HILL ON CHIME, ITS CAUSES, AND REMEDIES. * IN this treatise

on prisons and prisoners, (for such is really the na- ture of the work,) will be found the results of many years' official experience as an Inspector of Prisons, and of much con amore thought and observation devoted to the treatment and reforma- tion of criminals. The amount of crime at present, compared with any former period, and the economical, social, and legislative causes of that crime—as bad laws or insufficient education—form, indeed, prominent sections of the book ; but the most important feature is how to manage and reform the criminals themselves. Sometimes the suggestions for this purpose are convincing and simple, requiring little more than will to effect ; for the only ob- stacles to be overcome are the love of patronage and importance on the part of justices of the peace and other local authorities. Other proposals will have more to contend with, since they run counter to the opinions or prejudices of the public, and not only involve change, but in an unusual and some will say an arbitrary or " un- English " form. To successfully carry out some of the ideas, would require rarer qualifications than can always be obtained : indeed, high qualifications are essential to most of Mr. Frederick Hill's propositions, but he entertains no doubt of their existence. For purposes of producing a practical effect on a large portion of :minds that can give the most help to the author's plans, his book is perhaps as well adapted as it could be; for, strange to say, a large class of persons, embracing many magistrates, Members of Par- liament, respectable monied men, and country gentlemen in gene- ral, rather shrink from a broad, comprehensive, and terse exposition of a subject. It is above and beyond them—" too clever by half." For a general impression upon the world at large, the volume before us would have been improved by a more artistical rhetoric —not using that term in the current conventional sense of an inflated style to cover poverty of material, but in the more scholastic meaning of the word, implying the presentation of the matter, whatever it may be, in the most perfect manner. The great principle of Mr. Hill's reformation of criminals is sufficiently mentioned in the course of the work, but he does not distinctly enough present his theme at the outset—that our system, so far as it can be called system, is arbitrary and artificial ; whereas we can only properly treat pri- soners by a natural plan. Take punishment and food as an ex- ample. At present the punishments have rarely any definite rela- tion to the offence : if the prisoner injures anything, he is not called upon to do or suffer in order to replace it, which would in his mind be associated with fitness and consequence; but he is probably punished in a way which excites the idea of in- justice or reyenge. Neither is his food made at all dependent on his own well or ill doing, or with the law which obtains in life, "if a man will not work neither shall he eat."

"Not only should these general motives to exertion be presented, but the daily and hourly one also which exists in the outer world owing to a man's food being dependent on his labour; whereas at present, in many English prisons, the food, for aught the inmates know, might come from the clouds, so little is its supply connected with any efforts of theirs. Indeed, in none of these prisons is the supply of food placed on its natural footing; as will be seen when we deal more fully with the subject of diet."

The suggestions of Mr. Hill are too many and various to be ex- hibited in detail; but they are all based upon the principle of placing the prisoner, so far as may be possible, as if he were at large and under self-control. He should, for example, be trained to labour, especially to out-door labour ; and the sites of new pri- sons should be selected with a view to this mode of employment. If in health, his wellbeing in prison should depend in some degree upon his industry; that is he should be compelled to maintain himself, and he should be dewed to dispose of part of his surplus earnings, and to receive the balance at his discharge, according to the discretion of the authorities. At first the separate, not silent system, is recommended ; but, except in rare cases, he should be permitted to associate with his fellows during times of labour and even of relaxation. In fact, for the whole of his residence in pri- son, he should be placed as nearly as possible in the position that he would have to occupy in society if he obeyed our social laws in- stead of trying to evade them. This, of course, requires great changes in the law. In the first place, the duration of imprisonment should not be for a fixed term, but till certain authorities were satisfied of the prisoner's reforma- tion; the present mode of short commitments being worse than useless—corrupting. In the next place, the suggestions would re- quire an alteration in the mode of appointing the governor and his assistants—mostly bits of local patronage and occasionally of job- bing; and the grant of great discretionary powers to the governor, the chaplain, and the surgeon. A considerable change in our pri- son-discipline would also be requisite, and some changes in the law. For instance, in Scotland the practice was to employ the prisoners, to let them draw a portion of their earnings, (which they generally sent to their families ) and to allow a part to accumu- late as a something with which t.:o start them in the world on their discharge. The system was said to be contrary to law, and was discontinued, with a very mischievous effect. Again, Mr. Hill would be disposed to revive the old Saxon principles of payment and responsibility for offences. If a man commits an injury to pro- perty, it should be considered not only a crime but a debt, and he

• Crime: its Amount. Causes, and Remedies. By Frederick Hill, Barrister-at- law ; late Inspector of Prisons. Published by Murray.

should be made " to work it out," or at least some portion of it. The mass of criminals are made such by circumstances involving in the ultimate parental neglect or bad example. Mr. hill would therefore render parents (where there are any, which is often not the case) responsible to a certain pecuniary extent for the offences of their children, unless they could show that they had really done their duty so far as they. were able.

The reader who feels in in the important subject treated of in this work will do well to examine it for himself. Besides a full exposition of the topics merely indicated in this notice, car- ried out in their details, and supported by facts adduced from the experience of the author, and numerous other persons conversant with the subject, much curious information will be met with. English prisons, for instance, would seem to be the paradise of sluggards.

"In most of the English prisons the time passed in bed is enormous ; being usually about twelve hours in summer, and from fourteen to fifteen in win- ter ! This alone is sufficient not only to prevent the formation of habits of industry, but to engender absolute sloth, and even to enfeeble the frame; and is hardly likely to be followed by that practice of early rising so essen- tial for retaining any post, whether as an artisan, an agricultural labourer, or domestic servant."

The enormous cost of our prisons is a practical matter in another direction,—part of the lavish cost, no doubt, arising from our ceasing to build prisons, but squandering money upon architectural abortions, (even if style without regard to fitness were alone con- sidered.)

"Under our present arrangements, after the erection of the outer wall of a new prison, and a few sheds to serve for eating and sleeping, a large part of the remaining work might often be done by prisoners ; and under a ge- neral system of management, with a corps of well-conducted masons, car- penters, blacksmiths, and labourers, selected from the general body of prisoners, the whole of the work might be so performed. "The cost of building prisons is at present very great. On an average it cannot fall much short of 1501. per head, and in many instances it has been yet greater. The largest and newest portion of York Castle, although ill adapted for any good system of discipline, cost the enormous sum of 200,0001., equal to 1200/. per head; an expense, however, I hope, unrivalled.

"Except the prisons for persons under examination or waiting for trial, and the few prisons intended for hardened, violent, and refractory offenders, the buildings which I have recommended would not be expensive."

The following extract is touching, as showing how difficult it is to eradicate the principle of affection in the human mind. "One essential qualification of a good prison officer is a sincere interest in the welfare of those who are placed under his charge. This it is which furnishes the true key to a prisoner's heart ; and if the officer have the other qualifications necessary for obtaining respect, his influence over his prisoners will be very great. "It should be remembered, that up to the time of his commitment, a criminal has often had no one to give him counsel or sympathy, no virtuous parent or kind relative to feel for him or guide him aught; and that there is, consequently, in his case, a void which is, perhaps, first filled up by a. kind prison officer. This may account for the almost filial affection often shown, particularly by the younger prisoners, towards a good governor, chaplain, ur matron.

"Under the influence of this feeling, liberated prisoners, even those who were still in the abodes of crime, when attacked with mortal illness, have sent for Mr. Smith, governor of the Edinburgh prison, as the only friend on whom they could rely ; and hundreds of his former prisoners followed to his grave Mr. Brebner, the late governor of the prison of Glasgow, mourn- ing the loss of one who had been to them a friend, protector, and guardian, rather than a stern prison officer, and by whom many of them had been redeemed from a life of crime and misery.

"Some .prisoners appear to suffer more from the sense of shame in again. encountering, after recommitment, a governor who had been kind to them, than from any other part of their punishment. 'All his care has been thrown away,' 'He'll have no hope for me,' arenot unfrequent expressions."

Mr. Hill opens his work by an historical survey to establish the cheering facts that crime has decreased in absolute amount as well as in the atrocity of its nature and the audacity with which it was carried on. Old people, or those who are familiar with social tra- ditions, will recognize the truth of this last fact at least. Mr. Hill adds a curious anecdote of the former boldness of the felonry, from his own memory.

"So far as relates to the wholesale commission of crime, almost in de- fiance of the law, my own memory extends far enough to afford an example. When I was a boy there lived in the neighbourhood of Birmingham a man named Booth, who upon a large scale carried on the forgery both of coins and bank-notes. His house was built in the middle of a heath, so as to enable him and his associates to see any persons who approached; and it was so strongly fortified, that when, as was sometimes the case a party of police attempted to force an entrance, the inmates had time, before the work was accomplished, to destroy or effectually to conceal the evidence of their guilty trade. There was no staircase in the building ; so that when one story had been entered, there was still a difficulty in gaining admission to another.

"At last, however, a detachment of cavalry being suddenly moved on this stronghold of crime where also long impunity had induced habits of care- lessness, and an entrance being promptly made by the roof, the police did at length succeed in discovering an unburnt forged note, which had been car- ried up into a chimney by the draught of a fire into which the notes had been hastily thrown ; thus furnishing evidence on which the principal of- fender was hanged, his accomplices transported, and the gang, after years of crime, effectually broken up. "So little caution did this man think it necessary to use during the hey- day of his career, that he was in the habit of openly sending his base metal to be rolled in the adjoining town ; and on one occasion the messenger being asked of what thickness it was required, unhesitatingly took out of his pocket a three-shilling piece, (then a coin in common circulation,) and gave that as the gauge."