The Press.
London, England, 1858-10-16 00:00:00

T 11E PRESS, OCTOBER 16, 185 g.

998

to be the only offences for which capital execution is in
fature to take place, those crimes alone should have
capital punishment affixed on them by law. The
sentence of death ought no longer to be a vain form. The
punishment of death being nearly discontinued, and trans-
portation virtually abolished, it is a problem of the deepest
interest to us to ascertain in what manner the thousands
of criminals can be most effectually punished, and most
effectually reformed. It is sufficient for our purpose to
record the following net product of our experiments in
England and Ireland:—l. When a person charged with
a criminal offence is sent to prison before conviction for
safe custody, it is essential that he should be kept separate,
and not turned loose into a company of notorious offenders
to corrupt and be corrupted. :I. That after conviction the
cnminal should be confined separately for a limited time
i❑ such a manner that solitude, enforced sobriety, and the
exercise of industry as his sole resource against weariness,
may prepare him for a better course of life. It would be
unwise to transfer him at once in his subdued state to a
condition of freedom, when his very want of energy would '
probably lead him back to crime. 3. After separate im-
prisonment the convicts in England and Ireland have
witb the best effect been removed to prisons where each
has a separate cell for sleeping, but where the work is in
common. 4. The Board of !directors in Ireland have
introduced a plan of intermediate prisons, where the best
conducted prisoners are relieved from military or police
guards. The convicts have, however, their appointed work,
their rations, and their gratuities. At this period they are
allowed to obtain by inquiry promises of employment on
their discharge. When these promises have been ascer-
tained to be trustworthy the prisoner is set free, but for
the unexpired period of his sentence he remains under
the supervision of the police. S. The passage from one
class to another and the distribution of gratuities is
regulated by the number of marks obtained for good
behaviour. The principle of this plan was, I believe,
originally suggested by Captain Maconochie. The general
results of these systems of discipline are spoken of with
much satisfaction by those who have put them in force,
Colonel Jebb estimating that seventy-five per cent., and
Captain Crofton that a great majority may be reformed.
The noble lord then referred to the bearing of the
system on the convicts who are the subject of the
discipline, particularizing the several classes into
which they may be divided, and c9mparing prison
discipline to the hospital treatment of a patient
attacked by fever, urging that the former should
supply its subject with energy to enter on a better
course of life. With regard to those who remained
irreclaimable, would it be too much to say that their
lives should be spent in public labour, and that no
period should be assigned for the remission of their
punishment? This portion would, of course, consist
of only the irreclaimable few ; but while the nunish-
rnent would reach few, the fear would extend to all.
He next dwelt on the question of juvenile delin-
quency, referring to the objects, operations, and
success of the Reformatory Acts and of the Reforma-
tory Institutions. In the course of his remarks on
the influences to be brought to bear on the reforma-
tion of criminals he said :

Every one must have observed the new influence which
is not being asserted or sought, but is falling to the lot of
woman in swaying the destinies of the world. It is not a
share in directing the patronage of Ministers, or guiding
the councils of kings, as in former kinds, but a portion in
the formation and the moulding of public opinion. For a
great part of our periodical literature, for much of that
world of fiction in which many live and nearly all take
delight, we are indebted to the ethereal fancy, the delicate
perception, and the grace of expression possessed by woman.
It seems to me, and I am confirmed in this opinion by the
bright examples of heroic benevolence we have seen of late
years, that if the young generation are to be an improve.
ment upon their fathers,—if sin is to have less dominion
and religion more power,—if vice is to be abashed and
virtue to be honoured, it is to woman that we must look
for such a regeneration.

our chief examiners. Even in awarding a degree much
discrimination is required, anti a failure in one branch of
knowledge may bo balanced by excellence in another. Some
severity at the commencement of such a system is both to
be expected and desired ; but I repeat the system itself
must be carefully watched, and the experiment must be
often repeated before it can be said that this strength of our
new machinery has been fully test d.

meets again we shall be quite as warm as ever with regard
to our political differences.
After some further remarks on the necessity of a
patient investigation of the subject before them, the
noble lord resumed his seat amid loud cheering, and
the evening's proceeding were brought to a close.

LORD BROUGHAM ON POPULAR LITERATURE.
On Tuesday, the second day, the elegant concert-
room of St. George's•hall was crowded long before
the hour appointed, and, as on the previous evening,
the ladies formed a large proportion of the audience.
'
Lord BROUGHAM proceeded to deliver his lecture
on popular literature, tracing its progress from the
foundation of the Penny Magazine of the Society for
the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge to the present time.
That periodical was established at the suggestion of
that eminent philanthropist Jr.! Hill, Recorder of
Birmingham, and at one time 220,000 copies were
sold weekly. It was addressed to that class who
have but little spare time fur reading, with a view to
prevent a less profitable employment of their leisure.
Amongst those who had taken an active part in pro-
moting this kind of literature be mentioned Mr. J.
Cassell, as one peculiarly qualified, from having
himself belonged to the working classes, to provide
the reading best suited for the improvement of their
education and the cultivation of their taste, and
referred to the large circulation of the London Journal
(350,000), Cassell's Paper (285,000), and the Popular
History of England (100,0001, as showing the readi-
ness of the working classes to avail themselves of
the combination of amusement and instruction which
these publications afford. He then entered into a
lengthened refutation of the misapplied maxim, " A
little learning is a dangerous thing," displaying in
this part of his address a quiet humour which drew
peals of laughter from the audience. He proceeded:—
The benefits are beyond all price which the bulk of the
community derive from the assistance of popular liters-
tare ; nor can anything be more unreflecting than the
doubts which have been raised of its beneficial tendency.
We may begin with the broad fact of the harmless character,
to say the very least, of the amusement which it affords.
While we admit it to be certain that a considerable portion
of these works is devoted chiefly to entertainment, this is
certainly of an altogether innocent kind. But it has come
in the place of a different class of publications. When Mr.
Hill proposed the Penny Magazine, C. Knight brought him
a list of no less than nine weekly papers devoted to the
circulation of the most abominable matter, morally scan-
dalous and obscene, religiously not simply infidel, but
scoffing and ribald ; politically preaching anarchy, hardly
even confined to the crazy dreams of Socialism, but as if
the editor were that boy become a man, who, when the
Sovereign went to meet his Parliament, had been arested
for bawling out, "No King! no Church! no Lords! no
Commons ! no nothing !" The Penny Magazine drove
the vile publications absolutely out of existence. A most
feeble progeny alone was left to emceed them; it skulked
in corners, and ever since has scarcely been heard of. II
was like the effect of the Society's Almanack. which put an
end to the disreputable fortune-telling tracts before pub•
lished by the Stationers' Company. But it is not only ir.
religious, immoral, and fraudulent publications that have
been supplanted ; the far less hurtful, yet by no means
commendable works, which study to give the mere excite-
ment of horror by dealing in accounts of brutal murder and
cruel seductions, and in romances abounding in such de-
scriptions, together with ghost stories. These, once so
greedily pored over, now find but little acceptation, and
have ceased to be in demand. The works of Carlile and
Paine have long ceased to attract readers, the people falling
back upon papers which combine harmless recreation with
some instruction. But it would be a great mistake to sup-
pose that the benefits of the popular press are negative
orly. The tales composed for the working men's hours
of relaxation are of a kind that address themselves both to
the understanding and the heart—at once giving lessons. of
instruction and fostering the kindly affections. Nor can
anything be more groundless than the charges that have
been brougnt against it. Two of these may be at once
stated and disposed of. First, we are told that the stories
given relate to persons and scenes in high life, and that
none other interest the working classes. This is certainly
contrary to the fact. That these classes wish occasionally
to know what passes among their superiors is quite true,
yet not more true than that their superiors desire to dwell
upon the actions and the sufferings of each other; but
what most powerfully excites the humbler classes, and
.moat
deeply imprints itself on their memory, is the story ol the
actions arid the sufferings, the goon and evil fortunes of
their brethren and equals. And wherefore this? Because
the case may be their own. The fiction of to-day may to-
morrow be the sad or the happy reality of their own lot.
Some of Sir W. Scott's romances have been given in these
publications, and it is only to be wished that they had been
accompanied with warnings against the perversion of,
history, as well as the false and indeed obsolete politica_
opinions in which some of that great writer's tales abound.
But next it is alleged that what is termed the new—it
should rather be called the improved—literature of the
people, supplants more solid and more useful works, and
the multitude of the readers is given as a proof of this.
It is assumed—most falsely assumed—that these are
withdrawn from the perusal of other publications. On the
very contrary, they are added to the body of former readers,
and their numbers prove it to demonstration. Take h
tlrle.e
instances,—Cassell's Illustrated Family Paper beg .
t
year with a sale of 30,000, and the amity Herald issues
• ad a
200,000. The London Journal is asserted to hale. h
from
circulation of 500,000, but its present actual sale is
320,000 to 350,000. What papers and other periodical
an

works did these 800,000 purchasers take, and what ddi the
two millions who in the whole peruse these three papers
read before they were brought out? It is quite manifest
that this is, if not wholly, yet in a very great proportion, a
clear addition to the number of persons who formerly saved
from their earnings a penny weekly, and laid it out in pur-
chasing what would help them to pass an hour or two of
rest without the weary sense of unoccupied time, or the
pa-Melons resource of drinking.
The noble and learned lord went on to refute the
notion that the promoters of popular literature were
indiff2rent to the encouragement of more severe
studies, and the cultivation of profounder science.
showing from the experience of the Useful Know-
ledge Society that the very contrary was the truth.
lie also showed that popularizing literature had no
tendency to diminish the due remuneration of author-
ship. He then adverted to the hindrance thrown in
the way of cheap literature by the paper duties,
remarking on the inconsistency of Government
voting funds for education on the one hand and
maintaining these duties on the other :
We profess to encourage reading among the people, and
we directly and effectually discourage it, raising the price
and lowering the value of everything they read. To a cer-
tain degree, however, the people have a remedy in their
own hands. Let them firmly resolve to meet the paper
duty by practising a salutary economy iu the use of their
earnings. The tax adds to the price of what they buy to
read; let them deduct as much from their other expenses,
and the pressure of the tax ceases. Let them abstain
from the use of fermented liquors, not at first altogether,
but so far as to increase by a little the sum they pay for
cheap works. They will feel themselves all the better for
the change, and will he encouraged to carry it further, so
as to give up altogether the use of both beer and spirits.
That the greatest obstacle to their improvement is also
the greatest injury to their health, the worst enemy to
their comfort and happiness, is undeniable ; nor can there
be a more natural or more appropriate manner of meeting
and overcoming this adversary than to make the practice
of temperance a help to knowledge—thus tattling at de-
fiance the obstinate errors of the shortsighted and incon-
sistent Legislature, and shaming it by the wise and pro-
vident consistency of their own conduct. The successors
of the Penny Magazine—the popular papers of the day—
are accompanied, as it was, with other works of a more
sustained and complete description, so that the reader
who is attracted in the search of amusement, and finds in
the same paper historical or scientific matter, is also
enabled. if thereby inclined, to obtain more full informa-
tion; for these works are, generally speaking. of very low
prices. Thus nine papers, which may be called of enter-
tainment, and having a joint circulation of 1,200,000
weekly, are published at Id. ; but there are also published
at the same time historical and scientific works—some
weekly, some monthly, some once a fortnight—at the
price of Id., lid., the larger ones sd. and 7(1. Cassell's
Illustrated History of England, of which 100,00.) are pub-
lished in penny numbers, comes already down to Charles
11., and coats only His Educational Course and
Popular Educator give popular and sound information on
natural and moral science—the former in a volume of

nearly 600 pages, with tolerably good plates, costing under
half-a-crown—and of this and other similar works the
joint circulation is 300,000. The Popular History of Eng-
land of C. Knight is of a somewhat higher price, but the
plate., as well as the paper, are greatly superior, and its
literary merits are of a very high order. The number of
popular works wholly religious is very great, and their
circulation vast; seventeen of these have a sale of 900,000.
The works of the Temperance Society circulate 300,000
weekly. It is impossible to doubt that much good is done
by the works of both classes, with the help of the pious and
enlightened persons whose zeal is at once testified and
rewarded by the great success of these. But it may fairly
be questioned if either the cause of religion or temperance
gains so much by the publication of works confined to
these subjects as by the judicious proceeding of writers
avowedly upon other subjects making their works, whether
of narrative, of fiction, or of discussion, the vehicle of
those sound doctrines. A person of irreligious life, or of
infidel opinions, will not be easily tempted to read a pro-
fessedly religious paper, nor will a drunkard bestow either
his pence or his minutes upon what bears on its front the
um of " temperance advocates." It must, however, be
admitted that both the friends of religion and the advocates
of temperance consider their respective causes to have
been great gainers directly by the popular press. That
they have gained exceedingly by the indirect process cannot
he doubted. Upon one class of periodical publications it
has not been necessary to dwell—those of the newspaper
press. The use of Close journals is incalculable ; their
importance both to the Legislature, the courts of justice,
the police department, is incontestable ; and to the rights
and to the lesser interests of the community their value is
such as can only Le duly estimated in countries which
either never enjoyed such advantages, or have lost them
through their wilful folly, possibly their crimes. But in
less important respects these publications are of no little
value ; they are a source of constant entertainment, ra-
tional and even useful. " Had I all the money," says one
writer, " which I pay in taxes to Government, at liberty to
lay out upon amusement and diversion, I know not
whether I would make choice of any in which I should find
greater pleasure." Nor are these the words of an ignorant
or an ordinary person : they are those of a great divine and
Philosopher ; they are Paley's in his " Moral Philosophy."
He shows how the newspapers " minister," as he says,
to the harmless gratitude of multitudes," and adds that
' the secrecy, the jealousy, the solitude, and precipitation
of despotic governments exclude all this." He did not live
to see that middle state between entire exclusion and full
Possession of which the last seventy years have furnished
ini certain countries a signal example. It would be wrong
we did not advert to the great Improvement m one ma.