"PENAL SERVITUDE."

NZ Truth, Issue 106, 29 June 1907, Page 7

"PENAL SERVITUDE."

A BOOK BY LORD WILLIAM NEVILL.

SOME CURIOUS EXPERI EN C VI)

Everybody wi<ll recollect tlic mil;! sensation created towards the closo . of 1902 by the publication of a boo!: entitled ' 'Penal Servitude- ' ' Tlvo name of . the author was concealed under the initials "W. B. N.", but it was an. "open secret that the volume Was . written 'by and contained the prison reminiscences of Lord William N'DVill. To preserve the secret of its authorship was an impossibility, for within its pages the writer detailed at length the 1 trial, which concluded :m. his being sentenced to five years' penal servitude. : \ ' "In June,. 189 6, being m. money difficulties, I. took a, course .which, after giving, me .endless worry, at last | brought me withfim the arm of the law." . ;With these , • , TRAGICALLY CHARACTERISTIC - WORD'S ■.| the volume opened. He the proceed- ' ed to narrate the. faots of th©> case that was brought' against him. Gtently blamdng his former friend and associate, Captaa'ii S- C— — -, for the prominent part "be toolc , m the trial, he concluded his arraignment of the world's ill-treatment of; him, by saying, "'I suppose I ha-vie no rigjht to complain, as I had undoubtedly wronged -him." But against Mr Justioe Lawramoe, who sentenced tern to the maximum penalty, he inveigh 1 ed bitterly. , ' ' a "Mr Justice Lawragpe demedvnd'ignantly -that punishment falls more heavily .on "a- man of high 1 position than on an ordinary mortal. Nobody has ever said,- that it did, but that was Mr Juetice Lawrence's way. of intimating that he meant to make me' smart for belonging to a well-known family. When he came to this, he made a strange pretonoe of wishing to spare my feelings. He said, 'I, do fnot want to say anything to trouble you ■unnecessarily, and he .'.immediately prooooded to say thto ,ibitterest things he could think of, as if determined to prevent my ever holding my ,head up again. He fittingly conclud* od by condemning me to five years' penal servitude, the maximum penalty allowed- by the law for the offence to which I had pleaded 'Guilty.' " He was taken after sentence to> Wormwood Scrufobs, and, after seven weeks there-»rweeVs .that, seemed like years"— he was sent to Parkhurst. "I Dever felt any repulsion from any kind of prison work, but from the beginning I -made up my mind to do what I was (told to do. and to the best of my strength, and I found this was far the test way." PRISONER'S WEAK HEALTH. A great portion of his prison life was spent m hospital, owing to his weak health, only a little more than two years 'being passed under the ordinary hard-and-fast convict system. His recollections of that period are similar m detail to those published over-froguently nowadays by ex-oonvicts. , ' : "On November 8, 1901, having earned the maximum number of marks for good conduct, I was discharged after completing •three years and nine months' imprisonment. I shall not soon forget that morning. I got up at 5.10 a, m... as usual, and had my last— at least,, I hope it will be my last — prison breakfast, a/nd, at 7.30 a principal warder 1 took me] down to the gate. ... On arriving m London I went straight home, and later m the day I went to Scotland Yard to report myself; : ibeing nominally on ticket-of-leave, " Naturallyi,l avoided going to places where I should be likely to meet, people whom I' had formerly known m society. But I had no idea of shutting myself up for fear of coming m contact with people who migiM not wish toiknow me." Shortly after his release he attends ed a memorial service at St. Mark's-, North -Audley-Street. "After the service, when leaving the- 1 churoh , I naturally . was rubbing shoulders with many of my old acquaintances. Swme of them kindly I nodded or spoke to me. Others PUT ON A GLASSY. LOOK. j When I got into the street, -however, a man, the head of one Of our greatest families, came up and shook hands with me, and asked me to walk With, him later m the day. I also re* ceived a letter from his wife, who ia a Viery old friend of ours, asking m« to go and see her. When coming out of the churoh an old friend of mine, though he was close to me, took no notice of me., but he saw the man, whom I have referred to\ speak to me, and me walking with him . That same day' my so-cawed friend met me again, and this time he Waved his hand and smiled from ear to ear. However*, it was I this time who looked the other way, as it was sp very j evident that the reason he noticed me was because he had seen who had spoken to me 'earlier inthe" day."