of Correction, to hard labour for any further time not exceeding six months; and such incorrigible rogue for any further time not exceeding two years, nor less than six months; and during the time of such person's* confinement, to be whipped in such manner and at such times and place, as they shall think fit; and such person may, if the Session think convenient, afterward be sent away by a pass; and if such person being a male, is above the age of 12 years, the Court may, before he is discharged from the House of Correction, send him to be employed in his Majesty's service by sea, or land;† and if such incorrigible rogue so ordered by the Session to be detained in the House of Correction shall break out or make his escape, or shall offend again in like manner, he shall be guilty of felony, and be transported for seven years +

"But if on examination, no place of settlement, to which such vagrants may be sent, can be found, the Session shall order them to be detained and employed in the House of Correction until they can provide for themselves, or until the Justices in Session can place them in some lawful calling as servants, apprentices, soldiers,

* The words "such persons" refer to all the descriptions of vagrants mentioned in the clause 5 East's R. 339. †The particular service must be specified.-Ibid, 17 Geo. 2, c. 5, sect, 9.

Convicts, &c. to be

conveyed by passes.

Transporta

mariners, or otherwise, either within this realm, or in the plantations in America."*

Moreover, any Judge of Assize, or Justices in Session, or any Justice of the Peace, may order any convict upon his discharge from prison, and also any person who shall be acquitted at the Assizes or Sessions, discharged by proclamation or otherwise, to be conveyed by a Vagrant Pass as directed by 17 Geo. 2, who shall by himself or any other person, apply to such Court, or Justice, to be so conveyed; and the Judge, Justices, or Justice, aforesaid, shall certify in such Pass, that the person so conveyed was discharged from prison, or acquitted, or otherwise discharged, at the Assizes or Sessions, as the case may be, for which Pass no fee shall be paid."+

A few words on the subject of transportation tion. shall close this division of the chapter.

/

Transportation was unknown to the common law, and introduced by statute only, about the end of Queen Elizabeth's reign, and continued for the purpose of colonizing newly discovered, or conquered settlements. It is now confined to three cases, 1st. voluntary under a stat. of Geo. 1. 2ndly, by way of commutation to escape a more severe punishment, and therefore to a certain degree voluntary.-3dly, by force of some

* Id. sect. 28.

† 32 Geo. 3, c, 45, sect. 4.

1

modern statute, as the specific punishment of some particular offence. Voluntary transporta- Voluntary. tion is," where any person of the age of fifteen years and under twenty-one, shall be willing to be transported, and enter into any service in any of his Majesty's plantations in America, it shall be lawful for any merchant, or other, to contract with him for such service, not exceeding eight years; provided such person binding himself, come before the Lord Mayor of London, or some other Justice of the City, if such contract be made there, or before two Justices of Peace of the place where such contract shall be made, and acknowledge his consent, and sign such contract in their presence, and with their approbation; and such merchant or other may transport such person, and keep him in any of the plantations, according to such contract; which contract and approbation of such magistrate shall be certified by such magistrate at the next Quarter. Session, to be registered by the clerk of the peace, without fee.”*

mutation

gy.

Transportation, as a commutation for a As a commore severe punishment is, "where any person in offences shall be convicted of grand or petit larceny, within cleror feloniously stealing of money or goods, and who by law shall be entitled to the benefit of clergy, and liable only to burning in the hand or whipping (except persons convicted for re

* 4 Geo. 1, c. 11.

excluded

ceiving or buying stolen goods, knowing them to be stolen,) it shall be lawful for the Court before whom they were convicted, or any Court held at the same place with like authority, (or any subsequent Court held with like authority for the same county, &c. though held at another place,) instead of ordering such offenders to be burnt in the hand or whipped, to order that they be sent to some of his Majesty's plantations in America for seven years, and such Court shall have power to transfer such offenders, by order of Court, to the use of any person and their assigns who shall contract for their per-, formance of such transportation for seven years, For offences And where any persons shall be convicted of any crimes, for which they are excluded the benefit of clergy, and his Majesty shall extend mercy to such offenders on condition of transportation, and, such intention of mercy be sig nified by one of the principal secretaries of state, it shall be lawful for any Court, having proper authority, to allow such offenders the benefit of a pardon, and to order the like transfer to any person (who will contract for such transportation) and to his assigns, of any such offenders, as also of any person convicted of receiving stolen goods, knowing them to be stolen, for fourteen years, if such condition of transportation be general, or else for such other term as shall be made part of such condition; and the persons contracting or their

clergy.

assigns, shall, by virtue of such order of transfer, have a property in the service of such offenders for such term of years."

These provisions have been amended by many subsequent statutes, but this of Geo. 1, remains the foundation of all modern transportation. The first of these amendments was by a stat. passed soon after the accession of the King, by which, the time of transportation was accelerated after reprieves, in cases of felonies excluded the benefit of clergy, by Judges of the Assize.

By another, passed after no great interval of time, those parts of the former statutes which ordained transportation to America, to be part of the sentence of transportation, were superseded by a provision, that the sentences in future might be to some parts of his Majesty's dominions beyond the seas," generally, and not confined to the American plantations, many of which were no longer under the controul of Great Britain: so that now the usual style of

* Id. and 6 Geo. 3, c. 23; which act, last referred to, was, by the 24 Geo. 3, c. 56, altered and amended, in many particulars, especially in protecting the persons conveying the transports to the port of embarkation, in allowing a property in their service, to be assigned to contractors for them, without giving security for transportation, &c.

8 Geo. 3, c. 15.

19 Geo. 3, c. 74.-enlarged and extended by 35 Geo. 3, c, 18, and 39 Geo. 3, c. 45.