of their confinement, but also were to receive decent clothes, and a sum of money not less than forty shillings, nor more than five pounds, when discharged. This well-intentioned act, which certainly admits of many improvements, was followed up, three years afterwards, by another statute, 19 Geo. III. cap. 74, which had two very important objects in view. The first was to erect, in some convenient common or waste ground, in either of the counties of Middlesex, Essex, Kent, or Surry, two large Penitentiary Houses, the one to hold six hundred male, and the other three hundred female, convicts, with proper storehouses, workhouses, and lodging rooms; an infirmary, chapel, and buryingground; a prison, kitchen-garden, and airinggrounds; with proper offices, and other necessary apartments. The expence of these grounds and erections was to be paid out of the treasury; and his majesty was empowered to appoint three persons as a committee of management for regulating the establishment, under the controul of the justices of the peace of the county and judges of assize, with power to appoint a clerk, governor, chaplain, surgeon, or apothecary, store-keepers, and task masters; and also a matron for the females; and to allow salaries to each, which were to be paid out of the profits of the work to be performed by the convicts. As soon as the buildings should be completed, the court before whom any person was convicted for a transportable offence might, in lieu thereof, order the prisoner to be punished by confinement in any of these penitentiary houses, there to be kept to hard labour in the proportion of five years in stead stead of seven years' transportation, and not exceeding seven years in lieu of fourteen years' transportation; limiting at the same time the number of convicts to be sent annually from the circuits in the country, and from the different sessions in the metropolis. This act lays down various specific rules for the government of the establishment, and for the em ployment of the prisoners; and the following works, as being of the most servile kind and least liable to be spoiled by ignorance, neglect, or obstinacy, are selected; namely— 1. Treading in a wheel for moving machinery. 2. Drawing in a capstan, for turning a mill or engine. 3. Sawing stone. 4. Polishing marble. 5. Beating hemp. 6. Rasping logwood. 7. Chopping rags. 8. Making cordage. 9. Picking oakum. 10. Weaving sacks. 11. Knitting nets, &c. &c. The food of the different offenders, as in the former act, was limited to bread and any coarse meat, with water and small beer; and the prisoners were to be clothed in uniform apparel, with badges affixed, agreeable to the institution. Certain other rules were established for the discipline of the house, under the direction of the committee to be appointed by his majesty ; who were to attend every fortnight, and to have power to reward such offenders as should appear most diligent and meritorious, by giving them a part of their earnings, to be applied for the use of themselves and families. And when an offender should be discharged, decent clothing was to be delivered to him, with a sum of money for present subsistence, not less than twenty shillings nor more than three pounds. An enormous expence has been incurred in build ing penitentiary houses in various counties, and many philanthropic individuals have exerted their best endeavours to carry this act into execution; but it is to be lamented, that crimes have been by no means diminished. The fact is, that the system is erroneous; responsibility is no where established no uniformity of system prevails, and no general superintendance, or centre point, exists. Like the poor laws, the only part of the act which is rigidly carried into execution is, raising a fund; which, without imputing blame to magistrates, for the of error is in the system, has increased the expence this branch of the police of the country very far beyond what could have been conceived; and it now becomes a heavy burthen upon many of the counties. The reform began at the wrong end. The same expence applied in establishing a system of preventive police ought to render numerous penitentiary-houses in a great measure unnecessary. Colquhoun. HUE AND CRY. See ARRESTS FOR FELONY. HULKS. The convicts having accumulated greatly in the year 1776, and the intercourse with America being shut up, it became indispensably necessary to resort to some other expedient; and in the choice of difficulties the system of the hulks was suggested and first adopted under the authority of an act of the 16th of his present majesty. The system of the hulks commenced on the 12th day of July, in the year 1776; and from that time until the 12th of December, 1795, comprehending a period of nineteen years, 7999 convicts were ordered to be punished by hard labour on the the river Thames and Langston and Portsmouth harbours, which are accounted for in the following manner : 1. Convicts ordered to hard labour 2. Convicts, under sentence of trans- Additional convicts sent from different prisons to Portsmouth and Langston, from 1791 to 1st December, 1795 To which, add those from Wool wich, as above Of the above convicts there 4775 466 2024 4309 1200 466 1666 Total 7999 By a subsequent account laid before the Select Committee of the House of Commons on Finance, and stated in Appendix M, of their 28th Report, dated the 26th of June, 1798, it appears that the number of convicts stood thus: In the hulks on the Thames, at Woolwich At Portsmouth 501 948 Total 1449 Besides 415 under sentence of transportation in the different gaols, making in all 1864. From the same authentic documents, pages 115, 116, it appears, that of these convicts the following numbers will be discharged upon society in the succeeding thirteen years : Portsmouth *A malignant fever at one period carried off a vast number, in spite of every effort to prevent it. |