The object in view is by the aid of ingenious machinery, to render the labour of every class of Convicts so productive to the Contractor, as to admit of their being maintained at 25 per cent. less than the expence incurred on board the Hulks; while a rational prospect is held out of reforming these Convicts and returning them upon Society, not only with purer morals, but with the knowledge of some trade or occupation by which they may afterwards earn their bread;—but this is not all.—The proposer of this important design insures to the Convicts, after the expiration of their time, the means of obtaining a livelihood; by setting up a Subsidiary Establishment, into which all who found themselves otherwise destitute of employment would be admitted, and where they would be continued in the exercise of the trades in which they were employed during their confinement.

It is, however, impossible to do justice to the merit of this Proposal, without laying it wholly before the Public. It seems to embrace every object calculated to remove the errors and difficulties of the present System, while it promises in a short time to relieve the Finances of the Country from the enormous and unparalleled expence which is incurred by the Establishment of the Hulks, and by Transportation to New South Wales.

PROPOSAL
FOR A NEW AND LESS EXPENSIVE MODE OF
EMPLOYING AND REFORMING CONVICTS.

The Author, having turned his thoughts to the Penitentiary System from its first origin, and having lately contrived a Building in which any number of persons may be kept within the reach of being inspected during every moment of their lives, and having made out, as he flatters himself, to demonstration, that the only eligible mode of managing an Establishment of such a nature, in a Building of such a construction, would be by Contract, has been induced to make public the following Proposal for Maintaining and Employing Convicts in general, or such of them as would otherwise be confined on board the Hulks, for 25 per cent. less than it costs Government to maintain them there at present; deducting also the average value of the work at present performed by them for the Public: upon the terms of his receiving the produce of their labour, taking on himself the whole expence of the BUILDING, fitting up and stocking,[152] without any advance to be made by Government for that purpose, requiring only that the abatement and deduction above-mentioned shall be suspended for the first year.

Upon the above-mentioned Terms, he would engage as follows:

I. To furnish the Prisoners with a constant supply of wholesome Food, not limited in quantity, but adequate to each man's desires.

II. To keep them clad in a state of tightness and neatness, superior to what is usual even in the Improved Prisons.

III. To keep them supplied with separate Beds and Bedding, competent to their situations, and in a state of cleanliness scarcely any where conjoined with liberty.