CONVICT OUTBREAK IN VICTORIA. [From the Sydney Umpire, April 3.]

Nelson Examiner and New Zealand Chronicle, Volume XVI, Issue 7, 22 April 1857, Page 3

CONVICT OUTBREAK IN VICTORIA. [From the Sydney Umpire, April 3.]

SAVAGE MURDER OF MR. PRICE. The Melbourne papers received yesterday, contain accounts of a dreadful tragedy committed by a gang of convicts at the Williamstown hulks, in the murder of Mr. Price, the inspector-general of penal establishments. We subjoin the particulars of the murderous outrage. The Attack on Mr. Price. The following is from the Argus of Friday :—: — Yesterday afternoon, about three o'clock, one of the most daring attempts to obtain their liberty was made by the convicts of the penal hulk Success. For some time the greatest insubordination has existed among the men known as the "long-sentence" men, and the patience of the wardens has been sorclv tried. Owing to some complaints on the score of provisions, Mr. Price, the Inspector of Penal Establishments, visited the hulks yesterday, and inspected the prisoners on the neck of land on which they are employed during the day. While discussing ther grievances with the Success men, who were working heavily ironed, in a gang by themselves, he was suddenly set upon and knocked down by a blow from a shovel (some of the warders say by a stone in the first instance), and was immediately surrounded and attacked on every side, the convicts jumping on him and pelting him with stones. A young man named Wilson, who rushed to his assistance, was similarly treated, and their cowardly assailants then commenced knocking off their irons with a view to escape, and rushed towards the town of Williamstown, leaving Mr. Price and Wilson apparently dead on the spot. The ease with which some of the irons were knocked off indicated the possession by the convicts of tools adapted to the work. The whole of the irons were cleared in an incredibly short space of time, and about thirty of the most daring ruffians made several rushes with a mew to break the guard which surrounded them. The prisoncis belonging to the other hulks were drafted off by their warders in separate i groups, aud the insubordinate kept wcil separated from the main body. In the meantime Mr. Price had been

removed on a shutter in a state of perfect insensibility, and was gradually restored to a sense of his dangerous position by medical aid. Wilson was able to walk, with assistance, to a spot out of the reach of his assailant?, and he was subsequently conveyed home. The warders and keepers acted with the greatest forbearance throughout, and although urged by the inhabitants to attack the desperadoes, they preserved an excellent discipline. The convicts evinced the greatest determination to escape, and in the face of their guards they deliberately took off their clothes, turned them inside out, put them on again, and stood in a compact mass, prepared for a rush. Fortunately no boats were within reach. For about an hour and a-half the ruffians and their guards' stood face to face, neither party appearing willing to commence operations ; but as the warders, the police, and the sailors from the Victoria steam-sloop, who acted admirably under the command of their officer.", began to disclose their full strength, the prisoners retreated towards some heaps of shingle and ballast near the point, and the warders were enabled to parley with them. They ultimately, but with frequent stoppage?, during which violent gesticulations occurred among them, were conducted unironed down the stone pier towards the hulks. ' The greatest excitement prevailed at Williamstown, the entire body of the inhabitants turning out to assist the authorities. For some time past the insubordination has been increasing on board the hulk, and a great many papers containing the report of the Citizens" Committee have been found on the convicts. How these men obtained possession of these pamphlets in such large numbers is not known. It is evident that the morbid sympathy which has been shown by some towards these unhappy criminals has had the effect of rendering them rebellious in the extreme, and the duties of the warders not only irksome but dangerous. An inquiry into the circumstances under which Mr. Price met his death was commenced on Saturday afternoon before Dr. Wilmot and a jury of twelve residents at the Eoyal Hotel, Williamstown. The inquest should have beeh held before Dr. Youl, but that gentleman being a personal friend of the deceased, and having, as we understood, some evidence to offer; requested Dr. Wilmot to act in his behalf! From the evidence given by James Holmes, superintendent of the Hult Success, we obtain more circumstantial particulars. He says,' after relating some of the interviews between Mr. Price and the prisoners: — "After that, a prisoner, named Kelly, came up and asked if the three days' sentence of ' solitary ' he received a week ago would affect his applying for a ticket-of-leave, or whether he would have to serve six months in consequence. His sentence was three days on bread and water in confinement. He was just 'due' then, and wished to know whether he would have to serve the six months according to the regulations. After I had explained the case to the Inspector-General, he turned round to the prisoner and said. 'You will have to do so.' Kelly then became very excited, and as he went off the tramway he turned round and shook his fist at the inspector. Kelly was then returning to his work. When he shook his fist he said, ' You byb y tyrant, your race will soon be run.' This 'was in his hearing. The inspector then ordered him to be sent on board. He was not taken, as the rest of the men came up at the moment. Only the 'cart party ' came up. They said that they would see the Inspector-General. The inspector was it the moment talking to a prisoner named' Richard Bryan. The cart party consisted of ;hirty prisoners. Bryan complained that he lad not received a proper allowance of soap — * hat the soap that was issued was not the proper allowance. The inspector took the soap he showed him, and marked it with a cross. The cart party then came up, and surrounded the inspector nearly in a half circle. They drew up their carts all at once, and seemed very anxious to speak to the inpector. Just then the quarry gang, and also the excavators, came up. The inspector turned round and asked by whose orders those men had left their work.' The overseer said 'They would come: they would not be stopped.' The inspector said,' ' Oh, that's it : they had better be sent on board. You had better go on board, and I will hear what you have to say. 1 At this time the men were gathering up, and I was forming them in the ranks for the purpose of marching them down. I then saw the same Henry Smith who first spoke, in a very excited state. He said, 'We will have no officers.' ne held his hands up, and repeated 'We will,' several ' times, 'We will have new or fresh officers.' Thomas Maloney ajid another prisoner standing next to Smith said, clenching his fist in the direction of the chief wardens, 'That's the or the b y tyrant,' and immediately after two pieces of* dirt were thrown. The iiame of the chief warder is Thomas Hyland. The two pieces of earth were thrown at the Inspector-General. These pieces were thrown from the rear rank of the men — from amongst those men who had come up in a body. It was earth that was first thrown, not stones.' I think neither of these pieces struck him, but immediately several stones followed. The Inspector-General held his hand up as if to protect his hat, and turned round. I saw nothing more of him. I should say one or two of the stones struck him, for he put up his hand, immediately. It was his right hand, but I cannot say for a certainty. As he turned round, his hand was at the back of his head.' I did not positively see any stone strike him. He stooped down as he turned, aud came towards me, aud the whole body of the men rushed between him and myself, aud stones were thrown at him, and in the direction of myself and the chief warder. I cannot recognise any who threw the stones. I have perceived insubordination amongst the convicts for the last five months — ever since the last rush. It has been increasing, and getting worse and worse every day. All the men belongiug to the Success were coming up the bank at the time. The discipline observed has not been changed. From what I have heard the prisoners say, and the remarks they have made, they considered that there was a great deal of sympathy for them outside, and that they would jret a great deal done for them — so much so that one of the men asked the Jnspcc'or-Gencnil about a month ago, 'When

arc we going to have tea, and sugar, and tubneco served out to us?' I checked him fur it." After this witness had finished his evidence . the coroner adjourned the inquest until Monday looming. DEATH OV MR. PRICE. Mr. Price expired a few minutes after four o'clock on Friday afternoon. His recovery from the first had been considered hopeless, and the agonies of the unfortunate gentleman were so great that death must have been a mercy to him. Mr. Price has left a wife and large family to deplore his fate. From the inquiries made as to the immediate cause of death, it appeared that Mr. Price must have been severely injured by one of the ilrst missiles thrown. His hat bears the mark of one vevy heavy blow and of having been trampled on, but it must have been cut to pieces had it been on his head when the latter injuries were inflicted. It could not have been on his head when the blow was struck with the shovel, or, from the position of the mark made, the brim of the hat must have been crushed, which is not the case. Mr. Price's coat was torn to pieces. lie yv-as fjuitc insensible when first taken to Dr. Wilkins's house, but about an hour after he rallied for a few moments, recognised the Doctor and addressed him by name. This was the last glimpse of human intelligence that ever crossed his mind. He became again insensible and remained so to the moment of his death. A suggestion was made to try an operation, but this Dr. Wilkins very properly refused, as he felt that the patient would sink at once. In order to be sure, he telegraphed to Melbourne, and obtained the assistance of Dr. Barker and Mr. Gillbee. These gentlemen confirmed Dr. Wilkins's judgment. There was no depression of the bones of the skull, so no operation was there required, and the patient must have died under the very first incision required to remove the arm. All that skill could suggest was done, but the murderers had performed their work too surely. Comments of the Press. The manner in which the outbreak is viewed by the Melbourne newspapers appears to be tempered by political bias. The Argus, which imputes much of the blame of the outrage to the " morbid sympathy " with the prisoners expressed by the citizens' committee, writes : — "We ask, if this most melancholy and cowardly outbreak have a tragical termination, on whom will the moral responsibility of that fact rest? " The morbid sympathy with the criminal class, which there have been such industrious efforts of late to foster, is beginning it would seem to bear its natural fruit. How far it may yet work to leaven society with a new element of danger, time will show. The convict mind has plainly got possession of an idea that will germinate luxuriantly iv that rank soil. The criminal class infer, logically enough, from facts they have heard, that they are under public protection, and the present object of popular sympathy. " The effect a dozen citizens' committees, of the calibre and temper of mind of Mr. Schultz's, upon the public opinion of the colony would concern us very little. A public meeting, half-a-dozen declamatory speeches, cheers, groans, and the usual concomitants of a temporary popular excitement, are things often very absurd, but generally very harmless. What has come of the fuss and fury made by the incendiary speeches at the Amphitheatre, and the cooked 'case' set forth in Mr. Schultz's report ? We know not by what fatality — what culpable neglect or connivance — the prisoners on board the hulks at Williamstown obtained possession of the documents issued by the self- » styled citizens' committee. A precious document, indeed, was the • report ' of Mr. William Schultz to fall into the hands of these ruffians. A proper lesson, truly, to teach them, that Melbourne was getting up sympathising demonstrations ! An edifying piece of instruction to tell them, that the great social heart was convulsed with strong emotions of indignation at the sufferings of the prisoner, and the sins of the gaoler. It is an ascertained fact that copies of this publication have been for some time past in circulation on board the hulks. How the poison came there, we say, we know not. We have at the moment to deal simply with its workings. Its immediate effects were, of course, to increase the spirit of insubordination that seems natural to men who have once been guilty of serious offences against law. The report was held in terrorem over the heads of the gaolers. It came to be a common prison taunt against the men whose duty it was to keep watch and ward over these desperadoes, that ' The eyes of the citizens' committee were upon them !' And what are we to look to for as the inevitable result of this inflammatory document of Mr. William Schultz being conveyed to these felons and circulated amongst them ? What, but just the murder that was all but consummated yesterday ! A spirit of insubordination and rebellion, fed and pampered by the belief of popular sympathy, with a half-consciousness of being ill-used martyrs on Mr. Schultz's showing, ending in an attack at butchery both frantic aud brutal ! "Let the blame of this melancholy transaction rest where it should ; on the shoulders of those who were content to make ruffianism their pet, and pace it up and down before the world, to show, if not precisely its beauty, its claims to sympathy and protection. Many, we will believe, there were who joined in the late movement from a hatred of cruelties they believed to exist on the faith of interested or selfsufficient assertion. They may learn now how far it is safe or judicious to make affecting appeals to popular sensibilities in favour of the particular class of criminals that flourish amongst us. The lesson, we are satisfied, will not be lost. It will be a long time before Mr. William Schultz and a citizens' committee will again enlist public sympathy in the interest of colonial ruffianism. But what has been has been ; and Mr. Price is the half-murdered victim. " If Mr. Price should die — and his condition at this moment affords no certain guarantee that he will not — his blood will assuredly lie at the door of each and all of the members of the citizens' committee on penal discipline." The Age takes a diametrically opposite view, and points to Mr. Price's untimely end as the " result of that vindictive feeling which his own conduct and policy had fostered in the minds

of the convicts under his charge. He was a cruel man, and his cruelty came back to him." We quote that journal's remarks. " John Price's death is laid at the door of the citizens' committee. If so, let them be tried for the offence, and, if convicted, let them be hanged ! They either did right or wrong in investigating the complaints against Mr. Price. If right, then they deserve praise instead of blame. If wrong,- and if this wrong-doing wr j the cause of an innocent man's death, let them be punished without respect of persons. r < he first on the list of wrongdoers, and the gentleman who set the movement agoing, is the Rev. Dr. Cairns. We believe that the Rev. Mr. Ramsay, and some other estimable citizens, share the responsibility of aiding and abetting the movement. What do they think of being tried for murder ? "The penal department may be a very hell of horrors ; but there must be no more inquiry. It will excite a murderous spirit among the convicts, and somebody will be sure to be killed. Inquiry is a murderous institution, and should be put down. Publish a pamphlet now-a-days, aud you may get the gallows for it ! Convictkeepers maj be monaters of cruelty, but nobody must say a word ! It is not their cruelty that will exasperate their victims, but the fact of letting that cruelty be known. ' Neddying' will make them quiet as lambs ; it will inspire them with gratitude and resignation. It is only when they read pamphlets and newspapers that they become vindictive. The printing-press is the only potent agency — even in the hulks. " The allegations against Mr. Price were, it seems, not true. The convicts learnt that Mr. Price was cruel by reading the report of the committee. There they learnt all about * Neddying,' and other processes of torture which they had never before dreamt of, but which naturally made a deep impression upon their imaginations. It was, we are to suppose, under the influence of this imaginary representation that they applied the process to its alleged inventor. But the whole thing was a delusion, a species of monomania — all traceable to a perusal of that report. How it got into their hands is a point requiring explanation; and how they came to be influenced by statements which their own experieuce enabled them to contradict is still more mysterious. "Dr. Cairns and Mr. W. Schultz have much to answer for — the one for originating, and the other for prosecuting the penal inquiry. It was altogether a mistake. John Howard set the lamentable example of inquiring into the state of penal discipline throughout Europe, and everywhere endangered society by taking up the case of the prisoners. All his statements, too, were ex parte, and calculated to excite revolt throughout convictdom. And so probably it would have been had not the authorities acted upon his representations, and reformed the system. This should have been done here. Enough was proved to warrant the suspension of Mr. Price twenty times over; but the government were perfectly indifferent. We have even heard that Lieutenant Pasco was recently making an attempt to get the convicts recognised as human beings, and that he was thwarted by Mr. Price. Very likely the convicts heard of this, and more likely was it to exasperate them against Mr. Price than the alleged apocryphal statements of the report." The Herald expresses a more moderate opinion. It says :—": — " We have no motive and no intention to apologise for the Citizens' Committee. We took no part in its proceedings, and published no more of them than was absolutely necessary to keep our readers informed of what was going on in public life. But we do think it something worse than bad taste, and indeed disgusting and disgraceful — if not partaking in some measure of that same cowardly and revengeful spirit which actuated the murderers of Mr. Price — to raise a howl over the body of the unhappy man, and deliberately to point out individual citizens as having 'his blood lying at their door.' We protest against this conduct, as not only unjust and libellous, but as evincing the very same malignant spirit which is imputed to the enemies of the deceased. We are ashamed at witnessing such an unfeeling abuse of a great calamity ; and we sincerely hope that the public at large will be too judicious and too honourable to give way to such unreasonable and pitiful effeminacy. To seize upon this awful crime, as an opportunity for indulging in personal animosity and revenge, is unmanly and unchristian. It is trifling with the moral sense and conscience of the people. It is disturbing the stream of sympathy which would flow uninterruptedly into the bosom of the afflicted family; and it is substituting a very vulgar aud dangerous style of recrimination and abuse for those great social and political lessons which arc the moral of the catastrophe."