The Press. — London, England, 1858-10-16 00:00:00

works did these 800,000 purchasers take, and what ddi the two millions who in the whole peruse these three papers read before they were brought out? It is quite manifest that this is, if not wholly, yet in a very great proportion, a clear addition to the number of persons who formerly saved from their earnings a penny weekly, and laid it out in pur chasing what would help them to pass an hour or two of rest without the weary sense of unoccupied time, or the pa-Melons resource of drinking. The noble and learned lord went on to refute the notion that the promoters of popular literature were indiff2rent to the encouragement of more severe studies, and the cultivation of profounder science. showing from the experience of the Useful Know ledge Society that the very contrary was the truth. lie also showed that popularizing literature had no tendency to diminish the due remuneration of author ship. He then adverted to the hindrance thrown in the way of cheap literature by the paper duties, remarking on the inconsistency of Government voting funds for education on the one hand and maintaining these duties on the other : We profess to encourage reading among the people, and we directly and effectually discourage it, raising the price and lowering the value of everything they read. To a cer tain degree, however, the people have a remedy in their own hands. Let them firmly resolve to meet the paper duty by practising a salutary economy iu the use of their earnings. The tax adds to the price of what they buy to read; let them deduct as much from their other expenses, and the pressure of the tax ceases. Let them abstain from the use of fermented liquors, not at first altogether, but so far as to increase by a little the sum they pay for cheap works. They will feel themselves all the better for the change, and will he encouraged to carry it further, so as to give up altogether the use of both beer and spirits. That the greatest obstacle to their improvement is also the greatest injury to their health, the worst enemy to their comfort and happiness, is undeniable ; nor can there be a more natural or more appropriate manner of meeting and overcoming this adversary than to make the practice of temperance a help to knowledge—thus tattling at de fiance the obstinate errors of the shortsighted and incon sistent Legislature, and shaming it by the wise and pro vident consistency of their own conduct. The successors of the Penny Magazine—the popular papers of the day— are accompanied, as it was, with other works of a more sustained and complete description, so that the reader who is attracted in the search of amusement, and finds in the same paper historical or scientific matter, is also enabled. if thereby inclined, to obtain more full informa tion; for these works are, generally speaking. of very low prices. Thus nine papers, which may be called of enter tainment, and having a joint circulation of 1,200,000 weekly, are published at Id. ; but there are also published at the same time historical and scientific works—some weekly, some monthly, some once a fortnight—at the price of Id., lid., the larger ones sd. and 7(1. Cassell's Illustrated History of England, of which 100,00.) are pub lished in penny numbers, comes already down to Charles 11., and coats only His Educational Course and Popular Educator give popular and sound information on natural and moral science—the former in a volume of nearly 600 pages, with tolerably good plates, costing under half-a-crown—and of this and other similar works the joint circulation is 300,000. The Popular History of Eng land of C. Knight is of a somewhat higher price, but the plate., as well as the paper, are greatly superior, and its literary merits are of a very high order. The number of popular works wholly religious is very great, and their circulation vast; seventeen of these have a sale of 900,000. The works of the Temperance Society circulate 300,000 weekly. It is impossible to doubt that much good is done by the works of both classes, with the help of the pious and enlightened persons whose zeal is at once testified and rewarded by the great success of these. But it may fairly be questioned if either the cause of religion or temperance gains so much by the publication of works confined to these subjects as by the judicious proceeding of writers avowedly upon other subjects making their works, whether of narrative, of fiction, or of discussion, the vehicle of those sound doctrines. A person of irreligious life, or of infidel opinions, will not be easily tempted to read a pro fessedly religious paper, nor will a drunkard bestow either his pence or his minutes upon what bears on its front the um of " temperance advocates." It must, however, be admitted that both the friends of religion and the advocates of temperance consider their respective causes to have been great gainers directly by the popular press. That they have gained exceedingly by the indirect process cannot he doubted. Upon one class of periodical publications it has not been necessary to dwell—those of the newspaper press. The use of Close journals is incalculable ; their importance both to the Legislature, the courts of justice, the police department, is incontestable ; and to the rights and to the lesser interests of the community their value is such as can only Le duly estimated in countries which either never enjoyed such advantages, or have lost them through their wilful folly, possibly their crimes. But in less important respects these publications are of no little value ; they are a source of constant entertainment, ra tional and even useful. " Had I all the money," says one writer, " which I pay in taxes to Government, at liberty to lay out upon amusement and diversion, I know not whether I would make choice of any in which I should find greater pleasure." Nor are these the words of an ignorant or an ordinary person : they are those of a great divine and Philosopher ; they are Paley's in his " Moral Philosophy." He shows how the newspapers " minister," as he says, to the harmless gratitude of multitudes," and adds that ' the secrecy, the jealousy, the solitude, and precipitation of despotic governments exclude all this." He did not live to see that middle state between entire exclusion and full Possession of which the last seventy years have furnished in i certain countries a signal example. It would be wrong we did not advert to the great Improvement m one ma. THE PRESS, OCTOBER 16, 1858. terial particular of the newspaper press of our time. The papers which made a traffic of slander have ceased from among us. For a while they acted like a drain to carry off the impurities which had before been diffused over other journals ; the good sense, both of the public and of literary men, has now filled up a sewer no longer wanted, and, to all appearance, that portion of the press no longer exists. But it is truly grievous to think that for some portions of the press, though not in th4se now under consideration— certain religious newspapers—we should rather say, per haps, calling themselves religious—there is still a want of the drain; because impurities there abound, extremely offensive. We there find, through the virulence of a factious spirit, outrages upon decorum and truth—to say nothing of Christian charity—which have made pious men refuse to read them, declaring they had much rather see such things served up iu the naked simplicity of common slander than smothered in religious thoughts. It has been contended that our newspaper press, by the paper duty and other circumstances, is hampered, so as to make the supply fall short of the effectual demand. This may well be doubted. But it is further said that the demand ought to be greater; and the example of this United States is cited, where the number of journals is very much larger in pro portion to the number of the people; where, indeed, a newspaper is reckoned so much an article of necessity that no sooner is a spot in the forest cleared for a village than a printing-press is sent for. The political situation of America is probably the cause of this. The nature of the Government throws the whole country into a never ceasing state of party agitation, there being no office, from the highest to the lowest, from President to penny postman, which may not be changed at each renewal of that high functionary's term ; and thus the whole period of his in cumbency is passed in canvass and cabal. There seems every reason to think that with us there is already an abundant supply of the article in question ; that even Paley would have been of this opinion ; that he would have been suspicions of any scheme which tended to dete riorate its quality; that, above all, whatever objection he might have made and most justly to the tax, he would have received with entire reprobation any propmial of reducing its price by a piracy upon literary property. It thus appears that for tho treatment of every subject, and to suit the con dition, the capacity, and the taste of every class, there is ample provision made in the popular literature of the age; that the means ate afforded of encouraging those to read who would else devote their hours of rest to mere listless vacancy of thought, or to dissipated courses; that the opportunity of fuller instruction is given to those who are desirous and capable of receiving it ; that, while all are thus greatly improved, some are made fit to improve others ; that the instinct of curiosity effectually prevents all risks, converting, when desirable, superficial into solid informa tion, but leaving even partial acquirement to do substantial good ; and there is thus the clearest proof afforded of the people's instructors working out the ends of Providence by the employment of the means bountifully placed within their reach, improving the mass of their fellow-creatures through the intelligence bestowed and the instincts im planted by the heavenly Father, who desireth not that His children should perish in the darkness of ignorance, but rather that they should learn and live. The address was warmly applauded throughout. The Right Hon. W. F. COWPER, M.P., Prei..ident of the Education Department, next addressed the meeting in an able speech, and after depicting the high objects to be aimed at in national educa tion said : The impediment of which we hear most is the religious difficulty, which certainly does interfere with such a State system as would involve the estiblishment out of local rates of comprehensive schools for all. This difficulty has not yet been solved. I believe that the knot cannot be un tied, but that it must be cut—cut by the sword of secu• larism—cut by removing religion altogether from the schools. But religions teaching is no difficulty in the existing system. Various denominations meet in a volun tary or an endowed school, on terms which would not be submitted to in a ratepayers' school. Religious teaching forms the strength of the present plan. It supplies the mainspring, and it defines the circumference. It extends the organization and force of the church and the congre- gation to education, and adds a congregational to its indi vidual and national aspect. The leading members of the Association then left St. George's-hall to visit the A kbar, reformatory frigate, lying in the Sloyne. PUNISHMENT AND REFORMATION. The Earl of CARLISLE opened the business of the Punishment and Reformation Section by an address on Reformatories. 11 aving alluded to the Irish convict system, and explained the successive grada tions of imprisonment now existing in that country, the noble lord proceeded to give the results : —lt appears then, from the month of January, 1856, up to the latest date to which accounts have been made up, the number of the discharged from the intermediate prisons is 1,327, of whom 511 were dis charged unconditionally, and 816 on tickets of licence. Of the 511 unconditionally discharged, only five have been recommitted to convict prisons. Of the 818 discharged on license, 45 have had their licences revoked, out of whom 15 were so dealt with for keeping bad company, drunkenness, or failing to report themselves; the reconvictions amounted to 30, which is under four per cent. The majority of these last 818 cases have been made the subject of special reports from the police charged with the supervision of prisoners discharged on license, and therefore, so far, the whole truth is known concerning them. Captain Crofton augurs most favourably of the effects of this system of police supervision, as it has been tested in Ireland in the cases of prisoners discharged on license, and would evidently wish to apply it, in great measure, equally to those discharged unconditionally. On the first b!ush, our preposses sion might naturally be rather against such a pro. position, as militating against the freedom of the subject then under no sentence of law. However, I think that society is clearly entitled to give the full benefit of its scruples on the side of its honest members against those who, by the ascertained commission of crime, have rendered themselves legitimate objects of suspicion ; and Captain Crofton insists very powerfully that this supervision, when rationally and discreetly exercised, has within his own experience proved to be, and in the nature of things is calculated to be, of real service to the well disposed convict himself, as both coming between him and temptation, and as affording confidence to those who might be disposed to give him employ ment. After quoting some English statistics on this question, Lord Carlisle came to the question— what ought to be the condition of admission ? Ought the once convictel, ought the twice convicted, ought, in any case, the wholly unconvicted to be ad missible? It certainly appears to me that, with a view both to the due protection of the money, partly at least received from the Suite, and to the inadequacy of the accommodation as yet provided for the criminal class, it would not be right to allow any admission except of an actual convict. Then, with respect to the once con victed, though I can conceive cases where it might be so desirable to remove a child from evil influences and companionships as to overcome all other scruples, yet, as it is, the duty which the Reformatory owes to the State to operate, preferentially, upon the most hardened and abandoned classes, and as there also may be many cases where a boy or girl may have lapsed or been led into the commission of some isolated fault or act of law lessness without any such perversity of temper or will as to make them fit associates of the thoroughly depraved— but yet, which sonic short sharp punishment would pro bably be the best method of cure—it seems to me that, at all events, till there is more than sufficient room for the aggravated cases, it would be advisable to make a plu rality of convictions the general condition of admission. The great essential condition is to procure the right men for superintendents nr masters; the interior details will he best confided to their discretion, acting upon the ma terials with which they are called upon to deal. It appears to me next desirable that the powers of levying contributions from the parents of children placed in re formatories should be enforced as extensively as possible. A most important and pregnant subject for consideration is the after disposal of the pupils. Their ever best security against relapse to evil courses and dangerous associations would probably be found in emigration. Could the State be properly called upon is contribute to this end, at at all events, in aid of private effort? Boys may in many cases be fit to go out as emigrants, before it would be safe to discharge them at home, within reach of old haunts and comrades, so that a more than corre sponding saving in the State contribution to their main tenance would be thus effected. Some of the inmates will unhappily continue unfitted either for emigration abroad or for employment at home. I think it well worthy of reflection whether, for the thoroughly incorrigible and unmanageable, it might not be desirable to have a more exclusively penal reformatory. I am informed that Mr. Sydney Turner has ree.nrimended the employment of the prison at Parkhurst for this purpose. Consideration must, of course, be given to the lawful duration of sentences ; but it clearly would be conducive to the general welfare that periods of detentior should be sufficiently long to admit of the full process of reformation, and that as few as possible should be let loose anew on society till it has been thoroughly accomplished. I may sum up what I have thus imperfectly said on both branches of my subject, by stating that the same principle of treatment appears to m 3 to apply alike both to adults and juvenile reformation, as might have been expected when human nature supplies the material to be worked upon in either case, with what ever modification of degree and circumstance. The almost indispensable condition of success seems to tie that the criminals, of whatever age or description, should be brought together in such numbers, and under such arrange ments, as admits of their being, to use a term which, I believe, is now understood, individualized ; of their teing each, in their own person, the subject upon whom in fluence, argument, advice, sympathy, are brought to bear; that before they are restored to a world which would naturally look upon them with distrust and suspicion, they should have had the opportunity of submitting to some t7ustworilly test their altered resolutions and dispositions, and that throughout this whole recuperative process, the machinery upon which, under the blessing from above, we can mainly rely, is one human heart acting upon another human heart. THE PHYSICAL. CONDITION OF THE POOR. Lord SHAFTESBURY followed in an able address on this subject. Having referred to the habits of intoxi cation amongst the people, engendered by foul air and the disgusting and depressing influence of the localities in which they live, by a defective supply of deletereous water, the noble lord proceeded to describe the utter corruption which exists in crowded districts : Go amongst those people ; hear with your own ears and see with your own eyes what I now state—tile utter corruption of language, and of thought, and of practice in all those districts. I will not pass on—l will not dare to speak of many things that cannot be mentioned in any mixed assembly ; but you may picture to yourself what