The Press.
London, England, 1858-01-02 00:00:00

he (Lord PALMERSTON) was a follower of the
father-in-law of " the accomplished Marquis.' '

Yet there must be something at the bottom
of this appointment. The fact is, that, in spite
of the boasted majority, the Cabinet is wretch•
edly weak in the House of Lords. Lord LANS-
DOWNE is past his work; Lord GRANVILLE is
feeble indebate ; Lord CLARENDON is no orator,
and though very clever in office, ho wants
weight ; and Lord CLANRICARDE is certainly
equal to a series of slashing attacks in a style
difficult to be met by the members of the
Cabinet in the House of Lords. In excess of
damaging personality Lord CLANRICARDE would
be little restrained by decorum, and a few
wrestling matches with him would be worse
than disagreeable. Besides, it is the fact that
the Liberals do owe him some political obliga-
tions. He was the only Irish Whig aristocrat
who showed any talent for public speaking in
past years when the coalition with O'CoxxEct
existed.
But what a Cabinet it must be when its
Members are afraid of Lord CLANRICARDE! Is
this. the meaning of " their strength in the
" country,"—" nninber of their supporters"—
" the public with them"—" all the religious
" world with Pani"—and the rest of the ejacu-
lations jerked out by Mr. HAYTER? It is a
great and powerful Cabinet; but it shrinks
before Lord CLANRIC.UtDE ! It is supported
by the religious world, and " the man of Gon'
begs the aid of Lord CLANRICARDE to help him
in abolishing the East India Company, and in
legislating for the temporal and spiritual wel-
fare of the mighty empire in the East.

THE CONVICT PRISON SYSTEM.
Ir is high time that a little daylight should
be let in upon our convict system. The atmo-
sphere with which Colonel JE.1113 has bee❑
permitted to invest that system is 93 murky
as to be impenetrable to the eye of the public.
In fact, it is only by occasional explosions
that we are reminded that we are standing on
a mine of Jebbisin—for Colonel JEBB is the
convict prison system just as Mr. RowLAND
HILL is the Post-office, as S►r C. TREVELYAN is
the Treasury, and Mr. CHADWICK was the New
Poor Law. Sir G. GREY, as Home Secretary,
is legally responsible for the doings of Colonel
JEns, and it is full time that Parliament should
make Sir G. GREY understand that the re-
sponsibility he incurs is most sei ions. But
we will not do Sir GEORGE the injustice to
suppose that ho really exercises an indepen-
dent and proper authority in the matters con-
cerning convicts. It is impossible that, as a
man of humanity awl justice, he can delibe-
rately approve of all that is done in his name :
he simply endorses and gives legal authority
to the decrees of others.

The system pursued in our convict prisons
may bo easily described as in fact and reality
an irresponsible despotism. No one can get
at the real " secrets of the prison-house."
Colonel JEBB, indeed, presents annually to
Parliament a " Report of Convict Prisons,
which just tells Parliament as much as, and
no more than, Colonel Jinn chooses to toll—
which is, in general, as near nothing of all that
it would be desirable to know as may be.
Sometimes he travels out of his road to pane-
gyrise a pet officer or to notice one who has
incurred his displeasure ; arid we shall call
public attention to one or two of his exploits
in this way to be foun:l in his " Report" for
187 M, which, by-the-way, was not presented.
to Parliament until August, 1857. But, in
general, Jebbism consists in absolute darkness,
and a sort of Oriental seclusion. There is the
Rock of Portland, with its twelve or fourteen
hundreds of convicts. No man not an official
or a prisoner can get inside that gloomy dun-
geon—you might as well attempt to scale the
heights of Gibraltar. No lady, except the
wives of Sir G. GREY and Mr. GLADSTONE, was
ever known to penetrate that rock. It is in-
deed a virgin fortress. Dartmoor is equally
mysterious—buried in solitude and desolation.
The government of these curious places is