EMIGRANT SHIPS—FEMALE EMIGRANTS. (Hansard, 26 February 1850)

The EARL of MOUNTCASHELL

said, in rising to bring forward the Motion of which he had given notice, respecting the appointment of a medical officer to the Una emigrant ship, he begged to remark that since he had last mentioned the subject in the House, some more recent information had arrived from Australia; and in the papers which he had received, he found that everything which he had the honour 8 of stating to their Lordships on the subject was more than confirmed. He held in his hand a copy of the South Australian Register, containing a statement signed by no less than 97 passengers on board the Indian, setting forth a number of specific atrocities against the officers of that vessel. It appeared also from these papers that a meeting had been called to give an opportunity to the medical officer, who had acted so gross a part, to rebut the charges against him; but the result was, that all the charges had been proved in the most satisfactory manner. He had to complain, however, that the emigration agent had attempted to screen not only the master but the doctor also. At the same time it should be admitted that the Governor, Sir H. Young, had taken up the matter in a highly creditable manner. With regard to these medical men placed on board emigrant vessels, a great deal of confidence was reposed in them. They were supposed not only to take care of the health of the passengers, and more particularly of the female portion of them, but to be also their protectors. But instead of discharging these duties, many of them had been in the habit of acting most improperly. As an instance of this conduct, he would beg to read a passage from a letter in the Adelaide Observer, written by William Noye, a schoolmaster, who went out, with his family, on board the Mary Anne, emigrant ship:— Satisfied with these assurances, I embarked at Plymouth on the 23rd of December, 1848, and on the 27th left the shores of Old England. My wife was confined on the 29th. On the evening of the third day after her confinement, I went to the surgeon and asked him if he would give me anything for my wife's supper. He told me he had nothing to give her. I replied she could not eat salt junk and hard biscuit, and asked for a little butter (for you must know, Sir, that though we had been nine days on board, we had no butter, flour, raisins, or such, served out). He told me there was none got up yet. The captain and chief mate were with him. The latter said she could have a little from the cabin. The surgeon said, 'No, it is not fit for her, nor shall she have it.' I asked what I was to do, when immediately the captain came to the rescue, saying,' D—ye; why, soak her bread. What the h—did you do at home? 'I answered that at home my wife got what was necessary, and I did not feed her during her confinements with rotten beef and bread overgrown with fungus, for which description of rations the Mary Anne could not be excelled. But to make the matter short, all the nourishment she obtained, during the entire voyage, more than a healthy emigrant's allowance, was four pints of preserved meat, and half a pint of preserved milk for the baby. I had to give up my small allowance of flour, and feed myself on 9 that rare composition, biscuit and fungus, in order to afford any chance of keeping my wife and children alive till we reached terra firma." The result was thus mournfully told— Since our arrival we have laid our baby in the cemetery at Adelaide, and my wife is now suffering from derangement of the respiratory organs and has not been able to attend to her domestic duties since we landed. It was with the view of eliciting the truth that he had made the Motion, of which he had given notice— That there be laid before this House Copies of the Testimonials, with the Names of the parties subscribed to them, produced by Thomas Hammond, upon the faith of which he was last summer appointed surgeon to the emigrant ship Una, together with the Minutes made by the Colonial Land and Emigration Commissioners on those Testimonials. He wished their Lordships to see what sort of persons occasionally got employment on board emigrant vessels. It had come to his knowledge that this Mr. Thomas Hammond was a doctor resident at Eton for nearly thirty years. He was sorry to be obliged to speak of any individual, here or elsewhere, in strong terms, but he thought he was warranted in so doing from the wrongs inflicted on a great body of persons. He was informed that this person was a very notorious character for drunkenness and loose life, the effect of which was that he had ruined his family as well as himself; he became deranged, and was at length placed in a lunatic asylum near Norwich. There he remained until last year, and how he got out he (the Earl of Mountcashell) was unable to explain; but a very few months after his exit he was appointed surgeon on board this emigrant ship, which sailed about the middle of July from one of our ports for Sydney, with 313 souls on board, all of whom were of course entrusted to his care. He (the Earl of Mountcashell) was informed that he had produced six or seven testimonials of the highest character in his favour. He did not wish to bring any charge against the noble Earl, or the Colonial Office; his motive in bringing forward this case was to show the noble Earl and those connected with him that too much trust was not to be placed in testimonials which might be presented by men applying for office. He also hoped that it would serve as an occasion to medical men of high standing to take notice not to give testimonials without well knowing who the parties were, because, of course, if they did that, the Colonial Office had to depend 10 on them, and in that way the mischief was done, and much evil was the result. There was no account yet of the safe arrival of this vessel in Australia, so that the result in this instance was not known. But this appeared to be a case of too common occurrence. In a pamphlet published by Mr. Sidney, the following summary was given of cases reported in the blue book on Emigration, ordered by the House of Commons, July, 1849. The Immigrant Board of Sydney observes— It is impossible to convey a just idea of the gross abuses and infamous misconduct which occurred (on board the Subraon) owing to the 'imbecility' of the surgeon-superintendent. Unrestrained intercourse took place between the sailors and the women, and between certain officers and certain single women. Among these girl" were twelve girls from a foundling institution in Dublin, one of whom, a very interesting girl too, was seduced by the chief officer, and died in consequence of miscarriage before she could be landed from the vessel. The surgeon of the Canton is pronounced not qualified for his office. Equestrian.—Surgeon not sufficient energy or activity. Fairlie.—Surgeon's manners violent and grossly offensive. Agincourt.—Deficient in energy, and principles bad. Charlotte Jane.—Surgeon, bad habits; intoxication; undesirable that he should be employed again. Emperor.—Great freedom of intercourse appears to have existed between the single women, the mates, and seamen. General Hewitt,—Intimacies between some of the sailors and the single women have fallen under my notice, that induce me to suspect that their intercourse during the passage was not sufficiently prevented. Cornwall.—Surgeon, young and inexperienced, but attentive to the performance of his duties. A formal charge was made affecting the conduct of the mate of the ship, with reference to certain of the single women. The superintendent reported that 'without doubt, the accusation was not devoid of foundation, and that a certain degree of immorality must have prevailed on board.' Hyderbad—Duties of surgeon-superintendent not performed in a satisfactory manner, and should not be employed again. Lady Peel—Total unfitness of the surgeon for his duties. Out of twenty surgeon-superintendents selected by the emigration commissioners, eleven were reported by the colonial authorities as more or less unfit for their very responsible duties. Could proper caution be taken if this was so? In an article in the Adelaide Observer, of the 6th of October, it was said— From what college of surgeons the ships' doctors are usually drafted for the Australian voyage, we are at a loss to conjecture. The many declared instances of incompetency and inhumanity are appalling, and the numerous fatal results call loudly for a thorough reformation in the system of selection. The practice of excessive drinking is so general, that a kind and sober doctor seems to be quite an exception. He was convinced, not only from the 11 sources he had quoted, but from many letters he had received, that the treatment of emigrants, particularly the females on hoard of these vessels, was of the most disgusting and disgraceful character, and it often happened that not only their morals were not attended to, but in case of illness scarcely any attention was paid to them at all. The consequence had been great loss of life, or where this did not occur, suffering. If the present Acts of Parliament were not sufficiently stringent, surely it was the business of Her Majesty's Ministers to have an Act properly framed, so that the matter might be no longer neglected. If this statement could not he contradicted, and it went abroad that there was no protection for females of good character, it was clear that none would consent to go. You might send as many as you pleased of the sweepings of the streets, but the people of Australia would not thank you for them. They wished for a different class of women—persons of innocent hah its and well disposed, whom they might make their wives and sisters. In the papers he had seen it was stated that many of the girls who had been maltreated were quite innocent and well behaved; but from their not having received sufficient protection, they had been corrupted in the course of the voyage. On board of the Ramillies four young women were said to have been flogged by order of the doctor. It was possible they might have misconducted themselves, but he did not think it right that power should be vested in the doctor to flog females. He knew the danger of bringing together in a small space the evil and the good. Some classification of the passengers ought to be made, and the evil inclined should be separated from the virtuous and well disposed.

§ EARL GREY

could safely refer their Lordships to the papers on the table, so far as regarded the noble Earl's statement of general mismanagement on hoard emigrant ships. The fullest information was furnished with regard to them all, and an examination of it would show, that, though with so large an emigration some cases of misconduct would necessarily arise, the system, as a whole, was successfully and efficiently conducted. The noble Earl had said that the surgeons were generally inefficient, and the ships generally ill-conducted. In answer to that, he (Earl Grey) would state one simple, but conclusive, fact—that, taking the returns of the number of persons embarked, and the deaths 12 on the voyage, the mortality during that long passage to Australia, with all the accidents and hardships of such a voyage, was actually less than the average mortality among the same number of persons of the same age living in this country. The noble Earl mentioned a great number of cases of misconduct of particular surgeons. Of course it was impossible for him (Earl Grey) to be prepared to go through those cases; but, listening attentively to them, he heard it stated of one, "undesirable to be employed again." The Emigration Commissioners could hardly be blamed for not finding that out till they had employed him once. Another was described as "young and inexperienced." It was impossible, with the great demand for these surgeons, always to obtain persons of experience and mature age. But the Commissioners took this precaution, which was, upon the whole, effective—that the remuneration of the surgeon increased according to the number of voyages he took. The most strict supervision was exercised over the vessels when they arrived; and if the surgeon was found in any respect to have fallen short of the proper discharge of his duties, he was immediately reported to the board here, and not again employed. If the case was more serious, he lost the gratuity to which he was entitled; and if the case was considered to deserve it, he was brought up before the legal tribunals for punishment for any infringement of the law. In no instance had the Emigration Commissioners failed to exercise the very largo powers given them by law, as they judged to be required; and those powers, as they had been, would continue to be, exerted to the utmost, in order to punish every case of abuse. The noble Earl had alluded to cases of immoral conduct, which it was impossible sometimes to prevent, even among the domestics in a large establishment; but every possible exertion was made to prevent it. He said, that if these things were permitted, respectable women would not go out. Now, the Emigration Commissioners were so satisfied of the danger and difficulty of sending out single women, that it had long been their practice to discourage their going; nor would they allow a single woman to embark on board one of their vessels unless she had some one with her who could protect her, except in the case of vessels chartered for such persons as those from the Irish workhouses; and the abuses that took place there were 13 through the scandalous fraud sanctioned by the Irish board of guardians, with whose direct cognisance the master of the work-house substituted some improper characters to answer to the names of those who were to have embarked. With that one exception, the Irish emigration had generally been conducted with as much success as could be expected. It was impracticable by any regulation to guard against all abuse. The Emigration Commissioners had declined as much as possible to conduct the emigration of single women, and wished to confine themselves almost entirely to the emigration of families; and that seemed to be almost the only emigration that could go on to any great extent with success. With regard to the present Motion, so far from objecting to it, he (Earl Grey) thanked the noble Earl for having made it. It was, of course, impossible for the Commissioners to judge of the characters of surgeons except by the testimonials. He had in his hands copies of the testimonials produced by Mr. Hammond, and, after perusing them, he was convinced that there must have been some mistake, and that the person to whom the noble Earl referred could not be the Mr. Hammond to whom those testimonials had been given. It appeared that Mr. Hammond applied in the ordinary way for employment on the 11th of June last year, and he handed in to the chairman of the Emigration Board a number of certificates. [The noble Earl proceeded to road the papers furnished to the board by Mr. Hammond, which inclosed testimonials from many eminent practitioners, giving him a very high character.] He (Earl Grey) thought it was almost impossible for any gentleman to have produced higher testimonials, and that such testimonials could not have been given by gentlemen of high standing in the medical profession to a person of the character and conduct described by the noble Earl. He (Earl Grey) concurred, however, with that noble Lord in thinking that those who signed testimonials of this kind incurred great responsibility, and that persons who gave such testimonials improperly should be held answerable for their misconduct. He had, therefore, no difficulty in agreeing to the Motion of the noble Earl; but he hoped it would be proved that the noble Earl had been mistaken in his statements.