ABSTRACT
William Eden’s Hard Labour Bill was prepared during March 1778, with assistance from Sir William Blackstone, John Howard, Sir Richard Sutton, Sir Gilbert Elliot, and Sir Charles Bunbury, and published along with a memorandum of Observations. The Observations was circulated anonymously for consultation, though all knew the author was Eden. It was also published at the end of the parliamentary session in the Morning Chronicle on 19, 20, and 23 June 1778. The bill sought to introduce up to 38 prisons. The country was to be divided into nine districts, in each of which would be erected two or more buildings, or ‘Houses of Hard Labour.’ Each district was required to provide sufficient space in its house or houses to accommodate three times as many offenders as it had on average transported each year. Eden stressed the value of solitary confinement as a means of ensuring sobriety, diligence, and useful instruction for the convicts.
