MINISTERS AND MACONOCHIE ON PENAL DISCIPLINE.
WE hear that Government is about to pronounce and declare its "decision" on the subject of penal discipline. What Government had to decide, or what its determination is likely to be, we do not know. We do not know that any fresh materials for decision have been obtained ; or that any fresh councils have been sought ; or that any further inquiry into the very nature of the subject has been instituted. When it was last publicly discussed, nothing could be more unsatisfactory than the whole state of the subject. The Minister charged with the conduct of such affairs seemed to be moved by high aspirations, and to have caught some new no- tions about reformatory discipline; but he halted between many opinions, with the manner of a man who had no clear, precise, and settled conviction. Assertions were freely made by censors of the Government scheme, that Captain Maeonochie's system of discipline by means of reformatory (not retributive) labour had failed in Norfolk Island ; and no such answer was given to the objections as a thorough apprehension of the &eta ought to have dictated. But for that default, the pamphlet which Captain Maconochie hasjust published* would have been a supererogation : he shows that, although but partially tried, his administration at Norfolk Island was eminently successful : he reconverted the depraved beasts into human beings ; and if they partially relapsed after he went away, he is not answerable for the effects of reverting to systems which he had suspended. There ought to be a thorough trial of his principle, not a partial trial, which may prove little. But above all, we insist, there should be a revision of the whole subject ; an examination into the very na- ture of penal discipline in order that experiments may be con- ducted on scientific and definite principles, and so lead to intelli- gible results. Empirical "trials" of this or that "plan "—com- promises between conflicting and incompatible systems—half measures, frittered away in concessions to the opponents of those measures—can elicit little useful knowledge. We are disposed to fear that the " decision " of Government is only to be like most official decisions—a mere toss-up to compromise antagonist no- tions, without really settling anything or establishing any firm and permanent basis.
Norfolk Island. By Captain Maconochie, R.N., K.H., late Superintendent.
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