But Van Diemen's Land was the chief sphere of the probation system. The
colonists, at first, were not indisposed towards the experiment: the
promise of an unlimited expenditure and a boundless supply of labor
reconciled them to its gigantic proportions. It assumed the air of
philanthropy: Sir John Franklin, when he announced the first outline of
the scheme, referred to the redemption of the negro slave, and
said--"that England was about to incur a large expenditure in the
attempt to emancipate her erring children from the infinitely more
degrading slavery of crime."[253] This picture was fully borne out by
Sir James Graham, who observed, in reference to the probationer--"New
scenes will open to his view, where skilled labor is in great demand;
where the earnings of industry rapidly accumulate. The prisoner should
be made to know that he enters on a new career. The classification of
the convicts in the colony (of Van Diemen's Land), as set forth in Lord
Stanley's despatch, should be made intelligible to him. He should be
told that he will be sent to Van Diemen's Land: there, if he behave
well, at once to receive a ticket-of-leave, which is equivalent to
freedom, with the certainty of abundant maintenance, the fruits of
industry."[254]
In describing the probation system it is not necessary to do more than
state its general aspects and acknowledged results. The publications in
the colonies and the official documents substantially concur, and with
minute controversy history has no concern. To view the subject with the
prejudices of a party would be treason to those important interests
affected by the question. Crime will still be committed--and its
treatment, the great problem of the age, is the business of all men.
The comptroller-general, Captain Forster, who obtained his appointment
by the influence of Captain Montagu, entered on his office when Sir
Eardley Wilmot arrived (1843), and re-modelled the practical measures of
Dr. Milligan, who for a time, under the auspices of Sir John Franklin,
had possessed the chief command. Captain Forster was too well acquainted
with discipline to entertain the smallest expectation of ultimate
success. Among his friends he expressed his distrust without reserve:
but believing the home government irrevocably pledged, he concluded that
penal philosophy was not his affair; and, not without reason, that he
was better qualified than a stranger to mitigate the natural tendencies
of the system. He had not been consulted in its structure: he did not
hold himself responsible for its errors or results.
During four years, ending in 1844, more than 15,000 prisoners arrived:
in 1847, there were, in all, 30,000. Free emigration was stopped. In
1842, 2,446 emigrants landed; in 1843, 26; in 1844, only 1.[255] The
greater number of transports under short sentences became almost
immediately eligible for hire, who were at first preferred by the
farmers to free men. The free laborers rapidly retreated to the other
colonies. Gangs of probationers were formed throughout the country.
Their locations were chiefly selected with reference rather to their
easy accommodation than their useful employment. A few large gangs were
established beyond the settled country, but the greater part were lodged
in the old buildings erected for the use of road parties, and
ill-adapted for either moral or industrial operations.
Van Diemen's Land was supposed by the crown to be peculiarly fitted for
the experiment: an area nearly equal to Ireland, occupied by little more
than 50,000 inhabitants, appeared to offer ample room for the stations.
It was not considered that the free population was condensed chiefly
within a line of country between the Derwent and Tamar, or on the
borders of those rivers; and that however a temporary location might be
chosen, the settled districts must ultimately absorb the pass and ticket
holders. Most were within a few hours, nearly all within a day's journey
of the free population. The ample supply of food; a system of moral
training, which devoted considerable time to books and pencils; a
decided discouragement of strictness in discipline and severity in
punishment, removed the temptation to rebel. The chief grievance of the
prisoners was the prohibition of smoking, often indeed evaded by the
connivance and assistance of the overseers; yet, while at some stations
indolence and plenty prevailed, at others, remote from the public eye,
misery and vice existed to an extent too awful for more than mere
reference. At the coal mines the men were robbed of their provisions by
their fellow-prisoners; new clothing was not issued until they were in
tatters; hundreds were without shirts, scores without shoes, and some
only wrapped round with rugs (1843). These evils were certainly not
lasting; but they have been by no means unfrequent at stations remote
from the capital, and from the notice of the press.
The colony did not afford a sufficient corps of able and conscientious
superintendents: many were military and naval officers, qualified to
control, but utterly unable to instruct. The quiet movement of the vast
system was earnestly desired by the local government: its effects would,
of course, be inferred from the absence of punishments; and it was
understood by the lower officers, that the shorter their black lists,
the more agreeable their periodical reports. It was stated by the
comptroller that they were engaged to carry out the system, not to
condemn it; and disaffection ended in dismissal.[256]
The rapid increase of numbers disconcerted the comptroller. The new
arrivals were sent to crowd the stations of their predecessors: order,
and even decency, were impracticable. The accommodation of the officers
was often miserable: too distant for proper inspection.
As the men removed from Norfolk Island were added to the gangs, their
tendencies became more alarming and apparent: they were of the worst
possible description, and defied all remedy.[257] No artifices of
language will enable the moralist to describe them.
The mean pay of the officers, their uncertain tenure of office, and the
nature of their duties, would only attract candidates for employment as
a temporary expedient. The control of considerable bodies of men, under
favorable circumstances, demands both vigilance and firmness. The
prisoners perceive, almost at a glance, the character of their
superiors: their history and habits are the theme of constant inquiry
and discussion. An equal temper and unwearied attention are required in
this arduous occupation. But the persons engaged were often wholly
disqualified by their past pursuits and personal character, to inspire
either awe or respect. The practical oversight was often committed to
the least responsible.
The religious instructors selected by the government, though chiefly of
the episcopal or catholic professions, were of miscellaneous origin. The
clergy of all persuasions were formerly admitted to the road parties;
their discourses were welcome, for they gave an interval from toil: some
performed service on the sabbath at their own charge. The new
instructors were strictly official: some, indeed, highly educated men,
of long standing in their respective churches; others were the
off-shoots of various sects, without education or personal dignity. Of
their qualifications, several high officers have spoken with
contempt.[258] These opinions were, however, partly the indirect result
of disputes, in which the instructors were very generally involved.
Several were known to convey accounts of evils within the stockades,
which it was the desire of the department both to conceal and to
suppress: notwithstanding, many were deficient in zeal and ability.
Their labors were strictly formal, and were soon considered hopeless.
Several exceptions must be understood; but to select them would be
invidious. The exclusive occupation of clergymen as teachers of
convicts, is generally unfavorable to their usefulness: the recognised
pastor of a congregation brings to the prison the reputation and
sanctity of his character among the free; the instructor of a gang is
soon considered but as the agent of penal government.
The basis of Lord Stanley's system was an imaginary demand for labor in
Van Diemen's Land. The home government was so confident in this
resource, that placards were suspended on the English prisons, holding
forth the prospect of high wages as the final stage of transportation.
The execution of public works in the colonies, except at an equivalent
price, was strictly prohibited. By improving the settled parts of the
colony, the crown might have increased its attraction to capitalists,
and by diverting an excess of laborers excited the competition of
masters. The governor was desirous of allaying colonial irritation by
some substantial boon: the orders of Lord Stanley were, however, rigid.
The comptroller-general was forbidden to adopt any detailed regulation
at variance with the scheme prescribed by the crown, or to alter or
depart from its provisions, without express authority.[259]
The demands of the settlers for laborers soon fell far short of the
supply. The written contracts for the passholders in the first stages of
service bound the master to pay over a portion of their wages to the
crown: this course was troublesome. Thus few, except in the last stage
of their service, were able to obtain employment at all; and the
graduated scale of payment fell to the ground. The accumulation at the
hiring depots, sometimes to the number of 4,000, who could obtain no
engagement, induced the governor to urge their useful employment in
public works. He stated that neither private individuals nor the
colonial treasury could afford to employ them in improvements of
prospective utility, and recommended that a fixed moderate payment
should be accepted, in return for the service they might perform. The
reply of his lordship was decided:--"If," he observed, "the free
inhabitants cannot purchase the labor we have to sell, at a price which
it is worth our while to accept, it remains for us to consider whether
other advantageous employment cannot be found." "The necessaries of life
may be produced to such an extent, as to render the convicts independent
of the free colonists, who are not entitled to claim any compensation
for the inconvenience with which their presence may be attended." His
lordship proposed that new lands should be surveyed, cultivated, and
sold for the advantage of the imperial treasury; and thus the government
might assert "its independence of the settlers," and teach them to
"appreciate correctly the value of convict labor."[260]
The defiant tone of this despatch, and its contemptuous reference to the
settlers, determined the question of transportation.[261] The partizans
of abolition could assail the system at its foundation. Thenceforth the
interests of the colonists, moral and material, were obviously one. The
crown was to compete in the market with the farmer and the landowner;
and the labor market to be overruled by official contrivance, for the
benefit of the imperial treasury.
The colonial newspapers were filled with notices of robberies, and the
complaints of employers. A rapid emigration took place: free laborers
and mechanics sold their properties, acquired by years of toil, often
for a trifling sum; and the immigrants, brought to the colony at great
public and private cost, almost universally passed over to the adjacent
communities.
The comptroller-general attempted to carry out the supplementary plan
ordered by Lord Stanley. Agricultural establishments were formed; but
this only provided for the probationers. The passholders were entitled
to enter the service of the settlers. To detain them twenty miles from
the nearest farm-house, was to extend indefinitely the first stage of
punishment; but when drafted to the settled districts, they could not be
employed,[262] except for the benefit of the colony, and against this
resource the decision of Lord Stanley was imperative.[263]
The hiring depots were placed in settled districts or chief towns. The
stage of rigid discipline being past, the convicts were not required to
labour with diligence, or suffer much restraint. They were now deemed
fit for society, and it was merely the fault of their numbers that many
were unemployed. They were permitted to roam about in search of casual
employment--to spread themselves over the country. They were allowed to
expend the money they acquired in temporary service, and while any
remained they were unwilling to accept an engagement. Thus they were fed
and clothed, and lightly worked: they were free from care, their time
was running out, and they were objects rather of envy than
commiseration.
The official reports of the probation system forwarded to
Downing-street, were not unfavorable. Lord Stanley asserted in his
place, "that from all he could judge the system had been productive of
the most beneficial results, and that the general conduct of the
convicts had been most satisfactory;"[264] but in his despatch to the
governor, he complained that, amidst an abundance of statistics, the
notices of moral success were "slight, unimportant, and few."[265]
The operation of the system was, however, well known to his lordship.
The under-secretary, Sir J. Stephen, with extraordinary exactness,
described the actual condition of the prisoner population--"living, not
by a healthy competition for employment, but by an habitual and listless
dependence on the public purse." He depicted the apathy and indolence,
the low tone of moral feeling, the lamentable and degrading habits
which prevailed; and asserted that in the hands of Lord Stanley, were
proofs of an existing state of convict society, such as would be
contemplated with deep solicitude. It may not be impossible to reconcile
in detail these official and parliamentary declarations; but, taken
alone, they would lessen our confidence in the value of ministerial
explanations, not less than in official reports.
The comptroller-general stated that the system would not only prove
beneficial to Great Britain, but work a great moral reformation in the
convict population:[266] "that it had fully answered its object." These
assertions were confirmed by the governor, who remarked, "that the men
behaved as well as possible." Such views were strongly opposed by other
testimony; among the most conspicuous was that of Dr. Hampton,
surgeon-superintendent of the _Sir George Seymour_, who, charged with
the care of a party from Pentonville prison, resided some time in the
colony. He described the prisoner population as sunk in the deepest
debasement; the ticket-holders in great misery; the reformed prisoners
committed to the charge of felons; the better disposed taunted as "pets,
psalm-singers, and Pentonvillains." Whatever had been most strongly
affirmed by the enemies of the system, was amply sustained by his
testimony.[267]
To the same effect was the evidence of Mr. Boyd, formerly of
Pentonville, and appointed an assistant-superintendent to Darlington,
Maria Island. This station was regarded by the government as superior to
all. Separated entirely from the free population, it was accessible only
by authority; yet close to head-quarters, it had the advantage of direct
inspection and control. There were, at this time, 800 persons subject to
twenty-one officers, civil and religious. Not a single soldier was on
the island, and yet there were "no prisoners more orderly, or better
behaved, in Van Diemen's Land."[268] This reputation it maintained,
while the stations of Rocky Hills and Broad Marsh, were infamous for the
abandonment of all order and decency. "Few could be favorably compared
with Darlington, and none possessed its local advantages."[269] But the
interior, as described by Mr. Boyd, entirely changes the scene. He
declared the precautions against corrupt intercourse insufficient and
unsuccessful: the most disgusting language was common; hoary villains
and boys were worked together; the school books were torn and defaced;
education was mere pretence; a large proportion of offences were
unpunished; lashes were received in hardened indifference; the criminal
habits of the men were unbroken; conspiracies to murder were frequently
denounced. On the whole he concluded, that there could exist no better
school of crime than a probation station.[270]
The laxity which prevailed was everywhere confessed, except by the
immediate dependents of government. The Rev. Mr. Fry, a clergyman of
Hobart Town, differed, however, with the colony in general. His earnest
defence of the probation system (1845) was published by command, and
quoted by Lord Stanley in the House of Lords. He asserted that the
convict population had placed the settlers in ease and opulence; and
that the bulk of the colonists were emancipists, who were bound to
assist the condemned outcasts of Europe to acquire honesty and
independence. "The clank of chains," said the reverend gentleman, "is
now seldom heard, and the deportment of free laborers, grateful and
respectful, has succeeded to the scowl of malignity, with which the
assigned white slaves regarded their owners." He asserted that the gangs
recalled the men from intemperance; that they were attentive to
religious teaching; that the parties, although almost abandoned to
self-discipline, yet lived tranquilly, unawed by surrounding force.
These opinions were afterwards modified.[271]
Notwithstanding the habitual acquiescence of the colonists in the
measures of the crown, the development of Lord Stanley's system
occasioned considerable sensation. The rapid increase of prisoners early
excited alarm. The masses accumulated from all parts of the empire
presented a new and fearful aspect: crimes reached a height beyond
example in any civilised country. The settlers, environed by parties,
were subject to frequent irruptions, and were compelled to guard their
dwellings, as if exposed to a foreign enemy. The men wandered miles from
the stations, alone: at the hiring depots they were left almost to their
discretion. According to the evidence of a magistrate, neither the
comptroller-general, nor any confidential subordinate, visited the
station of Cleveland from its establishment to its dissolution. At
another, ninety men, near the township of Oatlands, under the charge of
one free overseer, were worked in a line of seven miles extent. A
settler, whose flocks had been pillaged, brought back twice in one month
the same party; and again they escaped, threatening vengeance on the
authors of their arrest. At Jerusalem station, 800 convicts were
permitted to roam on their parole; to carry bundles in and out of
barracks unsearched; to disguise their persons, and to change their
dress. Their daring highway robberies ended in the proof of these facts
before the supreme court at Hobart Town. At Deloraine, nearly one
thousand prisoners were in charge of twenty persons, including the
military: on one occasion, eighteen started for the bush, and filled the
neighbourhood with terror. The local authorities could offer nothing but
condolence; and even this poor relief was presented in a peculiar form.
It was alleged that the amount of depredation and violence had not risen
more rapidly than the number of convicts. This was scarcely correct; but
it was little consolatory to the sufferers, assailed so much the more
frequently, though by different hands.[272] Their honors the judges,
with repeated and pointed condemnation, reprehended the utter want of
proper surveillance and restraint, as cruel alike to the settlers and
the convicts. Nor were the towns exempt from extraordinary inundations:
many hundreds of men were turned out from the penitentiary on Saturday
afternoon, and were thus exposed to the temptations of a populous city.
The officers of the department were charged with the trial of a system
professing to breathe the most exalted charity. Had they, however,
designed to expose theoretical benevolence to endless execration, no
course could have been chosen more obvious. The liberty and indulgence
given to the unfortunate prisoners seemed to bring them purposely within
the circle of their old temptations. Many were led into scenes which act
with fascinating power on men of criminal tendencies: they were often
seen lingering for hours around the doors of houses for the sale of
liquor. Amusements, which are always attended with some peril, were
rendered more public and accessible. Dancing houses of the lowest kind
were licensed, until their noise and confusion compelled their
suppression. The regulation of night-passes became much less practically
stringent. Everything facilitated the allurements and the commerce of
crime. Receivers were always at hand, and robbers were tolerably insured
when the first danger was over, by the rapid shipment of their spoil.
Offenders, practised in the fraud of cities, were admitted into the
towns, and placed in situations precisely calculated to recall their
former habits, and excite their habitual passions. The puisne judge, in
passing sentence on prisoners of this class, for new crimes, and holding
up their police character in his hands, exclaimed--"Now, Mr.
Attorney-general, I ask you what we may expect if such men as these are
assigned in towns. Is it not surprising that I have to try such cases?
It is shameful! It is shameful!" And such will be the opinion of
mankind.
The chief expedients of Lord Stanley to relieve the colony from the
redundancy of labor, and pressure on the treasury, were never applied.
At the suggestion of Mr. Bishton, a clergyman of Westbury, Sir Eardley
Wilmot recommended the leasing portions of land to well conducted
ticket-holders. This was however strongly opposed on the spot, as
tending to depreciate property, and inconsistent with the social
circumstances of the country. The English allotment system was
inapplicable: at home, it is a subsidiary to the general resources of
the laborer, who can commonly find employment with the farmers, and
easily dispose of the produce of his supplementary toil.
But a project of greater moment was contemplated by Lord Stanley, and
adopted by Mr. Gladstone, and advanced far towards completion. This was
the formation of a new colony, called North Australia. The civil list,
composed of officers of modest designations--as superintendent, chairman
of sessions, and clerk of the peace--was framed with the strictest
economy, and the expense was to be defrayed by the English treasury. The
colonists for the most part were to consist of exiles landed with
pardons, either from England or Van Diemen's Land, and thither female
prisoners were intended to be sent. During the first three years only
new settlers were to be furnished with food for one year; with clothing,
tents, tools, bedding, and seed. L10,000 in all, were to be expended in
public buildings. To the office of superintendent, Colonel Barney was
appointed, under the governor of New South Wales. A party set out for
their destination: they were discouraged by the appearance of the
country, but before an experiment could be made they were recalled.
A more practical measure was the extension of conditional pardons to the
neighbouring countries, the operation of which had been limited to Van
Diemen's Land. The dearth of labor in New Holland induced the settlers
to send vessels to this colony, and many hundreds, liberated by the new
form of pardon, were conveyed to pastoral districts on the opposite
shore.
During the short official relation of Mr. Secretary Gladstone, who in
1846 succeeded Lord Stanley, Sir Eardley Wilmot was recalled, and Mr. La
Trobe and Sir William Denison were placed in succession at the head of
our colonial affairs. Like his predecessor, Mr. Gladstone complained
that the information conveyed by Wilmot and the comptroller-general,
amidst abundant statistics, left the main moral questions obscure. Mr.
Forster had passed beyond the reach of censure; and Sir Eardley Wilmot
maintained that the actual evils imputed had formed the topic of
incessant communications. He derived his impressions from others; and
seeing but the surface, was persuaded to the last that the probation
system had not failed.
The despatch of Mr. La Trobe fully corroborated the common report. His
honest discrimination was worthy his high reputation for integrity.
Nothing the reader has perused will be unsustained by his more elaborate
analysis--which may be expressed in one sentence--as illustrating both
the high-wrought theory and the mischievous practice of the probation
department:--"In spite of all the superior arrangements of the system,
vice of every description is to be met with on every hand: not as an
isolated spot, but as a pervading stain."[273]
Dr. Hampton, whose representations had largely contributed to these
official changes, which were however fortified by a mass of concurrent
testimony, received the appointment of comptroller-general. Meanwhile
the office of secretary of state for the colonies devolved on Earl Grey,
and at his assumption of office he abandoned at once all the schemes of
his predecessors. The practice of transportation he resolved to
discontinue, and in its stead to inflict punishment at home; and to send
out the prisoners, when entitled to liberation, to the various colonies
of the British empire. His expectation that their labor would be highly
prized, was fortified by the "Associations" at Port Phillip to obtain
laborers from Van Diemen's Land, and the resolutions of the committee of
the New South Wales Council, where a strong disposition was exhibited,
on the part of employers, to renew transportation. Several ship-loads
had been sent from Pentonville, and the nominal lists of their
employment and wages, appeared to assure an unbounded field for their
successors. To shut out the possibility of complaint, however, Earl Grey
sent circulars to all the colonies on this side the Cape of Good Hope.
The reply was universally adverse; and this plan, which a few years
before would have been gladly accepted, was rendered impracticable
perhaps for ever.
The total abandonment of North Australia was a subject of deep regret to
its projectors, and was too hastily done; but as a substitute, Earl Grey
proposed the creation of villages in the more remote districts of Van
Diemen's Land. The erection of houses and a limited cultivation of
forest land, was expected by his lordship to afford employment for the
ticket holders, and to yield a fund for an equal amount of free
emigration. It was intended these dwellings, built on quarter acre
allotments, should be sold to prisoners, or subject to a rental of L5
per annum; and a clergyman and schoolmaster provided in each. It would
be useless even to examine the plan, which was based on a valuation of
crown lands at that time entirely erroneous, and a fallacious estimate
of mere labor, in any form whatever.
Late changes, effected by a more intelligent superintendence, and the
vigilant censorship of the public, may be readily confessed. The
decrease of numbers in the gangs, and the greatly improved resources of
the convict department, have ameliorated several evils which formerly
elicited great complaint. The male establishments at Hobart Town are
patterns of neatness--the female, of disorder.
It merely remains to be stated, that the present system is to send out
prisoners when entitled to tickets-of-leave; to disperse them through
various districts in search of labor. In the colony they enjoy all the
privileges of free laborers, except responsibility to a police
magistrate. They will be entitled to release at a term prefixed, but on
condition that they pay a sum for their passage. Few have either the
ability or self-restraint required by this regulation, and unless it is
relaxed they must remain prisoners during the term of their
sentence--often for life.
A great variety of details might be added; but the total revolution in
the system will now lead the enquirer into the state of society rather
than the management of gangs and penitentiaries. The despatches, which
fill volumes of blue books, are rather transactions of penal
philosophers than trustworthy guides to the historian of transportation;
and the writer has not relied exclusively on these authorities, even
when he has quoted them--a discretion amply justified by their endless
contradictions.
FOOTNOTES:
[Footnote 253: Address to Council, June, 1841.]
[Footnote 254: Sir James Graham, December, 1842.]
[Footnote 255: _Report of Emigration Commissioners._]
[Footnote 256: "It is but just for me to observe, that the state of
various convict establishments, inquiring into the conduct of the
various officers engaged, was not so generally unfavorable as I had been
led to anticipate. The negligence and irregularity of subordinate
officers cannot be denied."--_La Trobe's Despatch, November_, 1847.]
[Footnote 257: _Forster's Report_, 1845.]
[Footnote 258: Despatches: Sir Eardley Wilmot, acting
Lieutenant-Governor La Trobe, and Governor Denison.]
[Footnote 259: Despatch, 1843, No. 34.]
[Footnote 260: Despatch, 1844.]
[Footnote 261: The proceedings of the colonists, in reference to this
question, will be found in the first volume of this work.]
[Footnote 262: _Forster's Report._]
[Footnote 263: "Employment, in many cases, appeared to be merely
devised, because whether to the real advantage of the military chest or
not, they are certainly not to the colony."--_Le Trobe, November_,
1847.]
[Footnote 264: March, 1846.]
[Footnote 265: September, 1845.]
[Footnote 266: _Forster's Report_, 1844.]
[Footnote 267: "Under all the circumstances of the case, therefore, I
cannot find language sufficiently strong, to express my opinion that
convicts, considered deserving of any indulgence whatever, ought not to
be sent to Van Diemen's Land; ... for, in my opinion, it would be more
just and humane to shut up Pentonville Prison at once, than to pass men
through such a course of training, only to discover, on arriving here,
that their previous expectations are a mockery, their present prospects
worse than slavery, and their future moral ruin and contamination nearly
a certainty."--_April_, 1845.]
[Footnote 268: Sir Eardley Wilmot's despatch, 1846.]
[Footnote 269: La Trobe's despatch, 1847, No. 18.]
[Footnote 270: Letter to Dr. Hampton, 1845.]
[Footnote 271: The writer thus records his opinion in 1850:--"If
transportation were discontinued, and the colonists, under a free
government, were allowed to exercise their own intelligence and develop
the resources of their country, the stain and evils of having been the
receptacle of criminals would gradually and speedily disappear.... For
nearly ten years have the colonists been struggling to relieve
themselves from the annual importation of criminals, and throughout that
long period they have displayed a spirit and disposition worthy of the
highest admiration. Regardless of the profits of convict labor, and of
the immense government expenditure, they preferred any sacrifice to the
continuance of what they considered demoralising their community. In
future ages their conduct will be regarded as one of the few examples of
a people struggling against temporal advantages for morality and virtue;
and if the desire of removing a grievous injury, and aiding the
sufferers in recovering from its effects, be a noble feeling, the people
of England are bound to afford their powerful sympathy and assistance to
the inhabitants of Van Diemen's Land."--_A System of Penal Discipline,
with a Report on the Treatment of Prisoners in Great Britain and Van
Diemen's Land. By the Rev. H. P. Fry, A.B._]
[Footnote 272: "A settler in the interior loses a quantity of sheep:
whether correctly or not, he believes that they are stolen by
probationers. Perhaps they are sold, perhaps they are slaughtered, and
the wool 'planted.' He finds two members of the gang wandering over his
grounds: he suspects, challenges them, and on their refusal to withdraw,
attempts to arrest them. One of them seizes him by the throat, and
threatens his life: the timely appearance of his brother enables him to
secure them both. He conveys them to the station, lays before the
magistrate a charge, who sentences them. They are turned out among the
gang, without special permanent restraint, and abscond again. Our
readers may fancy this to be mere romance, but every word of it is
truth, and the detailed account will be found in another column. The
place is Oatlands; the complainant, Mr. Wilson; the time, last week. Let
us look at this case. A settler who bought his land from the government,
finds in his neighbourhood ninety convicts, in the charge of a single
overseer. His property, and it is impossible it should be otherwise, is
subjected to daily depredation. And who is the real robber? Who, at
least, are the more accountable parties? The men whose known
propensities have occasioned their transportation--the unfortunate
overseer, whose life hangs upon his connivance or indifference--_or the
government_, which, knowing all these circumstances, exposed the men to
temptation, and the settler to ruin? And what will be the result of all
this? The unfortunate settler will chafe, murmur, and implore, but he
must, at last, gather together the remnant of his property, and escape
for his life!"--_Observer, March_, 1846.
"In another column will be found the proceedings of the criminal court.
The puisne judge, in passing sentence on the prisoners, said 'it must be
remembered that there are from 20,000 to 30,000 men spread throughout
the country, whose increasing offences require that some signal examples
should be made. I am sorry to say that crime has increased amongst this
class very considerably within the last two or three years.' After
dwelling upon the absolute necessity that the executive should rigidly
carry out the sentences of the court, he added, 'I am sorry to say that
within the last two or three sessions some twenty or thirty cases of
this description (cutting and wounding) have been tried in this court,
as great a number as were formerly tried in two or three years, and also
of a more aggravated character.'"--Ibid.
"The evidence of Mr. James Arnold Wheeler, the superintendent of the St.
Mary's Pass station, exposed some of the beauties of the system. A
hawker was robbed within about a mile of the station under very
aggravated circumstances, by men in the dress of probationers. It was,
of course, important to ascertain who was absent from the station at
that particular period, and Mr. Wheeler stated that he could not tell,
as all the third class had liberty to roam about within hearing of the
bell, about half a mile in any direction from the establishment. When
asked by the judge what prevented the men from going further if they
pleased? he replied, nothing, provided they returned at a certain hour.'
His honor shook his head in silence."--_Examiner_, 1846.
"During the trial of John Burdett in the supreme court, on the 2nd
instant, for robbery, the prosecutor, an old man between 60 and 70,
swore that he had been robbed (his property taken) seven times since
last Christmas; that his bed, rug, and blanket had been taken from his
hut; that he lived a mile and a-half from Oyster Cove probation station;
that he was reduced to such straits that he now depends on his
neighbours for a little bread to eat; that the superintendent's lady had
given him a rug and a blanket, but he had nothing but straw to sleep
upon. There is only an open four-rail fence outside the station to
confine the prisoners after they are let out of their sleeping cells.
Mr. Justice Montagu commented, with indignation, upon the total want of
restraint upon the probationers, and of protection to the poor settlers
in the neighbourhood of the station; and expressed, in feeling terms,
his sympathy for the prosecutor's distress and losses, and kindly
declared that, if the old man would prepare a petition, and forward it
to him, he would take care that the clerk of the court should give the
jurors an opportunity to join in it, and would use his best endeavours
with his excellency the lieutenant-governor, who, he was sure, would
feel happiness in extending compensation, if it were in his power. In
passing sentence of transportation for fifteen years (the lightest which
the law permits in cases of robbery), his honor protested that,
considering the position of the prisoner, placed in a probation station
but having no restraint laid upon him to prevent from going in quest of
luxuries and comforts, he would be fain to pass a lighter sentence. He
felt the inefficiency of the sentence that he was about to pronounce,
but he had no alternative. Accordingly he passed the mitigated sentence
of fifteen years transportation".--_Courier, September_, 1846.]
[Footnote 273: Despatch to Earl Grey, 1847.]