The Press. — London, England, 1856-09-13 00:00:00

SEPT. 13, 1856. is so certified by the Commissioners, that agriculture has increased in the ratio of 6 . 4 per cent, and that " the population has " decreased to the ratio of one hundred and " four to the square mile of arable land," we can only say that our credence is severely tasked. _ _ _ We may perhaps return to this Report again, as we have not yet had leisure to peruse it all. The history of the vicissitudes of the Irish population, from the Revolution to our own days, is most remarkable. In the last century Ireland was very thinly populated, and was little better than a huge grazing farm. A vast increase in the population took place at the end of the last century, owing to the legisla tion of the Irish Parliament in favour of corn growing, which resulted in potatoes, and conacre, and a redundant peasantry. Wages in our manufacturing districts were affected by the influx of Irish labourers, and our armies were recruited copiously. There is no danger, however, that the Irish population will recede from its present figure, and there can be no doubt that the social condition of the sister country is infinitely preferable to what it was fifteen years ago, but it has passed through a tremendous ordeal. TRANSPORTATION. PCBLIC opinion is rapidly tending towards a reversal of the policy of the last ten years in regard to the punishment of criminals. The experiment of relinquishing transportation has been tried, and has not been found suc cessful ; and for once we find that it is possi ble for modern enlightenment and science to have made a mistake. Both in its effects upon the criminal and its effects upon the home country, there can be no doubt that transportation is a highly prefer able mode of punishment to penal servitude. The influence of new scenes, and the whole some effect of honest labour after his sentence has expired, will naturally work a favorable change in the mind of the convict, while the hope of rearing his family in comfort and respectability will tend greatly to keep him in the path of rectitude. It is only in a distant country that hope can ever be enlisted among our instruments of reformation. But when it can be, there is little doubt that it is one of the most powerful. The advantages of this system to our own country are too obvious to require elucidation. Transportation has long been one of the safety-valves of English society. We are ac customed to boast of the purity of our moral atmosphere. And if the vaunt be justifiable, there is no extravagance in supposing that this periodical removal of corruption from amongst us may have had its share in produc ing so agreeable a result. We must consider, also, that by detaining our criminals at home we do not merely saddle ourselves with the same amount of vice which we might have exported to a colony. Vice begets vice much faster at home than abroad A London thief is certain to be the father of thieves—the pro fession becomes hereditary, and families really learn to take a pride in it But in a thinly peopled country like Australia or Africa, honesty is the best policy, not only in the long run but at once. Money can be got more safely and more readily by labour than by theft or violence. And the consequence is that vice of this description, which at home has a constant tendency to multiply itself. has there as constant a tendency to wear itself our. With regard to the Colonies themselves, we believe that with care the system might be so managed as to occasion but little inconve nience. The more populous and cultivated portions of them must of course be avoided. But large tracts of country still remain in Australia, to say nothing of the Falkland Islands and Africa, available for penal colonies In the first-mentioned country we must re member that even in the cities the advantages of cheap labour would go very far to compen sate for the influx of criminals. Nor does it follow that we should still necessarily pursue THE PRESS. the ancient system of throwing all our trans ported criminals together without any kind of' classification. There are certain offences, such for instance, as poaching and manslaughter, the commission of which very frequently im plies no confirmed depravity, or any great unfitness in the culprit to become a useful member of society, especially under the changed conditions of colonial life, where energy and restlessness find their legiti • mate vent. Neither Australia nor any other colony in a similar stage could object to receive such an accession to her population as characters of this class would form. Why could not some distinction be drawn between criminals like these, and wife beaters, forgers, and swindlers, to whom the discipline of a penal prison would be far more formidable than exile ? As for Africa, we know little of its capabili ties fur convict establishments, but we should imagine that country well suited for such a purpose. But it is perfectly well known that the Falkland Islands offer every facility for a settlement of this kind. Independently of which, there are plenty of islands scattered through the Pacific which we could turn to good account in this manner if we chose. Against many of the evils resulting from our present system society has long been crying out. Even granting that ticket-of•leave men are a greatly maligned class, which the Commissioners seem to imply, still common sense pertinaciously returns to the question, how are these men to live, if not by crime ? When there is a superfluity of honest labourers, who will take a bulgier into his em ployment? And if the police are always to receive notice of his movements—a regulation which it certainly seems difficult to dispense with—how is it possible for his character to remain concealed? This is the primary diffi culty, which we may walk round and round, and talk about and about, but can never effec tually remove. Finally, we confess we would much rather see the number of penal establishments in this country lessened than increased. We do not think the occupation of the officials at these places particularly well calculated to improve a man's character. On many natures it cannot fail to exercise a brutalising in fluence. On the whole, a penal prison is not an institution with which an Englishman has much sympathy. They afford, besides, a far more expensive method of dealing with our criminals than the old one, unless we employ them upon public works, in which case the innocent poor would have real ground of com plaint. We feel convinced that sooner or later we must return to transportation, and hope that another session will not pass over without some steps being taken to restore it. THE UNITY ASSURANCE CASE. THE explanations of the Board of Directors at the general meeting on Thursday of the Unity Life Assurance Shareholders, have failed to remcve the public impression that the conduct of all engaged in this Glasgow affair has been, at best, highly dis creditable. We have no interest in the quarrel between Mr. Barmy and his Board, but, in common with the public, we are somewhat concerned in the question causing the rupture., The real point for consideration is whether an assurance society is justified, under any circum stances whatever, in effecting a compromise. A life policy is either legally payable or it is not. There is no middle course to be pursued in the matter ; and those who, like Dr. Lr.ovn and Mr. 11'IELAND, pro pose a concession of claims, are either guiltily com pounding with crime, or, by trading upon a poor man's fears or necessities, committing a shameful act of dishonesty. There is no escape from this result, and it is utterly futile for the principals engaged in this dis graceful affair to shirk the responsibility of their acts. Dr. LLOYD tells us this week that the case was a lair case for compromise, and asks if indisputability covers fraud P But it may be retorted,—should fraud be covered by compromise He then tells the shareholders that the business of the company in Glasgow would have been destroyed if the question had gone before the legal tribunals. Not if the case of the Company 867 were just. Neither do we see that probable loss of business justified a compromise with fraud. If fraud existed, which Dr. LLOYD would seem desirous we should infer, there is all the less reason for compro mise, and the more for resistance to the claim. But where is the fraud in this case? Not, surely, OD Mr. AITKENS side. Mrs. AITKEN, Dr. LLOYD was satisfied, had died from natural causes, but but he says, "very grave circumstances came to his knowledge, by which this policy was obtained." Yet he will not state the circumstances, for fear he should render himself" liable to an action for libel." This is a poor excuse with the funds of the Company at his back to bear him out. But these mysterious fraud ulent circumstances, now for the first time brought forward, do not appear to have any weight with the Board of Directors, for they ground their defence upon the legal point that payment, after a compromise had been effected, could not be made until a claim was preferred, and they have unani mously declared that so sown as the proper form of claim for the balance of 1,2501. is made, they will be ready to pay the money over, and expiate their former error. Indeed, the cheque for 1,2501. was publicly exhibited at the meeting in proof of the intentions of the Board. What, then, becomes of Dr. LLOYD and his fraudulent circum stances which he detailed:in a report to the Board? The proof of their willingness to pay the 1,2301. is at least strong evidence that they have no faith in Dr. I.,Lovu's report. But these "circumstances " must have been potent, for Dr. LLOYD asserted, on Thurs day, that the Board were satisfied with them, and related : When Mr. Jackson came in on one occasion he got up and denounced the compromise. I said, " Stop, you ha►e not heard all the circumstances ; let me tell them." I did so, and Mr. Jackson then said, " I am satisfied." There is too much mystery about the whole affair, but yet not sufficient to hide from the public that an assurance society professing) indisputable principles, did permit and confirm a compromise with a legal claimant. The essence of the purity of the princi ples of Assurance is opposed to a compromise under any circumstances. If you once admit the principle of compromise the door is open to the rascality of unscrupulous agents, and to the commission of crime to an extent restricted only by fear of discovery. The result of the meeting on Thursday is so far satisfactory, it has purified the atmosphere of Cannon street, and will teach a severe lesson to Insurance Companies, that proceedings inconsistent with good faith and probity will not be tolerated a moment. CHESTER.—In consequence of the announcement of Mr. Stanley's retirement from the representation, the names of several gentlemen have been already mentioned as candidates, among them Mr. George Wilbraham, jun., Mr. Recorder Welsby, Mr. Robert son Gladstone, and of Mr. P. S. Humberston. CoLCIIESTER.—Mr. J. Gurdon Rebow, of Wyvenho park, has issued an address to the electors of Col chester, stating that as Mr. Taverner Miller and Mr. Alfred Hamilton have announced themselves as can didates on the Conservative side, for the vacancy which is expected shortly to occur, it is his intention to solicit their suffrages on the opposite side. He says : My political opinions, generally, are known to you. They are constitutionally liberal on all the great questions which occupy public attention at present. There is, how- ever, one question, comparatively a new one, which is growing into national importance, I mean the endowment of Maynooth College, on which my opinions may not be so generally known. I at once state, therefore, that I am prepared to support the total withdrawal of that endow- ment by the State. THE SELEcr COMMITTEE appointed by the House of Commons to inquire into the receipt, issue. and audit of public moneys in the Exchequer, the Pay office, and the Audit Department, have published the evidence taken before them, but make nu report, in consequence of the importance and extent of the subject, the incomplete state of the inquiry, and the advanced period of the session. The Right Hon. Sir. F. T. Baring was chairman of the com mittee. The ARCHBISHOP OF CASTERBFRY has issued a com mission to the Bishops of Sydney, Melbourne, Ade laide, and Newcastle, to proceed with the consecra tion of the Venerable Matthew Blagden Hale, prin cipal of the institution at Port Lincoln for the edu cation of the Australian aborigines, to the bishopric of Perth, to which he has been nominated by Mr. LabJuchere, the Secretary of State for the Colonies. A NOTICE was yesterday posted at the Horse Guards, acquainting the dissatisfied men of the Land Transport Corps that their claims to pay, return of income tar, Sc., were in course of settlement at the head-quarters of the corps, Horfield-barrack, and that they should communicate with the officers command ing their respective battalions who are quartered there.