Chapter III: Front Matter (3)

'The governor of the borough prison at Cambridge stated that many persons were reckless about committing offences, because they preferred being sent to the prison to going to the workhouse, owing chiefly (according to their statements) to their getting better food at the prison.

'The chaplain of the prison at Spilsby stated as follows:--"I am sorry to observe that the present system of discipline here does not deter people from the commission of crime. Several have said that they would rather come here than go to the Union workhouse." ...

'Mr Dunn, one of the surgeons of the prison at Wakefield, states--"I am convinced that many persons, especially females, get committed to the prison on purpose to be cured of attacks of disease. Many of them have admitted to me that it was so. A man from Bradford, who went out last week, told me that he had been here before, and that he had got committed again in consequence of his having a return of his disease, and that he came to be cured.... One man who was here for a month last autumn, and who came in a very diseased state, but who left cured, required, during nearly the whole time, a pint of wine per day, besides malt liquor. It was a case in which a very liberal diet is necessary to preserve life; and it was requisite to have a prisoner, acting as nurse, to sit up with him through the night. The cost to the West Riding of this single case, counting expenses of all kinds, could not have been less than L.6."

'The governor of the city prison at York said--"By the acknowledgments of the prisoners themselves, I know that the practice still continues of committing offences on purpose to get committed to this prison. Four prisoners were liberated this morning who had broken a street-lamp with the evident intention of being sent to this prison. They were sentenced to seven days' imprisonment, and on their liberation each prisoner was supplied with a coat, waistcoat, pair of trousers, and a pair of shoes, and one of them had a shirt also! Many times last winter gas-lamps and the windows of the police-office and vagrant-office were broken, in order to get admission to the prison. Out of eighteen male prisoners who were brought to trial at the last Quarter-Sessions, twelve in my opinion committed their offences for the direct purpose of being sent to prison. Most of the vagrants committed to the prison still pass their time in idleness; no prisoners except those sentenced to hard labour being set to work."

'The following is an extract from the visiting justices' minute-book at the same prison:--

"_Dec. 12th, 1849._--The number of prisoners who commit offences with the object of being maintained during the winter increases yearly, and is deserving of serious consideration, as a serious expense is entailed thereby on the city. The imprisonment inflicted is not looked on as a punishment, but a reward."'

If such really be the case, it is evident that a wrong course has been pursued in making the prisons so comfortable. Some years ago, when society was seized with a paroxysm of humanity, prisons were got up in a style of palatial splendour, and criminals, the most worthless of the population, were treated with a degree of tenderness which was opposed to every principle of justice. Possibly the method of reclaiming by kindness was not bad in the abstract, and in numerous instances it was perhaps effective; but in the main it was unsuitable to a complicated condition of ignorance, poverty, vice, and wretchedness. It should have been borne in mind that there is a distinct class of persons to whom any kind of provision is desirable, and who, being sunk below all sentiments of self-respect, shame, and regret, would very willingly sell themselves into slavery for the sake of a momentary gratification. To think of a warm, comfortable prison being an object of dread to this utterly-abandoned class!

Another philosophical crotchet did no small mischief. It was alleged that hard labour on the tread-mill would do harm: knowing that the labour tended to no useful purpose but merely the turning of a wheel, prisoners would feel degraded, and this feeling would prevent their reclamation! The error here consisted in imagining that the criminal class possessed the feelings of gentlemen; whereas the real thing to be thought of, was to give them labour so excessively toilsome and irksome as to be remembered with salutary horror all the days of their life. For example, no kind of punishment, we believe, has proved so sure a terror as that of the shot-drill in the military prisons. This consists in lifting a cannon-ball of perhaps twenty pounds' weight; marching with it for a dozen yards; then laying it down; and so on, repeating the same thing for an hour. Now this is clearly a useless and most degrading species of labour; yet it is a terrible infliction, and we are told seldom fails in its effect--that is to say, it deters from the commission of crime.

The experience of the last few years would shew that much is still to be learned in the art of criminal discipline; and indeed the whole question of what is to be done with our criminal population is becoming daily more perplexing. Mere confinement is found to be of small avail. Transportation is exploded; for it improves the circumstances of criminals instead of making them worse. Capital punishment has also had its day, and, excepting for a very few offences, is abandoned as useless, independently of being revolting to humanity. One writer proposes to work convicts in gangs at out-door labour, such as mining, and making railways; but the public would never tolerate the spectacle of this worst species of slave-labour; and besides, the employment of honest workers would be ruined. We are inclined to think that imprisonment, in a severe form, is after all the only practicable means of dealing with criminals. If anything be urgently wanted, it is a plan for preventing the growth of the criminal class; and this probably is not so difficult as it may appear. Of course, till there be a far broader system of public education than now prevails, the criminal population will never want recruits. Nevertheless, even with our present imperfect educational arrangements, something might be done. The criminal class is discovered to be on the whole a narrow class. The practice of living by depredation runs in families, and clings to individuals. The police of any given town could put their hand on almost every person who lives by fraud, theft, and robbery. They could at a day's notice secure nearly every one of them. A knowledge of this fact has suggested to Mr Matthew Hill a plan for capturing the whole criminal class, and obliging them to give security for their good behaviour; failing which, they should suffer incarceration as notoriously dangerous and troublesome to society. A fear of trenching on the liberty of the subject may prevent this ingenious scheme of the Recorder of Birmingham from being carried into effect; but to something or other of the kind he proposes, society must come at last, if it wish to save itself from being everlastingly worried and plundered by a habitually predatory class. In the Prison Report to which we have above referred, mention is made of a single family of thieves, consisting of fifteen individuals, who cost the country L.26,000 before they were got rid of. Is not such a fact quite monstrous!

FRENCH BATTLE-PICTURES.

In an American work--_Glances at Europe_, by Mr H. Greeley--the following sound observations occur on the battle-pictures in the palace of Versailles: 'These battle-pieces have scarcely more historic than artistic value, since the names of at least half of them might be transposed, and the change be undetected by ninety-nine out of every hundred who see them. If _all_ the French battles were thus displayed, it might be urged with plausibility that these galleries were historical in their character; but a full half of the story--that which tells of French disaster and discomfiture--is utterly suppressed. The battles of Ptolemais, of Ivry, of Fontenoy, of Rivoli, of Austerlitz, &c. are here as imposing as paint can make them; but never a whisper of Agincourt, Cressy, Poitiers, Blenheim, or Ramillies; nor yet of Salamanca, of Vittoria, of Leipsic, or Waterloo. Even the wretched succession of forays which the French have for the last twenty years been prosecuting in Algerine Africa, here shine resplendent; for Vernet has painted, by Louis-Philippe's order, and at France's cost, a succession of battle-pieces, wherein French numbers and science are seen prevailing over Arab barbarism and irregular valour, in combats whereof the very names have been wisely forgotten by mankind, though they occurred but yesterday. One of these is much the largest painting I ever saw, and is probably the largest in the world, and it seems to have been got up merely to exhibit one of Louis-Philippe's sons in the thickest of the fray. Last of all, we have the Capture of Abd-el-Kader, as imposing as Vernet could make it, but no whisper of the persistent perfidy wherewith he has been retained for several years in bondage, in violation of the express agreement of his captors. The whole collection is, in its general effect, delusive and mischievous--the purpose being to exhibit war as always glorious, and France as uniformly triumphant. It is by means like these that the business of shattering knee-joints and multiplying orphans is kept in countenance.'

NEW APPLICATIONS OF MANGEL-WURZEL.

A patent has been taken out for the following applications of mangel-wurzel:--_1st_, To prepare a substance which may be combined with, or employed in place of coffee, the mangel-wurzel roots are well washed, cut into pieces; about the size of peas or beans, and then dried and roasted in the same manner as coffee-berries. The product is ground after being roasted, and it is then ready for use. _2d_, A substitute for tea is produced by cutting the leaves of mangel-wurzel into small strips or shreds, drying the same, and then placing them upon a hot plate, which is kept at a temperature sufficiently high to slightly char the leaves. The charred mangel-wurzel leaves are to be used in precisely the same way as tea. _3d_, To manufacture a fermented liquor, the mangel-wurzel roots are well washed, cut into small pieces, and put into a vat, wherein they are permitted to ferment for two or three days, at a temperature of about 70 degrees, and water is added thereto. A fermented liquor is thus obtained similar to perry or cider. _4th_, When the mangel-wurzel roots are to be employed in the preparation of wort, they are washed, and cut into small pieces, which are dried, or slightly charred, by the action of kilns or ovens, of the kind used for drying malt; and wort is prepared from this produce in the same manner as from malt.

THE MARTYRDOM OF FAITHFUL IN VANITY FAIR.[6]