The Press. — London, England, 1856-01-12 00:00:00

Aug Publ:c opi lion is becoming every day more and mole averse to Ole penalty of death. A certain number of o.wuders are therefor.- to be kept under resnaint for a protract- 1 period, extending, in some cases, even to the whole duration of life. Wiiat is to be done with these criminals? Th.y must be kept somewhere. Is it better that they should be kept in confinement at home, than that they should be sent to a distant colon•, and there placed under such discipline as shall fit them for return to the ordinary intercourse of society ? In determining these questions, we ought to bear in mini the objects with a ♦iew to which punishment is inflicted upon criminals. These are : _ First.—The prevention of crime. In a well-governed community punishment is inflicted, not by way of revenge, but in order that it may deter others as well as the criminal himself from repeated perpetration of the offence for which punishment is inflicted. Secondly.—Removal of the criminal from the scene of his delinquencies. Thirdly.—The reformation of the prisoner. Now, it will be found that all these three objects are more fully effectuated by transportation than by any other description of restraint. It is true, indeed, that transpor tation ceased to be regarded with apprehension when it conducted criminals to a country in which they could earn high wages, and obtain, as prisoners, a greater command over the luxuries of life than is attainable at home by honest labour. Still less was it regarded with apprehen sion when it placed the criminal in a position from which he might reasonably hope to be able to escape to a neigh• bouriog region abounding in gold, where opportunities of success presented themselves to adventurers of every kind. But transportation to a region in which no such extraordi nary opportunities of success are thrown into the path A t'te offender, is felt to be a very severe infliction. I gnomi• nious removal to an unknown and distant land, attended, in most cases, by perpetual separation from friends and kindred, and from all those associations to which even the rudest and hardest minds become attached, attended, also, by a certain assurance that many years must he spent there in severe toil, presents to the idle and depraved offender terrors much more appalling than temporary incar ceration, even for a protracted period, in a place of con finement at home could awaken. In some cases, apprehen sion of this infliction would, probably, deter from crime as efleetnally as the penalty of death itself. Transportation, therefore, when judiciously conducted, tends to fulfil the first of the objects which are to be accomplished by the punishment of crime. The permanent removal of an offender from his old haunts is an advantage to society the value of which cannot be too highly estimated ; and to the criminal him self this removal offers the best chance of his recovering a character for good conduct. If, after incarceration, an offender be let loose in the country in which he was originally convicted, he naturally returns to his old asso ciations and former habits; indeed, it seems scarcely possible for him to escape this destiny. His character having been destroyed, he is stigmatised as a felon where. ever he goes, and finds every honest occupation closed against him; he is, therefore, compelled to betake himself t t depredation as a means of acquiring a livelihood, and he naturally becomes an irrecuncileable enemy to that society which repels him from its bosom. If, on the con trary, he be carried to a new country, a new career is opened to him. After having undergone penal infliction for a term sufficiently long to satisfy the requirements of penal policy, he finds himself in circumstances which enable him to procure a livelihood by honest exertion. If he remain in a penal colony, he feels that he is not more degraded than those who surround him, and may hope to obtain credit for good conduct even amongst a community of felons. If, on the other hand, he receive what is called " a conditional pardon," that is, a pardon subject to the condition that he shall not return previous to the expiry of his sentence to the country in which he was originally convicted, he is enabled to emigrate to some quarter of the word in which his previous delinquencies are unknown, and in which he may, by industry, probity, and frugality, acquire a position in society such as never would have been attained by him in his own country. Upon these grounds, I am of opinion that transportation is the most advantageous kind of secondary punishment, provided it be carried on without inflicting an injury upon communities, whose social welfare a paternal Government is bound to protect. As we have intimated, we do not rate highly the utility of works so full of mere generalities as these volumes But they are certainly curious as the production of " an agitator," and are highly creditable to the author's pen. Their style is smooth, and entirely devoid of affecta tion. With fewer truisms and with more facts, the work might have a practical utility wanted in its present form. PERIODICAL LITZRATURE. THE National Review opens with an article on Gibbon, written in a pleasing style, and full of lively and sagacious comment on butb the historian and his times. It is well said of the latter half of the eighteenth century, that "in literature the period " may be defined as that in which men ceased to " write fur students, and ha I not begun to write for " women." The horror of Gibbon at the Franch Revolution is very well put The internal creed and belief of Gibbon were as much attacked by all Ole, as were his external circumstances. He had spent his time, his life, his energy, in putting a polished gloss on human tumult, a sneering gloss on THE PRESS. human piety : on a sudden, human passion broke forth; the cold and polished world seemed to meet its end ; the thin superlicies ot civilisation was torn asunder; the t'oun• tains of the great deep Seemed opened ; impiety to meet its end : the foundations of the world were out of course. The article on " Mr. Thackeray as Artist and Moralist," is one of the best of the many good ones which have lately appeared; it contains a distinct and, as far as we know, original theory of him, which strikes us as very near the truth. He never, says the reviewer, gives us a complete haracter—never goes beyond just what man shows of himself in society : - It is exactly as if you had put the people in actual life, mixed constantly with them, known them as we know our most intimate friends. Of course this is all that we can know of a man, but not all we can imagine, nor all the artist can, if he chroses, convey to us. We don't know our nearest friends; we are always dependent on our imagination. There is a world of truth in thin remark ; and towards forming this kind of special acquaintance with his characters Mr. `thackeray affords us cer tainly no help. The criticism of Mr. Thackeray's dialogue is also capital. We do not exactly agree with the classification of his works, having never thought "Vanity Fair" his masterpiece. But this is a matter of taste. All lovers of literature will be pleased with the article. The concluding paper, on "Foreign Policy and the Next Campaign," israther a medley—ably wiitten indeed, and full of shrewd and caustic comment on our public men, whom, it is justly said, — We cannot follow, when they have ceased to lead—when they have come to determine the right by merely assuming the inevitable—a type of political morality which it was the fatal merit of Sir Robert Peel to leave as a heritage to his successors— but at the same time characterised by a disregard of what is practical, and of what history teaches us to be our true interests. The Irish Quarterly Review contains an interest. ing article, entitled "A Quartette of Irish Poets," being an essay on the writings and genius of some of those comparatively little known writers whose productions are known wherever the language is spoken. For spirited martial ballads it is impos sible to meet with anything superior to those in which Davis celebrates the gallantry of the Irish brigade in the service ot• France. " Clare's lira. goons" and " The flower of Finae," are beautiful and stirring lyrics. The article upon " Literary and Artistic Life in Paris " is one of the most diverting we have read f.r a long time. " Buliemianism " is the subject of it ; and very strange, disrepu table, and low, it will doubtless app-ar to respecta• ble English eyes. Any quotations from it would be out of place here; but we can confidently recommend it to the perusal of our less squeamish readers. The number contains various other substantial and read able articles. The Dublin University.—Sketches of Irish dra matic writers continue to be the principle at• traction of this attractive magazine. No. X. contains a great variety of names, among whom those of James Kenney and Sir Martin Archer Shee are, perhaps, the most conspicuous. Kenney, who died in 1849, was au aston shingly prolific writer, and in this list forty-one dramas are enumerated, among which will be found many of those popular favorites which seem likely to endure as long le: the English stage. We need only mention Raising the Wind, and Sweethearts and Wives, as specimens oh Kenney's dramatic ability. "Love in Curl Papers" is in amusing story in the Bentley style—" Missing Chap ters of Irish History," rather slow. But there are three other very interesting papers, and thoroughly in the best style of the Dublin, such as " The Memoirs (.f Marshal Clarke" and "Twilight Musings," which justify us in pronouncing the January number fully equal to the past reputation of the magazine. The Monthly Review (No. I.) opens with a cleverly-written article on Lieutenant Burton, butt it is open to the objection to which so many reviews of amateurs by professionals are open, of being unne cessarily and disproportionately severe. It bears all the marks of being the work of a "sound, sullen," Oriental scholar; but he is too anxious to let us know it. In the review of "Maud" there is nothing original. The other articles possess average maga zine merit, and perhaps a little more, as they all show signs of great carefulness. The Object of the War. London: Booth. THE writer (" Vetus") of this pamphlet is one of those who regard the present time as favorable to the re-establishment of peace. He considers that the successes of the allies in the Black Sea have re lieved Turkey from all danger of Russian conquest, aril that the present positions of the belligerent powers might well lead to pacification on " mode rate" terms : No other would be satisfactory to Germany or to Europe in general, or consistent with the true interests of SATURDAY the allies, and least of all with those of England. No others are likely to be accepted by Alexander, wh o de c lares his intention of continuing to fight to the last " for the integrity of his empire; " a cause not, less legiti mate against an invader than that of the " iutegrty of the Ottoman empire," for Winch the allied soverei e ds are con tending. Ile obstacles to a settlement on moderate terms he believes to consist main!) . in the excited temper of the English mind, and the rabid exhortations of the war press : The continuance of an offensive war against Russia is , the more to be deprecated, as we now find " the cause of civilisation against barbarism," which has been so absurdly applied to the cause a lurkey against huss.a, ideinitied with" the cause o► popular government agamst despotism ; and, watt is worse, we 'ilia th►a cry set up in Euguiutl, iii the journals which most stro►►gly support the present Ministry; and thus England, cuu.parat►vel;; secure from disorder by its constitution, appears to hold a language tenuing t,u excite revolution u► every mondial) u► Europe, that tit our own great ally not excepted. Some suggestive reflections follow on the injury dune to our " free press " by the course pursued by most of our powerful journals : Emulation has produced among them an intemi:eraticc in assertion, reasoning, and language, directed against Russia, little consonant with those generous Item.gs winch England has been wont to enteitam towards an enemy who tights bravely, and anjthing but a proof ot the relined manners to whieu we pretend. The assertion is vigorously opposed that the war is in the interests of civ►lisation : It is a fallacy to describe the war as a war of civilisation against barbarism; with equal or greater piausibility it might be called a war of the imigiou tit Muhuniet, carried on by a combination of Cluistiait puwera, against Christianity. The allies had nut been many dais in the Crimea before the) were convinced that the western, not the eastern, side of the black Sea is the peculiar allude of butbarisin. It is a Witte) to assert that II mite) has been in any danger how Russia since the occupation tit the black Sea by the allied fleets. It is mere twin) Litt:lain& lion, devoid tit truth, to bay that Europe is tineatened by hussia with the loss tit its ciulisatiou anti nrcetioin ; and a fallacy, which but for its consequences would Le r.oien• lons, to represent the Emperor Atexamier as " btriviug to reduce all Europe to slavery and barbarism." 1% hatt:ver dreams Nicholas may have indulged in, Alexander appears to have had no other object luau tuat of peace wallow. ths. honour. The writer, arguing the policy to be followed at the present tune, notices what he considers to be the strategic mutts committed in the invasion ui the Cr - mita—a point on winch military and political critics are suit divided, though there can be no d►s pute as to the magnitude of the oujtcts accom plished in the destruction of Sebastopol and of the Russian fleet. Tracts for the Present Crisis. By Sir A. H. Elton " The Alleged insolence of the Russian Circular." London : Bartlett. SIR A. H. ELTON'S tracts have deservedly attracted attention from their broad views and sharp and pret;• nant logic. The rreseut number is one cf the best. It examines the proposals of the Russian en cola', and acutely remarks that the condition fur closing the Dardanelles to ail ships of war is essential to that newralisation of the Black Sea which the allies rropuse, as it would be unfair to the maritime pos sessions of both Turkey and Russia in the Buick Sea to expose them to the hazard of hostile invasion while depriving them of all means of defence. As Russia and Turkey possess all the coasts of the Black Sea, it d.,es not seem unreasonable that they should be the parties to arrange b.-tween themselves wiiat maritime forces are to he maintained in it to protect their interests and uphold their authority ; while as to the Western powers hearing uu "osten sible " part in the ariangement., the phrase can only mean that their participation is nut to be direct and formal—a somewhat ridiculous distinction, in which we seem to see diplomacy arrayed against common sense. Sir A. Elton, however, does nut contend that the Russian proposal is perfectly satisiactury All we contend for is, that it is not the monstrous, wild, and arrogant notion it is declared to be by the newspaper press Whatever other objects llussia may have in proposing . a special treaty with Turkey, relative to the limitation of her fleet., this much is obv►ous, that her a►m is partly to protect her prestige, and disguise the bitterness of the restriction to which prudence compels her to submit. The efficacy of the pill will not surely be impaired by a little harmless gilding. The projected treaty of peace is all the . more l►kely to prove permanent, and to prove beneficial, it it be divested of aught that may needlessly gall and wound the pride of a brave and powerful people. This tract, even inure that the previous ones, is remarkable for its fearless and dispassionate tone and its ratiocinative power. lite author's purpose is purely patriotic, and his writings will be warmly welcomed by those persons who desire to hear both sides of the great question now in progress.