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same year, Mr. Aglionby broke down the rigorous usage which had allowed but forty-eight hours to criminals under sentence of death, for repentance or proof of innocence. Nor did the efforts of philanthropists rest here. From 1840, Mr. Ewart, supported by many followers, pressed upon the Commons, again and again, the total abolition of capital punishment. This last movement failed, indeed; and the law still demands life for life. But such has been the sensitive - not to say morbid - tenderness of society, that many heinous crimes have since escaped this extreme penalty; while uncertainty has been suffered to impair the moral influence of justice.

While lives were spared, secondary punishments were no less tempered by humanity and Christian feeling. Secondary In 1816, the degrading and unequal punishment punishments. of the pillory was confined to perjury; and was, at length, wholly condemned in 1837.1

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In 1838, serious evils were disclosed in the system of transportation: the penal colonies protested against Transporits continuance and it was afterwards, in great tation. measure, abandoned. Whatever the objections to its principle, however grave the faults of its administration, it was, at least in two particulars, the most effective secondary punishment hitherto discovered. It cleansed our society of criminals; and afforded them the best opportunity of future employment and reformation. For such a punishment no equivalent could readily be found.2 Imprisonment became nearly the sole resource of the state; and how to punish and reform criminals, by prison discipline, was one of the most critical problems of the time.

The condition of the prisons, in the last century, was a reproach to the state and to society. They were Prisons.

1 56 Geo. III. c. 138; 1 Vict. c. 23. In 1815 the Lords rejected a Bill for its total abolition. - Romilly's Life, iii. 144, 166, 189.

2 Reports of Sir W. Molesworth's Committee, 1837, No. 518; 1838, No. 669. Bentham's "Théorie des Peines," &c.; Dr. Whately's Letters to Earl Grey; Reply of Colonel Arthur; Innes on Home and Colonial Convict Management, 1842.

damp, dark, and noisome: prisoners were half-starved on bread and water, clad in foul rags, and suffered to perish of want, wretchedness, and jail-fever. Their sufferings were aggravated by the brutality of tyrannous jailers and turnkeys, absolute masters of their fate. Such punishment was scarcely less awful than the gallows, and was inflicted in the same merciless spirit. Vengeance and cruelty were its only principles: charity and reformation formed no part of its scheme. Prisons without separation of sexes, without classification of age or character, were schools of crime and iniquity. The convicted felon corrupted the untried and perhaps innocent prisoner; and confirmed the penitent novice in crime. The unfortunate, who entered prison capable of moral improvement, went forth impure, hardened, and irreclaimable.

Such were the prisons which Howard visited; and such the evils he exposed. However inert the legislature, it was not indifferent to these disclosures; and attempts were immediately made to improve the regulation and discipline of prisons. The cruelty and worst evils of prison life were gradually abated. Philanthropists penetrated the abodes of guilt; and prisons came to be governed in the spirit of Howard and Mrs. Fry. But, after the lapse of half a century, it was shown that no enlarged system had yet been devised to unite condign punishment with reformation: adequate classification, judicious employment, and instruction were still wanting. The legislature, at length, applied itself to the systematic improvement of prisons. In 1835, inspectors were appointed to correct abuses, and insure uniformity of management. Science and humanity labored together to devise a punishment, calculated at once to deter

1 Two bills were passed in 1774, and others at later periods; and see Reports of Commons' Committees on Jails, 1819, 1822; Sydney Smith's Works, ii. 196, 244.

2 Five Reports of Lords' Committee, 1835 (Duke of Richmond), on Jails and Houses of Correction.

8 5 & 6 Will. IV. c. 38.

from crime, and to reform criminals. The magistracy, throughout the country, devoted themselves to this great social experiment. Vast model prisons were erected by the state costly jails by counties, light, airy, spacious and healthful. Physical suffering formed no part of the scheme. Prisoners were comfortably lodged, well fed and clothed, and carefully tended. But a strict classification was enforced : every system of confinement - solitary, separate, and silent was tried every variety of employment devised. While reformation was sought in restraints and discipline, in industrial training, in education and spiritual instruction, good conduct was encouraged by hopes of release from confinement, under tickets-of-leave, before the expiration of the sentence. In some cases penal servitude was followed by transportation; in others it formed the only punishment. Meanwhile, punishment was passing from one extreme to another. It was becoming too mild and gentle to deter from crime; while hopes of reformation were too generally disappointed. Further experiments may be more complete; but crime is an intractable ill, which has baffled the wisdom of all ages. Men born of the felon type, and bred to crime, will ever defy rigor and frustrate mercy. If the present generation have erred, its errors have been due to humanity and Christian hopefulness of good. May we not contrast them proudly with the wilful errors of past times, neglect, moral indifference, and cruelty?

Nor did the state rest satisfied with the improvement of prisons; but, alive to the peculiar needs and Reformdangers of juvenile delinquents, and the classes atories. whence they sprung, it provided for the establishment of reformatory and industrial schools, in which the young might. be spared the contamination and infamy of a jail, and trained, if possible, to virtue.1

Our ancestors, trusting to the severity of their punishments, for the protection of life and property, took Police 1 17 & 18 Vict. c. 86, &c.

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little pains in the prevention of crime. The metropolis was left to the care of drunken and decrepit watchmen, and scoundrel thief-takers, — companions and confederates of thieves. The abuses of such a police had long been notorious, and a constant theme of obloquy and ridicule. They had frequently been exposed by Parliamentary Committees; but it was not until 1829, that Mr. Peel had the courage to propose his new metropolitan police. This effective and admirable force has since done more for the order and safety of the metropolis, than a hundred executions every year, at the Old Bailey. A similar force was afterwards organized in the city of London; and every considerable town throughout the realm was prompt to follow a successful example. The rural districts, however, and smaller boroughs, were still without protection. Already, in 1836, a constabulary of rare efficiency had been organized in Ireland; but it was not until 1839 that provision was made for the voluntary establishment of a police in English counties and boroughs. A rural police was rendered the more necessary by the efficient watching of large towns; and at length, in 1856, the support of an adequate constabu→ lary force was required of every county and borough.

And further, criminals have been brought more readily Summary to justice, by enlargements of the summary jurisjurisdiction. diction of magistrates. A principle of criminal jurisprudence which excludes trial by jury is to be accepted with caution; but its practical administration has been unquestionably beneficial. Justice has been administered well and speedily; while offenders have been spared a long confinement prior to trial, and the innocent have had a prompt acquittal. The like results have also been attained by an increase of stipendiary magistrates, in the metropolis and elsewhere, by the institution of the Central Criminal Court, and by more frequent assizes.

1 Wraxall's Mem., i. 329; Reports of Commons' Comm., 1812, 1816, 1817, 1822, and 1828.

The stern and unfeeling temper which had dictated the penal code, directed the discipline of fleets and armies. Life was sacrificed with the same cruel the navy and Flogging in levity; and the lash was made an instrument of army. torture. This barbarous rigor was also gradually relaxed, under the combined influence of humanity and freedom.

The poor

laws.

Equally wise and humane were numerous measures for raising the moral and social condition of the people. And first in importance was an improved administration of relief to the poor. Since the reign of Elizabeth, the law had provided for the relief of the destitute poor of England. This wise and simple provision, however, had been so perverted by ignorant administration that, in relieving the poor, the industrial population of the whole country was being rapidly reduced to pauperism, while property was threatened with no distant ruin. The system which was working this mischief assumed to be founded upon benevolence; but no evil genius could have designed a scheme of greater malignity, for the corruption of the human race. The fund intended for the relief of want and sickness, of age and impotence, was recklessly distributed to all who begged a share. Every one was taught to look to the parish, and not to his own honest industry, for support. The idle clown, without work, fared as well as the industrious laborer who toiled from morn till night. The shameless slut, with half a dozen children, the progeny of many fathers, was provided for as liberally as the destitute widow and her orphans. But worse than this, independent laborers were tempted and seduced into the degraded ranks of pauperism, by payments freely made in aid of wages. Cottage rents were paid, and allowances given according to the number of a family. Hence thrift, selfdenial, and honest independence were discouraged. The manly farm laborer, who scorned to ask for alms, found his own wages artificially lowered, while improvidence was cherished and rewarded by the parish. He could barely

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