326 THE WONDERFUL CENTURY. 



beginning of the century about twenty-five offences were 

 punishable with death, including burglary, stealing from 

 a house or shop to the value of 40s. , forgery, coining, 

 using old stamps on perfumery and hair powder, sheep- 

 and horse-stealing, and many others. Capital punish- 

 ment for all these minor offences was abolished before 

 the middle of the century; our prisons were greatly im- 

 proved as regards cleanliness and order; and transporta- 

 tion to Tasmania and the other Australian colonies, with 

 all its cruelties and abuses, had been got rid of. But 

 there we have stopped; and our treatment of criminals, 

 though not outwardly so harsh, is quite as much opposed 

 to the admitted principles which should regulate all 

 punishment as it was before; while its effects are hardly, 

 if at all, less injurious to the criminals, both as regards 

 bodily and mental health, than the old bad system of the 

 last century. 



Even Plato and other classical writers laid down the 

 principle that one of the great objects of all punishment 

 is the improvement of the criminal. Beccaria in the 

 last century developed this view of the true rationale of 

 punishment, and all modern students and philanthropists 

 admit it; yet during the whole century we have not 

 made a single step in this direction as regards the treat- 

 ment of adult prisoners. A cast-iron routine, solitude, 

 and a grinding military despotism under which the best 

 characters often suffer most, now characterize our penal 

 system, which is admitted to have the effect of making 

 the good bad and the bad worse; and further, of render- 

 ing it almost impossible for a first offender to escape from 

 a life of crime. There is no classification of offenders; 

 no sympathetic instruction; no attempt to improve the 



