The Daily Times.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1860-04-09 00:00:00

Constitutions, and the question is beginning to be
seriously„agitated whether he -possible to
continue the existing form.,Of ,Governinent Much
longer, or whether the colonies, having adopted
the franchise"*l-'something; like the electoral
divisions;•;nus'not also adopt. the institutions of
Americki. and: submit. to an Executiire ,Govern-
ment whiCh holds Office ona firmer tenure than
the contidence.4 the two Hoises of the Legisla-
ture." Such a democratic system, as we have
Often shown in these columns, is not at all adaPted
to a Monarchy, but only to a Republic ; and
there can scarcely be a question, that if it he
persisted -- there will,be no - alternative . but. to•
.e.dopt.the institutions of "the United States in all
their fulness- and fury. Now since we in this
the old country. are invited, not_ by ,Mr, Bright
merely, but by his creatures of the Coalition

Cabinet, to make a great. change in ,a
direction, as the leading journal well adds,

have 'a not unnatural.. curiosity to know how it
farei with those who have taken the leap in the
dark before us." Every true and impartial
account wOrective from Australia shows that it
fares with them .who have taken that leap as ill
as possible. But, under any circumstances, the
position is an incontrovertible one, that when we
invest a totally new class, and that, the lowest, of
the people with supreme political poWer, it ought
first to be well considered, "how.we are to keep
that class in harmony with the existing order of
things, or how we are to provide against the case
of a belief arising that the interests of the masses
and the existing order of things are irreconcilable
with each other,"

The Standard very reasonably and ably con-
tends, that it is high time the Conservative
party should begin to make their existence felt.
in ParEtaineW which certainly they have not
done during the present session, so far. It is not
only that they are a numerous and influential
body—the most numerous and influential indeed,
of any one party in the House of Commons—but
as our Conservative contemporary preceeds to
notice, " they have ' able leaders. They have
golden opportunities. The salvation of the
country is in their hands. :What there is of a
Reform Bill is fraught with mischief—they alone
can neutralise its democratic tendencies, and ren-
der it innocuous, if nOt advantagOous." It needs no
, argument to establish these facts. The existence of
of such a party' was never more-requisite than at
this moment ; and not its existence merely, but
its most energetic influence upon the legislation
of the country. Most true,. indeed, it is, that
" the salvation of the country is in their hands ; "
and what a fearful amount of • responsibility,
therefOre, is there not resting upon them ! Such
a combination of incongruous political elements
as that upon which the present coalition Ministry
is based, Must above all other Ministries require
the counteractive influences of a Conservative
opposition. An Administration so composed is
. .
not only impotent for sound legislation and good
government, but has in it the germs of anarchy
and revOlution. The Reform Bill, the Com-
mercial Treaty, the Budget, our contemptible
foreign policy, all declare a weak and disorgan-
ised Administration, founded on no principle but
hunger of office. And such being the case, it is
not unreasonable to hope that-did a Conservative
Cabinet but displace such an intolerable and mis-
chievous coalition as that which now exists, we
'should soon see the affairs of the country restored
to a satisfactory state. We should not then be
" alternately the slave and the bully of France—
we should not then be found provoking revolu-
tion in Italy." These are truths which every-
body is now beginning to admit, and we ask,
therefore, with our contemporary, " Will the
Conservatives, one and all, unite to give the
national wish a speedy realisation ? If so, the
holidays must be chosen to determine the plan of
action."

Ouit criminal statistics are always interesting;
but they are never so important as when they
throw a light On the sources of crime. Those of
a Blue-book recently issued from the statistical
department of the Board of Trade, show that, on
the whole, we are not improving much in this
country, as respects crinie, while Liverpool, in
particular, stands prominently forward among the
worst criminal districts of the kingdom. Gener-
ally, they present a wide discrepancy between
crimes committed and crimes punished ; and in
Liverpool, this is especially the case—the perpe-
trators of about four-fifths of the offences
committed • escaping unpunished. Women and
children, too, figure very numerously among the
petty offenders, forming, in fact, a vast majority
of the whole amount ; and, although their crimes
may only rank as petty, yet arc they just of the
description which, under the circumstances, show
most deplorable evidence of vice and immorality
in those lower classes of life to which they prin-
cipally belong. Drunkenness, for instance,: is
found to prevail quite as extensively among
women as among men : and theft is almost more
general among boys and girls, than among adult
persons,—facts which certainly indicate A lament-
able state of demoralisation. There is another
fact of great significance which the, statistics we
allude to exhibit,—that, namely, which is brought
out by a table illustrating "the educational pro-
gress" of the criminal classes in Liverpool ; which
shows that the proportion of thoSe who are able
to read and write well have very considerably
increased of late. Now here, we are convinced,
is the source of a very fatal mistake. Able to
read and write well,—this, unhappily, is the
popular test of what goes by the name of educa
tion—that education which is looked to and
depended upon as,' a corrective of crime, but
which, .too generally, by itself, proves a fresh
incentive to crime, and too often qualifies all the
more strongly for its higher and cleverer perpe-
tration. Even supposing that by learning to
read and write well, they acquired what is popu-
larly esteemed knowledge, yet this can never be
said to -cothprise all:Thittis contained in the large
term, educatiiin,--and especially of education that
is to reform the. vicious, and correct their natural
Propensity to commit crime.. No,—as it has
been. well observed; " the feelings are to be dis-
ciplined, the passions are to be restrained; true
and worthy motives are to be inspired ;. a, profound
religious feeling is to be instilled, and pure
morality inculcated under all circumstances."
All this is comprised in education ; and any
"educational progress," especially of the criminal
classes, that does not more or less include it, is
only a mockery and a delusion.

And see who are our criminal classes, and what
is their amount in the entire population of the
country. As was pointed out a few days since
by the Chairman of the Dorset Quarter Sessions,
"it has been .proved.by evidence, that there are
no less than 134,922 criminals at large inithis
kingdom, seeking. for opportunities to commit
crime of every description, whilst, in addition to
to that number, there are no less than' 25,424
felons who are locked up in prisons, showing a
total of 160,346 criminals whom the police force
of the kingdom have to deal with, and vigilantly
watch every hour of the day and every moment
of the night." And then, referring to a state-
ment of an eminent statist, Mr. REDGRAVE,
who makes the tabular returns of crime for the
House of Commons, and whose statements evince
an immense amount of rasearch, and the deepest
knOwledge of the administration of the criminal
law, he shOwed that those classes " are living by
plunder and the vices igt the community—torday
in wasteful extravagance, to-morrow in want,—
robbing the public of no 16s, :by computation,
,than..E7,746,100„ and which Sum, added to main-
tenance and prosecutions, entails an annual loss
to the commonwealth of no less than ten millious

steriing." •
Here, then, we have some data on which there