspect such depositions returned by the committing magistrate, as may be referred to the board by the judge, without the attend- ance of those witnesses whose depositions have been taken ; and might examine, in presence of the prisoner, any additional wit- nesses called for the prosecution, and thereupon report to the Court the names of the prisoners who should be put on their trial. This would obviously be a less expensive course than the present, and would obviate most of the evils already pointed out, and Grand Juries at Sessions might be entirely abolished. ' The excellent Act for the Administration of Justice, com- monly called Jervis' Act (n & 12 Vic., cap. 42), has supplied nearly every requirement up to the committal of prisoners for trial; but after that proceeding great improvement is required, and might be easily effected, ' The law now permits almost any alteration in indictments with the sanction of the Judge in Court ; and indictments, there- fore, might be altogether abolished. By the magistrates' clerks being required to prepare the commitment in each case, so that a proper statement of the charge against every prisoner may Charge of April, 1855. 453 appear in the gaol calendar, all the information necessary as to the charge would be afforded. ( The Clerk of the Court, having a record book before him in Court, should enter the charge against each prisoner as he comes up for trial ; the name of each witness as called ; the verdict when given; and sentence when passed. This would be much more simple, and ensure greater correctness than the present bills of indictment. ' The abolition of Grand Juries would dispose of the only real obstacle to more frequent gaol deliveries, and would ensure the attendance of more intelligent petty jurors, in fact, all but magistrates and others legally exempt. If the jury, at the open- ing of the Court each day, were sworn to ' well and truly try' all the prisoners whom they may have in charge during the day, it would save much valuable time; besides obviating the great injustice and risk of contamination in herding together a number of prisoners of all classes, male and female, old and young, innocent and guilty, as now brought in a drove together to the prisoner's dock. The effects of this evil system can only be imagined by those who have watched its consequences. ' In order to reserve to prisoners the right of challenging, a list of the jurymen should be read over to them a certain time before trial. ' Instead of calling on a prisoner to plead, and, by requiring him to utter the words ' Not guilty/ obliging him to add a lie to his offence, the trial might be commenced by reading a certifi- cate from the committing magistrate, stating the charge; and that he had, in compliance with the ' Administration of Justice Acts/ explained it to the prisoner, and asked him whether he had anything to say in answer to it. ' In all cases where a prisoner has confessed himself guilty before the committing magistrate, the expense and inconvenience of requiring the attendance of prosecutors and witnesses might be dispensed with, by calling the person who apprehended the prisoner to prove identity. The Judge having the depositions, is in possession of every fact, and a prisoner who, after con- fessing before the magistrates, desires to be tried, may be remanded to the next assizes or sessions. ' Employment should be provided, or a refuge established, for prisoners who, on their discharge from gaol, are willing to 454 Charge of April, 1855. work. This seems to have been contemplated by 4 Geo. IV., cap. 64, sec. 39, which states, { Prisoners discharged from prison should be supplied with the means of returning to their families, or to some place of employment, where they may be engaged in a life of honest labour for their maintenance, and prevented from pursuing evil courses/ In many instances where employment has been obtained for prisoners on their discharge from gaol, they have afterwards done well ; and at least fifteen out of every twenty prisoners committed for second offences, are believed to have been guilty of them, because, having been once convicted, the hope of getting honest employment for the future is gone. They have no opportunity to regain their characters, or avoid starvation. There is no provision for ordinary labour in union houses, and able-bodied men, willing to work, will not go to them. ' A very small contribution from county rates to an establish- ment that would soon, probably, be self-supporting, might prevent much crime, and save large sums now expended in prosecuting and punishing offenders. ' A certain portion of the population will exist by plunder ; and these can only be thoroughly checked by an efficient and uniform system of police. But the simple alterations herein suggested, would effect great saving of expense in prosecutions ; prevent the loss of much valuable time ; and the re-committal of many prisoners who might, under more favourable circum- stances, have become useful members of society. ' The amendments proposed on the present mode of procedure on criminal trials, may be thus summed up : ( ist. A Board of five or seven magistrates, to inspect depositions referred to them by the Judge at Assizes, or Chair- man at Quarter Sessions ; to examine any additional witnesses in presence of the prisoner; and to report to the Court if the prisoner should be put on trial. ' 2nd. More frequent gaol deliveries. ' 3rd. Better gaol calendars, to supersede bills of indict- ment; and a book of records, to be kept by the Clerk of the Court, wherein to enter the charge against the prisoner; the names of witnesses ; the verdict and sentence. ( 4th. The Jury to be sworn only once ; the prisoner's right of challenge to be preserved. Sequel to Charge of April, 1855. 455 f 5th. The prisoner not to be called on to plead. ' 6th. Where prisoners have confessed, the expense of prosecu- tors and witnesses to be saved. ' 7th. Employment to be provided for discharged prisoners/ The evils arising from the intermingling of prisoners brought from the prison to the court, and awaiting their trial, are not confined to Taunton. We suffer very much from the same cause at Birmingham. It may be added, that if the commitment by the magistrate stood in the place of a true bill found by a Grand Jury, the time of witnesses attending trials would be much economized, and their convenience very materially con- sulted, by an arrangement which would naturally follow such a change. The calendar would become a cause list, and the order of trial of each prisoner would be known. The judge would probably direct notice to be given of the number of cases which would be considered as standing for trial on each day; so that where the calendar was long, the witnesses in the cases low down upon the list would not be required to attend on the first or early days of the assizes or sessions. SEQUEL. DISGRACEFUL STATE OF THE PRISON ATTACHED TO THE COURT OF REQUESTS. T SUBJOIN the description of this gaol, given by the Inspector of Prisons in his Report for the year 1841 : 'Birmingham Debtors' Gaol. 1 There is only one yard here for the use of the poor debtors, of the insolvent debtors, and of the female debtors. The poor debtors usually take exercise only once a-week in the yard, on account of its being occupied at other times by the insolvent debtors. The poor debtors may walk there, however, for an hour or so at other times, if they make application. I found three female debtors sitting in the day-room of the insolvent debtors, in company with the male insolvent debtors. There 456 Sequel to Charge of April, 1855. appears to be no separation of the sexes, except at night. Most of the prisoners sleep two in a bed ; but this practice might be obviated by providing several small light iron bedsteads suited for one occupant only. In one large room there are two rows of wooden bedsteads, each row composed of one continuous wood-work, and these bedsteads were covered with straw. Only one prisoner of the whole number stated to me that he was unwell. The keeper has it not in his power to improve matters much ; his salary is 6o/. a-year, and no assistance is provided for him except at his own expense. The keeper would be glad to receive a complete set of printed rules for his guidance ; but as the prison is at present constituted so scanty in its accom- modation, and with only one officer even the best set of rules would prove unavailing, and would be set at defiance. In fact, no means exist here of enforcing them. In September, 1840, I found here twenty-two inmates, of whom four were women. The average number is twenty ; the greatest number since my visit at one time has been twenty-four or twenty-five. All the prisoners are sent from the Court of Requests. There has been no escape, no death, and no case of severe illness, during the last two years. On the whole, the building is dilapidated and neglected, and nothing can be said in commendation of its order or cleanliness/* This report, though printed for the use of both Houses of Parliament and the public, seems to have attracted no attention. The following letter will show the condition of the gaol in the month of January, 1 844 : '44, Chan eery- lane, January 12, 1844. 1 SIR, On the trial of an indictment against two prisoners for debt, in the gaol of the Court of Requests for the town of Birmingham, which took place before me at the late sessions for the Borough, and on which they were convicted of assaulting a peace-officer sent into the gaol to quell a riot it appeared in evidence that the prison was in a most unsatisfactory state, both with regard to the morals and to the comforts of the prisoners ; and I verified the statements of the witnesses by a visit I made to the gaol the day but one following the trial. The day-rooms * Sixth Report of Inspectors of Prisons. III. /Southern and Western District, pp. 231-2. Sequel to Charge of April, 1855. 457 of the prisoners consist of the under- kitchen and cellars of a building formerly a dwelling-house; the poor prisoners (at present amounting to more than twenty) are confined in the cellars, from which they have no means of exit, except into a very small yard (sixteen feet by thirteen and a half). Of these cellars, two in number, one only is habitable. This is eighteen feet nine inches, by thirteen feet eight inches ; its height being only seven feet. The other is used as a general dressing-room. It has a grated window at the top communicating with a public passage, and at this window a prisoner is stationed to beg alms from the passengers. The under- kitchen is appropriated to debtors who are about to take the benefit of the Insolvent Debtors' Act. In this place, women prisoners are also confined, to whichever class they may belong. I saw one. She associates with the men during the day, but sleeps in a room by herself; some of the male prisoners, however, sleeping in an inner room, the communication to which is cut off during the night by placing a padlock on the door; to the great danger, as it appeared to me, of the lives of the men if a fire should break out. Such of the male prisoners as will not, or cannot, pay zs. per week each for a bed, sleep together upon straw in two large bays, both in the same room. Each bay is calculated to hold thirteen prisoners, and, when full, the allowance per man is only a width of ten inches. The prisoners complained that their straw was infested with lice. The keeper, on the other hand, said the prisoners' straw was changed as often as they required it. The prisoners also complained that they were supplied with impure water. This was denied by the keeper, and I had no means of ascertaining the truth; but, having observed a spirit of exaggeration regarding some other matters, I do not place implicit reliance on the statement. The keeper admitted that the day-rooms were infested with rats. There seems no pro- vision in the Acts establishing the court and the prison, for supplying the debtors with food. They are permitted, however, to receive such as is brought to them by their friends ; and that source failing, an allowance of bread (but of bread alone) has been made for some years to them by the guardians of the poor. There is a large and somewhat airy yard, on one side of the cellar, used as a day-room; and into this yard the keeper sometimes permits the prisoners to walk ; but, he says. 45 8 Sequel to Charge of April, 1855. he has been obliged to withhold this privilege lately, on account of the turbulent conduct of his inmates, which had put him not seldom in fear of his life. The prisoners exact a contri- bution of half-a- crown towards fire and candle from every new- comer ; and the process by which they obtain it is as follows : They arm themselves with old swords, which the keeper stated had, to his knowledge, been kept six-and-twenty years for this purpose. They surround the new prisoner, terrifying him with their swords, and insulting him in various ways, sometimes using considerable violence. When he has gone through this cere- mony, which is called f chumming/ the contribution is demanded; and if not instantly paid, the new-comer is stripped of his coat and waistcoat, which are detained from him until the money is raised. I asked for a sight of their swords, but the keeper said he had sent them away on the evening of the trial, which was on Saturday; and although my visit was made early on the morning of Monday following, he had procured workmen, who were already in the day-rooms preparing to whitewash them. The exposure consequent on the trial will, therefore, probably do some good at least for a time; but it does not appear to me that, by any improvements short of extensive alteration in the building itself, the prison can be put on a proper footing. I was informed by the Mayor, that he had written to you upon the subject; and he showed me an answer from Mr. Phillips, stating that it was your intention to take the matter into con- sideration. It has occurred to me, however, that the evidence on the trial the material part of which I have now given together with the information I obtained on my visit, might, perhaps, furnish some facts in addition to those of which you are already in possession. ' I have the honour to be, Sir, &c., 'M. D. HILL. "The Right Hon. Sir J. Graham, Bart., &c. &c.' To this letter the following answer was received : < Whitehall, 6th April, 1844. f SIR, I am directed by Secretary Sir James Graham to inform you, with reference to your letter of the 1 2th of January last, that he has pointed out to the Commissioners of the Court of Bequests at Birmingham the necessity of their taking irnme- Sequel to Charge of April, 1855. 459 diate measures to provide a suitable prison, and of abstaining from committing persons until they have provided one. ' I am, Sir, Your obedient servant, < S. M. PHILLIPS. 'M. D. Hill, Esq., Kecorder of Birmingham.' The Commissioners expended five hundred pounds in im- provements ; but on the establishment of County Courts, which followed shortly afterwards, the prison was abandoned as a place of confinement. The vitality of an abuse will be strikingly illustrated by comparing the foregoing account of the Birmingham prison with the description of the usages prevailing in a metropolitan gaol in the year 1751, as described by the pen of Fielding in the second chapter of Amelia. ' Mr. Booth was no sooner arrived in the prison, than a number of persons gathered round him all demanding garnish ; to which Mr. Booth not making a ready answer, as indeed he did not understand the word, some were going to lay hold of him, when a person of apparent dignity came up, and insisted that no one should affront the gentleman. This person, then, who was no less than the master or keeper of the prison, turning towards Mr. Booth, acquainted him that it was the custom of the place for every prisoner, upon his first arrival there, to give something to the former prisoners to make them drink. This, he said, was what they called garnish; and concluded with advising his new customer to draw his purse upon the present occasion. Mr. Booth answered, that he would very readily com- ply with this laudable custom was it in his power, but that, in reality, he had not a shilling in his pocket, and, what was worse, he had not a shilling in the world. f Oho ! if that be the case/ cries the keeper, ' it is another matter, and I have nothing to say V Upon which, he immediately departed, and left poor Booth to the mercy of his companions, who, without loss of time, applied themselves to uncasing, as they termed it, and with such dexterity, that his coat was not only stript off, but out of sight in a minute. ' Mr. Booth was too weak to resist, and too wise to complain of this usage. As soon, therefore, as he was at liberty and 460 Sequel to Charge of April, 1855. declared free of the place, he summoned his philosophy, of which he had no inconsiderable share, to his assistance, and resolved to make himself as easy as possible under his present circumstances/ He had been committed on a charge destitute of foundation, because he had not half-a-crown to buy it off. The justice is thus depicted : ' Mr. Thrasher, however, the justice before whom the prisoners above mentioned were now brought, had some few imperfections in his magistratical capacity. I own, I have been sometimes inclined to think, that this office of a Justice of Peace requires some knowledge of the law ; for this simple reason, because, in every case which comes before him, he is to judge and act according to law. Again, as these laws are contained in a great variety of books ; the statutes which relate to the office of a Justice of Peace making of themselves at least two large volumes in folio ; and that part of his jurisdiction, which is founded on the common law, being dispersed in above a hundred volumes, I cannot conceive how this knowledge should be acquired without reading ; and yet, certain it is, Mr. Thrasher never read one syllable of the matter. c This, perhaps, was a defect ; but this was not all ; for where mere ignorance is to decide a point between two litigants, it will always be an even chance whether it decides right or wrong ; but, sorry arn I to say, right was often in a much worse situation than this, arid wrong hath often had five hundred to one on his side before that magistrate ; who, if he was ignorant of the laws of England, was yet well versed in the laws of nature. He perfectly well understood that fundamental prin- ciple so strongly laid down in the institutes of the learned Rochefoucault, by which the duty of self-love is so strongly enforced, and every man is taught to consider himself as the centre of gravity, and to attract all things thither. To speak the truth plainly, the Justice was never indifferent in a cause, but when he could get nothing on either side/ The Trading Justice, notwithstanding the stinging satire of Fielding, and his own high-minded example as a magistrate, survived in some parts of the country until a period within my own memory at the Bar. The race is now, I believe, like that of the Dodo, extinct. The halitat of the last specimen I ever heard Sequel to Charge of April, 1855. 461 of, was at Warwick. He had the reputation of making orders on any matter within his jurisdiction, on receiving instructions and half-a-crown, which had used to be not infrequently brought to him (said report), by village-carriers and market-women ; so that on such occasions he neither saw witnesses nor parties. Shortly before his death he had made an order of affiliation. On appeal to the Quarter Sessions, his brother magistrates quashed the order in furore, the case completely breaking down; on which, being counsel for the appellant, I applied for costs against the respondents, the parish officers ; on the ground that they went a journey of twenty miles from their own parish, to find the only magistrate in the county who would have made such an order. The Court awarded the costs, a most unusual occurrence. It was said, at the time, that the old magistrate took the reproof which his brethren had thus administered to heart; and that he never left his house after that day. Certain it is that he died within a fortnight. Additional information on the subject of this Charge will be found in a pamphlet on the Inutility of Grand Juries ;* which, in addition to valuable matter supplied by the author, contains well-chosen extracts from the Eighth Report of the Commis- sioners on Criminal Law, 1845. In answer to a question pro- posed by the Commissioners, Lord Den man says ' I can see no benefit produced by Grand Juries, but the co-operation of the higher and middle classes in the administration of justice. But this I estimate very highly, and hope it may be preserved through all changes by some means or other.' * Observations on the Inutility of Grand Juries ; and Suggestions for their Abolition. 2nd edition. 1857. London: Benning and Co. 462 CHAEGE OF OCTOBER, 1855. GENTLEMEN OF THE GRAND JURY I HAVE chosen for the subject of my present Charge, that mode of treating criminals which has been called { the Ticket-of-leave System/ Of late, this plan has attracted much attention in Parlia- ment, in courts of justice, and in the public journals. The general impression seems to be that it does not work well. For myself, I am disposed to think that the effect of its operation, so far as it has hitherto been tried, has been exaggerated, both for evil and for good. But I should be grieved to find the system condemned in its theory, even supposing its practice has hitherto been open to animadversion, because it embodies what I hold to be two most salutary principles : First, that the criminal should have the opportunity of working his way out of gaol ; and second, that he should, for a limited period, be liable to be deprived of his liberty so regained, if his course of life should be such as to give reasonable ground for belief that he had relapsed into criminal habits. To understand the true bearings of the questions which I intend to raise for your consideration, it will be necessary to take a comprehensive view of that general treatment of criminals, which results from the operation of a public opinion making itself felt in the Legislature and the Executive Govern- ment ; and often, unconsciously to the agents, dictating the verdicts of juries, and qualifying the sentences of our courts ; such opinion acting in combination with other circumstances over which none of these authorities have any effective control. Time was and the era is not so long past, but that many of us have a vivid remembrance of its horrors when our penal code was the most sanguinary of the civilized world. The list of offences punishable with death presented a fearful catalogue, descending from wilful murder down to privately stealing in a shop to the amount of 55. Nor were the terrors Charge of October, 1855. 463 of the law permitted to sleep; so that when the feelings of the people at last awoke to the cruelty of these inflictions, they were outraged at every turn with appalling scenes of legal vengeance. As might have been expected by reflecting minds conversant with history, and learning from its pages the vicissitudes of public sentiment, an overwhelming force of opinion became directed against the ferocious policy which had so long pre- vailed,; and, as you know, the list of capital offences was not only promptly reduced to the narrowest limits, but, the disposi- tion towards lenity outstripping the course of legislation, we are at length arrived at the point when, even in deliberate murder, it is not an inflexible rule that conviction shall be followed by execution. Gentlemen, during the period while so many offences were punished with death, the commutation of the capital sentence to one of transportation being an act of mercy, the minor, though still heavy penalty, was not regarded as severe ; but when capital punishment became applicable only to a small class of crimes, transportation began to be looked upon in a different light ; and now that, by the refusal of all our colonies, except one, to admit convicts among them, transportation has been in great part abolished, a similar feeling begins to pre- vail against long terms of imprisonment; which makes way all the more quickly, because long imprisonments, not having been imposed by sentence during the period that capital punish- ment and transportation were freely resorted to, present an aspect of novelty greatly deceptive, since a large proportion of convicts sentenced to transportation, were at all times left in the hulks to be punished by confinement, extending by law through the whole period for which they were adjudged to be sent abroad ; although it was usual to discharge them after a deten- tion of much inferior length. How far this disposition gradually to lessen the amount of punishment will be carried, it is impossible to predict. All I can say is, that its progress is very rapid, and that it shows no sign of having approached its termination. We might suppose, at first sight, that shortening terms of confinement would furnish a means of relieving the pressure on the capacity of our prisons ; and would enable us to provide for the surplus numbers 464 Charge of October, 1855. caused by the stoppage of transportation. But those who are practically acquainted with the subject, know that a short im- prisonment is likely to be followed by a speedy relapse; and that the prisoner often returns to captivity, bringing with him companions whom, in the interval of enlargement, he had seduced into crime. Recollecting these difficulties, Gentlemen, you will not per- haps be surprised that the Government has not yet discovered a perfect solution of the hard problem What are we to do with our criminals ? In this state of perplexity it resolved on adopting, to a limited extent, the first principle to which I have adverted that of making the duration of the imprison- ment dependent on the conduct of the prisoner. It did riot apply the principle universally, perhaps because it was not pre- pared to contend with the strong, although, I must think morbid feeling in favour of slight imprisonments ; under which the culprit remains too short a time to benefit much by any reformatory system, however potent. Thus it restricted the experiment to the cases of such convicts as had incurred the penalty of transportation, or that of penal servitude. Gentle- men, I speak upon conjecture, but I must presume the existence of some cogent reason which induces the Government to deny to the lesser offender the privilege of earning his discharge by his own exertions, while it concedes it to the greater criminal who has incurred heavier punishment ; and I am not aware of any other reason than the one which I have pointed out. If, however, the reason suggested should be that on which the Government is really acting, I trust it will be remembered that many convicts, not liable to transportation or penal servitude, are sentenced to imprisonment for as long a period as two, and, in some cases, three and even four years; and that many instances may be found in the returns made to the House of Lords, in which a much less time has been held to furnish a sufficient length of probation to justify the grant of tickets-of-leave. But, Gentlemen, if you desire, as I most earnestly do, to see this principle universally adopted, you must be prepared to strengthen the hands of Government, by advocating such a change in the law as will enable those who administer the criminal justice of the country to retain in custody all such as are convicted of crime, until they have, by reliable tests, demonstrated that they Charge of October, 1855. have the will and the power to gain an honest livelihood when at large. You must be content that they shall be retained until habits of industry are formed until moderate skill in some useful occupation is acquired until the great lesson of self- control is mastered in short, until the convict ceases to be a criminal, resolves to fulfil his duties both to God and to man, and has surmounted all obstacles against carrying such resolutions into successful action. But as no training, however enlightened and vigilant, will produce its intended effects on every individual subjected to its discipline, what are we to do with the incurable ? Gentlemen, we must face this question : we must not flinch from answering, that we propose to detain them in prison until they are released by death. You keep the maniac in a prison (which you call an asylum) under similar conditions; you guard against his escape until he is taken from you, either because he is restored to sanity, or has departed to another world. If, Gentlemen, innocent misfortune may and must be so treated, why not thus deal with incorrigible depravity ? This is a question which I have asked times out of number, without ever being so fortunate as to extract a reply. It is always tacitly assumed that imprisonment must not be perpetual; but whether that assumption is founded on any reason supposed to arise out of the nature of things, or whether it only rests on the present state of public feeling, I know not. If the former ground is taken, I would give much to learn what the argument is ; when disclosed, I must either answer it or yield to it ; but while I am kept in the dark, each alternative is barred against me. If, however, this assumed inadmissibility of perpetual im- prisonment is rested on the present state of public sentiment, I have seen too often the change from wrong to right in that mighty power, to despair of its becoming an ally instead of an opponent. It is my belief that if long terms of imprisonment, even to perpetuity, were placed before the public mind as indis- solubly connected with the privilege to the convict of working out his own redemption from thraldom, by proving himself fit for liberty, it would require no great lapse of time to produce the change in opinion which I contemplate. Alarm on the score of expense ought not to be entertained, for two reasons. First, because no unreformed inmates of a prison, however extravagant its expenditure may be, cost the H H 4<56 Charge of October, 1855. community so much as they would do if at large. This fact has been so often proved that I must be allowed to assume it as undeniable. But the second reason is, that prisons may be be made either altogether, or to a very great extent, self-sup- porting. In some of the Western States of the North American Republic this important object has been more than accom- plished, as the labour of the prisoners yields a revenue greater than is required for their food, lodging, and clothing, their government, and their instruction ; in short, for all the various items which form the total expenditure of a gaol. It is quite true that labour is more valuable, and that food is cheaper in those States than it is with us. But, notwithstanding these facts, it was shown by the evidence which Mr. Charles Pearson adduced before the Committee of the House of Commons appointed to investigate this subject in 1850, to be in the highest degree probable that similar results might be obtained here. Whoever shall read that valuable testimony will, I cannot but think, even if not perfectly convinced, arrive at the conclusion that sufficient proof has been given to justify, if not to demand, such an experiment as would set the controversy at rest. Let me now, Gentlemen, call your attention more specifically to the ticket-of-leave men. By a statute passed in the year 1853, a new penalty was created under the name of ' penal servitude/ This penalty only differs from that of imprisonment with hard labour by the provision for restoring the prisoner to liberty without waiting for the expiration of his sentence namely, by a licence from the Secretary of State, the instrument certifying that such indulgence has been granted being called the ticket-of-leave. Until, however, the expiration of the term of penal servitude to which the convict has been adjudged by the sentence of the Court, the licence is liable to be revoked at the discretion of the Minister, and, when so revoked, the prisoner is recommitted in execution of his original sentence. This new penalty must now be substituted by the Courts in all cases formerly punished by transportation, except where his offence renders the convict liable to transportation for a period not less than fourteen years, while it may be substituted even for the longest terms. It was also provided that convicts under sentence of trans- Charge of October, 1855. portation at the passing of the Act, or subsequently sentenced to that punishment, should be made capable of benefiting by the licence of the Secretary of State on the same conditions as to revocation with those sentenced to penal servitude. Gentlemen, it is the provision for a conditional discharge from prison which has attracted public attention, and has given to the system its name. That both provisions are founded on sound principles is my firm belief, as I have already stated. It is obvious, however, that it is the first upon which the greatest stress ought to be laid, for this plain reason, that, in proportion as the means of reformation are furnished to the prisoner, and the tests of reformation are well chosen, and faithfully applied, in exactly that same proportion will the necessity for the second provision viz., the power of recalling the ticket-of-leave be diminished ; so that, if we would insure perfect tests, and a perfect application of them, the enlargement . of the prisoner might be made absolute in the first instance ; while, on the other hand, a convict imperfectly reformed will not ^infrequently be undeterred, by the power of revocation hung over him, from yielding eventually to the temptations to which, when at liberty, he is certain to be exposed. As a protection to society it is also, as it now stands, imperfect in this further particular, that the power of revocation terminates with the period fixed by the original sentence, which, at the time the licence is granted, may be nearly expired. This defect, however, might readily be amended ; the power of recall might remain in force until a certain fixed period after liberation, to be further extended if, during that same period, the recall should be made. And this brings me to what I consider the most serious defect in the statute. The condition which is set forth on the ticket-of-leave is as follows : ' The power of revoking or altering the licence of a convict will most certainly be exercised in case of his misconduct. If, therefore, he wishes to retain the privilege which, by his good behaviour under penal discipline, he has obtained, he must prove by his subsequent conduct that he is really worthy of her Majesty's clemency. To produce a forfeiture of the licence it is by no means necessary that the holder should be convicted of any new offence. If he associates with notoriously bad H II 2, 468 Charge of October, 1855. characters, leads an idle and dissolute life, or has no visible means of obtaining an honest livelihood, &c., it will be assumed that he is about to relapse into crime, and he will be at once apprehended and re-committed to prison under his original sentence/ It is not, Gentlemen, that I disapprove of placing these men again under restraint without evidence of their having com- mitted a new crime. I must have greatly changed my opinions before I could raise any objection of that kind. Possibly it may be remembered by some of those whom I have now the honour to address, that, in the year 1850, and again in the year 1851, I ventured to advise that all persons who had been con- victed of acts of dishonesty should be liable, when, in the belief of competent witnesses, they were leading a life of crime, to be called on for proof that they were in the enjoyment of the means of subsistence, drawn from lawful sources; that, in default of such proof, they should be held to bail for a limited period, and, in default of bail, should be committed to prison. The principle on which my proposed measure was founded has now been adopted by the Legislature, but without the safe- guard of a trial. According to the Act, the prisoner is deprived of his liberty by the mere stroke of the Minister's pen. The Legislature probably proceeded upon the ground that, as it is the confidence placed in his reformation which gains him his liberty, so if that confidence be lost, his privilege ought to be withdrawn. Nor am I, for one, much afraid that a power of this kind, however arbitrary, will be often abused. On the contrary, I believe the danger lies on the other side. It is so repugnant to the spirit of our laws to condemn without a trial, that an English Minister is under a much stronger temptation to withhold the exercise of such a power in cases where it is justly demanded, than to use it oppressively ; and, accordingly, symptoms of such forbearance are not wanting. Mr. Jardine, the London magistrate, lately complained that forty ticket-of- leave men infested the neighbourhood of his court ; meaning, doubtless, to intimate by that statement, that he had in his vicinity forty of such convicts, who had incurred the forfeiture of their licences by disappointing the expectations on which they were granted. If this be so, it would seem but reasonable that in each of these instances the ticket-of-leave should be Charge of October, 1855. 469 recalled, unless, indeed, the sentences have expired, when it would be incorrect to denominate these convicts ticket-of-leave men, since they stand only in the same position with all other prisoners who have received their absolute discharge. But, Gentlemen, it appears by a return made at the end of March last, that the practice is not to withdraw the licence until the convict stands charged with a new offence a deviation from the terms of the warning written upon the ticket-of-leave, which I am unable to explain except by the conjecture which I have offered to your notice. Gentlemen, I have said that the working of the system has been, as I think, exaggerated, both by its opponents and its ad- mirers, for evil and for good. For evil, because I feel certain that convicts who have now tickets-of-leave would have been released unconditionally after a detention not very much greater than that to which they have been subjected under the new system. And I ground this opinion on three important facts First, on the growing impatience of severe punishments evinced by the public; second, on the usage of liberating transports, not sent abroad, long before their terms of transportation have expired. To these two facts I have already adverted. The third is, that the Legislature, when it substituted penal servitude for trans- portation, very much abridged the duration of the punishment. Gentlemen, the real evil with which we have to contend stands thus : So long as we could impose our criminals on other communities we did not care to cultivate the science of reforma- tion ; arid now that this lazy and selfish resource has failed us, we, in the stress of our difficulties, are compelled suddenly to call upon the functionaries of our gaols to perform a task demanding qualifications with which, without a long previous training, it is unreasonable to expect them to be endowed, in that full measure which can alone insure success. Revolving these circumstances in your minds, you may, perhaps, Gentlemen, arrive at the conclusion that no small portion of the unpopularity which has fallen upon the new system is produced by its having come into existence just at the time when the country was beginning to suffer from the augmented number of convicts which the stoppage of transportation had liberated at home, instead of their being thrown into our colonial population as heretofore. The disease, if I may so illustrate my meaning, 470 Charge of October, 1855. results from the obstruction of the accustomed vent namely, transportation; but the remedy the ticket-of-leave system failing to work a perfect cure, has been censured as if it were the cause of the malady. Gentlemen, the reason why I think the system has been over- estimated for good as well as for evil is, because it applies only to a comparatively small class, and because the evidence of reformation still remains doubtful, although, I must admit, much more cogent, and applying to a larger proportion of the licences than I had expected to find it. And I make this admission without forgetting that large subtractions may be required from the estimated results. The estimate is, that from eighty to ninety per cent, of convicts discharged with tickets-of- \eave are permanently reformed. Gentlemen, there is, as you well know, an establishment at Mettray, in France, for the reformation of juvenile offenders, which stands at the head of all reformatory institutions. Met- tray enjoys every possible advantage. Its Founder and chief Director, M. Demetz, who, by his visit here last week, may be personally known to you, is a man of unrivalled ability, long Experience, and unexampled devotion to his great enterprise. His institution has gradually attained its present eminence by sixteen years of enlightened administration, conducted with sedulous care and assiduity; and yet even Mettray does not reclaim a greater proportion of its inmates than ninety per cent. Nevertheless, Gentlemen, ninety per cent, is, to my mind, a result so wonderful that nothing short of the very searching investigation which I have had the opportunity of making, could induce me to accept it as worthy of confidence ; and, that being so, I must be permitted to receive the estimate of reformations effected among the ticket-of-leave men with some doubt and misgiving, though with implicit reliance on the good faith with which it is promulgated. The truth is, that permanent re- formation demands years to test its reality, and the system has not been in operation for a sufficient length of time to furnish the required proof. The probabilities certainly look the other way. Mettray deals with young and plastic minds and bodies. It retains its wards a long time often for many years. None of them leave Mettray until employment is procured for them. Each is placed under the superintendence of some benevolent Charge of October, 1855. 471 person residing in the neighbourhood of his master, who watches over the youth with the care of a guardian. Mettray is looked upon by those who have been its inmates as a home. It is a high gratification to them to visit their ' Colonie,' as they are taught to call it. If they have not failed in their duties they are always kindly welcomed, and should they, through sickness or other misfortune, be thrown out of work, they find hospitable reception at Mettray. Gentlemen, I shall be most agreeably surprised if experience shall justify those who superintend our ticket-of-leave system in placing their estimate so nearly on a par with the proved results of Mettray. It must, however, be remembered that we have all much to learn on the subject ; and I do not forget that, in the opinion of Captain Maconochie, it is easier to reform adult than juvenile offenders. I will own that I have always regarded this view as paradoxical. Still it may be confirmed by experience, and may explain away the difficulty which now prevents my yielding a complete assent to the estimate on which I have been commenting. It has been surmised, Gentlemen, that the tests on which the authorities rely for the reformation of the candidate for a licence, are of an unsatisfactory nature. It is said I know not on what authority that too much weight is given to the opinion which may be entertained of a convict by the chaplain. It is assumed that the chaplain will be very much guided by what he may suppose to be the depth and sincerity of religious impressions made upon the heart of the prisoner ; and, reasoning on such presumption, it is argued that the life of a prisoner, subjected, as his actions are, to minute regulation and constant supervision, affords no tests by which it could be ascertained how far such impressions are genuine, and of a permanent character. If, Gentlemen, the premises are well-founded, I shall be com- pelled to adopt the conclusion at which the objectors have arrived, at least until more freedom of action is allowed to prisoners than they at present enjoy. But it is my good for- tune to know several of the able and exemplary men who fill the office of gaol chaplain ; and judging of the body by those of its members with whom I am acquainted, I hold them as little disposed to depend on such fallacious tests as the most jealous objector can himself be. It is so obvious that the fate 472 Charge of October 3 1855. of the prisoner should not depend upon a vague general opinion, but should be founded on an accumulation of facts, day by day recorded, that I should require strong evidence against the authorities of any prison before I could be led to believe that they had fallen into an error so glaring. Doubtless, a punctual attention to religious observances, where the prisoner has an option to fulfil or neglect them, must not be omitted in the account. But there is danger in giving any very great weight to manifestations of this kind, inasmuch as, even when they are based in sincerity, the prisoner is tempted to exaggeration in their display ; so that what is pure in its inception becomes corrupt through the hope of temporal advantage. This danger is felt so strongly at Mettray that a provision is made against it, which perhaps will startle those to whom the treatment of prisoners and its difficulties is a novel study. The conductors, when they have confidence in the individual, are well pleased to see him begin to join in the sacrament of the Lord j s Supper, having found by experience that after this event an improve- ment is generally visible in his moral conduct. But as such an effect can only be produced when the communicant is acting from pure motives and on settled resolutions, not only is it provided that no secular benefit shall accrue to him from taking part in this communion, but, as an admonition not to approach the table in a rash or presumptuous spirit, every fault he may commit for the week following receives punishment of double severity. Yet, Gentlemen, although it has not been given us to search the heart of the prisoner, and to distinguish by any sure criterion between those manifestations of his spiritual condition which are sincere, and those which are merely specious, still we are not left without tests on which we may safely rely. < By their fruits ye shall know them 5 is one, the value of which the highest authority has taught us to prize. We may rejoice that it is of easy application to that quality which, of all others, it is most essential should be acquired by the prisoner to insure him against relapse I mean industry. We can measure the quantity of labour and estimate its value, especially if it be of the simpler kinds, with some approach to accuracy. Let, then, an account be opened with each prisoner, placing to his credit the value of his labour the real value, if productive labour can Charge of October, 1855. 473 be found ; an assumed value, or rather a value upon an assumed scale, if his labour be not of a productive kind. Let him clearly understand that each day's labour will tell upon his liberation. If large in quantity and good in quality, it will materially advance him on his way. On the other hand, if deficient in either of these attributes, his progress will be retarded. But a distant future, however bright and no brighter prospect can open to the eyes of a prisoner than that of liberty will not suffice without some hope of benefit nearer at hand. Let the prisoner, then, be allowed to expend a part of his earn- ings in the improvement of his diet. By acting on these principles we shall have provided for training him in habits of industry. But, although industry will, when he leaves his prison, furnish him with the means of honest maintenance, yet, unless he has learnt the art of self-government, he will not be effectually protected against the temptations to fall back into evil courses by which he will be assailed. Let him, then, be informed that every subtraction from the fund created by his labour for the indulgence of his palate will, like indolence, retard the hour of freedom ; thus he will be taught economy. Gentlemen, other habits are very desirable, but these are essential ; and, having explained how they may be induced, I must not dwell on the means of reformation at greater length. Those among you who desire to give full scope to your inquiries upon this interesting subject, to learn into how many ramifications reformatory science of necessity runs how its dif- ficulties are to be overcome, and how contending claims are to be adjusted must consult the works of Captain Maconochie. The principle that the convict should be detained, until by industry and good conduct lie has earned his right to be free, was first enunciated by Archbishop Whately ; but it was developed into a system, and thus rendered capable of practical application, by Captain Maconochie. May his services, even yet, late though it be, obtain for him some recognition from his country, before the day shall arrive when earthly recompence will avail him nothing ! 474 Sequel to Charge of October, 1855. SEQUEL. ARCHBISHOP WHATELY. ' WITH respect to every sentence of confinement to hard labour, whether at the tread-wheel, or of any other kind, we would venture to suggest what we cannot but consider as a most important improvement, viz., that instead of a certain period of time, a convict should be sentenced to go through a certain quantity of work. We mean that a computation should be made of the average number of miles for instance which a man sentenced to the tread-wheel would be expected to walk in a week and that then, a sentence of so many weeks' labour should be interpreted to mean, so many miles ; the convict to be released when, and not before, he had ' dreed his weird ;' whether he chose to protract or to shorten the time of his penance. In the same manner he might be sentenced to beat so many hundred-weight of hemp ; dig a ditch of such and such dimensions, &c. ; always exacting some labour of all prisoners, and fixing a minimum sufficiently high to keep up the notion of hard labour, but leaving them at liberty as to the amount of it above the fixed daily task. The great advantage resulting would be, that criminals, whose habits probably had previously been idle, would thus be habituated not only to labour, but to form some agreeable association with the idea of labour. Every step a man took in the tread- wheel, he would be walking out of prison; every stroke of the spade would be cutting a passage for restoration to society/* Since the publication of this Charge, Captain Maconochie has stated to me that he has been misapprehended as regards the facility of reforming adult, compared with that of reforming juvenile offenders. His opinion, he says, is, not that the aspirations of adults, and their habits, are more easily changed * Whatelys Lectures on Political Economy : with Remarks on Tithes, Poor-laws, and Penal Colonies. Fourth Edition. 1855. London : J. W. Parker and Son. p. 251. [This article first appeared in 1829, in a periodical work, long defunct, entitled the London Review.] Sequel to Charge of October, 1855. 475 than those of the young, but that, when changed, the reformation is more likely to be permanent. Penal servitude is not accurately denned in this Charge. A sentence to penal servitude empowers the Crown to remove the convict from the prison to which he is sent in execution of the judgment against him to the hulks, or to the Convict Prisons, as they are called, which have been established with the view of superseding the hulks. It is, however, to be lamented that the change has proceeded so tardily. So long ago as the year 1801, Jeremy Bentham denounced, in correspondence with the Ministers of the day, the dire abo- minations inseparable, as it would appear, from confinement on board these vessels. And yet, so late as the Session of 1856, a Committee of the House of Commons had still to advise f that the hulk system, which appears, by the evidence, to be already in a great measure relinquished, should be finally abandoned, with as little delay as possible/* That evidence proving the accursed system, to which the attention of the Government had been called more than half a century before the Committee sat, to be still at its work of pollution. Whoever desires to verify the statement that atrocious crimes are the inevitable concomitants of the detention of convicts on board the hulks, may read Bentham's Letter to Sir Charles Bunbury, written in the year j.8oi.f It appears that the atten- tion of the Government had even then been called to the sub- ject, not merely to the fact that such things were, but to the impossibility of preventing their recurrence. Private informa- tion, from a source of undoubted authority, assures me that, neither at home nor abroad, have efficient means been discovered, up to this day, for extinguishing these horrors. It would be monstrous to suppose that any effort has been spared to obliterate this foul stain, and yet if the impossibility of accom- plishing this object has been established, how can we continue the practice of transportation ? What are the vessels which convey the convicts to their destination but hulks in motion? What are hulks but transport vessels at rest ? * Committee on Transportation, House of Commons. Third Report. Session 1856. f Benthani's Works, edited by Bowring. Vol. xi., p. 120. 476 Sequel to Charge of October, 1 855. In the evening of a long life devoted to tlie improvement of his country and mankind, and, in an especial manner, to the reformation of our criminal laws, Lord Brougham has to avow, with grief and indignation, that still ' the utterly execrable, the altogether abominable hulk, lies moored in the face of the day which it darkens, within sight of the land which it insults, riding on the waters which it stains with every unnatural excess of infernal pollution, triumphant over all morals P* When this Charge was delivered, the distinction made by the Home Office between convicts adjudged to transportation and those adjudged to penal servitude, by which the privilege of tickets-of-leave is withheld from the latter class, had not been drawn. This fact appears from the evidence of Colonel Jebb before the Transportation Committee already referred to. ' 1324. Sir John Pakington Has any rule been laid down by the Secretary of State, restricting the Act of Parliament, in the way I now advert to ; namely, by prescribing that tickets- of-leave should be granted to persons under sentence of trans- portation, but not to persons under sentence of penal servitude ? The Secretary of State has issued a rule by which convicts are made aware that sentences of penal servitude have been substituted in some cases for sentences of transportation, and that those sentences, being of much shorter duration than the sentences of transportation, are to be taken in place of them, and that the convict shall not, therefore, as a general rule, look forward to a remission; but the Secretary of State has also said that he will be prepared to take into consideration any special cases which may be brought before him. ' 1325. What is the date of that rule ? That rule was issued in November, 1855. f 1326. Chairman Was the date at which the notice referred to in Question 980 was issued, the month of November, 1855 ? Yes, it was ; and in the interval between the passing of the Act of 1853 and the issue of that notice, the men were in a state of uncertainty as to what would happen to them. ' 1327. Sir J. Pakington Can you tell this Committee * Lord Brougham's Paper read at the First Provincial Meeting of the National Reformatory Union, held at Bristol, August, 1856. Authorized Report, p. 63. Sequel to Charge of October, 1855. 477 whether, during that period (namely, from the passing of the Act in 1853 to November, 1855), any intention had been announced by the Secretary of State upon that subject ? No. ' 1328. Did you yourself know, from the passing of the Act in 1853 to November, 1855, whether the ticket-of-leave system was to be extended to penal servitude convicts or not? I was not aware ; / was in hopes it might, in consequence of its being left open in the Act, and knowing the extreme importance of placing before prisoners that strong inducement ; but I was not fully aware whether it would be done. It was under considera- tion for a long time. ' 1329. It was left open, in fact, for two years? It was left open for nearly two years/* The discussions in the public journals which followed the publication of my Charge produced a letter to the Times by Colonel Jebb, from which I learnt what were the intentions of the Secretary of State. The sentences to penal servitude during the two years and a- quarter which had elapsed since the passing of the Ticket-of-Leave Act amounted, at Birmingham, to 159. As the Act had drawii no distinction between the two classes as regards the privilege in question, convicts had been adjudged to longer terms of penal servitude than would have been fixed upon, had it been known to the Court that such distinction would be made, and the prisoner was generally informed that he had it in his power, by industry arid good conduct, to shorten very materially his term of confinement. Under these painful circumstances, I felt it my duty strongly to urge upon the executive Government the justice and expediency of refraining from a retro-active operation of its rule, but without effect. The Home Secretary, however, kindly informed me of his willingness to mitigate sentences delivered under the impression which had been announced to the convicts, and the result was, that they have been shortened to one-third of their length.f The reception of this Charge by the press showed, in the * First Eeport of Committee on Transportation, House of Commons. 1856. p. 126. f See my Evidence, Transportation Committee. Second Eeport, Question 18651874. App. Second Eeport, p. 175. 478 Sequel to Charge of October, 1855. great number of contradictory opinions which its discussion brought to light, how various and unsettled are the notions as to the treatment of criminals afloat in society. In the Times of October nth appeared the following leading article : ' Mr. M. D. Hill, the Recorder of Birmingham, has just delivered a very important Charge to the Grand Jury at the opening of the Quarter Sessions in that town. The subject the learned gentleman chose for his address was the ticket-of-leave system as at present practised in this country. As a social question, this is one of the most important points which he could have brought under public notice. The system, as at present administered, is a social nuisance of the worst kind. Mr. M. D. Hill appears as its advocate, and, consequently, from much that he has said we are compelled, with great reluctance, to differ. It is impossible to take up a police report, or any other record of criminal proceedings, and not to see that the ticket-of-leave men are among the most prominent malefactors in the country. Now we find them figuring in the annals of English Thuggee ; now they are supplying their ripe necessities by a series of the most desperate burglaries in the northern portion of the island ; now they are the chief actors in some brutal assault. The other day, a metropolitan magistrate complained that the neighbour- hood of his Court was infested by a gang of these ruffians, who occasioned him the greatest annoyance. The police could but remain silent ; they were well enough acquainted with the men and with their character. Mr. Hill says they could have arrested them ; Mr. Jardine and the police thought otherwise. Now, with these facts before us for they are facts, and strong facts it follows either that the theory upon which the system rests is radically wrong, or that it is badly administered. Mr. M. D. Hill denies both positions that is to say, he steps forward as a most energetic advocate of the theory, and he tells us that the estimate is, that from 80 to 90 per cent, of convicts discharged with tickets-of-leave are permanently reformed. Furthermore he states it as his opinion that the general impression with regard to the comparative facility with which gaol chaplains are duped by the prisoners into favourable reports, which result in tickets- of-leave, is founded upon error. ' It is my good fortune/ he Sequel to Charge of October, 1855. 479 said, ( to know several of the able and exemplary men who fill the office of gaol chaplain, and, judging of the body by those of its members with whom I am acquainted, I hold them as little disposed to depend on such fallacious tests as the most jealous ob- jector can himself be/ Of course our argument fails if Mr. Hill could prove a suggestion which he throws out in the course of his address. This is, that the so-called ticket-of-leave men are not ticket-of-leave men at all, but either discharged convicts or ticket-of-leave men who have exhausted their sentences. In this case, cadit qucestio ; there is an end of the matter. All that we have to do is to acknowledge that we have been misled by the judges, and magistrates, and police, and criminal reporters, and to leave Mr. Hill in complete possession of the field, and of a well-won triumph. Meanwhile, until better informed, we shall assume the ordinary impression to be the correct one, and argue as if it were so. The question of fact, of course, lies at the threshold of the discussion, and our very strong belief is that it must be decided against Mr. Hill. ' The theory, we said, upon which the ticket-of-leave system rests is wrong, or it is imperfectly and badly carried out. If the last point can be proved, as we think it can, it would be as yet premature to condemn the system which has not had a fair chance. On the contrary, the theory of condi- tional pardons recommends itself to the mind by every a priori consideration. Let us, for a moment, discard nominal reference to the present system, and surely it is obvious that the public have an additional guarantee if a convict discharged from imprisonment is for some time retained under the surveillance of the police. The ministers of justice can remit him to con- finement, not for the proved commission of any fresh crime, but because his general conduct appears to warrant the suspicion either that he is secretly a criminal, or that he will soon fall into criminal ways again. This is very high preroga- tive dealing; if the transaction be regarded in the light in which we have put it, the ticket-of-leave system merely calls facts by other names. Again, it is highly for the advantage of the public that they should as soon as possible be liberated from the expense of supporting a convict in gaol. The time for his restoration is not, of course, when he has expiated a sentence, arbitrarily pronounced in ignorance of the man's 480 Sequel to Charge of October, 1855. character, antecedents, and so forth; but when he gives fair promise of reformation. Every hour that he is detained in gaol after this is a dead loss to the public. The ticket-of-leave system helps us to sound conclusions also in this respect. The sentence may be pronounced by the judge, but it is adminis- tered by the gaoler. On the other hand, it would be much to be regretted if a convict should be let loose again upon society when the probability nay, the certainty is that he will at once relapse into his criminal courses. The ticket-of-leave system guards us also from this inconvenience, for by the help of it the judge can pronounce what is called a ' long sentence/ which can be remitted or maintained precisely according to the conduct of the convict. Fully conscious, as we are, of the benefit resulting to the public from this arrangement, we are yet compelled to admit that it has proved a failure; and we believe the failure to have arisen from the method 'of adminis- tration. Nor do we stand alone in this opinion. Upon such a subject, we are glad to invoke the testimony of an intelligent foreigner, whose eyes are not so liable to deception as our own through over familiarity with details. We call M. Demetz, of Mettray, to counsel the more readily as Mr. M. D. Hill has invoked his testimony, and we are therefore, as it were, examining his own witness. M. Demetz has been so obliging as to forward us copies of various publications connected with his Reformatory School at Mettray, for which we return him our best thanks ; and in one of these, written by himself, we find a discussion on the ticket-of-leave system. Few men in Europe have bestowed more anxious or more successful attention upon this subject ; and what is it that M. Demetz says of our practice ? ' Deja TAngleterre & adopte cette mesure ; mais nous avons des raisons de craindre que jusqu'a present Fappli- cation n j en ait pas ete faite avec toutes les precautions desirables/ This is just our opinion. The fault is not, as yet, proved to reside in the theory. If Mr. M. D. Hill could prove that we were not correct in our view that it is badly carried out, the natural conclusion would seem to be that the theory must be set aside altogether, and that we must look elsewhere, if we would reform our criminals and guard the public from harm. 1 As yet, and until the theory has a fair trial, it would be prema- Sequel to Charge of October, 1855. 481 ture to arrive at such a conclusion. A degree of rigour must be infused into the administration of the system such as has not yet been known. We do not, of course, mean that the convicts are to be subjected to any additional hardships ; but that the reality of their reformation must be tested in a far more stringent manner than heretofore. It must also be remembered that convict nature is human nature after all. What is to become of the old offender when he has been remitted to the town of his choice by the agency of the police, with his ticket-of-leave in his pocket* Suppose that matters go wrong with him the neighbours, for example, look askance on him the police discharge their duty of surveillance so clumsily or so inhumanly as to bring him under suspicion ; what is he to do ? We know, practically, what he does. He joins a company of men like himself, and levies war against society. We are only beginning to deal with this great ques- tion of the criminal population of the country, and years must pass before we have arrived at the right solution. Now that the colonies are closed against our crime, every criminal in the country will make the public responsible for him from his cradle to his grave, so we may as well consider what is the most effectual way of dealing with the difficulty. We had rather leave the question upon this plain, practical basis, than speak of charity, or philanthropy, for really the public have been so sickened with maudlin sentimentality and failures that any appeal to such feelings is, for the moment, likely to do more harm than good. We can't hang all the criminals. We can't transport them. If we did hit upon some new place for deportation, twenty years hence the same difficulty would meet us again in an exaggerated form. We must take the evil as it is, and we believe it will be found the cheapest and most politic course, as well as the most humane, to leave no stone unturned to bring about the reformation of the criminals, and not to discharge them upon society until they are reformed. In des- perate cases, we must even acquiesce in the conclusion of imprisonment for life as a necessity. What can be done in the way of self-supporting prisons, as in the United States ? The difficulty must be met; but, meanwhile, we protest, in the name of the British public, against this system of turning out criminals upon society, under the name of ' ticket-of-leave-men/ i i 482 Sequel to Charge of October, 1855. to rob us in the public streets by clay, to break into our houses at night, to assault and throttle unoffending persons in a word, to keep the country in a state of constant alarm/ The reasoning of the Times is thus combated in the Birming- ham Journal of October I3th : ' The subject of Mr. Hill's Charge, delivered on Monday, and reported in our Wednesday's edition, is the lately-adopted system of a remission of terms of imprisonment conditional on good conduct. Briefly, he maintains that the apprehensions felt by many, from Lord St. Leonards downwards, of the effects of the ticket-of-leave system upon society generally, and espe- cially upon crime, are exaggerated, as its salutary influences are also over-estimated ; that the principle of conditional discharge from prison is sound, supposing the tests of reformation are any- thing like perfect, but that the law is administered neither in the letter nor the spirit of the legislative enactment, and not in accordance with the principle upon which it is founded ; that no small portion of the unpopularity of the system is due to its commencement when the country was beginning to suffer from the stoppage of transportation, and the ticket-of- leave plan, failing to work a perfect cure, has been censured as if it were the cause of the disease itself. f It appears to us that in the main it is impossible to gainsay the reasoning upon which these statements are founded, as it is to dissent from the conclusions themselves, if it is once admitted that punishments are not merely the revenge of society, but have in view the reformation of the offender ; not merely his temporary abstraction from society, but a process of restoration and moral training which will fit him for returning to it. The theory of the learned Recorder is either right or wrong accordingly as this is admitted or denied. Grant that the lex talionis is no longer defensible, and it follows that the duration of the punishment of a criminal should be regulated by his abandonment of that condition of mind which prompted his offence, rather than by the expiry of the term of imprison- ment which has been fixed according to an arbitrary estimate of the gravity of the crime. If this be so, the principle of the ticket-of-leave system is correct, and if the tests of reformation Sequel to Charge of October, 1855. 483 were reliable; its practice would be attended by the best results to the erring criminal and to society also. But here the diffi- culty arises, for the temptation to deceit is great, and we must add that the mawkish sentimentality of the age fosters that credulity which a clever rogue knows how to turn to account. Undoubtedly if the law, as it stands, was enforced, the tempta- tion to hypocrisy would be greatly lessened, for the condition set forth on the ticket-of-leave itself states that the mere asso- ciation with bad characters will be sufficient to endanger the liberty of the holder. But the law is not enforced ; no evidence of misconduct short of actual crime is considered to justify a revocation of the licence ; the condition of freedom is therefore lost sight of. Practically, a ticket-of-leave is a free pardon, altogether independent of the conduct of the holder, if he stops short of actual crime, and then indeed he is amenable to the law, in common with criminals generally. How far the enforcement of the condition upon which the licence is granted would tend to make the system less dangerous to society, we are not prepared to say; but it is obvious that the law, as it stands, must be enforced before it can be said to have had a fair trial. As administered, we fear that the plan is not calculated to improve the tone of society, or conduce to the safety of life or property ; that a more thorough administration of the law, and a more perfect system of checks upon hypocrisy, would remove the chief causes of danger, is obvious ; but until that is tried, the balance of good or evil is a mere speculation. ' Before leaving this subject, it may be well to notice the extraordinary manner in which the Charge is discussed by the leading journal. With the best intention, no doubt, the Times submits Mr. HnTs arguments to the process of editorial analysis, but the writer, with the Charge before him, manages, with extraordinary infelicity, to misstate nearly every argument of the Recorder ; assuming that he has defended that which he specifically condemns, and using almost the same arguments to combat his imaginary antagonist which Mr. Hill employs to show why he does not believe that which the writer assumes he advocates. Independently of these misapprehensions, the whole article is a jumble of self-evident truisms and contradictions. Take this passage as an illustration : ' The other day a metro- politan magistrate complained that the neighbourhood of his i i 2 484 Sequel to Charge of October, 1 855. Court was infested by a gang of these ruffians, who occasioned him the greatest annoyance. The police could but remain silent ; they were well enough acquainted with the men and with their character. Mr. Hill says they could have arrested them ; Mr. Jardine and the police thought otherwise. Now, with these facts before us, for they are facts, and strong facts it follows either that the theory upon which the system rests is radically wrong, or that it is badly administered. Mr. M. D. Hill denies both positions that is to say, he steps forward as a most energetic advocate of the theory, and he tells us that the estimate is, that from 80 to 90 per cent, of convicts discharged with tickets-of-leave are permanently reformed/ 1 Did anybody ever read a more flagrant specimen of self- contradiction ? The writer, in reference to the complaint of Mr. Jardine, that a gang of forty ticket-of-leave men infested the neighbourhood of the Police Court, states that Mr. Hill says the police might have arrested them (and the Recorder proves it from the very conditions set forth in the ticket-of- leave) ; and in six lines below he asserts, what that fact itself and the whole tenor of Mr. Hill's Charge controverts, that not only the system, but its administration, has Mr. Hill for an advocate. The whole article is full of these misstatements and obvious absurdities, and is probably the worst specimen of writing, and the most unfair and pretentious abuse and use of argument which we ever remember to have seen in the generally able, but sometimes unequal leading columns of the Times ; for the writer, not content with misrepresenting the opinions of the Recorder, coolly appropriates his arguments, and in some instances his very language, to demolish the unsound ethics which the writer has been pleased to ascribe to him. The whole article is a mistake ; its admission into the columns of the Times the worst part of the blunder/ The Globe thus treats the questions in controversy : ' 'Globe, 9 October 13, 1855. ' The ticket-of-leave system is undergoing a discussion which must be extremely useful in sifting facts and forming opinion, before the subject shall be taken up again in Parliament. A correspondent of the Times } this morning, correctly says, that Sequel to Charge of October, 1855. 485 f the ticket-of-leave system is the only mode, at present, open to the Government to relieve themselves of the incubus daily increasing/ the accumulation of prisoners. And he makes several suggestions for improving the system, so as to correct the bad results of its present imperfect condition. ' Amicus' observes, that out-of-door occupations combine physical exer- tion with exercise of the mind, and have a more healthy influence than confinement within doors ; and he proposes that the convicts, before earning their freedom, should be subjected to a more rigorous test of their reform, and particularly to a longer trial under labour, in such hard works as the construc- tion of harbours of refuge around our coasts, roads through districts of difficult character, and similar enterprises, where ordinary labour cannot be employed without loss. These sug- gestions are excellent, and such provisions have always been comprised in the plans contemplated by the present reformers. An eminent practical philosopher, whose improvements have been useful in many a household, can never explain his latest inven- tion without going back to the first principles of mechanics ; and when a discussion is removed from a particular set to the public at large, we always have to begin from the commence- ment. Our surprise is, not that there should be some mistakes in taking up the point, but that the public, as may be inferred from the indications above cited, should have already got so far towards sound conclusions. ' As usual, however, those who learn the truth somewhat late in the day are apt to imagine that those who have taught them are sadly mistaken in the matter ; and, accordingly, we find a writer in a morning contemporary lecturing Mr. M. D. Hill, one of the most earnest, as he was one of the earliest, advocates of reformatory imprisonment upon the fallacies under which he labours. ' The ticket-of-leave system/ says our contempo- rary, ( is a social nuisance of the worst kind ; but Mr. M. D. Hill appears as its advocate/ On the contrary, Mr. M. D. Hill appears as its critic, and he explains why the system is, at present, a nuisance of the worst kind. It has, he says, ' been over-estimated for good as well as for evil' both its advocates and its opponents exaggerating the evidence that they have. It is impossible/ says our contemporary, ' to take up a police report, or any other record of criminal proceedings, and 486 Sequel to Charge of October, 1855. not to see that the ticket-of-leave men are among the most prominent malefactors in the country. Now, we find them figuring in the annals of English Thuggee ; now they are sup- plying their ripe necessities by a series of the most desperate burglaries in the northern portion of the island ; now they are the chief actors in some brutal assault. The other day a metro- politan magistrate complained that the neighbourhood of his Court was infested by a gang of these ruffians, who occasioned him the greatest annoyance. The police could but remain silent ; they were well enough acquainted with the men and with their character. Mr. Hill says they could have arrested them ; Mr. Jardine and the police thought otherwise/ f Mr. Hill could not have supposed that the police could have arrested them; what he says is, that the Secretary of State could issue an order to revoke the tickets if the men really had tickets-of-leave, and to return the men to prison. But, says Mr. Hill, since there is no provision for a proper examination or trial of the man on his being recommitted to prison, the Secretary of State hesitates to use a power so like a lettre de cachet, and the revocation of the ticket-of-leave is already almost in desuetude. Mr. Hill pointed to this very case as showing the imperfection of the present system. There are some other inaccuracies in the remarks of our contemporary. ' Mr. Hill/ he says, c tells us that the estimate of permanent reforms is from 80 to 90 per cent. ;' Mr. Hill mentions the estimate with an expression of his own opinion that it must be inaccurate, and says that ' nothing will induce him to accept it as worthy of confidence' without searching investigation. He is represented to say that gaol chaplains are not duped by the prisoners into favourable reports ; what he really observes is, that chaplains are not more likely to be misled than other men of the world by certain fallacious tests, such as great pretence of piety ; and we believe he is quite right. A clergyman in fact is as much more likely than a layman to discriminate the simulation of piety, as a mad doctor is to distinguish between real madness and feigned, a military surgeon between real disease and malingering. 'The fact is, that the ' ticket-of-leave system' is a name applied to a present arrangement, which has been adopted to a certain extent experimentally. The principles upon which it is grounded were entirely new to our jurisprudence. They are Sequel to Charge of October, 1855. 487 stated by Mr. Hill to be ' First, that the criminal should have the opportunity of working his way out of gaol; and second, that he should, for a limited period, be liable to be deprived of his liberty so regained, if his course of life should be such as to give reasonable ground for belief that he has relapsed into criminal habits/ When transportation to the principal Australian colonies was unavoidably abandoned, it became necessary to find some mode of disposing of criminals convicted of the graver classes of offence. Already Captain Maconochie had laid down the lines, if we may call it so, on which the system of the principles just expressed could be carried out, but the idea was entirely novel. The principles have hitherto been supported only by a comparatively limited class of persons, peculiarly studious on the subject. The public did not interfere in the matter, and did not lend its support, and Government naturally hesitated to commit itself too far at first. Hence the principles of the proposed system of penal servitude were carried out with great restrictions. In the present ticket-of-leave system the sentences of imprisonment are too short, the power over the criminals is too limited, and his release is too freely and unconditionally granted. Hence the criminal is returned to society unreformed, and the ticket- of-leave man is often as formidable as the unconvicted ruffian/ ' ( Few men in Europe have bestowed more anxious or more successful attention upon this subject, than M. Demetz/ says the Times ; ' and what is it that M. Demetz says of our prac- tice ? ' Deja I'Angleterre a adopt e cette mesure, mais nous avons des raisons de craindre que jusqu' a present ^application n } en ait pas ete faite avec toutes les precautions desirables.' This is just our opinion/ 1 With this powerful support there is no doubt that we shall be able to procure a further reform, which shall place the prac- tice in harmony with the theory/ The ' Spectator, 3 of the same date, contains the two following articles : 'CRIMINAL TREATMENT OF CRIMINALS. ' Laziness is the great vice which obstructs the improvement of society. We do not mean the laziness of the disreputable 488 Sequel to Charge of October, 1855. classes, but the vice as it shows itself in the most respectable, and even in those who would consider themselves the teachers and leaders of their kind. It is little less than laziness which makes the impatient class of reformers hasten to seize con- clusions without developing the necessary means to work out those conclusions, as though you could snatch loaves of bread out of the corn-field. And it is equally laziness which makes men assume that results cannot be attained, or even refuse to inquire into the means of attaining them. At this moment there is a great mass of experience, sound reasoning, and positive knowledge, which tell us what we should do with our criminals ; but the Legislature, and those who move the Legislature, are content to compromise with a great duty rather than go through a very moderate amount of proper labour in order to work out the question thoroughly. There are several interests at stake, all of them important. The object is to protect the innocent part of society if in this view such a part can be said to exist against the lawless irregularity of the criminal part. It may be conceded on a very simple principle of philosophy, that the shortest and cheapest mode to preserve society in a state of purity would be to kill off all criminals, and so to save the expense of their maintenance, and render the contamination of other classes absolutely impossible. There are two considerations that preclude this Draconian plan. One is, that a cruel law contaminates those who enforce it, and in extirpating a minority of criminals we should create a majority of criminals. The second, yet more important, has its root in the finite nature of human insight, and the slowness of human experience to work out its own best conclusions. Some of the most important truths to which we have attained have at an early stage of their development been regarded as heresies which it was criminal to admit or even to discuss ; arid if we were to adopt the plan of extirpating our criminals, we should, in our blundering fore- sight, confound the reformers with the criminals, and place extinction upon the progress of society without cutting out the cancer. f As we cannot send our criminals to Hades, we must bestow them somewhere else. We cannot follow Punch's plan of driving them 'to the world's edge and pitching them over/ They must abide with us in some way; and the question is, Sequel to Charge of October, 1855. 489 since they must exist, bow they can be lodged so as to inflict no wanton suffering upon themselves, and yet inflict a minimum of contamination upon society. The plan of transportation seemed, in a geographical sense, to be a substitute for dismissal to Hades ; but we cannot find any place in the world so little eligible for the ordinary purposes of life that emigrants not of the criminal class will fail to seek it ; and hence we established in the Australian Colonies, not a pure prison for criminal pur- poses, but a community with an enormous percentage of criminal element in it. When we tried to isolate the criminal element in Norfolk Island, we found ourselves manufacturing a concentra- tion of crime which it became an impiety to perpetuate. We discontinued the Norfolk Island forthwith, and followed it up with discontinuing Australia as the site for transportation. All these were rough and ready modes of getting rid of our criminals, without really considering what to do with them. We have put off that question to the present day, and still try to put it off; and, as usual, we are paid for our laziness with an increase of trouble and expense. ' Transportation was discontinued years ago : long before that time, those who had taken the trouble to inquire into the subject, like M. Demetz in France, Mr. M. D. Hill, Captain M aconochie, and Mr. Adderley in this country, had shown with more or less exactness of reasoning, and with great accuracy for practical purposes, the true manner of dealing with our criminals. It is possible to diminish the amount of the criminal class at the source, by cutting off the supply, and converting a large proportion of our youth into honest citizens. With great numbers the casualities of an excessively poor home, life in the streets, total neglect of education, contamination by associating with depraved relatives, and other incidents, render it almost impossible to find the path to an honest livelihood ; and a dishonest course therefore became the only natural means of subsistence. In order to block out this great recruitment of the criminal forces, a plan of reformatory discipline would be required for children who have actually fallen into bad courses, and a system of education accessible to all for those who have not yet lapsed; but we have deferred the system of public education until we can settle certain squabbles upon abstract sectarian questions ; each sect preferring to keep our youth in a 49 Sequel to Charge of October, 1855. state of ignorance which exposes it to crime, rather than permit the risk that one sect or other will have a better chance of getting hold of the rising generation. The plan of reformatory institutions has been adopted ; we have Parkhurst, Redhill, and other such schools : but if the principle upon which these institu- tions are founded is sound if there is any virtue in the success there attained it is certain that the same course ought to be pursued with all the criminal youth, and not confined to a simple percentage of that class. It would be of little service to vaccinate one in ten of the population ; if we intend to prevent the prevalence of small-pox, our only course is to enforce vaccination for all. But because we are too lazy thoroughly to investigate the working of our present system, and the necessary working of an improved system, we compromise the question by boasting of Redhill arid Parkhurst, and leave nine-tenths of the population unvaccinated against a disease worse than small-pox. ' So likewise with regard to the adult criminals. There is great reason to suppose that the circumstances which determine the adoption of an honest or criminal course of life, in most cases, are very trivial. Upon the whole, the understandings of this class are low ; they lapse more from ignorance than malig- nity. A modicum of well-supplied assistance would prevent crime in all but those few whose deformed nature places them in the order of lusus natures, and who in respect of criminal discipline may be regarded as practically insane. Their detention would be justified upon the same grounds that justify the detention of the insane. With regard to the other class, they are in the same condition so long as they are criminally dis- posed, that is, they are insane, and should be in safe custody. As soon as they have ceased to be criminally disposed, and become disposed, like ordinary people to earn their livelihood in an honest way, they are cured of their insanity, and may safely go at large. Speaking generally, this cure can, in most cases, be well tested. If the criminal have cheerfully com- pleted for a lengthened period a fair amount of task-work, he will have shown that he has acquired that frame of mind and those habits of hand which indicate social health. If, in the course of that discipline, he has found his condition, generally speaking, correspond with his own diligence in industry, there Sequel to Charge of October, 1855. 491 is the greater probability that the species of blind logic thus taught to his sensations will direct him out in the world. But our legislators at large will not take the trouble of examining the rule so soundly laid down by Mr. M. D. Hill, in addressing the Birmingham Grand Jury 1 ' If they desired, as he did, to see that principle adopted, they must be prepared to strengthen the hands of Government by advocating such a change in the law as would enable those who administered it to retain in custody all such as were convicted of crime until they had, by sure and unequivocal tests, proved that they had the will and the power to gain an honest liveli- hood when at large. They must face that question. They must keep the maniac in prison, under restraint, unless he is satisfactorily proved to be fit to return to society/ ' The conclusions which we are enforcing have been conceded, weighed, set aside for after- thought, re-examined, sifted, reduced to their best working form, and at last consistently advocated by some of the most influential men of all parties in this country as well as in France. We have had meetings on the Continent and in England; and within the last fortnight, besides the Conference of the friends of reformatory discipline at Birmingham, we have had M. Demetz, of Mettray, addressing friends at Bristol on the subject, and an admirable address by Mr. M. D. Hill to the Grand Jury at Birmingham. By degrees, no doubt, these earnest, consistent, and laborious reformers are gaining ground ; they have established their case clearly on the grounds of logic and of practical experience; they are obstructed by nothing but that inherent laziness which continues the influence of bad laws in keeping up the numbers and force of the criminal part of the population. It is thus shown as clearly as it is possible to establish any social fact, that, monsters and accidents excepted, we might cut off the larger part of the supply of criminals, and remove the larger portion of the permanent criminals from society: but society, too lazy to go into the detail, unwilling to take the responsibility which a conviction thus worked out could alone justify, again compromises the question with adult as well as juvenile offenders, and in lieu of detaining the culprit until he has proved his cure, determines that he shall be sentenced to an imprisonment for a definite period, as if we said to a man labouring under 493 Sequel to Charge of October, insanity, or under any infectious disease, you shall go to the doctor's for two months, then to be driven forth upon society, cured or uncured/ ' THE ADHESION OF THE ' TIMES. f The adhesion of the Times to the principle which we have just been enforcing is a distinct event in itself. When that powerful organ adopts a principle, we infer that the principle is no longer militant in an order of devoted adherents, but triumphant in popular acceptance. Tt was a consciousness of the stamp of currency which the leading journal can give, that made Sir Robert Peel convey to the office in Printing-house Square the special thanks for support, which Mr. Carlyle first brought before the public in his Memoir of Mr. John Sterling. If the Times, faithful to its own title, strives to reflect the prevailing opinion of the day, it has only the more largely identified itself with such opinion, and acquired a larger power to distinguish opinion as being received. We may sometimes smile at the facility with which our great contemporary can take up a neglected cause just at the happy moment when the coming success of a principle may assist the success of a journal; but when it adopts propositions which we have at heart, we all of us congratulate ourselves on the event, and believe that we have success because the Times aids us. For several years, with little help from contemporary journalism, we had held the faith which we have just been preaching with renewed hope, that no convicted and imprisoned criminal should be restored to liberty until he shall have earned it by labour and conduct : the Times now adopts the same creed, and we infer that society at large is on the point of adopting it. ' Somewhat new to the cause, our contemporary, indeed, slightly misconceives the representations of its oldest advo- cates. For example, Mr. Hill, defending the principles on which the ticket-of-leave system is based, insists that the prin- ciples are sound, although they are exposed to serious miscon- ception by their imperfect application in the existing system : the Times seems to regard Mr. Hill as being in some way a defender of the system as it is. Again, Mr. Hill mentions the alleged effect of the ticket-of-leave system upon the adult Sequel to Charge of October , 1855. 493 criminals, as resulting in the reform of 90 per cent. figures which he mentioned in order to express his strong doubt of their accuracy; and yet the figures are cited against him as his own. These, however, are minor errors, and since they must get corrected in the progress of discussion now likely to become practical, they will do no serious harm. Certain we are, that Mr. Hill, like Archbishop Whately, Captain Macono- chie, and the other labourers in the same field, will take little um- brage at small mistakes, while they can congratulate themselves upon so fortunate an adherence as that of the great journal. It is hardly an exaggeration to say that the Times may do more in a single article than any other or all other educators of opinion in long years of toil. All we ask is, that the leading journal, having reached the top of the hill, will put a ' scotched behind its wheels, and not run back to the bottom ; a mishap at which it would be easy to scold, but which scolding would not mend/ The c Examiner' of the same date writes as follows : 1 THE TICKET-OF-LEAVE SYSTEM. ' Mr. M. D. Hill has made the ticket-of-leave system the text of his Charge at the Birmingham Quarter Sessions. The conclu- sion he has arrived at, and to which he endeavours to conduct the public, is, that the effects of the system have been exagge- rated both for good and evil. This is always a safe judgment ; as there is nothing in the world of which the precise truth is thought and said, our language being shaped to a magnifying medium alike in praise and blame. But Mr. Hill's reasoning has more positive results than the discovery of opposite excesses. He succeeds in vindicating the principle of the ticket-of-leave system, but he does not strengthen confidence in the machinery for carrying it into effect. It is politic and humane, wise and good, to give the convict the opportunity of redeeming himself. So far we thoroughly go with Mr. Hill ; but we cannot share in his reliance on the authorities who have to decide in every particular case, whether there be or not the evidences of refor- mation. The power rests with the Secretary of State for the Home Department, who exercises it upon reports from the prisons, which reports will differ in value with all the differing 494 Sequel to Charge of October, 1855. intellectual capacities employed in the management of gaols. The convict is generally not unskilled in dissimulation, often a consummate master of the art, while the chaplain -who has to judge of him is rarely a man of any experience in the crooked ways of the world. The reverend gentleman is appointed to the prison because he is a kind, good man, and perhaps specially recommended by the very simplicity which makes him the easy dupe of a clever rogue. The candidate for a ticket-of-leave would have cheated his reverence in a horse-market, imposed on him in any of the most hacknied modes of sharping and swind- ling ; and is he less an overmatch for him when hypocrisy is to be played off against the disposition to believe the best ? The chaplain is naturally prone to think that his ministrations and lessons have not been fruitless, and every knave knows how to flatter this predisposition. As it is the clergyman's business to work the reformation, it should not be in his province to pro- nounce upon the performance of his work. The proving process should be in other hands, with no self-love interested in the conclusion. We do not mean to say that the chaplain's report should not be received for as much as it may be fairly worth, but we contend that it should not be decisive, but weighed with or against other evidences. 'Mr. Hill touches upon the inconsistency of limiting the ticket-of-leave system to the class of offences punishable with transportation, thus refusing the opportunity and grace of reformation to the less grave offences. A direct bounty is thus offered to the more serious offences ; for many a convict falling within the latter class obtains his ticket-of-leave within two years, while the lighter offender, condemned to two years' im- prisonment, has to undergo the full term of his punishment. The limitation evinces either a distrust of the reformatory prin- ciple, or of the machinery for working it. The principle was distrusted, if it was thought most prudent and safe to try it upon a part, riot the whole body of offenders. The machinery was distrusted, if it was apprehended that to extend the system to all would be to let loose on the public a vast number of misdoers, undeserving the grace shown to them. But the fact is that the change in the law had nothing to do with principle, and therefore had no principle in it. It was a shift of neces- sity. The Colonies would not consent to have the spawn of Sequel to Charge of October, 1855. 495 crime flung upon them, and therefore transportation was retrenched, or turned into something else ; for which a scheme was patched up to fit the exigency, without a thought or care of conformity or accord with the rest of the penal system. Punishment is subordinate to reformation with one class of prisoners in our gaols, but not with the others. Is it not, then, thought worth while to reform small offenders? What, then, is the object ? Deterring example. And is deterring example good only for them, and not for the greater offenders ? Or is reformation, on the other hand, more to be expected, and to be courted from the great offenders, and utterly neglected with the smaller culprits ? 1 Mr. Hill has not shrunk from the startling question What is to be done with incorrigible criminals? a problem which must follow the success of reformatory discipline. It is, unhappily, still far off in the order of things, but yet it is not amiss to contemplate it. ' ' As no training, however enlightened and vigilant/ said the Recorder of Birmingham, ' will produce its intended effects on every individual subjected to its discipline, what are we to do with the incurable ? Gentlemen, we must face this question : we must not flinch from answering, that we propose to detain them in prison until they are released by death. You keep the maniac in a prison (which you call an asylum) under similar conditions; you guard against his escape until he is taken from you, either because he is restored to sanity, or has departed to another world. If, Gentlemen, innocent misfortune may and must be so treated, why not thus deal with incorri- gible depravity ? This is a question which I have asked times out of number, without ever being so fortunate as to extract a reply. It is always tacitly assumed that imprisonment must not be perpetual ; but whether that assumption is founded on any reason supposed to arise out of the nature of things, or whether it only rests on the present state of public feeling, I know not. If the former ground is taken, I would give much to learn what the argument is; when disclosed, I must either answer it or yield to it; but while I am kept in the dark, each alternative is barred against me. If, however, this assumed inadmissibility of perpetual imprisonment is rested on the pre- sent state of public sentiment, I have seen too often the change 496" Sequel to Charge of October, 1855. from wrong to right in that mighty power, to despair of its becoming an ally instead of an opponent. It is my belief that if long terms of imprisonment, even to perpetuity, were placed before the public mind as indissolubly connected with the privi- lege to the convict of working out his own redemption from thraldom, by proving himself fit for liberty, it would require no great lapse of time to produce the change in opinion which I contemplate. Alarm on the score of expense ought not to be entertained, for two reasons. First, because no unreformed inmates of a prison, however extravagant its expenditure may be, cost the community so much as they would do if at large. This fact has been so often proved, that I must be allowed to assume it as undeniable. But the second reason is, that prisons may be made either altogether, or to a very great extent, self- supporting/ 1 If the alternative be^that the incorrigible rogue is to live at large at the heaviest cost to the public in the shape of pillage, or at a lighter cost in gaol to the end of his days, there can be no question about the rational and just choice. But long before the debate of this proposition for practical purposes, there must have been adopted some better system of testing the corrigible than at present exists. We are now in the very rudest and most imperfect winnowing process, and before we can pretend to put aside the chaff as worthless, we must have some better security that none of it passes for wholesome grain/ The following article on the ' Science of Reformation/ is from the ' Inquirer' of the same date : ' The Recorder of Birmingham has been developing some of his views on the ' Science of Reformation/ Perhaps it would rather come under what Professor Ferrier grandly terms ' Agnoio- logy, or the Science of Ignorance/ Anyhow it is obvious enough that what Mr. M. D. Hill knows best on the subject is, first, the greatness of our present failure at least as regards grown-up criminals and next, the theoretic views which he himself holds, but which, not having yet sustained any trial, are only the preliminary questions addressed to nature, which may as well result in extending that very wide branch of science before alluded to as in rescuing the ' Science Reformation ' out of the Agnoiological domains. Sequel to Charge of October, 1855. 497 ' One reason why it is so difficult for ordinary human beings to take the interest that it is their duty to take in educational and philanthropic questions is, that the class of beings they are providing for are generally so imperfectly and unreally conceived. So much more belief is habitually placed in the system than any system will bear ; so little room is allowed for the expan- sive power of individual and personal elements of character. In works of education, for instance, children are apt to be regarded, en masse, as the subjects for a species of moral and intellectual tailoring, transacted by teachers and patrons, and intended to provide them with a good suit of respectable moral habits (a Sunday suit, and an everyday suit). Educational systems are drawn up without any adequate perception how very little any system, even the best, can effect. There is no pro* portionate appreciation of the smallness of the machinery pro- vided. The self-importance of the teaching class makes them take to their own credit very much that grows up under, or in spite of, their system, and which would equally grow up without it. The rules and the methods have a quite exaggerated value assigned to them. The personal and unmethodical contact of mind with mind, from which almost all the educational results spring, is quite passed over. And the case is usually still worse when these educational systems are not rigid rules, applying equally to all, but are the results of a theory of personal character specially elaborated by didactic genius for the treatment of given cases. In physicking of any sort there is little safety. But when the physicking is moral, and is not the unconscious result of the natural impressions mutually and involuntarily produced, but is an elaborate course of ' treatment' pursued by theoretic physicians of character, after due study of ' symptoms/ there is a great deal more harm done by it, we believe, than good. Methods of discipline, moral regulations, &c., are dull and painful studies enough, and of but little use even to the regular teaching profession ; but the most rigid set of rules impartially applied are more beneficial, we believe, than the professed special doctoring of children on a supposed know- ledge of the characters and moral deficiencies of each. The most hurtful sort of systematic treatment is that of the doctrinaire who has distinct theories of therapeutics for every distinct symptom, and rigidly moulds himself by force of will K K 498 Sequel to Charge of October, 1855. into the appropriate moral attitude for every patient put under his care. ' These remarks have more bearing than may at first appear on Mr. Hill's Charge to the Birmingham Grand Jury. In that speech he advocates what we should call a distinct onesided and doctrinaire method of dealing with convicted criminals under sentence. Mr. Hill, as is well known, is one of the school who regard a prison as a moral hospital, and advocate riot only for juvenile criminals but for all criminals, a purely medical treat- ment. Pain may and must be used medically like caustic, but for no other purpose whatever than the distinct purpose of cure. He notices the great difficulty introduced by the termina- tion of transportation (without, however, taking notice of the real loss of power caused by the inability to open out to our convicts a quite new career), and then goes on to take into consideration the system to be substituted. On the ticket-of-leave system, by which those who conduct themselves well in prison are con- ditionally pardoned and set at liberty, under the liability, however, of being at any time recommitted to prison for the completion of their sentence if their conduct out of prison is not satisfac- tory, he makes some very good remarks ; properly, we believe, ascribing much of its evil results to the weakness of the official authorities, who are too easily induced to grant tickets-of-leave, and far too reluctant to recall them. But Mr. Hill, in the zeal of his heart for his Reformatory Science, proposes a system of far more injurious tendency than the present. Speaking of the ticket-of-leave system, he says : ' ' Gentlemen, if you desire, as I most earnestly do, to see this principle universally adopted, you must be prepared to strengthen the hands of Government by advocating such a change in the law as will enable those who administer the criminal justice of the country to retain in custody all such as are convicted of crime, until they have, by sure and unequivocal tests, demon- strated that they have the will and the power to gain an honest livelihood when at large. You must be content that they shall be retained until habits of industry are formed until moderate skill in some useful occupation is acquired until the hard lesson of self-control is mastered in short, till the convict ceases to be a criminal, resolves to fulfil his duties both to God and to man, and has surmounted all obstacles against carrying such resolutions into successful action. But .... what are Sequel to Charge of October, 1855. 499 we to do with the incurable? Gentlemen, we must face this question; we must not flinch from answering that we propose to keep them in prison until they are released by death. You keep the maniac in a prison (which you call an asylum) under similar conditions; .... if, Gentlemen, innocent mis- fortune may and must be so treated, why not thus deal with incorrigible depravity ?' ' The reformatory theory of punishment often runs almost into the same false extremes as the utilitarian theory of Ben- tham. It is well known that Bentham wanted to counteract temptation; and, therefore, proposed to load with the most heavy punishments those crimes to which there was most tempta- tion, on the ground that some great after-pain was needed to keep in check a great desire. The consequence was, that his criminal legislation would have been an exact reversal of justice, punishing most heavily the least guilt, and, of course, would have brought about a revolution very quickly indeed. Now Mr. Hill's reformatory theory quite losing sight of guilt and justice threatens us with the same danger. We are to give absolute power to a Secretary of State to keep the ' incurable' in prison, at will till death, if he will. And who are to be the judges of curability ? Who is to take the responsibility of saying that a criminal patient has, or has not, ' mastered the hard lesson of self-control ?' has, or has not, ' resolved to fulfil his duties both to God and man' has, or has not, ' surmounted all obstacles' against carrying his good resolutions ( into success- ful action ?' There can be no criterion except the good or bad guesses of persons who act on their own judgments (chaplains of gaols will be chiefly, we presume, the guiding and suggesting springs of this system), and who manufacture their own ' unequivocal tests.' Now, how can this system be redeemed from the fatal objection to Bentham's system that it will, in very many cases, punish the most guilty least, and the least guilty most ? The most guilty are by no means always the most apparently incurable ; still less are they the most likely to fall into new temptation ; indeed the reverse is very often the case. Indolence, intemperance, extravagance, are the roots of the commoner and least heinous, and yet often of the most incurable offences. A really great crime committed by a culti- vated man, from the depths of his evil heart, would generally give K K 2 5co Sequel to Charge of October, 1855. few symptoms of incurability. That gentleman (Mr. Garden), who, in the south of Ireland, compassed with the most cold-blooded and selfish violence one of the greatest of crimes, would not, probably, if tried by Mr. HilFs tests, have needed detaining in prison at all longer than the tender anxiety of the Government for his health actually did detain 'him. What would be the class of deficiencies and moral dangers which Mr. HilPs doctrinaire system would discover the soonest, and detain the longest 'for cure ? Just that superficial class which are, if the most mischievous, yet, under all circumstances, also frequently the least guilty, want of temper, perhaps even want of honesty, and intemperate dispositions. The deep cruelty and profligacy of heart which needs a very special environment of circumstance to come out at all, and which, when most evil, is fully under the control of a cold, self-possessed temperament, would be dismissed ' cured/ in a tenth part of the time needed to reform strong appetites for drink, or a quarrelsome nature. The character of the ' unequivocal tests/ by reference to which Mr. Hill proposes ^that official wisdom shall . exercise the immense responsibility .with which : he entrusts it, may be gathered from the suggestion . that the ' labour* voluntarily performed by a prisoner should; hasten his, discharge, that he should be allowed, however, if ke chooses, .to take this extra labour out in an improved diet but that such improvement of diet should delay, pro tanto, the period of liberty. Thus is the prisoner to be taught self-command and economy. It is clear that the deeper guilt, frpm which much crime results, could never be touched by this kind of ' treatment/ The practical result of Mr. Hill's pro- posed system would be to put an immense and irresponsible power into the hands of those moral ' physicians' of our prisons, who could only judge of cure by arbitrary and superficial symptoms, and who would be most likely to see the incurability, chiefly in cases of comparatively trifling guilt. The healing theory of punish- ment is almost as one-sided and dangerous as the preventive theory, unless strictly checked, and limited by regard to justice and guilt. No system can long stand that does not take injustice, that is, some bond fide retributive element for its central idea, allowing ' prevention' and ' cure' only to be regarded as secon- dary and modifying considerations. Good or bad conduct in prison ought of course often to affect the duration of punish- ment, but certainly ought not to be the principal element taken Sequel to Charge of October, 1855. 501 into account. Let us not create a doctrinaire class of spiritual physicians with such fearfully important results attached to their diagnosis of the obscurest and deepest evil which can affect the human soul/ The following, article is from, the Weekly Dispatch, Oct. I4th: ' It is not at all too much to say, that the people of this country are justly indignant at that sense of insecurity and that infliction of positive loss which are the results of what is called, the ' Ticket-of-leave ' system. The jauntiness of our present Premier, who has always been content to apply his ability and industry to one or two great matters, and to leave all the rest to shift for themselves, is in no small degree answerable for this. We will own that it was no easy task for a Home Secretary to devise a plan that would stand in place of the relief of the population by the transportation of its worst, elements what we principally complain of is,, that the system devised has never been earnestly and thoroughly carried out Men are sent back to their old haunts as the reward of shamming penitence to a chaplain, without the slightest real security for their not returning to their former course of life, with the additional desperation of knowing that it is their only one. As to the assertion that 80 or 90 per cent, of convicts with tickets-of-leave are permanently reformed, we look upon it as a gross imposition. Effects must have causes, and we can see none in the present method of procedure that can give anything like such results. The works of ' the ticket-of-leave' men in Scotland and in England are before our eyes in the police reports ; and if we could believe that the number of their misdeeds is small, the ferocity of their doings is pre-eminent. Burglary, robbery with violence and murder,, are among their latest achievements. Nobody in his senses could suppose that an acted religious penitence, exhibited before a prison chaplain, could be, in the slightest degree, a test of reformation. Industry and self-denial are the habits which distinguish honesty from crime, and these are of slow development, and require long time, indeed, for absolute proof, where they have to supplant contrary principles. It must be at all times a process of immense difficulty to replace a convicted man in a society where labour is plentiful and character is indispensable. The chances of reformation and renewed respectability were far greater where 503 Sequel to Charge of October, 1855. all help was valuable,, and where the temptation to work was full as great as the temptation to steal, where comparative solitude restored, in a degree, the natural inter -dependence of individuals. So was it under the most favourable circumstances, in our colonies. As it is, we must ourselves accept the task and its cost, and, above all, we must not throw away our money and our time by doing everything in a niggard and im- perfect, and, therefore, hollow fashion. Mr. Hill, the Recorder of Birmingham, has delivered a very able Charge upon the subject to the Grand Jury there. He is a friend of the new system, but of the system as it ought to be, not as it is, marred and baffled by shortcomings. He enunciates principles, which, from having been long laid aside or neglected for false ones, have all the startling effect of novelty. Let us banish all difference about the mere titles of system, and look at the matter from these fundamental principles. Mr. Hill's main proposition is, that if you let a man out of prison, when you believe that he is thoroughly reformed, return him to society because you believe that society may henceforth trust him, you are bound, by the same rule, to keep him in prison until he gives proof of being an honest man, though that should be for a long or an indefinite period. We are departing certainly, by any mitigation of a sentence, from the old ground of punish- ment, that is of retributive vengeance, and of deterring the criminals by the example of a certain fixed quantity of pain to be endured. We have long ceased to hang out of the way those who were supposed to be worthless, mere nuisances to society, and irreclaimable professors of evil. And as we may not now remove such parties to another land, any more than to another world, we must deal with them as material that must be made useful, or at least harmless. Mr. Hill justly observes, that we shut up madmen, not because of the mischief they have done, but because of the mischief they will do ; and society, if it undertakes to give the chance of becoming better to those who live only to offend against it and themselves, is, undoubtedly, entitled to protect itself fully from their actions during the process. The question of expense, at first glance, is a fearful one ; but the fact is, that we are in the habit of submitting supinely to an infinitely greater and far worse levied tax. It is as plain as the surest figures can make it, that the thief out of prison costs the community three or four times as much as he Sequel to Charge of October, 1855. 503 possibly can when within the walls. Indeed, there is no great computation necessary for the matter. Out of prison he lives, and often very expensively, and it is a rare thing for him to sell his plunder for a fourth of its value. He must, therefore, take immensely more from society than his prison keep. And when we recollect what the lottery of robbery is, how frequently it falls upon those to whom it brings the deepest distress, if not absolute ruin when we remember the anxieties and the costly machinery of protection in the case of those who escape, we must perceive the waste entailed by crime as an enormity in political economy as monstrous as the offence is grievous against morals. Beyond this, we will not admit that the work of prisoners might not, in a great measure, be made sufficiently remunerative for their keep, and even their encouragement. All the cheapness of associated expense ought to be realized in the highest degree, and the scale of accommodation and food certainly ought to be the very simplest. The supplanting of honest labour by prison work is an argument quite out of date, or it ought to be by this time. If the contrary were the fact, the fault would not be in the prison, but out of the prison; and the remedy to be applied must be the general facilitation of industry, if not by positive legislation, by the removal of all laws and customs, taxation and policy, that thwart it. We feel, too, that the dealing with crime as disease has the warrant of the highest of all philosophy. We believe that this Christian principle is the only one that ever will solve the problem of evil, and combat its effects. Else how frequently must we punish the actions, which have their source, not in the culprit before us, but in his education, in the tempta- tion into which he has been led intentionally by his very parents ? This principle of reformatory imprisonment, however, must be kept quite distinct from another idea, started through another channel, of making solitary incarceration, upon bread and water, supersede public execution in the case of the murderer. This is suggested in the Times by a ' Physiologist/ who wishes to get rid of the debasing effect of capital punishment, and he adds that the process will not last long ; that is, the criminal will soon die. Such a proposal ought to be memorized among the atrocities of science. Place brutal criminals in solitary cells, and keep them on such diet as will give no physical relief to the weariness of the mind, with the intention of humbling and humanizing them. Make the ruffian that ill-uses a wife or a 504 Sequel to Charge of October, mistress thus pine for the sympathy of any human being. Possibly the method may succeed better than the lash ; at all events it might be first tried. We should have much faith in it in many cases. But it is because we have this faith in its subduing power, that we would never condemn the worst criminal to die of it. He must have but a poor imagination that cannot picture to himself this prolonged agony, worse than that of the old monastic starvation for sins against chastity, inasmuch as it must be so incomparably more lingering. Conceive any human being merely fed, without seeing or hear- ing his gaoler, left in one place without employment, or the slightest hope of change. We believe that the Inquisition never equalled this refinement of torture. Without debating the question of capital punishment, if the criminal is to die, he has a right to die at once. If pain unwitnessed will reform, it is mercy ; if not, it is pure barbarity. And the unutterable suffer- ing would be the most terrible to the criminal who had yet some sensibilities undestroyed. The mere brute, perhaps, would only become a thorough idiot. We need not pursue the subject further; such a device will never be the law of England, or of any civilized country, unless it should happen to be tried in some wild frenzy of pseudo-philanthropy in the United States. But if we once admit that we are to reform in punishing that we are to reform the criminal for good, how bitterly does the confession taunt all who withhold an industrial education from the yet innocent ! Begin there, and you, at once arid for ever, dispose of the question of doing an injustice by making crime a qualification for being taught and cared for. You must deal with the criminals you have suffered to grow up ; but let the generation now being born begin anew. If industry and self-denial are the bases of a true reformation, it is because they are the foundations of an originally honest career. In the name of all that is good and true, merciful and sacred, cannot we agree to teach so much without sectarian squabbling? Cannot we keep our children out of prison without violating the claims of orthodoxy? Cannot we learn of that admirable example, in Westminster, who teaches his ragged scholars ' nothing particular' in the way of theology, and yet accom- plishes the ends of all endurable theology, by making good men of them, and that out of the most unpromising class? And, almost beyond that, if we are, as indeed we must, to turn our Sequel to Charge of October, 1855. 505 prisons into houses of reformation, or of perpetual detention, when obstinacy baffles all cure, how are we bound to receive the efforts of poor wretches who offer to reform themselves if they be only allowed the opportunity ! Such are the thieves who declared to the Earl of Shaftesbury that their only desire was to leave their trade, but that no one gave them a chance of bread out of it, and the candidates for admission into Refuges, who are absolutely turned back for want of funds ! Here we may deal with genuine cases at a tenth of the ordinary cost. We are sure of the largest percentage of results for the least outlay. No Old Bailey, no police, no magistrates, counsel, judges, come in for the largest share of the expenditure. Pend- ing a discussion, which the public need as well as the public anger will force upon Parliament, private means may do much towards this best and easiest part of the work, and so lend great help towards that general solution of our difficulties, which it will tax all, and more than all, the administrative genius, candour, courage, and application of our home officials to provide/ The Era contains an article entitled ' MR. RECORDER HILL AND THE TICKET-OF-LEAVE SYSTEM. ' At the late opening of the Birmingham Court of Quarter Sessions, the Recorder, Mr. M. D. Hill, Q.C., well known for his interest in the reformatory punishment of criminals, deli- vered a long and able address, chiefly referring to the ticket-of- leave system. Nevertheless, with all Mr. Hill's practical knowledge of this subject, we confess that he has failed to convey to our mind a definite impression that things are work- ing well under the present system, or that he has solved the great problem to his own satisfaction 'What is to be done with our convicts ?' This most important question has been forced on public attention by the fact that only one British colony w r ill now admit on its soil our criminal outcasts. Until lately, we shipped them without remorse or subsequent inquiry. The harsh Colonial Governor, to whose custody they were con- signed, kept them in order by the manacle and the triangle, the armed sentry and the Cuban bloodhound. If, on the other hand, he happened to be a philanthropist, like Captain Ma- conochie, he remitted these torturing restraints, and main- tained discipline by moral appeals. Norfolk Island was either a perfect hell, or else an interesting society of fallen human 5o6 Sequel to Charge of October, 1855. beings, struggling, and not in vain, for a glimpse of a better state, according to the management of the local magistrate. It is because we can no longer shove these poor wretches out of sight that we have of late become so patient and merciful towards them. The repudiation of our colonies has compelled us to take charge of our own criminals ; and the consequence has been that we have jumped from hard-hearted indifference to the possibility of their reformation, into the opposite extreme of sentimental sympathy with their penal lot. ' For example, Mr. Hill's moral sense does not seem to be shocked by the inconsistency of passing judicial sentence on a prisoner, which, except for his subsequent contumacy, is never to be inflicted. Nay_, he would not only have the felon, who is doomed to seven years' punishment, able to unloose his own bonds at the expiration of a twelvemonth or more, but he would make much lighter sentences equally dependent for their exe- cution on the behaviour of the prisoner; and so altogether neutralize the preventive check to crime, which has hitherto existed in the knowledge that to particular crimes certain punishments were attached. ' Again, Mr. Hill thinks that the chaplain is best qualified to judge of the repentance of the criminal. We are strongly of opinion that lay judgment should be invoked more promi- nently than it is in deciding on the sincerity of the prisoner's penitence. Only recently we inspected one of the largest refor- matory prisons in England, and the Ten Commandments over the communion-table, which faced the sittings of the prisoners, were painted in Old English characters, which would not be legible to half the criminals who could read common print ; yet in this establishment there w r ere two benevolent and worthy chaplains, who ought to have corrected so obvious a mistake. ' Mr. Hill advocates the principle of making our prisons self- supporting, by the lucrative employment of those who are de- tained in them. But there really seems to be another side to this question, and the poor honest man may reasonably ask, ' Why is the felon to be taught and encouraged in acquiring some skilful handicraft, which will support him as soon as he is released, to the detriment of those who have never erred, and who can scarcely maintain themselves for lack of employment at the same sort of work ?' 'The Recorder also alludes to estimates, which sanguinely Sequel to Charge of October, 1855. 507 report that from 86 to 90 per cent, of convicts, discharged with tickets -of-leave, have been permanently reformed. It is true that he docs not believe that such a result has really taken place, and in opposition to the statement, stands the recent complaint of Mr. Jardine, the London magistrate, that forty ticket- of-leave men infested the locality in which his Court was situated, whose influence was demoralizing the neighbourhood. On the whole, we gather from Mr. Hill's Address, that he wishes well to the new system, and hopes that it will succeed ; but we cannot draw much comfort from all which he brings forward in its favour. { In our judgment, there are several things inherently wrong in the new system of conditional manumission. In the first place, you should not treat and educate the felon better than you do the pauper. You should not make the prison more comfortable than the workhouse, to their respective inmates. Yet, at the former, you are now trying to elevate the feeling, before you dismiss the sojourner ; whilst, at the latter, you try to drive him out, by making him ashamed of remaining, and too uncomfortable to remain. Thus your endeavour is to stig- matize poverty ; and yet, at the same time, you try to rub the brand out of crime. Moreover, all the dignity and solemnity of the Judge's office are sacrificed if the sentence delivered by the venerable impersonation of moral rectitude be accompanied by a sly wink to the prisoner, which knowingly informs him, ' This means nothing at all/ 'What we would suggest is, that every judicial sentence should be fully executed. Behaviour under restraint might modify the weight of the punishment, and its manner of execution ; but, only under most special circumstances, and in the rarest instances, ought liberty be granted to one who has forfeited his claim to citizenship. It should never be forgotten in this matter that the recent mercifulness extended by the ticket-of- leave is not the result of any higher motive than convenience. We do not know what to do with our convicts, and therefore we are releasing them prematurely from gaol. Employ them, we repeat, in labour which is only not undertaken because it will not pay. Make them hewers of wood and drawers of water, in proportion to their strength, on public works which are necessary to be done, but which remain dormant on account of the expense. 5o 8 Sequel to Charge of October, ' No doubt free labour is most profitable ; but to this forced labour we would annex both wages and penalties. The personal comforts of the convict should improve with his docility and exertions ; he should take rank amongst his fellows by his supe- riority of conduct ; he should ultimately have a place in society secured for him if he sustained his term of punishment well. We English are sometimes too morbidly tender over punish- ment, and the detention of prisoners. Our Russian captives, making their pretty toys at Lewes, and selling them at absurd prices, whilst their officers are feted and sport in the neighbour- hood, find a different course of treatment at the hands of our brisk and sensible allies. In France, the Russian prisoners have been employed in the works going on in the harbour of Toulon; and every one knows that the formats are employed to good purpose in various public works of France. The sugges- tions we have thrown out are slight and undigested; but we cannot recognise any matured convictions, and permanently tangible plan, in the well-considered and interesting speech of the Recorder of Birmingham/ From the ' Morning Chronicle ' of October i$th. e Meetings have been recently held in different parts of the country on the subject of Reformatory Institutions. It is a characteristic of our age and country, that a benevolent move- ment beginning in one corner, however remote or obscure, is not long allowed to remain dormant; but, if there be good therein, is taken up in other quarters, repeated and multiplied, till their influence pervades the land. Not less remarkable is it that all attempts to improve the social condition of the country, beginning, it may be, upon the surface of society, tend gradually to penetrate deeper and deeper among the inferior classes, till, as now, the very outcasts and pariahs of the community be reached. ' It must be owned, however, that the experiments now so generally in progress to arrest the career of crime among our juvenile population, and to effect a reformation among those who have been tainted with its pollution, have been stimulated by other motives than those of purely disinterested benevolence. The truth is, the subject has become the great social problem of the day. On every side the question is asked What is to be done with our criminals ? Our fathers were not under our Sequel to Charge of October, 1855. 509 difficulties with regard to an answer. Their method had the merit of being simple and summary they hanged them out of hand ! One can scarcely cast a glance over the statute-book as it stood about the beginning of this century without a shudder. As luxury increased, and the distance between the richer arid poorer classes widened, property was regarded with a more jealous eye by those who held it, and a more envious one by those who were not so fortunate. Hence the necessity for new fences, and every one of those was smeared with blood. The evil increased gradually, and though it adds to the immortal credit of Goldsmith that, in his Vicar of Wakefield, he was among the first to raise his voice against the ever-increasing severity of our Draconian statute-book, yet his humane remon- strance was unheeded. Death punishment was extended year by year to smaller offences, till it reached a height which it is perfectly frightful to look back upon. It is little more than a quarter of a century since justice and more humane principles began to inspire our legislators. When men did allow them- selves time to reflect upon the results of this system, it was found that it had failed utterly that, far from deterring from crime, its only effect was to imbrute the lower classes of our population, and to render them as callous to instruction as they were superior to fear. ' Another course was then tried, with which we of the present generation are pretty familiar the plan of transportation for a time. Great things were expected from such change. It had this advantage, that, equally with the former barbarous system, it removed the criminal population. A man once convicted, was still dead to the country ; he was removed from offending the eyes, or injuring property, or assaulting the person. How they fared in the far-distant region to which they were removed, under what surveillance they were placed, or what means were adopted for their reformation, society at large took little heed. Matters might have gone on in this state for a considerable time the mother country, year by year, raising a new crop of criminals which, year by year, was removed to regenerate or to fester in their original corruption, as the case might be, at the antipodes but for one awkward circumstance. The spirit of colonization was awakened through the country, and multi- tudes of freemen, untainted with crime, went forth to seek a home in the land which had hitherto been devoted to the con-. 510 Sequel to Charge of October, 1855. vict. How much that process was precipitated by the discovery of the gold fields, it is needless here to say ; but it soon became evident that colonization and transportation could not go on together. The colonists were too numerous to need the work of the convicts they were too proud to associate with them, and too wealthy to bear being plundered by them. The struggle between the Colonies and Colonial Office upon this subject is fresh in every one's recollection. It was sharp, but short and decisive. The home authorities were forced to give way, and the colonies were delivered from the spreading canker of being convict settlements. ' We have now, therefore, entered into a third phase of the question a phase which promises to be as troublesome as any of those preceding. We now suffer in our own property and persons what we were disposed to treat so lightly when the colonists complained. We have to use up our own criminals; and the great question is how, after having suffered the punishment of their offences, they are to be absorbed again into society with the least possible injury. It is a problem which may well engage the attention of the statesman as well as the philanthro- pist; and at the threshold of the subject, as we now are, we cannot doubt that great improvements are yet to be effected. The present system, as our readers well know, is to hold out to our criminals inducements to reform, in the shape of a short- ened duration of punishment, after which they are liberated with a ticket-of-leave ; the meaning of which is, that they are not absolutely set free that their liberation is matter of sufferance only and that if it shall appear to the police that they are not making a good use of their liberty, they are liable to be re-imprisoned, even though no offence be proved against them. We need not say here that the system has not been found to work well, for from all parts of the country complaints are heard against it. The end thereof has been to let loose upon society a band of fierce, determined ruffians, who hesitate at no crime, and are appalled by no punishment. The weak part of the system seems to lie in the test of repentance and reforma- tion. As matters stand, we believe that is usually entrusted to the chaplain, who, with the best intentions and the most sagacious judgment, is continually apt to be deceived. Caged up as these men are from all the ordinary motives either to good or evil, there is no alternative but to trust to the profes- Sequel to Charge of October, 1855. 511 sions of the lip ; and yet all experience suggests how such a test must necessarily be fallacious. ^The greatest scoundrel is usually the man who is the greatest adept in making a long face, turning up the whites of his eye, and affecting religious sentiment^ Having succeeded in thus accomplishing his libera- tion, he will be the first to indulge in coarse ridicule of the simple-minded trust reposed in him by his ghostly adviser. c It is evident that some more stringent test than this must be applied. Two sets of operations must be adopted, working from different points, but both converging to the same end the one to cut off the supply of criminals, by taking up those who are in danger of lapsing into crime, and training them to be honest and useful members of society. This seems to be accomplished with considerable success by the different reforma- tory institutions throughout the country. But the other and that with which we are at present most interested is, how best to re-absorb into the industrious population our adult criminals who have grown mature in crime, but who are not, therefore, past hope of reformation. The present plan, we have seen, fails to secure that end. It must be obvious that the best plan can only be arrived at by a tentative process ; and we confess we are disposed to look with some favour on a scheme suggested the other day by Mr. Hill, the Recorder of Birmingham, in his Address at the Quarter Sessions in that town. Mr. Hill's plan, as we understand it, is to estimate the amount of punishment of every offence by a money fine, which the prisoner must pay out of his own labour in gaol, and from no other source. ' A day's labour in the gaol being estimated at a fixed amount, the prisoner is to be given to understand that he may, if he chooses, have a certain portion of his earnings to spend upon his personal comforts in prison ; but that if he does so, it will be at the cost of lengthening his imprisonment, as the fine will be so much the longer in being paid. In this way the prisoner will be stimulated, by the hope of a more rapid release, to control his appetites, to master his desire for personal indulgences, and so to obtain that amount of self-restraint which lies at the foundation of all the moral virtues. Such a measure of practical self-command carried through a course of months it may be of years would afford a test of reformation as stringent, perhaps, as any that could be applied within the precincts of a gaol. It might be safely inferred that if a man 512 Sequel to Charge of October, 1855. refused to indulge his appetite when he might, within the walls of a gaol, he would be likely to continue the same course outside. Other tests will no doubt be suggested by the practical experience of those conversant with our prisons ; and we are not without the hope that by their application and beneficial effect, the alarm which has overspread society, from the letting loose of so many ticket- of-leave men without due security being had for their good conduct, may speedily pass away/ From the ' Daily News' October iqth. { What is this ticket -of -leave system, on the merits and demerits of which the doctors of the criminal law are just now differing so widely, and whose operation for good or evil seems in a fair way of becoming one of the most important social problems of our day ? For the benefit of those amongst our readers who feel themselves called on to take a part in the argument for or against the system, we propose to state, as briefly and clearly as we can, the principles on which it rests the circumstances of its first introduction amongst us what it is as established and introduced into the penal legislation of the United Kingdom by the Act of 1853 and what it is as actually carried out in practice since that statute became the law of the land. { The principles on which the system rests as we find them well and clearly stated by Mr. Matthew Davenport Hill, in that Address of his to the Birmingham Grand Jury, which has already excited so considerable an amount of attention and comment are these : ' First, that the criminal should have the opportunity of working his way out of gaol ; and, second, that he should, for a limited period, be liable to be deprived of his liberty so regained, if his course of life should give reason- able ground for the belief that he had relapsed into criminal habits/ Such are the two principles on which the whole system proceeds principles themselves based on the notion that punishment is to be reformatory, not vindictive, and that no mode of reformation can be so satisfactory as that which the criminal works out for himself when sensible that he is under a moral government where not only will increased severity be the penalty of misdoing, but remission of a portion of his sentence will be the reward of doing well. Sequel to Charge of October, 1855. 513 ' This system of moral government by rewards as well as by punishments, applied to the management of our criminals, was in extensive operation in our Australian colonies for some years previous to the period at which transportation, as a general mode of punishment, had to be abandoned. The time, however, arrived, when the colonists refused, by large majorities, to tolerate any further influx of convict population. For some few years immediately preceding 1 853, it had become practically impossible to carry out sentences of transportation, except on a small percentage of aggravated cases, and then only in those few districts which, in the same class of cases, still remain available, and are still employed for the purposes of penal settlements. In 1853 the Act passed (16 & 17 Vic., cap. 99), which now regulates the law on this subject, and first intro- duced the ticket-of-leave system into the penal jurisprudence, not of the British empire (for, as we have seen, it had already existed in Australia), but of the United Kingdom. ' Now, what is the ticket-of-leave system, as established by this Act ? an Act, be it observed, the object of which is not to abolish transportation altogether, but, as its title cautiously and correctly expresses it, ' to substitute in certain cases other punishments in lieu of transportation/ The substance of the Act is this : All convicted persons who would have been liable, before the Act passed, to transportation for life, or for any period beyond fourteen years are liable to be (but need not necessarily be) transported still. No person who, before the Act passed, would have been liable to a sentence of less than fourteen years' transportation, can, since that time, be transported at all ; but, instead of transportation, he is to be sentenced to what the Act terms Penal Servitude for terms of imprisonment varying in duration according to the different periods of time for which he might, under the former system, have been trans- ported, but in no case equalling those periods in length. Penal servitude, as established by the Act, is imprisonment, with as in ordinary cases an important addition, which makes the peculiar feature of the new Act, and constitutes the ticket-of- leave system, as far as it is defined by the Legislature. The clauses introducing this system the ninth, tenth, and eleventh of the Act respectively empower her Majesty, by ' writing, under the hand and seal of one of her principal Secretaries of L L 514 Sequel to Charge of October, 1855. State/ in all cases where a convict shall be under sentence, either of penal servitude or of transportation, whether the latter sentence shall have been passed before or since the Act, to grant such convict ' a licence to be at large in any part of the United Kingdom/ on such conditions and for such portions of his term of transportation or imprisonment as to her Majesty may seem fit. The tenth clause declares that the convict, after the licence is so granted to him, shall be at liberty to remain at large till it is revoked. The eleventh section provides, that ' if it shall please her Majesty ' to revoke any such licence, the Secretary of State, by warrant under his hand and seal, shall signify to one of the police magistrates of the metropolis that the licence is revoked, and the magistrate is then to issue a second warrant for the apprehension of the convict, who, on being brought before him, is by virtue of a third warrant to be re-committed to the prison from which he was released by the licence, there to undergo the remainder of his sentence. It is only necessary to add that the certificate on which the licence is printed is called the ticket -of -leave, and we are in a position to give an answer to the question, what is the ticket-of-leave system, as far as it depends on positive enactment ? Shortly this : in all cases where a convict is sentenced, either to trans- portation or penal servitude, the Crown, for any reasons it deems sufficient, may grant the convict a licence to be at large or, in popular language, a ticket-of-leave ; and that licence the Crown may revoke at its own will and pleasure, and, without the com- mission of any fresh offence, or the necessity of any legal investigation, may cause the re-commitment of the ticket-of- leave man on the warrants of the police magistrate. 1 Such, then, is the ticket-of-leave system as established by law : what is it as carried out in practice ? It will be observed that the Act empowers her Majesty to grant the licence to be at large, or, as we had better at once call it, the ticket-of-leave, without attempting to define or limit the conditions under which such power is to be exercised. The Legislature has not attempted to lay down any definite test by which to ascertain the fitness of the convict to receive a ticket-of-leave ; and the practice in this respect is somewhat unfixed and indefinite. Propriety and general good conduct are broad terms, within whose convenient latitude much mistaken lenity may find scope Sequel to Charge of October, 1855. 515 for its exercise on the one side much plausible knavery, on the other. The test of industry is surer; and the method of open- ing an account with each prisoner, and placing to his credit the real or assumed value of his labour, so as to provide a fund for him on his liberation, appears to be probably as free from objection as any that has yet been suggested. The degree of relative importance given to the respective tests of good conduct and of industry will of course vary considerably with the management of each separate establishment. Nor would it on this head be possible to give any other general account of the practical working of the ticket-of-leave system than by stating that both the one and the other test are professedly taken into consideration before granting a ticket-of-leave. In one very material respect the ticket-of-leave system, as carried out in practice, varies from that established by the Act. By the Act, as we have seen, the licence may be revoked, and the ticket-of- leave man be recommitted at the mere pleasure of the Crown, and on the simple warrant of the magistrate, without the neces- sity of any fresh investigation or the proof of any fresh substan- tive offence. To the same purpose the condition set forth on the printed ticket-of-leave itself expressly states : ' To produce a forfeiture of the licence, it is by no means necessary that the holder should be convicted of any new offence. If he associates with notoriously bad characters, leads an idle and dissolute life, or has no visible means of obtaining an honest livelihood, &c., it will be assumed that he is about to relapse into crime, and he will be at once apprehended, and re-committed to prison under his original sentence/ Yet notwithstanding this, whether, as Mr. Hill suggests, ( because it is repugnant to the spirit of our laws to condemn without a trial/ or whether, as Mr. Jardine very plausibly suggests, in consequence of the cumbrous and costly machinery of the three warrants so absurdly rendered necessary by one of the clauses already referred to from whatever cause it may arise, the fact is that the practice and the law in this respect differ, and the instances are very rare in which a ticket- of-leave man is re-committed, except upon legal proof before the ordinary tribunals of seme fresh substantive offence. Such are the principal points to be noticed as to the working of the system in every-day practice. ' How many of our readers have followed us through this L L 2, 51 6 Sequel to Charge of October, 1855. detail? Possibly very few. Those who have done so with attention will at all events be better able to exercise their own ludgment on the views we may hereafter be called upon to lay before them when dealing with the vexed question of the real nature and extent of those merits and demerits which it is the fashion of the day to ascribe to the ticket- of-leave system/ From the ' Spectator* of October loth. ' PENAL SERVITUDE REFORM. ' The secondary discussion on the subject of penal servitude has already made such progress since its very recent commence- ment, that we are not surprised when we hear of proceedings which render it probable that the subject may be raised in Parliament next session, and perhaps even settled then. As we observed last week, there are always two stages in discussions of the kind, one limited to those who take the initiative, and perform the preliminary work of supplying intelligence and argument for leading minds; the other, when the public at large seizes the main ideas, and assists at a legislative settle- ment. It is scarcely three months since the most widely circulated exponent of public opinion in this country, the Times, condemned the conclusion of Lord St. Leonards that the ticket-of-leave system was a failure, and remarked that, ' before his general conclusion can be established, we ought, at any rate, to be shown the way to something better/ The way to something better has, by this time, been indicated, through those who have assisted in defending the principles of the ticket- of-leave system, and establishing the indefensible character of its arrangement. The judgment upon the system delivered by Mr. Jardine, the Recorder of Bath, is a further evidence that practical men see how impossible it will be to continue un- amended an arrangement which does not provide permanently for relieving society from hardened criminals, but actually supplies them with licence to perambulate the country and repeat their crimes, or perhaps to carry on the more mischievous trade of teaching others how-to perform crime for them. Mr. Jardine pronounced the ticket-of-leave system exceedingly 'dangerous/ and f the system of discharging prisoners merely because the gaols are full/ with an ill-considered selection of Sequel to Charge of October, 1855. 517 those to be freed, ' pregnant with difficulties, and dangerous to the society in which it is practised/ At the same time, the failure of the attempt to establish a reformatory institution in Worcestershire proves that ' society/ organized as it is, under our present lax county system, is not competent to take the matter into its own hands. It remains, therefore, with Govern- ment ; but the case is so pressing, and so distinct, that we ought not to be at the mercy of the ordinary official inertia. ' Even within the three months some progress has been made in sketching out an ulterior system. It was in July that the Times discussed the Duke of Cambridge's objection to admitting the convicts into the army, deprecating any course which would finally condemn the men. ' If the services of these men, presumed to be either reformed, or in fair way of reformation, and who, in many cases, might be very eager to obliterate former stains by extraordinary good conduct, are sweepingly rejected in that very calling where men are wanted, where discipline is most continuous, and where the greatest chances of personal distinction are offered, is it not reasonable to suppose that private employers might adopt a similar rule, and that there might thus be an end to the very opportunities which we are labouring to provide?' ' It was in the same paper that our contemporary agreed with Lord St. Leonards in desiring a more complete surveillance over the liberated convicts, and a more accurate insight into the results of the system. We still keenly feel both these require- ments, but with a fairer prospect of attaining them. Even then it was perceived that a full chance must be retained for the men, but that their labour must not be wasted, nor their depravity return uncorrected into society. The three months that have passed have only confirmed these conclusions, and we find a general tendency in opinion to agree that some mode should be arranged, by which the discipline of military life should be combined with industrial discipline, and by which rude material for the labour of the men should be provided without injury to the market of ordinary labour. We have only to state these requirements in order to arrive at something like a sketch of the plan which may be easily pursued. It has always been found that a system of strict abnegation is quite sufficient to secure the voluntary enlistment of men or boys in industrial avocations. 518 Sequel to Charge of October, 1855. Solitary confinement, without anything to do, is enough. Place any class of men in that condition, and they desire labour as a relief; let their condition for the time, and their liberation ultimately, depend upon their labour, and they labour with zeal as well as with willingness. Practical experience has confirmed what must be the conclusion of a priori calculations. Now it is not difficult to find fields in which men, under custody, could be employed without trenching upon the production of the free labourer. We have many kinds of hard work to be performed in this country, which might very well constitute travaux forces, and our imprisoned convicts could readily be converted into formats without repeating the horrible atrocities that have resulted from a bad system of travaux forces in France. Here are the elements for any system which should combine, the present principles of penal servitude with a protracted detention of the men, but without an increase to the nett expense. ' Colonel Jebb has published a letter which upholds the pre- sent system as having worked wonders, and at the same time he announces that Government intends to modify the system in practice, so as to suspend one of its most characteristic incidents the tickets-of-leave ! Colonel Jebb, therefore, gives his official authority to the opinion, that so far as the principles of the system have been really applied, they have worked beneficially; but in announcing that Government intends to suspend the operation of the law so far, he supplies us with an official con- fession that there is something seriously defective in the prac- tice. Of course, we can regard the modification that he an- nounces as nothing but a temporary rule it is in fact suspend- ing the subject until it can be considered by Parliament. . . . It cannot be for a moment imagined that because Government partially suspend the working of a defective measure, it is in- tended to stultify the principles which their own officer finds so much reason to defend; or that they intend to go back to some very absurd and barbarous system which prevailed before recent reforms. We are well aware, that at the present time leading members of the Administration cannot find leisure of mind for the whole of a difficult, large, and time-consuming subject like this : as well expect the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs to prepare a scheme of law-reform. The ques- tion is precisely in that state which would justify the appoint- Sequel to Charge of October, 1855. 519 ment of a Commission. It so happens that there are pub- lic men whose antecedents have qualified them to deal with this subject, and who possess the confidence of all parties in the country ; and Government might, without the slightest delay or difficulty, frame such a Commission, that the mere state- ment of the names would secure to it the perfect trust of public and of Parliament/ The cry which prevailed against convicts being discharged on the good report of the chaplain, was founded on a mistake as to the fact. It clearly appears from the evidence before the Transportation Committee, that the conduct of the prisoners is recorded from time to time by the officers who have charge of them; and that the opinion of the chaplain, although it may be taken into account in connexion with the record, has no undue preponderance, if indeed it has quite the influence to which it is entitled. There may be defects in the mode of keeping the account, for aught I know to the contrary ; the main defect, however, is one pointed out in the next Charge, viz. that passing a certain length of time under probation, earns the privilege of discharge on ticket-of-leave; and not the active and strenuous endeavours of the prisoner to do right. True it is, that very reprehensible conduct on the part of the prisoner delays for some period in practice not a long one the grant of his licence. But although demerit may act as a dis- qualification, the rule which makes time the chief element, must necessarily have a soporific tendency, under circumstances in which the sharpest stimulus is required, to urge the prisoner to the task of self-improvement. The reference in the Charge, to the Committee of the House of Commons obtained in the year 1850,* by Mr. Charles Pearson, Solicitor to the city of London, and at that time representing the borough of Lambeth, is one which calls for a remark or two. The object of that inquiry was mainly to consider the very important evidence, adduced by Mr. Pearson, to prove that pri- sons where the site was properly chosen, and the construction adapted to the end proposed, might be made self-supporting. It is difficult to account for the oblivion into which this * Select Committee on Prison Discipline, House of Commons, 1850. 52O Sequel to Charge of October, project has fallen, notwithstanding its practicability was abun- dantly proved by witnesses, each conversant with the depart- ment on which he gave his evidence. The adhesion to the scheme of such a witness as Mr. Ches- terton, who, for twenty-five years, was the governor of Coldbath Fields Prison, said to be the largest in the world, ought of itself to ensure the project a fair trial. ' Already/ says Mr. Chesterton, ' has another plan been propounded, with a view to meet the general exigencies of the State, since transportation has become no longer available. The plan of Mr. Charles Pearson, which was thoroughly sifted in the Session of 1850, by the Committee of the House of Commons, of which Mr. E. Denison was chairman, is worthy of the most attentive conside- ration. As a measure of universal application, it appears to me to suit the entire subject, and would relieve the Government from all the difficulties which arise from the adoption of diffe- rent modes, and temporary expedients. ' A thousand acres for a thousand prisoners, constitutes the main feature of the design, and with such an area Mr. Pearson proved, step by step, the practicability of furnishing all that the entire establishment would require to consume, defray the totality of the expense, and yield a good profit to the State. I was examined at great length to show how the discipline might, in such circumstances, be maintained; and there was not a proposition in the scheme which was not sustained by the testimony of competent witnesses. Nor did it exhibit any niggardly spirit in the allotment of officers. The proposed staff was ample ; and, in deducing results, every part of the estimate appeared to be computed on a liberal scale, so as to guard against ulterior disappointment/* The proposition that criminals ought to be detained in cus- tody until they are cured, seems to follow as a natural corollary from the doctrine that they ought to be allowed and urged to make their way out of prison by their own merits. If the opportunity be afforded to the convict to prove that the necessity manifested by his crime for secluding him from * Revelations of Prison Life. By George Laval Chesterton. Hurst and Blackett, London, 1856. Vol. ii. p. 6. Sequel to Charge of October, 1855. society, and thereby incapacitating him from repeating his offence, is at an end, why not retain him until he has esta- blished his right to liberty by such proof that is to say, by proof that his discharge will not militate against the public security? In 1839 this view of the subject was propounded by Mr. Frederic Hill, who, in his Fourth Report on Scotch Pri- sons, says, f As regards the question, how are convicts to be disposed of after their release from prison, supposing transpor- tation to be abolished, I would humbly suggest that it is desirable that those whom, from the nature and circumstances of their offences, as shown upon their trial, there can be no reasonable hope of reforming, should be kept in confinement through the remainder of their lives ; the severity of their dis- cipline, however, being relaxed in various ways, which would not be safe were it intended that they should return again to society/ * This opinion is maintained in succeeding Reports. In that of 1 843, there are persons, he says, ' who are wholly unfit for self-government, and who should be placed permanently under control. Some striking instances of this will be found in the Report on the Prison of Newcastle, and in that of Perth /t The passages referred to are as follows : ( There was a young woman in the prison who had been there several times, and who was described as industrious and well-behaved when in prison, but as unable to resist the temptation to drink when out, and who, to gratify this passion, and to procure food, frequently stole/J * * * * * ' There is a woman now in prison for the eleventh time, who, when in confinement, is hard-working and well-conducted, but who soon gets into trouble when at large ; and there is another woman who has the same character for good conduct in prison, arid bad conduct out of it, who is in for the twenty-fourth time ; and another (who happens, however, to be at present out of prison) who has been in thirty-one times. I saw, also, a man who was described as civil, obliging, and hard-working when in prison (and consequently sober), but who was said to * Fourth Report of the Inspector of Prisons for Scotland, p. v. f Eighth Report of the Inspector of Scotch Prisons, p. 15. J Ibid, p. 58. 523 Sequel to Charge of October, 1855. be quite mad when drunk, who has been in thirty-seven times, thirty-one of which were for assaults/ * In 1846 the doctrine was submitted to the Society for the Amendment of the Law, in a Draft Report on the Princi- ples of Punishment. ' The right to isolate an individual from society is founded on its being repugnant to the welfare of the one or the other of the parties, or of both, that they should be together until a change is wrought in the individual. If, how- ever, he is so constituted as to resist this beneficial change, the reasons for retaining him in a state of separation, instead of being removed, gather strength. There is oftentimes, however, a wide interval judiciously left between theory and practice. It is by no means necessary to the practical adoption of the reformatory principle, that it should be carried into extremes. Every sentence might still be for a term of imprisonment measured by time, if that term were always made of sufficient length to enable every prisoner to work his way out of gaol by conduct arid industry before its expiration. The consequence of this arrangement would be, that resistance to reformation would only postpone the liberation of the prisoner for a time certain, and not for an indefinite period. We have no doubt that in the end the public would be startled with the absurdity of sending forth persons who, having been withdrawn from society by reason of their unfitness for it, are restored upon proof that such unfitness is permanent, and cannot be re- moved/ f I will quote Mr. Chesterton on this subject: ' England, deprived of an outlet for her convicts, must devise the means for even perpetual imprisonment, and I know how inadequate is the system of separation to meet the requirement; nor is the silent discipline, in its hitherto restricted organiza- tion, a whit more applicable to the altered circumstances in which the country is placed/{ The principle is essentially involved in the system of Captain * Eighth Report of the Inspector of Scotch Prisons, p. 91. t Draft Report on the Principles of Punishment. By Matthew Davenport Hill. 1847. p. 13. i Revelations of Prison life, Vol. ii., p. 50. Sequel to Charge of October, 1855. 523 Maconochie. The reader has seen that the Spectator has advocated it for many years ; and that it has now the concur- rence of the Times, and other journals. Mr. Stuart Wortley, the present Solicitor-General,* may be ranked among its sup- porters, as appears by the questions which he proposed to me in the Transportation Committee so often mentioned. f 1878. Mr. Wortley In answer to the Chairman, you stated that you thought the principle of holding out hope to a criminal in a prison was in all cases essential; have you considered whether there is not a class (a small one, I hope) to whom that measure cannot really and effectually be applied at all, and whether it is not the fact that there is a class who for the safety of society might justly be retained in safe keeping, like lunatics and others, for the rest of their lives ? I would hold out hope to them ; but if they did not avail themselves of that hope, and amend their conduct, I have already stated, but I think it was before the right honourable member arrived, that I am prepared to face the question of confining them for the whole of their lives like lunatics. '1879. Now that it is likely, or at all events possible, that we may be deprived of the means of employing transportation as a punishment, and removing criminals altogether from the country for their lives, have you contemplated the possibility of some establishment, either in this country, or on the coasts of this country, within reach of frequent inspection, where per- sons of that hopeless character might be detained, and kept in safe custody for the rest of their lives ? I am entirely of that opinion; and I think that such custody need not be made very painful ; that they may have all such indulgences as their unhappy state permits, short of turning them out again upon society. ( 1880. It would be necessary that their confinement should not be made painful, nor even very close, would it not, with a view to their health? I should say so. I know that there are many persons who are not considered by medical men lunatics, who are entirely destitute of the power of self-govern- ment; they are happier, or at least less unhappy, when in con- finement than when at large; and I have known several December, 1856. 524 Sequel to (Jfiarge of October, 1855. instances of persons who seem to have an instinctive knowledge of their infirmity, and the moment they get out of prison they take means to go back. Mr, Frederic Hill, the late Inspector of Prisons for Scotland, my brother, details the case of a woman who had been committed, I think, ninety times ; she certainly was sent to prison for very small offences, and, when discharged, she rarely, according to my recollection of what he says, went a street's length but she broke a window, or committed some act for the purpose of being sent back ; with the avowed inten- tion of being sent back. ' 1 88 1. I referred rather to criminals of the higher class, who had committed so many offences as to render them incapable of reform, inasmuch as, even if they tried, their circumstances would prevent it ? I quite adopt the suggestion of the right honourable member; there is such a class; and having ex- hausted all the means of reform upon them, and found that those means produced no good effect, I am prepared, for one, to see the Legislature empower the Executive to detain them for their lives. '1882. I know that you have studied these matters very much ; have you, in the course of that study, met with any information as to the practical application of that principle in any country of Europe or America ? I think not, directly; but I find by the return from Munich, that there is a class of prisoners in Bavaria who receive a sentence for an uncertain period ; it is not a sentence of imprisonment for life, for there is another class who are expressly sentenced to imprisonment for life. '1883. Chairman What is the form of the sentence for an uncertain period? That I cannot tell you; but I will read, if you will allow me, what is said upon it ; he is called, in the paper which I have handed in, ' The criminal sentenced to penal servitude for an unfixed period/ I should mention that the translator was a German gentleman, and he took ' penal servitude' as the nearest English equivalent which he could find. This paper also says : ' The criminal laws of Bavaria include the following punishments of personal restraint: i. The sen- tence of the chain, which can only be awarded for life. The criminal sentenced to this punishment is fettered on both his feet by a long chain, to which a heavy iron ball is attached. Sequel to Charge of October, 1855. 525 2. The punishment of penal servitude, which is never awarded for life, but either for a fixed number of years or for an unfixed period. The criminal sentenced to penal servitude for a time not specified, may, after sixteen years' imprisonment, expect his liberation on the conditions named under section 7.' Section 7 is : ' According to the laws of Bavaria, industry and good conduct shorten the terms of imprisonment, according to the following rule. The criminal sentenced to penal servitude for an unfixed period may expect his pardon after sixteen years' imprisonment, if, during his incarceration, or at any rate for ten years, he have shown continually extreme industry, not have incurred punishment for malice or insubordination, and otherwise have given evident proofs of his reformation. Offenders sentenced to fixed terms of penal servitude, or to the House of Correction, can, under the same conditions, shorten their terms of punishment, and may expect that mercy will be extended to them after having been imprisoned three-fourths of their time/ ' * The foregoing extract shows that the proposal to confine criminals once convicted, until they have proved their fitness for liberty, is not an untried speculation ; but that the principle is already in action. The following answers by Mr. Under- Secretary Waddington present the only objections to the plan which could be adduced by a gentleman of great ability and long experience : '173. Mr. Wortley From your experience, are you of opinion that there is a large class of confirmed criminals in whom all hope of reformation is delusive ? I am afraid that there is such a class ; I hope it is not very large, but it exists beyond all doubt. ' 174. Under the severer code which existed in this country formerly, a large number of those persons were withdrawn from society by the punishment of death? Certainly that was so. ' 175. Has it ever been a matter of consideration with the Government, whether it would not be possible to devise at home, or in the immediate neighbourhood of home, in some of * Transportation Committee, House of Commons, 1 856. Second .Report, pp. 18-19. 526 Sequel to Charge of October, the islands, a place of detention where, consistently with the preservation of health, that class might be confined for life ? The question has been undoubtedly mooted, and more than once; but I do not think it has been very seriously brought under the consideration of the Government. I have never been a party to any discussions or deliberations upon that subject. ( 176. Is it not found that, under the strict discipline of our prisons, the human frame and understanding will not bear con- finement beyond a certain period? It will not bear solitary confinement beyond a certain period, certainly. ' 177. Nor strict confinement? Nor strict confinement. I suppose that the period of associated labour in the open air might be prolonged to any length. ' 178. Is it not, on the other hand, found that many crimi- nals who have been confined as lunatics, are to a great extent cured of their lunacy, and become in good bodily health, and live to a very old age, in confinement ? There are many such cases, no doubt. There is a certain character of mind in which confinement produces a depression, \vhich very often leads to delusions, and ultimately to confirmed lunacy. '179. Do you see any reason why, with respect to that class to which I refer, it should not be attempted to subject them, in the first instance, to the severe punishment of penal servitude, and then, during the remainder of their lives, that they should only be subject to such control, in some place of seclusion and healthy confinement, as would insure their not escaping? It would be a very benevolent arrangement, if it could be done ; how far it is exactly practicable I do not know r . The French, we know, have had a totally different system : they have made their confinements for life as severely penal as they possibly could. ' 180. The great alarm, whether w r ell founded or not, which has been raised by the present system of tickets-of-leave, arises from the fear of that class of persons being turned upon society, does it not ? That is so, no doubt. ' j8i. They being turned upon society necessarily within the limits of this country, whereas in former times there was the chance of their remaining abroad ? Certainly ; the impres- sion is, that there are a very large number of them who are in Sequel to Charge of October, 1855. 527 no way reclaimed by discipline, and that those persons are again taking to crime, and joining with their old associates; thus ultimately forming an immense number of criminals, whom it will be impossible to keep under any control. ' 182. On the other hand, with those classes of criminals who are not hopeless, transportation affords the best hope of redeeming their character and reclaiming their mind ? By far the best. ' 183. That if the worst characters were retained here for life, instead of being, as they are under the present system, transported for a period of ten or fifteen years, it would be possible, even with the present outlets which we have, to send those persons abroad in whom there is a hope of reformation, would it not ? It might be done, certainly ; but that is regarding transportation in a view which has not been generally taken of it. The great object of transportation, no doubt, has been to relieve this country of the worst offenders ; no doubt it is also extremely beneficial to all offenders, whether the worst or the least depraved; but I should think that the plan of keeping the worst offenders here, and imprisoning them for life, would not be one which would be likely to meet with the approbation of the public. I think there would be a great feeling against long imprisonment. 1 184. It is done in almost all other countries, I believe? It is, I know; we have generally looked upon it with very great dislike. ' 185. Has not that feeling arisen very much from the belief that you cannot inflict close confinement without injury to the health ? Yes, I dare say that is so. ' 1 86. Then if confinement after a certain period were of a mitigated character, only sufficient for security, might not that feeling be also mitigated to some extent ? Still it is a very frightful punishment under any circumstances, inflicting civil death upon a man without the slightest hope : it seems to be the great objection to that sort of punishment, that it does not give the slightest hope to a man; it destroys every feeling which can render life in any respect desirable, or even tole- rable. '187. Then if I collect your opinion, it is rather that public 528 Sequel to Charge of October, 1855. opinion would not bear a punishment of that sort ? I confess it is rather so/* f To inflict civil death upon a man without the slightest hope/ would be, no doubt, ' a very frightful punishment f but my proposal by no means deprives any prisoner of hope, because his power of liberating himself by industry and good conduct is never taken away from him ; and until his death actually occurs, none can say that his imprisonment will extend to the close of his life. If, therefore, the public shrink from the infliction of such imprisonments, the sooner it ceases to com- plain of the outrages which fill the newspapers, so much the better will it evince its consistency. First Report of Committee on Transportation, House of Commons, 1 856. p. 1 7. CHAKGE OF OCTOBER, 1856. ON THE RESOLUTIONS OF THE SELECT COMMITTEE ON TRANS- PORTATION, APPOINTED BY THE HOUSE OF COMMONS IN THE PRECEDING SESSION.* GENTLEMEN OF THE GRAND JURY, AT the Michaelmas Sessions of the last year, I submitted to your predecessors observations on the working of a very important statute, passed in 1853, which is usually called the Ticket-of-leave Act ; its characteristic feature being the autho- rity which it vests in the Crown to grant to convicts under sentence of transportation, or penal servitude, a revocable ticket, permitting them to go at large prior to the expiration of their sentences. At the date of my Charge, notwithstanding returns had been laid before Parliament, setting forth that from eighty to ninety per cent, of prisoners thus liberated had so conducted themselves, since they became their own masters, as not to fall again under the censure of a criminal court, the public mind was far from satisfied with the results of the measure ; not that the reclamation of from eighty to ninety per cent, of our criminal population would not have been hailed as triumphant success, but, unfortunately, proof by figures of arithmetic, when applied to subjects of this nature, is not much more readily accepted by the English mind than proof by figures of rhetoric. Adverse opinions had become so widely spread that a cry was raised for a repeal of the Act j and certainly, Gentlemen, if the merits of the question had turned upon the accuracy of these figures, it will become tolerably evident, before I cease to address you, that the public had but too much reason for its hardness of belief. But I shall also show you that the repudiation of these statistics ought by no means to draw after it a condemna- tion of the measure. I will confess to you that I watched the growing unpopularity of the Act, not merely with anxiety, but with alarm. However imperfectly the law is framed, and how- * First, Second, and Third Eeports of the Transportation Committee, House of Commons, Session 1856. M M 53 Charge of October } 1856. ever open to animadversion the manner in which it has been carried into effect, it nevertheless embodies two principles, each founded, as I must think, on just and enlightened views of juris- prudence. The first is to enable the criminal to work out his freedom for himself, by exhibiting proof that he is an altered man, and that he has become imbued with qualities, the absence of which led to his fall. The second to make the discharge only a conditional restoration to liberty. He is not, for the remainder of the term to which his sentence extends, to be placed on a footing with his fellow-citizens. The theory of the law is, that he has been set at large because his conduct in prison has induced the belief that he is reformed. But if his course of life should be such as to destroy that confidence, he is again to be returned to his probation in the gaol. An additional year of experience in the operation of this law, and a careful consideration of the various facts and arguments which have been elicited in the debates in Parliament, the examinations of witnesses, and the discussions in the public press, have con- firmed the opinion which I then held. This result will indeed be a matter of little moment to any one except myself; but, Gentlemen, I am able to support the conclusions at which I myself had arrived, by no less an authority than that of the Committee, appointed by the House of Commons during the last session, to investigate the working of the Act. That body, com- posed as it was of men who had made the administration of the criminal law a careful study for many years, came to the follow- ing resolution : ' That the system [of granting tickets-of-leave] appears to be founded upon a principle wise and just in itself, viz., that of enabling a convict to obtain, by continued good conduct while undergoing his punishment, the remission of a portion of his sentence ; upon the express condition, however, that in case of subsequent misconduct, his liability to punish- ment shall revive for the residue of the term specified in the original sentence.' The Committee, Gentlemen, recommended not only the continuance, but the expansion, of the system. The statute embraced all convicts adjudged to transportation, or to the milder punishment of penal servitude, usually applied in cases not sufficiently aggravated to call for the higher infliction ; but it excluded all minor offenders. The Executive Government, Charge of October, 1856. 531 however, still further narrowed the limits of the privilege ; and instead of pursuing the line adopted by the statute, stretched the exclusion to the class of convicts adjudged to penal ser- vitude. The ground, Gentlemen, on which the framers of the Act had submitted it for adoption by the Legislature was the efficiency of encouragement in stimulating the convict to industry and good conduct. That being so, the Committee suffered, as I had suffered before them, under the inability to understand the justice of withholding from the lesser criminal the incentive to reformation held out to his more guilty fellow-prisoners, or to divine the policy of advertising our criminal population, that no member of it must indulge the hope of obtaining his liberty by a course of well-doing, unless he would first earn the right to such an encouragement by the enormity of his transgressions. And from the evidence, Gentlemen, of the Directors of Convict Prisons, it appeared that the men sentenced to penal servitude participated in that lack of penetration to which I have adverted ; so that, when they learnt that they were excluded from a boon granted to those who had sunk deeper into crime than them- selves, they became morose, disobedient, and at length mutinous. It is needless to say, that in this frame of mind the progress of reformation came to a pause, and that retrogression began. Perhaps, Gentlemen, you yourselves may be as much in the dark on the subject as others have been; and may ask whence was this extraordinary doctrine imported into England. To such an inquiry I could give no satisfactory answer; I am not acquainted with the jurisprudence of any nation, civilized or barbarous, which is deformed by such an inversion of the order dictated by natural justice. Nor do I know of any country, save two, which, having admitted the principle of encouragement into the treatment of their criminals, has ever abandoned it, or narrowed its application. The value of this principle is now recog- nised in many nations of Europe, and in many States of the great Republic across the Atlantic, and I feel confident that it is destined to make its way into the criminal code of every well- governed country in the world. France and Spain are the states which have made a retrograde movement. France, to a small extent only ; and the error having been pointed out, and condemned by an eminent writer, who holds a very high, if not the highest position in the French M M 2, 53 ^ Charge of October, 1856. Judicature, it will probably be quickly amended. Convicts, who, with us, would be sentenced to transportation, are kept in France to hard labour for long terms of years. It has been the usage, however, of the Sovereign to issue, from time to time, pardons to the most deserving of these forcats, as they are called. Of late years, says M. de Beranger, the Judge to whom I have referred, these pardons have been more and more sparingly granted. Mark, Gentlemen, the consequence. The formats are discouraged, and lose their energy. Their labour is become far less profitable, and their attempts to escape far more numerous. The other country which I have excepted is Spain. Let me ask your attention to the good eflects of encouragement in the Spanish prisons while it was in operation, and the evil conse- quences of withdrawing it. In the city of Valencia there has long been a penitentiary gaol, under the government of Colonel Montesinos, a gentleman who has made for himself a European reputation by his skill in the treatment of his prisoners. He acted upon them by urging them to self-reformation. He excited them to industry by allowing them a small portion of their earnings for their own immediate expenditure, under due regulations to prevent abuse. He enabled them to raise their position, stage after stage, by their perseverance in good conduct. When they had acquired his confidence, he entrusted them with commissions which carried them beyond the walls of their prison ; relying on the moral influence which he had acquired over them to prevent their desertion. And, finally, he dis- charged them before the expiration of their sentences, when he had satisfied himself that they desired to do well, had acquired habits of patient labour, so much of skill in some useful occupa- tion as would ensure employment, the inestimable faculty of self-denial the power of saying f no j to the tempter and, in short, such a general control over the infirmities of their minds and their hearts, as should enable them to deserve and maintain the liberty which they had earned. His success was answer- able to the wisdom and zeal of his administration. Instances of relapse but rarely occurred, and the Spanish Government, rightly judging that talent like his ought to have the widest scope, appointed him Inspector- General of all the prisons in Spain. It so happened, however, that the Legislature of that country was minded to establish a new criminal code ; and (for what reason I know not) held it advisable to convert sentences Charge of October, 1856. 533 of imprisonment for long terms of years, which prevail on the Continent, into incarceration for life. This was done. But, unhappily, this was not the only, nor the most pernicious change. In the chapters of the new code which relate to the management of prisons, governors are prohibited from offering those encouragements to the prisoners which had raised them step by step until they were fitted for the enjoyment of liberty ; and they also make it imperative that every sentence of imprison- ment shall be fulfilled to the last hour. The combined effects of these innovations teem with instruction. Prisons which had been models of order and cleanliness, of cheerful industry, and of praiseworthy demeanour in general, now exhibit a painful contrast to that happy state of things ; they have become the scenes of indolence, disorder, and filth ; and the prisoners are either reduced to despair, or urged upon plots for escape, which, in a multitude of instances, are followed by success. Gentle- men, it will not be the fault of the Committee, if we fail to profit by this most instructive lesson. Let me read to you the conclusions at which they have arrived on this part of our sub- ject. Their fifth resolution is : ( 5. That every punishment by penal servitude should include, first, a certain fixed period of imprisonment and hard labour on public works to be undergone at all events ; secondly, a further period, which should be capable of being abridged by the good conduct of the convict himself. ' 6. That it appears from the evidence before the Committee that bad effects upon the discipline of convicts on the public works, have already been caused by the regulations under which it has been made known that no tickets-of-leave or other remis- sion of sentence would in any case be granted to men sentenced to penal servitude. 1 7. That with a view to give full effect to the principle indi- cated in Resolution 5, the sentences of penal servitude prescribed by that Act should be changed and lengthened, so as to be identical with the terms of transportation for which they are respectively substituted. ' 8. That the sentences of penal servitude now in force might be adopted. with some few changes, as the fixed periods recom- mended in Resolution 5. ' 9. That the scale of secondary punishment would be more complete, if a shorter period of penal servitude than any now 534 Charge of October, n 856. in force were enacted, as an intermediate sentence between the present term of ordinary imprisonment now usually inflicted, and the former sentence of seven years' transportation or its equivalent.' These resolutions may perhaps requie some further explana- tion to enable their full bearing to be seen. You must know, Gentlemen, that the Bill of 1853, on its introduction into Par- liament by the Lord Chancellor, was a measure which had for its object simply to enable the Courts to convert the punish- ment of transportation, which, owing to the opposition of our colonies, could only be acted upon to a limited extent, into imprisonment in our convict gaols and hulks, and labour on our public works, with the view of reserving transportation for heinous offences deserving a punishment all but capital ; and rightly believing that the substituted punishment which was denominated penal servitude, is for equal periods of time an infliction much more grievous than transportation, when it con- verted the latter punishment into the former, it greatly dimi- nished its duration. But while the Bill was passing through the House of Lords, it so happened that Earl Grey, who, when Colonial Minister, had had experience of the beneficial effect produced by tickets- of-leave in the Island of Barbadoes, sug- gested the expediency of trying a similar experiment in England. He spoke highly of the principle of encouragement, from his own observation ; and he agreed with all who have a practical knowledge of prisoners, that no incitement can be held out to them which will bear any comparison for efficiency in stimulating them to good deeds, with that derived from the expectation of being restored to freedom. Listen, I pray you, to the opinion of the Rev. "William Holderness, the chaplain of the Portland Prison, and a member of that exemplary body of men, whose labours and sacrifices, if they do not obtain for them their well-earned promotion in the church, will at all events ensure them respectful attention from every one competent to estimate the insight which their professional duties give them, into the characters of those who enjoy the advantage of their ministrations. ' As a general rule, 5 he says, ' the men sentenced to penal servitude have no hope of shortening their confinement, consequently a powerful incentive to good conduct is lost. It is to be feared that no adequate substitute for the hope of liberty can be devised. It is the love of liberty which lies nearest to Charge of October, 1856. 535 a prisoner's heart, and which will ever be the cheapest and the best reward for exemplary conduct/ The opinion here expressed derives additional weight from its being in conformity with that of Colonel Jebb, Captain Crofton, and Captain Whitty, Directors of the Convict Prisons; appointments of high importance, offering a wide scope for observation on the habits, manners, and ways of thinking, common to the criminal class. These views, Gentlemen, prevailed, and the principle of the Bill was changed. But by this time the Session was rapidly drawing to an end ; and the requisite alteration in the clauses to bring them into harmony with the principle of encourage- ment, now become the characteristic of the proposed law, was but partially made. Probably it will be obvious to you, as it certainly was to the Committee, that when a power was given to the prisoner himself to shorten his term of confinement, the ground for reducing the length of his original sentence was gone ; nay, that inasmuch as the period of probation after dis- charge ought to be protracted until it becomes manifest that the training of the prison has secured, as completely as it can be secured, the permanent well-doing of the liberated prisoner, so far from shortening sentences, reason would rather seem to dictate the propriety of making them longer than ever. The Committee, then, by recommending that convicts sentenced to penal servitude should be brought, in practice, within that privilege of tickets-of-leave to which they are so clearly entitled by law, and by further recommending that the present inade- quate terms of penal servitude should be lengthened, have done what in them lies towards repairing the errors both of the statute itself and of its administration. But their advice goes further. They desire that new terms of penal servitude should be created suitable to a class of slighter offences than those now visited with that punishment, in order to give to minor offenders the benefits of the ticket-of-leave. Let us hope, Gentlemen, that the progress of opinion will not be permanently stayed even at this point. Let us hope that no inmate of a prison will be left without incentives to do right. If the imprisonment to which he is adjudged is so short as not to admit of his being made the better by reformatory treatment, may not such a consequence furnish a more cogent reason for lengthening the period of his detention, than for depriving him of the moral advantages conceded to those who are worse than himself? Charge of October, 1856. The remaining resolutions of the Committee,, to which I would crave your attention, are as follows : ' 13. That there has been much of misapprehension and ex- aggeration with regard to the conduct of persons released upon tickets-of-leave who have been frequently confounded (even by several of the witnesses on this inquiry) under one common designation of ' ticket-of-leave men/ with convicts whose sen- tences had fully and absolutely expired. ' 14. That there is reason to believe that the conduct of a large portion of the whole number of persons discharged upon tickets-of-leave has hitherto been good, and in other cases per- sons so discharged have relapsed into crime from the difficulty, arising from their former characters becoming known, of pro- curing or retaining honest employment in this country, a diffi- culty, however, which obviously applies to all persons once convicted, whether discharged upon tickets-of-leave, or abso- lutely at the expiration of their sentences. ' 15. That to render this system of tickets-of-leave adapted both for the reformation of offenders and the interests of the public, the conditions endorsed upon the tickets-of-leave ought to be enforced more strictly than appears to have been hitherto the case. ' 1 6. That every convict, on his release with a ticket-of-leave, ought to be reported to the police of the town or district to which he is sent/ Gentlemen, it was to that confusion between convicts dis- charged on tickets-of-leave, the period of whose sentences had not terminated, and convicts who had been freed absolutely, or, if liberated with tickets-of-leave, had been out of prison so long that their sentences had expired it was the confounding, I say, of these three descriptions of convicts, and considering them all as ticket-of-leave men, which produced what I may fairly call the panic of the last winter ; throwing the good people of England into a state of mind which placed in extreme danger the permanency of a measure, having most assuredly the soundest foundation whatever defects might weaken its superstructure. Happily, the misapprehensions and the fears to which the Com- mittee advert have been dispelled. Our advance towards the rational treatment of criminals has been secured ; and a peril has been averted, the magnitude of which we can scarcely over- estimate. Nevertheless it cannot be denied, that the public Charge of October, 1855. 537 had very reasonable grounds for complaint and misgiving. The responsibility of the convict discharged on ticket-of-leave, has been in practice little more than nominal. The rule was to send him to the town or district in which his offence had been committed; but no intimation of his return was conveyed to the police, and consequently they had no means of ascertaining whether he had come out of prison on a ticket-of-leave, or whe- ther he had received an unconditional discharge. In the latter event he was subject to no control until he had committed a fresh offence. In the former, his ticket was liable to recall at the discretion of the Secretary of State, and by an endorse- ment on the ticket-of-leave itself he was informed that 'the power of revoking or altering the licence of a convict will most certainly be exercised in case of his misconduct. If, there- fore, he wishes to retain the privilege, which, by his good behaviour under penal discipline, he has obtained, he must prove by his subsequent conduct that he is really worthy of her Majesty's clemency/ Thus it appears that due notice is given to every ticket-of- leave man, that any clear manifestation that he does not mean to follow a sober, honest, and industrious course of life, will consign him again to prison; such manifestation being taken as proof that when he left the gaol he was not in a fit state to be discharged. This omission of notice to the police, it is recommended by the Committee, as you will have observed, should henceforth be supplied; and doubtless much will be done by acting on their advice. Yet much will still remain to be accomplished. Since the establishment of railways, individuals of the predatory class have gained a very great and pernicious facility for extending the circle of their depredations, by moving quickly from place to place. This renders it necessary to devise some means by which the police may be able to recognise and identify convicts, whatever towns they may choose to visit. Practical difficulties will no doubt arise in framing such a plan. But I speak from good authority when I say that they may be overcome. I should encroach most unreasonably upon your time if I were to enter into details on this part of the subject. Its impor- tance, however, cannot be denied; since, without the means of identifying ticket-of-leave men, it is obviously impossible to hold any control over them, or to ascertain what proportion 538 Charge of October, 1856. relapse again into crime. Let me present to you, as an example of how difficult it is now to ascertain who are and who are not at large under tickets- of-leave, the state of things in this town. At the beginning of the present year, judging from data which I laid before the Committee in my evidence, and which have never been impugned, there must have been, as I calculated, eighty ticket-of-leave men, at the least, resident- in Birmingham. I asked your Chief Superintendent for a list of all that could be found. He and his subordinate officers exerted themselves to comply with my request. After six weeks of inquiry and observation, they presented me with the names of nineteen persons only, stating that there were many others whom they suspected to belong to this class, but of whom they had no specific knowledge. Of the nineteen, further information dis- closed an error as to five. These had never held tickets-of- leave, but had left their prisons upon unconditional discharges. I subsequently found that the police of Bristol were in a like state of doubt, with regard to the criminal population of that city. Hence it follows that relapsed ticket-of-leave men, as well as other convicts, often succeed in imposing themselves on Courts as appearing at the bar for the first time; and thus it becomes impossible to distinguish, with any degree of accuracy, between the numbers of those on whom training has been effectual, and those on whom it has failed. But although I am compelled to withhold my confidence from all the estimates which have appeared as to the relative proportions of those ticket-of-leave men who stand fast, as compared with those who again relapse into criminal courses, nevertheless I rejoice to be able to add, as I do from a variety of facts which have come to my knowledge, that I believe the committee was fully justi- fied in stating that the conduct of a large number of this class has been good. I believe, too, that the fall of many of those who have relapsed, is rightly attributed to the reluctance which employers feel to engage the services of these unhappy persons. That reluctance, however, it may be fairly hoped will be greatly diminished, when the master has a reasonable assurance that the reformation of the convict, which has gained for him his ticket-of-leave, is genuine and permanent. But before such a result can be conscientiously predicated of the class, however it may be true as regards individuals, much improvement will be required in our system of training prisoners. Charge of October, 1856. 539 I have spoken. Gentlemen, of the necessity for passing the criminal, or rather for enabling him to pass himself, through progressive stages of imprisonment. The soundness of this principle, indeed, is recognised, and, to a certain limited extent, is now in action; and so far as the gaol authorities have brought it into use, it is highly beneficial. But the stages are not sufficiently numerous; and, what is a much greater defect, the convict does not win his way through them by dint of exertion. The right to pass onwards is gained by his remaining in each a given time ; such period, it is true, may be lengthened by signal misconduct on his part, but that is little to the purpose. Gentlemen, what I desire to see is that the convict should never be able to pass through a stage, merely by conformity to rules for a certain number of months, weeks, or days; but that lie should be held to proof that he has made a substantial ad- vance towards reformation. Apply the proper test to his con- duct, and then let him pass as quickly as he can. Give him plenty of work, and reward him according to the measure of his labour. Let him have the right to lay out some portion of his earnings in bettering his diet; but give him a strong motive to use this right sparingly, by making his economy tell upon his progress towards freedom. Finally, let his faults, whether of omission or commission, retard his advancement; and, when of sufficient magnitude, let them thrust him back into a stage already passed. It is easy, Gentlemen, to raise theoretic objections against this proposal. All I shall say is, that the obstacles against success, be they few or many, have been grappled with, and overcome ; not in one gaol or one country, but in prisons separated by hundreds and thousands of miles from each other ; and by governors acting on plans which each had framed for himself, without being able to profit by the experience of his fellows. One fact, Gentlemen, even if it stood alone, would suffice to show that the theory of the law is, with us, most imperfectly reduced to practice. It is this. Discharge, on ticket-of-leave, as I have said, is given when the convict has endured a certain fraction of his punishment, as measured by time, unless in excepted cases of flagrant misconduct, when he is detained for a somewhat longer period. Now it was proved before the Committee, that the number of such excepted cases is very small, and that the extra detention is very short. 13 ut 54 Charge of October, 1 856. I put it to your common sense, Gentlemen, whether such could be the operation of the measure, if the convicts did in truth work themselves out of prison. Is it not self-evident that convicts commencing their imprisonment together, would, on that supposition, no more depart on the same day from the prison gates, than that the horses starting together at a race, will all at the same moment reach the winning-post? Here there is a need for improvement which demands the anxious attention of all who have the fate of the criminal class under their control. For if it be manifestly unjust to the public to permit criminals, whose sentences have not expired, to return into society unreformed, I hold it to be no less mischievous to the criminals themselves. Surely, Gentlemen, liberty to him who will only use it to plunge himself deeper into guilt, is no blessing, but a curse ; whether we regard his welfare here or hereafter. Gentlemen, I attribute the present very imper- fect state of our prison discipline to no want of zeal arid anxiety for good results in those to whom it is entrusted. I attribute it to their want of confidence in the possibility of thoroughly reforming a convict, by any treatment of which he is susceptible while confined in prison. ' The reason/ said the present Secretary of State for the Home Department, in the House of Commons, ' why a ticket-of-leave cannot fairly be regarded as a proof of reclamation, is obvious. So long as a man is im- mured in a prison, where he is denied the opportunity of getting drunk, and of associating with those who might lead him into temptation, he is evidently so circumstanced, that it is impossible for him to afford us the means of arriving at a satisfactory conclusion as to whether his repentance is genuine or affected/ Gentlemen, the proposition thus enunciated by the Right Honourable Secretary is as undeniably true as it is clearly and forcibly expressed. Yet I am not prepared to accept the Minister's practical conclusion in favour of discharging unre- formed criminals; because, with the information derived from the evidence taken by the Committee, of the excellent results which have followed a judicious relaxation in the restraints upon convicts during the latter stages of reformatory discipline, I cannot admit it to be a necessary condition of prison life, that the will of the convict should be kept in that state of slavish repression which is here assumed. Gentlemen, the question Charge of October, 1856. 541 Mr which I am now examining underlies the whole theory of reformatory discipline. Even that amendment, imperfect as it is, which the stimulus afforded by the ticket-of-leave system has effected, is wrought out by a certain small measure of free action conceded to the prisoner. The punishment which is inflicted upon him for gross misconduct in gaol, shows that he is held to have had it in his power to choose between right and wrong ; and it is merely a careful and well -graduated enforce- ment of this principle which is required to accomplish all at which we aim. Personal reformation, as the term implies, is the acquisition of some faculty of action or endurance, not possessed before. But every one of our acquirements is made by the repetition of efforts, the large majority of which are often unsuccessful. To learn to swim we cast ourselves on the water, and are apt scholars indeed if we are not obliged to repeat the process times out of number, before we can overcome our ten- dency to sink to the bottom. At last, however, we plunge and struggle ourselves into the capacity for keeping our heads above the surface. A story is told of a man who fondly hoped to acquire the art in comfort and safety, by placing himself on his dining-table, face downwards, and then vigorously striking out his arms and legs. But he discovered in the end, that swim- ming could only be learned by running the chance of sinking ; and, Gentlemen, as certain as it is that a swimmer taught on dry land will straightway go to the bottom the moment he ventures into the water, so sure it also is that the prisoner who returns into the world before he is in some sort inured to its dangers and its combats, will yield to the first temptation. He may, it is true, and not infrequently does, rise again ; renews the fight, and in the end is victorious. But how many, alas ! become at once hopeless of their own capacity for resistance, and fall to rise no more. Gentlemen, we naturally shrink from exposing a fellow- creature, who has shown his weakness by the fact of his becoming a convict, to any temptation while he remains under our pro- tection and control. But this disposition, however laudable, must be overcome. We must reflect that it is not in our power, except by imprisoning him for life, to guard him against the host of temptations which will throng upon him, the moment he sets foot beyond the prison walls. Is it not, then, more than permissible is it not our duty to train him to bear the 54 2 Charge of October, 1856. shock of those temptations, while we are able ? And at once to subject him to a renewed course of preparation, if upon experi- ment he is found incapable of encountering his danger in the mitigated form in which we can present it to him ? But, Gentlemen, I need not detain you with speculations. By Montesinos, at Valencia; by Obermaier, at Munich; by the Governors of many prisons in the United States ; and last, not least, by Captain Crofton, the Chairman of the Board of Directors of Convict Prisons in Ireland, has this difficulty, formidable as it is justly deemed, been met and surmounted. Gentlemen, it is the deep impression produced on my mind by reflecting on this difficulty, which has led me to appreciate so highly the value of that additional responsibility under which the prisoner is placed, when his discharge is revocable, in the event of his forfeiting the pledge which his good conduct had given, of his permanent reclamation. It is the opinion of some for whose knowledge and ability I entertain the highest respect, that a prisoner once dismissed should be restored, so far as the law can restore him, to the position of those who have never offended. And assuredly, if any infallible test could be disco- vered by which to try the genuineness and the sufficiency of the change wrought in the moral state of the prisoner who has passed through all the stages of prison discipline, to keep any further hold on such an individual would be useless; and there- fore could not be justified. But having regard to the hopeless- ness of discovering such a test, and to the well-known fact that the early days of restored liberty are those when his temptations to take the wrong course are most difficult to resist, I cannot but agree most cordially with the Committee, in believing that the prisoner's discharge ought to be revocable; and I cannot but think that the term of his original sentence forms the shortest period at which he should be wholly relieved from the conse- quences of his offence. Let me, Gentlemen, now relieve you, who, although you have not offended, have been long detained. But not before I ask you to accept my sincere congratulations on the different aspect which the reformatory question has now assumed, to that which it presented twelve months ago. The Committee has performed a great service, and has the first title to our thanks. Yet we must not undervalue the support to the principles which they have laid down, afforded by the Societies for instituting Refor- Sequel to Charge of October, 1856. 543 matory Schools, which are springing up all around us. True it is, they confine their labours to the young ; but the benefits which they confer on juvenile criminals can only be successfully defended when attacked, as attacked they often are, upon grounds which, for the most part, are common to all reformatory systems, whether for the young or for the old. Nor, Gentlemen, ought we to pass by the assistance which we may hope to derive from the Association, lately founded in Birmingham, for the Aid of Discharged Prisoners. It has already, even in its infant state, shown its ability to guide, protect, and succour the objects of its care, at their perilous entrance on their new course of life, when the offices of Christian philanthropy, at all times precious, are more than ever needful. Gentlemen, I know you will join with me in fervent wishes that its members may hold fast to this noble work of charity ; and that they may obtain the only reward they seek, by finding its utility commensurate with their labours, and their benefactions. To M. D. Hill, Esq., Q.C., Recorder of Birmingham. ' The Grand Jury, before being dismissed from their duties, desire to express to the Recorder their high sense of the impor- tance of the subject brought under their notice in his Charge, and to express a hope that such enlightened views upon the treatment of the Criminal Classes may receive that consideration from the Legislature which they demand. ' Signed on behalf, and at the request of the Grand Jury, 1 J. P. SALT, Foreman. 'October 21, 1856.' SEQUEL. PRISONS OF MUNICH AND VALENCIA. ' Letter from M. D. Hill, to the Right Honourable M. T. Baines, M.P., Chairman of the Transportation Committee, House of Commons, 1856 :* * Transportation Committee, House of Commons, 1856. Second Report, App., p. 160. 544 Sequel to Charge of October, 1856. ' Heath House, Stapleton. cth June, iS;6. ' SIR, A few days ago I received from Spain a communi- cation which I desire to lay before the Committee. It consists of answers furnished by Colonel Don Manuel Mcmtesinos. Governor of the Prison of Valencia, to questions similar to those which I transmitted to Munich for the purpose of obtaining information regarding the present condition of the State Prison in that city ; which questions, with their answers, as translated by Mr. Leipner, of Clifton, you have already decided to print in your Appendix. The contribution from Valencia, which I have obtained through the kindness of the eminent house of Christobal de Murrietta and Co., will, I think, be found equally important with that from Munich. But the value of each will so obviously depend on the confidence which the Comn may be induced to place on the facts to be found in these com- munications, that I venture to hope you will allow me to lay before you, as briefly as I can, such corroboration of the ri ments to be found in each paper, as I have been able to meet with. f The attention of the English public was first called to the system of discipline practised in the State Prison of Munich by Mr. Alexander Baillie Cochrane, formerly a member of your House of Parliament, in a pamphlet published in the year 1853, the title of which will be found below.* ( { "While I was residing last year at Munich, my attention was particularly invited to the system of prison discipline practised in the State Prison, under the intelligent superintendence of M. Obermaier a system, as explained to me, so opposed to all my preconceived notions, and apparently founded on such Utc ideas of the perfectibility of human nature, that it required the most minute investigation to satisfy me of the accuracy of my informants. ' ' Some twenty years have elapsed since M. Obermaier first denounced the prison system which prevailed in Germany. Unlike many reformers of the age, he did not rest contented with pointing out existing evils, but he lost no time in urging * Prison Discipline. "By C. M. Obennaier, Governor of the Munich E Prison. Translated by M. Rehbann, with a Prefa: by Ale* Baillie Cochrane, London : James Ridgvray, 169, Piccadilly. Sequel to Charge of October, 1856. 545 upon the attention of the Government all those reforms "which have since been carried out in different districts, and for the full development of which the State Prison of Munich afforded the widest scope ; it is not surprising if, in the first instance, his suggestions were received as the aberrations of an amiable visionary, for he started a theory which many years since was received, even in this country, with doubt and mistrust namely, that the worst of criminals will commonly be found possessed of some one good quality, and that a system of prison discipline, based rather on pity than harshness, and appealing to the nobler and not the brutal instincts of human nature, would tend to raise men's self-respect, and thus gradually work upon their moral qualities ; that it was at once a wiser and a more humane policy to sympathize with the force of the temp- tation to which the criminal had yielded, than to visit with undue severity its guilty consequences. e ' By slow degrees, and through that earnestness and sincerity which cannot fail ultimately to win conviction, M. Obermaier gained adherents to his opinions, and opportunities for testing their value; after some years' experience at the prison of Kaiserslautern, where a system unusually harsh was replaced by one based on commiseration and pity, M. Obermaier was appointed governor of the Munich State Prison, which situation he now holds. f ' When M. Obermaier first arrived at Munich, he found from 600 to 700 prisoners in the gaol, in the worst state of insub- ordination, and whose excesses, he was told, defied the harshest and most stringent discipline ; the prisoners were all chained together, and attached to each chain was an iron weight, which the strongest found difficulty in dragging along ; the guard con- sisted of about i oo soldiers, who did duty not only at the gates and around the walls, but also in the passages, and even in the workshops and dormitories ; and, strangest of all protections against the possibility of an outbreak or individual evasion, twenty to thirty large savage dogs, of the bloodhound breed, were let loose at night in the passages and courts, to keep their watch and ward. According to his account, the place was a perfect Pandemonium, comprising within the limits of a few acres the worst passions, the most slavish vices, and the most heartless tyranny. N N 546 Sequel to Charge of October, 1856. ' ' It was his work to purify this den of corruption, and he set gallantly to it. His first object, he told me, was to enlist the sympathies, and to win the confidence of some of the best of the men; afterwards to bring those men together, and subse- quently, so far as they were concerned, to relax the severity of the prison rules. These men in their turn exercised a very gradual, but a very marked influence over others, until they formed a body willing to co-operate with him in his schemes of improvement. As the characters of these men became im- proved, their cheerfulness seemed to increase ; as he lightened the weight of the chains on their limbs, so did the weight on their hearts appear to be removed. M. Obermaier admitted that the process was a long and painful one; but that the result is most satisfactory must be admitted by all those who have taken the trouble of visiting this remarkable establish- ment. ' ' Although all I had been told led me to anticipate a great relaxation of ordinary prison precautions, I certainly scarcely expected to see the prison gates wide open, without any sentinel at the door, and a guard of only twenty men idling away their time in a guard-room off the entrance hall ; from this hall two long corridors led right and left to the various offices and work- shops ; the apartments of the governor were on the first floor, and immediately adjoining them, and in the same passage, were the dormitories and workshops. These workshops were of various dimensions, capable of holding from twenty to sixty men ; none of the doors were provided with bolts and bars, the only security was an ordinary lock, and, as in most of the rooms the key was not turned, there was no obstacle to the men walking into the passage, and I have already observed that there were only twenty soldiers to prevent them stepping from the passages into the road. Over each workshop some of the prisoners with the best characters were appointed overseers, and M. Obermaier assured me, that if a prisoner ever transgressed a regulation, his companions generally told him, ' Es ist ver- boten/ (it is forbidden,) and it rarely happened that he did not yield to the opinion of his fellow-prisoners. Few of the men wore chains, and the chains, when worn, were so light that they produced no practical inconvenience. M. Obermaier explained that he objected even to this remnant of the old system, but Sequel to Charge of October, 1855. 547 that the authorities insisted on certain forms of restraint being maintained. ( ' Within the prison walls every description of work is carried on ; the prisoners, divided into different gangs, and supplied with instruments and tools, make their own clothes, repair their own prison walls, and forge their own chains, producing various specimens of manufacture which are turned to most excellent account : the result being, that each prisoner, by occupation arid industry, maintains himself; the surplus of his earnings being given to him on his emancipation, avoids his being parted with in a state of destitution, a very necessary and important con- sideration, as, from having something to fall back upon, he may be prevented resorting to those pernicious habits and propen- sities which had brought him within the sphere of the criminal code. e ' The articles manufactured by the prisoners are all exported, that the sale of such produce might not injure, or in any way interfere with the home manufactures. The return enables the Government to uphold the institution at a comparatively tri- fling expense.* On entering each room > it was impossible not to have remarked the deportment of the prisoners towards the governor ; for the kind and friendly manner in which he ad- dressed them was responded to by a civility of manner rarely, under any circumstances, exhibited by men of that class, and still more rarely by such men when placed in that position. Neither in the passages, within the prison walls, nor in the courts without, was any guard to be seen ; the governor walked about with a walking-stick, and his sole escort was a pet dog of enormous size, of the Pomeranian breed ; altogether the effect produced upon myself, and those who accompanied me on this visit, was one of great astonishment, while, even after being an eye-witness of the system pursued, and listening to M. Ober- maier's explanation, it was very difficult to uproot all our pre- viously-formed opinions, or, as M. Obermaier might have termed them, prejudices. ' One of the party was disposed to explain this social pheno- menon by the phlegmatic habits of the Germans, whom it is The answers of the Bavarian Minister of the Interior do not support this statement. M. D. II, N N 2 548 Sequel to Charge of October, 1856. difficult to stimulate to active exertion if their daily wants are duly attended to ; this explanation might suffice, if this system had been universally and originally adopted throughout Ger- many, by those who were most competent to appreciate the national character ; but it fails to satisfy us, when it is remem- bered that the discipline which M. Obermaier found carried on in the Munich Prison, and which still prevails in Germany, was so severe that it proved very little confidence on the part of the Government in the apathy and sluggish indifference of those subjected to it. Another suggested that the prisoners were supplied with greater comforts than under the old system, in fact, that the life was so agreeable, they might have no desire to exchange it for another ; but M. Obermaier pointed out that the changes he had made were only in those details which tended to develop the moral qualities, that the diet, the work- ing hours remained the same ; and he added, with force and justice, that the very men whom the lightening the weights of the chains, and the removal of bolts and bars, could affect in so remarkable a manner, were precisely those to whom the loss of liberty would appear most appalling. Besides, freedom is, after all, the first affection of the human mind, and no amount of comfort could compensate for a life of monotony and imprison- ment. Then it was remarked, that even a guard of twenty men, with loaded arms, is a sufficient protection, and that, though the men were to escape, it would riot be possible for them long to avoid re- capture. This may be true, but, at the same time, so great a number of men, with working tools in their hands, would be a formidable body to resist. But the question this idea suggests is, is the protection such as a governor, placed in so responsible a situation, could feel justified in trusting to, if he only relied on such physical aid for the security of the prison ? f ' The whole matter is to me a problem which, even after visiting the prison and reading M. Obermaier's explanation, I find it difficult to understand ; whenever I have mentioned the subject I have found the idea of treating such men with confi- dence, and the hope of ever humanizing a set of ruffians, scouted as impracticable and Utopian. Still, so many grave considerations are involved in this question of prison discipline, and it being universally recognised of such permanent impor- Sequel to Charge of October, 1856. 549 tance, I have thought a translation of the most important parts of the Obermaier pamphlet may not be without interest; I have, therefore, taken the liberty of prefacing these extracts by these few remarks. I have not published M. Obermaier' s work in extenso, because it is very long, and much of it is irrelevant to the subject, consisting in the greater part of a description of Pentonville Prison, and in remarks on the system of solitary imprisonment/ ' Then follows a precis of Governor Obermaier's work,* which brings the history of the prison to the year 1846. The results of his plans he states thus : ' ' I undertook the direction of the prison of Kaiserslautern in, 1830, and my task was fulfilled in the year 1836. ' ' In 1 842 I was appointed governor of the Munich Prison, and in 1845 tne whole scheme was in full operation, such as it may be seen at the present time. f ' I discharged from Kaiserslautern, between the years J 830 and 1836, 132 criminals, who had been sentenced for different crimes, for periods from five to twenty years; of these 132, 123 have since their discharge been admirably conducted, and nine, that is, seven men and two women, have been recommitted. This statement is founded on the testimony of the authorities in the different places to which the men returned, and it is a well-attested fact ; this proportion between the reformed and the relapsed remained nearly the same until 1842. 1 ' The results of my management were equally successful in the prison of Munich. Although it was carried out within the walls of an old convent, ill adapted for the purposes of a prison, I was the more confirmed in my impressions at finding that a similar treatment carried out in two different German provinces was attended with equally satisfactory results ; the official returns give the following results of the Munich treatment : ( ' There were discharged between the years 1843 and 1845, 298 prisoners sentenced for various periods of from one to twenty years. ' ' Of these, 246 have been restored improved to society. * Die Verhandlungen liber Gefangnissreform in Frankfurt am Main im September, 1846 oder Die Einzelhaft mit ihren Folgen von G. M. Obermaier k.b. Regierungsrath und Vorstand der Strafiirbeits-Anstalt in Miinchen. Munchen, 1848, Job. Palm's HofbucbLandlung. 550 Sequel to Charge of October, 1856. Those whose characters are doubtful,, but have not been re- manded for any criminal act, twenty-six. Again, under exami- nation, four. Punished by the police, six. Remanded, eight. Died, eight. ' ' Now this statement is based on irrefutable evidence j it cannot be contradicted. It must either be that the great majority of the prisoners who quit the prison of Munich do so improved, or that those who are discharged, when they are set at liberty, improve themselves. I may add, that of the 246 who were discharged, 189 had been sentenced for murder, homicide, highway robbery, or theft/ ' A very interesting narrative of a visit to the Munich State Prison, the date of which is not mentioned, will be found in the Zoist* for January last. The author is the Rev. Chauncy Hare Townshend, A.M. This gentleman speaks in terms of high commendation of all he witnessed during what' appears to have been a minute examination of the prison, and, although he does not seem to be acquainted with Mr. Baillie Cochrane's pamphlet, he confirms all the statements of that gentleman. I can only venture upon a short extract. ' f We now proceeded to various other apartments, in one of which the prisoners were making shoes ^ in another, plaiting list slippers ; in another, turning boxes, candlesticks, napkin rings, c. I was told that in choosing the occupation for the man, regard was had to his comparative health and strength, as well as to his particular turn for the handicraft, and also to his con- duct ; thus to be drafted on to the lighter and more amusing work was considered to be a reward. Every one was anxious to be a baker, and no wonder, for I never saw a more animated scene than the bakehouse presented. In this portion of the reformatory Erebus there was bustling and laughter and joking going on. My attendant told me that none but the better sort of criminals, who had either been condemned for only small offences, or who had worked their way up to confidence by long good conduct,, were allowed to form part of the baking establish- ment. So it was with the cooking department, over which, besides, presided servants belonging to the institution itself. Of course, I must taste a loaf, and some soup. That is de * The Zoist. Arthur Hall, Virtue & Co. 25, Paternoster-row, Sequel to Charge of October, 1856. 551 rigueur in such cases. Botli were excellent. I wish that all the Oliver Twists in the world might have as good in their work- houses ! ' Was meat allowed every day ?'* ' ' No, three times a week/ ' ' One of the most interesting sights was the prisoners 7 library, by no means an uncheerful room either. Being in the centre nearly, and looking into a court, it had not the obligatory bars and wooden vents or boxes (like hencoops turned topsy-turvy), that made you feel you were in a prison, when you were in the apartments looking upon the street. So knowledge was made attractive every way. A few mild-looking prisoners, chiefly invalids I was told, were reading in this book-room as intently and silently as the studious in the British Museum. I looked at some of the books. They consisted chiefly of popularly instructive works. Sketches of astronomy or geography, history, travels, and the like. Not one mystically religious book did I see amidst the well-chosen collection. A few straightforward moral treatises or tales, inculcating love to God and man, that was all ; and this in a Catholic country too ! But Bavaria has many Protestant subjects, and, at the time I speak of, had a Protestant queen. ' ' The cloth manufactory, in itself a vast establishment, had very little of the prison in its appearance. The better class of criminals only were admitted here. Tidy-looking men they were \ in full activity ; running bustling about, carding, weaving, dyeing, till the cloth came forth, all of that whinstone blue, which is familiar to so many eyes that have gazed upon the Bavarian soldiery. No hive of bees could be in fuller hum and ferment than was this part of the prison. This was one of the last sights of the establishment ; but I must not forget to say that I had previously been shown the man of the double murder ; the twenty years' prisoner, who still had to end his life in captivity. He was in a. large room where (I think) they were cleaning flax, or following some such quiet occupation, and he was one of the monitors (I was told) of the apartment. Of course I looked at him with interest. He had by no means an ill-formed head or countenance. He looked mild and pale ; yet one could see, in looking at his face, that the passions had walked over that exhausted land. They had passed ; there was no fear of their return. One saw also that. 553 Sequel to Charge of October, 1856. ' * Generally, I must observe, I was struck by the evidently bettered physiognomies of the criminals who had been longest in the prison. Two or three in fetters (for I saw some such) had, methought, hang-dog faces (perhaps the fetters partly made me think so), and some of the men in the working rooms had that shuffling, uneasy look which indicates the criminal ; but in the majority of cases, T could see in its various stages the retrieval of the degraded physiognomy. The prisoners, many of them, decidedly had begun to look honest men in the face, and to abjure themselves the character of wild beasts in a cage. ****** ' ( About what I saw in the Munich prison I have little more to tell. The dormitories, not too large nor containing too many occupants, presided over by servants of the prison as well as by monitors from amongst the prisoners themselves ; the neat light iron bedsteads that could be turned up against the wall ; the clean beds made every morning by their occupants ; the well- ventilated infirmary (which had as little smell of burnt blankets and prisoner as possible), all was excellent and in good order/ ' The attention of English readers was called to the treat- ment of criminals at the prison of Valencia, by Mr. Hoskins, in his work, entitled, Spain as it Is } published in the year 1851.* The statements of Mr. Hoskins attracted the attention of Captain Maconochie, who, in the year 1852, published a pamphlet,f in which may be found all the information contained in Mr. Hoskins' book, together with copious extracts from a little work by Colonel Montesinos himself. ' ' In a work recently published (Spain as it Is, by G. A. Hoskins, Esq., i., pp. 104-10), an interesting account is given of the public prison at Valencia, in which the average number of prisoners is about 1000, but 3500 have been at one time received into it. They chiefly belong to the neighbouring districts of Albacete and Valencia. The accommodation pro- vided in the prison is very imperfect, and there is little classi- * Spain as it Is. G. A. Hoskins. Colburn and Co. 1851. t Account of the Public Prison of Valencia, calculated to receive 1500 prisoners, averaging i ooo ; yet in which during the last three years there has not been even one recommittal, and for the previous ten years the average was only one per cent. With Observations, by Captain Maconochie, R.N., K.H. London: Charles Gilpin [now Cash], 5, Bishopsgate-street Without, 1852. Sequel to Charge of October, 1856. 553 fication observed, the boys not being even separated from the men. In 1 835, accordingly, when the present governor, Colonel Don Manuel Montesinos, was appointed to it, the average of recommittals was from thirty to thirty-five per cent, per annum ; nearly the same that is found in England and other countries in Europe ; but such has been the success of his method, that, for the last three years, there has not been even one recommittal to it, and for the ten previous years they did not, on an average, exceed one per cent.* The following, with a few unimportant omissions, is Mr. Hoskins' printed statement concerning what he himself saw of it, the additional details here annexed having been obtained from his personal testimony, and a pamphlet now in my possession, published by Colonel Montesinos, in 1846. The plan, at first, was much disliked in the city of Valencia, on account of its lenity, but is now universally approved of; crime is said to have diminished in the district since it was matured ; and its author has been since appointed, and now is, Visitor- General of Spanish Prisons ( Visit ador- General de los Presidios del Reino). ' ' If the vices and passions of a southern people prevail in a place where, until the last few years, a strong government has not been enjoyed, it is greatly to the credit of the city of Valencia that it can boast of one of the best conducted prisons in Europe. This being one of the great social questions of the day, I made particular inquiries about it. There are a thousand prisoners, and, in the whole establishment, I did not see above three or four guardians to keep them in order. They say there are only a dozen old soldiers, and not a bar or bolt that might not easily be broken; apparently not more fastenings than in any private house. ( ' The governor, a colonel in the army, has established military discipline, and the prisoners are divided into companies. The officers stand as stiff when you pass, as soldiers presenting arms. The sergeants and inferior officers are all convicts, who, * By reference to the communication which I have received from Colonel Monte- sinos, it will be seen that he now gives the proportion of recommittals at two per cent. All statistics are open to fallacies, but those of prisons are obnoxious to error from a great variety of sources. Without the slightest disrespect to Colonel M., I must be permitted to accept this very high rate of reformation with con- siderable reserve. M. D. II. 554 Sequel to Charge of October, 1856. of course, are acquainted with the temper and disposition of their companions, and best able to manage them; and the prospect of advancement to higher grades is an inducement to all to behave well. When a convict enters, he is asked what trade or employment he will work at or learn, and above forty are open to him, so that he has the means of devoting his time to any he knows, or, if ignorant of all, to one he feels an inclination for, or which he is aware will be useful to him when he is liberated. Many a man may wish to return to his native village with what he has earned here, and he knows best what trade or employment will there not only be of advantage, but even a fortune to him. If he declines to work at any, he is sent to the public works, or employed in carrying wood ; but the out-door convicts are by far the worst conducted in the esta- blishment, and are therefore kept distinct from the others, who, by their selecting a trade, have shown a disposition to be indus- trious and improve themselves. ' ' When first the convict enters the establishment he wears chains, but on his application to the commander they are taken off, unless he has not conducted himself well. Among some hundreds I only saw three or four with irons on their legs. There seemed to be the most perfect discipline. They work in rows ; rose in rank as we passed, and seemed obedient to a word. They are not allowed to talk to each other during their work, but this rule does not seem to be very strictly enforced, and they may speak to their instructor, who is often one of themselves, and ask each other for tools or anything requisite for their work, and every night after prayers they are allowed to converse with each other for an hour. There are weavers and spinners of every description, manufacturing all qualities, from the coarsest linen cloths to the most beautiful damasks, rich silks and velvets one a crimson, apparently equal to the Utrecht velvet. There were blacksmiths, shoemakers, basket- makers, rope-makers, joiners, cabinet-makers, making handsome mahogany drawers ; and they had also a printing machine hard at work. ' The labour of every description for the repair, rebuilding, and cleaning the establishment is supplied by the convicts. They were all most respectful in their demeanour, and certainly I never saw such a good-looking set of prisoners ; useful occupa- Sequel to Charge of October , 1 856. 555 tion (and other considerate treatment) having apparently improved their countenances. The greatest cleanliness pre- vailed in every part of the establishment ; the dormitories were well ventilated, the beds neatly packed up, and water, the great requisite in a sultry climate, within reach of all. On the walls, in large letters, were inscriptions in rhyme, directed to inculcate good maxims. There was a neat chapel for their devotions, and a garden for exercise, planted with orange trees. There was also a poultry-yard for their amusement, with phea- sants and various other kinds of birds; washing-houses, where they wash their clothes, and a shop where they can purchase, if they wish, tobacco, and other little comforts, out of one-fourth of the profits of their labour, which is given to them. Another fourth they are entitled to when they leave ; the other half goes to the establishment, and often this is sufficient for all expenses without any assistance from the Government. ' ' The governor found it was impossible to induce the prisoners to work heartily without giving them an interest in their gains; but when once he had by this encouragement established industrious habits, it was more easy to correct their principles. Honour among thieves is really found here, the prisoners keeping the accounts, and no attempts made to deceive/ ( In a pamphlet* published by Mr. Hoskins in 1 853, he relates the following anecdote : ' ' A visitor expressing his doubts as to such feelings of honour existing among convicts, the governor asked the worst class in the prison men sentenced to ten years to select a messenger, and he gave him an onza to change in the city, which is such a labyrinth of narrow streets, escape was most easy. Great was his astonishment when the man returned with 3/. 6s. in small money/f { f It is doubtless the same feeling of honour which prevents their rebelling and leaving the asylum whenever they feel dis- * What shall we do with our Criminals? with an Account of the Prison of Valencia and the Penitentiary of Mettray. By G. A. Hoskins, Esq. London : Ridgway, 1853. p. 10. t It will perhaps be remembered that Mr. Henry Mayhew, having assembled a meeting of juvenile criminals, tried a similar experiment with equal success. Vide London Labour and the London Poor. M. D. II. 556 Sequel to Charge of October, 1856. posed.* It is surprising that the establishment requires so little assistance from the Government, as the expense of the officers and instructors is very considerable, and the governor has invariably made the teaching and moral improvement of the convicts his chief consideration, without any regard to the profits to be derived from them. ' ' All were cleanly dressed in woollen clothes of the same colour, which is requisite in case of any attempt to escape. In summer they have lighter clothes. Their food is excellent, and consists of large brown loaves, about the colour of our best London brown bread, but finer in quality, and quite as good ; rations of olla, rice, potatoes, and meat on fete days, which in Spain are numerous. Instruction is open to all in a large school, which the boys under twenty are obliged to attend for one hour daily, and any prisoner above that age who wishes may join the classes. I saw numerous instances of excellent writing (in the Spanish style) by lads and adults who could not write a line when they entered ; and many have qualified themselves for clerks' places, which they have obtained on leaving the prison. There is a good hospital, with a dispensary, all as clean and comfortable as could be desired, but the average number in the hospitals never, they say, exceeds two per cent. This system may be thought too indulgent ; but what is the result ? During the last three years not one prisoner has been returned to it. In the ten previous years the average was not more than one per cent., though before that period the number of recommittals was 30 to 35 per cent. From January, 1837, to 1846, the first nine years of the establishment, when the shops were not all open, and the institution in many respects was incomplete, 3127 convicts confined there were liberated, and of these 2355 na( ^ learnt some trade or received instruction, so that only 792 were without instruction, from their age or disinclination to receive any. * Under good treatment the vast majority of convicts might be retained in prisons of inexpensive construction. Doubtless there is a small class who require strong walls, bolts, bars, and watchful guardians, but every individual of this class is well known to the police and to prison officers. Consequently there would be no difficulty in selecting them, and transferring them to some one gaol so constructed and guarded as that escape should be impossible. The first stage of their probation would be to work themselves out of this very strict confinement, and entitle them- selves to retura to ordinary prisons. M. D. H. Sequel to Charge of October, 1856. 557 ' ' It may be said that the stabbings, which are frequent in Valencia, would not be so common if severer punishments were inflicted ; but they say that the use of the knife was much more frequent before this system was established. The great principle here is to afford an inducement to the criminals to work, to teach industrious habits, to inculcate honourable and virtuous principles, and to send them into the world better men, educated, and able to work at some trade, and with money in their pockets to start with, instead of being obliged to have recourse to their old habits for subsistence. * * * * ' ' The success attending the reformation of the prisoners in this establishment is really a miracle, and England ought to make an attempt to do the same/ # * * # # # ' On several of these points/ says Captain Maconochie, 'Colonel Montesinos' words in his pamphlet are striking: ' ' According to the views to which I was thus led, and never forgetting that the double object of punishment is to reform those subjected to it, and to give a salutary warning to others, I sought by every means, and at any cost, to extirpate in my prisoners the lamentable germ of idleness, and to inspire them instead with a love of labour, seeking to impress this beneficial sentiment ever more and more in their hearts. But as unpro- ductive work in the prison could by no means effect this, I made it a rule, whenever any one showed a disposition to labour, but had no occupation which could contribute after his discharge to maintain him honestly, to endeavour to procure him such, and for this purpose I sought to bring within the prison as many different workshops as possible, allowing him to choose among them which w r as likely to be most advantageous to him; and now there are above 40 of these all in full operation, and all originally organized and still maintained by the knowledge and capacity of the prisoners themselves. Neither for their intro- duction, nor for the rebuilding or repair of the prison, have I ever asked the Government for a single farthing (un solo mara- vedi), nor called in the assistance of any mechanics from without. It is true that the progress of many of these workshops has been thus very slow and troublesome ; for, not having had funds at my disposal for the first purchase even of the necessary tools and machines for them, I have been compelled to proceed only Sequel to Charge of October, 1856. step by step in them. But on the one hand, I could not help the want of money ; and on the other, I have always thought a frequent and intimate correspondence between the prisoners and persons of a different description outside objectionable, and I have thus had no choice. ' ' The establishment of one workshop, and the difficulties experienced in managing it, showed me both how to introduce more and to enlarge those already in operation, and I thus further gradually acquired the intimate conviction that, without the stimulus of some personal advantage accruing to themselves from their labour, it is difficult to obtain work even from the already skilled, and almost impossible to get the unskilled to learn. Repeated experiments convinced me of the practical lesson involved in this maxim of social economy, and that what neither severity of punishments, nor constancy in inflicting them, could exact, the slightest personal interest will readily obtain. In different ways, therefore, during my command, I have applied this powerful stimulant, and the excellent results it has always yielded, and the powerful germs of reform which are constantly developed under its influence (desarollanse a su im- pulso], have at length fully convinced me that the most ineffi- cacious of all methods in a prison the most pernicious and fatal to every chance of reform, are punishments carried the length of harshness. The maxim should be constant, and of universal application in such places, not to degrade further those who come to them already degraded by their crimes. Self-respect is one of the most powerful sentiments of the human mind, for this reason, that it is the most personal (el mas egoista] ; and he who will not condescend, in some degree, according to circumstances, to flatter it, will never attain his object by any series of chastisements (ningun linage de castigos), the effect of ill-treatment being to irritate rather than correct, and thus turn from reform instead of attracting to it. ' ' Moreover, the love of labour cannot be communicated by violent means (vejamenes), but rather by persuasion and encou- ragement ; and although it is quite possible to obtain a specific amount of work from prisoners by the aid of the stick (as is sometimes recommended by high functionaries in this depart- ment), yet the consequence is necessarily aversion for an em- ployment which involves so many penalties, and of which such a bitter recollection must always be preserved. And the moral Sequel to Charge of October, 1855. 559 object of penal establishments is thus also, in fact, defeated which should be not so much to inflict pain as to correct ; to receive men idle and ill-intentioned, and return them to society, if possible, honest and industrious citizens. ( ' It was not till after making many experiments of severity that I came firmly to this conclusion ; but ultimately I made it the base of all my operations on the minds of my prisoners, and the extraordinarily small number of recommittals to my prison, and the excellent health and perfect state of submission in which those confined in it have always been kept, seem to me to leave no doubt of its soundness/* ( Mr. Hoskins was not the first, however, to call the attention of our countrymen to the prison at Valencia. It was visited by Mr. S. T. Wallis, an American traveller, in the year 1849, whose book was published in London in iS^o.f I insert his description : ' ' Near the Puerta San Vicente, after a long walk and tedious search, we found an institution of which we had heard a good deal from our Spanish fellow-travellers. It was the Presidio, or Penitentiary. It is a large and well-distributed edifice, once a convent of Augustine monks, and its complete, extensive, and admirable arrangement would do no discredit to any nation. I confess that I had no expectation of seeing any such thing in Spain. The Guide-book (Murray's) omits it altogether, though there is certainly nothing half so interesting, as indicative of national progress, within the limits of Valencia. ( ' The Augustine Convent was applied to its present uses in 1838. It now contains about 900 prisoners; and we were told that about 400, confined for minor violations of the law, had been released on the occasion of the Queen's marriage. They are distributed in different chambers, and dedicated to various branches of industry. Nearly all the trades are represented. Their fabrics of coarse cotton are admirable, and they work successfully in silks, velvets, and fine cutlery. There is a printing-press, at which work is done, by contract, for publishers in the city. We went through it, and found the devils numerous and busy. Hard by was the bindery, which seemed to be in * Account of the Public Prison at Valencia. By Captain Maconochie. p. 13. t Glimpses of Spain ; or, Notes of an Unfinished Tour. By S. T. Wallis. London: Sampson Low, 1850. p. 57. 560 Sequel to Charge of October, 1856. considerable demand. The infirmary was in capital order, clean, airy, and well-distributed ; the apothecary 's shop and laboratory as nice and complete as conld be desired. The dormitories were clean to a degree ; each man's mat, mattress, and bed-clothing hanging over the spot on which he was to spread them at night. Kitchen, bakery, garden, every depart- ment we visited, was as thoroughly in order as the most vigilant system could make it. The discipline is mild but strict. There is not an armed man about the establishment, and the keepers, notwithstanding, are very few. The most trustworthy of the convicts have the immediate superintendence of their fellows. A lazy rascal is put to scrubbing, and such menial work. A riot or quarrel is punished with a severe trouncing obstinate and malicious conduct with solitude, the cell, bread and water. Few cases, however, occur requiring punishment, although cer- tainly a set of more unmitigated rascals, physiognomically con- sidered, never went unhung.* The dread of being removed to the galleys or the chain-gang, no doubt keeps them in order. They seemed all of them to be well fed. I saw their bread, which is coarse, but light and sound. Meat is not allowed them every day. They are regularly tasked, day by day, and are paid for over- work. All under 18 are compelled, and the whole of them are encouraged, to go to school, where they are taught reading, writing, accounts, drawing, and geography. I went into the school-room, which is a fine, spacious apartment, and obviously not gotten up for show, for it had all the marks of being constantly in use, and I saw some excellent specimens of writing and drawing where the scholars had left them. There * The opposite impressions, as to the countenances of the prisoners produced on the minds of Mr. Hoskins and Mr. Wallis, would seem to show that much reliance cannot be placed on physiognomical estimates made by casual visitors ; yet it is beyond a doubt that a great improvement in the expression of the face is often very quickly caused by good training. At the Outcast Boys' Home in Belvidere-crescent, Hungerford Bridge, photographs are taken of the lads from time to time, which exhibit this amelioration in a very striking manner. ' Mr. Driver showed me the entire system of works, but his specimens are capital, and his management of the boys wonderful ; he is the Arnold of the Ragged School Managers ; and I had rather see his photographs of pupils in different phases of reformation, from the ' raw material ' to the six months' boy, than anything in the Royal Academy. Tell all our friends of all religions to call on Mr. Driver, and iioone, with heart, or head, or faith, can leave the Refuge without feeling possibly smaller, but certainly wiser.' Quarterly Record, p. xlii. ; Irish Quarterly Review, June, 1856. M. D. H. Sequel to Charge of October, 1856. 561 is a post-office regularly kept in the establishment, and all who conduct themselves well are permitted to write occasionally to their friends, and to receive their replies. Indeed, the villains seemed very happy, for they were at work in the courts, and even outside the walls, some of them, apparently, at their own sweet will, but without attempt or visible inclination to escape. Valencia, to be sure, is very well guarded, and it would not be easy for a fugitive to avoid detection long. A knowledge of this, and of the fact that the eye of the keeper is always upon them from some certain but unknown point, must have a very sedative effect upon their locomotive propensities. When at work they are permitted to converse in a low tone ; this is an extremely rational concession to the social tendencies of human nature, which will always gratify themselves in some way, let the prohibition be as stringent and the penalty as severe as it may. A distinguished foreigner, who had dedicated great intelligence and powers of acute observation to the examination of prisons and their discipline, informed me lately, that he had never seen any contrivance for the prevention of inter-commu- nication which the ingenuity of the convicts had not been able to evade. Questionable, then, as is the policy of perfect isola- tion, at the best, how idle is the attempt to realize it when failure is certain. The sensible guide who went with us through the Presidio, attributed a great deal of the docility of its inmates, and the frequent cases of moral improvement, to the humane indulgences which, within strict limits, were permitted by its discipline. I persuaded myself, how justly I know not, that to this moderate treatment was due the refreshing absence of a characteristic so painfully visible in our silent model prisons ; I mean the pale, attenuated faces, whose whole expression glares on you through the bright, anxious eyes, condemned to fulfil the duties of sight, speech, and hearing. As we passed through the apartments, all the convicts rose, and stood unco- vered. One of them, a comb-maker, had a tame rat upon his shoulder. He had made a collar for it, with little bells, which the creature wore; another had a pet bird fluttering around him. The manner of them all to the keepers was exceedingly respectful, that of the keepers considerate and kind. Our cicerone, who seemed to have both pride and pleasure in our approbation of what we saw, conducted us finally to a show- o o $62, Sequel to Charge of October, 1856. house, connected with a large shop at the gate, where there were exhibited, in glass cases, some specimens of elegant work- manship by the convicts, such as knives, pistols, embroidery, and fancy hardware. My companions and myself made our little purchases, and went away well pleased to have some memorials of an institution so excellent, humane, and useful. As the gate closed on us, the last object that we saw was the old garden of the cloisters, with its orange and lemon trees, as fair and fragrant in the den of thieves as once within the house of prayer. A lesson there may be in this impartial bounty of our mother earth, to those whom men reverence, and those whom they despise. It teaches us, does it not, that with a common nature, there are none too pure and virtuous to spurn the claims of the wretched and the outcast ? Claims to be held as fellow-creatures ; claims to be brought back from sin and sorrow, if it may be; claims, that ignorance and want and temptation be remembered and considered and removed ; claims, not to be cast off for ever, while charity can nurse the hope of their return/ 1 It will be remembered that several of your witnesses have spoken to the unfavourable effect produced on criminals sen- tenced to penal servitude, by their being deprived of the privi- lege of earning tickets- of-leave. The evidence of Capt. Whitty, First Report, pp. 82-3, is worthy of great attention, pointing as it does most forcibly to the results of the policy which has been adopted as regards such convicts. These results have been settled discontent, breaking forth on one occasion into mutiny ; a serious depreciation in the amount and value of convict labour, and a permanent relaxation in the endeavours of the men to gain the good opinion of the authorities. The testimony of Captain Whitty, speaking to facts so thoroughly within his own knowledge, requires no corroboration. But as a further and more complete illustration of the principles which gave rise to these facts, let me ask your attention to the state- ment of Colonel Montesinos, as to the disastrous consequences which have followed the more complete adoption of a similar policy in the treatment of convicts, in the prisons of Spain. Up to a late period, criminals enjoyed the privilege of improving their position while in gaol, and of shortening their terms of confinement, by the exercise of industry and self-control. But Sequel to Charge of October, 1856. 563 now, by the new criminal code, these powerful stimulants are withdrawn, and that rapid deterioration in the conduct of the men has ensued, which might have been predicted by any per- son who had taken the trouble to master the rudiments of pri- son discipline. c Let me indulge the hope that the experience of Munich and Valencia, under Obermaier and Montesinos, will encourage all who have the requisite authority so to act, to pursue a similar course, or, at all events, a course founded on similar principles, to that which I learn from the evidence of Captain Crofton, he has inaugurated in Ireland. In particular I refer to the treat- ment of such convicts as ' by prison -character and length of servitude are thought eligible for tickets of licence, and who are removed either to Smithfield or Fort Camden, according to their class, to be there detained until they can procure satisfac- tory offers of employment, or give some sufficient guarantee that they have the means of earning an honest livelihood (for which purpose every reasonable assistance and facility is afforded to them) when they are released on licence. During their de- tention their reformation and good intentions are further tested by giving them increased liberty of action, and by employing them as far as possible like free labourers/ p. 142. By such treatment I entertain a confident expectation that the doubt which has pressed on the mind of Sir George Grey, as to the possibility of ensuring reformation by the discipline of a prison, will be removed. ( The reason/ he says, ' why a ticket-of-leave cannot fairly be regarded as a proof of reclamation is obvious. As long as a man is immured in a prison, where he is denied the opportunity of getting drunk, and of associating with those who might lead him into temptation, he is evidently so circum- stanced that it is impossible for him to afford us the means of arriving at a satisfactory conclusion as to whether his repen- tance is genuine or affected/ * The position of the Right Honourable Secretary is impregnable. So long as a man is denied all freedom of action, it is impossible he should acquire the habit of self-control. And even if he could acquire it, he would have no means of manifesting the possession of this great faculty. The course, then, which reason seems to point * Times, April 4, 1856. O O 2 564 Sequel to Charge of October, 1856. out is, from time to time, as rapidly as his progress will permit, to relax the coercion which is exercised over him ; to confer upon him by degrees the guidance of his own actions, to cast upon him the consequences of his failures in the art of self- government; and on the other hand to permit him to enjoy the fruits of success whensoever he achieves it. Convicts whose training has been so adjusted as best to fit them for the enjoyment of liberty, will find the change from the last stage of restraint to perfect freedom so slight as to diminish almost to nothing the danger of relapse. And in the frame of mind in which the prisoner will then be found, it will be by no means difficult (if it should be thought desirable) to induce him to stay under the friendly employment of the prison authorities, until he has earned a certificate of good conduct subsequent to the termination of all control over his person. ' In conclusion, permit me to avail myself of this opportu- nity of thanking you and the Committee, for the indulgence with which you listened to that part of my evidence which consists merely of opinion. And if it should be found that the language which I have sometimes used, savours of over-confi- dence in the conclusions at which I have arrived, I ask for your favourable interpretation of my words ; assuring you that no man feels more deeply convinced than I do myself, that much remains to be learnt and unlearnt by every student of the science which the Committee has been with so much labour, and, I trust, with corresponding success, endeavouring to pro- mote. I have, &c. (Signed) 2 35 ; Wood, Mr. J., school- master to, 235 Birmingham Journal of October 13, 1855, extract from, 143 of October 12, 1850, 146 of October 13, 1855, 482 of February 25, 1857, 68 3 of March 7, 1857, 68 5 of January, 14, 1857, letter in, 641 Birmingham Mercury of October 25, 1851, article from, 210 of March 7, 1857, extract from, 68 1 Birmingham police, excellence of, 9 Birmingham, rate of mortality at, 315 6 9 8 INDEX. Birmingham, drunkenness cause of disease at, 319; localities where connexion is obvious between disease and crime, 320 public-houses in, 603 riots in 1839, i ticket-of-leave men in, 590 ; list of, 596 Blackstone, 28 Blanchard, Mons., letter from, 130 Biount, Mr., surgeon of Birmingham Gaol, 236 ' Book of Sports for the Poor Man,' 83 Boutwell, Hon. George, letter from, 415 Bracebridge, Mr. C. H., 255 Bristol Branch of Association for im- proving the Dwellings of the In- dustrious Classes, 326 meeting of National Reformatory Union at, 346 model lodging-houses at, 326 Ragged School Union, 362 ticket-of-leave-men in, 591 Brougham, Lord, 19, 346, 444 on the inefficacy of simply penal legislation, 294 ; on the Hulks system, 476 his Judicial Statistics Bill, 593 Brougham, Mr. James, 346 Burdett, Sir Francis, 14 Burglaries in 1850, 149 Burglary at Ashover, 678 at Great Hampton Street, Birming- ham, 146 at Mr. Holford's, 191 at Manchester, 150 at Manningtree, 150 Burt, Rev. John, 276 Bushrangers in Tasmania, 641 'CALEDONIAN MERCURY' of April 4th, 1857, extract from, 671 Calthorpe, Lord, 345 Cambridge, Duke of, 517 Campbell, Mr. George, 157 Canning, Elizabeth, 21 Capital punishment for forgery, 43 Carpentaria, Gulf of, 608 ; suitability of for a penal colony, doubtful, 630 Carpenter, Miss Mary, 342, 346, 356 extract from paper by, read at Bris- . tol, 363 Certainty of punishment far from at- tained, 6 Chadwick, Mr. Edwin, 299 Chance, Mr. William, 265, 271 Chaplains of prisons, 184, 471 have no undue influence in procur- ing remission of sentence, 519 Charge of July, 1839, 2 of May, 1840, observations on, 46 of April, 1841, 52 Charge of January, 1845,64 of October, 1845, 71 of March, 1847, IO 7 of April, 1848, 112 of October, 1848, 117 of April, 1850, 135 of October, 1850, 151 of October, 1851, 180 of October, 1853, 238 of March, 1854, 299 of September, 1854, 335 of January, 1855, 372 of April, 1855, 439 of October, 1855, 462 ; opinions set forth in opposed by Times, 478 ; Examiner, 493 ; Inquirer, 496 ; Era, 505 ; Morning Chronicle, 508 approved by Birmingham Journal, 482 ; Globe, 484; Spectator, 48 7 Weekly Dispatch, 500 ; Daily News, 512 of October, 1856, 529 of December, 1856, 610 of March, 1857, 651 article upon, from Aris's Gazette of April 6th, 1857, 692 Charity, 76 Charter of Incorporation for Birming- ham, 4 Chartists in April, 1848, 112 Chartists in Birmingham, I 12 Chatham, Lord, 666 Cheap concerts, 83 Checks to crime, 72 Chesterton, Mr., on Captain Maconochie, 271 hope as a reformatory agent, 585 perpetual imprisonment. 522 Clarke, Mr. Andrew, 87 Class who pursue crime as a calling, 7, 152, 177-9, 200, 204, 213, 327 Clay, Rev. John, 345. 387 on effect of good or bad times on com- mittals to prison, 415 Cochrane, Mr. Baillie, on prison at Munich, 544 Code Napoleon, 20 Coke, Lord, 26 Colons at Mettray, number of, 120, 131 ; medal commemorative of their gallant conduct, 134 Combe, Mr. George, 48 Commission proposed to inquire into sub- ject of law reform, 519 Committee on juvenile offenders, House of Commons, 1852, 344 Common Lodging Houses Act, 304, 324 Comparison of number of forgeries com- mitted, with convictions, 42 Conference at Birmingham, 1851, 342 resolutions adopted, 343 1853, 344 INDEX. 6 99 Conkey Beau, 219 Constabulary force, report of commis- missioners on, 7 42 Convictions for forgery compared with number of forgeries committed, 42 number of, no index to number of offences, 7 Convicts may be employed on public works at home, 175, 617, 649 cost of. at Dartmoor, 649 Portland, 649 in Tasmania, 618 649 Western Australia, 618 649 Corfield, Miss Martha, 276 Cornish miners, 279 Correspondence between author and Sir George Grey, extract from, 688 Cossham, Mr. Handel, 346 Cost of convicts at Dartmoor and Port- land, 649 Tasmania and "Western Australia, 618 649 criminals at large, 128 witnesses in Belgium paid by the public, 5 witnesses in France when paid from public fund, 20 Counterfeit coin, uttering of, 46 how made, 46 materials used. 47 Court of Requests at Birmingham, 446 disgraceful state of prison attached *i 455 j letter from author to Sir J. Graham describing, 456; answered, 458 Courteilles, Vicomte de, 120 Crank, 250 Crime in 1850 and 1851, 6n in 1855 and 1856, 653 in Edinburgh, 669 ; causes of, 109 ; checks to, 75 ; cost of in London, 327 ; diminished by operation of Maine Law, 424-5-6-7-8-9, 430- 1-4 ; incapacitation from, 626 ; increase in partly attributable to reduction in army and militia, 631 654 ; means for repression of, 9, 16 1, 328 ; perseverance in, 20 j; pursued as a calling, 7, 152, 327-8 ; repression of, the true end of punishment, 622, 646 temptations to, in Birmingham, 603 more frequent in winter than in summer, 611 Criminal code, former severity of, 462 ; mitigated of late years, 204, 614, 638 statistics in France, accuracy of, 592 Criminals below the average in intellect, 4 8 may defray cost of imprisonment, 466 discharged uiireforiued, 260-1, 614, 655 Criminals when discharged unable to find employment, 632 habits of great, 666 necessity of keeping at home recog- nised by Government, 667 identification of, 537, 594 impunity of, 8, 182 labour appropriate for, 175, 617, 649 cost of when at large, 128 misplaced sympathy with, 2ir, 622 recklessness of, 48 should be detained in prison till reformed, 520 treatment of, 103 well known to police, 152-6, 162, 230 Crime: Its Amount, Causes, and Re- medy, by F. Hill, quoted, 244-7 Crofton, Captain, 346, 657 ; evidence of, 563 ; system pursued by him at Smithfield Penitentiary, 586, 672 'DAILY NEWS,' October^, 1855, article from, 512 Dec. 31, 1856, article from, 645 Jan. 17, 1857, letter from author in, 623 Dalton, the Bushranger, 642 Dartmoor, cost of convict at, 649 Degrading discipline, evil effects of, 14 De la Repression Penale; de ses Formes et de ses Effets, 659 Demetz, M., 55, 120, 356, 470, 480-7-9, 49 1 communication from, 128 on French criminal statistics, 592 Denman, Lord, 461 Deterrents, inefficiency of, 46, 242, 260, 266, 274 ; treated of in letter to C. B.Adderley, Esq., M.P., 276 ; why believers in deterrents should advocate reformatory treatment, 627 Digby, Wriothesley, 347 Dillon, Mr., 623 Diminution in number of offenders, 151 Diminution in number of pardons annu- ally granted in France, effect of, 6 59 Discharged Prisoners' Aid Society in Bir- mingham, 276, 543 ; author's speech at meeting of, 599 how treated in Bavaria. 569 how treated in Spain, 577 Disease and crime, connexion between, 300 localities in Birmingham where their connexion is obvious, 320 Dow, Hon. Neal, 425 Draft Report on principles of punishment, 522 Drainage, effects of bad, 302 Dramatic entertainments, 82-4 Drunkenness a cause of disease, 319 7oo INDEX. Drunkenness, Ragged School pupils vic- tims of, 364 Dublin Castle, Camden Town, plundered, 150 Dublin Daily Express, Dec. 4, 1856, ex- tract from letter from Mr. P. J. Murray in, 677 Dunne, Mr. J., Chief-constable, Newcastle- upon-Tyne, letter from, 358 Dwellings of the poor, 211, 300, 320 Dyson, William, 191 EASTERN PENITENTIARY at Philadelphia, 248 Edinburgh, crime in, in 1856, 669 Edinburgh News of January 10, 1857, extract from, 669 Edinburgh Review, 1826, extract from, 36 October, 1854, extract from, 227 Education, 9 regarded by Morning Advertiser as the sole means for the diminution of crime, 225 in factories, 78 Effect of good or bad times on committals to prison ; opinion of Rev. John Clay, 415 ; of Dr. Walsh, 437 ; of the author, 438 Ellis, John, Mr., 255 Embezzlement, 71 % Employers and employed, relation be- tween, 77 England almost the only country which resorts to transportation, 618 Englishwoman in America, extracts from, 370 Era, October 14, 1855, article from, 505 Erskine, Lord, 186 Evidence before Transportation Commit- tee of House of Commons, 1856, of author, 523, 688 Jebb, Colonel, 476 Waddington, Mr. Under Secretary, 5^5, 687 of Mr. Holford's servants, &c., 191 Examiner, extracts from, October 19, 1850. 191 Oct. 26, 1850, 194; Oct. 13, 1855, 493 Expense of prosecutions, 5 Exposing goods at shop doors, 75, 349 FALKLAND ISLANDS unsuitable for a penal colony, 633 Fallaciousness of criminal statistics, 7 Family principle, 121, 356 Fe lining, Eliza, 32 Few Remarks on the Convict Question, by Captain Crofton, 585 Field, Rev. John, 215 Fielding, Henry, Life o.f, 2 1 Fines, 18 Firearms, two innocent persons killed in consequence of use of, 189 use of, in self-defence, recommended by Examiner, 196 Flood of the Loire in 1856, 133 Forbes Mackenzie's Act, 435, 671 diminution of drunkenness and crime, 43 Forats, effect on, of diminution in an- nual number of pardons gran ted in France, 532, 659 Forged bank-notes, 7, 42 France, accuracy of criminal statistics in, 59 2 Frequenting a place with criminal intent, 154 Freshfield, Messrs. J. C. & H., 45 Frimley, burglary at, 150 Frome, outrage near, 189 Frost, John, on transportation, 634 GAOL at Birmingham (see 'Bir- mingham Gaol'), laying first stone of, joi Gardner, Mr. (Governor of Bristol Gaol), photographs his prisoners, 593 Gascoigne, Sir Crisp, 24 Gentleman' 1 s Magazine, extract from, 23 Glimpses of Spain, by S. T: Wallis, ex- tract from, 559 Globe, Oct. 13, 1855, article from, 484 Glossop, Inspector, 148, 276, 683 Godwin, Mr. George, 320 Golden Bridge Reformatory, 675 Goulbourn, Mr. Serjeant, 38 Governor of a gaol, qualifications for, 252 Grand Juries, functions of, 10 Charge upon, 439 their jurisdiction, 441 ; superseded, 442 ; when mischievous, 444 ; proposed change in their func- tions, 447 ; opinion of the Grand Jury addressed respecting, 449 ; ob- servations on, by Mr. Oakley, 45 1 ; Inutility of Grand Juries, 461 address of, October, 1856, 543 ; March, 1857, 669 advocates reformatory treatment, 191 Grange Gorman prison, 675 Great Exhibition of 1851, 18 Grey, Earl, on tickets-of-leave, 534 on influence of hope in treatment of criminals, 659 Grey, Sir George, on tickets-of-leave, 540, 655 dissatisfied with results of present system of prison discipline, 656 speech on bill to amend Ticket-of- leave Act, 653 INDEX. Grey, Sir George, letter to the author respecting ticket-of- leave men in Birmingham, 665; regards a satisfactory test of reformation im- possible of attainment, 667; com- ments on course pursued by the author respecting persons sen- tenced to penal servitude, 668 HALL, Mr. Robert, 27 Hansard's Debates, extracts from, 653-6, 661-3 Harbours of Refuge, want of, 617 Harrowby, Earl of, 345 Heely, Christopher, 148 Heely, Miss, statement of, 68 r Herapath, Mr. Thornton J., 33 Hill, Mr. Alfred, 346; extract read' at Bristol from paper by, 360 ; letter from, 672 Berkeley, letter from, 33 Frederic, 323, 346 ; on prison disci- pline, 244 ; prison visiting, 247 ; perpetual imprisonment, 521-4 M. D., evidence before Prisoners' Defence Bill Committee, House of Lords, 1835, 29 ; before Trans- portation Committee, House of Commons, 1856, 523, 688 Hilyard, Mr., Governor of Birmingham Gaol, 275 Hodgson, Mr. Joseph, 50 Holderness, Rev. William, on penal ser- vitude, 534 Holiest, Mr., 160, 608 Hone, Mr. William, 35 Hope, a necessary element in reformatory treatment, 534, 690 ; Mr. Chester- ton's opinion, 585 ; Earl Grey's, 659 ; evil effect of depriving pri- soners of hope, 532, 659 Hoskins, Mr. G. A., on the prison at Valencia, 552 Howard, John, 105, 2^7 Howitt, Mr. William, 648 Hulks denounced by Jeremy Bentham, 475 by Lord Brougham, 476 Hume, Mr. Joseph, letter from, to Cap- tain Maconochie, 274 Hunt, Mr. Leigh, 14 IDENTIFICATION of criminals, difficulty of, 537 by means of photographic portraits, 593 Imprisonment with labour, almost our only form of punishment, 624 ; term of, becoming shorter, 184 ; length of, should be determined by reformation of the prisoner, 522 Imprisonment for life, 624 (see also Per- petual Imprisonment); when neces- sary, 521, 616 ; contemplated by Government, 653, 667 Imprisonments, repeated, evils of, 350 Impunity of criminals, 7, 8, 182 Incapacitation from crime, 626 Incendiary fires at Birmingham, 1 1 Inciting to murder, 198 Incorrigible offenders, necessity for per- petual imprisonment of, recognised by Government, 653, 667 Increase of crime, doubtful, 646 Indian Thug, 182 Industrial Feeding Schools, 343 ; in Aber- deen, 360 Inefficacy of simply Penal Legislation, by Lord Brougham, 294 Innocent persons, instances of verdict of guilty against, 187 killed in consequence of use of fire- arms in self-defence, 189 Inquirer, Oct. 13, 1855, article from, 496 Intemperance a bar to moral and physical improvement, 325 consequences of, 373, 387 crime produced by, 395, 420-2 Intermediate prison, 672 stage between imprisonment and liberty, importance of, 631 Intoxicating liquors, table exhibiting sale of, in United States, 412 in British America, 414 money spent in, 388 Introduction to Charge of July, 1839, r October, 1850, 146 October, 1853. 232 January, 1855, 367 December, 1856, 610 JANSSEN, Sir S. T., 654 Jardine, Mr., 469, 515, 516 Jebb, Colonel, evidence of, before Trans- portation Committee, respecting penal servitude, 476 letter respecting tickets-of-leave, 5 1 8 Jeffreys, Judge, 30 Johnson, Dr. 373, 390 Jury, trial by, when introduced in Bir- mingham, 4 Just administration of the law, 6 Justices of the Peace, 107, 258 Juvenile offenders, 108, 183, 208 cases of 14, at Liverpool, 127 Committee, House of Commons, 1852, 344 number committed at Aberdeen, 36 1 ; at Bristol, 362-6 reformatory treatment of, 267 returned to parents or employers, 1 1 8, 35 T, 60 1 ; register of those so returned kept at Birmingham, 35 1 702 INDEX. Juvenile Offenders' A ct, i>jth&i 8th Viet. , explained, 336, 345 as amended, 345 KAISERSLAUTERN, 549 Keating, Mr., in debate on Ticket-of- leave Bill, 689 his construction of the Act accords with the author's, 690 Kinnaird, Hon. Arthur, 345 Knacker's yard at Birmingham, 447 Knight, Mr. Charles, 388 LABOURING CLASSES' Lodging House Act, 309 ; endeavour to bring it into operation at Bristol, 326 Landlords should be made responsible for respectability of their tenants, 67, 32 7 ; proposal for effecting this, 332 ; their interest to annihilate the predatory class, 330 Large number of offences never detected, 7, 42 Law, just administration of, 6 Laying the first stone of Birmingham Gaol, 1 01 Leamington Spa Courier of April 5th, 1855, extract from, 346 Lees, Dr. Frederic, on operation of the Maine Law, 423 Legislative interference, evil results of, 323-4 when useless, 391 as regards sale of intoxicating drinks, already in existence, 374 Leipner, Mr., 544 Lentaigne, Mr., 672 Letter from author to C. B. Adderley, Esq., 276 to Right Hon. Talbot Baines, 543 to Daily Neivs, 623 to Times, 604 Lewes' Life of Goethe, extract from, 293 Liberated convicts, increase in number of, 185 Liberty of the subject interfered with, 211, 223 'Liberty, Equality, Fraternity,' 113 Licensed victuallers, 410 Licensing marine store dealers, 69 Life of Fielding, by Frederic Lawrence, 21 Liverpool, baths and wash-houses at, 86 cases of 14 young offenders at, 127 local act in, regulating licences to marine store dealers, 69 petition from magistrates of, 127 public-houses in, 94 Liverpool Life, extracts from, 84 Liverpool Mercury, October 28th, 1851, extract from, 221 Locke, John, 410 London Bankers' Association, 43 London police sent to Birmingham, 2 London Shadows, extracts from, 320 Lovett, Mr., 12 Lyndhurst, Lord, 25, 39 Lyttelton, Lord, 345 MACONOCHIE, Captain, 175, 217, 232, 239, 489 letter to, from Rev. T. B. Faylor, 273; Mr. Joseph Hume, 274; his opinion that it is more hopeful to reform adults than juveniles, 471-4; his services, 473; his system, 243, 251-7, 262, 271; testimonial to, 265 M'Claren, Mr. Duncan, 437 . communication from, 671 Maine Law, 367 its supporters opponents, 367; evasion of, 367 ; effects of, 368 ; not yet carried into full effect, 369 ; Englishwoman in America, on, 370-1 ; history, 382 ; not yet possible to introduce in England, 386, 404 ; summary of author's views upon, 389 ; progress of in America, 40 1 ; table exhibiting it, 412; objections raised against, 404 ; declared to be unnecessary when possible, 407 ; difficulties in way of, in England, 408 ; publicans influence a large number of voters, 409; Hon. George Boutwell on pro- gress of Maine Law, 415; Dr. Fre- deric Lees, 423 ; prisons and work- houses emptied by operation of Maine Law, 425-7, 431-3; bene- ficial effects of, 426-8-9, 430-1- 2-3-4 5 crime diminished by, 424-5-6-7-8-9, 430-1-4 Manchester, burglary at, 150 massacre, 14 Manchester Courier, Nov. 22nd, 1851, article from, 225 Manchester Guardian, Oct. 22nd, 1851, extract from, 203 Manningtree, burglary at, 1 50 Marine store dealers, 69 Mark system, 262 Marston, Mr., 146 Masters and servants, 71 Mayne, Sir Richard, 162, 324 Means for repression of crime, 9, 161, 328 (see also 'Education,' 'Maine Law,' 'Recreation') Metropolitan Association for Improving the Dwellings of the Industrious Classes, 302 their charter, cost of, 308 branch societies, 308 Bristol branch, 326 INDEX. 703 Mettray, 55, 356; account of author's visit to, 119; conditions on which Sacrament is administered at, 472 ; cost per head, 126, 133; effect of Revolution of 1848 upon, 128; expulsion from, 124; family principle, 121; funerals, 122; gallant conduct of colons, 133; the institution imitated, 133; in- creasing success of, 131; in- firmary, 122; mental instruction, 123; mortality, 131; officers, 121, 132; Orfrasiere, 133; pro- portion reformed, 126, 131, 470; recidiristes, 125, 131-2; refuge for well-conducted colons, 125,471; religious teaching, 124; results obtained, 131; Sisters of Charity, 123; training school, 121, 132 Military called out at Birmingham, 2 Millbanke, Sir John, 618 Milnes, Mr. R. M., 345 Minister of Justice for Belgium, 19 Mitigation in criminal code, 204, 614, 638 Model lodging houses at Bristol, 326 Modern India, 158 Moles worth, Sir William, 633 Monk, Dr., late Bishop of Gloucester and Bristol, 326 Montesinos, Colonel de, 532, 571 on prison at Valencia, 557 Montgomery, Mr. James, 14 Moral hospitals, prisons regarded as, 105, 209, 267 Morgan, Mr. W., 265, 345 Morning Advertiser, Nov. 8th, 1851, article from, 222 Morning Chronicle, Oct. i5th, 1855, 508 Morning Post, Oct. 25th, 1851, 212 Oct. 28th, 1851, 218 Moveable iron huts for convicts, 588, 675 Mullens, Mr., 43 Munich Prison described by Mr. A. B. Cochrane, 544 by Mr. G. Combe, 578 by Rev. H. C. Townsend, 550 expense of each prisoner in prison at, 567 officers employed at, 568 proportion of convicts reformed at, 566, 581 questions and answers respecting, 564 results obtained at, stated by Herr Obermaier, 549 system pursued at, adopted else- where, 566 Murderous outrage at Birmingham, 146, *5i at Frome, 189 Murray, Mr. P. J., 677 Murrietta and Co., Messrs. Christobal de, 544 National Reformatory Union, first pro- vincial meeting of, 346 ; autho- rised report of, 346; letter from Mr. Dunne read at, 358 , papers read at, 346 Naylor, Rev. T. B., letter from, to Cap- tain Maconochie, 273 Needlemakers, 282 North Australia unsuitable for penal colony, 630 Northcote, Sir Stafford, 345-6 Not so Bad as They Seem, extract from, 677 Oakley, Mr., observations on Grand Jury system, 451 Obermaier, Herr, extracts from his work on Prisons, 549 (see also ' Munich Prison') Observations on Charge of May, 1840, 46 O'Connor, Fergus, 14 Offences against property, 7 large number of, never detected, 7, 42 Offenders already convicted to be liable to be called upon to show that they enjoy means of honest liveli- hood, i$i(seea.lso ' Proposal, '&c., 704) diminution in number of, 151 (See also 'Juvenile Offenders.') Orfrasiere, offshoot from Mettray, 133 Organ, Mr., 587, 674, 676 PAGE, Judge, 30 Pakington, Sir John, 344 on debate on Ticket-of -leave Bill, 688 Palmerston, Lord, in debate on Ticket- of-leave Bill, 689 his construction of Ticket-of-leave Act accords with the author's, 691 on importance of hope in reformatory treatment, 690 Parental responsibility enforced, 338, 356 excellent results of enforcing, at Newcastle-upon-Tyne, 358 Parkman, Dr., murder of, 20 Patronage societies in Bavaria, 569 Paulton Literary Institution, extract from address at, 364 Peace Association, 197 Pearson, Mr. Charles, 466, 519 his plan to make prisons self-sup- porting, 520 Mr. Chesterton upon, 520 Penal colonies, 184 difficulty of founding, 629 servitude, 513-6 application of the term to be ex- tended, 652 defined, 475 ; Colonel Jebb's evi- dence respecting, 476 ; remission of, 159 ; sentences to, 477 74 INDEX. Penal servitude men, ill effect of excluding from privilege of ticket-of-leave, 562, 659 eligible to receive them, 535 ; Mr. Waddington's evidence respecting, 687 ; will begin to be discharged in 1857, 620 Penal settlement, evils of, 648 Perpetual imprisonment, 522, 624 Mr. Chesterton on, 522; Mr. Stuart Wortley on, 523 ; author's evi- dence before Transportation Com- mittee on, 524 ; Mr. Waddington upon, 525 ; when necessary, 616 for the incorrigible, 465 ; advocated by the Times, 481 ; Spectator, 490; Examiner, 496; Weekly Dispatch, 502 principle of, recognised by Govern- ment, 653, 667 Persons pursuing crime as a calling (see 'Class who,' &c., 698) Petition from Liverpool magistrates, 127 Petitions in favour of prisoners, 135, 141 Philadelphia, penitentiary at, 248 ; re- fuge at, 448 Phillimore, Mr., 26 Philpotts, Mr. Thomas, 346 Photographic portraits of criminals, 593, 678 Photography as an A id to the A dminis- tration of Criminal Justice, a letter from Mr. Gardner, 594 Phrenology, 48 Physicians, opinion of seven, on phreno- logy, as applied to criminal dis- cipline, 49 Physiology, 49 Police, chief-superintendents of, should be furnished with means of detecting criminals, 596 duties of, towards ticket-of-leave holders, 660 excellence of, at Birmingham, 9 officers, testimony of, 177 surveillance by, 221 ticket-of-leave holders in Ireland required to report themselves to, 675, 678 Police Gazette, extract from, 611 Political prisoners, 12 Poor man's ' Book of Sports,' 83 Port Arthur, convicts at, 635 Portland, cost of convicts at, 649 Powell, Rev. Town send, 55, 353 Press, vigilance of the, 154, 638 Presumption of guilt to be met by counter- presumption of innocence, 155, 188 'Prevention,' letter from, 70 Price's Candle Company, 78 Principle of reformation has not yet been tried in England, 626 Principles of punishment, draft report on, 522 Prison, discharge from, period when criminals are most difficult to deal with, 647 labour should be profitable, 249 does- not unjustly interfere with honest labour, 128, 503 visiting, 248 discipline, 14, 103, 258 in Ireland described, 672 ; results of, 676 object of, 657 results of present system unsatis- factory, 656 select committee on, 1850, 519 Prisons, their condition formerly, 258 Mr. Pearson's plan to make self- supporting, 520 of Munich and Valencia, 543 should be regarded as moral hospi- tals, 267 too sumptuous, -211 and workhouses emptied by operation of the Maine Law, 425-7, 431-3 Prisoners' Aid Society at Birmingham, 276, 599, 604 Prisoners' Counsel Bill, 25-8, 41 employment of, on public works, 617, 649 employment of, supposed to interfere with honest labour; fallacy of this opinion demonstrated, 128, 503 how they should be treated, 286 instances of, who are well-conducted in confinement, but outrageous when at liberty, 521 petitions in favour of, 135, 141 photographed to secure identifica- tion, 593 should be permitted to earn a little money to support them after leav- ing prison, 1 79 Prize-fighters, 95 Proposal to call upon persons once con- victed and suspected of living by crime, to show that they possess means of honest maintenance, 155, 181 approved by 'Amicus,' 167 Edinburgh Review, 228 Liverpool Mercury, 'ill Manchester Guardian, -203 Spectator, 173-6, 215 Times (partially), -230 disapproved by Birmingham Mer- cury, 210 Examiner, 194" Manchester Courier, 225 Morning A dvertiser, 222 Morning Chronicle, 207 Morning Post, 212, 218 Times, 159, 163, 170, 200 INDEX. Principle adopted by Government, with- out safeguard of trial proposed by Author, 468 (see also '.Reputed Thieves') Property, offences against, 7 Prosecutions, expense of, 5 Prostitutes, 74, 85, 138 Public baths and wash-houses, 86 houses, in Birmingham, 603 ; com- mittee on, 380 play-grounds, 81 ; readings, 83 ; works, employment of convicts on at home, 617, 649 Punishment, 102, 753 ; rapidly become lighter, 463 ; now almost re- solved into imprisonment with labour, 624 ; repression of crime, the true end of punishment, 622, 646 Puritans, 82 'QUARTERLY REVIEW,' December, 1855, ^ extract from, 342, 4, 5 Questions regarding prison at Munich, 564 ; at Valencia, 571 sanitary state of Birmingham, 317 RATE OP MORTALITY AT BIRMINGHAM, 315 Rathbone, Mr. William, 87 Rauhe Haus, 356 Reader, Mr., no Receivers of stolen goods, 9, 67 Recommitments at Warwickshire Sessions, 348 Recreation, 81, 4 Redhill, 356 Reformation, the object to be aimed at in treatment of criminals, 243 ; impossibility of, with a system of short imprisonments, 624 ; of all criminals impossible, 227 ; of large proportion proved possible by experience of Bavaria and Spain, 656 ; how attainable, 657 ; must be relied on for diminution of crime, 284 ; should determine length of imprisonment, 522 ; test of, 542, 672 ; satisfactory test of, regarded by Sir George Grey as impossible to obtain, 667 Reformatory discipline, 539; principle has not yet been tried in England, 626 Reformatory schools, 543 ; their manage- ment, 354 ; government allowance for each child at, 341, 345 Reformatory treatment, 8, 103, in, 117, 129, advocated by grand jury, 191 ; applicable alike to juvenile and adult offenders, 289, 337; im- portance of hope as an element in, $34> 5 8 5 > 659, 690 ; of necessity penal in nature, 245 Z Relation between employers and em- ployed, 77 Remission of sentences of penal servitude men, 159, 477 Repeated convictions, 108 imprisonments, 183 Report of commissioners on constabulary force, 7 Repression of crime, true end of punish- ment, 622, 646 Reputed thieves, proposal to restrain, 155, 186, 205, 210, 212 ; con- sidered dangerous, 165, 195, 202, 212, 224 ; impracticable, 164, 210, 213, 221-4; inoperative, 218 ; unjustifiable, 172 ; unneces- sary, 1 66 (see, also, 'Proposal,' &c., p. 704) Retributive principle in punishment, 182 Returning juvenile offenders to their pa- rents or employers, 118, 351, 601 register of those returned at Bir- mingham, 351 Riots in Birmingham in 1839, I Rogers, Mr., surgeon to Birmingham Gaol, 276 Romilly, Sir Samuel, 184; Memoirs of, 35 ' SALMONIA,' extract from, 280 Salt forced into the mouth of a prisoner in Birmingham Gaol, 236 Saltley Reformatory, 255 Salvagnoli, Sig., 286 Scotch prisons, 244 reports on, quoted, 521 Self-respect of prisoners should be culti- vated, 17 Sequel to Charge of July, 1839, u ; of October, 1845, 75 ; of March, 1847, 109; of October, 1848, 130; of April, 1850, 141 ; of October, 1850, 157 ; of October, 1851, 191 ; of October, 1853, 262 ; of March, 1854, 31 1 ; of September, 1854, 342 ; of January, 1855, 390 ; of October, 1855, 474 ; of October, 1856, 543 ; of December, 1856, 622 ; of March, 1857, 669 Servants and masters, 7 1 Seven bishops, trial of, 29 Shaw, Mr., 325 Sherwin, Rev. Ambrose, 234 'Shog,' 683 Shop-doors, exposing goods at, 75, 349 Short imprisonments, evils of, no, 183, 208 render reformation impossible, 624 Simons, Mr., letter from, 306 Skipworth, Sir Grey, 347 Smith, Dr. Southwood, 299, 305 conversation of author with, 3 1 1 Rev. Sydney, 36 Z 7c6 INDEX. Smithfield Penitentiary in Dublin de- scribed, 673 ; by Captain Crofton, 586 ; proportion reformed at, 587 Smuggling suppressed on the Sutherland estate, 331 Socialists, 114 Societe de Patronage, 287 Somers, 29 Spain as It Is, by G. A. Hoskins, 552 Spain, evil effect of depriving prisoners of hope in, 659 Spectator, extract from, October 26th, 1850, 173 November 2nd, 1850, 176 October 25th, 1851, 215 October J.^th, 1855, 487 October 2 oth, 1855, 516 January 3rd, 1857, 638 Speech (author's) at meeting of Birming- ham Discharged Prisoners' Aid Society, 599 ; at Warwick meet- ing, 346 of Lord Stanley at meeting of Law Amendment Society, 628 Squires, Mary, 21 Stanley, Lord, 346 ; his speech at meeting of Law Amendment Society, 628 Statistics fallacious, 7 Stephen's Commentaries, 198 Stephens, Mr. (Chief of Police at Birming- ham), 74, 148, 276, 306 St. James' Back Ragged School, 363-4 St. Leonard's, Lord, 516 Stone, Dr., 367 Stretton-on-Dunsmore, 38, 52, 63, 119, 127, 353 described in letter from Sir J. E. Eardley Wilmot, 55 Strikes, 64 Sturge, Mr. Joseph, 265, 345 Suicides in Birmingham Gaol, 235 Summary convictions, 107 Summary of a plan for making landlords responsible for respectability of their tenants, 327 Surety to employer of discharged pri- soner, 606 Sutherland estate, smuggling suppressed on, 33i Swimming, endeavour to learn without water, 54 1 Sympathy with criminals, danger of un- due, 211, 241, 622 Tasmania, bushrangers in, 641 convict government in, 634 cost of convicts in, 618, 649 transportation to has ceased, 618 Temperance societies, 369, 374 Tests of reformation, 471, 5*42, 563, 672 regarded by Sir George Grey as un- obtainable, 667 Testimonial to Captain Maconochie, 265 Theatres at Liverpool, 84 Thornton, Mr. Lee, extract from letter to Rev. J. W. Bellairs, from, 362 Ticket-of-leavesystem, 275, 462 principles it embodies, 462 ; appli- cation limited to great offenders, 464 ; conditions endorsed on ticket- of-leave, 467, 662 ; misapprehen- sion of, 5 r 3 ; Act explained, 65 r ; not carried into effect, 469, 610, 631, 664; Tinpopularity of, 529; partly attributable to stoppage of transportation, 469 ; Daily News upon, 512; cumbrous machinery of Act, 515 ; Spectator upon, 516 ; St. Leonard's, Lord, upon, 516 Ticket-of-leave, 230 earned by length of imprisonment, not by good conduct, 5 19 have occasionally been revoked with- out fresh conviction, 662 Earl Grey's favourable opinion of, 534 should be granted to penal servitude men, 535, 562, 659 Ticket-of-leave men confounded with con- victs absolutely discharged, 536 ; and others, 610 in Birmingham, 5 38, 590 list of, 596 Sir George Grey to author respecting, 665 letter from Mr. "VVaddington respect- ing, 598 in Bristol, 538, 591 in Warwickshire, 590 in England and Wales, no data exist for calculating proportion reformed cf, 589 reconvicted, return to House of Lords respecting, 664 proportion of, said to be reformed, 4 70 panic respecting, on mistaken grounds, 536, 610 difficulty in obtaining employment, 632 Ticket-of-leave holders in Ireland required to report themselves to the police, 675, 678 Ticket-of-leave no proof of reclamation, 540, 563, 655 Sir George Grey, upon, 540, 563, 655, 662 holder should be held to strict responsibility, 659 duties of police towards, 660 ; rule withholding licence from penal servitude men made two years after passing of the Act, 687 to penal servitude men, Mr. Under- secretary Waddington respecting, 687 INDEX. 7C7 Ticket- of-leave Bill, debate on, 689 Act, construed by Mr. Keating similarly to the author, 690 proposal to carry it into effect, 62 I bill to amend, speech of Sir George Grey upon, 653 Times, October 22, 1850, 159. October 23> 1850, 163. October 24, 1850, 170. October 22, 1851, 200. October n, 1855, 478. November 14, 1856, 230. No- vember 1 8, 1856, 604. February 23, i857, 678 Tom Jones, 30 Total abstinence pledge, 368 'L'ownsend, Mr. Charles, medical officer of Birmingham, 312 ; his report to Borough Inspection Committee, 312 ; extract of letter to author from, 317; his answers to ques- tions proposed by author, 318 Townsend, Rev. C. H., on prison at Munich, 550 Trading Justice, 460 Trainers of thieves, 99 Transportation, 8, 513; becoming less frequent, 184, 615 ; more diffi- cult, 608 ; difficulty of finding site for, 616; to Tasmania has ceased, 618 ; no longer open to us, 463; proposal to have fresh re- course to, 616 ; renewal of, held to be impossible, 639 ; rarely re- sorted to by any country beside England, 618 Transportation Committee, House of Commons, 1856, author's evidence before, 524; showing impossibility of calculating number of ticket-of- leave men reformed, 589 ; Mr. Waddington's evidence before, 525 ; Charge on resolutions of, 5 2 9 Transportation, letter on, by John Frost, 634 Transported convicts, 273 Travaux Forces, 518 Trial by jury, first introduction at Bir- mingham, 4 Tribunals all fallible, 187 Turner, Rev. Sidney, 342-5-6, 356 UNREFORMED convicts, evils of discharg- ing from prison, -260-1, 614, 655 VAGRANCY, 217 Valencia, prison of, 532, 544 described by Mr. Hoskins, 552 described by Montesinos, 557 Valencia, officers employed at, 575 cost of each prisoner in, 574 questions, &c., regarding, 571 Vancouver's Island unsuitable for a penal colony, 630 Vidal, Rev. 0. E., 149 Vigilance of the Press, 154, 638 Visiting magistrates, 24.3, 275 Visitors in prisons, 184, 247 Visits to prisoners from friends, 16 Voluntary principle in establishing refor- matory institutions, 339 WADDINGTON, Mr. Under-Secretary, his evidence before Transportation Committee, 525 respecting tickets-of-leave to penal servitude men, 687 letter from, respecting ticket-of- leave men in Birmingham, 598 Wallis, Mr. S. T., on prison at Valencia, 559 Warwick, meeting at, to establish county reformatory, 346 Warwickshire Sessions, 347, 461 ticket-of-leave men in, 590 Webster, Professor, trial of, 20 Weekly Dispatch, Oct. 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