THE FRENCH CONVICT QUESTION.

Dunstan Times, Issue 1163, 13 June 1884, Page 3

THE FRENCH CONVICT QUESTION.

The Morning Pont points out wherein .lies tha real dan ,;er to the colonies if the recidivist scheme of the. French Governmeat is given effect to ; . A good deal of public attention has been drawn to a recent article in the Nouvelle Revue froih the pen of M. H. Denis, lately sub director of the penal settlement of Noumea, This article contrasts and describes some of the various systems of administration which have been tried by successive Governors of New Caledonia in the hope of improving the situation. Admiral Zourbei employed severity. His successor believes in philanthropic treatment of the convicts. The result under both systems appears to bo practically the same. Utter want of classification and an apparently incorrigible laxity seem to render all expecta- , tions of improvement futile. On the island of Non, close to Noumea, the convicts repose for the night iu huge huts surrounded by a wall, each hut intended to hold fifty, but frequently containing seventy men. M. Denis confesses that these dens are the scenes of unchecked license. The convicts make screens of their blankets, and by the light of surreptitiously- manufactured lamps play for heavy stakes through the night. Al. H. Denis has heard of “ a convict paying his debt of honor, after a night’s gambling with twelve pieces of lOOfr.” Gold is common among convicts, and “ it has been impossible to discover where are the mines from which the convicts seem to draw gold at will.” This is a'curious statement. As a rule, there ip no distinction between habitual and accidental offenders. A select body of the most desperate viilians, to the number of some 500, however, are collected in one place apart. These men are said to be “ bandits capable of anything.” • Mention has been made of the practical abolition of the death penalty among these hardened convicts as well as in Franca itself. As a result, criminals who are sentenced to bard labor for life find tbat.no matter what additional offence they commit, they have hardly anything to fear in the way of additional penalty When a murderer, who has slain a fellow prisoner or a warder, has been tried and condemned to death he always has the right of appeal, and the appeal must be heard in France. The transmission Home and back of the appeal, together with the legal delays in France, ensures a respite of at least eight or nine months, an 1 it is almost invariably the case that the appeal is granted. The compas-ionatp judges of the Republic and the compassionate President discover extenuating circumstances in the sufferings of the poor convict which, reacting upon his temper, predisposed him to an outbreak of violence. It. has come to pass in consequence that sentences of death in Naw Caledonia are a subject of ridicule and demoralising just. The sub, Director of Noumea P nitentiary relates that there is actually now ,at the island of Non a convict “who is lying under his fourth sentence of death, and is not a trifle the worse on that account." It. would be difficult to contrive a system better adapted to ensure that the w rst evils of transportation should como to a head and bear luxurious fruit in New Caledonia. One extremely curious feature of th* French transportation system is the plan of arranging marriages between male and female convicts, which is practised on a sufficiently extensive scale. EvilenDy it would be difficult to find respectable partners for the con vic's of either s -x, and in the necessary default of an hj the author! ties of the penitmtiiry do not shrink from the hero ; o experiment of e conraging the union in matrimony of brdogrooms and find is of tho most extraordinary anteoe dents, Ihe official reports assert that these . unions result in marked improvement in the ciiaracierof both parties It is to be hoped so, indeed, inasmuch as nothing more detestable than their pr-vinus characters can be imagined. M. H Denis gives some specimens of the blooming brides who are sent out to crown the domestic felicity of the gentle denizens of Noumea and the lal md of Nou. Here are a couple of illustrations Angeliqne E.,” aged twentythree years, utterly depraved, and mother of two illegitimate children, broke at night, for purposes of theft, into the house of an old woman of eighty years, and on leaving set tire to the house, burned the poor old victim, and caused the fire to snreal to several other houses. Accused of her crime, she added to her guilt by vehemently attempting to throw the blame on an innocent person. This sweet creature was soiiuht in marriage by a courageous convict,and is now reported to bea •* laborious, domestic, and of exemplaiy morality.” Julie-Marie Rohertine “o.,”age-l twenty years, led the most aban oned life, and committed infanticide under exceptional brutal circumstances. She is also a convict’s spouse. and is equally described in the reports of the administration as “ laborious and industrious, and devoted to her duties” It is scarcely surprising that theidea of exile to such Arcidian realms—where the pleasant excitement of the gambling table and the tender charm of domestic happiness hold out their attractions to different classes of 'minds—is far from producing either terro- or alarm among the criminal population of France. To complete the picture, M. H. Denis expressly says that the sentence of hard labor is scaicely nure real than the sentence to death, for the sufficient reason that the convic s are utterly apposed to working, except in the most moderate manner. In fact, the subdirector thinks that it would ho better if the whole apparatus of officials, warders, and prisons were given up as a useless expense, and if the free and democratic convicts were left to manage for themselves as they choose. Such is the picture of the French transportation system painted by an official hand. It were strange if it could be accepted as ovide ce of a success.