under modern Acts of parliament as a punishment for crime, is now usually limited so as not to exceed two years (d); and, in connection with it, the sentence frequently inflicts the additional severity of solitary confinement, or of hard labour, or both, according to the nature of the case (e). But the 7 Will. IV. & 1 Vict. c. 90, s. 5, contains a general provision, that it shall not be lawful to direct an offender to be kept in solitary confinement for any longer period than one month at a time, or than three months in the space of one year; and a similar limitation is inserted in each of the Criminal Consolidation Acts of 1861 (viz. 24 & 25 Vict. cc. 96, 97, 98, 99, 100), in reference to the offences punishable under those statutes respectively. As to hard labour, regulations respecting its nature and severity have been made, under which it is divided into two classes; one for the employment of males above the age of sixteen, the other of males below that age and of females (ƒ).

As to whipping, the offender, under such modern Acts of parliament as authorize this punishment, may be di

with some offence punishable with penal servitude, or imprisonment, or be sentenced by a judge of assize or court of general or quarter sessions. (As to these schools, see 29 & 30 Vict. c. 117.) See also 25 & 26 Vict. c. 44; 28 & 29 Vict. c. 126, ss. 41-43, and 40 & 41 Vict. c. 21, s. 29, enabling pecuniary relief, in certain cases, to be afforded to prisoners on leaving prison, either directly or through the medium of a certified Prisoners' Aid Society or Refuge.

(d) See 24 & 25 Vict. cc. 96, 97, 98, 99, 100, passim. By some earlier statutes, however, still unrepealed, the periods of imprisonment authorized for offences under their provisions are sometimes three and

even four years.

(e) The punishment of hard labour is said to have been first introduced by 6 Ann. c. 9. (See R. v. Baker, 7 A. & E. 502.) Hard labour may now be added, in most cases, to the sentence of imprisonment. (See 24 & 25 Vict. cc. 96, 97, 98, 99, 100, passim.)

(f) See 28 & 29 Vict. c. 126, s. 19, and Part IV. sched. I. reg. 3438. And see also 40 & 41 Viet. c. 21, s. 37, enabling the secretary of state to relax the rules laid down in the previous Act, as to the nature of the labour. See also 42 & 43 Vict. c. 49, s. 4, in reference to the remission of hard labour in cases disposed of by way of summary conviction.

rected to be whipped in addition to any imprisonment awarded. By 1 Geo. IV. c. 57, however, it was provided that judgment shall in no case be given that any female convicted of any offence shall be whipped either publicly or privately and in cases where the whipping of female offenders had, before that Act, formed either a part or the whole of the sentence,-the court before which the trial is had was empowered to pass sentence of confinement with hard labour in the common gaol or house of correction, for any time not exceeding six months, nor less than one month; (or of solitary confinement therein, for any space not exceeding seven days at any one time;) in lieu of the sentence of being publicly or privately whipped. Moreover, by the Criminal Consolidation Acts of 1861, already so often referred to, the addition of whipping by them anthorized in reference to a variety of the offences therein mentioned, is uniformly confined to such males as are below the age of sixteen (g); and the whipping is to be in private and only to be inflicted once; and the number of strokes and the instrument with which they are to be inflicted are to be specified by the court in the sentence. And a similar provision was made by 25 & 26 Vict. c. 18, in reference to this punishment when awarded by a Court of Summary Jurisdiction-with the addition, that in case of an offender whose age does not exceed fourteen years, the number of strokes inflicted shall not exceed twelve, and the instrument used shall be a birch rod (). On the other hand, when the sentence of whipping is inflicted under the 26 & 27 Vict. c. 44, an Act passed in the year 1863" for the further security of the persons of her

(g) See 24 & 25 Vict. cc. 96, 97, 98, 99, 100, passim. In one instance (24 & 25 Vict. c. 96, s. 101), the age mentioned is eighteen; but this is probably a clerical error.

(h) This Act is not in terms referred to in the Summary Jurisdiction Act, 1879 (42 & 43 Vict. c.

49), but that statute limits the number of strokes with a birch rod in the case of a child under the age of fourteen to six, and makes, moreover, additional regulations with regard to the manner in which the sentence is to be carried out (vide sup. p. 330).

Majesty's subjects from personal violence" (i), the punishment may be ordered to be repeated twice or even thrice; and there is no limitation as to the age of the person to be so punished; though if his age does not exceed sixteen, the number of strokes at each infliction is not to exceed twenty-five, and to be with a birch rod; and in the case of older offenders the number of strokes, at each whipping, is not to exceed fifty. Moreover, in every case, the sentence is to specify the number of strokes and the instrument to be used. And no whipping is to take place after the expiration of six months from the passing of the sentence.

As to penal servitude, this is a sentence which has been in our own days introduced in substitution for that of transportation beyond the seas (k). The principal statute in reference to punishment by way of "transportation" is the 5 Geo. IV. c. 84, by which the law on that subject was revised and consolidated in the year 1824 (1). Under that Act, the sovereign was enabled to appoint places beyond the seas, either within or without the dominions of the Crown, to which offenders under sentence of transportation might be conveyed and kept to hard labour; and also places, in England and Wales, for their confinement until transported or discharged, or otherwise disposed of by the secretary of state. But great difficulty having arisen, of late years, in finding colonies willing to receive transported convicts, it became gradually the practice, as to certain classes of convicts who had been sentenced to

(i) As to this Act, vide sup. pp. 83, 134.

(k) Transportation is said (Barr. on Statutes, 352) to have been first inflicted as a punishment by 39 Eliz. c. 4. As to its history, see R. v. Baker, 7 A. & E. 502; Bullock v. Dodds, 2 B. & Ald. 262, 267; Whitehead v. The Queen, 7 Q. B.

532.

(1) This Act has been amended by 6 Geo. 4, c. 69; 11 Geo. 4 & 1 Will. 4, c. 39; 2 & 3 Will. 4, c. 62; 4 & 5 Will. 4, c. 65; 7 Will. 4 & 1 Vict. c. 90; 6 & 7 Vict. c. 7; 10 & 11 Vict. c. 67; 16 & 17 Vict. c. 99, s. 7; 20 & 21 Vict. c. 3; 22 Vict. c. 25; and 39 & 40 Vict. c. 42.

transportation, to detain them in the mother-country for the whole period of their term of punishment; and it was ultimately thought expedient to abolish the sentence of "transportation" altogether, and to substitute for it that of "penal servitude;" under which convicts may be subjected to such confinement and discipline (either at home or abroad) as shall be found practicable and desirable (m).

This change was accordingly carried into effect by the "Penal Servitude Acts," that is to say, by 16 & 17 Vict. c. 99, 20 & 21 Vict. c. 3, 27 & 28 Vict. c. 47, and 42 & 43 Vict. c. 55, by which (after providing that no person shall for the future be sentenced to transportation) it is enacted that any persons who, if those Acts had not passed, might have been so sentenced, shall be liable to be sentenced to be kept in penal servitude for a term of the same duration; and further, that any person who might have been sentenced either to transportation or imprisonment, may be sentenced either to penal servitude or to imprisonment (n). This was so laid down by 20 & 21 Vict. c. 3, which also provided that wherever, under the former law, seven years transportation might have been awarded, penal servitude for three years might be substituted. But, as to this, a further alteration of the law was made by the 27 & 28 Vict. c. 47, viz.: that no person shall, in any case, be sentenced to penal servitude for a shorter period than five years. This same Act contained also a provision that if the offender had been previously convicted of felony, the least period of sentence by way of penal servitude which could be inflicted was seven years (o); but this restriction is now removed by 42 & 43 Vict. c. 55.

It was moreover provided by the Penal Servitude Acts,

(m) See the Evidence of Mr. Waddington, before the select committee of the House of Commons, on Transportation. (Second Report, p. 3.)

(n) 20 & 21 Vict. c. 3, s. 6. (0) See The Queen v. Willis, Law Rep., 1 C. C. 363; Same v. Deane, ib. 2 Q. B. D. 305.

that every person sentenced to this punishment may be kept either in any prison or place of confinement in the united kingdom, or in any river, port or harbour thereof,— or else in some place in her Majesty's dominions beyond the seas, duly appointed for such purpose by order in council, according as the secretary of state shall from time to time direct (p); and may, while under confinement, be kept to hard labour and otherwise treated, in like manner as persons sentenced to transportation might formerly be dealt with (q).

By the same Acts it was also made lawful for her Majesty (r), by order in writing, under the hand and seal of the secretary of state, to grant to any convict under sentence of penal servitude or of imprisonment, a licence to be at large during such portion of his term, and on such conditions in all respects, as to her Majesty shall seem fit (s). But such licence may be revoked or altered at pleasure; and will ipso facto be forfeited if the holder shall be subsequently convicted of any indictable offence, or if he shall fail to report himself (t) to the proper officer once in every month, or to give due notice (that is to say,

(p) The convict prisons at present in use in England are mentioned sup. vol. ш. p. 127.

(2) 16 & 17 Vict. c. 99, s. 6; 20

& 21 Vict. c. 3, s. 3.

(r) See 16 & 17 Vict. c. 99, s. 9; 20 & 21 Vict. c. 3, s. 5; 27 & 28 Vict. c. 47, ss. 4-10. The Prevention of Crimes Act, 1871 (34 & 35 Vict. c. 112), amended by 39 & 40 Vict. c. 23, and 42 & 43 Vict. c. 55, also contains provisions with regard to the holders of licences to be at large. It is also to be noticed, that a prisoner who has been sentenced to penal servitude, is informed by the authorities on arriving at his destination, that he will, by a regular course of in

dustry while undergoing his sentence, be enabled to obtain his liberty under a "licence to be at large," before the expiration of the period for which he has been sentenced, the time varying according to the number of years for which he has been sentenced. But if he has been sentenced to penal servitude for life, no remission can take place but by order of the secretary of state.

(s) 16 & 17 Vict. c. 99, s. 9. And see 34 & 35 Vict. c. 112, s. 5.

(1) The report must be either personally or by letter in accordance with the directions given by the chief officer of the police of the district (sect. 5).