PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE
C.O.
Reference :-
•885
Parliamentary
et seq.
*
30
44
In regard to the female convicts on board the Anson," it
appears Paper, 1846. p. 43. from Dr. Bowden's report, that the system established by himself and his wife had been very successful. Up to the close of 1813 the number of female convicts who had been subjected to the discipline of that establish- ment was 929; and writing in November 1845, Dr. Bowden said: "For "the success of the measures which have been adopted for the government "of this reformatory establishment, I refer your Lordship with some confi- "dence to the returns which are periodically sent to England, from which it "will appear that the conduct of the women on probation in this establish- "ment has been most exemplary, and that this character has been main- "tained by a large majority since their discharge to service. In relation to "prison offences and punishments, we stand in remarkable contrast with any other prison establishment of which I have any record." And again : "Of almost all of them (the women discharged to private service), the "testimony is universal that they are far superior in appearance, manners. "and conduct to any of the same class formerly in service in the colony." "The time elapsed since the commencement of the benevolent experiment "now in progress for the reformation of this unhappy class, is too short to "determine the moral results, for which a series of years is required. The "indications of success, however, are sufficiently evident; and we hope "hereafter to see much fruit result from our labours in this moral wilder- "ness." Dr. Bowden concluded by expressing his own and his wife's satis- faction with the "Anson" as a reformatory establishment, and their opinion that it was peculiarly suited for such a purpose. This report was transmitted by Sir E. Wilmot without comment.
6.
In regard to unnatural crimes among the men, Sir E. Wilmot's reports bear date the 16th and 17th of March last. He alleges that great exaggeration prevails on the subject; that "the first and only notice" of it which he had received from Mr. Pitcairn. and those who act with him, was the letter from Mr. Pitcairn to Lord Stanley, which has just been quoted, and that consequently the local Government could not fairly be charged with neglect of the matter. He further trans- mits a report from the Acting Comptroller-General, with returns from the medical officers of the several convict gangs, from which it appears that in several of the gangs, disease, the result of unnatural crime, existed to a considerable extent that this was especially the case in the gang employed at the coal mines, where the darkness afforded peculiar facilities for the commission of such crimes; and at the invalid station, where the superintendence is less strict, and the men spend their time in idleness-that there were about seventy cases of disease in the whole of the probation gangs, which included from 8000 to 10,000 convicts-that the arrangements both for lighting the sleeping wards and separating the beds of the convicts, had been very defective in principle, and had been very imperfectly carried out in prac- tice; but that since public attention had been so strongly directed to the subject, precautions had been adopted which there was reason to hope would not be unsuccessful. He likewise asserts that from the information he has received, he believes the crime not to be more prevalent among the convicts than it is among soldiers and sailors, especially in India.
It was in consequence of his apparent apathy in regard to the moral condition of the convicts generally, and especially with refer- ence to this particular crime, that Mr. Gladstone determined on the recall of Sir E. Wilmot, and sent Mr. Latrobe to supersale him pending the arrival of his successor. Mr. Gladstone, at the same time, appointed in the room of Mr. Forster, as Comptroller-General, Mr. Hampton, who had been previously employed under the Pentonville Commissioners; and arranged with Sir James Graham, that transportation to Van Diemen's Land should, for the present year, at least, be stopped. He directed Mr. Latrobe to organize new probation gangs to consist of convicts sent from England, without any admixture of convicts who had been already some time in the colony. He likewise contemplated increasing very con- siderably, the number of officers engaged in the superintendence of the convicts; and a scheme for that purpose was submitted by Dr. Hampton. but the change in the Government arrested its progress. He moreover
31
proposed to employ military officers, either engineers or field officers of the line, on the New South Wales Station, in periodical visitations of the convict establishments in Van Diemen's Land and Norfolk Island. This arrangement was acquiesced in by the Master-General of the Ordnance and Commander in-chief, but was negatived by the Lords of the Treasury. Other measures of a like description would no doubt have followed, but at the time when Mr. Gladstone resigned office they had not been developed.
August 15, 1846.
(Signed)
T. W. C. MURDOCH.
2
PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE, LONDON
ALLY WITHOUT PERMISSION OF THE BE REPRODUCED PHOTOGRAPHIC- COPYRIGHT PHOTOGRAPH-NOT TO