CAPITAL PUNISHMENTS--I RECEIVE MY LICENSE--STRANGE BED-FELLOWS--MY
LIBERATION.
During the last year of my imprisonment a bill relating to the crimes
of murder and manslaughter was brought before Parliament, and the
discussion in the House of Commons which ensued was much commented upon
by the prisoners. About the same time I read a lecture touching on the
same subject, which had been delivered to the Young Men's Christian
Association, at Exeter Hall, and it may not be out of place here if I
venture to express my opinion on the subject as well, possessing as I
do the advantage over most of those who have discussed it out of doors,
in having heard the opinions of those likely to commit such crimes, and
having a familiar acquaintance with their habits, and the motives from
which they act. The reverend lecturer to whom I have referred, based
his argument for the continued infliction of capital punishment on the
perpetual obligation of the Mosaic law: "Whoso sheddeth man's blood, by
man shall his blood be shed." He also maintained, if I understand him
rightly, that the office of the hangman ought to be considered the
highest object of human ambition, and that the hangman himself should
take precedence of archbishops, kings, and emperors, inasmuch as he
occupied the position of Almighty God, taking vengeance for the
shedding of human blood. I confess I can scarcely conceive of a
Christian man occupying such a position, neither can I agree with the
reverend lecturer that the command given to Noah was intended to extend
to all generations and societies of men. When it was promulgated there
were only a few individuals left to people the universe, and the
command was made _absolute_. There is no intimation of any distinction
between the deliberate and the accidental shedding of human blood, and
until some such distinction is made our conceptions of the eternal
rectitude and justice of God, must be of a very peculiar and imperfect
kind. That some distinction ought to be made is a fact which men in all
ages and of all degrees of civilization have recognized, and have found
their authority for making such a distinction, not in any spoken or
written law, but in a much higher and older law than these, the
universal conscience of mankind. That such a distinction was found
necessary as the race became more numerous, is conclusively shown by
the promulgation of the Mosaic law: "He that smiteth a man so that he
die shall be surely put to death, and if a man lie not in wait, but God
deliver him into his hand, then I will appoint thee a place whither he
shall flee." (Ex. xxi., 12, 13.) This was a great modification of the
original injunction, and also shows clearly, to my mind at least, that
all human punishments should be regulated by the condition of the
people for whose benefit they are designed. Again, in the same chapter
from which I have already quoted, I find the following, "Thou shalt
give life for life, eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot
for foot, &c.," a law evidently designed for a semi-barbarous people,
and admitting of prompt administration and summary execution. Turning
to the Christian law on the subject we find, "Ye have heard that it
hath been said an eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth, _but I_
say unto you that ye resist not evil." This would appear to introduce a
new principle of forbearance, and if we refer to the case of the woman
taken in adultery, where the legal penalty was death, we find that
mercy, and not vengeance, is the principle on which our penal code
ought to be based.
But leaving scriptural grounds and descending to those of expediency
merely. Does capital punishment deter men from committing murder more
effectually than perpetual imprisonment would? I believe that 999 out
of every 1000 of our convicts even would not commit deliberate murder,
although the penalty was only a few months' imprisonment and detection
_certain_, unless under peculiar temptation or provocation. It is
a crime naturally abhorrent even to the thief, and the majority of
those men capable of committing wilful murder would on the whole, I
believe, prefer to be hanged out of their misery, than remain in prison
all their life. If all hope of release could be utterly extinguished,
very few of such men would chance perpetual imprisonment, if they had
it in their option. Of course we could not banish hope from the minds
of all, and therefore many would at first cling to life, and after a
few years seek death as a release from bondage, and even commit suicide
rather than endure such suffering longer. I knew one prisoner who
pleaded to be hanged, and others who would certainly prefer execution
if they had no hope of ultimate liberty. The general opinion of those
who had been in prison ten or twelve years out of a 'life' sentence was
in favour of execution at once, as being the less dreadful alternative,
so that with respect to punishment as a deterring influence, I have no
doubt that perpetual imprisonment would be more efficacious than the
capital sentence.
Those who are capable of deliberately taking human life with the view
of obtaining money, may be divided into two classes. The one class
comprising such as prisoners who perpetrate the crime cunningly and in
secret, in the firm belief that they will escape detection; the other
class are the highwaymen and garotters, who go daringly and violently
to work, pretty sure in their own minds that they will be clever enough
to escape.
With regard to the former class, the deterring influence is detection.
Capital sentence, perpetual imprisonment, or even a less severe
sentence would operate equally in preventing the commission of the
crime in their case, because the idea is not generally present in their
mind when they premeditate it, or is completely outweighed by the fear
of detection or discovery. With reference to the second and bolder
class, a lingering imprisonment would appear more horrible in their
estimation, and exercise an equal if not a greater deterring influence
than the scaffold. Some of those men with whom I have met would glory
in dying 'game' as they term it. Those who commit murder in order to
gratify feelings of revenge, usually, I believe, find the gratification
of the passion so sweet that they are for the time quite regardless of
their own lives; and when jealousy is the cause of murder, it often
happens that the murderer takes the law into his own hands and visits
upon himself the penalty. I met cases in point, and in none of them did
the fear of the death sentence operate against the perpetration of
crime. They had made up their minds to lose their lives, and did not
calculate on escape. Such cases are not common, however, and perhaps it
is not possible to prevent them occurring.
Those murders perpetrated for the love of money might to some extent be
prevented by the general elevation of the mass of society, and by
increasing the swiftness and certainty of detection; and I have come,
after long study of the subject, and from frequent contact with those
saved from the gallows, to the conclusion that capital punishment may
now be safely abolished in this country. In all countries where
secondary punishments are severe and capital punishments rigorously
inflicted, murders are numerous, and in countries where the machinery
for the detection of crime is defective it may be the same. Earl
Russell, in a late edition of his work on the constitution, expresses
opinions on this subject with which I coincide, but I disagree with him
when he prescribes imprisonment and hard labour as being the most
suitable method of dealing with criminals not capitally punished; I
refer, of course, to imprisonment and hard labour as generally
understood.
There are three systems of imprisonment: the solitary, the separate and
silent, and the promiscuous association of all prisoners at the public
works.
The solitary system feeds the lunatic asylums, the separate system has
its advantages, if not too long continued, and of the promiscuous
association system I have already at some length given my opinion.
In my humble estimation a prison ought to be a place for extracting as
much usefulness as possible out of a prisoner for the benefit of that
society whose laws he has offended; but the "hard labour" in our
prisons is not useful in any sense of the word, either to the prisoner
or society, it is sheer waste of energy, which is in itself an evil,
and it gives the prisoner an aversion to labour of all kinds, which is
another and a much greater evil. Moreover, long imprisonments are
injurious to the prisoner under any discipline. If you take a bird, and
place it in a cage, and next day liberate it, it will ever retain a
dread of confinement; but, if you keep it in a prison for years, and
then open the cage door, instead of the sudden eager flight to freedom,
it will hover round its little prison, perhaps it will even re-enter
it, preferring it to that liberty which it has lost the power to enjoy.
So it is with many prisoners, keep them confined, and accustom them for
years to prison life, such as it is in the most approved "models," or
indeed under any conceivable mode of discipline consistent with
unshortened life in such a place, and they will re-enter the world in a
great measure, unfitted for the business of life.
I remember having a conversation with an intelligent prisoner who was
by no means a criminal at heart. He asked me what means would I
recommend for the destruction of these schools of crime?--for so he
called the convict prisons.
"Sentence Charles Dickens to ten years' penal servitude, and allow him
to use his pen," I replied.
"Well," he said, "I daresay that might do, especially if those intended
for our future judges were sentenced along with him; but why should we
not try to enlighten the public when we are liberated?"
"You might do so," I replied, "and I sincerely hope you will do so; but
I fear, like the down of a thistle on an elephant's back, so would the
words of a convict fall upon the public ear!"
"Look at Napoleon III.," said my friend, "he is an ex-convict, and do
his words fall lightly on the public ear?"
"His is hardly a case in point," I said; "the greater the criminal, or
rather the higher the object he endeavours unlawfully to obtain, the
less prejudiced is society against him. They regard these Fenians for
instance in a different light to us, yet these men at bottom are or
would be wholesale destroyers of human life, whilst we had no intention
of doing anyone any injury either in person or property. We are loyal,
they are traitors. We would willingly lay down our lives to regain our
lost characters and attain to an honourable and useful position in
society; they will go out of prison rebels, ready to take up arms
against all authority save that of their misguided chiefs, whenever
they can do so with apparent safety! Yet these men will be more
favourably received by society than you or I will be. You will find
when you get free that your position will be very different from what
it was, and that anything you say will be viewed with suspicion, as
coming from a prejudiced and untrustworthy person, and a well-told
falsehood by an official will far outweigh the whole truth if related
by a prisoner."
"I could now prove," said my friend, "by the Blue Books, that most of
the reports sent to the Home Office regarding these establishments are
unreliable, and calculated to deceive and mislead the public as well as
the government."
"You will require to be very guarded," I replied; "and above all things
adhere strictly to the truth, and if you can gain the ear of some
eminent man who takes an interest in the question, you might be the
means of doing your country much service."
In consequence of such conversations as the one I have just related, I
was led to form the idea of giving this narrative to the public. If it
should lead to any change or modification in our criminal law,
conducive to the welfare and security of society, I shall consider that
my labours have not been altogether vain and unprofitable.
A change of government having taken place during the last year of my
imprisonment I had the good fortune to get a few months' more remission
of sentence than might otherwise have been the case.
While I feel truly thankful to those noblemen and gentlemen and other
friends who interceded for me, my special gratitude is due to Mr.
Walpole, for the promptitude he displayed in acknowledging my claim to
the few months' mitigation of punishment it was in his power to bestow.
On a Friday morning I was unexpectedly called before the governor, and
informed that my license had arrived. I was asked certain particulars
in reference to my future intentions and address. I was next measured
for a shoe, the only decent and honest article of clothing I ever
received in prison; tried on a suit of clothes, and had my portrait
taken. On the Saturday morning I was weighed and measured, and taken
before the chaplain to receive a few formal words of parting advice. On
the following Monday I was again taken before the governor to hear my
license read. On Tuesday morning I was removed to Millbank Prison, and
lodged there for the night, in a cell along with two other prisoners
going to liberty like myself. We slept on narrow dirty mattresses, laid
on the floor, so close as to be touching each other. One of my new
companions had been nearly four years in the lunatic asylum at
Fisherton, and had recovered. The other was a young professional thief,
belonging to London, whose mind was just on the verge of insanity,
through long confinement in separate cells. To sleep on the floor of a
dusty cell, between two such companions, was not quite so comfortable
as a bed in the Hotel Meurice, at Paris, where I had spent my last free
night. Every moment that divided me from the hour of my liberation now
seemed magnified into days. Wednesday morning at last dawned upon me. I
was taken out and placed before a regiment of policemen, who each
scrutinized me, and that done I received my license. With feelings of
inexpressible thankfulness and gratitude to God I heard the heavy
prison doors close behind me, and once more I inhaled the sweet free
air of Heaven!
Tears streamed down my cheeks as I trudged along the streets, in my
shabby clothes and with my deal crutch. I felt a new punishment
creeping over me, even whilst the glorious sun of freedom was shedding
its welcome rays on my dishonoured head.
With nineteen shillings and threepence in my pocket, but with my
reputation lost, my health ruined, alone and a cripple, whom no
"Prisoners' Aid Society" would assist, I was expected to begin anew the
battle of life!
While I write these lines the bitterness of my new punishment has
already visited me. Repulsed from every door where I seek employment,
waiting patiently for the replies to my applications for advertised
situations, which never come, the brand of the convict has indeed
become the very mark of Cain, and I feel as if my fellowmen shrink from
me as they pass. Fortunately I found at the post-office a few pounds
sent to me from my brother, which, with slight additions, have enabled
me to procure a mechanical leg, and to live till I have completed this
narrative. But what is the fate of the many so situated, with no
friends to help them, save the workhouse or the prison once again? A
dreary life amongst paupers, or a short life of pleasure and crime, and
long years of bondage to atone for it. Do you wonder if some choose the
latter?... May you, gentle reader, never know what it is to lose your
limb, your liberty, your character, or your home. May my history prove
a beacon to warn you from the quicksands of ambition, on which so many
human souls are wrecked, and may your little barque, wafted by gentle
sunny gales, be safely steered across the great ocean of life, and at
last be securely moored in that haven where blessedness and peace for
ever reign!
APPENDIX.
_Consultat Général de France en Angleterre._
Londres, le 1^er September, 1863.
Le Consul Général de France a Londres a l'honneur de transmettre á
Monsieur ----, avec prière de vouloir bien lui en accuser réception,
une lettre et une médaille qui lui sont destinées.
Monsieur ----, _Negociant_.
_Ministere de l'Agriculture du Commerce, et des Travaux
Public--Secrétarian Général, Mèdaille._
Paris, le 22 Juin, 1863.
Monsieur à la suite du traité de commerce conclu le 23 Janvier, 1860,
entre la France et la Grande Bretagne, le Gouvernement de Sa Majesté
l'Empereur a du procéder à une enquète dont les résultats devaient le
mettre à mème de determiner les Tarifs des droit d'importation en
France des produits fabriqués en Angleterre. Pour Consacrer le Souvenir
de cette enquête, l'une des plus importantes de ce genre qui aient été
faites en France, le Gouvernement à fait frapper une médaille
commemorative et il a décidé qu'un exemplaire en bronze de cette
médaille serait mis à la disposition des Industriels qui ont déposé
dans l'enquéte. J'ai l'honneur, Monsieur, de vous adresser à ce titre
l'exemplaire qui vous est destiné. Recevez, Monsieur, l'assurance de ma
consideration tres distinguée.
Le Ministre de l'Agriculture, du Commerce et des Travaux Public,
G. ROUHER.
Monsieur ----, _Negociant_.
[It is requested that any further communication on the subject be
addressed to the Secretary to the Board of Trade, Whitehall, London,
S.W.]
_Office of Committee of Privy Council for Trade_,
Whitehall, 9th May, 1861.
SIR,
I am directed by the Lords of the Committee of Privy Council for Trade
to transmit to you the accompanying Volume, which contains the evidence
taken by the Counseil Supêrieur du Commerce on the Industries of
England and France, during their recent enquiry at Paris, in connection
with the Commercial Treaty between the two countries. In requesting
your acceptance of this Work, of which a limited number of Copies has
been placed at the disposal of Her Majesty's Government by the
Government of France, I am to convey to you the best thanks of this
Board for the valuable assistance which you rendered upon that
occasion, both to the Counseil Supêrieur and to the British
Commissions.
I am, Sir,
Your obedient Servant,
J. EMMERSON TENNENT.
_Order of License to a Convict, made under the Statutes 16 & 17 Vic.,
c. 99, s. 9; and 27 & 28 Vic., c. 47, s. 4._
Whitehall, ---- day of ---- 18--
Her Majesty is graciously pleased to grant to ---- who was convicted of
---- on the ---- day of ---- 18--, and was then and there sentenced to
be kept in penal servitude for the term of ----, and is now confined
in the ---- Her Royal License to be at large from the day of his
liberation under this order, during the remaining portion of his said
term of penal servitude, unless the said ---- shall, before the
expiration of the said term, be convicted of some indictable offence
within the United Kingdom, in which case such License will be
immediately forfeited by law, or unless it shall please Her Majesty
sooner to revoke or alter such License.
This License is given subject to the conditions endorsed upon the same,
upon the breach of any of which it shall be liable to be revoked,
whether such breach is followed by a conviction or not. And Her Majesty
hereby orders that the said ---- be set at liberty within Thirty days
from the date of this order.
Given under my hand and seal.
Signed, S. H. WALPOLE.
_True Copy_ } E. Y. W. HENDERSON,
_License to be at large._} Chairman of the Directors of Convict Prisons.
* * * * * *
CONDITIONS.
1.--The holder shall preserve his License, and produce it when called
upon to do so by a Magistrate or Police Officer.
2.--He shall abstain from any violation of the law.
3.--He shall not habitually associate with notoriously bad characters,
such as reputed thieves and prostitutes.
4.--He shall not lead an idle or dissolute life, without visible means
of obtaining an honest livelihood.
If his License is forfeited or revoked in consequence of a Conviction
for any Offence, he will be liable to undergo a term of Penal Servitude
equal to the portion of his term of ---- years which remained unexpired
when his License was granted, _viz._:--the term of two years and
eleven months.
* * * * * *
NOTICE.
He shall report himself to the Police on discharge, and subsequently
once in each month; and if he changes his residence from one Police
District to another, he shall report himself to the Police of the
locality he leaves, and to the Police of that to which he goes, within
three days of his arrival: if he fails to do so, his License will be
forfeited.
* * * * * *
In the foregoing "Ticket-of-leave" the word Licence is spelt with an
_s._ In the Police Documents it is spelt with a _c._--So much for the
education of Government Officials.
* * * * * *
SAVOY STEAM PRESS, SAVOY STREET, STRAND.