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Upon further inquiry Your Committee find that a Spot has been pointed out, which
appears well adapted to the Object, and against the Appropriation of which to a purpose so
interesting to the Public no solid Objection occurs; and that the preliminary Difficulties above
alluded to have arisen from the Rules and Orders of the House relative to Bills of Inclosure,
which are supposed to be applicable to the Ground in Question. The Difficulty is therefore one
which may be easily removed before the next Session of Parliament; and Your Committee
were glad to receive from Mr Bentham himself the Assurance of his perfect readiness to
proceed with his Part of the Business.
It is, in the Judgment of Your Committee, no small Recommendation of the Plan alluded to,
that the Contractor proposes to employ the Prisoners on his own Account receiving a proportionably
smaller sum from the Public for their maintenance.
But it must be noticed and remembered, that the great and Important Advantages
which distinguishes that Plan from any other which has been hitherto suggested, consist in
the certain Employment and Industrious livelihood which it insurers to those whose Terms
of Confinement are expired; in the Responsibility which the Contractor proposes to take upon
himself for the future Good Behaviour of the Criminals intrusted to his Care even when they
shall no longer be under his Controul; in the Publicity which is meant to be given to the
whole conduct and Effect of the Establishment, moral, medical, and oeconomical, as
well by an Annual Report of its State and Proceedings, as by that constant Facility of
Inspection which will in an unusual manner be afforded by the very Form and Construction
of the Building, upon which the prompt and easy Exercise of the superintending
Powers of the Governor himself principally depend.
Your Committee are led to dwell the more on the Importance of these Advantages
when they contemplate the Accounts which have been furnished to them of the Periods of Engagement
of the several Convicts now confined in the Hulks, to which they desire to direct
the most Serious attention of the House, bearing in mind, as they do, the Evidence given by
an experienced Magistrate of the Pernicious Effects produced upon the unfortunate Persons
who are confined in those Seminaries of Vice; recollecting too, not only that New South
Wales is at the present Moment fully supplied, but that it affords no Security for the future
Good Behaviour of those who, having outlived the Periods of their Sentences, may return
again to afflict the Society from which they have been separated.
It appears, that of 1,534 Convicts on Board the Hulks on the 5th June 1798, 93 will
be enlarged this Year, 346 in the next, and 1,411 within the Period of seven Years.
If a similar Progress be made in the enlargement of those who are still confined in the
Different Gaols, the whole number of Felons that will be turned loose on the Public, will
Amount to 1,791, a Discharge at the Rate of 254 per Annum continuing for a Period of
Seven Years.
Of the 2,934 unemancipated and unsettled Convicts existing in New South Wales
and Norfolk Island on the 22d of October 1796, it is probable from a Consideration of the
Years in which they have been severally sent thither, that the Periods of Discharge of
a still greater Number will have expired in the same seven Years, and if it could be
supposed that the whole or the greater Part would Endeavour to avail themselves of that
Circumstance to return to the Scene of their former Delinquency the Prospect would indeed
be dreadful, when viewed thro' the medium of the Experience which the Magistracy of this
Metropolis has already had of the Effect of such Returns.
Mr Colquhoun's Testimony on this Point is, That all of the Delinquents that have
returned from these Settlements, who have come within his Knowledge are either at this
Moment Thieves on the Town, or have been executed for New Offences.
Your
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Identifier: | JB/149/120/001 "JB/" can not be assigned to a declared number type with value 149.
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149 |
panopticon versus new south wales |
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120 |
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recto |
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tw 1794 |
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francis hall |
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1794 |
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49974 |
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