PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE
Reference :-
TILUC.O.
اسانس
885
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Latrobe, afford all the evidence that can be re- quired, and prove conclusively that the failure of this system cannot justly be attributed to the faults of the individuals who were charged with the duty of carrying it into execution, but must be ascribed to inherent defects in the system itself, and espe- cially to the difficulties in working it, arising from the great distance of Van Diemen's Land from the seat of Government. The experience of another
year
part of
is also in favour of the methods of punishment which we have proposed to employ; the results of the system of Separate Imprisonment for moderate periods are highly satisfactory, and the efforts that for several years have been made to improve the discipline of the convicts employed on the public works at Bermuda and Gibraltar, notwithstanding all the disadvantages under which they have taken place, have been attended with a degree of success sufficient to justify the expectation that employment of this description may become a very useful the punishment of the majority of offenders. Already under the system which has been adopted at Gibraltar and Bermuda, notwithstanding the want of proper buildings, and the difficulty, under the disadvantage of insufficient space, of applying adequate means of moral instruction, the good order and the industry of the convicts have become very remarkable, and have been shown by the fact that the value of the labour they have performed has exceeded the cost of their maintenance. It is also stated to me by the very zealous and pious chaplain of the convict esta- blishment at Gibraltar, that those convicts who pre- viously to being sent there have undergone separate imprisonment, even for only a short time, and under less perfect arrangements than those adopted at Pentonville, have given evidence by their conduct, that the effects of this discipline upon their minds have been not only salutary at the time, but gene. rally lasting; and that the previous preparation they have thus gone through has in many cases rendered their subsequent employment on the works at Gibral- tar a period of progressive improvement; thus giving fair ground for the hope that when all the offenders employed on public works shall consist of those who have undergone a preliminary period of separate
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confinement, the results may be still more satis- factory.
Of the advantage arising from the ultimate remo-
val of convicts to the colonies, with a view to their once more becoming useful members of society, very gratifying evidence is afforded by the reports which I have already mentioned as having been received of the conduct of the exiles sent to Port Philip. Thus far the results of experience are highly favourable to the mode of carrying into effect
the sentence of transportation which had been con- templated; on the other hand it appears from the evidence collected last year by the Committee of the House of Lords, that the deterring effect of the sentence of transportation, would, in the opinion of most of those who have been engaged in the admi- nistration of justice, be considerably impaired should
it come to be generally understood that this punish- ment was not in future to involve the actual removal of the offender from his native country. There also seem to be good grounds for believing that though
in general the exiles who have been sent to Australia have conducted themselves well, and a limited class might still be permitted to go there on the same terms, there would nevertheless be considerable advantage, with regard to the general body of con- victs, in adopting means to prevent them from being on their arrival in Australia at once completely relieved from all control on the part of the Govern- ment, and from being placed entirely on the same footing with free emigrants from the moment of their landing. Her Majesty's Government accord- ingly propose that in future, with regard to all convicts, except those whose age or health
may require different treatment, the general rule should be not to allow of their being at large in Great Britain or Ireland during the period for which they have been been sentenced to transportation, unless, for some special grounds, they should receive Her Majesty's pardon, and also that after having gone through the two first stages of punishment, which I have already described, for a longer or shorter time according to the length of their original sentences, offenders should then be removed, as holders of tickets of leave, to Van
2 PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE, LONDON
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