Only such as were considered hopeful were sent to the Penitentiary, and it required the failures of years to convince the public mind that the system of petting and patronising was the wrong one.
Parliament had not even given the governor the power to inflict corporal punishment; and a Parliamentary committee reported that the situation of convicts in Millbank “cannot be considered penal; it is a state of restriction, but hardly of punishment.” In 1826 the prisoners began to revolt even against restriction.
For some years the place was the scene of continual rebellions and disturbances, and Parliament at length authorised whipping.
No. 45.
THE LAWYER AND AVELINE GATLIFFE.
This was inflicted in the first instance on a man named Sheppard, who had beaten an officer in presence of other prisoners, but it was done with great gentleness, and when it was over the scoundrel made an edifying address to his fellow-prisoners.
One of the most celebrated cases of incorrigible perversity was that of Julia St. Clair Newman, which was often discussed in Parliament, and investigated by a select committee of the House of Lords.
She was apparently a Creole who had been educated in France, and came to England as a swindler. She looked like a gentlewoman, but had been imprisoned several times before she was sent to the penitentiary to be reformed.
Here her conduct alternated between fits of uncontrollable fury and passionate appeals for sympathy.