The Press. — London, England, 1854-01-07 00:00:00

JA:NNUARY 7, 1854. selves ; and the marked subserviency of the nominal head of the Government to Russia gives colour to the charge positively ad vanced by our contemporary, that " the " shameful neglect and disrespect shown to " this Envoy Extraordinary of Paraguay " was exhibited in deference to the desire of Russia that the treaties negotiated by the Govern ment of Lord DERBY, and hailed with acclama tion by the commercial interests of England, should be broken off if possible even at the eleventh hour. Let the Government take its choice of these explanations of its conduct— envy of the success of Lord MALMEBBURY in negotiating the treaties, as our Liberal con temporary alleges; subserviency to Russia. as the Edinburgh Advertiser suggests ; or care less guardianship of the mercantile interests of England, of which even its friends must admit it has been guilty. THE LAST OF THE IRISH ORATORS. IT is little more than twelve months since the greatest man that ever sat in the Irish House of Commons—AßTHUß WELLESLEY—WAS buried in St. Paul's, and we have this week to record the death of the last of the great Irish orators. We have not space to render an adequate tribute to the eminent talents of the late Lord PLUNKET. Long withdrawn from public life, he expired in his ninetieth year, after having survived nearly all the statesmen with whom he had acted. His career was varied, and his character was of that mixed kind which is so difficult to delineate, especially where an open grave imposes restraints upon political criticism. Selfishness was the charge which his adversaries constantly brought against him ; and there can be no doubt that " the little Hannibals," while they filled their own pockets at the public expense, fixed upon their father the charge of nepotism. Strictly speaking, he could not be called a statesman ; he originated or devised no great legisla• tive measure ; but to the fame of a first-class orator he is indisputably entitled. His name will last in parliamentary history as a power ful and permanent advocate of the Catholic claims. His style was remarkable for its massiveness and brilliancy, and was well suited for winning the approbation of a Senate. It is understood that Mr. BERWICK, the President of the Queen's College, Galway, has been for some years occupied upon the biography of Lord PLUNKET, and, if the work should be published during the lifetime of " Mr. RIGBY," we shall probably have " a slashing article " upon it, with more revelations about the ex- Chancellor of Ireland than his biographer would care to record. An edition of Lord PLUNKET'S speeches has been announced as ready for the press, and their publication will give an opportunity for noticing the career of this very famous but far from faultless public character. JUVENILE CRIME—THE BIRMINGHAM CONFERENCE. CONFERKNCES and public meetings for the pro motion of political or social objects have, among much that is faulty and sometimes ridiculous, one great practical result : they serve to elucidate complicated questions, and bring out into strong relief the few leading facts of the case that is dealt with. This arises from the nature of their constitution. Who, when reading an elaborate essay on any large subject, has not occasionally set down the book, oppressed as it were, and perplexed by the multitude of new ideas poured in upon him—many, it may be, valuable—more wholly worthless—but distracting from their novelty and variety? Very different is it when the same topic is handled by the public speaker or professional journalist. Each expects only a casual and precarious hearing--each knows that; to secure attention he must arrest it ; hence, in both, occasional exaggeration, where an object is sought to be forced into notice by magnifying its proportions ; but hence, also, compression, force of style, selection of impor tant points, and. careful elimination of the rest, THE PRESS. making hard subjects easy for light students, and giving point as well as weight to important discoveries. In this respect we welcome the Birmingham Conference ; not as having elicited any fact or brought to light any opinion not already familiar to persons conversant with that par ticular subject ; but as tending singularly, both by the example of those present and the cogency of the arguments adduced, to push forward a measure of practical reform, which has as yet taken hold only of the judgment of the few—not of the feelings of the many. What is meant by reformation of juvenile offenders? Ask this question, and replies are given as various as the characters of those addressed. "It means trying to wash uegroes white," murmur some would-be men of the world, trying to gain credit for sagacity by affecting universal suspicion. "It means en " couraging crime by treating young rogues " better than honest men's children," objects another critic, more plausible, but equally mistaken. "It means doing away with " punishment at once—all stuff and send " mentality," exclaims a third, impatient of certain over-philanthropic reformers whose visions of the future he has chanced to over hear. Nor are these the sole opponents to be grappled with. One cries aloud about the rights of parents and the liberty of the sub ject ; another fears an increase of the rates, already high enough; a third prefers the old plan of all, towards which public opinion in a certain class seems to be reverting, " Whip them soundly, and have done with them." Now let us see what are the real provisions of the Pakington-Adderley bill. A vast num ber of little children—too young, in the majority of instances, to be held morally ac countable for their acts, yet trained and hardened in crime—are annually caught by the police, dragged through the streets by a policeman, locked up at the station-house, carried before a magistrate, there tried, sen tented, and rebuked, and lastly sent off to a prison intended for grown men. What fol lows ? Let us recollect that it is almost a universal law that no person sets much value on the opinion of any class except that in which he lives. There are exceptions, but the general rule holds good. When, there fore, the young offender is consigned to gaol, he thinks not of the magistrate's reproof, nor of the half-pitying, half-contemptuous eyes that met his in the dock, nor yet of the ap• pearanee of his name in the newspapers, but simply of the comments that will be made on his arrest within his own immediate circle. His father, who sent him out to steal, always warned him that he would be " nabbed " some day if he were not sharper. Well, he has been nabbed. It was a mistake to let himself be caught—au unlucky accident ; it must not happen again ; lie will be more care ful when he is next out. But, meanwhile, here he is in gaol. What then? It is not such a bad place after all. The food is not worse than lie is accustomed to eat; the work is disagreeable, but it will not last long. A month passes quickly, anywhere. To be sure there is the whipping—ho will be revenged on them for that, one day. But have not all his acquaintance been in prison, occasionally, and who thinks the worse of them for it? It is part of their professional training. What stories shall he not have to tell of his expe rience when he gets back ! Perhaps, too, before he goes away he may meet sonic one who will " put him up " to operations on a larger scale than he has yet attempted. Such, probably, are our youg hero's meditations in the solitude of his first cell. Are they particu larly profitable as regards his future well being? It may be that up to that time he had entertained some thoughts of taking up a better trade if a chance offered. But now all that is over. He is known to the police ; one of the criminal class ; who would employ him if he asked for work? No—his ° destiny is decided, and for good or bad he must work it out. Again, though a prison may seem to us to present little that can minister to vanity, it is not so with him. He who has been left to run about from his earliest infancy without notice from anybody is now treated with all the dignity that belongs to a prisoner. There is the chaplain who comes on purpose to talk to him. There is the gaoler to set him his task, and sec that he does not escape. The officer who brings him his food. too—why, for the first time in his life be has a servant to wait upon him! Then the publicity of his trial—the audacious denial—the clever attempt to prove his innocence—the impudence with which he confronted the magistrate and quizzed the policeman—all these are subjects of gr►►tifying reminiscence. He anticipates the applause of his comrades when his time is up ; and as for the censure of the world, what does he know of or care for that ? We cannot afford to dwell on this topic, else it were worth while. Theory—expe rience—the practical result as evidenced in repeated recommittals, the almost innumerable testimonies of judges, magistrates, chaplains— all point to the same conclusion, that juvenile imprisonment is costly, useless, unjust, and cruel. Costly—for the average expense of such detention is nearly five times that of maintaining a pauper during an equal time, the latter requiring to keep him about 13/. yearly, the former above ti 1. ; while the con struction of proper prisons is not merely ex pensive but extravagant ; each cell in York Castle cost 1,200/. Useless—as telldillif to harden, not to reclaim. Unjust—as punish ing children for what is in truth the fault of their parents or of the State. Cruel—inas much as punishment which neither deters nor reforms is merely pain wasted, an artificial augmentation of human suffering, devoid of the beneficent purpose for which we believe God sent sufferings to be ordained. MITCHEL AGAIN AT NEW YORK. THE speech of MITVIIEL at the dinner given to him at New York has all that mixture of foolish swagger and feeble reasoning which are so indissolubly asso ciated with the proceedings of the Young Irelenders. It lis little better than one of his old "bottle of vitriol" tirades, and has all that retrospective weak ness so highly characteristic of discomfited refu gees. What was wittily said of O'Coeeet.r. by the late HENRY IiRATTAN may with equal justice be applied to this parole-breaking pretender to the sue. censorship of Wot.t•E TUNE —" He was a bad subject, "and a worse rebel," as insurrectionary in his combi. nations ns he was ineffective in his designs, a specula tive traitor strutting in the traditionary costume of an United Irishman, but without any acts of heroism or achievements of talent to lend a doubtful lustre to his presumptuous folly. At home in his native country, \lnciter did more than the weak and shutßing Government of Lord CLARENDON to destmv the club system invented by GAVAN Deere. Breaking away from his fellow•con spirators, he precipitated the struggles and hastened on the catastrophe of his senseless faction, never more reckless than when it resigned itself to the ruinous guidance of the hairbrained guide who upset his party just at the time most convenient for the purposes of power. "Better have a fellow like " Nlrrimet. in one's front than on the flank--an " enemy rather than an ally," was the condign criticism passed upon this contemptible rebel by one of his literary accomplices at Dublin. Of the injury done to their cause by this vapouring declaimer—this moittlier of sanguinary words but performer of no terrible deeds—the Young Irelanders have never made any secret. His past career enables us, with the certainty of science, to predict his future one, which will be as active in sowing dissensions and breeding schisms amongst the Irish Americana, u if he were again knocking to pieces a Celtic organi sation, devised by more rational and far-sighted con • spirators. lie will always be a firebrand ready to set his party in a flame, so as to forewarn its ene mies on the approach of their danger. Whatever faction has a MITCHEL in its rank is foredoomed to perish of spontaneous combustion, and its history may be readily foretold. Turning from the ravings of this wordy terrorist, let us glance et the annoyance which our American cousins are likely to experience from the refugees. It' Celtic sinew could be imported into the " Far West," without Celtic traditions, feuds, and follies, the Americans would be gainers by the stream of Irish emigration. But it remains yet to be seen whether the proud Republicans will endure the memories of Wssuieoroe and Bunker's-hill being invoked and rendered ridiculous by the followers of Snail O'Bnize and the heroes of the cabbage garden. A huge Celtic gangrene with sore recollec tions and festering animosities—with Roman Ca tholic rites and Donnybrook fair menaces—will not II ;e at .r• _l7l