The Press.
London, England, 1856-09-27 00:00:00

THE PRESS.

to this question, and it is impossible that so
important a subject can be allowed to rest.
When the late Mr. FiTztmox died, his lucra-
tive post of Clerk of the Hanaper was given to
his brother-in-law, Mr. Jolts O'CONNELL ! An-
other of Mr O'CONNELL'S brothers also holds a
valuable place of two thousand pounds per
annum; and there were peculiar circumstances
in the recent history of Ireland why such a
system of patronage should give much offence
to those interested in the peace and order of
society. Certain it is that the Roman Catholic
aspirants for office have become singularly
virulent in their politics, and that they seem
to think that zealous sectarianism would be
their best recommendation. The public ser-
vice should be kept free from such sordid par-
tisanship; and the evil habit of catering to
Roman Catholic demagogues must be aban-
doned, unless it be seriously intended by the
" Liberal " Cabinet to undermine and over-
throw the Protestants of Ireland.

There are other aspects of this question, to
which we shall direct notice at a future time.

NATIONAL REFORMATORY.

WE have received the complete Report of the
proceedings at the late Reformatory Meeting
at Bristol, as published by the Law Amend.
anent Society; and as the principle of these
institutions is now established beyond danger
of controversy, and their cause adopted by all
the ablest philanthropists in the country, we
shall take the present opportunity of noticing
what appear to be the salient points of diffi-
culty which the reformers will have to en-
counter.

We observe that Captain CROFTON, Chair-
man of the Directors of Convict Prisons in
Ireland, and, therefore, specially qualified to
speak to this particular point, expresses his
unqualified conviction that the system of
transportation cannot be wholly abandoned.
He advocates, however, a new classification
of offenders, by which we understand him to
mean that all convicts whose crimes are the
result of confirmed depravity, rather than of
sudden passion, or a (wild and unsettled
character, should be retained in our penal
prisons, such as those at Bermuda, Gibraltar,
and Dartmoor; and those only sent to the
colonies who would be likely to benefit both
themselves and society by the change. By
this means, no doubt, the objection of the
colonists to receive our criminal population
would be materially weakened, if not alto-
gether removed, and an outlet be provided for
that class of characters whom a very short
experience has convinced us it is impossible
to keel► at home, either with advantage to
themselves or with safety to the public. The
difficulty of providing for the boys after they
leave the reformatories is admitted to be the
most formidable obstacle to the success of
these institutions ; and if so, certainly the
difficulty of providing for adults must be
admitted to be ten times greater. In point of
fact it is next to impossible. "It is," says
Captain CROFTON, " a principal element in the
" reformatory system that there should be a
" large and new field, with a paucity of labour."
What transportation is to the grown-up con
vict, emigration, succeeding the reformatory,
is to the youthful one. It answers all the
purpose of transportation without any of its
evils. For, say what we will, and whatever be
the means adopted, it is absolutely necessary
that as much of our criminal population as
possible should he got out of the country.
And, manifestly, it is far better for all parties
that they should be sent from a reformatory
than from a gaol. As regards the offender
himself, the further he is sent away from old
associates and familiar scenes the better.
This is found, as might be expected, to
be one of the primary laws of reforma-
tory treatment. The colonist, for his part,
will obtain for a servant an active lad of
seventeen or eighteen years of age, in-
structed in agricultural or other labour, and
in whom the germs of self-respect have been
carefully reimplanted, instead of ! a ruffian ;
while our home population will be spared the
spectacle of prosperity founded on transgres-
sion of the law. These are the three argu-
ments in favour of making emigration the
principal, if not the only. outlet for the inmates
of our reformatory institutions.

915

In the paper read at Bristol by Mr. SYDNEY
TURNER, the importance of emigration is fully
recognised. ' To me," says that gentleman,
" this seems in every way the best of all out-
" lets, if proper means of training be adopt od,
" and proper care and discrimination exercised
" in the choice of those who are allowed the
" vast advantage it gives." But it seems to us
that the full weight of the last of the the ee
aiguments we have above adduced, namely,
that it would remove all risk of exciting ti.e
jealousy of the honest poor, was not fully at -
prehended by any of the speakers, with tl e
exception, perhaps, of Lord STANLEY. His
Lordship recurs to this point more than once
in the course of his address, and seems to be
deeply sensible of its importance. Yet eve n
he, we think, is rather too sanguine in his ex-
pectations of our being able to escape this
stumbling•block. We hold it to be wellnigh
impossible to carry out any plan for the em-
ployment of young criminals at home which
shall not be a constant e)esore to the honest
and industrious labourer. Of those districts
where seven or eight shillings a week can com-
mand the service of a man with seven or eight
children to support, can it with justice be said
that " there is ample employment and good
" pay for all who can and will work "? Yet the
exclusively rural districts where this scale of
wages prevails are those specially selected for
the employment of reformatory protegees.
It is not to be wondered at that Mr. SYDNEY
TURNER should view this question in the light
most favorable to that system of which lie is
so eminent and successful a promoter. Every
man loves the work of his own hands ; and if
Mr. TURNER seeks for the youths in whom the
fruits of his own exertions are most clearly
manifested—a destiny which strikes us as rather
unduly advantageous—it is simply in accord-
ance with an eternal law of human nature. But
it is impossible to read that portion of his
pages in which he discusses the four different
methods of providing for the young penitent
without something like a feeling that the
claims of honest poverty are unduly disre-
garded :
It has been suggested that home colonies might be
formed in Ireland and even in England, with the object of
reclaiming and improving the waste and common lands,
and on the principle of the labourers attaining a share in
the land, and that boys from reformatory schools would be
induced to work on these with such a prospect before
them. T give the suggestion as it was given to me, cer-
tainly thinking that the general idea of getting the boys
apprenticed and employed as farm labourers in some of
the more remote and newly-purchased estates in Ireland,
is one worth inquiry and thought.

Why, pray, what would be the hardship in
such a lot as this, which would induce the
poorest cottager to exclaim, " my children are
" better off than this "? Would not thousands
of poor men in this country, whose ideas have
never yet soared beyond perpetual servitude,
and meat once a month, absolutely jump at
such a chance of securing an independence ?
We must have justice before generosity. We
must not kill the fatted calf tor the prodigal
while the elder son is starving. Mr. TURNER
is also of opinion that a military reform
school might be set apart, and that "in such
" a school as ltedhill a military class might be
" formed." But this plan is open to precisely
the same objections. For the education there
received would infallibly render the reforma-
tory recruit superior to the rest of his com-
pany, and cause him to be selected for promo-
tion over the heads of those who have gone
through no previous course of criminality to
insure them similar advantages. There is
therefore, we maintain, but one eligible plan
of providing for this class of persons, and that
is by emigration. And the supporters of
reformatory institutions would do well to bend
all their energies to the accomplishment of
some organised system by which it may be
made regularly and universally available.
Labour is wanted in the colonies, and the
criminal is not wanted at home,—not because
he has once committed a crime, but because
there are plenty who have never done so, who
would be glad of all we could give to him. He
will be acceptable in other countries where he
will be more able to persevere in his good in-
tentions, where his antecedents are unknown,
and where fuller scope is available for the
innocent gratification of restlessness and love
of adventure and excitement.

916

lortign Ql;orrEsponbtutt.

BRUSSELS, September 24.
IN these days, when republicanism, on the one hand,
would destroy every vestige of monarchical institu-
tions, and despotic Romanism, on the other, would
bind again kings and people in abject submission to
Pontifical authority, it is gratifying to witness
a royal prince, well instructed in the nature of go-
v2rnment and the duties imposed upon its chief,
take an active part ix the examination of the evils
that afflict society and of the remedies proposed for
their alleviation. Animated by that pure goodwill
which renders duty pleasing, the Duke de Brabant
presided at one of the meetings of the international
" Congres de Bienfaisance." A chair of state had
been provided befitting his royal position ; this he
had the good taste to decline, and placed himself in
the usual presidential seat. Much good is mutually
learnt by the constitutional governor and the con-
stitutionally governed at these more familiar and
public assemblies, where truth is employed of neces-
sity as an exponent of evil and a means to test the
worth of remedial measures. Three speeches
attracted particular attention—those of M. Cher-
buliez, of Geneva; M. Damota, Consul-General of
the Brazils at Brussels ; and Mr. Ewart.
M. Cherbuliez openly professed to have no sym-
pathy with the general objects of the meeting, and
could only consider " pauperism " as a clime, and
charity as the chief cause of that crime. Low wages,
and a want of prudence, and idleness, were, accord-
ing to the Swiss deputy, the sources of poverty, and
the pauper labourer who received public aims was
protected by the State in his career of misdoing.
Before the Protestant Reformation there was no
" pauperism " in Switzerland, on account of the pe
culler organisation of religious societies, that em-
p'oyed mendicants as a part of the system, and by
thus converting them into conventual servants
rescued them from a state of misery and want. When
the Reformation deprived the Catholic Church of its
property, these mendicants were thrown for support
upon the State, as occurred in England, which was
e tten up (ronge) by its poor from a similar reason.
Foundling hospitals and an increase of bastardy
were the immediate consequences. The Protestant
canton of Berne, opulent and fertile, is weighed down
by its excess of pauperism, which is augmenting at
the rate of eleven per cent. upon the population ;
whereas the Roman Catholic canton of the Jura re-
fuses all aid from the Confederation, and is without
paupers. " Gardez, disentils, votre argent et vos
lois, et laissez nous nos pieux usages." It therefore
results that all charitable institutions foment the
evil that they profess to avert—M. Pascal Duprat,
in a few trite and forcible remarks, replied to M.
Cherbuliez, and distinguished between voluntary and
involuntary poverty, showing that often, by imperfect
legislation, a state of voluntary poverty was govern-
mentally and primarily created, against which
industry could not successfully contend.
M. Damota, of Rio Janeiro, in detailing the vast
agricultural riches of South America, and the high
price of labour, accounted for the absence of want in
Brazil. Upon being questioned as to the state of
slavery, lie remarked "that nothing could be more
erroneous than the supposition that slavery was
onerous in the Brazils. I; was so to the maters
and not to the slave. The slave is there considered
in the light of an orphan, being nourished, educated,
and maintained in comfort under the superintendence
of public overseers. As a proof that free labour was
preferred in the market, the wages of artisans
reached twenty to twenty five shillings a day, and
such a thing as an unemployed labourer was not
known. In fact (said M. Damota), we are anxious
to get rid of slavery, having proved and become
thoroughly cognisant of its disadvantages; but it
would be impossible to manumit two millions of
slaves unprepared for the charge of personal respon-
sibility. There are many countries in Europe that
du not accord to their labour population the same
amount of liberty that we give our slaves." This
remark caused some " reclamation." " Brazil," he
continued, "has an army of 20,000 men, more than
sufficient to uphold the law and maintain domestic
peace, for revolutions only proceed from misery and
oppression."

Ewart recapitulated the number of sanitary
regulations lately adopted by the municipalities of
England, and dwelt forcibly and at length on the
necessity of a better education of the working
classes. He maintained that the improvement of
the mind rendered the artisan more able as a work-
man and more contented as a subject, and by stimu-
lating thought led him to trace crime to those causes
which would be as signals of danger to avoid. The
great obstacle against a system of general education
was the Church of England—" C'est la religion
Anglicans qui s'interpose pour empecher I:education

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