The Press.
London, England, 1856-08-09 00:00:00

AUGUST 9, 1856.

ing the existing penalty for one which, while equally dreadful to the
imagination, shall render juries less reluctant to convict, and afford
no excuse for remitting in any case the sentence of the law.

The Decimal Coinage Reformers are busy in bringing their various
schemes before the public, and those schemes are so numerous and
Opposed, that we fear they will neutralise each other, and prevent ary-
thing being done. A pamphlet published this week urges the formation
of an international congress to secure the adoption of a uniform
decimal system of money, weights, and measures. One thing would yet
be wanted—a decimal system of time ;we might divide the day decimally,
but the week would refuse any such arbitrary division, and so would
the 365 or 366 days of the year. If the decimal system is to be
adopted at all, we must be content to advance towards it by much
humbler steps than some theorists propose. The simplest plan that
can be adopted—the depreciation of the copper coinage by four per
cent., so as to make the pound consist of one thousand farthings and
250 pence—would be attended with considerable difficulties, and it is
to show how those difficulties can be best met that the efforts of
practical decimalists will most profitably be directed.

The movement in favour of Juvenile Reformatories has this week
received a stimulus by an influential meeting at Winchester, pre sided
over by the Bishop of that diocese. We cordially concur in the
opinion that these things should be done by the local authorities
rather than by Government. It is, said the Bishop, both the privilege
and the duty of the country gentlemen to overlook them. But in
noticing this subject as one of the important events of the week we
desire to point out the necessity for bearing in mind that a distinction
exists between reformatory institutions, such as Redhill and Mettray,
to which 'alone the speech of the Bishop and the article in Friday's
Times relate, and certain other establishments in the metropolis
which partake more of the character of a refuge than a reformatory.
The latter class of institutions are intended solely for juvenile crimi-
nals—for boys alone who have been convicted of some offence—and
as far as these are concerned we think both the Bishop and
the leading journal to have given us some excellent comments. But
the very difficulty which is foreseen by the Times in dealing with a
society of boy criminals, should constitute a strong additional motive
for arresting the boy's career before he has become criminal. Prowl.
ing about the streets of London are hundreds of miserable children
without home or parents—just hovering on the brink of crime, but
not yet guilty of it ; others who have fallen, but not yet detected, and
uninfected therefore by the corruption of prison associates These
it is to whom it should be the aim of the philanthropist to extend a
helping hand, and by benefiting whom he will do the greatest benefit
to society. We have no desire to withhold their due meed of praise
from bishops and members of Parliament, who contribute their money
and their eloquence to the cause of charity. But something should
also be rendered to those who are working nobly and without any public
recognition to reclaim the vagabond of the street, and to exercise pre-
vention instead of cure.

Tf the art of writing catching puffs to tempt the public be any
proof of civilisation, then is India generally, and Dacca in particular,
rapidly advancing on the road of progress ; and, indeed, we should be
quite inclined to accept this view were it not that the Company in
Leadenhall-street are so much in the habit of writing tempting puffs
themselves, that we fear, in India at least, this nineteenth century art
precedes instead of follows a high social status and general commercial
prosperity. Be that as it may, it is curious to read in an Indian journal
such an advertisement from a native as this :