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March 1812
General Heads of Objection to the Penitentiary Report 31 May 1811, as to the extinction.
I. General objections
to the Report.
1.
Sole object at heart,
setting aside Panopticon
the others
but means to that
end.
In the course of 18
years, means and
pretences have accumulated
for doing
that, which after
4 years, to 1798,
Treasury could not
find face to do.
2.
Arguments all
vague: no notice
taken of Mr B's
books in which they
stood pre-refuted.
3.
Supposed imperfections,
how soever remediable,
urged as so
many peremptory
objections.
No remedy every suggested.
4.
Presumption throughout
against the eulogized
person chosen
by Pitt & Melville
for the persons unknown,
at least as
yet to the Committee:
unless let into the
secret. p 1.
5
Of the observations levelled
against Panopticon
not one that does not
apply with infinitely
greater force to the
Hulks:
If not better than
the now proposed new Penitentiary
nor than the existing one, it were strange
if it did not promise
to be better than the
Hulks.
Yet, while Panopticon
is peremptorily & instantly
proscribed & nothing
is said against the Hulks:
nor does any disposition
appear to give them up.
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I. General Objections &c.
6
Points enumerated, in
respect of which Panopticon
(the open mode) it
is stated as incompetent:
if so, observe how
much more so the
close mode inseparable
from the Hulks.
1. Securing good provisions.
2. Keeping out "luxuries"
(What are pernicious
when fermented liquors
are excluded?)
3. Securing instruction
moral & religious
4. Preventing corruptive
associations.
5. Securing reformation
by forfeiture for post-liberation
offences.
6. Securing Prisoner's
health.
7. Securing facility of
complaint.
8. Securing facility
of redress through
facility of inspection
and superintendence.
7
The Hulks may be
given up without any
breach of public faith
– Panopticon can not.
8.
Apply this to Jails:
– at least to the unimproved
ones.
9.
So to the Penal
Colonization system.
10.
The powers which
Mr Chairman is so
sure will be abused to
the purpose of profit
in the open management
of Panopticon,
are no others than
every Master possesses
over his Apprentices,
and exercises in what
degree of secrecy he pleases. p.3
11.
Supposed impositions
of
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I. General Objections &c
11.
Hostility to Mr B. –
Common to the successive
administrations.
Causes of it – the indefensibility
of their proceedings to the prejudice
of Panopticon, and the
necessity he was under
of exposing it in his
printed though unpublished
tracts, or give
up altogether the cause
of the public and his own.
12.
By Sir Evan Nepean
Mr B's tracts were
put into their hands,
but though all their
objections are there
pre-refuted, no notice
is any where taken of
the pre-refutations
or of the works in
which they are contained.
4 –13.
What Gentlemen are
really afraid of, is, not
bad management but
too good management
by Mr B:⊞ ⊞ because the better it
proved to be, the greater
would be seen to be the
mischief done to the public
by in respect of the
time during which the
commencement of it was prevented. to extinguish
whose his plan
is accordingly their main, if not
sole object. – Proofs,
1. The scantiness of
their proposed establishment,
– 200 (it is said)
of each sex: while
the rest of the Convict
population is proposed
to be left in the Hulks
in the unimproved
Jails and in New South
Wales.
2. The extreme eagerness
to get instant possession
of the existing
land, whereby all possibility
of trying the experiment
of his plan
will be destroyed.
☞ Continued at Column 7.
---page break---
II. Terms Submittable
for preservation of Panopticon
14 or 1
New terms that Mr B.
would submitt to rather
than give up all
possibility of rendering
to the public the promised
service.
N.B. Having arranged
his plan in such a
manner, that no emolument
could be reaped
by himself till after
a great saving, expressible
in figures, had been
made (not to speak
of the other advantages)
by the public, he sees
no reason, why, after
the bet part of his
life is worn out,
those personal advantages
should after
so long-protracted a
breach of public
faith be taken from
him, which are claimed
by and given
to every body else's
yet, rather than
give up the public
service, he would give
them all up.
15 or 2.
1. Out of the 53 Acres,
deducting the 13 cut
off by the Vauxhall
Bridge, remain 40
acres contiguous.
For the purpose of
competition, let Sir
G. Paul and the Revd. Mr
Becher set up a Penitentiary
on their plan
on 20 of these acres,
Mr. B. on his plan
on the other 20.
Desire, they can
be deficient in: –
let them have every
power of Inspection
(though not of prohibition)
over his.
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Identifier: | JB/118/240/002 "JB/" can not be assigned to a declared number type with value 118.
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1812-03 |
1-13, 17 or 1 - 23 or 7, 14-16 |
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118 |
panopticon |
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240 |
general heads of objection to the penitentiary report 31 may 1811, as to the extinction of panopticon |
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002 |
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marginal summary sheet |
2 |
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recto |
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john herbert koe |
john dickinson & co 1809 |
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a. levy |
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1809 |
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39294 |
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