Prison labour, &c. : correspondence and communications addressed to His Majesty's Principal Secretary of State for the Home Department, concerning the introduction of tread-mills into prisons, with other matters connected with the subject of prison discipline / by Sir John Cox Hippisley.

  • Hippisley, John Cox, 1748-1825.
Date:
1823
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Prison labour, &c. : correspondence and communications addressed to His Majesty's Principal Secretary of State for the Home Department, concerning the introduction of tread-mills into prisons, with other matters connected with the subject of prison discipline / by Sir John Cox Hippisley. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    duties of the Christian religion in any way be inculcated with any hope of success under the latter state of disci¬ pline except by a miracle ? How necessary then is it, on this ground, that some punishment less distressful, less revolting even to those who are not intimidated by labour of any other descrip¬ tion—less pregnant with “ horror” than that of the Tread-Wheel (to return to the language of the Prison Discipline Committee,) should be employed in its stead : —something more consonant to the spirit of Christianity and the practice of the present day, as successfully at¬ tempted among the female Convicts in Newgate. And how obvious must it be to every one that if this mo¬ dification be not abandoned for something else, the office of a Prison Chaplain, and the duties such as a Minister has to perform, (of the utmost promise as well as moment under other circumstances), may and ought to be abandoned as a useless expense and an idle mockery. It is ingenuously admitted by the intelligent and indefatigable Committee of the same benevolent So¬ ciety from whom we have just quoted, and who, if they have hitherto countenanced the Tread-Wheel, can only have done so because its baneful effects have not hitherto been sufficiently pointed out, that “ the pre- “ vention of crime will never be effected by the influence “ of fear alone : for the truth of this sentiment the 66 Committee may confidently appeal to the page of “ history. In no Christian or civilized country has un- “ mixt severity obtained this object. The criminal “ thus treated, be his offence what it may, experiences a ce feeling of injury : resentment is excited in his bosom : <e the energies of his mind are exerted to resist coercion.