CO885(1-2) — Page 627

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PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE

6T

Reference :-

C.O.885

2 PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE, LONDON

ALLY WITHOUT PERMISSION OF THE BE REPRODUCED PHOTOGRAPHIC- COPYRIGHT PHOTOGRAPH-NOT TO

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and of the various modifications of indulgence through which they ultimately arrive at freedom.

3. This recommendation is mainly founded upon your experience of the greater frequency of mis- conduct amongst the convicts who, during the last two years, have reached Van Diemen's Land with tickets of leave, than amongst those who have worked their way to that indulgence in the colony. By the enclosed communication from the Sur- veyor-General of Prisons to the Home Office, you will observe, however, that only a limited number of the convicts from this country to whom your despatch refers had been subjected to the improved methods of discipline now in use, and none of them had undergone the full amount of preparation for unrestricted pardon which it is intended here- after to require. I do not, therefore, consider that an experiment tried under such unfavourable cir- cumstances, ought to set aside the conclusion adopted upon general grounds, and from a much wider experience as to the advantage of subjecting convicts to compulsory labour more immediately under the eyes of the Government, where any errors in the system of management may be more easily

and promptly detected, and where the services of efficient officers can more easily be secured than in a distant colony. In Ireland, indeed, there have not yet been the requisite opportunities for introducing an efficient system of discipline for the whole of the greatly increased number of convicts in that island; and I think that it will probably be very desirable to take advantage of the means which you describe to exist of inflicting the second stage of punishment. or that of compulsory labour, in the colony, for some of these Irish convicts. I am already in cor- respondence on the subject with the Irish Govern- ment, and will apprise you of the result.

27 March, 1850.

4. With this exception, it is for the foregoing reasons still the intention of Her Majesty's Govern- ment to adhere to the policy which they had pre- viously adopted, and in general, at all events, to send out convicts only when they have arrived at that stage of their punishment at which they may be released from direct coercion. But there appears to be good ground for your opinion that the amount

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Parliamentary Paper No. 40, 1850.

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of liberty conceded to the convicts hitherto sent out with tickets of leave on their arrival in the colony, has been more than they have been qualified to enjoy; and that it would be better, both for the men themselves and for the colony, that they should be placed under a more strict system of supervision and control. It is, therefore, intended that the regulations hitherto adopted in regard to them should be modified; and I will now pro- ceed to explain the nature of the changes which are to be made, and the principles on which they are founded.

5. Upon a careful examination of the practical results of the different systems of treatment to which convicts, sent to penal colonies under sen- tence of transportation, have at different times been subjected, it must I think be admitted, that great as were the evils of the system of assignment, still while it was in force a larger proportion of convicts were ultimately restored to the condition of useful members of society, and more advantage was derived by the colonies from their labour before they obtained their freedom, than since this mode of dealing with them has been discontinued. A

letter which I have lately received from Mr. Hall, of New South Wales, and of which I enclose a copy, contains some remarkable evidence to this effect. It therefore deserves inquiry, whether it might not be practicable to place convicts in Van Diemen's Land in a situation which should resemble that of the assigned servants of former days in those circumstances which were found to exercise a favourable influence, while at the same time the evils which more than neutralized the advantages of the old system should be guarded against. The evils of the practice of Assignment were, that it was in fact a system of slavery, and, as such, often exer- cised a demoralizing influence over both masters and servants; that some convicts suffered extreme oppression from bad and tyrannical masters, while others, on the contrary, were treated with over-indulgence, from interested or corrupt motives. Viewed as a punishment, it was also open to the great objection, that to the numerous class of offenders who had had at home no honest means of existence but their labour, it was, when not pre- ceded by any period of more severe coercion, in