FRENCH RECIDIVISTES AND PENAL SETTLEMENTS.
THE wordy warfare, interminable discussions, and vexatious delays of our present Parliamentary system have at least one redeeming feature,—a subject gets well thrashed out, and if the Government succeeds in passing only about a tenth of its Bills, those that do become law are generally more or less workable. In France they manage differently, if not better. A Minister produces a projet de loi, shows that its provisions are in strict accord with the principles of logic and the rights of man, and protests that the highest interests of France demand its immediate adoption. On this the project is discussed in a spirit of pure theory, and, unless it be of a nature to kindle party passions, voted on the strength of a Committee's report and the Minister's recommendation. The few opponents of the measure are stigmatised as indifferent patriots, and the inspired Press congratulates the Government on having done a good work. But when the Minister goes to his -office and orders the bepraised law to be carried into effect, he finds, as likely as not, either that it is altogether unworkable, or that its enforcement will create evils greater than those for whose cure it was devised. It fared thus, as we mentioned last week, with the law for the abolition of one-year volunteers, and the same fate is likely to befall the famous measure for the transportation of Recidivistes to the penal colonies of the Pacific, a measure which excited so many hopes in France and so many misgivings in Australia. The more the scheme is examined the more impracticable does it seem ; and some remarkable articles from the pen of Professor Jules Laverne, lately printed in the Temps, have probably given the death-blow to an en- actment which has been styled "the glory of the Ferry Cabinet in general, and of M. Waldeck-Rousseau in particular."
M. Leveille does not indulge much in argument ; he appeals to facts, and the facts he adduces and the lessons which they teaoh fully justify the doubts that have been expressed as to the feasibility of the scheme and the opposition it has encountered in our Australian scheme, The Commission to which the matter was referred, and the Minister by whom the law was introduced, were full of philanthropic ideas. What a fine thing, they contended, it would be to rid France of her Rcicidivistes for ever, and reform them at the same time. These unfortunates, it was argued, victims rather of the vices of the social system than of their own evil propensities, after undergoing a period of probationary imprisonment at home, might begin another life in a new country. Away from their old haunts, relieved from the demoralising influence of an evil past, they would be free to follow the nobler instincts of their nature ; they would take to honest labour, bring up families in fear of the law, and found in the Southern Seas new com- munities, to the greater glory of France. Truly a splendid picture, and so much did it enchant the French Legislature and the French people, that they are only just now beginning to baton to the voice of reason and M. Leveille. "I affirm," says that gentleman, "this proposition, that a malefactor taken from prison and transferred to a vast territory, with the right of wandering about at his sweet will, and the privilege of doing nothing, will become, inevitably, an idler and a vagabond, dangerous and useless. These are not vain fears; they rest neither on arguments nor conjectures, but on indisputable facts." And then M. Leveille goes on to explain that his facts are drawn from the experience of the French Colonies them- selves. The system so much admired by M. Waldeck-Roussean has been tried, and its results are on record. By a law passed in 1854 convicts transported to Guiana or New Caledonia, according to the category to which they belonged, are compelled, after finishing their time, to stay in the colony either a certain number of years or for the remainder of their lives. In other respects, they are quite free, and, therefore, in exactly the same position as would be the B,ecidivistes with whom it is now proposed to people the penal colonies. As to how the experiment has succeeded, let the records of the Ministry of Marine tell. All the documents referring to the subject, says M. Leveille, reveal its utter failure. There is not a Governor of Guiana or New Caledonia who has not urged on the attention of the home authorities, as the most grave and pressing of the questions with which he has to deal, that of the liberated convicts. The complaints are of ancient date ; they are more frequent as time goes on, and as the freed convicts are reinforced by those who have completed their sentences. The present Governors have even felt themselves constrained to take measures, on their own responsibility, to combat the evils they describe' although as yet the number of liberated convicts in Guiana is only 1,200, and in New Caledonia 2,000. What will happen when they are joined by the 20,000 or 30,000 malefactors who, if the new law is enforced, will be sent to keep them company, is almost past imagining. Unless an army hardly less numerous were sent to guard them, the horrors of Norfolk Island would be repeated on a larger scale, and New Caledonia be converted into a veritable Pande- monium which neighbouring countries, for their own safety, would be compelled to destroy. This, we may judge by their proceedings, nobody would be more ready to admit than the Governors of the French settlements themselves. In order to protect the honest population of Cayenne and Noumea from the depredations of the freed convicts, the Governor of Guiana has found it necessary to keep them out of Cayenne. The Governor of New Caledonia has gone even further. With an audacity "altogether military," he has taken upon himself to restrict liberated convicts to certain districts, and visit disobedience to his orders with exemplary punishment. But the new law imposes on the Recidivistes no restrictions whatever ; the moment they land on the shores of New Caledonia they will be free ; for the Minister and the Com- mission to whom the question was referred were of opinion that men who have undergone two or three terms of imprison- ment may easily be converted into excellent colonists. "Carried away by an extreme kindness of heart," as M. Leveille observes, they forget that the freed foreat has almost always lost the dignity and strength of his manhood, for crime and confine- ment both weaken the body and enfeeble the mind. A confirmed malefactor cannot, even if he would, replace his evil propensities by diligence in well-doing. His good reso- lutions are few and fitful and soon forgotten. His idea of liberty is to do nothing ; he has lost all taste for honest labour, and would rather plunder than work. He is so little to be depended upon, moreover, that nobody will employ him. Free settlers prefer coolies, or convicts under sentence their labour costs less, and they are more amenable to discipline. Hence, if an ancient forcat be industriously disposed he finds it almost impossible to obtain work ; and the Governors, who cannot let them starve, and do not want them to steal, are compelled to grant them rations and give them shelter. In the Budget of 1884, a credit of £84,000 is assigned for the support of liberated convicts. "The question of the liberated," wrote Commandant Pella de la Barriere only a few months ago, "is a capital one for New Caledonia.
We are sinking under the weight of it. We cannot find work for these unfortunates. The law forces them to remain in the colony, and they naturally ask for work in order that they may live. Otherwise, they must steal. We can find no solution for this terrible dilemma."
All this, as we have previously observed, shows that the apprehensions of our Australian Colonies as to the effect of a wholesale transportation of Recidivistes to New Caledonia are well founded, and their opposition to the measure fully justified. They would find their way to British possessions, not in twos and threes merely, but in hundreds' possibly in thousands. No military or police force that the French are likely to maintain
in New Caledonia could effectually guard 5,000 or 10,000 starving criminals, or hinder them from seizing boats and leaving the settlement for a country where food was to be found and plunder to be got. It is conceivable that the French authorities would not be loth to get rid of them in that way ; but in view of the facts which M. Leveille has brought to light, the enormous expenditure the scheme would involve and the risks it would entail, we may, perhaps, ven- ture to hope that the Government will either quietly let it drop, or consent to its complete metamorphosis. That M. Leveilles articles have made a decided impression is proved by the announcement just made that they have resolved to tend him out to New Caledonia to inquire into the whole matter. This proceeding is tantamount to a confession that the Chambers have been allowed to legislate on insufficient information ; but the door is still open for retreat, and it is better to acknowledge an error while there is yet time, than to persist in a policy which can lead only to danger and disaster.
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