Not to

tained shall extend, or be construed to extend, in any manchange any ner to change, alter, or affect, any punishment whatsoever punishment which may now be by law inflicted in respect of any for offences, except the offence, except only the punishment of pillory, in manner pillory. as herein-above is enacted.

Hard La

bour Act.

3 Geo. 4, c. 114.

Whereas by an act passed in the fifty-third year of the reign of his late majesty King George the Third, intituled, "An Act to repeal a certain Provision respecting Persons convicted of Felony without Benefit of Clergy, contained in an Act made in the Fifty-second Year of the Reign of his present Majes ty, for the Erection of a Penitentiary House for the Confine ment of Persons convicted within the City of London and County of Middlesex, and for making other Provisions in lieu thereof," it was enacted, that it should and might be lawful for any court to pass upon any person who should be lawfully convicted before such court of felony, with benefit of clergy, or of any grand larceny, or of any petit larceny, the sentence of imprisonment to hard labour, either simply and alone, or in addition to any other sentence which such court might or should be authorized to pass upon any person lawfully convicted of any of the offences aforesaid, as to such court should seem fit; and such person should thereupon suffer such other sentence, and be moreover im prisoned and kept to hard labour, or be simply imprisoned and kept to hard labour, in such place and for such time as such court should think fit to direct, not exceeding the time for which such courts might then imprison for such offences; and whereas it is expedient that the provisions of the said act should be extended to certain aggravated misdemeanors and offences below the degree of felony: be it therefore enacted, &c. that, from and after the passing of this act, whenever any person shall be convicted of any of the of fences hereafter specified and set forth that is to say, any attempt to commit felony; any riot; being an utterer of counterfeit mo

ney, knowing the same to be counterfeit ;
keeping a common gaming-house, a common bawdy-house,
or a common ill-governed and disorderly house; wilful and
corrupt perjury, or of subornation of perjury; having entered
any open or enclosed ground with intent there illegally to
destroy, take, or kill, game or rabbits; or with intent to aid,
abet, and assist any person or persons illegally to destroy,
take, or kill game or rabbits, and having been there found af
night armed with any offensive weapon; in each and every of
the above cases, and whenever any person shall be convicted
of any or either of the aforesaid offences, it shall and may
be lawful for the court, before which any such offender
shall be convicted, or which by law is authorized to pass

sentence upon any such offender, to award and order (if

such court shall think fit) sentence of imprisonment with hard labour, for any term not exceeding the term for which such court may now imprison for such offences, either in addition to or in lieu of any other punishment which may be inflicted on any such offenders by any law in force before the passing of this act; and every such offender shall thereupon suffer such sentence, in such place and for such time as aforesaid, as such court shall think fit to direct.

5 Geo. 4, c. 84.

provisions

tenced or

Whereas the several laws in force for regulating the transportation of offenders from Great Britain, will expire at the end of the present session of parliament; and it is expedient that the laws relative to that subject should be revised and consolidated into one act: be it therefore enactted, &c. that this act shall take effect on the last day of Commencethis present session of parliament; and that on and from ment of act that day, all things remaining to be done, touching the under the punishment, imprisonment, correction, removal, transporta- of which all tion, discipline, employment, diet, and clothing of persons persons alsentenced or ordered to transportation or banishment from ready senany part of Great Britain, under any acts heretofore or now ordered for in force, or pardoned on condition of being transported transportaunder any such acts, shall be continued, done, and com- tion shall be pleted under the provisions of this act; and that all sen- placed. tences and orders for transportation, all orders in council, and other orders, warrants, instructions, directions, appointments, authorities, contracts, and securities, made, issued, or given under any of the said acts, and in force at the time of the commencement of this act, shall continue in force under and by virtue of this act, unless and until they shall be revoked or superseded.

Offenders

to be trans

II. And be it further enacted, that from and after the commencement of this act, every person convicted before adjudged any court of competent jurisdiction in Great Britain, of an for transoffence for which he or she shall be liable to be transported portation or banished, shall be adjudged and ordered to be trans- ported unported or banished beyond the seas, for the term of life or der this act. years, for which such offender shall be liable by any law to be transported or banished; and every sentence of transportation or banishment passed or to be passed on any Power for offender in any court of competent jurisdiction in Great subsequent Britain, and every order for transportation or banishment court, &c. made or to be made in pursuance of the sentence of any conditional such court or other competent authority, shall subject the pardon in offender to be conveyed beyond the seas under the provi- cases where sions of this act; and whenever his majesty shall be pleashis majesty ed to extend mercy to any offender convicted of any crime mercy to for which he or she is or shall be excluded from the benefit the offenof clergy, upon condition of transportation beyond the seas, ders.

to allow

extends

His majesty may appoint

places of transportation.

state to au

either for the term of life or any number of years, and such intention of mercy shall be signified by one of his majesty's principal secretaries of state to the court before which such offender hath been or shall be convicted, or any subsequent court with the like authority, such court shall allow to such offender the benefit of a conditional pardon, and make an order for the immediate transportation of such offender; and, in case such intention of mercy shall be so signified to the judge or justice, before whom such offender hath been or shall be convicted, or to any judge of his majesty's Court of King's Bench or Common Pleas, or to any baron of the Exchequer of the degree of the coif in England, such judge, justice, or baron, shall allow to such offender the benefit of a conditional pardon, and make an order for the immediate transportation of such offender, in the same manner as if such intention of mercy had been signified to the court during the term or session in or at which such offender was convicted; and such allowance and order shall be considered as an allowance and order made by the court before which such offender was convicted, and shall be entered on the records of the same court by the proper officer thereof, and shall be as effectual, to all intents and purposes, and have the same consequences, as if such allowance and order had been made by the same court during the continuance thereof; and every such order, and also every order made by the Court of Justiciary in Scotland, for the transportation of any offender, whose sentence of death shall be remitted by his majesty, shall subject the offender to be conveyed beyond the seas under the provisions of this act.

III. And be it further enacted, that it shall be lawful for his majesty, by and with the advice of his privy council, from time to time, to appoint any place or places beyond the seas, either within or without his majesty's dominions, to which felons and other offenders under sentence or order of transportation, or banishment, shall be conveyed; and Secretary of that when any offenders shall be about to be transported or banished from Great Britain, one of his majesty's principal secretaries of state shall give orders for their removal to the ship to be employed for their transportation, and shall authorize and empower some person to make a contract for their effectual transportation to some of the places so appointed, and shall direct security to be given for their effectual transportation, in the manner hereinafter mentioned.

thorize persons to

make contract for the

transportation of of

fenders, &c.

Not to interfere with king's pre

rogative.

IV. [Sheriffs or gaolers, on receiving orders for removal of offenders for transportation, to deliver them over to the contractor, if free from distemper.]

V. [Persons undertaking to transport offenders to give proper security.]

IX. Provided always, and be it further enacted, that

nothing in this act contained shall in any manner affect his majesty's royal prerogative of mercy.

X. And be it further enacted, that it shall be lawful for His majesty his majesty, from time to time, by warrant under his royal to appoint places of sign manual, to appoint places of confinement within En- confinement gland or Wales, either at land, or on board vessels, to of offenders be provided by his majesty in the river Thames, or some in England. other river, or within the limits of some port or harbour of England or Wales, for the confinement of male offenders under sentence or order of transportation, which shall be under the management of a superintendent and overseer to be appointed by his majesty; and that it shall be lawful for one of his majesty's principal secretaries of state to direct the removal of any male offender, who shall be under sentence of death, but who shall be reprieved, or whose sentence shall be respited during his majesty's pleasure, or who shall be under sentence or order of transportation, and who, having been examined by an experienced surgeon or apothecary, shall appear to be free from any putrid or infectious distemper, and fit to be removed from the gaol or prison in which such offender shall be confined, to any of the places of confinement so appointed; and every offender, who shall be so removed, shall continue in the said place of confinement, or be removed to, and confined in, some other such place or places, as aforesaid, as one of his majesty's principal secretaries of state shall from time to time direct, until such offender shall be transported according to law, or shall become entitled to his liberty, or until one of his majesty's principal secretaries of state shall direct the return of such offender to the gaol or prison from which he shall have been removed; and the sheriff or gaoler having the custody of any offender, whose removal shall be ordered in manner aforesaid, shall, with all convenient speed, after the receipt of any such order, convey, or cause to be conveyed, every such offender to the place appointed, and there deliver him to such superintendent or overseer, together with a true copy, attested by such sheriff or gaoler, of the caption and order of the court by which such offender was sentenced or ordered for transportation, containing the sentence or order of transportation of each such offender, by virtue whereof he shall be in the custody of such sheriff' or gaoler; and also a certificate, specifying concisely the description of his crime, his age, whether married or unmarried, his trade or profession, and an account of his behaviour in prison before and after his trial, and the gaoler's observations on his temper and disposition, and such information concerning his connexions and former course of life, as may have come to the gaoler's knowledge; and such superintendent or overseer shall give a receipt in writing to the sheriff or gaoler, for the discharge of such sheriff or gaoler.

His majesty, by order in council, may direct convicts to

be employed in

any part of his majes ty's dominions out

under the

manage

XI. [Appointment of superintendent of such places of confinement, &c.]

XIII. And be it further enacted, that it shall be lawful for his majesty, by any order or orders in council, to de clare his royal will and pleasure, that male offenders convicted in Great Britain, and being under sentence or order of transportation, shall be kept to hard labour in any part of his majesty's dominions out of England, to be named in such order or orders in council; and that, whenever his majesty's will and pleasure shall be so declared in council, it shall be lawful for one of his majesty's principal secretaof England, ries of state to direct the removal and confinement of any such male offender, either at land, or on board any vessel ment of the to be provided by his majesty, within the limits of any port superinten or harbour in that part of his majesty's dominions which shall be named in such order in council, under the manage. ment of the said superintendent, and of an overseer to be appointed by his majesty, for each such vessel or other place of confinement; and that every offender who shall be so removed, shall continue on board the vessel or other place of confinement, or any similar vessel or other place of confinement, to be from time to time provided by his ma jesty, until his majesty shall otherwise direct, or until the offender shall be entitled to his liberty.

dent and overseer.

Convicts adjudged by courts out

of the United King. dom to transporta

tion, inay,

and transported.

XV. [Power and duties of superintendent and overseers.].

XVI. [Superintendent to act as a justice of the peace.] XVII. And whereas, by the laws in force in some parts of his majesty's dominions, not within the united kingdom, offenders convicted of certain offences are liable to be pu nished by transportation beyond the seas, and other convicts adjudged to suffer death in such parts of his majesty's dominions, have received, or may receive, his majesty's most gracious pardon, upon condition of transportation beyond when the seas, and there may be no means of transporting such brought to England, be convicts to any of the places appointed by his majesty in imprisoned council in that behalf, without first bringing them to England be it therefore further enacted, that whenever any convict adjudged to transportation by any court or judge in any part of his majesty's dominions, not within the united kingdom, or any convict adjudged to suffer death by any such court or judge, and pardoned on condition of transpor tation, have been or shall be brought to England, in order to be transported, it shall and may be lawful to imprison any such offender in any place of confinement provided under the authority of this act, until such convict shall be transported, or shall become entitled to his liberty; and that, so soon as every such convict shall be so imprisoned, all the provisions, rules, regulations, clauses, authorities, powers, penalties, matters, and things aforesaid, concerning the safe custody, confinement, treatment, and trans