The Press.
London, England, 1857-01-31 00:00:00

relantr.

HIS EXCELLENCY THE LORD LIEUTENANT held a
privy
council on Monday in Dublin Castle. The
Archbishop of Dublin, the Lord Chancellor, the
Lord Justice of the Court of Appeal in Chancery,
General Lord Seaton, G.C.8., the Recorder, Sir
Thomas Esmonde, Bart., Judge Keatinge, Mr. Hat-
chell, the Attorney-General, and the. Solicitor-General
were present.

HIS EXCELLENCY.S FIRST LEVEE for the season
was held on Wednesday. The levee was fully
attended, but no dignitary of the Roman Catholic
Church was present.
THE REV. JOHN GREGO, of Trinity Church, has
been appointed by the Lird Lieutenant Archdeacon
of Kildare, vice the Rev. W. k'itzgerabl, now Bishop
of Cork, Cloyne, and Rnss. The Rev. Mr. Gregg,
though the minister of a free church, and not one of
the parochial clergy, was, however, one of his Excel-
lency's chaplains.
THE RSV. RONALD VDONNELL, curate of Passage,
in the diocese of Cork, has been appointed to the
valuable living of Monkstown, in the archdiocese of
Dublin, just vacated by the promotion of Dr. Fitz-
gerald.
_

MR. JOHN EDWARD WALiIIE AND Yu. A. LAwsoN
have been called to the inner bar.

JANUARY 31, 1857.

MR. CHARLES PEARSON UPON PENAL
PUNISHMENTS.

MR. CHARLES PEARSON, the City Solicitor, has ad-
dressed a communication to the Lord Mayor,in which
lie embodies his opinions upon penal punishment,
including prison discipline, transportation, and the
ticket of-leave system. In this communication Mr.
Pearson gives an elaborate sketch of the policy
adopted towards criminals from the sixteenth to the
present century, commenting upon its barbarity and
general results, citing authorities and facts, and pro-
ceeds to give his views upon penal punishments
generally. He classes them under three heads:-
1. The system of past days, or the cheap and cruel
system. 2. The present, or the expensive and effe-
minate system. 3. The future, or the self•supporting
system. Referring to the first head, Mr. Pearson
dilates upon the cruelties to which transports were
subjected in former times, and proceeds thus with
the second head :

Second.—The present, or the expensive and effeminate
system.—This system, which is generally known as the
separate or cellular or solitary system, was invented by
some pious philanthropists in America. It was imported
into England about twenty years ago by 11Ir. Crawford, an
able and intelligent gentleman, appointed Prison Inspector
by the British Government. It was designed to supersede
the old prison discipline and transportation systems.
Reading and Pentonville prisons were erected to serve as
models for all classes of criminals. The system is thus
pithily described by its most able and zealous advocate, the
chaplain of Reading Gaol, who thus observes, " The essen•
tials of the separate system are seclusion as a punishment,
labour as a relaxation, and scriptural instruction as a cor-
rective," as explained by the regulations and illustrated by
the practice of the gaol. The chaplain's short description
may be thus translated into plain language:—Under the
separate system criminals are to have a great deal of soli-
tude, a great deal of victuals, a great deal of warmth, a
great deal of sleep, a great deal of mental instruction, a
great deal of religious teaching, with a very little exercise,
and labour sufficient only for the purposes of recreative re-
laxation. By the combined influences of these corporeal,
mental, ond religious agencies it was assumed by the en-
thusiasiic advocates of the system that the hearts of
criminals would be softened, their unruly wills subdued,
their minds would be enlightened, their souls converted,
and their lives reformed. It was, moreover, said by its
advocates that by uniting secrecy with solitude, by placing
criminals in cells so constructed as to exclude both sight
and sound, by hooding and masking them when led out
to chapel or exercise, and by changing their name for a
letter by which they were to be known from their admisfran
into prison up to the time of their discharge, that by a little
secrecy Mid good management a prisoner might upon his
release maintain his incognito. It was said the world
would forgive or torget his crimes, and he might go abroad
as an exile or be restored to society as having completed his
pt•nal punishment, or be released in this country on a
ticket of leave.

It was confidently affirmed by the eulogists of the system
that. although its first cost and annual outlay were con-
siderable, it would be presently found that the number of
vrisoners would be so much reduced front the effects of its
Ire}srmatory influence that a considerable saving would be
arrAmod by the country in prisons and prosecutions as soon
as its daterring and reformatory treatment was known and
felt.
Your lordship heard me, several years ago, in the pre-
sence of a number of its most talented advocates, ridicule
what I termed the absurdities, and denounce what I cell-
sidered the serious evils, of the system. In the House of
Ce.intnons, and in the committee for which I moved to in.
vestigate the subject, I did the same ; but finding the cur-
rent of authority and power running strongly against me, I
retired from Parliament, and have ever since remained a
silent, but not an unobservant, spectator of the progress of
events. J now deliberately reaffirm as matter of fact what
I then stated by way of prediction. It has proved itself an
unnatural system—it has broken down, and has entirely
failed to accomplish any of the very important objects
which were promised as the apologists for its extravagant
cost.

Mr. Pearson then adduces evidence of persons
connected with prisons in support of his views upon
solitary confinements, and proceeds to the third head
of his subject, the " labour and appetite " system,
formally proposed some years since:—

The proposed plan is the establishment of large
industrial prisons, secure and strong, plain and cheap,
with separate sleeping cells for each inmate. The
prison to be surrounded by strong and lofty walls, inclosing
LOW or 2,0(W) acres f land. I propose that each of these
prisons shall accommodate 1,000 or 2,030 inmates, classi-
fied, sub.classified, and distributed in different prisons
according to their economical condition, whether artisans,
mechanics, or labourers; according to their physical state,
their age, and strength ; according to their moral and legal
status ; whether felons or misdemeanants under longer or
shorter sentences, and whether hardened offenders or
novices in crime. By having one superintending power to
deal with the large fund of labour of our prison population,
means would readily be obtained for a most perfect system
of classification—legal, moral, social, and economical—for
the purpose of meeting all the various objects I have de-
scribed, so that the mutual contamination of prisoners
might be prevented, discipline might be enforced, and the
separation of the prisoner—one of the first objects of the
system—might be promoted, at the same time that justice
would be done to the ratepayer by turning the confiscated
labour of the criminal to the best and moat profitable ac•
count. When the proposed plans for the classification of