The Sun.
London, England, 1855-02-06 00:00:00

THE MILITIA.

In consequence of the absence of Lieutenant• Colonel
the Earl of Uxbridge on Parliamentary duties the com-
mand of the Second (King's Own) Staffordshire Light
Infantry Regiment has, during the past Week, devolved
upon Major Dyott.

Assista-.nt-Surgeon Henry Thomas Lomax bas been
appointed to be Surgeon, vice Harland, resigned. In
the let Regiment of King's Own Staffordshire Militia,
Ensign Duley Edward Laurin has received the appoint-
ment of Lieutenant, vice Pye, appointed to an ensign-
ship in the line. In the King's Own Rifle Regiment of
Staffordshire Militia, Henry St. George Priaulx, late of
the 4th Light Dragoons has been appointed to be Cap-
tain, vice Frith, resigned ; Lieutenant John Broughton
to be Captain, vice Lane, appointed to the Coldstream
Guards ; William Lee Gresley, to be Lieutenant, vice
Knight, resigned ; Second Lieutenant Francis Vere
Wright to be Lieutenant, vice Broughton, promoted
James Garrard King to be Ensign.

The total number-of militia regiments now embodied
for permanent duty is 64.
During the past week the reserve corps of the lst So-
merset Regiment of Militia assembled in'the barracks at
Taunton for inspection, previous to their being sent to
Plymouth to fill up the vacancies in the garrison there,
caused by others of the regiment having volunteered
into the line. The following appointments have been
made in This regiment :_Ensign W. G. V. Villiers to
be Lieutenant, vice Langdon, resigned ; Herbert Parker
Owens to be Ensign, vice Villiers, promoted.
The Aberdeenshire Militia has received nearly half
the required.number of volunteers, but the regular ser-
vice continues to be far more attractive to the young men
of the north. At Aberdeen, during the last three
months, 300 recruits have been received into the 79th,
and only 280 into the Militia. A draught of 80 men
from the 79th has gone to head-quarters in the Crimea.
The recruits are strong, healthy lads, and are soon
drilled for active service. In Caithness the required
n'imber is nearlyimade up ; but is Sutherland and Skye
few volunteers have come forward.
,The Donegal Regiment has been enrolled, and the re-
cruits are paraded twice a-day. Some of the officers
have arrived. It will be a very nice reghnent—mostly
sU-gaussrostesu.e—,atsjelosmente Ifatiiirrrved, itul taken
the couunand.) of ,the regiment:motil =l6entber einem;
the Xaml of.lktonntoharles, colonel of titer regiment, jafor;
On Saturday Major the Hon. Standish Vereker, com-
mandant, received the Royal warrant to embody the
City of Limerick Militia Artillery.
About 350 young men have been already enrolled in
the Galway Militia, and the numbers are daily increasing.

TIIE EARL OF ELGIN AT DUNFERMLINE.

The Earl of Elgin, late Governor-General Of Canada,
was entertained at a public dinner in the Musio Hall,
Dunfermline, on Friday last, by between 300 and 400
gentlemen. The company chiefly consisted of the landed
proprietors and tenants of the western districts of Fife,
and the burgesses.of Dumfermline. Provost ROBERTSCf,
who presided, proposed the toast of the evening.
The Earl of Elam, in reply, said—Mr. Provost and
Gentlemen,—l am at a loss to find words to express my
sense of the cordiality of this welcome. I have met with
much kindness in other places—l have met with kind
receptions even beyond the precincts of the British em-
pire—and I should be ungrateful, indeed, if I were to
forget the reception which I met with at the hands 'of
our excellent cousin, Jonatban. (Laughter.) But, gen-
tlemen, I must say that I feel at this moment that, after
all, "there is no place like home,.
(Applause.) I appre-
ciate this welcome all the more highly that it is not a
political ma:nifestation—that it is not tendered by men
who have any pasty objects to serve in bringing me for-
ward, but that it is the genuine expression of the kind
of
fhininy neighbours in this dis-
k.that • a more conclusive
pftereielitn.g(scohfereergea.)rd
If o
dr
emn
,et
proof of the unpartisan character of this meeting could
possibly have been given than has been afforded in the
toast which was drunk immediately before that which
you are now doing such honour to, for we have been
drinking the health of her Majesty's Ministers, without
having the slightest conception who these ministers are.
(Laughter and cheers.) Gentlemen,. I believe that the
manner in which that toast was received is a true indi-
cation of what the sentiments of the people of this coun-
try are at the present moment,' I believe that the people
of this country are ready to, give a fair and candid support
to any administration that our gracious Sovereign may
select, if they show themselves
competent to deal with our
great national difficulties, and resolved to set aside every
party and personal consideration that could stand in the
way of their dealing properly with these difficulties ; and,
gentlemen, I believe that the feeling of this cottntry, too,
is, that they will, irrespective of party considerations, turn
about their business any administration who show them-
selves deficient in these qualities. (Applause.) My
gallant friend, in returning thanks for the navy, said he
believed our men were dying to "get at them." I be-
lieve the same thing may be said of the army; and we
must have an administration that will give them the
means of "getting at them." (Cheers.) I am coufident
that I speak the feelings of the great majority of the
people of this country, when I say that such an admi-
nistration—l do not care from what party it may be
formed—when it is forlued, will have the support and
confidence of this country. (Applause.) We are not
going to let
the despotic Powers of the world suppose
that energy, and constancy, and steadiness of govern-
ment are a monopoly in their hands, and that, under our
constitutional system, we cannot carry out war with
effect. (Hear, hear.) But to go back to my own case
—fey this has been a digressien—slight as my former
services have been, I may venture to hope that my future
services- may justify your present kindness ; and, gentle-
true, gentlemen, that I
men, I think I may find some ground for that hope in
i4nwittveierytechnically termed the fo-
reignthe reflection that, after all, the duties is which I have
a service svhich,uttoyotuhemeyusets
been engaged may not, perhaps, prove to have been al-
together an unsuitable preparative, or an unfitting pre-
lude to the duties which I may be called upon to render
imply
country.
nrnet
Ir which
gyn.
servicem on e
ini apt
whi
et
ho
political as-
hh earvee.
bees( ppl
engaged (Applause.) s e.)
Croluiwegnhn:toantdhetatastitetse's,ahnadbits, and as-
service of the
of many, seems to
s e ei engender
atiene
,h
wabhi
it.
esho
.are
rteh
10,
map, but it
asollceiwati;snnestoefrtehmeiepdelsleeu otfh
I have been engaged is a foreign service only in a
oyir lookjk toto wthhaet is of more
restricted, and limited, and qualified sense of the term.
ilet
ais d
ea
13 foreigntie
serviceservice
importance —if you look to the people. It is a
foreign service if you consider only the remoteness
-
of those parts of the world in which it has been my
fortune to be employed ; but it is a domestic ser
vice if you consider that during the whole of the
period it was with the interests of Englishmen, and
Scotchmen, and Irishmen, and their descendants I had
to deal. (Applause.) And, gentlemen, allow me to say,
that whatever is distinctive in our national character irs,
if possible, exhibited even in stronger and bolder relief
in those remote portions- of the empire than Woven is at
home. In the first place, they are not the least enter-
prising, not the least energetic, not the least pushing of
our fellow-countrymen, who set off to distant lands to
improve their fortunes ; and, in the next place, they
find greater room there for self-development and self-
expansion than they find at home. The noble speaker
proceeded to speak of his experience in Jamaica and
Canada, and illustrated from the facts of his administra-
tion,in those colonies.the advantage of giving free play
to the self-governing tendencies and abilities of English-
men. Lord Elgin then continued :—I would not wish
to 'inflict on you a dissertation on colonial politics here—
but, as I have been so long absent from home, and as
you have given me so kind a welcome on my return, I
think I amin duty bound to show you how I have been
i engaged during-ray absence- -in what school I have been

studying—and how far the discipline to which I have
been subjected is likely to make me a proper and useful
servant among yourselves. (Applause.) I wish to say,
further, that 1 return to this country with a stronger
conviction than I had, even before I left, on one or two
points. In the first place, I have a stronger faith in the
good sense and in the powers of self-government of my
fellow-countrymen. (Rear, and applause.) And, gen-
tlemen, I have not been a dilettanti on this subject ; I
have put the thing to the test. Then I have also a
stronger conviction, if possible, even than I had before,
of the superiority for all practical purposes of our own
institutions over theSe of any other country. lam
not talking of European countries merely—l sup-
pose we are all at one on that point, for any con-
troversy that could be raised on that subject would be
one wholly out of date—but I have had opportunities
greater, perhaps, than any man ever before enjoyed,
of contrasting the working of our institutions with
theee -of our great neighbour in America, the United
States. I have had this very remarkable oppor-
tunity that, on the soil of the continent alongside of the
United States, with a sacial condition to deal with quite
as democratic as the social condition of the United
States, I have been working the English system against
the system of the United States ; and I do say that, in
many respects, we have the advantage over them,
though, at the same time, I do wish to pay all respect to
the United States. I have received very great kindness
in that country ; and I must say I think the constitution
of the United States is a very marvellous work of wis-
dom, concerning the circumstances under 'which it was
formed. In the first place, I think that our monarchial
system gives us very great advantage, that the head of
the State represents the unity of the nation—represents
those great and paramount interests which unite us, and
which in that respect are distinguished from those
which divide us. In all free countries those interests
and considerations that divide us naturally obtain a very
important place. Earnest men form themselves into
parties, with the object of promoting their own particu-
lar views of what they consider for the public interest,
and ambitious men form themselves into parties for the
sake of promoting personal objects ; and ear great ad-
vantage over the United States in this respect is this,
that whereas, in the republican system, the head of the
State is necessarily the type and embodiment of party
interests, the head of the State, under our system is, the
embodiment of the national and general interest. (Loud
cheers.) And I can tell you the practical way in which
that advantage tells. There is only one way in a re-
public in which you can get absolute unity of sentiment,
and that is by effecting hostility against a foreign coun-
try. A successful general unites the suffrages of the
whole of the patriotic people ; but it is impossible, in that
free country, that a party man, in questions of domestic
policy, should unite together the suffrages of the people.
But there is another advantage we possess over them,
which is of a different character, and which will, per-
haps, come home to the sympathy of people representing
all manner of opinions in this room—as I hope all
manner of opinions are represented here. (Applause.)
The truth is that we, the popular will, tell on the execu-
tive government much more immediately and directly
under our system than the popular voice does in the
United States. You could not have a more curious
exemplification of the difference between these sys-
tems than you have at this moment. We have been
drinking the Ministry to-night—we know not who they
are ; but a short time ago we had a government in this
country which up to a recent period had received cer-
tainly a large share of Parliamentary support, and which
used to command the confidence of Parliament. Ido
not say whether it ought to have lust the confidence of
Parliament or not ; I am not entering into that ques-
tion but we find that when a motion was ,brought for-
ward by which the confidence of the Parliament in the
Government was tested, and when that motion was car-
ried against them, that Government retired, and the
Government of the country will now be committed into
other hands. But what would have been the state of
matters in America Why, there never was .a president
who was elected with a greater appearance of popular
support than the present President of the United States,
and,l venture to say that there never was an adminis-
tration which seemed to be more utterly discredited
among all parties than the present administration in the
United States ; but you will observe that under the
American system they are saddled with,that gentleman
for four years, and I defy them to get rid of him, or his
Ministers, if he chooses to keep them. Now, we have
in this country that privilege which in social life is only
supposed to be enjoyed by the ladies—and I am not
quite sure that that privilege is not restricted to the
ladies of Aberdeen—(a laugh)—we have the privilege of
changing our minds, whereas under the American system
they are not able to do so except once in four years.
(Applause.) The noble lord then concluded by propos-
ing the Provost and Magistrates of Dunfermline, and
prosperity to the trade of the town.

,r.iir.RRISONIIIENT FOR FIRST OFFENCES.
• '
Mr. Davis, the ordinary of Newgate, mede ee report
principally en the effects of imprisonment upon youth-
ful delinquents to the Court of Aldermen 'on the last
day of meeting. The Mowing are extracts.:—
" I shall on this occasion draw the attention of the
court not so much to th 1 causes of crime in the metro-
polis, upon which on past opportunities I have said
much, as I should wish to point out to the magistrates
what are the effects of imprisonment. For I think
these present a subject for profound consideration and
are matter of very great importance, not merely to the
nation at large, but to a numerous and comparatively
helpless body of our fellow-ereatures. My own feeling
has been for several years growing as my experience has
become mere extended into a strong persuasion that we
now have a vast deal too much imprisonment."
After stating that he did not allude to imprisonment
for daring outrages, the Ordinary proceeds :
"But while there have been during the last 20 years
the most commendable efforts made to improve the coo-
-1 struction, management, discipline, and dietary of pri-
sons, there has been also, in my opinion, a mistaken
zeal on the part of Parliament to multiply petty offences.
"The suppression for the cry of Sweep in the streets
makes the West-end of London a great deal-more quiet;
but the poor sweep's bey who perseveres in his cry and:
is unable to pay the fine imposed for his offence is corn
mitted to prison in default. He becomes, for the sake
of a quiet street, initiated in thieving ; he is taught the
usefulness of his art for entering houses or chapels by
the flues or chimneys, and eventually is converted into
an expert burglar, to the terror of the same quiet
streets, and I think to the confusion of such unwise
legislation. A boy in the thoughtlessness of childhood
throws a steno, breaks a window, is fined, then impri-
soned in default, learns tricks of dishonesty, comee a
second time to prison, is sent to a refuge, apprenticed,
quarrels with his master who will not let him go to
plays, buys a pistol, shoots his master, and finally is
executed at the Old Bailey. When the Legislature
passed the law that' made the cry of 'Sweep' punish-
able by fine or imprisonment, or when the same result
took place for throwing a stone, no one contemplated
such effects from the brief imprisonment inflicted as led
in one of these instances to a serious burglary, by enter-
ing the house at the chimney, and to the death of the
other at the usual place of execution for the metropolis.
But both facts are of importance, as indicating the
powerful tendency an imprisonment for a slight offence
has in producing a state of mind that ended in two of
the most serious crimes against the peace and security
of society ; and they seem to me to point out that it
would be far better, for a first offence of such trivial
character, to adopt some other mode of punishment than
imprisonment, by which new mode we might neither
' spare the rod,' nor spoil the child.'
" In the list of now offences, which years ago were
not offences by enactment, might be found, ringing
door-bells in the streets, blowing a horn, shaking a mat,
telling a falsehood about a seaman's register ticket,
stealing a turnip, an egg, a penny, under circumstances
of great temptation, by a mere child trundling an iron
hoop, sweeping mud down a gully hole, getting drunk,
impertinence in a cabman or conductor of an omnibus,
insubordination in a workman, &c., all of which are a
fertile source of mischief in the metropolis by reason of
imprisonment. Scarcely an Act of Parliament passes
on sewers, nuisances, poor law, watching, lighting, water
companies, dock or gas improvement, but that new of-
fences are created to add to the already burdened prison.
The result is that a fresh supply of persons springs up,
ruined in character by imprisonment and reckless by
despair of ever recovering their position in society, who
rush madly into crime, and become formidable and
dangerous to the community. The loss of position thus
produced frequently entails a much severer punishment
than that imposed by the law. Persons damaged in
character lose their employment ; want engenders evil
thoughts, and slight temptations suffice, where the mind
is willing, to lead into crimes that are followed by
consequences still more disastrous. And when the
greater part of these evils may be traced to the inti-
macies formed in prisons, the only reasorable conclusion
to be drawn from this state of things is, that every
humane suggestion should be listened to, and every
means adopted to spare, if possible, a imprison
firstment.
" But it is in prisons where neither silence nor separa-
tion is enforced, and where they cannot be carried
arerried out,
that the greatest contamination and corruption
effected. The conversations in which thieves delight to
indulge, of their daring exploits,
hair-breadth escapes,
their hardened deceitfulness, their monstrous lies and
inventions, are detailed into willing ears, and their
hearers too often become apt pupils. Notwithstanding
the classification of prisoners to a certain extant, and the
most marked separation between known and unknown
offenders, those brought as inmates for the first time
are, and must be, more or less exposed to those evils ;
and when we know that these things aro so, the results
from a first imprisonment cannot be too closely watched,
nor, I think, too carefully avoided.
" Young girls of the description referred to become a
serious evil in the seductions they effect, and in the in-
fluence their pernicious vices hold over buys of their own
ago unrestrained by moral feeling. These girls do not
so much become the inmates of a prison as they become
the companions of those who live by dishonesty. And
there are few lives more demoralising than the lives of
such persons as get their living in the street. Exposed
as they are to temptations of every kind, having in many
instances no settled home, passing a large portion of

- The Ordinary then urges the necessity of keeping
persons imprisoned for the first time in a state of silence,
but quite apart from each ether ; and proceeds to point
out, by the effects of imprisonment, how and why the
present system fails.
" Imprisonment fails among many of the juvenile
offenders, and the reasons of this failure are several.
The manner in which these children have been brought
up has much to do with the unfortunate results of their
imprisonment. When for some little offence these par-
ties are brought for the first time within prison walls
they exhibit great terror and dismay, indicating the de-
terring effects of prisons on the mass of the population.
Such terror soon wears off. They then find themselves
fed regularly at stated times.(to them an entire Change) ;
they are compulsorily kept clean.; their bedding is suffi-
cient-; if medical aid be necessary, it is at hand. They
are, therefore, positively improved by their punishment;
and could they be allowed to run in and out at pleasure,
they would, I am sure, become voluntary inmates for a
large portion of their time.
To
of
personsthe
ecom meuxnpietryi,entcheed f
imcharacterpriso ofo
me
atthiins
class failure of
brought within the walls of a prison they rapidly become
much worse. The exciting life of a thief attracts them ;
the dexterity required pleases them ; to its shame arid
degradation they are insensible. Its pleasure and pro-
fit outweigh every other consideration. And the expla-
nation is before you why for thirty or forty times
these urchins are imprisoned ; and the secret, or,
rather, the reason why incarceration fails is palpable.
You cannot, in fact, punish Quch boys. Your dietary is
an improvement on their mode of living, and nothing
you can inflict will degrade them. They are brought
up in such a precarious and hardy manner that public
feeling and common propriety will allow of none to be
so kept in prison as they are fed out of its walls. lam
greatly in hopes that long periods of imprisonment with
this class, and the employment of that long interval
in industrial pursuits, may have a happy effect ; but I
have great doubts that many will not prefer (for some
years, at least,) their evil courses to their reformed
habits. The sending abroad of such prisoners alter their
probationary imprisonment adds greatly to the hopes
of their doing well, and, at least, takes away the fear
of their again becoming troublesome to the community
here. Imprisonment fails also with many who make
dishonesty a trade, and the reasons that apply here to
account for this defect are of a character much different
from the other, though to a great extent the other
reasoning applies.

"A reguriir London thief has by his life become in a
great degree spoiled for the useful purposes of society. The
degraded habits of this class are in a considerable degree
unknown. The most uncomfortable lodgings in the
narrowest alloys, and in the dirtiest houses of the metro-
polis, ere their habitations. No one who has net visited
these abodes of misery can conceive the intense poverty
and the utter degradation in which these parties live.
It will answer .no beneficial purpose to unveil these
scenes. It suffices to say that there is no poverty so
severe, and in many cases there are no sufferings so
hopeless, as those endured by the lowest class of the die.
honest population. They are not, except in extreme
sickness, lever, or pestilence, burdensome on the poor
rate. Their pursuits are incompatible with the visita-
tations of relieving officers ; and they pine and suffer a
great deal more than the community, by the plunder of
whom they live, are aware or believe."

• .
After snaking several comments upon the ticket-of-
leave system, and the punishments inflicted for offences
committed by hardened criminals, the Ordinary con-
cludes an elaborate report, bearing strong indications of
thought and experience, is these words—" I think more
towards the suppression of crime is to be done by avoid-
ing first imprisonments for small offences than by the
costly and uncertain attempt at the reformation of dis-
charged offenders."