The Express.
London, England, 1847-02-25 00:00:00

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LONDON, THURSDAY, FE8.25.

AT the morning sitting of the House of Commons
yesterday, the Labouring Poor (Ireland) Bill was
read a third time, and passed. Mr. CrtrusTlE stated
that he should not bring forward his motion on the
subject of the Universities of Oxford and Cambridge
until after Easter. Mr. WArsoN, on moving tfie
second reading of the Roman Catholic Relief Bill,
said the principle on whicle he founded the measure
was, that no man ought to be subjected to penal
enactments merely on act.ount of his religious
opinions. Sir Roma INGLL4 moved that the bill be
read a second time that day six months. The hon.
members who spoke in favour of the original motion
were Mr. B. EirGorr, Mr. MACAULAY, Mr. JOHN
O'O3E:CELL, Mr. SMITH O'BRIEN, and Lord
GEORGE BENTINCK. Those in favour of the amend-
ment, Col. SIDTHORP, Mr. SHAW, Mr. Fixer!, Mr.
SPOONER, Mr. NEW DEGATE, Mr. LAw, and Mr. GOUL-
or UN. Sir H. PEEL said that those parts of the bill
which had for their object the abolition of statutes
which were practically obsolete, which implied doubts
of the loyalty of the itoman Catholics, and which if
put into operation would subject them to severe
penalties, had his cordial support; but to the latter
part of the bill, which proposed to repeal the securi-
ties which accompanied the removal of the ltoman
Catholic disabilities in 1829, he was not prepared to
assent until he heard that some otherregalations were
to be adopted, particularly us regarded monastic
orders, in lieu thereof. At the same time, he did not
think he was justified in refusing to give his conside-
ration to the bill, because some parts of it did not
meet with his unqualified approbation. The house
having divided, the second reading was carried by a
majority of three.

SOCIETY has made terrible progress in one respect,
the precocious criminality of youth, we might almost,
say, of childhood, whilst the law has not adapted
itself to a state of things as hideous as anomalous.
IVe have but the one scstem of iron machinery for
punishing and deterring adults, and through this
severe machinery we pass the juvenile offenders,
whose crime is that of their parents, in leaving
their waifs and victims to want and to temptation.
The jury and the judgment-seat winnow the
young fro:n the hardened offender. But the terrible
ordeal of imprisonment before trial, of weeks and
months' duration, in the present state of our prisons,
is moral death to young and old. However, the
young excite our commiseration more, and justly.
fho true remedy is to do away with, or shorten
this preliminary imprisonment for all. Sir JOHN
PAKINGTON, despair ing of this,would abrogate the laws
of the country altogether with respect to the young,
and deliver them up to the caprice or mercies of the
local magistrates.
It is, however, to the cruelty and absurdity of
the magistrates, anti to the cruelty and absurdity
of existing laws, that these committals for children
are owing. The breaches of trust committed by
boys, to whom their masters imprudently com-
mit the task of rem wing debts, form the
greater portion of the crimes which swell the
lists of the assize courts. We cannot but think
that a very great portion of the fault in these
cases is owing to the laziness and thoughtlessness of
masters, who expose poor boys to temptations beyond
their years. The law favours masters far too
much in the punishment of these breaches of trust.
We should cut through and take away those meshes
of the law, formed on purpose to catch the young and
the unwary, and we she old throw the onus of prevent-
ing Kroh losses and crimes more on the employers of
youth. If we restrict the mill-owner from over-
tasking the physical strength of the young, we should
restrict the shopkeeper, the housekeeper, and the
trader, from over-tasking the moral strength of those
under age, by exposing them recklessly to such
temptations, and then as heartlessly craving the inter-
vention of the law to punish.
We think, therefore, that, in the first place, the law
itself requires reform. That our prisons also require
reform need not be repeated. None are more con-
vinced of it than our own Home-office, or more
anxious to provide the fitting remedy. And after all,
the imprisonment before trial, so destructive to the
adult in the loss of his time and the interruption. of his
earnings, is in this respect of little loss to the boy ;
nay, in a gaol where there was discipline and instruc-
tion, the time might he most profitably spent. But tho
first of all reforms is to shortest the time of imprison-
ment before trial, especially far light offer-ass, or for
those committed by youth.
How this is to he effeetedlis a matter of • grave con-
sideration, and Sir JOHN teersceoe Wale rather to
have hit upon his remedtm in a hurry, than defy con-
sidered them. The Glob* enumerates a veriety of
weighty objections. ice: the least is She inSliction of
short imprisonments, vim of the worst features of our
Present system. W e should say, that the best punish-
ment for petty erirrms committed by boys under four-
teen, was the punishment of the sebool, castigation.
Between that and. such a term of imprisonment as
would admit the_ application of a corrective system,
them should be no medium.
It seems tl at the corrective system for boys, as
practised at La Sfettraye, and elsewhere, has won
the approba' .ion of ministers, and that establishments
of the kind for juvenile criminals are to be multiplied.
Such pros Mien is merciful and just, and, connected
with 0.113. subsequent expatiation of the youths, as
indiv;.d oats, excellent. But we have no hesitation
in saying that any plan must fail which
we old bestow upon that class of the young population
aich had lapsed into crime, an education, a security
.f future prospects, and, in fact, all those blessings
which form the sole birthright of the offspring of the
virtuous arid industrious. If prison organisation is so
much to outstrip social, that criminals are to enjoy
that moral and intellectual training which the young
of the poorer and middle classes cannot hope for, then
we shall be
.placing society topsy-turvy, and esta-
blishing premiums for youthful crime.