706 



PRISON DISCIPLINE PRIVATEER. 



of tin: superintendent, combined \vitli the results of 

 his practical experience. For all the details which 

 r;.n l>e usefully ct:;nmunicated in writing, we must 

 refer to the reports of the Boston Prison Discipline 

 Society, which contain a very great amount of most 

 valuable information, and are highly honourable to 

 the intelligence, the perseverance, and the elevated 

 principles of their author.* In conclusion, we shall 

 refer to some of the points which are either mater- 

 ial to, or intimately connected with, the improve- 

 ment of the system of prison discipline, and which 

 require more attention than lias hitherto been be- 

 stowed on them. The first and most essential is, 

 the provision for the religious and intellectual in- 

 struction of the convicts. There is not a prison 

 in this country, and we know of none elsewhere, in 

 which what we should consider adequate provision 

 is made, to secure the entire services of an able and 

 faithful clergyman. Yet it cannot be doubted, that 

 the labours of such a one, may be, must be, consi- 

 dered likely to contribute as much as any thing in 

 the whole scheme, to that reformation of character 

 which is contemplated as the great object of all the 

 means of prison discipline. And is it too much to 

 ask, is it too costly an effort, to furnish a faithful 

 teacher of the best principles and highest motives 

 to the sunken and degraded subjects of the autho- 

 rity of the laws ? The discipline of the peniten- 

 tiaries ought to be regarded merely as a part of the 

 great system of public instruction, which it is the 

 boast of this country to have extended farther than 

 others. And as the subjects of this discipline are 

 advanced, not only in life, but in vice ; as they have 

 learned much which they ought to unlearn, the 

 difficulties of instructing them are increased, and 

 even a more liberal provision should be made for 

 them than for others. We lament to say it is, in 

 fact, the reverse ; and the best system of prison 

 discipline cannot be said to have been fairly tried, 

 till the scanty pittance provided for the support of 

 a clergyman shall be so augmented as to secure the 

 whole time and talents of competent labourers in 

 this important field. The effects of this plan, as 

 a system cannot be justly exhibited, till it shall 

 have been vastly more extended. It should be car- 

 ried not only into all our penitentiaries, but into 

 those scarcely inferior seminaries of iniquity, the 

 county gaols. It should be made, as far as the na- 

 ture of the case will admit, universal, and then it 

 may be judged of fairly ; and hardly till then. Its 

 benefits may be made immeasurably greater than 

 have yet been experienced from it, and in a vastly 

 greater ratio of increase than is indicated by the 

 mere number of similar institutions. Connected 

 with the system of internal discipline is the length 

 of time for which every criminal is to be under its 

 influence ; and this brings us directly to the crimi- 

 nal code. The power of pardoning has been so 

 much misused, and the danger of its abuse is 

 always so great, that we look upon it as a thing 

 which might very safely be dispensed with. As a 

 part of the same grand system of universal instruc- 

 tion, and a part most highly important to the gene- 

 ral welfare, the houses of reformation for juvenile 

 offenders ought to be favourably regarded. They 

 are conducted on the same general plan as the pri- 

 sons for older violators of law, with such modifica- 

 tions as adapt it to the tenderer years, and more 

 docile dispositions of*. these useful subjects of pun- 

 ishment. Nothing ^fcj have a greater tendency to 

 reduce the number both of criminals and prisons, 

 than the general establishment of houses of refor- 

 mation. -J 



* Thv reverend Louis Dwiglit, secretary of the socinty. 



PRIVATEER ; a vessel of war owned and 

 equipped by private individuals to seize or plunder 

 the ships of an enemy. Such a vessel must be 

 licensed by government, or she is a pirate. It is a 

 matter of just astonishment that a species of war- 

 fare so repugnant to all our better feelings, and so 

 inconsistent with the respect paid to private pro- 

 perty in warfare on land, should so long have pre- 

 vailed. It is a relic of the plundering habits of 

 barbarous times. For several ages after the irrup- 

 tion of the northern barbarians, war and plunder 

 might almost be considered as individual rights. 

 Every one might seek his fortune by predatory in- 

 cursions upon the enemy, by land or sea. The 

 infidel powers bordering on the Mediterranean 

 covered that sea with small piratical vessels, and 

 the Christian states, partly in self-defence, partly 

 from hope of gain, fitted out small cruisers, or armed 

 their merchant ships. No public commission was 

 required. The first check to the practice of pri- 

 vate plundering upon sea was by confining the right 

 to those who received letters of marque or reprisals. 

 These were issued upon the petition of a subject 

 who complained of injustice done him by some fo- 

 reign prince or subject, and they empowered the 

 party to obtain satisfaction by seizing the goods of 

 any subject of the offending state. It does not 

 seem to have been considered necessary to be pro- 

 vided with letters of reprisals till the fourteenth 

 century, and no mention is made of them in trea- 

 ties prior to that time. It is probable that, in the 

 fifteenth century, commissions began to be issued to 

 private subjects in time of war similar to those 

 which were granted for making reprisals in time of 

 peace ; but the practice of granting commissions to 

 privateers did not become general before the end of 

 the sixteenth century. The first instance in which 

 their aid appears to have been considered important 

 in carrying on war was in the contest between 

 Spain and her revolted provinces of the Low Coun- 

 tries, which began in 1569. In 1570, the prince of 

 Orange, in the hope of replenishing his impover- 

 ished finances, by seizing on the money sent from 

 Spain to the Netherlands, issued commissions to 

 many of his adherents, authorizing them to cruise 

 against the ships of Spain. A considerable fleet 

 was equipped, and, increasing daily in numbers, 

 they soon became terrible by their depredations, 

 not only on the commerce of Spain and the Nether- 

 lands, but on that of their own and other countries. 

 It is said that their country suffered from them not 

 less than from the despotism and cruelty of Alva. 

 The French, however, were probably the first to 

 send out in considerable numbers these scourges of 

 the sea. Their code exhibits the most ancient regu- 

 lations concerning privateers, and their maritime, 

 laws have always been the most severe against the 

 commerce of neutrals. In 1555, the people of 

 Dieppe fitted out nineteen ships and six brigantines, 

 in consequence of having received a commission to 

 attack several Dutch ships of great burthen, re- 

 turning from Spain. Spain and England, shortly 

 after the depredations committed under the com- 

 missions of the prince of Orange, issued commis- 

 sions to great numbers of privateers. The expedi- 

 tions of Drake and Frobisher are said to have been 

 of this nature, The Dutch war for independence, 

 which began in 1569, did not end till 1648. In tliat 

 long contest, the use of privateers became familiar, 

 and has remained so since in all wars between mari- 

 time countries, and governments have greatly en- 

 couraged them. The evils suffered from them and the 

 complaints of neutrals have been so great, that vari- 

 ous expedients have been resorted to for checking 

 their excesses ; but it has been hitherto found impos- 



