The Press. — London, England, 1856-12-13 00:00:00

DECEMBER 13, 1856. left free, and the Opposition, as one man, loy ally " stood by the Sovereign." The screams of dismal, and the cry of " horrible and heart rending," came not from the Opposition, but from NVhigs discontented at the ascendency of Lord ABERDEEN, and " the commendable ambition" of the Duke of NEWCASTLE. We can well imagine if the Opposition had changed places with the Cabinet, and had undertaken to plunge into a European war with a peace establishment, what fierce and usparing attacks would have been made by the Whigs out of office on the convocations in Downing-street. The calamities of the country would have caused factious glee, and been greeted as Opposition successes. How bitter would have been Lord JOHN RUSSELL! Sir BEN JAMIN HALL would have played up to his part as Bonarges to the Marylebone Vestry ; and Mr. RALPH OSBORNE would have ran sacked FOOTE'S farces and his commonplace book to get points for his "eloquence" learned by rote. A Whig Opposition during such a dispensation as a Crimean war would have presented a most unfavorable contrast to the loyal and constitutional bearing so gallantly assumed and consistently maintained by the Conservatives of England. The " explosion " of Lord Joux RUSSELL and the destruction of the Queen's Ministry in an hour of imminent peril (in order to promote the personal objects of patrician Whigs), shows us what the country would have suffered if an Opposition on Whig principles had existed during the late san• gainary struggle. We must, however, caution Conservatives against being influenced in any degree by the attacks to which we allude. The object of those who make them is too transparent. Besides, the Conservative party is quite com petent to conduct its own affairs without the help of admonitions from any of the factionists of the Reform Club ; and in the present cir cumstances of the country, personal discus sions of any kind are to be deprecated, and should be left to the Ministers in Downing street. FATHER MATHEW. THE late Father MATHEW was identified with such a remarkable chapter in the social his tory of our times that we cannot allow his de cease to pass without notice. The influence which he exercised for a time was positively marvellous ; and the change which he effected in the habits of the lower Irish was little short of a practical miracle. Although much of the good effected by him did not last, and although enthusiasm died away, still the great fact remained—that he raised up the popular opinion of Irishmen against drunkenness, which was the besetting vice of their country And under his auspices many attempts at improving the social condition of the Irish working classes were begun. All observers agree in attributing to Mr. MATHEW a rare amount of the more amiable virtues which adorn, while elevating, human nature. The frankness of his manners in vited friendship ; the courtesy of his address disarmed hostility where polemical prejudices might have existed. By birth and breeding he was a gentleman, and was equally suited for conciliating the confidence of the most opposite extremes of society. He possessed intense benevolence, and he could not behold nisery without doing something at once to relieve it. He was not a professional sentimen talist, mouthing benevolence before a popular audience. By the beds of the dying poor, in the houses of the wretched, and in the ob scurest haunts of vice and misery, he laboured for years, unrequited except by the conscious ness that he was doing good. His toils were not unknown or unnoticed. It is to the honour of some of the dignitaries of the Pro testant Establishment, that Mr. MATHEW was in many cases their almoner; and by many of THE PRESS. the Protestant clergy he was prized as a friend, and by all of them respected as a man. His long habits of confidential intercourse with the humble classes, the peculiar affabi lity of his suave yet most dignified ad cress, combined with his characteristic benevolence of nature in arming him with moral ascen dancy. When he had worked a reformation of drunkenness over hundreds in the city of Cork his influence soon extended to thousands. A movement was begun ; the enthusiasm of the Gaelic population was excited, and religious emotions of a kind closely bordering on super stition, if not absolutely identical with it, were gradually aroused amongst the votaries of " the pledge," although not. sanctioned by Mr. MATHEW. Tbat there was much delusion and ignorant credulity in such a course was obvious at a glance. But there was, also, much positive good ; and a reformation of habits is not to be expected amongst a pure Gaelic population by the slow and reflective process which may be influential in graver races with a more reasonable faith. It is enough to say that Mr. MATHEW did vast good according to his means, arid that he won the regard of the most adverse classes in Ireland. Colonel BLACKER, the gallant chief of the Armagh Orangemen, and author of some most spirited Protestant ballads, wrote a song in honour of the Romish Friar. When he came to London his simple, kindly demeanour was much admired in our most refined circles ; and it is a fact that his quiet, good breeding made a most favorable impression on more than one of the patronesses of Almacks, who met him at the table of an illustrious member of the Upper House. Her Majesty, at the instance of Sir ROBERT PEEL, conferred upon him a pension of three hundred pounds a year. But the movement of " Teetotalism " gra dually died away. Enthusiasm, like a moun tain torrent, is violent and transitory, over whelming while it lasts, but soon ceasing to flow with the calmness and constant stream of principled energy. Like " Repeal," the cause of " Teetotalism " was not rooted in reality, and the age which saw it flourish beheld it fall. Grave moral lessons might be drawn from the successes and disap pointments attendant on the career of Mr. MATHEW ; and we trust that his life will find some competent chronicler. His virtues and personal excellence will not be forgotten by those who ever knew the man, and his memory is certain of obtaining the respect due to a philanthropist who never tired, and to a great popular celebrity who was never self seeking or vainglorious, but retained to his last hour the unaffected simplicity of his youth. TICKETS OF LEAVE AND TRANS PORTATION. NIR. BARON ALDERSON has been sharply han dled by a portion of the London press for the tone which he adopted the other day in speak ing of the ticket-of-leave system. We do not constitute ourselves his apologists, nor do we mean to investigate the alleged want of accu racy in his remarks. But on the broad ques tion whether or no the transportation system be a better method of disposing of our crimi nals than the ticket-of-leave system, we have to express our thorough agreement in the Learned Baron's observations. Admitting the impossibility of continuing to employ our older colonies as penal settlements, and so at once eliminating that topic from the discussion, we shall find there remain two points for consideration—first, the conse quences of keeping our criminals at home ; second, the possibility of transporting them to some new penal establishments. In the first place, then, we can scarcely doubt that crime has a much greater tendency to reproduce itself in this country than in the colonies. Once a criminal, always a criminal, 1179 is pretty much the rule in England, as indeed it must be in any old country where outlets for adventurous natures are closed up, and the safety of a complex society demands that every one who has broken the law should at once become a marked man. We must con sider also that by the system of transportation the criminal body was, at all events, kept divided ; while the more bad characters we herd together in one place the more do we encourage a hotbed of crime, and the more do we permit the gradual formation of fami lies in whom burglary, swindling, and garotting, shall become hereditary. The results of keeping our criminals amongst us may be regarded from another point of view as well. Formerly, when a man took to evil courses, he was pretty sure to get transported after his second or third convic tion. In this way gangs were broken up. Now, however, he remains at home to benefit by the experience which each fresh detection affords him. Thus will grow up a body of veterans who, what with their skill in the per petration of crime and acquired art in evading pursuit, will be enabled to set the police at defiance, and will become the trainers of the rising generation. Hence, we see clearly enough, will arise the formation of regular fraternities, which transportation, united with a vigilant police, is so eminently calculated to prevent. For it makes all the difference in the world to a mar. whether he feels that he is cut off, most likely for ever, from all his pre sent associates, or whether he has the pro spect of rejoining them in a tew years. That these results are actually coming into opera tion, the daily records of crime sufficiently convince us. A man was tried for garotting the other day who had experienced six pre vious convictions ; in yesterday's paper we find another ticket-of-leave man in trouble who had undergone five convictions ; and it is now, we believe, well known that this particular crime is reduced to a system, and that an instru ment has been invented by which the victim's throat is compressed in a spring forceps, and all power of resistance destroyed. In considering the possibility of new penal settlements, we should remember that it is not under all circumstances that colonists are justified in rebelling against the reception of convicts. Let us take the case of an unin habited island, which this country takes pos session of without objection from anybody. We resolve to use it as a penal settlement, and the Government send there only such persons as are officially connected with the establishment. If other settlers choose to go there, they do it with their eyes open. They must take it as it is. They have no right to demand that Government shall relinquish the original design, any more than a man who chooses to go and build his house next door to a pigstye has a right to demand the re moval of that useful though inodorous edifice. We have put an extreme case in order to made our meaning clear. Practically, it is by no means necessary that we should have au absolutely uninhabited island for this pur pose. Any tract of country sufficiently ex tensive, and thinly peopled—without cities, but abounding in wood, water, and stone — would answer the end in view. There must be no population whom the presence of con victs would either disgust or injure, and there must be plenty of scope for manual labour, and a field to gain an honest liveli hood. These two conditions it is not so very difficult to satisfy. In a previous article on this question we hinted at various localities which we considered to be more or less suitable for the object. Amongst others, we mentioned Borneo. We can really see no valid ground for objecting to the occupation of Borneo. The inhabitants of that island are not such as any importation of criminals could well corrupt, or as any number of years is likely to convert into a virtuous and flourishing community. On a balance of good and evil. we honestly believe that the interests of humanity would be better served by con. verting Borneo into a penal settlement than by leaving it as it is now. Probably it might be much improved.