The Press.
London, England, 1855-10-20 00:00:00

RETRIBUTIVE POLICY.

WE are gravely asked why the measure which
was dealt to France forty years ago, when that
nation was stripped of the conquests she made
in the wars of the Republic and the Empire,
should not now be dealt out to Russia 9
Frankly, we are aware of no reason. If
Russia has made any conquests during this
war, let her be made to give them up, by all
means, when peace is restored. But if our
contemporary means that Russia should be
made to restore all her conquests since PETER
or CATHERINE, We must remind him that the
cases are by no means parallel. The wars of
France were continuous, and it was only
natural, and in accordance with precedent,
that when they were finally wound up, France
should find herself in nearly the same
position as when her career of aggression
began. Should the present war last
twenty years, a similar result will pro-
bably be attained by our children. It is
nothing new for Europe, after being long
desolated by wars, and undergoing many
vicissitudes, to sottle again into its old forms.
Our contemporary tells us that utter barba-
rianism must needs prevail where the people
are slaves. He forgets, when exalting the
civilisation of Poland, that the peasantry of
that country have always been kept in the

THE PRESS.

lowest state of serfdom, and that to this
cause it must be attributed that the nationality
of Poland was so easily extinguished.

CONVICT " LICENCES."

AFTER a brief and imperfect trial, premature
condemnation has been passed upon what is
known as the " ticket-of-leave system." In its
application at home this practice of releasing
convicts upon " licence " before the full term
of their sentence has expired is barely two
years old. The Act which extended to England
the system that had prevailed for generations
in the old penal colonies took effect only in
the autumn of 1853. Its results could not be
fairly estimated except by. a collocation of
facts extending over a considerable period of
time, and tracing the subsequent conduct and
career of a large number of individuals. By
the very nature of things, moreover, it was
chiefly the instances of failure which came
into public view. Fifty ticket-of leave meu
might betake themselves to honest industry
without exciting notice, but if one culprit
released upon a " licence " relapsed into evil
ways, and fell once more into the hands of the
police, his history was sure to be narrated in
open court, and furnished matter for an indig-
nant apostrophe from the presiding magis-
trate. Thus it has happened that impetuous
judges like Sergeant ADAMS have pronounced
the system " false in principle and mischievous
"in practice ; " while the public have been
scared from their propriety by a phrase of
portentous significance, in which the ticket of
leave is described as an engine for " turning
" felons loose to prey on society."

Colonel JEBB, Chairman of the Directors of
Convict Prisons, has published some state-
ments from which we can form a juster esti-
mate of the grounds that exist for alarm or
censure in the ticket-of-leave system. Since
the Act came into operation, he informs us that
out of 3,629 prisoners released with licences
only 130 have, up to the beginning of the
present month, either had their tickets can-
celled or been recommitted on fresh charges.
This, he admits, is but a negative sign, since
no one can tell haw many more may be "prey-
" ing upon society," although they have had
the good luck to escape detection. He adds,
however, another proof, of more tangible and
positive character. Prisoners who follow cer-
tain industrious occupations while incarcerated
are allowed to receive a small portion of the
money so earned when their time has expired.
In the case of the ticket-of-leave holder this
accumulated hoard cannot be claimed until
after he has been for three months " loose
"upon society," nor unless he is able to pro-
duce certificates of good behaviour and honest
employment during that time. This opening
interval is justly accounted by Colonel JEBB
as the most critical period for the emancipated
convict; and he cites a table announcing the
following satisfactory result:—Of 980 men who
left balances in the hands of the prison gover-
nors, 890 have applied for payment, and in
only six instances were the claims rejected as
unsatisfactory. Respecting the 270 whose
claims are still unurged, he states that the
greater portion have not been discharged for
the allotted period. This result cannot be said
to indicate failure. Many hundred persons
who had lapsed into crime have, at all events,
been found to resist temptation, and maintain
their footing in honest society, for some
months after their rehabilitation in the rights
and responsibilities of free action.
The chief stumbling-block to the practical
working of the system is said to be the diffi
culty of finding a test and selecting a judge to
decide as to the fitness of each individual
prisoner for the privilege of a ticket of leave.
At present, the gaol chaplains furnish reports
touching the conduct and demeanour of the
prisoners under their care, whereon the Home
Secretary bases his decision on each particular
case. Now, these reports, we are assured, are
delusive and unsatisfactory for the purpose in
view. The process offers a premium to hypo-
crisy. The chaplain may be misled by a well-
acted penitence—is likely to look with favour
upon the signs of a reformation which he
thinks his own work—and by his holy pro-
fession is rather imbued with a spirit of charity

991

than qualified to act as a severe and impartial
judge. This may be true, and yet no reason
for abolishing the system, or even changing
the mode of working it. The question in-
volves
nothing more than the term during
which certain culprits should be retained in
prison. In every event they must, sooner or
later, be " turned loose on society."
without reference to the tickets of leave, how
is this matter regulated—who appoints the
period of detention, and how is his decision
formed on that point ? The award is left,
without control or appeal, to the presi-
ding judge. When a culprit has been found
guilty upon his trial by the jury, it is
the judge alone who fixes the degree of
his punishment. According to the nature
of the offence it is then decided whether his
imprisonment shall be for three months or
two years—whether he shall be transported
(which also means imprisoned) for five, seven,
ten, or some longer period of years. The;•
range of time thus left to the unfettered dia-,
cretion of the judge is far larger than that '
which the prison chaplain, or the Secretary of
State, can influence; and yet the means of
arriving at a just allotment are much more
scanty. A judge is obliged to sentence
prisoners in batches, and must form his
decisions on the spot, with brief time for con•
sideration, and from such impression as he may
gather during the trial by the culprit's beha-
viour, or the evidence offered regarding his
bygone character. Whatever may be the
difference in talent or acumen of the two men,
we should be inclined to rely upon the judg-
ment of the chaplain, who is able to scrutinise
the prisoner's conduct, and decipher his
character in daily interviews during months
and years of incarceration.
We have mentioned the chief and almost
the sole disadvantage attending the system.
Its benefits, if successful, need no comment.
Tho doctrine that punishment for crime should
be merely retributive finds at the present day
hardly a single advocate, while none will deny
the blessings, or despise the merely temporal
gain to society, attending the restoration of
any criminal to the paths of virtue. If the
tickets of leave were abrogated, one great in-
strument of reformation would be altogether
withdrawn from the administrators of our prison
discipline. They would then lose the most
powerful incitement which they now possess
to good conduct and moral reformation among
the culprits committed to their charge, and
find themsel% es left comparatively powerless
for the accomplishment of one great object of
all penal legislation.

In certain details no doubt the ticket-of
leave system is susceptible of improvement.
The suggestion of Mr. HILL, founded on Cap-
tain MACONOCHIE.B old idea of" marks,"—that a
licence of liberation should ho valued at a cer-
tain price, to be earned by the prisoner through
a course of industry—deserves, we think, the
consideration of Government. But we should,
on every account, regret to see the abandon-
ment of a system which has, on the whole,
worked so well. Still we hope the prospect
will be afforded to prisoners of certain classes
that, by perseverance and good conduct, it is
in their own power to abbreviate their term of
punishment; while, to the society which they
rejoin, the readiest proof is offered that,
although once fallen from rectitude, they have
done all that in them lies to redeem their
forfeited position, and redress the wrongs they
perpetrated upon the community.

THE MIDDLESEX MAGISTRATES met on Thursday at
Clerkenwell, on which occasion a report from the visit-
ing justices was read upon the conduct of the Governor
of the House of Detention towards Messrs. Paul, Bates
and Strahan, when prisoners under his charge. It
appeared from the evidence read that the Governor.;
Mr. Frederic Hill, had been guilty of a violation of
the rules and regulations of the prison in permitting
the three prisoners to associate freely with one an-
other, and without any supervision being exercised,
to be visited at all times, and to maintain a constant
correspondence with their friends. A discussion
took place between the magistrates, and a mo-
tion proposed by Mr. Woodward, that the gover-
nor be severely reprimanded, was negatived, and an
amendment carried by a majo&ity of 10 in favour of
his temporary suspension from office, in order that
the matter might be taken into further consideration.
Mr. Hill was therefore suspended from duty, and
the deputy-governor appointed to act in his room.

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