The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1875-08-21 00:00:00

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TKE STOTTEBRIDGE. OBSERVER.'

nals is not, h.') w ever, a local matter. The law on the
subject should undoubtedly extend to the whole of the
United Kingdom; and there is a ghastly absurdity in
the fact that had Lebrun committed his crime at South-
ampton he would have been duly hanged at Win-
chester in private, whereas, having committed it in
Jersey, he has been publicly strangled at St. lieliers,
When the Private Executions Bill was debated in Par-
liament, an honourable and learned Member incident-
ally observed that en-pension ?ler co//em and coram
public° was a common laW right, and that English
people liked to be hanged openly. Similarly, the
J-erseyites might plead that, as their island is so close
to France, where publicity in executions yet lingers,
they have a "right," under the "Grand Coustumier,"
to be put to death in the sight of the world. But if
that line of reasoning is to hold good, it strikes us that
the Jerseyites have equally a "right" to be guillotined
Instead of being hanged. If they plead that their cus-
toms are medimvally Norman, and that they do not
recognise the mode of capital punishment adopted by
revolutionary France, it must thn be conceded that a
Jersey murderer has an indefeasible "right" to be
broken on the wheel, and to break him thereupon
would not be more illogical than to hang him in pub-
lic. The variation in practice between the United
Kingdom and the Channel Islands is as stupid as it is
unseemly.

of a prickly pear. The nostrils are most peculiar;
, they are situated at the extreme end of the nose, and
the two valves seem to rise from the inside with exactly
the same quiet motion as does the hydraulic lift when it
rises level with the platform at the Great Western Sta-
tion, or, again, its action may be likened to the working
,of the ha of the Lest of the trap door spider. The
upper lir‘ is full and cleft in the middle' and covered
inside wish tufts of stiff bristles like those of the
walrus. Dr. Marie, late prosector of the Zoological
Society, has published in the 'Transactions,' vol. 8, of
the Society a very able monogram of this animal, the
anatomy of which he has thoroughly made out and
beautifully figured. Dr. Murie considers that these
peculiar stiff bristles inside the mouth correspond to
and are the homologues-of the whale-bone in the mouth
of the whale, and it certainly appears to me that this
is a fact. These bristles May be said to be prehensile,
as they will, I find, gently clasp one's fingers when the
manatee takes a lettuce rrom one's hand. The mana-
tees are said to be whale-like in habit, and when at
. home to leap out of the water in a whale-like manner,
and they were formally abundant in the entrances of
the Orinoco and the Amazon. They also ascended
the rivers and took up their abode in the freshwater
lakes. Formerly they were very abundant in Cayenne,
where the flesh was sold for 3d. per lb., and this, as
was the case with the. unhappy dodo, caused them to
be nearly exterminated. I advise cur readers to lose
no time to go and examine for themselves this extra-
ordinary animal. The price asked for the manatee is
£400: In 1866, Mr, Clarence Bartlett brought to
England a manatee caught in the River Maroni. It
unfortunately died just 'before the ehip arrived at
Southampton. 'Guy Fawkes,' the baby hippopo-
tamus—the Hippopota.midion,' as my friend Mr.
Edward Karslake calls her—is very jealous of the new
arcival. To pacify her, Mr. Karslake proposes to give
her a new title—Cleopatra, Queen of the Nile."

HABITUAL CRIMINALS IN IRELAND.

It appeals from the report of the Inspectors GenPral
of Prisons in Ireland that in 1872 the number of indivi-
duals who had been 21 times and upv.rards in prison in-
creased by 72 when compared with the previous year:
in 1873 the number exceeded that of 1872 by 12; in
1874 there was an increase of 162 in the number corn.
mitted "21 times and upwards," as compared with
1873.

"It will be seen by the foregoing," remarks the
Inspectors-General, "that the criminal class in Ireland
is limited to comparatively fewindividuals. We would
therefore ag.ain point out how desirable it is that legis-
lation should take place which would deal more effec-
tively with habitual criminals, in' roduce a uniform
system of treatment of offenders while in prison, and
authorise the removal of all long-sontenced prisoners to
central or government gaol. At present county and
borough prisons for females are chiefly occupied by
prostitutes and vagrants, by whom the gaol is, in
many instances, rather looked on as an asylum or
hospital, and is often preferred to the workhouse.
The majority of the prison schools are placed
in connection with the Commissioners of National
Education, and are inspected by the officers of
that board. They are supplied with books and school
requisites on the same terms as schools in workhouseffr
.and lunatic asylums. In some gaols no attempt
made to impart sccular instruction to the inmates,
and in many others little acivantan is derived from the
instruction given. It is our decided opinion that
secular as well as religious instruction should be im-
parted to all classes of prisoners capable of receiving
such, and, further, that the schools should be care-
fully supervised by the chaplains, under whose guid-
ance they are, in most cases, placed."