The Sun.
London, England, 1864-09-23 00:00:00

assuring him that it would be rejected, he said "We can
but fail, and then we retreat upon your lesser plan." My
fears proved well founded. We were defeated chiefly by
the influence of professional men with the members of our

committee. The plan was for the appointment of

committee of the two houses, seven Commoners and five

Lords sitting, with the assistance cf a professional judge to

rule, or at least to advise them, in matters of law, the com-
mittee to examine the whole case and report upon it to both
houses, the report to be conclusive upon all the facts, but
all else to be in the discretion of each house. The last ses-
sion was productive of an important measure, propounded
by that steady friend of the working classes, whose zeal for
their benefit and their improvement is hardly surpassed by
his unrivalled eloquence, so often employed in diffusing
useful truths, as well as in supporting wise schemes of

policy. The great commercial treaty with France, his
work and that of the able and enlightened First Minister

of France, might be justly commemorated. But here at
York, where the gratitude of the working classes has
been expressed to him in so remarkable a manner, it
is fitter to dwell upon the important benefit extended
to these classes by their access to government annuities,
free from all risk, and without hazards to which hid socie-
ties are sutject. At our last congress, at Edinburgh, a
resolution was passed recommending to the council to ob-
tain a Parliamentary inquiry into the condition of provident

societies for the working classes, and the propriety of Go-
vernment security being afforded to them for annuities in
old age or sickness. The council referred the subject to a
committee, and in the meanwhile Mr Gladstone, by his bill,
anticipated the resolution of the committee. The council
presented a petition strongly urging the reasons in favour
of the bill, which after considerable opposition from in-
surance and annuity companies, was finally passed, An
attempt was made in the Lords to carry a bill for shorten-
ing the period of limitation in simple contract debts, and
for extending equitable jurisdiction to the county courts,
and in so far the measure would have been most beneficial.
But it was coupled with a provision abolishing the power
of arrest for small debts, and as this would have at once
extinguished those most useful courts, and abolished all
local jurisdiction, the bill was strenuously opposed, and
could not have passed either house. These courts have
been of inestimable service. The causes before them have
increased, so as now to be in their number, and the amount
of the sums sued for, in the proportion of three to two,
comparing the years 1863 and 1865, and double the number
and amount at the establishment of the local judicature
seven years before. In 1863 the number of plaints was
above 800,000, and the sums sued for nearly £2,000,000.
The increase has been regular, and the judgments have
given such satisfaction that from the 260,000 last year in
contested suits, there were no more than 15 appeals. There
were above 170,000 judgments by consent, only 30,000
executions, and between 8,000 and 9,003 imprisonments, so
that of 800,000 suits in all about but seven per cent. the
matter was settled by payment or compromise. In the
supreme courts the same year the number of causes was
100,000, and the necessity of execution and imprisonment
for wan', of settlement was not seven, but 23 per cent.
It was unfortunate that the excellent provisions in the bill
were lost with the rest, but it is to be hoped they are only
postponed ; it was too late in the session to present another
bill, The continued withholding of a Department for Judi-
cial Affairs, after repeated promises in answer to motions of
our distinguished colleague, the ex-Chancellor of Ireland
(.Slr Napier), is greatly to be lamented, on account of the
County Courts Bill, as well as others. Had such a depart-
ment existed the bill, reduced to its fit dimensions, must
have passed, as well as those further amendments in the law
of evidence and judicial procedure which late experience has
shown to be desirable, and which it is to be hoped will en-
gage the attention of our department of jurisprudence. The
exertions of our colleague Lord Clanricarde have at length
succeeded in extending to Ireland the system of judicial
statistics. Ho expects the return for the year to show a
great diminution in the real amount of litigation before the
superior courts, notwithstanding all attempts to increase
its nominal amount ; for he justly observes that in so agri-
cultural a country tho sessions are to the bulk of the people
the most important tribunal, An inquiry in the Commons
upon the health of towns as affected by sewerage has led to
a report of great importance, and the subject will be taken
up in our sanitary department. It appears clearly that the
process for cleansing towns has led to the greatest impurity
in streams, and the report shows incontestably that all
sewage may be conveyed into the country at a moderate
cost, and even with a profit, by the farmers who purchase
the manure, At a time when the supply of guano is found
less than the demand for it, nothing can be more valuable
to agriculture than the process recommended by the report
as so beneficial to the health of towns. There can be little
doubt that the conclusion in the report will be strongly
recommended by our department, with the support of the
evidence brought before it. As the promoters of social
science travel more than others, we have an interest in the

subject frequently broached in both houses during the
session— the security of railway passengers. Consider-
ins; the extraordinary powers given to the companies, the
Legislature has a good right to require that, in return, they
should ac opt whatever may tend to the safety of the travel-
ler; and there can be no doubt that the easy communica-
tion of each compartment with the guard can be effected at
a moderate expense. Na subject has more engaged the at-
tention of our association in all its branches than the treat-
ment of convicts. At our first congress, in 1857, papers were
read on the Irish system ; and it formed next year the main
topic of the very able rand interesting address by Lord Car-
lisle, Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, as presiding over one of
the departments, We have at this meeting deeply to lament
his absence from ill health, which every friend of the
country must hope may have a short continuance. At the
Dublin Congress most of our members had en opportunity
of fully inspecting Sir W. Crofton's proceedings, and all
formed a decided op nion in his favour. Last year, some
alarm was excited by the opposition in high quarters (coun-
tenanced by the Home Office) to its introduction into
this counts), ; but this was allayed by the reports of com-
mittees in both houses; and though similar attempts were
afterwards made in the same quarters, there is happily an
end of all doubt upon the matter by the Pend Servitude
Act of last session, which places the principle so strenuously
maintained by us beyond the reach of further disturbance.
The opposition of the Home-office is abandoned ; the act
enforces the most important of the recommendations in the
report of the commission and of Lord Carnarvon's commit-
tee, and that office has shown a praiseworthy disposition to
give up its former prejudices and fairly and firmly to execute
the act, in the regulations issued under its provisions. The
controversy of years thus comes to an end, and convict treat-
ment is brought into agreement with the intentions of the
Legislature in 1853, or, in other words, the Irish system.
On this we may congratulate our worthy colleague, the Re-
corder of Birmingham (Mr Hill), who first among us
broached this subject inlBs7,having madeluimself acquainted
with the system upon the spot. Unfortunately, he is not here,
but he has sent an able and most instructive paper, which will
be read in the Jurisprudence Department, and of which ad-
vantage is now taken in this address. The treatment of con-
victs with the constant purpose of reforming them, deviating
neither into indulgence on the cno hand nor unnecessary
harshness on the other, their supervision after their release,
both to protect the community against the danger of their re •
lease and themselves agair st unjust suspicion and consequent
prosecution, and to afford them some aid in obtaining em-
ployment under the all but overwhelming disadvantages
with which they return to society, to use Mr Hill's words,
are the principles now accepted—the principles of the Irish
system. Its success is proved by the experience of 11 years.
It has been approved by the most eminent jurists of the
continent, and condemned by none. At their head must be
placed our learned colleague, Professor Holtzendorff, of
Berlin, who joined us in the examination of Sir W. Crof-
ton's premises, at the Dublin congress. Next, we have the
approval of Professor Mittermaier, of Heidelberg ; M. Dau-
sus de Pontes has described it in the Revue des Deux
llondes ; and Mr Van da Brugger, Minister of Justice in
Holland, adopts it. M. Massongy, a French judge, who has
long studied the subject, pronounces strongly in Sir W.
Crofton's favour ; and M. Cavour had begun to act upon
the Irish system just before his lamented death. Professor
Mittermaier's valuable Treatise on Capital Punishment,
translated, with valuable a ditions, by an English lawyer,
Mr Macrae Moir, is about to appear, but may be too late for
this congress. On the subject cf capital punishment dis-
cussion is certain in our Jurisprudence Department, and
a respectable society under Mr Gurney has been oc-
cupied in circulating information, part of which has
reached us. No doubt the question of total abolition
is attended with difficulty; but on one point there can
be no difference of opinion,
the necessity of an exe-
cution of capital sentences without suspicion that indi-
vidual caprice or popular interference exercises any in-
fluence, and such suspicion is sure to exist as long as there
are no judicial assesssrs to the Home Office adetermining
questions of respite and reprieve. The establishment of a
department of justice would afford great facilities for such
an arrangement. The Act passed at the end of the session
to close refreshment houses between the hours
one
four in the morning has had in London a most happy
effect in abating the nuisance which made some streets
of and
impassable, and it is to be hoped that this success may
encourage the supporters of other measures connected
with temperance and moral habits. Men may differ widely
as to the measures fit to be taken. But that something
must be done there cannot be a doubt, when it is admitted
on all hands how great a proportion of the offences tried
in our courts proceed from intoxication, and when the
saying of the Recorder of Birmingham has passed into a
proverb, that let him go in what path he will in his labours
of philanthropy the drink demon starts up and stops the
way. This subject must be fully taken up by our Sanitary
Department, but also indeed by the Department of Juris-
prudence, and then will come into discussion
.the Permis-
sive Bill of Mr Lawson, which met with so indifferent a
reception in the Commons—partly no doubt from a feeling
in favour of the working classes, grounded on most incor-
rect views of their best interests. That bill has beeh warmly
and in supported by those classes themselves both in Cumberland
this
to thecounty.
mlfao connectioncomfort of
t h the working
i t this
classes,subject,
mentionand in
reference
must be made of the cooking depots established in London,
and of which notice was taken in the Club Institute at its
yearly meeting. It appears that the endeavours of the in-
stitute had been attended with success during the year,
a great number of clubs having been formed in various
parts of the country to the incalculable benefit of the la-
bouring people, the comfort of their homes, and the pro-