After this ceremony had been gone through the clerk handed Peace a copy of “Her Majesty’s license to go at large during the remaining portion of his term of penal servitude,” in which her Majesty hereby orders George Parker, within thirty days from the date of this order to report himself, which is signed by the Home Secretary or his deputy.
This licence is given subject to the conditions endorsed on the document, upon the breach of any of which it shall be liable to be revoked, whether such conduct is followed by conviction or not. The conditions are of course very stringent; nevertheless, they are but too frequently evaded or broken despite the surveillance of the police. The reader will understand this when he is informed that the conditions are as follows:—“The holder shall preserve his licence and produce it when called upon to do so by a magistrate or police officer.” This for his own safety he generally does. “He shall abstain from any violation of the law.” This he does not always do, for ticket-of-leave men are constantly getting into trouble through lawless acts. “He shall not habitually associate with notoriously bad characters, such as reputed thieves or prostitutes.”
It frequently happens—more frequently than otherwise—that licence men do associate with disreputable characters.
“He shall not lead an idle, dissolute life without visible means of obtaining a livelihood.”
Most discharged convicts profess to have some honest calling, or a “stall” they term it, and it is putting too fine a point on the matter to dispute this fact for the police, in most instances, are well aware that the business or calling which these men profess to follow, is nothing more than a mere sham, but it is out of their power to prove this.
If his licence is forfeited or revoked in consequence of a conviction for any offence, he shall be made to undergo a term of penal servitude equal to the portion of his term which remains unexpired when his licence was granted.
We have discussed the question of licences, or men let out on ticket-of-leave, in a former chapter of this work.
“The ticket-of-leave men,” as they are termed, have been an endless source of trouble to the honest citizen and the police, and, as we pointed out, the whole system wants remodelling.
Another printed paper was handed to Peace which had superscribed on it his name and number. After this the following admonition was given:—
“Take notice, you are required by Act of Parliament to report yourself to the chief police-station of the locality to which you may go, within forty-eight hours of your arrival therein, and if you change your residence from one police district to another, you must report it to the police-station to which you last reported yourself, before you go. If you omit any of the above particulars, you will be guilty of a misdemeanour, and upon conviction will forfeit your licence.”