The Press.
London, England, 1856-12-27 00:00:00

THE PRESS:

they could make themselves new men. It was understood
that when a sentence of penal servitude was passed it
would be a certain thing. Up to this moment I will
frankly confess that, notwithstanding all my efforts to get
information on the subject, I was under that impression,
having always thought that penal servitude was to be a
fixed and settled thing, of course subject to the high prero•
gative of mercy which may be exercised by her Majesty the
Queen. That prerogative is, however, a different bort of
thing from the official sort of mercy extended to prisoners
in the shape of tickets of leave. I make these remarks be-
cause I find that in 1855 you were severally sentenced to
four years of penal servitude. If Government intended to
be merciful to you, I should have thought they would have
transferred you to prisons in which you might have been
instructed in a trade, and been enabled to get your live-
lihood afterwards. You having been convicted so many
times, I see no reason why you should have been set at
large, nor any hope that, when set at large, you could
gain employment and abstain from doing wrong. I think
it is a great hardship upon men who have lost their cha•
racter by being sentenced to penal servitude to let them
loose in a country where persons will not employ them.
I cannot understand why, either for the sake of the public
or the sake of yourselves, you, having been sentenced to
four years' penal servitude in January, 1855, should be let
out to commit fresh depredations in the same town as
before, in August, 1856. Those who did that act may
justify to themselves the proceeding, but for my part 1
cannot justify it, nor can I follow the example set by those
persons, for facts have proved the proceeding to be falls•
cious and injurious to criminals and to the public. You two
young fellows are well able to earn an honest livelihood,
and I heartily wish that you could. I hope, for the sake
of the convicts themselves, that we may return to a system
which sends them out to a colony where labour is in great
demand, and where they may (as many transports have
done) regain good characters and become useful members
of society. In order to give you a chance of being sent to
such a plac.l in the event cf the former system being re-
newed—as many persons, together with myself, fervently
hope it will be—l will sentence you to be transported for
twenty years.

MILITARY STATISTICS OF SWITZERLAND.
THE Moniteur de VArm4e gives some details, of
interest at this moment, with reference to the military
resources of Switzerland :

The strong interest which seems to have been awakened
in the affair of Neufchatel renders it very desirable that,
at the present time, the situation of that part of Switzer.
land in a military point of view should be correctly under-
stood. The canton of Neufchatel has formed since 1815
the 22nd canton of the Federal Confederation. It is
situated between France, the canton of Vaud, and that of
Berne. Its population amounts to about dO,OOO souls,
and its area to 725 square kilometres. It consists of the
so-called principality of Neufchatel proper and of the
county of Valangin. The public are now acquainted with
its political organisation, and with the causes that have
given rise to the present difficulties, upon which it would
be needless for us to enlarge. By the terms of the Federal
compact each canton of Switzerland is bound to furnish
to the army a contingent proportioned to its population.
In case of war, the aggregate numerical strength of these
contingents is 33,758 men, who form part of the first levy;
in this particular instance the quota due from the canton
of Neufchatel is NO men, of whom 734 are for the
infantry. Independently of the troops composing the
first levy, the Federal army has a reserve of the
same numerical strength, which, in the event of a
serious emergency, would raise the forces of the Confede-
ration to 07,515 combatants, not including the landwehr,
or militia, which consists of all the men capable of bearing
arms, who belong neither to the contingent nor the reserve.
The Swiss are brave and intelligent, but, notwithstanding
their merits, we must not shut our eyes to what is the real
strength of an army constituted like theirs, comprising as
it does men with families, men taken from their business or
work, and who do not possess, like tie soldiers of perma-
nent and regular armies, the instruction or the halls
acquired in military life. Nevertheless, it is necessary to
take into account the patriotic sentiment, the profound
devotion to the independence of his native land, to
which the Swiss in every age has been indebted for suc•
ceases otherwise hopeless. In fact, looking at its actual
condition, the Helvetic army is fully adequate to maintain
order within the sphere of the Confederation, and to cause
the Federal pact and the laws of the country to be
everywhere respected ; but abandoned to itself it
would evidently not be able to sustain a serious con•
test against one of the great military powers of
Europe. When Switzerland is engaged in any mili-
tary contest the Diet forms the supreme military autho-
rity. It is that body which publishes military orders,
determines the general organisation of the army, calls the
citizensjto arms, and appoints the general commanding in-
chief, the quartermsstergeneral, and the commissary.
general. It presides over the instruction of both officers
and men, as well as the purchase and custody of the muni-
tions of war. The general commanding-in-chief receives
from the Diet his instructions and powers, and he alone
is responsible fur his acts. His office may in no case con-
tinue longer than the duration of the term for which the
forces are embodied. The canton of Neufchatel, pro.
tected by the lake of the same name, which extends from
Yverdun towards the north-east as far as St. 'liaise over
an extent of nearly thirty-two kilometres, with an average
breadth of seven kilometres, is accessible through the
canton of Vaud and that of Berne, and the mountains of
the Jura chain, which traverse these districts, contain
many defiles of a nature greatly to assist the defence.
The city of Neufchatel, the chief town of the principality
and the seat of its Government, lies close to the Seyon,
where it debouches into the lake ; its inhabitants number
about 6,000 souls; it is incapable of defence, and could