The Sun.
London, England, 1864-10-26 00:00:00

SANATORY CONDITION OP TIIE CITY.

Dr LETHEBY, the medical officer of health, reported on
the state of 273 houses that had been inspected during the
week, and he submitted a list of 53 places for sanatory im-
provement. Ile also submitted certificates of the overcrowded
states of four houses in the eastern division of the City, and
recommended that the necessary steps should be taken for
having them registered as common lodging houses.
The markets and slaughter houses had been dulyinspected,
and the officers had condemned 2,3711bs of meat as unfit for
human food. Most of it was diseased, and it consisted of 14
sheep, 28 pigs, and 12 quarters of beef.

There were registered in the week 52 births and 50 deaths,
the number being close to the average for the corresponding
week of the last nine years; 20 of the deaths were among
children less than five years of age, and 13 among persons
of 60 and upwards. There were six deaths from scarlet
fever during the week, but with this exception the returns
did not indicate an unsatisfactory condition of the public
health.

The Commissioners, after transaming nom° ether haat-
neea, adjourned.

Mr, M. D. Bill on the Treatment of

Criminals.

The General Quarter Sessions of the Peace for

.he borough of Birmingham commenced on Monday

morning before Mr M. D. Hill, recorder.
The usual royal proclamation having 13(
the recorder proceeded to delivst his charge to the
grand jury. He said :—" Gentlemen of the Grand

Jury,—Since the last session the Legislature has
made important changes as regards the punishment

of felons, and the Executive Government, in har.
mony with the spirit which dictated those enact■
ments, has introduced improvements equally im-
portant in the regulations which govern the treat.

ment of criminals. The main features of these
alterations are set forth in the circular which I hold

nmy hand. It is addressed to me as Recorder of

Birmingham, and bears the signature of Secretary
Sir George Grey, who, as you know, holds the seals
of the Home Department. Such a document must
of necessity have received my careful attention, and
I think it will be profitable to invite yours, and,
indeed, that of all persons who, by their intelligence

and social position, exorcise influence upon the ad-

ministration of the criminal law, to its contents.

"The principal change," writes Sir George, "in the
law which is affected by this statute is the abolition
of sentences of penal servitude of four and thrae
years, leaving the sentence of five years as the

shortest that can be passed in any case, and autho-
rising it in those cases where only sentence of four

or three years Gould have been passed before.

This will have the effect of increasing the severity
of the penal law, which, owing to the very frequent

use of th© short sentences referred to, had, in the

opinion of the Royal Commissioners who lately in-
vestigated this subject, become too much relaxed.
With the same object another very important pro-

vision is added; that a person convicted of a crime,
punishable with penal servitude, after having been

previously convicted of felony, if the judge, in his
discretion, thinks that the punishment of penal ser-
vitude should be inflicted, shall not be so sentenced
for a shorter period than seven years. It will be ob-

served that in all these cases the al:erEative sentence

of imprisonment is not interfered with. In that re-
spect the law continues as it stood before the pasting
of the late statute. The remainder, and by far the
larger portion of the act, refers to the granting to
convicts under this sentence licenses to be at large
before its expiration ; and introduces various regula-
tions for the purpose of preventing the misconduct of
such pertrems'hetvreen the time of their release; and
that at which they would have been by law entitled
to their liberty. "I do not think it necessary," be
says, " to occupy your time with any observations on
this part of the subject, except to remark that,

amongst other safeguards of the public, it is enacted
that the conviction of a license-holder upon indict-
ment for any offence, involves not merely a revocation
of his license, but it remits him to his original sen•
tence as it stood when his license was granted, and
this in addition to any punishment to which he may
be sentenced upon such indictment. In accordance
with the strong recommendation of the Royal Com-
missioners," Sir George Grey continues, "an impor-
tant notification is about to be introduced into the
convict system, in reference to the granting of re•
missions. Instead of these being granted as a re-

ward of general good conduct, as heretofore, they
are now to be earned by industry alone. General
good conduct—such as implicit obedience to all
prison rules—will be as indispensable as before, but
will of itself count as nothing towards the obtain-
ing a remission of a portion of the sentence. That
can only be gained by steady and laborious indus-
try, the degree of which will be measured and re-
corded every day by the assignment to each convict
of a certain number of marks. A maximum amount
of remission is fixed (as hereafter stated) as the ut-
most which can be attained by perfect industry,
and the number of marks is so regulated that a con.
vict must obtain the maximum number of marks
every day, without any deduction for misconduct,
in order to get the maximum remission. The sen-

tence therefore, is absolutely certain up to a cer
tain point, but may possibly extend beyond the
point, and will inevitably do so unless the convic
persistently and strenuously exerts himself." The
principle adopted in the scale of remissions of ins
dustry and good conduct gives a maximum reduce
tion of somewhat less than one-fourth part of the
sentences upon men, and one-third Part of the Ben•
tences upon women. Wholesome restrictions have
been introduced, it appears, in the quantity of food
allowed, and also in the amount of gratuities given
on their discharge to convicts adjudged to penal
servitude. Thus, gentlemen, you will perceive
that the new provisions are cha;aoterised
by augmented severity, and when you learn that
they are made in conformity with the views not
only of the Legislature and the Executive
Government, but that they echo as it were the opi-
nions of public bodies charged by authority, or who
had charged themselves with the duty of careful
investigation into the working of our criminal law,
I think you will agree with me that our new Penal
Servitude Act forms an epoch in our legislation.
Half a oentury ago the criminal code of England
was conspicuous among those of the civilised world
for its tremendous denunciations against crime. To
more than 150 different offences it attached the
punishment of death, and its minor inflictions were
of proportionable gravity. At last the public mind
revolted against these rigours, and a strong tide set
in, which, in the course of years, not only swept
away a multitude of severities, but brought the law
into a greater state of leniency than could be jam
tified by a due regard to the general interests of the
community. And yet the law, mild as it became,
was outstripped by the laxity with which it was
administered. In this state of things it was to be
expected that the tide which had so long been
flowing should at last begin to ebb, and it appears
to me that the time has arrived when the reversal
of the current can no longer be doubled. Gentle-
then, I not augur from this change the loss of any
real benefit to criminals. The impulse which wrought
the mitigation of our criminal code was rather of
seatiment than of reflection. We revolted from the
pain inflicted on ourselves through the sufferings
of the criminal, and our own feelings once re-
lieved, we forgot to ask ourselves whether we
were treating the object of our sympathy so as
to promote his permanent advantage. We forgot
that to discharge him from prison while the coers
eiou of false principles and evil habits was to leave
him in a state of slavery more surely incompatible
With his welfare here and hereafter than any state

•
which could result from the harshest visitations of
human jurisprudence. It, then, the changes which
have been lately made are such as to-promote
reformation anti ensure his persistence in the right
path after it has been recovered, true and genuine
mercy will be far from receiving any shock by what
has been done, And this, I humbly believe, will be
the consequence should the new spirit breathed into
the treatment of criminals permanently actuate all
who take part in giving effect to our laws. You.
must have been struck, gentlemen, with the com-
plete change of principle on which remission is
henceforth to be granted. Passive obedience to
prison rules, however indispensable it may be to
good order, has tittle tendency to reform the
character, and will therefore do little to ensure an
honest course of life after discharge. Industry is
the ground on which we must build, and, in order
that industry practised in the gaol may continue
after the prisoner is at large, it must be will•
ing industry, and hence the value of the remission
which is held up to him as its reward. Whereas
industry produced by fear of punishment, even
in the comparatively few instances where it is
so produced, will, by the painful associations
with which all memory of it must be aecoma
panied, relax itself and fall into desuetude when, by
regaining his liberty, the convict has left his fears
behind him. The extended duration of his sena
tesce will afford him a sufficient time to make his
industry habitual, and it is to confirmed habits we
must mainly look to protect him against relapse.
Thus we see that the interest of the criminal has
been as carefully considered as the interest .of
society ; both moving onwards hand in hand. But
the benefit to each do not rest here. The hour of
discharge arrives, and the well-disposed prisoner,
having now to meet his greatest_milaipatnat aban-
doned. He takes his gratuity, which preserves him
for a time at least from the overwhelming temptas
tion produced by want. He has to report himself
to the head of the police in the district to which he
resorts, and he thereby establishes a relation be-
tween himself and a public officer, who, both by
duty, and, speaking from experience, I will say, also
by inclination, will befriend him, so long as his con-
,luct deserves it, and who will exercise over his
actions the powerful ieflu;nces of hope and fear. It
is often assumed that the vigilince which it is the
duty of the police to exercise over discharged offen-
ders is necessarily of a hostile character; but that
is not so. A ticket-of.leave man, when his ticket
becomes what it ought always to have been, a testia
monial that the holder is a person who has given
earnest desire to do well, and of his possessing the
requisite qualifications for pursuing a honest course
of life,will find the head of the police in his district
a protector against ill-founded suspicion, to which
an ex-convict is naturally ever obnoxious ; and
when, in addition to the testimonial which the

ticket-of-leave man brings from his prison, he can.
safely refer to the police for a certificate that be has
continued to deserve the remission which has been
granted to him, surely he must thus obtain facilities
for procuring employment which will constitute a
new and valuable privilege ; while, on the other
hand, his consciousness that any breach of the con-
ditions on which he holds his license to be at large
will, the moment it becomes known, ensure his
being forthwith deprived of his liberty, must give
additional force to his good resolutions. The inters
val then between his discharge on ticket of leave,
and the expiration of the sentence pronounced upon
him by the judge, is made a season of regulated re-
sponsibility. It is an additional stage of probation,
furnishing motives to good conduct which will only
cease to act when, such probation being fully ac-
complished, he regains the footing of his neighbours,
who have never fallen into that miserable adversity
which is the offspring of crime. Gentlemen, the
circular to which I have drawn your attention offers
many other topics for obser'ation, but I have al-
ready occupied much of your time, and the duties
you are now about to commence will detain you
from your homes and your pursuits longer than
may be convenient to you. I therefore now
conclude.

.. ,
ickjtetrou Sun,