The Press. — London, England, 1857-01-03 00:00:00

JANUARY 3, 1857• oincts of the imperial palace, but by all the highest nubility of Russia, may not unnaturally have rendered him alive to the contrast presented in this country, by the coldness he experienced from certain mem. bers of our aristocracy. He was, however, on very friendly terms with many persons of distinction here, and it certainly speaks in his favour, that those who knew him best liked him most; while, on the other hand, it must be allowed that certain members of our aristocracy, especially some with whom he was brought in contact by his official position, regarded him much as Washington Irving describes the old Dutch families of New York to have looked upon the Yankees, " with great respect and abhorrence." Americans have also informed us, that he left England with personal feelings of the deepest re spect, admiration, and kindly esteem for the highest personages in the realm ; but having lost much of such feelings for those who compose the councils of our floverarasat. Our own opinion, founded on that of some experi enced Americans, as to the future policy of Mr. Bu chanan, is, that it will be eminently conservative, and that the more a similar policy is adopted by England, the moro friendly will his relations be with our Government.—New Quarterly Review. SIR EDWARD LYTTON UPON CHARITABLE SCHOOLS. Stu EDWARD LYTTON presided at the Commercial Travellers' School anniversary, held at the London Tavern on Saturday evening. After the usual loyal toasts, Sir Edward rose to propose the toast of the evening, " Prosperity to the Commercial Travellers' School." He said : I call upon you to rejoice in the prosperity of that inati• tution on behalf of which we are now assembled. In a neighbouring country various attempts have been made at what they call " fraternity," but as they have insisted upon establi hing that idea with the imperative condition of equalit , so the first operation of fraternity naturally was to bring all the brothers to an equal standard of size by cutting down the great brother and trampling down the little brother. That process was found so remarkable that it brought the relation into such odious repute that at this day you could scarcely utter the very name of fraternity in the streets of Paris without some little brother informing against you, or some big brother committing you to prison. Now, in England we have not yet attempted to establish fraternity upon the same plan. Far from asserting the doctrine that all men are equal, we are willing to acknow- ledge those inequalities of life and condition which render it the duty of a man who finds himself comfortably seated at the top of the ladder, to lend a helping hand to his dis tressed brother, who would otherwise starve at the foot. Therefore our brotherhood has been successful, because the bond which unites them is not a mere rope of sand, but a strong chain which binds heart to heart, and pro sperity to distress, by links of human compassion and Christian charity. Nor is there anything more honourable to our age and country than that these institutions, which are everywhere formed around us. are formed for the simple and disinterested object of doing good, of giving to penniless age a refuge from the workhouse, to desolate childhood a fostering home, and opening up to it an honour. able career in life. We are endeavouring to carry out those principles of humanity at a time when it seems as if the chief care of the State was to provide for the children of felons, and to extend to the adult who may already have violated the laws of the country, a chance of reformation, and a cheering prospect of an honest livelihood in the future. Now, I do not stop to prove or to criticise, much less to condemn that direction of a benignant and merciful policy, but I do contend that great care must be taken, or else it will come to be rather an advantage than otherwise to be the child of a felon. Certainly the children of honest men ought not to be much worse off than the children cf those who have " left their country for their country's good." Therefore it behoves all honest men of this brotherhood to be up and stirring, in order to redress that balance of charity which would otherwise be falsely weighted, and which might offer absolute premiums to dishonesty. It behoves us to be up and stirring, in order to secure to the children of men who, though they may be beaten down by adversity, have been useful and honourable members of society, and to provide for them a home more tender, an education much better, and a career more promising than that which the professional thief may have the consolation of leaving to his degraded but inleresting offspring. That is the first object of this society which now appeals to you for aid and support. e may well be proud of our merchants and traders, not only because of their wealth and enterprise, and the commercial genius which has exalted this island into an empire, and made our shores the markets of the world, but for the more touching and sacred cause that prosperity has never hardened their hearts, and that their wealth has ever been the treasury of the distressed. It has been mainly by the sympathy, zeal, and indefatigable exertions of the traders of this country that we have founded those magnificent institutions—charitable asylums, hospitals, and schools—which are at once a blessing and an orna• went to our land. But among all such institutions there is none more appropriate to commerce than this Commer- cial Travellers' School. Well, we talk of honest parents. In what class of society can honesty he more essential than among those in which ercry lapse from honesty must. be a breach of trust, where a man's certificate of integrity is in the confi donee 'of his employer, whom habits of business naturally THE PRESS. make cautious and acute in the selection of his agents? That the children of men thus emphatically useful should by the premature death or disabling disease of such parents be thrown upon the world without friends or without hope, and that too at a time when this goodhearted mother country of ours is fostering at her breast and rocking in her arms the lawless offspring of the Jack Sheppards and Jonathan Wilds of society, would indeed be a stigma and disgrace to the nation. This society, however, does more than make an attempt to extend to these children an edu• cation and advantages immeasurably beyond all that philanthropy can extend to the progeny of the felon, for it not only preserves the child from danger, but in the quality and degree of the education which it bestows it rewards the honesty of the parents. Sir Edward Lytton then in detail criticised the mode of instruction adopted in these schools, ex• pressing his high approval of the scheme—which includes French, German, Latin, drawing, and music : I am not surprised to find (continued Sir Edward) that your theory of education bears the test of practice, and that commercial houses which have taken some of your pupils are always ready to apply for others. Nor am I surprised at the immense rapidity with which you have established this institution upon so solid a basis. Land has been purchased, schools erected at a cost of more than '25,0001., and you have a reserve fund of 13,0001. invested in Government Securities, and all this has been accom plished in the space of ten years. lam not, I say, sur prised at your success. I ara never surprised at what Englishmen effect if they have fair play. But the exer tions of the men by whom this school has been established do call for our most cordial admiration. Upon a former occasion there were some regretful com plaints that the number of commercial travellers among our subscribers was not larger. Let us hope for better things. No class charity can ever expect to have more than a certain proportion of that class among its sub scribers. It is highly to the credit of the great body of commercial travellers, however, that two or three thou sand among them are annual subscribers to the institution. But if there was not one commercial traveller who sub scribed, this institution would in no degree be less worthy of our support. There are children of worthy persona left destitute—shall we not provide a home and a refuge for them? Look yonder (directing attention to the gallery at the end of the room where the school children were standing), what does it matter to me or to you who are or who are not subscribers? It is enough that we have done our duty—have set an example of that duty, and made clear to common sense the advantage which must spring from following in the course which we have com menced. But depend upon it such an institution will never want supporters amongst those who carry on the trade of this great country. When we have once reared life into usefulness, and ripened the mind into thoughtful intelligence, we can then only conjecture what may be the result of our labours. Franklin was once asked " What is the use of your discovery of atmospheric electricity ?" The philosopher answered the question by asking another, " What is the use of a new-born infant ?" No person among us can say what scientific discoveries may be made, or what light may yet be diffused over the earth, by the soul of a single child. At the moment lam now speaking this institution is preparing 150 ut these human souls for the broad thoroughfares of human life—thoroughfares in which they may happily fulfil our objects if we teach the pupils to walk without stumbling or falling. But let us never forget that, in a country as free as the air we breathe, every thoroughfare has its upward slope to fame and fortune which may be reached by the steps of the zealous and the persevering. Your school may pro duce philosophers and brillt int characters—such men have sprung from inferior degrees of education, and a much lower state of moral discipline than you afford, and you may ultimately have your share in the guides and orna ments of society. This I will venture to anticipate, that the day will come, and some of you may live to see it, when the chair which I now fill will be occupied by some man who has risen into wealth and eminence in society, having been educated in your schools, and then from the lips of that man some applauding audience will hear that truth which can never be too often told, that not more surely does the harvest spring from the corn seed than do the races of men who sustain, ennoble, and enrich life spring from the germs of intelligence and virtue which are sown in the hearts of children. (Loud cheers.) The toast was drunk with all the honours. THE RECORDER OF BIRMINGHAM ON THE TICKET-OF-LEAVE SYSTEM. AT the Birmingham Sessions, on Monday, Mr. Hill, Q.C., the Recorder, well known as a supporter of the ticket of leave system, delivered to the grand jury a lengthy charge on the present state and prospects of crime and criminals. After remarking that this was not the first year in which the winter months had been signalised by the turpitude and number of the outrages committed-1850 and 1851 being instanced —and that, therefore, too hasty an inference as to the permanent increase of crime must not be drawn, Mr. Hill proceeded to consider the causes of the in crease. At the head of these he placed the reluc tance to visit crime with heavy punishment, the result of the course of legislation pursued for many years. Penal servitude for ten years is the highest penalty which can be incurred for simple larceny, not long since punishable by transportation, thus ne cessarily involving the return of the criminal to liberty in this country. " We must not forget," observed the learned recorder, " that the evil undtr which we are suffering is the discharge among us of unreformed criminals. If the necessary discipline in gaol fails to prevent them giving proof that their habits and dispoAtions were cliangel for the better, was it not unquestionably right that their seclusion should continue, even if it lasted for life ?'• Many looked upon transportation as the best remedy If those who advocate a return to transportation can find a suitable territory—if they shall be able to deal with a convict population in any way (save by imprisonment) so as to preclude the recurrence of the multiplied crimes and mysterious abominations which would form the darkest page of our history, did not their very atrocity shield them from disclosure—if they shall devise the means by which the most nefarious of the convicts can be prevented from gradually filtering down into the nearest States, whether our own possessions or those of the foreigner—then, gentlemen, I, for, one, though not un mindful of the many difficulties and of the enormous ex pense essential to such a project, will rejoice at that, as I should at almost any other solution of our most distressing problem—" What shall we do with our criminals ?" But, gentlemen, to send convicts thousands of miles to remain in prison at the end of their voyage does appear to me repugnant to the most obvious dictates of common sense. to say nothing of its being condemned by all authority. And as I am now on a question of pecuniary advantage, let me not forget to assure you that whoever favours trans portation by reason of its alleged economy has fallen into a grievous delusion. Now, the ticket of leave, as dealt with by the authorities, mightjust as well be a piece of blank paper. it purports to hold the bearer to the liability of being sent back to prison if he shall associate with notoriously bad characters, or in any way not " prove by his subsequent conduct that he is worthy of her Majesty's clemency." This is the theory. The practice is to indulge him in every species of misconduct short of committing another offence cognisable by the criminal law, when, of course, whether he had or had not a ticket of leave, he would be deprived of his liberty. Long before tickets of leave had ever been heard of thousands of convicts sentenced to transportation had been set free at home, by unconditional discharge, on the expiration of half their sentence. Now they are set free on the nominal conditions to which I have adverted, at a period somewhat but very little shorter. To the ex tent of this difference let it be conceded that the change of treatment is against the public interest. On the other hand, it must in justice to the authorities be stated that the encouragements to good conduct, while criminals are in confinement, are far better devised and more effi ciently carried into operation than heretofore, and are in course of still further improvement, so that the chance of reformation, however small, is greater than in former days. On the whole, comparing the two regulations for the discharge of prisoners at home, I have no hesitation in stating my belief that the present, although grievously de fective, is a valuable improvement on that which preceded it. Very soon shall we practically feel the proof of this assertion. Next year the convicts adjudged to penal servi tude will begin to be discharged, and the stream having once begun to flow will never be dried up, and if I mistake not we shall find ourselves no gainers by the absence of the ticket. The step which I propose is simply to make the conditions endorsed on the ticket of leave a truth instead of a fiction—to carry into effect the following resolution of the Transportation Committee of the House of Commons : That, to render this system of tickets of leave adapted both for the reformation of offenders and the interests of the public, the conditions endorsed upon the tickets of leave ought to be enforced more strictly than appears to have hitherto been the case. Many ticket•of•leave men who are misconducting them selves are well known to the police, and these are probably the worst and most dangerous of their class. M any others, by reason of no means having been adopted to en able the police to learn their names, and become ac quainted with the persons of ticket-of•leave men in their respective districts, cannot be identified, and must, there fore, remain as if they had received a perfect and absolute discharge—an omission which the committee by another resolution aitogetherdisapproved and recommended should be supplied, as I trust it will be in future. Still much might be done, tending for the present to still the agita tion which has been produced by the manner in which the Ticket-of• Leave Act has been carried into operation. The proposed measure, however, is but a palliative ; and I therefore trust that the next session of Parliament will not be suffered to pass away witnout our witnessing a thorough revision of the whole system of our treatment of criminals. A SEAL WAS SHOT IN THE THAMES a few days ago just above Wandsworth. It is a beautiful specimen of the species, and is the only one of the kind that has been seen by any one of the Thames fishermen above bridge. It measures Aft. in length, 2ft. lin. in breadth, and is 2ft. 3in, in girth. A SEA SICKNESS CURE is said to have been dis covered by Dr. Landerer, a medical man at Athens. His remedy is to give from ten to twelve drops of chloroform in water. The chloroform in most cases removes nausea, and persons who have taken the remedy soon become able to stand up and get ac customed to the movement of the vessel. Should the sickness return, a fresh dose is to be taken. It was tried on twenty passengers on a very rough voyage from lea to Athens, and all, with the ex ception of two, were cured by one dose. The mino rity, two ladies, were able to resist the feeling of illness on taking a second dose. .