Committee, however, are of opinion that Bermuda ought not to be selected as a place in which a permanent penal establishment should be formed. The soil of these islands is not sufficiently productive to render it possible to make the convicts maintain themselves by their own labour (an object of considerable importance in fixing the situation of a permanent penitentiary); and the strong objection which the inhabitants of the colony are understood to entertain to such an establishment being there, seems to be too well founded to be disregarded.

Convicts sentenced for long periods might be sent to the present penal establishments of Tasman's Peninsula and Norfolk Island, provided the system of punishment now pursued there were completely altered. The extreme distance from this country is indeed an inconvenience with respect to both these settlements, and the former is perhaps somewhat too near the settled part of Van Diemen's Land. But in the opinion of your Committee, they present some considerable advantages; they are already used as penal settlements; they have been ascertained to possess remarkably healthy climates; they have no population to interfere with the employment of the convicts without the walls of the penitentiaries; they present great facilities for making the labour of the convicts productive, and they would be easily available for the punishment of crimes committed in New South Wales and Van Diemen's Land.

The

Should Norfolk Island and Tasman's Peninsula be selected as places for permanent penal establishments, there would be no difficulty in providing, upon very short notice, such temporary accommodation as would suffice for the reception of as many convicts as it would be necessary to send there, in order entirely to discontinue transportation, according to the existing system, to New South Wales and Van Diemen's land. convicts already in these settlements could be employed in making temporary buildings which, in the first instance, need only afford a shelter from the weather, as the situation of these settlements in itself affords a sufficient security against escape. As additional prisoners arrived, additional accommodation would be in like manner provided, and as soon as possible permanent buildings should be erected, suitable both for the silent and for the separate systems of penitentiary discipline. The latter system might be used chiefly for the purpose of

additional punishment; as in a settlement having no free inhabitants, and affording no possibility of escape, the former would not be open to the objections to which it is in general liable, since employment might be given to the prisoners out of their sleeping cells, in cultivating the ground, in felling timber, etc., in such a manner as to render communication with each other almost as completely impossible as under the separate system. Nor would it be necessary to wait until proper penitentiaries should be built, in order to commence the attempt to get rid of the hardening and demoralising effects of the ordinary modes of subjecting prisoners, whom there are no means of separating from each other, to penal labour. The mode of governing them lately suggested by Captain Maconochie might in part at least be attempted with advantage. Your Committee are not prepared to recommend the adoption of that part of his plan which relates to the division of convicts into small parties, responsible for each other's conduct (though even against this they would not be understood to pronounce an absolute and unqualified condemnation), but they are decidedly of opinion that it would be advisable to ascertain, by experiment, the effect of establishing a system of reward and punishment, not founded merely upon the prospect of immediate pain or immediate gratification, but relying mainly upon the effect to be produced by the hope of obtaining or the fear of losing, future and distant advantages. At present order and discipline are maintained, and labour is enforced amongst the convicts, whether in the hulks at home, or in the penal gangs and penal settlements abroad, almost exclusively by the dread of summary corporal punishment, or of the loss of immediate animal indulgences, by the withholding from the convict who misconducts himself some part of the food or tobacco which he would otherwise be permitted to enjoy. In the earlier part of this report it has been shown to what a frightful degree of severity it has been found necessary to resort in order to render this system of coercion effectual in the penal settlements; and it is obvious that in all cases its tendency must be to strengthen and confirm the habit of acting under the influence of a desire for gratifications, or a dread of sufferings, which are immediate and physical. Now it is precisely this habit, and that of disregarding the distant consequences of their actions, which chiefly lead men into the

commission of crimes; the great object, therefore, of a good system for the government of convicts should be that of teaching them to look forward to the future and remote effects of their own conduct, and to be guided in their actions by their reason, instead of merely by their animal instincts and desires. With this view it is suggested that the performance of penal labour by convicts should be stimulated, not by the fear of the lash in case of idleness, or by any pecuniary allowance which may be expended in the purchase of tobacco or other luxuries, but by opening an account with each man, giving him credit for every day's labour, to be estimated by a greater or a smaller number of marks, according as he had been more or less industrious, with an assurance that as soon as he should have earned a certain number of marks, he should be recommended for the remission of the remainder of his sentence. As marks would be obtained by industry and obedience, so they should be forfeited by idleness, insubordination, or any infringement of established rules. Instead of the summary infliction of the lash, or the loss of indulgences in food or otherwise, convicts should incur by offences of this description the forfeiture of a number of marks, proportioned to the gravity of the case, according to the scale to be framed for the purpose; nor should corporal punishment be resorted to, except for the purpose of repressing open resistance to authority. The whole number of marks each convict should be required to earn, in order to obtain his pardon, should be so fixed, with reference to the number to be allowed for a good day's labour, as to enable him, by industry and good conduct, to obtain his pardon at the expiration of about half the period for which he had been sentenced. The principle of remitting a large part of the original sentence of the criminal in consideration of his good conduct under punishment, is one already recognised in practice. It is usual to recommend the convict sentenced to seven years' transportation, who has been sent to the hulks or penitentiary, for pardon when he has been so confined from three to four years, provided his conduct has been such as is considered to give him a claim to this indulgence. In the same manner the convict who is transported obtains a ticket of leave at the expiration of a definite time, determined by the length of his original sentence. But unfortunately the influence which the prospect of obtaining these advantages is calculated to exercise upon the convict

is not, according to the existing practice, brought to bear with effect upon his mind. Nothing but the grossest misconduct prevents him from obtaining the advantage he hopes for; and the recommendation to the Secretary of State, or the Governor of the colony, upon which it is granted, is founded only upon a vague impression upon the mind of the person under whose charge he is immediately placed as to what has been his general behaviour during the whole period of his punishment.

By adopting the plan which has just been described, that which has hitherto been uncertain and arbitrary will be rendered systematic and definite, and a powerful means of influencing the mind of the convict will be brought to bear upon his daily conduct. The adoption of this mode of governing convicts seems, therefore, to be well calculated to promote their moral improvement, and it is also likely to diminish considerably the burden of their maintenance, by rendering their labour far more productive than it has hitherto been; at the same time your Committee wish to recommend it not as a substitute for the more perfect system which may be followed in well-constructed penitentiaries, but as an experiment which appears to them well worthy of being tried, in the hope of mitigating the evils which it is to be feared must unavoidably result from the associating together of offenders, until such buildings can be provided.

In order to give this experiment a fair chance of success, much more ample provision for religious and moral instruction should likewise be made than has been possible for convicts scattered over the extensive surface of New South Wales and Van Diemen's Land. Your Committee do not deem it necessary to enter into any further details as to the mode of conducting such establishments, as their object is only to express, in a general manner, their views as to what description of punishment ought to be substituted for transportation as now conducted.

With regard to the duration of punishment in penitentiaries, your Committee are of opinion that no offender of any description should be sent to penitentiaries for life, as such a punishment destroys all hope, and renders the culprit reckless; they recommend that the severest sentence should not exceed fifteen years; on the other hand, as a substitute for the lowest sentence of transportation, that for seven years, they would not venture

M.

LL

to recommend a shorter period of punishment, in a penitentiary, than that of two years.

One of the useful ends which transportation may have bee supposed to promote was, that of enabling offenders who had undergone punishment to commence a new career, in a new community, in which their previous offences would not preclude them from obtaining employment. In this country there is so great a competition for employment in every walk of life, and in every branch of industry, that the person who has once been convicted of an offence against the laws, and who has suffered the punishment he has thus incurred, finds it almost impossible, however anxious he may be to maintain himself by honest means, to get the opportunity of doing so; owing to the stain upon his character, some other candidate is sure to obtain, in preference to him, whatever employment he may apply for. Hence, even if the punishment he has undergone has produced an impression upon his mind, and he wishes to avoid exposing himself to its repetition, he is still almost unavoidably driven back into evil courses, from the want of any other means of maintaining himself. In many of the British colonies, on the contrary, the demand for labour of all kinds is so great, that every man who has the power and the inclination to labour, can find almost any description of employment for which he is qualified, no matter what may have been his previous character.

It was an important question for the consideration of your Committee, whether this most desirable object, of enabling a criminal after the expiration of his punishment to commence a new career, might not be obtained without entailing upon the colonies the social evils which have been occasioned by transportation; and the mode in which it might be obtained appears to your Committee to be well described in the following extract from a letter of the Archbishop of Dublin:

"Under a reformed system of secondary punishment (supposing transportation abolished), it strikes me as desirable, with a view to the preservation from a return to evil courses of persons released from penitentiaries, etc., after the expiration of their punishment, that such as may have evinced a disposition to reform should be, at their own desire, furnished with means of emigrating to various colonies, British or foreign, in which they may mix, not with such men as their old