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The following extract, from an essay entitled ‘On Punishment’, is taken from The Inquirer, Vol. II; Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme and Brown, London; J, & A. Arch, London, and Gossling and Egley, London, 1823:
pp. 149-151.
“HULKS. - The remainder of the criminals who are sentenced to transportation, but not, however, sent abroad, are detained in the hulks at home. These establishments are of late years much improved. Under the judicious arrangements recommended by a Committee of the House of Commons, and carried into effect by Lord Sidmouth, these places of confinement have ceased to be the deposits of misery, and that academy for every species of vice and crime, which for so many years they are well known to have been. It would be difficult to persuade those, who witness for the first time the order and regularity which at present prevail on board the different ships, that not many years ago robbery and coining were the prevailing offences here; and that after dusk, no officer of the ship, without danger of his life, would venture between the decks. Under the able and humane management of Mr. [John] Capper, these scenes of abomination and wickedness are at an end; and, as we have visited all these establishments, we are anxious to praise particularly those at Sheerness, under the care of the Rev. Messrs. Price and Edwards, who, as chaplains on board the two convict-ships at that station, have successfully laboured to conquer the natural difficulties of their situation. Under their fostering care and judicious management, great improvements have taken place; the children are separated from the men; trades are taught; the schools are well attended; moral and religious lessons inculcated; and from our knowledge, we can speak to many instances of successful reformation attending these pious and laudable exertions.
“The four establishments at Portsmouth, Sheerness, Chatham and Woolwich contain altogether about 2,800 convicts. The estimated profits of their labour is 44,117l. per annum, and the net cost to the country 35,597l., being at the rate of something more than 12l. per head per annum. The objections to these establishments are, in our opinion, many; and notwithstanding all the efforts of the praiseworthy engaged in their management, we fear the greater number of criminals who are discharged, either at the end of their respective terms, or in consequence of the King’s pardon, have benefited but little by the punishment they have undergone. As a place of reformation, we apprehend no great success can be boasted of; but with respect to exemplariness, while hard labour, close confinement, and coarse fare, are objects of public dislike, confinement on board the hulks may be considered as a punishment highly calculated to strike beholders. Thus far it is good, and works well. Its leading defects are - 1st. That it is the same punishment for all sorts of offenders: hard labour to the husband-man or artisan - the raising of ballast or the driving of piles, are nothing more than that which they have long been accustomed to perform, - they, indeed, have been bred to hardships, and toil, and fatigue, from childhood; but to the merchant’s and banker’s clerk, - to those who have been brought up tenderly, - to the tradesman, and, we are sorry to add, sometimes to the officer and the gentleman, this mode of punishment is of another character and description.
“2d. The exposure of working in a felon’s garb, in public view, is very injurious to the best feelings of the human heart. Even in a prison there are some blushes; but to those who feel that they have been seen working in gangs on the public works, shame must unknown, and all the sensibilities of our nature stifled and destroyed.
“By the coarse and vulgar mind, - by the confirmed and hardened thief, this public exposure is probably unheeded; while its severity must be extreme to persons of birth or education. Can we, then, wonder that hundreds, in order to fly from this dreadful publicity of gegredation, volunteer to go to New South Wales; deemed next in severity to that of death ? This system of public exposure has been often tried, and has uniformly produced the same effects. Mr. Howard mentions the evils which it involved when carried into execution at Berne; - and the legislatures in America have been compelled to abandon the practice, from, from a long and fatal experience, that by thus degrading the objects of punishment, they became savage and cruel; and that criminals, so far from being amended by this torture, were, on the contrary, rendered more daring and desperate by it.
“3d. All ages, as well as all descriptions and classes of society, are confounded in this species of punishment, with the exception of children, who are classed together; but the age just beyond childhood, when the heart id flexible, and the character unformed, is here exposed to an almost indiscriminate association with the worst of characters. We know, indeed, that attempts are made to classify but these attempts are not, and cannot be, successful: for, though the chaplains on board these vessels may have laboured hard for months, and step by step, have made a due selection of character, - and, by discriminating the nice shades of guilt, may have placed the child of neglect, the victim of seduction, and the half-accomplished criminal, in separate classes; though they have endeavoured, by moral and religious instruction, unwearied discipline, and constant inspection, gradually to root out their evil dispositions, and to give habits of industry, and a value for character, - yet, twice a year, 1500 convicts are sent on board the hulks, from the different prisons in the kingdom, - the hulks being but a resting-place for New South Wales. Thus the wholesome results of classification are nearly at once annihilated; and under such an arrangement, it is in vain to expect any real amendment in the character and disposition of the larger portion of the criminals. There can, indeed, be hardly any thing more heart-breaking than this overthrow of all the hard labours of the chaplains on board the hulks. They, indeed, do not relax their efforts, but perform in despair all the tasks of hope: yet this deluge of new crimes, which is poured from the gaols of the kingdom twice a year, produces the most lamentable effects, and is a source of perpetual vexation, and of constant remonstrance and complaint. If the present system of the hulks is to be continued, this degrading punishment ought to be inflicted only on confirmed thieves, or on those who, having been punished before, are convicted a second time of some felonious offence. Separate ships ought to be provided - 1st. For the class above named: 2d. For the boys and youths, where all association with persons older than themselves may be prevented: 3d. For the convicts who are to be sent to New South Wales; so that those whose crimes are not of such a nature as to warrant the infliction of that punishment, may be kept apart from the greater offenders.”
The following extract is taken from an article, entitled ‘Secondary Punishments’, published in The Law Magazine; or or Quarterly Review of Jurisprudence, for January, 1832; and April, 1832. Vol VII, Saunders and Benning, London, 1832. The author was simply attributed as ‘L’.
pp. 36-37.
“An original or commuted sentence of transportation, either for life or a term of years, may mean any one of three things, viz. transportation to the colonies, imprisonment in the hulks, or imprisonment in the Penitentiary. Of these, the Penitentiary, as appears from the full account contained in the Evidence taken by the Committee, seems to be far, the most painful, and is accordingly, most dreaded by convicts under sentence of transportation. (Wakefield, 1399, 1401, 1446, 1488.) It may be described in general terms, as an imperfect attempt to carry into effect the system of solitude and silence which has been brought to perfection in the United States: the average period of imprisonment is three years, and the number of prisoners is about five hundred. The chief object of this institution is stated to be the reformation of the prisoners (Chapman, 130, 134, 181.); nevertheless, although it is managed on this mistaken principle, its regulations are so contrived as to inflict considerable pain on the convicts, and thus to attain the true end of punishment. Imprisonment in the hulks is, as well as the Penitentiary, for the most part limited to convicts sentenced to seven years’ transportation, (Capper, 649-665.) and the punishment actually inflicted is forced labour in the dockyards during the day, and confinement, without separation, in a floating prison during the night, for a term of about four years. The discipline is described as lax, and the convicts are able to procure many indulgences incompatible with severe privation; and on the whole, they consider it as a ‘pretty jolly life.’ (Wakefield, 1408-14.) The opinions on the comparative advantages of the hulks and transportation are not uniform for London thieves, married persons, and others who wish to remain in their native country, prefer the severer, but shorter discipline of the hulks, to the idleness and liberty of a long or perpetual exile : others, again, who have not been so successful in crime as to lead a life of dissolute enjoyment, look forward to New South Wales as a land of promise, where they will become rich and great, after the short probationary period of servitude inflicted by the law. There can be no doubt that three years’ confinement in the hulks is a severer punishment than three years’ bondage in Australia (see Capper, 748.) : but the sentences of transported convicts are usually either for fourteen years or life; and therefore, upon the whole, confinement in the hulks is perhaps preferable : though for equal times, actual transportation is evidently a much easier lot.”
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