"VARIATION ' S IN 'THE PUNISHMENT OF CRIME."
To THE EDITOR OF THE " SPECTATOR."
Sm—Your reviewer, in his remarks upon the paper by Mr. Justice Stephen on the above subject, says, inter alia, "It [i.e., hard labour] is said to be altogether worse than penal servitude. Does it really involve, as many believe, torture dangerous to the health of ordinary men?" Perhaps you -will afford -me space in your widely-read journal to call attention to the nature of hard labour as described by Mr. IV. K. Wig-ram, in his
"Justices' Note-Book," second edition During the whole of a prisoner's sentence, if it does not exceed one month, and during one month if it does, be is required to sleep upon a plank without mattress. . . . . Hard labour of the first class may consist of work at the tread-wheel, crank, or
capstan. Or it may be exacted in that ingenious form of mental and bodily torture known as shot-diill.' Where no such appliances are employed, the picking of 3-lb. weight of oakum is usually enforced as a substitute. 'The small faggot of old rope which contains this quantity looks innocent enough. The amount of pain and punishment involved in untwisting it, and thearstoniehing ,aspect of the ts3sultranay easily be/made 'matter -of 'private-experiment."
Tor my own part, I am inclined to agree with the learned Judge thathard labour is so severe as the law now etands, that itorught-to.be inliebedonly under very exceptional circumstanees." And I think Mr. l'irigram bas pretty olearlypointed, -out "the Teasoirwhy."—Lazn, 41asreE .BF .1111.1 IBBACE.
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