HOUSE OF LORDS—Feb. 15.

Daily Southern Cross, Volume 4, Issue 210, 30 June 1849, Page 3

HOUSE OF LORDS— Feb. 15.

Lakceny Act amendment Bill. Lord Stanley regretted that a measure of this kind should be brought forward before they had some explanation from ministers of their views on the much larger question of transportation gener-, ally. He referred to the evils consequent on the accumulation of male convicts, and opposed the opinion that it was objectionable to transport females. The system of probation for female convicts in the colonies he believed had been attended with beneficial results, and he hoped, therefore, the report that government would put an end to it, was unfounded. Earl Grey was of opinion that transportation must be looked upon not so much as a syßtem of discipline and punishment as one of banishmqnt ; but of banishment under the controul of the governor of the colony. When the discipline and conduct of convicts were strictly looked after, 99 out of luO became useful colonists. The system the government proposed to adopt was to send the convict to Wakefield or Pentonville for ,a longer or shorter period — from 16 to 18 months, according to the nature of his crime — as a place of probation, from whence he would be forwarded to Gibraltar, Bermuda, or Portland Island, to labour in association, and there their atsy would entirely depend upon their own conduct. From thence they would be transported to New South Wales, one of our more distant colonies, where, by continued good conduct, they would become entitled to tickets of. leave, sucu tickets, however, not to be granted until, by their labour, the convicts had paid half the cost of their transport to the colony. The amount thus obtained would co into the colonial treasury. It was proposed that the Cape of Good Hope should be one of the places for the reception, of , .convicts ; and tho' the colonists there weie dissatisfied with that arrangement, he thought, considering the expense we had been put to in respect to the Kaffir war, there could be no reasonable objection, and it was proposed at once to send there 150 convicts from Bermuda. With regard to female convicts, government proposed to transfer all those now confined in rioating prisons to some receptacle on shore, where effectual measures for reformation might be adopted. But tho whole question of the .confinement of women convics under an ell cient system of reformatory discipline, was still under the consideration of government.