“‘My dear Sir,—I have had a letter from Mr. Cobden on the subject I wrote to him about, and on my arrival in London, on the 3rd of February, I shall have the pleasure of writing to you or seeing you, after I have had some conversation with Mr. Cobden, and some other persons.
“‘I think your object may be attained, which will give satisfaction to yours sincerely,
“‘Joseph Hume.
“‘Rowland Hill, Esq., General Post Office.’”
“February 1st.—Moffatt called. Told him in confidence much that had occurred. He will join Hume and Cobden in doing what I want.”
“February 3rd.—Called on Cobden, who is just returned to town. Told him in confidence the greater part of what passed between the Chancellor of the Exchequer and myself. He will see Hume in the morning, and will try to get him to settle matters without consulting any one else. . . . In the course of conversation I said I feared that the Sunday agitation had injured my influence with the public, but Cobden replied that it was no such thing; that I was ‘the most popular man in the world.’”
In reference to my conversation with the Chancellor of the Exchequer I spoke to the Postmaster-General on the subject of assistance. I proposed that I should have as assistant-secretary some one in whom I had entire confidence, and who would be able to take my place in case of my absence, and I pointed out that for such duty a knowledge of Post Office details was unnecessary. His lordship expressed general concurrence, but said that he must speak on the subject with the Chancellor of the Exchequer. My wish was to obtain the appointment of my brother Frederic, but I forbore at the time to mention his name, as the Postmaster-General was in haste to reach the House of Lords.
To justify my selection I need only recount a few facts. My brother had been for sixteen years one of the Inspectors of Prisons; for twelve years in Scotland, and the remaining time in England. He was one of the first appointed under the Act of 1835, by which the office was created; and Lord John Russell, then Secretary of State for the Home Department, when assigning to the inspectors their districts, paid him the compliment of saying that he had given him Scotland because he knew that in that part of the kingdom there was most need of improvement.
On examination, my brother found that, with the almost sole exception of the Glasgow Bridewell, which was under the governorship of an admirable prison reformer, Mr. Brebner, the Scottish prisons were as bad as Lord John Russell had stated, and that indeed the great majority, instead of being places of reform, were the abodes of idleness and disorder, and not unfrequently of drunkenness and riot; in a word, of general demoralization. Although invested with no other power than that of inspection, and of making Reports to the Secretary of State, and, through him, to Parliament and the country, my brother, in a short time, effected a great change. He obtained the removal of a large number of bad officers, the appointment in their stead of persons qualified for their duties, including matrons (of whom till his nomination there had been only two or three in the whole of Scotland), with a proper corps of female assistants, and without waiting for the erection of new prisons, he succeeded, in most instances, in inducing the local authorities at once to turn to the best account the buildings at their command.
After a time he was authorized by Government to frame a bill for remodelling the whole system of prison government in Scotland in accordance with his recommendations. Although this bill was a good deal altered, and, as we both thought, much injured, in its passage through Parliament, the new system adopted under it was a great improvement on what had existed before. By the appointment of a general board, of which he was chosen a member, a directing authority was established which removed many obstacles to improvement. Thus, long before he quitted Scotland to take an English district, every prison there had either been so altered as to become well fitted for its use, or, if beyond improvement, had been replaced by a new building. In every prison productive work had been introduced, motives to diligence supplied, tread-mills and all other unproductive employment abolished, flogging and every kind of degrading punishment discontinued; good chaplains had everywhere been appointed, and provision made for ordinary elementary instruction; the health of the prisoners had much improved, good conduct had become the general rule, and, in many cases, means had been provided for maintaining some amount at least of supervision and friendly assistance after liberation. Finally, my brother practically showed that, under good arrangements, all prisoners of ordinary health and strength, and committed for even a moderate period, may be made to defray the entire cost of their maintenance and custody.