The Sun.
London, England, 1864-04-20 00:00:00

that offends their pride, departs from their views
and militates against their wishes. The idea of such
a supervision is not in accordance with the national
spirit. It is un• English, and if, as Lord
GRANVILLE says, it is the plan adopted
by all the other departments of Government,
the sooner a change is made the better.
How can the truth be got at it so many rival claims
are put in, and such various opinicn3 influence the
information that is afforded ? How can the In-
spectors perform their task properly if they are
tormented with doubts, harassed with fears, and
perplexed with misgivings as to this passage
offendi❑g and that paragraph annoying the some-
bodies or the nobodies who are to sit in judgment
upon them. It is very natural for officials to cling
to the shadow of their forms and ceremonies, but
when everything around us is undergoing a change,
why is bad management to be stationary and mis-
chievous meddling to be retained in our departments
of State ? This is a difficult matter to decide upon,
but the Government have not gone the right way to
work to adjust the difficulties of the case by setting
out from the outset in so arbitrary and consequen-
tial a manner: Irritating one's opponents is not
the way to take from attacks their sting or their
victory, and to deny that there is any truth, or right,
or reason in the assertions of the opposite party is
a very impolitic course. At all events, this has
furnished another item to the many exciting and
eventful discussions of this stormy session ; and it
will not have been all talk without effect if, in con-
sequence of the strife and turmoil that have arisen
regarding the management of the Council of Edu-
cation, more fair play and free speaking are allowed,
and thus a better and more correct opinion can
be formed of its merits.

The difficulty of dealing with our convict popu-
lation does not lessen upon examination. Wise
legislators, experienced administrators, and zealous
philanthropists can not only not agree on the best
and safest course, but not one of them is able to
bring forward a scheme which shall remove exist-
ing obstacles and reconcile conflicting interests. Tne
first interest to be considered is undoubtedly that
of the honest man who has a claim on the Govern-
ment which he helps to support, and the laws which
he faithfully obeys, for protection against the
violence of the ruffian or the fraud of the swindler.
This fact is, however, very often lost sight of by
our humanitarians, who reserve all their sympathy
for the thief or the villain who is caught, not for
the inoffensive citizen who is robbed or maltreated.
Yet they have i❑ some degree reason on their side,
too. The homes, the parents, the associates, the
training of the convict class have all beEn calcu
lated to drag them down to the very lowest depths
of humanity. They have had to contend from
childhood against temptations of fearful strength,
unsupported by any counteracting agency. But
it is impossible for the law openly to recognise these
mitigating circumstances. It will not do for the
magistrate to inquire minutely into the circum•
stances of the burglar or garotter's early life, and
then, in consideration of his drawbacks, to let him off
from the punishment due to his crimes. It was to
solve this difficulty that the ticket-of-leave system
was introduced, which appeared at first to answer
the question, but either from an original fault in the
system, or from careless or improper administration
of it the results have been such es to occasion loud
calls for a complete change. Last evening, upon
the motion for the Penal Servitude Acts Amend-
ment Bill going into Committee, Mr. ADDERLEI
moved the entire abaiadonment of the ticket-of-
leave system. The right hon. gentleman, who is
something of an authority in these matters, having
devoted to them long and careful consideration,
spoke clearly and sensibly of many of the disad-
vantages attending the System, not only as regards
the public, but as it affec's the men themselves.
Tao great difficulty appears to be this, that if the
ticket-of-leave is to be any check upon the man, or
any protection to the public, it can only to by
means of strict police supervision and regular
watching, and this is absolutely fatal to the man's
getting or retaining regular and honest employ-
ment. On the other hand, if no supervision is
attempted, and the man is trusted to repot himself,
the ticket-of-leave is practically valueless as a check
upon the convict. We are afraid the amendment
which was carried against the Government last
night, although politically important as a further
proof of the weakness of the Administration,
will be practically of very little benefit.
It may be possible to carry out the
plan proposed in Ireland, but in this
country even our own skilful detectives will
fail to enfn-ce its fulfilment. The amendment pro-
posed by Mr. HUNT to clause 4, was to the effect
that if a ticket holder should neglect to report
himself at the police station of the district where
he resided on the first day of every month, he should
be deemed guilty of a misdemeanour and forfeit his
ticket. A very prudent precaution, doubtless, with
the solitary objection of its utter impracticability.
How is such a rule to be enforced in our thronged
and changing• cities, with constant unwatched traffic,
from place to place, from city to city, from one part
of the kingdom to another? And supposing even
that it could be rigorously enforced, how is a man
so watched to retain his employment with the
known prejudice of English workmen against con-
victs—a prejudice which in its sturdy honesty and
strength defies alike the thecries of humanitarians,
and the kindly efforts of employers to " give the
man a chance 9'' Yet, are we to say that these men
must be shut out from the great safety valve of
their energies, the potent reformer honest labour ?
If we do, we are sealing their doom, and ticket or
no ticket makes very little difference, as they will
soon be inside the prison walls again. The subject
is beset with problems, for which we fear the true
solution is as yet undiscovered. The only established
principle seems to be to remove long sentence men
to a country where they can really be of valuable
service to the honest members of the community,
and their work therefore no longer at a discount;
while for those on short sentences we must try and
discover what amelioration of labour, what small
indulgencies and other rewards may serve to take
the place in some degree of tickets of leave, until
at least the inconsistencies attending them shall
have been in some measure reconciled.

THE STUPENDOUS FRENCH NEWSPAPER called
Le Grand Journal, which has recently appeared, and is the
longest and broadest journal in the world, is about to pub•
lish an unedited romance by Dumas, called "The Citizens of
Paris," which is said to be something in the style of Sue's
" Wandering Jew."

M. GODARD has, it is said, discovered the means
of preventing all danger in ballooning by never ascending,

A CRUEL REFINEMENT OF LUXURY.—The
skin of the astrakan, which is so much the fashion in Paris,
and is so excessively dear, is procured in all its beauty by
killing the black sheep that is bearing young, and skinning
the lamb thus untimely born, as the skin is thus rendered
beautifully fine. The Japanese lately compared us to the
most barbaric natives of the earth, If they heard of this
fashion of les Francais would their respect increase ?
A SEVERE PUNISHMENT FOR GOING TO SLEEP.
—Yesterday an old man named Silas Skinner, about
sixty years of age, was charged before the county magis-
trates at Rochester, with going to sleep in the open air.
The accused was observed by police-constable Empson, 100,
to go behind a straw stack between four and five o'clock in
the morning, and lie down to go to sleep, when the officer
immediately pounced on him and took him into custody.
The accused said he had nowhere to sleep, The Rev. Mr.
Marsharo, the presiding magistrate, told the prisoner he
was "an almost incorrigible character," and sentenced him
to Eix. weeks 14a-id labour,—,South .Eastern Gaucho,