The Press.
London, England, 1858-10-16 00:00:00

THE PRESS, OCTOBER 16, 1858.

terial particular of the newspaper press of our time. The
papers which made a traffic of slander have ceased from
among us. For a while they acted like a drain to carry off
the impurities which had before been diffused over other
journals ; the good sense, both of the public and of literary
men, has now filled up a sewer no longer wanted, and, to
all appearance, that portion of the press no longer exists.
But it is truly grievous to think that for some portions of
the press, though not in th4se now under consideration—
certain religious newspapers—we should rather say, per-
haps, calling themselves religious—there is still a want of
the drain; because impurities there abound, extremely
offensive. We there find, through the virulence of a
factious spirit, outrages upon decorum and truth—to say
nothing of Christian charity—which have made pious men
refuse to read them, declaring they had much rather see
such things served up iu the naked simplicity of common
slander than smothered in religious thoughts. It has been
contended that our newspaper press, by the paper duty
and other circumstances, is hampered, so as to make the
supply fall short of the effectual demand. This may well
be doubted. But it is further said that the demand ought to
be greater; and the example of this United States is cited,
where the number of journals is very much larger in pro-
portion to the number of the people; where, indeed, a
newspaper is reckoned so much an article of necessity that
no sooner is a spot in the forest cleared for a village than
a printing-press is sent for. The political situation of
America is probably the cause of this. The nature of the
Government throws the whole country into a never ceasing
state of party agitation, there being no office, from the
highest to the lowest, from President to penny postman,
which may not be changed at each renewal of that high
functionary's term ; and thus the whole period of his in-
cumbency is passed in canvass and cabal. There seems
every reason to think that with us there is already an
abundant supply of the article in question ; that even
Paley would have been of this opinion ; that he would
have been suspicions of any scheme which tended to dete-
riorate its quality; that, above all, whatever objection he
might have made and most justly to the tax, he would have
received with entire reprobation any propmial of reducing
its price by a piracy upon literary property. It thus appears
that for tho treatment of every subject, and to suit the con-
dition, the capacity, and the taste of every class, there is
ample provision made in the popular literature of the
age; that the means ate afforded of encouraging those to
read who would else devote their hours of rest to mere
listless vacancy of thought, or to dissipated courses; that
the opportunity of fuller instruction is given to those who
are desirous and capable of receiving it ; that, while all are
thus greatly improved, some are made fit to improve others ;
that the instinct of curiosity effectually prevents all risks,
converting, when desirable, superficial into solid informa-
tion, but leaving even partial acquirement to do substantial
good ; and there is thus the clearest proof afforded of the
people's instructors working out the ends of Providence by
the employment of the means bountifully placed within
their reach, improving the mass of their fellow-creatures
through the intelligence bestowed and the instincts im-
planted by the heavenly Father, who desireth not that His
children should perish in the darkness of ignorance, but
rather that they should learn and live.
The address was warmly applauded throughout.
The Right Hon. W. F. COWPER, M.P., Prei..ident
of the Education Department, next addressed the
meeting in an able speech, and after depicting
the high objects to be aimed at in national educa-
tion said :

The impediment of which we hear most is the religious
difficulty, which certainly does interfere with such a State
system as would involve the estiblishment out of local
rates of comprehensive schools for all. This difficulty has
not yet been solved. I believe that the knot cannot be un-
tied, but that it must be cut—cut by the sword of secu•
larism—cut by removing religion altogether from the
schools. But religions teaching is no difficulty in the
existing system. Various denominations meet in a volun-
tary or an endowed school, on terms which would not be
submitted to in a ratepayers' school. Religious teaching
forms the strength of the present plan. It supplies the
mainspring, and it defines the circumference. It extends
the organization and force of the church and the congre-
gation to education, and adds a congregational to its indi-
vidual and national aspect.

The leading members of the Association then left
St. George's-hall to visit the A kbar, reformatory frigate,
lying in the Sloyne.

PUNISHMENT AND REFORMATION.

The Earl of CARLISLE opened the business of the
Punishment and Reformation Section by an address
on Reformatories. 11 aving alluded to the Irish
convict system, and explained the successive grada-
tions of imprisonment now existing in that country,
the noble lord proceeded to give the results : —lt
appears then, from the month of January, 1856, up
to the latest date to which accounts have been
made up, the number of the discharged from the
intermediate prisons is 1,327, of whom 511 were dis-
charged unconditionally, and 816 on tickets of licence.
Of the 511 unconditionally discharged, only five have
been recommitted to convict prisons. Of the 818
discharged on license, 45 have had their licences
revoked, out of whom 15 were so dealt with for
keeping bad company, drunkenness, or failing to
report themselves; the reconvictions amounted to
30, which is under four per cent. The majority of
these last 818 cases have been made the subject of
special reports from the police charged with the
supervision of prisoners discharged on license, and
therefore, so far, the whole truth is known concerning
them. Captain Crofton augurs most favourably of

the effects of this system of police supervision, as it
has been tested in Ireland in the cases of prisoners
discharged on license, and would evidently wish to
apply it, in great measure, equally to those discharged
unconditionally. On the first b!ush, our preposses-
sion might naturally be rather against such a pro.
position, as militating against the freedom of the
subject then under no sentence of law. However,
I think that society is clearly entitled to give the full
benefit of its scruples on the side of its honest
members against those who, by the ascertained
commission of crime, have rendered themselves
legitimate objects of suspicion ; and Captain Crofton
insists very powerfully that this supervision, when
rationally and discreetly exercised, has within his
own experience proved to be, and in the nature of
things is calculated to be, of real service to the well-
disposed convict himself, as both coming between
him and temptation, and as affording confidence to
those who might be disposed to give him employ-
ment. After quoting some English statistics on
this question, Lord Carlisle came to the question—
what ought to be the condition of admission ?
Ought the once convictel, ought the twice convicted,
ought, in any case, the wholly unconvicted to be ad-
missible? It certainly appears to me that, with a view
both to the due protection of the money, partly at least
received from the Suite, and to the inadequacy of the
accommodation as yet provided for the criminal class, it
would not be right to allow any admission except of an
actual convict. Then, with respect to the once con-
victed, though I can conceive cases where it might be
so desirable to remove a child from evil influences and
companionships as to overcome all other scruples, yet,
as it is, the duty which the Reformatory owes to the
State to operate, preferentially, upon the most hardened
and abandoned classes, and as there also may be many
cases where a boy or girl may have lapsed or been led
into the commission of some isolated fault or act of law-
lessness without any such perversity of temper or will as
to make them fit associates of the thoroughly depraved—
but yet, which sonic short sharp punishment would pro-
bably be the best method of cure—it seems to me that,
at all events, till there is more than sufficient room for
the aggravated cases, it would be advisable to make a plu-
rality of convictions the general condition of admission.
The great essential condition is to procure the right men
for superintendents nr masters; the interior details will
he best confided to their discretion, acting upon the ma-
terials with which they are called upon to deal. It
appears to me next desirable that the powers of levying
contributions from the parents of children placed in re-
formatories should be enforced as extensively as possible.
A most important and pregnant subject for consideration
is the after disposal of the pupils. Their ever best security
against relapse to evil courses and dangerous associations
would probably be found in emigration. Could the State
be properly called upon is contribute to this end, at
at all events, in aid of private effort? Boys may in
many cases be fit to go out as emigrants, before it
would be safe to discharge them at home, within reach
of old haunts and comrades, so that a more than corre-
sponding saving in the State contribution to their main-
tenance would be thus effected. Some of the inmates
will unhappily continue unfitted either for emigration
abroad or for employment at home. I think it well worthy
of reflection whether, for the thoroughly incorrigible and
unmanageable, it might not be desirable to have a more
exclusively penal reformatory. I am informed that Mr.
Sydney Turner has ree.nrimended the employment of the
prison at Parkhurst for this purpose. Consideration must,
of course, be given to the lawful duration of sentences ;
but it clearly would be conducive to the general welfare
that periods of detentior should be sufficiently long to
admit of the full process of reformation, and that as few as
possible should be let loose anew on society till it has been
thoroughly accomplished. I may sum up what I have
thus imperfectly said on both branches of my subject, by
stating that the same principle of treatment appears to m 3
to apply alike both to adults and juvenile reformation, as
might have been expected when human nature supplies
the material to be worked upon in either case, with what-
ever modification of degree and circumstance. The
almost indispensable condition of success seems to tie that
the criminals, of whatever age or description, should be
brought together in such numbers, and under such arrange-
ments, as admits of their being, to use a term which, I
believe, is now understood, individualized ; of their teing
each, in their own person, the subject upon whom in-
fluence, argument, advice, sympathy, are brought to bear;
that before they are restored to a world which would
naturally look upon them with distrust and suspicion, they
should have had the opportunity of submitting to some
t7ustworilly test their altered resolutions and dispositions,
and that throughout this whole recuperative process, the
machinery upon which, under the blessing from above, we
can mainly rely, is one human heart acting upon another
human heart.