Whatever advantages were supposed to pertain to a system of domestic
punishment, it was opposed by formidable difficulties. To Bentham's
system it was objected, that it required a supervision practically
unattainable. The enthusiasm, ability, and integrity of the projector,
it was alleged, would be probably confined to himself; and although the
better plan, while under his eye, it would prove of all the most
dangerous and inefficient, when directed by the unskilful and
corrupt.[56] Nor did it prevent the return of the offender to society,
and thus a relapse into crime.
The large preliminary outlay required to test the scheme of Bentham,
which exceeded his first calculations, was urged against its trial, and
its complicated details wearied the attention of the county magistrates.
They preferred transportation, and cheerfully resigned the offender to
the good or ill-fortune of his colonial career.
These views were strengthened by the increasing aversion to capital
punishments. To detain a criminal for life seemed cruel to himself, and
to release him would be perilous to the community. His treatment while
in bonds, would vary with the temper of individuals entrusted with his
punishment. This, Bentham himself confessed: he observed--"different
tempers prescribe different measures of security and indulgence. Some
forget that a convict in prison is a sensitive being; others that he is
put in there for punishment. Some grudge him every gleam of comfort or
alleviation of misery, to which his situation is susceptible; to others
every little privation, every little unpleasant feeling, every
unaccustomed circumstance, every necessary point of coercive discipline,
presents matter for a charge of inhumanity."[57]
To American transportation, the following is a summary of his
objections. 1. It was unequal: a man who had money might buy off the
servitude. Again, with regard to banishment, it was unequal: some would
have been glad to go by choice, others would rather die. 2. It was
unexemplary: what the convict suffered, be it much or little, was
unknown. 3. It was unfrugal: it occasioned great waste of life in the
mode, and of money in the expenses of conveyance. 4. It did answer in
some degree, in disabling the offender from doing further mischief: yet
it has always been easier for a man to return from transportation than
to escape from prison. 5. It answered, every now and then, the purposes
of reformation pretty well; but not so well upon the whole, under the
variable and uncertain direction of a private master, whose object was
his own profit, as it might be expected to answer under regulations
concerted by the united wisdom of the nation.[58] In these objections to
American transportation the colonists will recognise familiar
sounds--the chief elements of the arguments, in times both remote and
recent, against the practice of transportation.
The worst class of criminals were often found in London, before their
first sentence had expired. Many suffered capitally for this offence.
Before the practice of contracting with shippers, political offenders
preferred the continent of Europe to the hardships of America. It was
made felony, without benefit of clergy (20 Geo. ii.), for rebels under
sentence of transportation to reside either in France or Spain; and the
inhuman penalty was denounced against their friends who might correspond
with them in any form. When the crown carried out the sentence, the
offender's return was still capital, and though unpopular, the guilty
rarely escaped the penalty on conviction.
When this colony was established, the chief towns of Great Britain were
haunted by innumerable thieves, who were organised for the purposes of
robbery. In London armed men assailed passengers by night, and even by
day. The arrest of robbers was accompanied with considerable danger, and
it was not until towards the close of the eighteenth century that the
military guard ceased to attend executions. A vast multitude of persons
had degenerated into a robber caste. They lodged under the arches of
bridges, or nestled in nooks or corners, wherever they could burrow. The
districts of the city occupied by the better class of society, seemed
but a small portion of the metropolis--like islands in a sea of vice and
destitution. There were numerous places of savage amusement and small
gambling houses; and young men of family, hanging loose on the world,
not unfrequently became amateur adventurers in crime. The populace felt
no aversion to a highwayman of spirit. The pursuit of criminals became a
voluntary and profitable calling, and offenders against the laws were
encouraged and sheltered, until they were ripe for the executioner.
Every part of London was the scene of executions: malefactors were hung
in chains on every common and way-side. The populace treated the culprit
with cheers or hisses, according to their view of his crime. Many wore a
white cockade in their hats, in token of their innocence, when they were
carried in procession to the scaffold.[59]
To compensate for the feebleness of the police, and the popular sympathy
with crime, the crown paid L40 for each capital conviction. In 1796, a
conspiracy was developed, which led to the legal slaughter of seventy
persons, at a profit to the conspirators of L2,800. In 1818, the
legislature reluctantly terminated this traffic in blood.[60]
Thus, after much discussion, the plan of a new penal settlement was
finally preferred: denominated, in the official correspondence, "the
improved Colony of New South Wales."[61] In dedicating his work to
Thomas Townsend, Viscount Sydney, Collins ascribes the establishment of
the colony to that nobleman. "To your patriotism" he writes, "the plan
presented a prospect of political and commercial advantages." The facts
recorded he alleges evinced with how much wisdom the measure was
suggested and conducted; with what beneficial effects its progress had
been attended, and what future benefits the parent country might with
confidence anticipate. It was expected by Collins, that the colony would
prove a valuable nursery for soldiers and seamen.
The territorial seal provided by the crown, stamped on the instruments
of government the primary design: on the obverse, the royal arms and
title; but on the reverse, convicts were represented landing, received
by Industry, who, surrounded by her attributes--a bale of merchandise, a
pick-axe and shovel--released them from their fetters, and pointed them
to oxen ploughing. The legend was appropriate: "_Sic fortis Etruria
crevit_."[62]
"He who lives among a civilised people, may estimate the labor by which
society has been brought into such a state, by reading in the annals of
Botany Bay, the account of a whole nation exerting itself to floor the
government-house. Yet time shall come, when some Botany Bay Tacitus
shall record the crimes of an emperor lineally descended from a London
pickpocket."[63]
FOOTNOTES:
[Footnote 56: Introduction to _Phillip's Voyages_.]
[Footnote 57: _Bentham's Works_, part iii. p. 122.]
[Footnote 58: _Bentham's Works_, part iii. p. 7.]
[Footnote 59: _London, in the Eighteenth Century, by Charles Knight._]
[Footnote 60: A bill was brought into parliament by Mr. Bennet: it was,
however, maintained that the total abolition of such rewards would be
pernicious. The heir at law of a person killed in pursuit of a
highwayman, was still entitled to L40 and a Tyburn ticket, which
exempted the holder from serving on a jury, and other civil
liabilities.]
[Footnote 61: _Par. Papers_: quoted by Bentham, p. 174.]
[Footnote 62: _Collins_, vol. i. p. 179.]