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3
drunkenness, it may again rank not much below the penitentiary
system: on the ground of moral health, as a school
of post-liberation wickedness, it stands scarce at all above the
level of New South Wales. In the article of comfort, considering
the miseries of forced and crowded association, it can
never come up to — it can never do otherwise than fall deplorably
short of — a well ordered Penitentiary House. — In
the article of economy, in one point of view it cannot but fall
considerably short of it, since among a number of persons in
that condition of life, and of those habits of mind and body,
there will naturally be a considerable proportion unfit for
such outdoor, and thence almost necessarily heavy work, as
that which can alone be put into the hands of a body of men
so lodged*.
In the comparison of the Hulk system with the Penitentiary
system, the most material point of all is — that the
ground on which the former system approaches to the level
of the latter, is that sort of ground, in which the interest of
the individual — the delinquent prisoner, much mote than
any other and more public interest, is concerned: I mean
the absence of the means of drunkkenness, in a situation, in
which, except to the drunkard himself, little mischief would
be apt to result from drunkenness. The ground, on which
it sinks to the level of New South Wales, is the ground
which touches, and in the tenderest part, the interest of
the whole community, into which the prisoners, after the
expiration of their respective terms, are one after another
continually let loose. It is in a state of matured corruption,
exceeded by nothing but that of New South Wales, that
they are thus discharged into that society, from which in a
state of less perfect corruption they had, in consideration of
that corruption, been expelled.
* In 28th Finance Report, Appendix (N. 7,) p. 114, in a report
relative to the convicts, stationed on board the hulks at Langston and
Portsmouth harbours, during the year 1797, the concluding paragraph
is in these terms, "A great number of the convicts on board
" the above Hulks were rejected, as unfit to proceed to Botany Bay at
" the several transportations, and many received from the gaols are
" so emaciated by long confinement and debility arising from former
" debaucheries, that they are unable to work; to these add the number
" necessarily employed in keeping the ships and wards clean, and
" they will amount to nearly one third of the whole number confined.
A.H. Dyne."
"London, 17th May 1798."
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panopticon versus new south wales |
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[[info_in_main_headings_field::third letter to lord pelh[a]m]] |
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xv hulk systems compared with penitentiary and new south wales systems / i penitentiary system / ii hulk system / iii n. s. wales system |
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