IMMIGRATION OF CONVICTS. [From the " Alta California," Nov. 20.]

New Zealander, Volume 7, Issue 494, 8 January 1851, Page 3

IMMIGRATION OF CONVICTS. [From the " Alta California," Nov. 20.]

Something has occasionally appeared through the press respecting the introduction amoujr us of thnt class of persons known as " convicts." But not half enough has been said. Our police reports, our jails and station houses, thefts and robberies, and the murders that bo fearfully abound in the mines and towns «nJ cities, the general laxity of moral feeling 1 painfully evident all about us, tell too truly that a laige portion of our floating population consists of aclas*, to which, if the term convict cannot sti ictly be applied, it is nevertheless worthy of being 60 an.l u<>fic for any society save that found in penal oolonie-. and state piisons. It is not intended to assert that all these crimes are committed by those who have bppn tried, found guilty, tiansported and seived out their time, or escaped. Yet it is evident a large portion is thus immediately chargeable to such O ir piisons and station houses are full of convicts, mostiy fio:n Ihe penal colonies of the Pacific. Our Police minutes show that these people are the great leprosy that is rendering the whole surface of our present society Ixreful and disgusting. Van Dieman's Land and New South Wales have been the p-ohfic lazarettos whence moral pestilence and contagion have spread to us in forms more terrible and ruinous to society and the soul, than clulera and yellow fever and small pox united, can be to the body. It is not seen and felt alone in the crimes committed immediately by this leprous gang of incarnated fiends. Each of them strikes Ihe blow with one band— wields one knife or pulls one trigger. But their terrible influence strikes with a thousand ; Bnareus-hlte, they are armed a hundred fold for wickedness, What shall be done to abate this crying evil? It is sapping the foundations of civil and social life. Its powir in demoralizing the unthinking or vacillating mind, in corrupting tlij young, in making a chaos of all the estimable and safe restraints and guards of so. ciery, jn csippliug industry by making the possession of its just rewards a dangerous if not fatal inducement tor theft rapine and murder; in sowing the seeds [ of distrust and fear and apprehension among all ranks and in all the vatious kinds of business among us, is far, almost infinitely beyond the belief of our too easily satisfied and far too indulgent people. Some remedy should be found out, some corrective applied. It is bad enough to havefamong us a'ready such moral scabs and pests of society. But it is still worse to allow this stream of pollution to continue running in upon us, flooding all that we hold estimable and dear in its horrible profanation. After the publication of "Jack Shepherd" in Eng^ land, the police reports of that Kingdom showed conclusively that nothing had contributed more to the spread of crime than the influence of that work, a detail of crime made interesting by imagination and fancy. Alas! we have a thousand Shepheid's in this I State, living, moving, murdering cut-lhroats, regard* lesi of moral end religious obligations, and too adroit for the law. Most of them have been beneath its clutches, and have grown wise, but not good. Many of them, probably most of them have come from the two colonies mentioned above. A few have escaped from payment of the penalty of their crime there, but most or them have served out their probation, and after that no impediment has been thrown in the way of their departure for this country by the authorities In reference to those serving out their term of service, the laws are strict, and it may not be easy for them to leave. It is said to he so. But if so, theie is a most fiuitful source of tins execrable immigration in that class — not a whit better than the others — who have been freed from their bond of sei vice by the lapse of years. It is true that a very closs surveillance is kept up in those colonies over the convicts, and that it would be very difficult for a convict before his term or service had expired, to leave it, piovidcd there was no sympathy on the part of the officers. Yet when his term is ended, his. punishment is over, he is a free man, and leady to come to California. N > man dare say ought against it. It matters not what his character may be, so it does not bring him under the ban ot the cord. There is only a voyage necessary to make the graduated thief a citizens of El Doiado, No one it is presumed, will contend that he has probably been improved or refoimid by hib term of seivitude and degradation. Pumbhment seldom leforms. State prisons and terms at transportation and involuntary service aie as certainly the dnect and inevitable course to graduation invillmny as is the College to the degree of A. 13, Tl^ese are the creatures that ate ra iky»

ing our State, as far as m their |xowor, a peifcul Pandemonium. They hive come here by thousands, they are like locusts and vermin of Egypt ; they are everywhere—- not only m the mines, engaged in rob-> bery and murder; they are in our midst. They are upon us ; our motions are watched, our steps followed ; the privacy of home, of the business office, of the study, and ths dorniitoiy, is nothing. They see all, know all, and if vigilance is slackened for a moment, the theft, the robbery or the muider is almost cerlain to follow. The power to regulate this matter probably lies alone in the Geneial Government. To Corgi ess is granted in the Constitution, the ri»ht of regulating commeice with foicign nations, and in Article Ist, section 9tli, is a paragiaph plainly enough implying the power of Congress, which indeed, we suppose is not disputed. Up >n flic Federal government, llien, do we Uige the passage of some rcUnctivc measures for our protection. Unless something of ths kind be done, our beautiful State will become the sink of the woild into which all the refuse of hnmanity will bp poured, and pollution and crime fli/od the whole land. Our people ought to tvake up to the feai fulness of this question. Congiess should be petitioned, and nothing I ft undone that can have a tendency to abale so much of the evil as already exists among us, and also pi event all fait her extension fiom a similar couse.