The Express.
London, England, 1849-07-11 00:00:00

THE EXl'R' SS, WEDNESDAY EVENING, JULY 11, 1849.

ret or battlement of that sacetdrtal fortress;
but iostead of doing so, he was willing at
some future day to undertake the erection of another
ecclesiastical citadel to be garrisoned by Roman
catholic priests. He added, with edifying naivete,
that of the possibility of doing so he saw no present
amee, as the peop:e of England and of Scotland
were as indispoted to countenance birch • project as
due people of Ireland were to see it executed. And
therefore, because the only possible alternative to ap-
propr:ation was utterly impracticable, he was of
opinion that the grievance, "for a grievance he ad-
mitted it to be," had better not be spoken of any fur-
ther. Cool and contemptuous enough!
We are willing to btlieve that the unavoidable ab-
sence of Lord Ion• RIMSELL contributed in some de-
gree to the folly of adopting this irsultiog and lode-
feasible tone on the part of the government. We
'gannet admit the idea that the Premier would haw I
suffered such a total abandonment of the covenanted
faith and hononr.of his party, to be thus audit guisedly
sad unblushingly made. Lord Joux, sr er all, ban
tact, and even when he fails to realise the expecta-
tions of his friends, his say.ir faire oftentimes
comes to his aid, and helps to hide or screen what he
feels the folly of expo.ing. But the Home Secretary
appears to be as destitute of tact u of fidelity to the
principles whereby he has floated into po see. Ever
since his entrance into office he has been observed
daily to lean more and more to the enemies of popular
principle than to its f. lends ; and while others of the
present cabinet have indicated regret that they could
cot do more in the way of progress, the chief aim of
Sir GEORGE GREY MOOS to have been on all oats-
sions to conciliate the support of the tones at the
expense of the feelings of the great bulk of the liberal
BAsAsy for his valueless avowal of his desire to endow
the Roman catholic church in Ireland, it will only
tend to make every.popular constituency in Ea land
a little more rigorous in the exaction of a pledge
from every one who seeks their suffrage,, never to
give any support to the measure. Towards settling
the Irish church it will in no possible manner con-
tribute; and for the sake of the peace and amity of
the two countries, we are persuaded that the sooner
the vain and delusive notion is thrown aside the
better.

Tuna is an article on convict transportation in the
new number of the Edinburgh Review which calls
for serious and dispassionate attention, and which we
have on that account transferred to our own columns.
It is en elaborate exposition and vindication of the
course which government have resolved to pursue
with reference to that mode of secondary punishment.
Common fairness requires that, in attempting to
estimate the merits of the government plan, the state
of public opinion with reference to penal legislation
be kept steadily in view. The truth is, that public
opinion is quite at sea on the matter. After all that
has been said and written on the subject for the last
century, thetheory of penal legislation is still in its
infancy. The experiments that have been made at
late years are infinitely toe limited in their range le
warrant general conclusions; for, in truth, the se-
eessities of modern society, and the demob of
modern philanthropy, call for a kind of penal legis-
lation of which our ancestors never dreamed.
When society was less donee, the extremes of
wealth and destitution brought into close proximity
less startling, and the accumulated experience and
ingenuity of the professional mime class less great
than they are now, simpler means of prevention and
repression sufficed. And what is scarcely lees de-
serving of consideration, society was in former times
more tolerant of the existence of a crime class
within it. In the feudal ages, during the first
efforts to establish constitutional government
which preceded the revolution of 1688, and so long as
there existed a restless and stirring faction bent
upon overturning the political settlement of that
period, the hardness of mind contracted from a per-
petual struggle to uphold law and order by the strong
hand, rendered "men comparatively insensible to the
discomfort of having to wage a similar personal war
against depredators ani all their ruffian allies. Bat
since the foundations of government have in this
country become so consolidated, that argument and
discussion are the sole efficient weapons of political
strife, we have become more effeminate (if the ex-
pression be allowable) and anxious to be re-
lieved even from the apprehensions and dit-
taitii which the vicinity of criminals excites.
We are not, like our grandfathers, contented
to have JONATHAN WILDS and thewretches who wen
alternately the tools and victims of these caitiffs,
living next door to us, so long as we are exempted
from their attacks ; and we ere too full of humane
regards, sometimes too tender of our own nerves, to
have recourse to the wholesale butcheries by which
less than a century ago a redundancy in the criminal
population was from time to time brought within
comparatively safe limits. Not satisfied with intimi-
dating or coercing criminals, we aim at the extinction
of, or at least the restraining within the narrowest pos-
sible limits, crime itselL
In short, much more is now asked and expected
from real legislation than formerly; and, at the
same time, the difficulty of attaining even what former
ages were satisfied with has been incalculably aug-
mented by the increased complication of social rela-
tions. the multiplied temptations to crime, and the
multiplied opportunities of offending.
We are by no means disposed to undervalue the
important and varied experiments which have of late
years thrown light on the theory of penal legisla-
tion, or the zeal and talent which have been brought to
bear on their elucidation and practical application.
We would not, by discrediting the weakest labourer ,
in the vineyard, discourage exertions, or chill hopes
so praiseworthy. But we seek to place in bold relief
the difficulties of the task of perfecting our penal
legislation, with a view to enforce the necessity off
due caution in all new experiments, and of a liberal
tolerance in estimating the efforts of any government.
The difficulties attendant on any attempt to ame-1
Horde our penal law which are inherent in the at-
tempt itself are sufficiently great, and those which
have their source in the position of government are
Nosily t. Government must now work not only
inance with, but through the instrumentality
of the public will. It must carry along with it the
wills and convictions not only of the home public
aid parliament, but of all the minor scattered com-
munities incorporated in the imprrial connection. It
must not only array the friends of progress against
the conservative or obstructive element in society, but
disarm the opposition of every zealous theorist who
may dissent from its views. And it must do this in
accordance with strict constitutional modes of pro-

Bi
S ping
these considerations in view, let us now
turn to tte plan which government has " finally de-
termined" to adopt with regard to convicts sentenced
to transportation.
The plan is intended to combine punishment with
reformation, and the treatment of the convicts em-
braces three distinct stages. The first is, separate
confinement for a limited period, not to exceed
one year. The second is compulsory labour, also for
a limited period, in England, or within each moderate
distance from home as shall be consistent with exaet
supervision. The third is deportation to a distant
colony. Of the convicts who have reached this stage,
some will be immediately set at liberty on arriving
at their place of destina*n ; the rest will be kept,
for a time at least, under survillance,receiving tickets
of leave.
It is urged in behalf of this system that an interval
of sequestration from all society (not so prolonged ss '
to affect injuriously the physical and intellectual po were)
is neasssary to soften the minds of criminals, and pre-
pare them for salutary impressions ; that a period of
compulsory labour (daring which they are to receive
moral and intellectual instruction) is neceaary
is
order to impart to them habits of self-contrul and
endows' industry; and that removal to a distant
land is necessary in order to break up slimming cos-4
nexions, and prevent the undue accumulatirn of nee-'
Oates in honest courses of life at any one place.
We should be reluctant to indulge or encourage
undue expectations from this or any other plan tt at
can be proposed at present. We regard it as pursk
tentative or experimeatal. Much, perhapsall, will
depend upon the manner in which it is carried into
execution. The difficulty of .procuring an efficient
agency forbids sanguine anticipations of its success.
The partial nature of the experiment increases our
doubts : it deals only with one cl-ss of secondary
punishments; and it is calculated at most for the
repression and cure, not for the prevention of crime.
Oar hopes from any reform in penal kgislation are
slender, so long as the subject is not grappl 11 with in
its entireness, and 113 long as measures time not adop ed,
by general training or otherwise, to prevent the

growth of crime, to place
of the ctiminal class.
With this caveat we give our entire assent and
hearty support to the proposed plan. In the pre-
sent state of national experience and opinion,
and due weight being given to all obstructive
elements which government has had to encount4r,
we do not see that it could have done better. The
scheme is sufficiently plaurible to merit a fair trial,
and it is prodeced in the only quarter where power
to institute and work out the experiment fairly
exists. We do hope, therefore, that no attempts may
be made to thwart or obstruct it even by those who,
on theoretical grounds, may honestly dissent from it,
much more by political opponents with a view indi-
rectly to subserve other ends. We wilt watch closely
and with interest the progress of the experiment, and
fearlessly express ourop.nion of its success or failure.
But so far as our voice can have any influence, it
shall be raised to implore that the plan may be
allowed such a trial as will, in the event of failure,
leave no room to suspect that that failure has not been
owing to inherent defects, bat to obstacles interposed
from inimical quarters.

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