The Press. — London, England, 1857-10-24 00:00:00

THE PRER'g, OCTOBER 24, 1857. Scarcely had Mr. Fairbairn ceased speaking when, moved by an involuntary impulse, a tremendous peal of cheering arose from all parts of the building. It was renewed again and again—sometimes for the executive committee en masse, sometimes for Mr. Fairbairn—sometimes for Mr. Deane, the general commissioner, but always hearty—always warm and general, and accompanied by such an enthusiastic waving of hats and handkerchiefs as would have moved the most impassive. The united bands, too, seemed carried away by the same fervour, and gave vent to their feelings in another grand repetition of the National Anthem. But when this was over, prodigal of applause as if they bad never cheered before, the shouts of enthusiasm and farewell broke out as loud as ever. Suddenly they ceased, and the crowd made a general set towards the place of exit, which nevertheless very few went out of, but, as if loth to quit the building for ever, almost as suddenly came back again, wandering about the wide saloons, and casting long, lingering glances on the great col lection, which none could hope to see again assembled —at least in Manchester. Then, after a few fluctua tions, the great tide of visitors set steadily out. For a time the current flowed evenly enough, but some 3,000 or 4,000 visitors displayed such an anxious desire to be the last to quit the building, that, in order to prevent a trial of patience, which might have proved too much even for the patience of those " much enduring men," the executive committee, it was necessary to prevent those who had once left from again returning. Thus slowly the great mass was edged towards the door amid continued outbursts of cheering for the executive committee, Mr. Fair bairn, and Mr. Deane, until the gates closed upon the last of the 1,300,000 visitors who in ail have visited the Exhibition. Thus, then, the Manchester Exhibition of Art Treasures was finally closed after a brilliant and famous career. The admissions since the opening in May have been as follows (as nearly as the retains can be obtained) : By season tickets At a payment of Is. At :ts. 6d. per head At dd. each 251,119 865,811 12.2,393 04.),261 • • •• Total .. 1,302,584 The financial result will not be known for some time to come. There are people who anticipate a deficit of 10,000/., but the more sanguine think that should the building fetch a good price the receipts from all sources will nearly, if not quite, cover the entire outlay. slightly acquainted with military affairs could do, but he entirely neglects to inform us how it is to be carried out, and wholly overlooks the fact that England, who does all she can to dis courage war, cannot expect at the same time to have a faultless training-school for soldiers. The review of Waterton's Essays is uncom monly good—kindly, humorous, and sympa thetic. The two papers on "Popular Legends " and on Beranger are each what may be called " nice." The article on the " Military Revolt in India'' seems well,written and pertinent : that on Alexander Smith is certainly too austere. PUBLICATIONS RECEIVED-ommEn 22. BOOKS. Lives of the Chief Justices of England. John, Lord Campbell, LL.D., F.R.S.E. Vol. 111. Murray. Generalship. A Tale. George Roy. Griffin and Co. Horn dale. NV. Smith. W. Blackwood. .Moss-side. Marion Harlem. Routledge. The Life of Alexander Pope. H. G. Boho. Nothing to Wear. Sampson Lowe. The Private Life of an Eastern King. Routledge. Lives of Good Servants. Routledge. PAMPHLETS. Letter to Lord l'iseountPalmerston on Medical Reform. Blackburn—What shall we do at Delhi? D. F. Oakey— London Society for Me Protection of Young Females. D. F. Otkey—Mr. Cobbett's Remarks on our Indian Empire. Simpkin and Marshall—lndia and its Army. Longmans —The Harmonium for the Church and Drawing•room. Chappell and Co.—A Letter on Steam Jultication. Wesley and Co.—French Reading for Self Instruction. E. Wilson. London University Magazine. Nos. 17 and 18. Hall and Virtue—The Irish Quarterly. Wesley and Co.—The Com prehensive History of England. Part 111. and IV. Blackie and Son. ART•TREASURES EXHIBITION. THE Manchester Art-Treasures Exhibition closed last Saturday. No ceremonial marked the final proceedings, and there was nothing but the hearty cheers with which the concourse of visitors quitted the building to distinguish it from any other day. The public of Manchester seemed scarcely able to credit the fact that an Exhibition which has occupied so large a share of the attention of the kingdom, and which has been so original in idea and successful in execution, could possibly be closed without some striking ceremonial of some kind. This notion, coupled with the anxious wish that it should remain open for another week, led many to believe that at least a few days extra would be granted. It was not indeed until Saturday morning that the last of these hopes died out, and visitors prepared to take their farewell of the building and its contents. As the day was very fine the number of visitors was suffi ciently great to prevent anything like a view being obtained of the works of art, and people sat them selves down where they could, waiting in the vague hope of some event taking place to make the closing an impressive scene. Of course the majority of the visitors were season-ticket holders, though, never theless, nearly 9,000 paid at the doors. The only alteration from the usual every-day arrangements was in a large and tasteful trophy of banners being erected at the end of the building over the orchestra, and the orchestra itself being strengthened by the addition of the bands of the 36th Regiment and the 4th Dragoon Guards. Aided by 'this addition to the fine band always in the building, a series of marches and overtures were beautifully rendered, and the crowd which thronged every part of the place, after a few vain attempts to study the pictures, were compelled to remain quiet and listen to the music whether they liked it or not. In this way the day passed without variation or incident until half-past four o'clock, when the bands gave the signal that the last hour of the Exhibition had commecced by playing the National Anthem. Imme diately all the gentlemen present respectfully un covered, and a simultaneous movement was made from all parts of the building towards the orchestra, round which the visitors collected in a dense mass, listening to the band with a serious and marked attention, that had a striking and almost solemn si.Tect. As the music ceased to re•echo through the build ing there was a moment's pause of expectation, and Mr. Thomas Fairbairn, the chairman of the executive committee, advancing to an open:space in front of the orchestra, amid deep silence, closed the Exhibition in these words : Ladies and Gentlemen,—The time has come when it is any duty to pronounce the last few words of farewell, and to inform you that when you have all retired from this building the Exhibition of Art Treasures will be at an end for ever. I sincerely hope that you will never forget the liberality which has enabled that Exhibition to be formed, and that the recollection of this building and the unrivalled art treasures it contained will assert among you the truth 491' the poet's line— A thing of boantg le &joy for ever. THE REFORMATORY MOVEMENT. AN influential meeting in support of the Reformatory and Industrial Schools movement was held at the close of last week at the Town ball, Birmingham, under the presidency of the Hon. W. F. Cowper, M.P., Vice-President of the Committee of Council on Education. About 4,00) persons filled the body of the hall, and among those on the platform were Lord Brougham, Lord J. Russell, Lord Stanley, Lord Calthorpe, Lord Ingestre, Sir J. Pakington. Mr. C. B. Adderley, M.P., Mr. R. Hanbury, M.P., Mr. Staney, M.P., Mr. Garnett, M.P., the Recorder of Birmingham (Mr. M. D. Hill), the Mayor of Bir mingham (Mr. J. Ratcliff), the Hon. and Rev. G. Yorke, and a large number of clergymen and gentle men from the neighbourhood. The CHAIRMAN introduced the subject to the meet ng at considerable length. It was interesting, he said, to investigate the causes and provocation to a criminal course. The most common was the absence of care and good influence at home, whether from the negligence, dissoluteness, and drunkenness, or wickedness of the parents, or from orphanage and— a very prolific source of misery to children—a cruel or hard stepmother who allowed no comfortable shelter to her children. The want of education bad been generally considered a principal cause of crime, but yet the returns showed that of the persons com mitted for offences for a long period not more than one-third were unable to read and write. This might seem to go against the conclusion that want of educa tion led to crime, but it did not. This was strikingly illustrated by a remarkable paper contributed by Mr. J. Symons, in which he showed that the amount of crime in counties and towns was in proportion, not to the prevalence or deficiency of schooling, but in very close and direct proportion to the density of the population in question. After quoting some of the statistics adduced by Mr. Symons in proof of this position, the right hon. gentleman referred to the influence exerted by ragged schools, defending the course of the Government, however, in not granting them large amounts of public money. Such assis tance could only be given by them coupled with con ditions. You should ascertain first of all that the proper class:of children were admitted ; secondly, that 1043 the schools were placed where they were wanted ; and, thirdly, that the education given in them was thoroughly effective. With regard to reformatories, the aid furnished by Parliament to these institutions was of great importance, but still volunteer efforts in this direction, made with a heartiness exerting an influence which did not accompany paid labour, could not be dispensed with. In this great reforma tory movement which they were met to discuss he recognised one of the bright features of our social condition, and he was thankful to see so large an audience, and men of such eminence, met to support it. Lord Barn GRAN, who, in moving the first resolu tion, recognising the value of the reformatory move ment, referred to the deterring effect of penal laws, said that these laws produced much less effect, not only than might be desired, but even than could commonly be credited, in the repression of offences : The reason of this is obvious. I have heard my old and excellent friend Mr. Bentham repeatedly contend that if it were perfectly clear to a person who was about to commit an offence—say a latceny—that he would within a short time be seized, tried, convicted, and punished, although the sentence should only condemn him to return what be bad stolen, he would not, if he were a man of sound mind, take the trouble to undergo all that process, and would never attempt to appropriate his neighbour's possessions. I believe Mr. Bentham was perfectly right in contending that in such a case you would not require to threaten a man with the gallows, or transportation, or whipping ; that the certainty I have mentioned would have the effect of preventing men from theft. But the misfortune is that this assumes too much. It assumes that the man will be caught; that, if caught, he will be tried is likely enough, and that he will be convicted if the evidence proves him guilty, to the satisfaction of oar worthy friend the Recorder and the jury. All this is more or less, although not quite certain. But it is by no means certain that he will be detected ; it is by no means certain that being pursued he will he captured, and then, with all respect to my excellent and learned friend, it is by no means certain that he will be able so to try the case and to instruct the jury as to make conviction certain. Now, all the chances which a man has of escape naturally affect his mind when he is meditating whether he shall commit an offence or not. The man who is desirous of appropriating his neighbour's goods for purposes of bis own is so sanguine that he magnifies all the chances of escape, thinks lightly of the possibility of capture, trial, and conviction, and finally makes up his mind that he will run the risk, and commits the theft. What Mr. Ben tham always left too much out of sight is, that when a man is minded to commit an offence he is not in inch a calm state of mind as to be able to take an accurate view of his position and the prospect of detection and punish ment. All this points to the great object as to the de sirability of which there can be no doubt,—namely, to reform, if possible, the offender and to prevent the desire of committing an offence by inculcating in his mind pru dential as well as honest motives. For I would not trust to one of these motives only. I would give the greatest possible weight to good secular and religions education, as well as to sound moral training, but I would also attach great weight to prudential considerations—to that instrne tion which will teach a man how much better it will be for him, how much more comfortable for himself, how much happier a life he will lead if he is honest instead of pur suing those vicious courses to which but too many are prone. Mr. ADDERLEY said that there were two features in the programme of the Conference on Social Science. one of which had given him the greatest pleasure, and the other of which he as heartily con. demned. The first was the distinct separation in the sections of education and punishment. The second, which he condemned, was that the subject of reformatories had been referred to the department of punishment instead of that of education : Now, be humbly conceived that in the conhision of these two ideas, which were most distinct, of education and of punishment, bad arisen most of the difficulties which had occurred in the way of legislation on this sub ject. We had sometimes sought to punish by education, and at other times to educate by punishments, and such a confusion was not more false in theory than mischievous to this country in practice. Many men of the highest eminenee had hoped to meet the exigencies of punish meat by educating the criminal. Now, he was not one of those who failed to appreciate the necessity that none of our punishments should in any way tend to corrupt the persons punished. It was most essential that the rumbles process should tend to reform, and not to corrupt. At ths same time, he believed that if the State undertook to reform its criminals altogether whenever they came under punitive treatment, the attempt would only end in failure and disappointment most detrimental to the whole cause of morality throughout the country. The usual subjects of punishment were adults, and adults were generally be yc nd the process of education. If they were to be educated it was by raising the standard of society, and not by the artificial process of a prison school. On the other hand, until the establishment of reformatories within the last few years, the State laid hold of children presented to it as outcasts driven into crime by parental negligence or training, or (worse still) by compulsion, and these chil dren, possessing no education, were treated by punish ment suited only to adults. In these two processes we punished children who wanted education; we attempted to educate adults who wanted punishment. Now, this error could not be considered as eradicated, when, even among the social doctors, reformatories were considered in a section which had for its great subject that of secondary punishments. lie conceived that the State, in introduc-