The Press.
London, England, 1856-12-20 00:00:00

THE PRESS.

rors of the slave trade by increasing the sufferings of the
negroes on the middle passage. This was all " bosh."
His brother had heard a professor in the United States
contend that it would be far better for the English Govern.
ment to fit up ships with every convenience for the trans-
port of negroes than drive the slaveowners to transport in
the present slave-ships. But there was no foundation for
this assertion. At Angola he found that, owing to the
presence of the cruisers, the slave trade had been effectually
repressed by making the export of slaves much more
dangerous to capitalists than gambling for gold. He had
seen slaves sold 100 miles from the coast for 12s. each, for
whom it would have been easy to obtain 201. if there bad
been a demand abroad, and if it had been easy to convey
them to Cuba. Instead of being sent out of the country,
these slaves were sent into the interior to be exchanged for
ivory. He travelled with a Por►uguese native who was
going to Matiamvo with eight women in chains. For-
merly a great deal of money had been made in Angola by
the slave trade, but there were now only three men in
Angola who retained any of the wealth they had acquired
in that traffic. The riches thus got seemed to bring no
blessing with it. It did not " atop in the family."
The capabilities of Central Africa were great r
The Jesuits with their usual foresight planted coffee in
Angola, which had been propagated, it was said by birds,
through the whole country. The merchants were now
turning their attention to the growth of coffee, and it
seemed as if God himself had prepared the way for the
extinction of the slave trade by providing a substitute, and
offering the means of honest industry to the natives.
Then it was said that wars were more cruel than they
were when the prisoners were sold for slaves, but this also
was an invention of the slave-dealers. Who began these
wars? There never was a war in the interior except
about cattle. But where the slave•dealers found a market
for their prisoners the natives fought fiercely to defend
themselves and children. These wars bad been fomented
by the slave traders, and they ought to take the credit of
them. The best way of suppressing the slave trade
entirely was to develop the resources of the interior.

In the evening Dr. Livingstone was entertained at
dinner by the society at the Milton Club. Dr.
Livingstone has on other occasions given interesting
accounts of some of the principal incidents of his
travels, and he has expressed his intention of
shorly returning to Africa to continue his ex•
plorations.

THE REFORMATORY MOVEMENT was discussed by
the Rev. Sydney Turner ou Tuesday evening, in a
lecture on " Boy Crime and its Remedies," delivered
at the Newington Literary Institution. Mr. Sydney
Turner said he bad recently seen in the Economist
that crime only affected capitalists or persons with
fixed property :

He was astonished at such doctrines, which embodied
one of the strangest fallacies he had ever seen. The
question of boy crime was essentially one which affected
the working and middle classes. Whose property did young
thieves principally steal? If he went to the Westminster
Bridewell, and got the young thieves out, who would they
live upon? Would they live upon the property of the
Duke of Devonshire, or Lord Palmerston, or even such
large firms as Fortnum and Mason's? No, it was the
great class of working tradesmen that these young hornets
stung. And more than that, it was the children of the
poor man that they associated with, and who were exposed
to their corruption.

He then came to the question of punishment :
The great theory of our forefathers was to punish only,
and adopting Sir Peter Laurie's theory " to put them
down." He should be very glad to adopt that if it
answered. He was not one of those amiable philanthro-
pists who were averse to all secondary punishments. lie
considered that in proportion to the knowledge of the
offender he should be punished. They had a large number
of boys at Redhill; some of them had been in prison six-
teen times, many for ten times, and a great proportion
four or five times. The result was uniformly the same ;
he was not deterred by the punishment he had received,
and he thought the reason was clear. No person committed
crime so much from the love it, but because his habits and
his whole course of education had been such as to make
petty crime almost a necessity to him. Within the last
year—that was from the Ist of January to the present—
they had admitted 114 boys into the Beall' Reformatory,
and out of that number thirty-one had lost father or mother,
the s•irviving parent not re•marrying, sixteen had lost both
parents, and twenty-one had lost one parent, the survivor
re-marrying. Thus, of toe whole 114, there were sixty-
eight who passed into society having no one at home to really
control them. They could not hang young children,neither
could they transport them, or keep them year after year in
prison; in fact, no 53 stem of punishment could, by itself,
work the required end of diminishing or preventing crime.
Seeing. then, that they could not effectually punish or let
them alone, they must turn to this mode of cure. In the
lrst place, they should do all they could to promote the
general morality of the working classes, and endeavour to
extirpate the vice of drunkenness, which was the cause of
more than half the crime of the country. But while pre•
vention as better than cure, reformatory schools were
absolutely necessary, and up to the present time they had
been successful to the extent of reforming seven out of
ten, and in France, at Mettray, they had reformed nine out
often. In conclusion, lie reminded them that they could
all do much in preventing crime, and he exhorted them to
use all their endeavours in their own sphere to assist in
this good work.

During the delivery of the address the rev. gentleman
was frequently cheered.

1209

THE MEANS OF FREEING THE COUNTRY FROM
DANGEROUS CRIMINALS was the title of a paper read
before the Law Amendment Society this week, by
Mr. Frederic Hill, who advocated an extension of
summary powers to the magistracy :

Crime being now treated as a plaything, he was of
opinion that punishment should on all occasions, where
no doubt existed, fall full and swiftly. He advised that
magistrates should have power given them to cause any
suspected persons to be brought before them, and demand
to be informed what were their means of living, and in
the event of any person so brought before the magis-
trates not being able to show that they obtained a
living by honest means, they should be committed for
trial, the proof of innocence being thrown upon the sus•
pected person.

Coming to the question of ticket of leave, Mr. Hill
contended that tickets of leave could not he said
either to have failed or succeeded, for they had not
yet been fairly tried :
The experiment up to the Present time bad been rather
satisfactory than otherwise, for the recommitments of per-
sons released on tickets of leave had been less than the
number of those released in consequence of the expiration
of their terms of imprisonment. Then one of the great
points of the system—the withdrawal of the tickets in the
event of their holders being found to be leading a bad life—
had never been acted upon, which, no doubt, would have a
considerable effect in diminishing crime.
A lengthened discussion took place upon the various
points in the paper, and several suggestions were
made by the various speakers, all of whom were of
opinion that the present terms of imprisonment
should be greatly increased ; and most of them that
suspected persons should be called upon to show
how they were getting their living. At this meeting
a letter from Lord Brougham was read advocating
the reform of the law of libel, and especially pointing
out to the attention of the society " the absolute
necessity of removing from our law the very dis-
creditable peculiarity which distinguishes it, of
treating the most criminal breach of trust as no
offence, but only a ground of claim to a creditor
against his debtor."

THE SECOND PERFORMANCE OF THE dadria On
Monday night was accompanied by the prologue and
epilogue, in which the Westminsters are wont to
amuse their friends by a humorous blending of
modern fun with the language of old Rome. The
prologue, spoken by the Captain, Mr. J. P. Ingham,
touched as usual upon topics personal to the school,
Sir John Jervis, Dr. Haggard, Dr. Hussey, Dr.
Buckland, Dr. Chenevix Trench, all distinguished
Westminsters, being the staple of the discourse; be-
sides allusion- to Miss Slade (the sister of the Dean
of Chichester and the foundress of the exhibition
and prizes at Christ Church, Oxford, and West-
minster), and the new decorations by Mr. Cockerel!,
which it seems are in store for the embellishment of
the plays next. year. The text of the epilogue is
American slavery, the fun being confined exclusively
to the opening, in which Pamphilus, just returned
from the United States, informs a party of grotesque-
looking blacks, his lacqueys, that they are free; in.
dulging afterward; in a somewhat prosaic colloquy
with his father, Simo, upon the general question of
slavery, and the collision of national and political
opinions to which it has given rise. The two prin-
cipal interlocutors were Mr. Robinson and Mr. Wil-
liamson. Among the company present on Monday
evening were M. Van de Weyer, the Dean of West-
minster, Sir D. Dundas, Canon Repton, Archdeacon
Freer, and other distinguished individuals.
THE M

BOARD OF WORKS have
adopted the Main Drainage Scheme Be, approved by
Captain Burstall and Sir Benjamin Hall, under a
written protest of the minority.
A. LAMENTABLE ACCIDENT occurred at Blackfriars-
bridge on Sunday evening. A boat laden with seven
passengers, four women and three men, was endea-
vouring to make the stairs on the west side of the
bridge, but the tide carried her down against the
pier. The four women at once screamed out, rushed
to the boat's side, and of course capsized her. Several
boats instantly put off, and three men and one
woman were saved. The other three women were
drowned.

THE CONSERVATIVE LAND SOCIETY held its annual
meeting on Thursday, when the report of the com-
mittee was read. The report of the progress of the
society was most satisfactory. The receipts for the
past year amounted to 5,4,0001., showing an increase
of 3,0001. over the previous year. The purchasos of
the society had been most advantageous. Lord
Banelagh entered at some length into the details of
the annual report, which was then unanimously
adopted.
THE CONCENTRATION OF THE COURTS OF LAW
AND EQUITY was proposed to Sir Benjamin Hall on
Thursday by a deputation frim the Incorporated
Law Society. The deputation, after pointing out
the inconvenience of the present courts, both in
situation and accommodation, proposed the erection
of one central building between Pickett-place and
Temple-bar. The site could be bought for SOC.OOo/.
Sir Benjamin Hall, after some discussion, suggested
that the question must, of course, be referred to Par-