The Express.
London, England, 1864-02-19 00:00:00

PEESONAL EXPLANATIONS.

Mr. BUXTON dadred to take that opportunity of skating
that having found that Admiral Lambert, on whose conduct
he remarked on a late massion, wee mound in eoniniand, and
acting under the orders ci a superior, he regretted haring
expressed himself as he had dose with respect to that pl-
lant officer. (Hear, ham.)

Mr. LAYARD said his might also take that opportunity
of making an erplanatica with regard to a 'adamant of his
the other ereuieg. He regretted to say that he had dons
an injustice to a meritorious nownpaper, the Maistrated
London Neve, in amantins that thou art correspoodent was
not in Japan oa the comma of the attack upon the batte-
ries at Kagosiina. The editor of the paper had isformed him
the. their cotrespondent really was in Japan at the
time. (Hear, hear.)
VESTRY CESS ABOLITION (IRELAND) BILL

The above bill was read • mond time, sad ordered to be
committed on Thursday next.
PENAL SERVITUDE ACTS AMENDMENT BILL
Sir G. GREY moved for leave to brig la a bill to &mead
the pima' servitude acts, stating that it was founded on the
report of the conlMilliaoll which sat as the subject Lit year.
It wu established 19.de report that, notwithstanding the
(urea= of crime in and Ireland of late years, in
the aggregete there bees a great decrease of mime in
the lain 21 yen. In the opinion of the oromieutoo the
imprearion that the penal system wee, so far from deter.
rent, attractive, wee wholly erroneous, and any augments.
tion of the punishment of primers ender penal senitede
was not advisable. The reoonnuemdatkes of the conuninice
applied firstly to adinimietsulive deteds which required no
alteration of the law, and neat to such chuges in the
t= involved an:eadment of the law. With regard to
as
t, steps had bees taken to being the improvements
suggested into operation. The provolone of the bill
would be shortly these lat. That the mums sentence of
penal servitude should be for five yam ; bed. not commie.
lieu of aa indictable =fame should, ipso fed*, work the
revocation of the &woe ; 3rd. That when • bows was
forfeited by • second conviction, the whole reenainisig period
of the original sentence should be aadergoom before the
new senteoce hew to ran ; 4th That all breaches of the
traditions of the licenseshod be cognisable by two magi&
tastes ; and that if • perm were suspected of a breach of
his license he might be apprehended and taken before the
magistrates, who might seinen= him to • punishment of
greater or Isom duration, far it was possible that a person
might be guilty of Meooaduct for which he might properly
be o • mouth or six weeks' imprisonment, bet for
which it would be too severe a penalty to remand him to
undergo the remainder of • sentence ei penal servitode, ex-
Leading perhaps over fin or six ram La all much cuss,
however, the °Deviations sad the evidence would be mat to
the Home Secretary, and it would be in his discretion to re-
voke or seamed e Boma. There wee as. other recom-
mendation of the ommiesiosen to which be would refer.
They slummed a =Bong oopiqnnitoonn that ia our of Umber.
dinatne the immediate ingicLoa of corporal punishmeet
might be Winery. Owing, however, to there being bet
three direetoes, • longer interval time desirable might
elapse before one could attend. They recommended, them
fore, that certain local magistrates should be authorised
in stub mare to act as diluters. As there were
now four directors, it was not thought so necemary
that this recommendation should be adopted. but as the
proposal was only a permissive one; be had considered that
it would be u well to embody it in the bilL It would only
give to the Seemeary of Slate power, underoertain restrictime,
to Mae the proposed authorisation to the local magistrate".
(Hear, bear.) Thus, with Ibsen:lg= exception of the pro-
posal on the subject of traesportetioa to Western Australia,
her Majesty's government had adopted the whole of the re-
commendations of the Royal Commisiss; and be trusted
that the bill which he now asked leave to Introduce for the
purpose of giving effect to them, would be (mad greatly to
improve the working of our convict primers, and world prove
beeedicial to the community. (Clawsra4
Mr. ADDERLEY would not venture to criticise the toes.
mare of the right hoe. bane= at this step were the subject
Ism familiar to them, and were it cot hued upon a principle
which be considered unsound. He would make pun-
ishment really punishmaut, and ralcematiou ooneurreet
with it. But punishmeut he would hare distinct, tin=
end certain. He would abolish tickets of leave, and
therefore raped the third section of the set, because it bed
totally failed. He would then make the manioc* literally
ociincide with the punishment to follow, sod wherever ma-
tense was pease= should be rigidly carried out. He would
have no &Bunnies of punishmeat except through ekes-
, tion into • higher class, and would reader the abridgment
of any sentence impossible, excepting by royal elemeacy.
The sentence should be clear sad Nlhgible ;sad even the
labour should be described which wu to form port of the
punishment. From this plan be hoped for great &drainers.
First the punishment would be simple, intelligible, and at-
tain, for he denied that a prisoner was more memorable
when his punishment wu uncertain. Another adventage
would be to diminish the number of prisoners as the severer
the punishment the shorter the esetenes mast be.
The Discharged Primmer"' Aid Society might, he believed,
be made a most effective agency in eoabling criminals at the
emelusion of their tens of punishment to lave the maw
try ; end they knew from the experience of the intense.
diate system in Inland and the Discharged Primers' Aid
Society that • peat number would go abroad, from the diffi-
culty they had of obtaining empioyment in Eagbuid. What
he would propose was, that such armies "braid be mere
largely ed, not from the Treasury, bat from the local
rates, by which means the coated would still be ia the
buds of the visiting jostices, the matter would be put in its
proper light as far ea the emigrant was eooaerned, and the
offence to the colonies would naturally emus. So strongly
did he feel the views ha had expressed thee be should ger-
tr'nly, if he could lad no ow more competeet thee him-
self either is that boom ar elembese, submit the questime
to mohair sot, and ask leave I. introduce a bill on the
subject. (Hew, hear.)
Lord N AAS mid by adhering to the principle of revidoe,
to be followed afterwards by supervioioo over the ticket-of-
leave man, they would in a short time pin • permanent and
certain hold over the criminal classes of this iner-
tly, and render their return to crime aimed im-
possible. He believed that was the object aimed at, and
he thought it might be attained. The government had
taken • long step towards it, and had only to take the other
steps to render their system perfect and complete. He
believed that seven years sentences would be found more
effectual than shorter soutanes', sod that menteeces of penal
servitude ought to be reserved for grave crimes. The coop
miesiosers adhered to the seven yams' sentences, sad
thought it the proper term to attach to any sentence of
penal servitude. He could not help congratulating the oxo-
-113111601)11TI upon what be believed would woo prove a
triumph of their principles. They were sow upon the
right track, and he believed it would be found that the only
way they could manage the couvicts properly was by ad.
=Watering to them as severe a punishment as their health
would permit, and at the same time holding out the stimulus
of hope, and by doing all in oar power, when they were
restored to society, to prevent them relapsing into crime.
(Hoer, bear.)
Mr. WHITBREAD spoke in favour of the measure and
argued that without stimulants to good behaviour on the
pert of the convict it would be impossible to keep eight
huedred or a thomand prisoners In order sad useless to
hope for their eeformatioa, and that the ticket-of.lean
system bad not failed.
Mr. CA YE said that for many year be had been as
advocate for do reformatory Gramm opunishment of cri-
minals; and he admitted that the legislature bad no
business to look at the Messier of the criminal, and not
et the advantage of society at loge—(her, bear)—but if
thou Menus could be shown to be iodentioal, he thought
it would be their duty to follow the.. results Whet,
moreover, they maw is one country • system which had pro-
miled for many years confessedly more or lees at fault—
aud in another • system obviously attended with suremen—
be thought it was the ditty of • wise logialatere not to be
ashamed to copy the system which has emenseded in =bed-
intim of its own. Be was therefore glad to ems that her
Majesty's government had reverted to the Ward aad
sem inmesese viewed the matter. The licensing system was
10.111 f fairly tried, biers the conditions oe which the
limns wu pasted were never enforced. The whole thing,
therefore, failed, ad the robin had no mafidenoe in it.
He thought there woe as peat duster in treasportadoe,
because it was • ' and was hardly looked ea by the
primmer se a paitimentat all ; hut, at the same time, the
ay raised spirt it by the Aseibialisa esdrinies was wild
and mreemoeing. Be believed that, by a judicious native
of severity and Maims and moral mamas they might
d Mk.
tura out from their prism menwho molly viand to
mon