A "Plant" Sprung.
On the 20th July, a formidable plot amongst some of the prisoners, was accidentally discovered by Jack Harris, the hangman, whose fixed residence was in the gaol. Criminals used to be executed on a scaffold erected in a corner of the treadmill yard, and as the day for a capital punishment approached, Harris came into the place one morning to prepare for putting up the gallows. Whilst pottering about he noticed some object, partially buried near the mill-shed, and on further examination turned up two bundles of rope from a few inches beneath the surface. They were manufactured from blankets, torn up, twisted, and knotted, in two parts, one about twenty-four, and the other sixteen feet in length. This led to an inquiry which elicited the fact, of a conspiracy, amongst twenty-two of the prisoners, for the purpose of escape. Their plan was this : — O n the next day, at eight a.m., the prisoners, when let into the yard, were to disarm and gag the superintendent and turnkey in charge of them, and, climbing to the top of the mill, by the aid of the concealed ropes, get away. T h e only risk they ran was from the senlry posted outside, who, through a recent niggardly order of the Government, was forbidden to keep his gun loaded. The conspirators were secured and searched ; and when it came to the turn of the reputed leader, a convicted highwayman, named Richard Lovell, he refused to surrender, and even threatened toflingWintle (the gaoler) over a bannister. H e was overpowered and heavily ironed, and his conduct was so outrageous, that, on its being reported to the Visiting Magistrate (Mr. Smith), he and Lieutenant Mair, J.P., held an official inquiry, and sentenced the offender tofiftylashes. His punishment was administered on the 4th August, by Harris, the hangman, in the presence of all the prisoners and a strong military guard. This was the second instance ofthe infliction of corporal punishment in gaol in eleven years. Orders were now issued to the sentries to keep their pieces loaded in future, and not before it was needed, for the prisoners were n o in number; some of them the greatest scoundrels conceivable, an admixture of N e w South Welsh and Van Diemonian convictism and English exileism. T o guard this branded and evil-blooded herd there were only seven persons within the gaol, exclusive of the guard outside. Mrs. Wintle, the gaoler's wife, had been, for some time, appointed matron, from which she was now relieved, as all the female patients were removed from the gaol. Collins, the would-be-runaway, detected in the act of escaping, grew very troublesome after that occurrence, so much so, that neither warning, bread and water, nor solitary confinement had any effect upon him, until at length, growing so turbulent and quarrelsome as to become almost unmanageable, on the 20th January, 1849, he was tied up, and a dose of fifty lashes from the hangman-flagellator brought him to his senses. The transportation of Port Phillip felonry to V a n Diemen's Land was discontinued, and on the principle that certain factories are required to consume the noxious gases they generate, the district was expected to keep and maintain its own criminals, and under the conditions of the imperfect and inadequate penal system here, this was plainly impossible. T h e simple detention of short-sentenced prisoners, and those awaiting trial, with the long-sentenced men, between their condemnation and deportation, sufficiently taxed the powers of the weakly-manned prison, and the greatest difficulty was experienced in enforcing proper discipline. The penal servitude prisoners were at intervals drafted to Sydney, where an outcry was soon raised against them, and not much wonder ; for, in June, 1849, there were in the Sydney gaols no less than sixty convicts from Port Phillip, and thirty of our insane patients at Tarban Creek, the lunatic asylum of N e w South Wales. Another formidable conspiracy was detected amongst the prisoners, on the 2nd November. "From information received," the gaoler caused an examination of the shackles, by which Luke Dowling, Lewis Staunton, George Harrup, Michael Murray, J. Bourchett, and F. Boardman were secured; and the irons were found to be so nearly cut through that they could be severed in a moment. These six felons were awaiting transportation to Sydney ; they were hardened, desperate characters, and it was ascertained by the confession of one of them that they intended, at an early opportunity, to unfetter themselves, murder three of the turnkeys, and conceal their bodies in the closet, then secure thefire-arms,let themselves out of the gaol, killing anyone who barred the way, and having escaped, take to bushranging. Murray and Bourchett were each sentenced tofiftylashes, and the others to a spell of solitary confinement.
