The Express.
London, England, 1849-07-16 00:00:00

thing else the government may, without mischief, axe:-
else iu c spiral ; but liberty of choice is essential.
Liberty of choice necessarily includes the power of giving
his services to the highest bidder, and so obtaining the
full value of his labour. One of the great evils of the
assigrmest system was, that, while it professed to make
its criminal week without higher pay than the mere cost
of his subsistence, it d.d so, in realisy, only with those
who were deficient in meenaoisal ability the ignorant
but rot generally vicious, offenders from tared districts.
Where's the most depraved of ell the tesevlets—the skilful
town-bred mechanics—had to be bribed by high wages. and
every species of criminsl indulgence, to exert their skill. Their
ingenuity being mostly useless in the country, they were taken
ray masters living in towns; no that they fill exactly into the
which they would have cLusen for themselves, and
received the same wages as if they had been in poesenion of
tickets of leave. On the eupp sition that liberty of the is
comprehended in the phrase, " a modified system of assign-
ment," oar 'objelion to the propcsrl is at an end ; for this
constitutes the real difference between the spree of assign-
ment and tickets of leave. A man with a ticket of leave is
ristrieted to a certain district, placed under the notice of the
police, and subjected to the summary jurisdiction of magi-
stress ; but within the district allotted to him he has full
right I. earn his sun subsistence in any way he may prefer.
It he is in possession of superior mechanical skill, this is an
advantage of which, under the f rener as well as under the
present system, it has not been found pracdcable, even if it
were thought expedient, to deprive him. He is very far, how-
ever, from being in the position of a free emigrant ; and has no
more liberty than is ansmery to preserve a healthy relation
between him and hie employer—to prevent the one from
sinking into a slave, and the other from degenerating into a
tyrant. In cue a criminal, when placed in this situation,
either will not, or cannot, repress his propensity to crime, he
is quite unfit to be assigned ; I e is, indeed, unfit for any
thing but the seclusion of a prison and the restraint of hard
labour ; and to that condition will he infallibly return
through the ordinary operation of the laws.
It is bat too certain, that among our criminals there are
some who are hopelessly incorrigible. Whether they are to
be deemed moral lunatice,—ar that their organisation is pecu-
liarly sarceptible of evil inspresions and open to temptations,
—or that there is in certain habits a course of training so
mischineas as utterly to pens rt the moral nature of men,
and make them believe a lie and take wrong for right,—
we will not presume to say. But in practice we do find
men, on whom punishment end kindness are thrown away
alike; and who en *gamily inaccessible to the pre-
cepts of religion, its hopes and fears. Liberty to them is
merely the liberty of indulging their vicious propensities;
and punishment only hardens them in ferocious obduracy.
Fortunately, the number of these men is small ; but the ex-
ist nee of such a clue seems to point out the propriety of
some special arrangement for them. Not that we would for
a moment dream of sending them to an ultra-penal settle-
' meat, where an attempt might be made at working out
some terr.ble equation between punishment and guilt. An
obstinate offender should rather be removed to some place
of seclusion, where those unhappy persons who cannot with
safety to the community be left at large, may be securely
restrained. Society ought to recollect that it has neither en
interest nor the right, uselessly to aggravate the cheerless
despondency of a life of labour and coulkentent, by irritating
punishments and excessive toil.
[To he continued.]