A CONVICT'S STORY.

Southland Times, Issue 1021, 14 September 1868, Page 3

A CONVICT'S STORY.

In the appendix to the 29fch reporb on public petitions to Parliament, iust issued, there appears " the humble petition of John Parson, a convict, No 3,942, under sentence in Pentonville Prison/ which was presented by Mr Penman. When nineteen years old, on the 20th day of October, 1854, he was sentenced at the Birmingham Quarter Sessions to' fifteen years' transportation for housebreaking. He served the first portion of the term in gaol in England, and in March, 1557, was transported to the convict settlement in Western Australia, where he served four years and a half in the convict prison. He then received a ticket-of-leave, and worked as servant to the brother of Colonel Henderson, the commandant of the prison, for two years and a half, and then left with a certificate for good conduct, and obtained a pardon for the remainder of his term. Afterwards he lost the document granting his pardon, but he believed that it contained a condition that he might go to any part of Her Majesty's dominions, except to the United Kingdom of G-reat Britain and Ireland, until the expiration of the term of his sentence. Being desirous of remaining in Australia, he went to Adelaide, where he was immediately on his arrival recognised by the police as a pardoned convict, and taken before a bence of magistrates, who told him that he must leave Adelaide in seven days, or they would send him to prison for three years. He produced to them his pardon, and was told by one of the magistrates that it was of no use to him there — that he must go back to England, and that if he wanted to do so he should be supplied with them. Not wishing to infringe the terms of his pardon, he applied to a. captain to be carried to Melbourne, but the captain declined, on the ground that if he took the prisoner he would be liable to a penalty of LIOO. Before the seven days had elapsed, and to avoid the threatened imprisonment, he embarked in a vessel bound for Singapore. There, on landing, he was told by the police that, being a discharged convict, he had no right to come. He produced his pardon, but was told they did not care for that, and that he could, not remain. Thereupon he hired himself to a Dutch vessel, called the Valvish, bound for London, at which port he arrived in March, 1863. He returned to Birmingham, where he resided about nine months, was recognised by the police, who knew that the term of his sentence had not expired, but that he had received a conditional pardon. Then he -went from Birmingham to reside in "Worcester with his wife, and on the 3rd of February, 1866, was arrested there on a charge of being illegally at large. He was committed for trial without bail, found guilty before Baron Pigott, at the ensuing Worcester Lent assizes, and at the following assizes was brought up for judgment before Mr Justice Keating, and was sentenced to five years' penal servitude. His solicitor had since memoralised Mr Walpole without snccess, and he now prayed the House to take the case into consideration. — ' European Times/ July 17.