PENAL SERVITUDE REFORM.
THE secondary discussion on the subject of penal servitude has already made such progress since its very recent commencement, that we are not surprised when we hear of proceedings which render it probable that the subject may be raised in Parliament next session, and perhaps even settled then. As we observed last week, there are always two stages in discussions of the kind,— one limited to those who take the initiative and perform the pre- liminary work of supplying intelligence and argument for leading minds ; the other, when the public at large seizes the main ideas and assists at a legislative settlement. It is scarcely three months since the most widely-circulated exponent of public opinion in this country, the Times, condemned the conclusion of Lord St. Leonards that the ticket-of-leave system was a failure, and :re- marked that, " before his general conclusion can be established, we ought at any rate to be shown the way to something better." The way to something better has by this time been indicated, through those who have assisted in defending the principles of the ticket-of-leave system and establishing the indefensible character of its arrangement. The judgment upon the sys- tem delivered by Mr. Jardine the Recorder of Bath is a fur- ther evidence that practical men see how impossible it will be to continue unamended an arrangement which does not provide per- manently for relieving society from hardened criminals, but actu- illy supplies them with licence to perambulate the country and *peat their crimes, or perhaps to carry on the more mischievous
tide of teaching ethers how to perform crime for them. Mr. Jar-
ne pronounced the ticket-of-leave system exceedingly "danger- bus," bus," and " the system of discharging prisoners merely because the gaols are full," with an ill-considered selection of those to be freed, " pregnant with difficulties and dangerous to the society in which it is practised." At the same time, the failure of the at- tempt to establish a reformatory institution in Worcestershire proves that " society," organized as it is under our .present lax county system, is not competent to take the matter into its own hands. It remains, therefore, with Government; but the case is so pressing, and so distinct, that we ought not to be at the mercy of the ordinary official inertia. Even within the three months some progress has been made in sketching out an ulterior system. It was in July that the Times discussed the Duke of Cambridge's objection to admitting the con- victs into the Army, deprecating any course which would finally condemn the men.
" If the services of these men, presumed to be either reformed or in fair way of reformation, and who in many cases might be very eager to obliterate former stains by extraordinary good conduct, are sweepingly rejected in that very calling where men are wanted, where discipline is most continuous, and where the greatest chances of personal distinction are offered, is it not rea- sonable to suppose that private employers might adopt a similar rule, and that there might thus be an end to the very opportunities which we are la- bouring to provide ? " It was in the same paper that our contemporary agreed with Lord St. Leonards in desiring a more complete surveillance over the liberated convicts and a more accurate insight into the results of the system. We still keenly feel both these requirements, but with a fairer prospect of attaining them. Even then it was perceived that a full chance must be retained for the men, but that their labour must not be wasted nor their depravity return uncor- rected into society. The three months that have passed have only confirmed these conclusions, and we find a general tendency in opinion to agree that some mode should be arranged by which the discipline of military life should be combined with industrial dis- cipline, and by which rude material for the labour of the men should be provided without injury to the market of ordinary la- bour. We have only to state these requirements in order to arrive at something like a sketch of the plan which may be easily pursued. It has always been found that a system of strict abnegation is mite sufficient to secure the voluntary enlistment of men or boys in industrial avocations. Solitary confinement without anything to do is enough. Place any class of men in that condition, and they desire labour as a relief; let their condition for the time, and their liberation ultimately, depend upon their labour, and they labour with zeal as well as with willingness. Practical experience has confirmed what must be the conclusion of a priori calculations. Now it is not difficult to find fields in which men under custody could be employed without trenching upon the production of the free la- bourer. We have many kinds of hard work to be performed in this country which might very well constitute travaux forces, and our imprisoned convicts could readily be converted into finds without repeating the horrible atrocities that have resulted from a bad system of travaux forces in France. Here are the elements for any system which should combine the present principles of
penal servitude with a protracted detention of the men, but with- out an increase to the neat expense.
Colonel Jebb has published a letter which upholds the present system as having worked wonders, and at the same time he an- nounces that Government intends to modify the system in practice, so as to suspend one of its most characteristic incidents—the tickets-of-leave ! Colonel Jebb, therefore, gives his official author- ity to the opinion, that so far as the principles of the system have been really applied, they have worked beneficially ; but in an- nouncing that Government intends to suspend the operation of the law so far, he supplies us with an official confession that there is something seriously defective in the practice. Of course, we can regard the modification that he announces as nothing but a tem- porary -rule—it is in fact suspending the subject until it can be considered by Parliament. Colonel Jebb occupies a high official post, but he is not a man whom the public will expect to originate measures of importance. He does not occupy that poai- tion which enables him to speak to the public with au- thority; nor does he possess such an influence with his superiors that we must regard his opinion as final. It cannot be for a moment imagined that because Government partially sus- pend the working of a defective measure, it is intended to stultify the principles which their own officer finds so much reason to de- fend; or that they intend to go back to some very absurd and bar- barous system which prevailed before recent reforms. We are well aware, that at the present time leading members of the Ad- ministration cannot find leisure of mind for the whole of a difficult, large, and tame-consuming subject like this: as well expect the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs to prepare a scheme of Law- reform. The question is precisely. in that state which would justify the appointment of a Commission. It so happens that there are public men whose antecedents have qualified them to deal with this subject, and who possess the confidence of all parties in the country; and Government might, without the slightest delay or difficulty, frame such a Commission that the mere statement of the names would secure to it the perfect trust of public and of Parlia- ment.
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