The Criminal Prisons of London by Henry Mayhew / British Library, Public Domain

Transportation

The huge number of capital offences with which the reign began had been pruned to only two, murder and treason, by 1861. When death was no longer the inevitable sentence for minor crimes, what was to be done with the prisoners? The colonies came in useful here. The main receiving territory was Australia: an average of 460 convicts were sent there each year, but some were sent to Gibraltar, or fever‐ridden Bermuda. In 1853 the colonies refused to accept England’s convicts any longer, and sentences were converted to hard labour in English prisons instead.

The Hulks

The Criminal Prisons of London by Henry Mayhew / British Library, Public Domain

There was a shortage of prison accommodation. Long term prisoners were transferred to provincial prisons, or to the dreaded Hulks – decommissioned warships anchored in the mud off Woolwich. They were dark, damp and verminous. Few prisoners managed to escape.

Executions

[LEFT]: Broadside on ‘The Trial and Sentence of Dr Barnard’ / British Library, Public Domain

[CENTER]: ‘Mr Charles Dickens and the execution of the Mannings’, reprinted from The Times: Letter from Charles Dickens to The Times expressing shock and disgust at the enthusiasm of the crowd that gathered to witness the execution of the Mannings, 1849. / British Library, Public Domain

[RIGHT]: Broadside on the ‘Life, Trial, Execution and Dying Behaviour of Joseph Hunton’ / British Library, Public Domain



The Common Law

England was proud of its individuality. Napoleon had imposed a codified system of law throughout his continental Empire, based on Roman law. In theory any citizen anywhere in his domain could consult a written source and see where he stood. Of course it was not so easy as that, and the legal profession continued to make a good living, interpreting the law to non‐lawyers. England never accepted Roman law. The English preferred their own system of ‘common law’, which was, they felt, appropriate to the rugged English character. It relied on what judges had decided in previous cases on the same point of principle, which was not always easy to identify. The law relating to wills and land, in particular, became so obscure that a parallel system grew up, more nearly related to the idea of abstract justice: it was called ‘equity’. Again, it relied on decisions by earlier judges, and since one judge’s idea of justice might vary from another’s, not much clarification resulted. Cases in the courts of equity could drag on for many years. The costs of employing lawyers put such cases out of the reach of all but the richest.