The History of Tasmania Volume II Part 24

[Footnote 207: _Spectator_, Sept. 21, 1833.]

[Footnote 208: "I do not know how it was, but we always considered robbing an orchard an honorable exploit. I remember once being carried before a magistrate: there were three of us. The magistrate acted upon what, I think, was rather curious law: he fined our fathers each 30s.

for our offence. We were very good boys, indeed. I believe, we never did anything worse than a robbery."--_Lord Eldon; Life, by Horace Twiss._]

[Footnote 209: _Prison Discipline Society's Report_, 1827.]

SECTION XVII.

The views of the ministers respecting the severity of punishment, rendered the discipline more stern.[210] The subordinate agents of government received instructions to enforce an amount of labor from the prisoners employed upon the roads, which was measured without much regard to their previous habits, dexterity, or strength.

Nottman, to whose management several gangs were committed, was a person of unflinching temper--rigorous and fearless. Once, when a.s.sailed upon the road, he clenched the robber by the throat, until he expired. He found a pleasure in hastening the operations entrusted to his oversight, and neglect of work was an offence which was never pardoned. It did not unfrequently happen, that a tailor, or other sedentary craftsman, was sentenced to the roads; but in breaking stones, there is an art, and while the dexterous could make every blow effective, the utmost toil of the novice left a deficiency in the task. To admit excuse, would have disturbed the calculations of labor, and the defaulter was delivered at once to the flogger; often, too, the implements, injured by use, rendered the fracture of stones more difficult: the issue of rations weekly, tempted the improvident to consume their food, so that the last days of the week were spent in exhaustion and hunger.[211] The slightest symptoms of insubordination were promptly visited; and in one party, 3,300 lashes were administered in one morning.

The overseers copied the rigour of their superiors, without their discrimination or sense of justice. It was not uncommon, though forbidden, for these men to strike down the prisoners who displeased them. Such violations of rule were punished when discovered: but men of weak minds bore in silence miseries they were afraid to resent. The government compelled to accept such agents as transportation yielded, employed persons of the vilest character, of which the following may be taken as a specimen: W. A----, a prisoner for life, forfeited his ticket-of-leave for keeping a house of ill-fame, and harbouring a.s.signed servants. He applied for its restoration: this was opposed by the police magistrate, who recommended that he should serve as an overseer for three months on probation, as he had been notorious for keeping a bad house![212] The incongruity of this employment with his character must have suggested itself to all except those familiar with similar appointments. Such as could command a bribe ameliorated their condition, while those who possessed no such resources, were selected to ill.u.s.trate the vigilance and fidelity of the overseers. It requires no extensive acquaintance with mankind to perceive, that in such hands public justice was desecrated, and the weight of a sentence determined by causes which had no relation to the character or the crime.

The orders of Stanley were constantly criticised by the press, and from various motives were disliked by every section of the public. All who had been prisoners, naturally sympathised with the sufferers: those who were employers, reprobated a form of punishment which, without diminishing the application of the lash, abstracted from their farms a proportion of labour. A spirit of resistance was extensively propagated, and during the year following many sad instances occurred, in which an insurgent spirit was fatal. A young man, when employed on the public works, struck at Mr. Franks with his hammer: fortunately, the blow fell lightly; but he was tried and executed. A considerable number threw down their tools and retired to the bush, whither they were pursued and retaken. One instance made a powerful impression on the public mind: a convict, named Greenwood, took from a fellow prisoner his shovel, which was better than his own. He was sent at once by the superintendent to the cells in charge of a fellow workman. In the spirit of reckless daring, he told his conductor that he could run away if he thought proper; the other replied--"no doubt of it." Thus, by a sudden impulse, in bravado or in terror of the lash, he sprang across the boundary, and threw up his hat as a signal of his flight. He appeared on the race ground, and was there discovered by the constables committing some act of petty robbery: he was pursued, drew a knife from his pocket, and wounded his captor. Being taken before a magistrate, both his absconding and his resistance were stated--the last a capital offence. To punish this man was, of course, the duty of those whose authority he had defied. As an absconder, he was sentenced to one hundred lashes, and told--in words the import of which has not been disputed, although the taunting tone attributed to the justice may possibly admit a question--that after his flogging he would be hanged! Ten days after, he was condemned to death: his execution was delayed a few more by a respite; but he went to the scaffold with his wounds unhealed! The treatment of this man called forth, and justified the strongest expressions of public indignation. True, it was within the letter of the law: either of the penalties inflicted, might have been vindicated or excused both by necessity and custom; but to torture a fellow creature shortly to make his defence against a charge affecting his life, and to send him to his last account whilst suffering the pangs of laceration, was inexpressibly revolting. Those who desired to disgrace the government, embraced the opportunity--perhaps with the eagerness of faction: pictures were exhibited of the unfortunate man, ill.u.s.trative of his melancholy fate. Surely no argument can be found, in the calmest exercise of the understanding to extenuate an administration of the law, which distorted justice into cruelty.

Under circ.u.mstances far more consonant with reason, but scarcely less affecting when considered at large, was the execution of Samuel, a black man: he was transported for theft, from the Cape of Good Hope, and was remarkable for the quiet easiness of his disposition. For some violation of penal discipline he was ordered to be flogged: when approaching the triangle, he attacked one of the officers in attendance, who was slightly wounded; for this he forfeited his life--justly, had England been just; but what was his story? With his mother and sister he was stolen from Mozambique, and thus became a slave: he robbed his masters, and thus became a criminal. His fate turns justice into mockery, and might make the Briton blush for his country. His execution, however, was not without utility: Dr. Ross, who for years had attended such scenes, then adopted the conviction that no resources of language, or varieties of incident, could invest them with interest, and he resolved to attend them no more. Here, too, the reader will be willing to abandon them.

Since, they have often been repeated; but happily society has adopted from reflection, what that gentle-hearted man, so powerful is habit, required years to learn--that the executioner is an officer far less useful, and the agent of a spirit far less just, than past ages have deemed.[213]

At parting, it is proper to pay the tribute of history to the memory of Dogherty, the hangman--a functionary who surpa.s.sed greatly the common character of his order; and who, while he lived, contrived to evade the detestation of his calling. There was no amateur gaiety in his manner--no harshness in his speech. He accepted office when a prisoner, to enjoy the quiet quarters of the gaol and liberation from ordinary toil: he intended to resign it with his bondage, but the number of candidates for his place, it is said, reconciled his mind to its retention. Not in the spirit of menace, but defensive retort, he would promise those by whom he was jeered, his most delicate attentions in their last emergency. He was always willing to part with his provisions: to divide his sugar and tea with the necessitous, and to perform errands of kindness in their favor. No one could wield the lash with more mercy; and it is said that once, an offender, sentenced to a public flogging, received one stroke at starting, and the cart being driven by an a.s.sociate, a second at stopping. His predecessor was a different character; and overcome with the misery of his condition, he committed murder, that he might escape from life! Dogherty pa.s.sed through the town without fear of vengeance; although once, certain soldiers, his countrymen, injured him, and left scars which he carried to the grave.

But what character is perfect? He was addicted to intemperance, and commonly spent the day succeeding an execution in drunkenness. The incredulous are a.s.sured, that this is not the language of fiction, but the character commonly ascribed in sober earnest to this unfortunate being.

The day will come, when the sacrifice of life, made with more hesitation, will cease to be a public spectacle; when, if it is deemed requisite to cut off from the earth the shedder of blood, the dreadful doom will cease to amuse the brutal, or to offer a momentary excitement to the unreflecting. Women will be no longer seen raising their children above the crowd, to enjoy the most humiliating sight that can meet the eyes of mortals. Let no one imagine, that men are effectually intimidated by attending public executions: as the fatal moment draws nigh, crowds are indeed seen rushing towards the spot; but they wear the lineaments of insensibility, intemperance, or habitual crime. It is not the guilt of the sufferer which extinguishes their pity: they would run to witness the murder of a saint. The utility of executions is left to the judgment of statesmen, but it cannot be wrong to detest them.

Thus far having delineated the broad features of the system known as the "certain and severe," it will be proper to explain the changes which it ultimately produced in the practical working of transportation.

Simultaneously, a new theory of colonisation was promulgated. Land ceased to be granted: the funds acc.u.mulated by its sale were available for emigration,--and thus to decrease the rate of wages, and to enable the government to dispense with the services of convicts as writers, overseers, and mechanics. To a.s.sist this project, it had been determined to levy a tax on prison labor; but the protest of the colonists and the remonstrance of Arthur, led to its abandonment. The despatch which explained his views, dwelt on the inconvenience, vexation, and loss, to which the settlers were subject. He informed the Secretary of State, that his lordship could not understand, except by experience, how much and how often the colonists were fretted by the misconduct of their servants, and despoiled by their peculation: however perfect the discipline established; although the roads were safe, and violence infrequent; though many prisoners were reformed and useful, still the existing social state was charged with every form of domestic annoyance and mortification. Trivial thefts were constantly pa.s.sed over, because punishment was attended with greater loss. Thus, two hundred men arrive--they are distributed: their masters pay down money for their clothing; but before they reach their home, their clothes are destroyed or sold--or, perhaps, they are committed for felony to gaol. At first the settler repines, but his difficulties are inevitable: he is silent, because his trials have long lost the interest of novelty, and all around him are fellow-sufferers. The settlers who submitted to the impertinence and unwillingness of pickpockets, he thought certainly ent.i.tled to the benefit of their services without any other tax than might be levied by their fingers. This earnest protest was not without success; but it became, afterwards, a potent weapon in the hands of those who p.r.o.nounced transportation a failure.[214]

The arrival of many hundreds, whose previous habits were far from respectable, increased the difficulties of penal government. The former marked division of cla.s.ses was confounded: the emigrant laborer was the companion of the prisoner of the crown; but, in law, the equal of the prisoner's master. This addition was greatly deplored, both by the Governor and the press. It was perceived that great organic changes must follow the influx of free men, whose interest would run in a direction entirely opposite to penal inst.i.tutions. Thus, almost instantly, a change became perceptible: the high value of prison labor was reduced, and employers hostile to the government could afford to defy its power.

The emigrant laborers formed an intermediate cla.s.s, which detested the espionage and insolence of a convict constabulary, and was disposed to resent the haughty spirit which slavery has ever generated in the ruling cla.s.ses.

In 1835, the feeling in opposition to transportation was strongly expressed by certain portions of the people. A meeting was called, under the auspices of Messrs. Kemp, Gellibrand, Hackett, Thomas Horne, and others, which complained that the hope entertained, that the colony might ultimately be freed from its penal character, had been disappointed, and that the colonists "were made materials for the punishment of British offenders;" were considered only as the "occupants of a large prison;"--phrases of Arthur--and that "this penal character had recently increased; thus violating the feelings of the adult, and barbarising the habits and demoralising the principles of the rising generation." This meeting, at which the sheriff presided, called by public advertis.e.m.e.nt, was perhaps _de jure_ a meeting of the colony; but the sheriff refused to attach his signature, lest the pet.i.tion should be taken as that of the settlers in general, whose opinions it certainly did not then represent.

Arthur, in his despatch, endeavoured to neutralise its possible influence, at the same time intimating that he had "long foreseen that abolition would become a popular question." He, however, maintained that the emigrant, knowing the object of the settlement, had no right to complain; and that for the quarter of a century succeeding it would become increasingly adapted for the enforcement of penal discipline. He advised the ministers to stop the current of emigration, which, if continued, would render "convicts less valuable to the settlers," or to confine it to female emigrants, or such artificers as carpenters and masons.[215] Two hundred and sixty persons, in the Launceston district, repudiated the following pa.s.sage of the pet.i.tion:--"Your Majesty's humble pet.i.tioners most respectfully pray your Majesty to be pleased in your paternal goodness to remove from the colony of Van Diemen's Land the degradation and unspeakable evils to which it is subject on account of its penal character."

It would be amusing to contrast the sentiments expressed by various persons during the first formal agitation of this subject, with those that have latterly prevailed. It must, however, be remembered, that there were two political parties. Some opposed transportation as the last indignity which could be offered to Arthur, its zealous patron; while others desired its continuance only because no other labor was at hand. The paupers sent from the parishes did not create a strong feeling of preference for free servants, many of whom were profligate, intemperate, and otherwise worthless. Nor is it honest to conceal the disastrous influence of power on the moral perceptions of the mind. It is justly observed by Franklin, the philosopher, that "it is one of the worst features of human nature, yet one with which it is too generally impressed--the love of power; whereby all men prefer to be served by slaves, over whom they have absolute dominion, than by free men, who have rights as well as their masters." These motives, mingled and corroborated by the practice of many years, contributed to strengthen the views of the local government, and to reduce to a small minority the advocates of abolition. Yet such are the singular conjunctions of affairs: though derided and rejected on the spot, they were afterwards quoted with respect by a committee of British legislators, when the subject of transportation again engaged the attention of parliament.

FOOTNOTES:

[Footnote 210:

"_Colonial Secretary's Office, 14th February_, 1833.

"His Majesty's government having been pleased to enjoin the strictest fulfilment of the law upon all convicts sent to this colony, and that their punishment should be _certain and severe_, the Lieutenant-Governor directs the renewed attention of all public officers connected with the convict department, to the instructions which have from time to time been issued on the subject.

"His Excellency is desirous especially to impress upon them the necessity of invariably exacting the due portion of daily labor from each convict, and of not permitting any remission or indulgence but such as have been previously and especially authorised.

"The orders prohibiting convicts employed on the roads and in the public works (including clerks, messengers, and persons of that description) from laboring, under any pretence, for private individuals, or to the advantage of those in charge of them, are at all times to be most perseveringly and carefully enforced, and to avoid any misconception in a matter deemed so important by his Majesty's government, the instructions are to be understood most peremptorily to forbid every species of indulgence beyond the food, clothing, bedding, and lodging authorised by regulations to every convict.

"A proportionate degree of restraint and watchfulness over all a.s.signed convicts is equally essential. The object of their reform, as well as punishment, must never be lost sight of.

"His Excellency is sensible that this end could never have been so successfully attained as it has been, without the zealous co-operation of the colonists at large, who in conjunction with a due exaction of labor, have very generally insisted upon the observance of orderly and regular conduct.

"As it is through this good feeling on the part of the colonists generally, that the police has proved so efficient an auxiliary in the general control of the convict population, and as it would be unjust to allow the exceptions which may yet exist to affect the reputation of the colony at large, the government will still more firmly pursue the course of withdrawing a.s.signed servants from all masters who neglect to regard cleanly, decent, and sober habits in and out of their huts, and a seasonable attention to moral and religious duties, as part of the compact under which the labor is placed at their disposal.

"The Lieutenant-Governor on this occasion feels it due to the general body of the settlers, to acknowledge his obligation to them for the cordial support he has received at their hands in the control and management of the convict population, with which no political differences have been permitted to interfere, and his Excellency does so with the more satisfaction, at this particular time, when the attention of the Imperial Parliament is so especially drawn to the consideration of the important subject of prison discipline, and when the state of things in the colony has placed the local government in a situation to contradict the unjust imputations which have been raised against transportation as a punishment.

"By his Excellency's command,

"J. BURNETT."]

[Footnote 211: Backhouse and Walker's observations. This evil was corrected on their representation.]

[Footnote 212: _Par. Papers._]

[Footnote 213: "The Rev. Dr. Bedford, in the course of his remarks, stated that his duty had imposed upon him the painful task of attending between three and four hundred executions, and that more than nineteen-twentieths of the unhappy men who had thus miserably perished, had been brought to this end by the effects of drunkenness."--_Courier_; Speech at a meeting of the first Temperance Society at Hobart Town, 1832.

"It has fallen to our lot to be present at the executions of a large proportion of the malefactors who have suffered the extremity of the law in Hobart Town, and the apparent apathy with which the unhappy men met their fate, was always to us the most humiliating part of the spectacle.

Their lips would utter with apparent sincerity the invocations prompted by the clergyman, but the heart, that should have given them expression, was too plainly wanting. They were empty sounds--the soul was gone. The main part of the executioner's duty was performed to his hand; the kernel was already consumed.... They sung psalms, ate a hearty meal: they heard the summons of the sheriff; their arms were pinioned; the halter was put about their neck; the cap was brought over their eyes, and they dropped into eternity with more indifference than the ox goes to the slaughter."--_V. D. Land Annual_; edited by Dr. Ross, 1833.]

[Footnote 214: 28th June, 1832.]

[Footnote 215: Despatch to Spring Rice.]

SECTION XVIII.

Governor Arthur held the reins of authority while considerable changes transpired in the elder colony. Sir Thomas Brisbane, who succeeded Macquarie, had chiefly attempted to diminish the expenditure, and in the management of convicts had sought in the results of their labor, rather than its detail, the success of transportation. Formed into gangs, they were employed in clearing farms under the inspection of government superintendents, for which the settlers paid a moderate price; but on the arrival of General Darling, the government a.s.sumed an aspect of increasing rigour, and the reins of authority were tightened until they were in danger of breaking. It does not belong to this work to examine minutely the general policy of that ruler; it was, however, held in earnest detestation by those who were, or had been prisoners. The magistrates were empowered to inflict corporal punishment to a very questionable extent, and it was customary for one settler to judge and sentence the servant of another, who in his turn performed a similar office. It is surely not necessary to prove, that the moderate exercise of such extensive powers depended rather on the equitable temper of British gentlemen than the practical limitation of their power.

On the arrival of Sir Richard Bourke, the successor of Darling, the spirit of convict discipline underwent a change. By a new law he lessened the power of the magistrates to inflict corporal punishment, and particularly terminated the system of distributing through successive days the sentence awarded. The magistrates complained that the convict servants treated the penalties to which they were liable with derision, and pet.i.tions from various districts of the colony claimed the restoration of the abolished laws. This led to the issue of an order to the various district magistrates, requesting their personal attendance at the triangles, and a special report upon the extent of suffering which resulted from the application of the lash.

Superintendent Ernest Augustus Slade, son of General Slade, prepared a scourge, which was called the "regulation cat." Every flagellator through the colony was supplied with this instrument, and the effects it produced are described with scientific minuteness. The last victim was much more fortunate than the first: the lash loosened, or softened, and became more merciful at every stroke.

The description of several hundred cases in the course of one month, prove how useless, how unequal, and unavailing this form of torture.

Such as these: "a fair skinned young man, he bore his punishment well;"

"he resolved to bear his punishment like a man;" "he begged for some water;" "he seemed much exhausted, and cried like a child;" "this man never moved or spoke;" "he seemed to suffer much mental pain;" "he bit his lip, he had had former punishments;" "he neither cried nor spoke;"

"he cried out domino." Of fifty, one half had never been flogged before.

Then there follows in each case a description of the writhings of the sufferers: the discoloration of the skin, the time at which the blood appeared, and whatever might ill.u.s.trate the power of the lash to degrade and torture. These returns were obtained to vindicate Governor Bourke from the charge of unseasonable lenity, and to prove that no just discontent was authorised by the mitigations he had enforced.

A great portion of these punishments were inflicted by the order of Mr.

Slade. Dismissed for immoralities he was authorised to avenge, he excused them by alleging his youth. Though capricious, he was not cruel; but it is due to mankind, to protest against depositing power in the hands of young persons, who have to cover their own pa.s.sions by the plea of juvenility, and who, in every part of the penal colonies, have exhibited an example of those habits which lead to crime--and too often administered public vengeance in the spirit of tyranny.

Corporal punishment, long tenaciously vindicated, by those who ruled ma.s.ses of men, was held indispensible, and no severe reproach can be due to the government which authorised, or the magistrates who ordered, its infliction. It seems, indeed, to be essential to every social system that denies the ordinary rewards of labor. The rebel slave, to deprive his master, will dare any suffering which suspends or terminates his service. But beside those who employed the lash from conviction, there were others of a different stamp: it is quietly observed by Messrs.

Backhouse and Walker, that they found its greatest advocates "among persons given to profane swearing." The violent temper, p.r.o.ne to break out in imprecations, would find another and congenial relief in scenes of torture and debas.e.m.e.nt. There were modes of punishment which no prejudice could extenuate: among these, the infliction of the lash in a form which degraded society more than it debased the sufferer. Thus, at Hobart Town, men, for mere faults, have been sentenced to _exposure_ and the scourge, in the view of hundreds: the flagellator extinguished the last feeling of the man, and roused the temper of the demon. An old compositor, within a month of his freedom, was charged with some trifling breach of convict discipline, and though the father of grown up children, was ordered by a chief police magistrate, this cruel disgrace.

He is dead--and his oppressor is dead! Such cases were not uncommon, but they are past, and they may be left to oblivion.

Whether it is possible, in the present state of penal discipline, to withdraw the scourge from the hands of authority, it might be difficult to decide: it should not, however, be forgotten, that its present comparative disuse, was once p.r.o.nounced impossible; and that when flogging decreased, crimes of savage violence became unusual.