The Sun.
London, England, 1864-02-19 00:00:00

THE SUN, LONDON, FRIDAY EVENING,

the police over ticket-of-leave men. In other respects it
met with hie approval.

Mr. WHITBREAD spoke in favour of the measure,:and
argued that without stimulants to good behaviour on the
part of the convict it would be impossible to keep eight
hundred or a thousand prisoners in order, and useless to
hope for their reformation, and that the ticket-of• leave
system had not failed.

Mr. CAVE discussed the general question of crime and
its correctives in an able and interesting speech.
Mr, C. FORTESCUE treated the subject from the Colo-
nial-office point of view, and justified the Government in
not proposing any more extended system of transportation
to Western Australia than the capacity of that colony ad.
mitted cf. He thought that those prisoners who were sen-
tenced to long terms of imprisonment should receive a large
portion of their sentences at home, and should only even-
tually find their way to Australia as a boon, and as a mode
of dealing with them at the end of their sentences ; in fact,
that transportation should partake of the character of exile
rather than anything else. He believed that the proposals
of the Government would eventually satisfy both the inha-
bitants of Western Australia and of the Australian colonies
generally.
Sir J. PAKINGTON said that as a member of the
Royal commission, and feeling deeply interested in the sub-
ject, he wished to make a few remarks on the plan submitted
by the Government. He felt bound to admit that the right
hon. gentl man had evinced a desire to follow ou• the re-
commendation of the Royal Commission as closely as he
fairly could. The right hon. baronet had referred to the
act of 1857, and the causes which led to the change that
then took place. He (Sir J Pakington) had before re-
marked on the great jumps in the sentences from two years'
imprisonment to seven years' transportation, and an inter-
mediate period was fixed upon, shorter sentences of penal
servitude being substituted for seven years' transportation.
The right hon. gentleman said the commissioners had re-
ported unfavourably of the experiment. As one of the com-
missioners he entirely concurred in the report. He thought
that those short sentences had not answered well, end he
had no idea that the criminal courts would have acted upon
them to the extent that they had done. If the courts of
justice would carry out their sentences in this spirit of
lenity, it was a matter of minor importance what system of
punishment the Government should adopt. He thought
therefore that Government were correct in the course they
had taken, and that at all events the term of penal servitude
should be made longer. He would next advert to a most
important topic, namely, the determination of the Govern-
ment to disregard the recommendation of the Royal Com-
mission on the subject of carrying out transportation to
Western Australia on a greatly extended scale. He was of
opinion that they could not look to Western Australia to
carry out transportation, and he looked with anxiety to
the agitation which had taken place in that colony OR
this subject. If there was a serious objection to carry-
ing out transportation in 'Western Australia by the
colonists generally, it was the duty of the Government to
concede to this objection; but it ought to be recollected
that the greatness of Australia was to be dated to the ad-
vantages derived from convict labour. The cause of the cry
against transportation had arisen from the great extent of
emigration to Australia in connexion with the gold digging.
But the views entertained by the colonists as regarded the
introduction of convicts were exaggerated ones. Yet, al-
though he thought this circumstance had been greatly ex-
aggerated by the colonists of Australia, he still thought that
the Government were right in concurring in the opinion
expressed by the people of Australia on the subject, He
begged now to observe that he was favourable to the prin-
ciple of the remission of punishment, as it was calculated to
reform the convict, although this was in opposition to the
opinion of the Lord Chief Justice of England ; and he was
therefore glad that the Government had retained in this
bill the principle of remission of punishment. He, however,
thought the remission of punishment ought to be accom-
panied by proper supervision of the ticket-of-leave convict.
The right hon. gentleman then referred to the evidence of
Sir Richard Mayne, in which that gentleman stated that
he had told the police not to take cognizance of ticket-of-
leave men. This showed that supervision was clearly ob-
jected to by the head of the London police. The right hon.
gentleman the Secretary of State seemed not to concur in
the course pursued by Sir Richard Mayne in this respect.
Well, that might be so, but it was clear that the head of the
London police had given the directions to which he has
referred, and he (Sir J. Pakington) was now glad to find
that the Home Secretary did not concur in this instruction
to the police, for he (Sir J. Pakington) cor.sidered that they
should have a system of supervision carried on by the police
over the ticket 'of-leave men. (Hear, hear.) Upon the whole
he concurred in the general views taken on this subject by
the right hon. the Secretary for the Home Department, and
he would hereafter give the measure his most careful con-
sideration.

Mr. CHILDERS, after some remarks upon the system
of transportation, the chquges it underwent, its results and
its failures, strongly insisted upon the repugnance enter-
tained by the Australian colonists to transportation, and
their d, sire to see it come to an end, so that the whole of
that continent should be settled by free people.

Mr. NEW DEGATE combated these views of the
Australian colonist, and urged the injustice of their refus-
ing to one of the colonies means it desired of augmenting
its resources by convict labour. He repudiated the idea
that,at the dictation of any body of its colonists, this country
should be deterred from seeking an outlet for its criminals
for the benefit of its colonists no less than for its own
benefit.

After a few observations by Mr. MAnsit,
Mr. WALPOLE compared the scheme proposed by the
Government with that propounded by the right hon mem-
ber for Staffordshire (Mr. Adderloy), and confessed a pre-
ference for the former. In reference to the subject of
granting tickets-of-leave, he observed that men in all stages
and conditions of life were operated upon by the encourage-
ments of hope and the deterring effects of fear; and he re-
minded the house that, if they only offered fear and denied
the pleasure of hope, they would only debase the prisoner
and turn him out of prison a worse man than he was when
he went into it. He deplored the opposition of the
southern and eastern colonies of Australia to a system of
transpertation, and hoped that the difficulties on that
point might still be overcome. He attributed the increase
of crime in 1861 and 1862, in Ireland, to the failure of the

crops, and in England to commercial pressure; but as that
increase of crime was concurrent with the diminution
of sentences to penal servitude to three years, ho be-
lieved that the increase of the minimum punishment
from three to five years, as proposed by the Government,
would have a good effect in reducing the number of crimi-
nals. As to the remission of sentences, he suggested that,
instead of the convict being under the supervision or
espionage of the police, he should be permitted to return to
a known place of abode, and should report himself privately
to the police if he left that place during the time his condi-
tional licence lasted. The last point was a difficult one ; but
when a prisoner out upon his conditional licence, by com-
mitting a new offence, abused the Crown's mercy towards
him, he ought to be made to undergo the whole of the
punishment which had been remitted. (Hear, hear.) Upon
the whole he could not but give his cordial approbation to
the bill which had been introduced that night. (Hear.)
But we ought, in his opinion, to obtain some penal station
near to England, to which the worst criminals could at once
be sent, and treated with a severer punishment than that
now inflicted on the publio works. That was not a matter
of legislation, but of regulation on the part of the Govern-
ment. That, superadded to the provisions now proposed,
would make the system as good as it could be proved, and
make it more efficient in deterring criminals from crime,
while it did not exclude the principle of reformation.
After a few words in reply from Sir G. GREY,
The motion was then agreed to, the bill read a first time,
and ordered for a second reading on Monday week.
THE METRIC' SYSTE ‘I OF WEIGHTS AND
MEAOURE

Mr, W. EWART obtained leave to bring in a bill
to render permissive the metric system of weights and
measures.

The house adjourned at twelve o'clock,

RELIGION Or THE IRISH.—The Census of Ire-
land in 1861 found in that country 4,505,266 Roman
Catholics 693,357 persons belonging to the Established
Church, 523,291 Presbyterians, 45,399 Methodists, 4,532
Independents, 4,237 Baptists, 3,695 Quakers, 393 Jews,
and 15,666 of various other persuasions. The number of
persons belonging to the Established Church is ratber less
than the population of the diocese of Lincoln. Of the
Roman Catholics five years old and upwards 45.8 per cent.
could neither read nor write, of the Established Church 16
per cent., 11'1 per cent, of the Presbyterians, 9 per cent. of
the Methodists, 6.8 of the Independents, 9.2 of the Baptists,
4.1 of the Quakers. Many persons described themselves as
belonging to communions little known to the outside world.
There were 2,756 Covenanters—there were Kellyites,
Darbyites, Walkerites,and Morrissoniane. The religion of
two persons is described as " Palatine ;" one man puts
down his religion as " self opinion." There are 7 " Old
Lights," and 18 " New Lights." There is a " Crow-
wellian Protestant," but he stands alone. So does a
"Positivist." There are 11 persons "of no particular
sect," two "doubtful," one unbeliever, ono Atheist, and 72
point-blank " of no religion."
[ADVERTISEMENT.]—Consumption, all nervous, bilious,
liver, and stomach complaints, in every stage, arc only ag-
gravate and accelerated by drugs of every description, but
perfectly curable by Du Barry's health restoring Revalenta
Arabica Food, as proved by thousands of cases which had
been considered hopeless. We quote a few.—Cure No. 62,914.
Miss Lange, 18 years of age, cured after the medical men had
abandoned all hope-, of her recovery from the last stage of
pulmonary consumption, with f -arful cough, expectoration,
exhaustion, spitting of blood, perspirations, hollow cheeks,
emaciated to a skeleton. She is now, thank God, a perfectly
healthy, blooming, fleshy girl,—N. Lange, Comraissaire de
Police. Cure, No. 46,270. Mr. James Roberts, of Frimley
Surrey, of thirty years' diseased lungs, spitting of blood, liver
derangement, and partial deafness.—Cure, No. 47,121. Miss
Elizabeth Jacobs, of extreme nervousness, indigestion,
gatherings, low spirits, and nervous fancies.—Cure, No.
54,816. the Rev. James T. Campbell, Fakenham,' Norfolk,
of indigestion and torpidity of the liver, which had resisted
all medical reatment. In tins, 11b, 2s 9d; 21b, 45 6d; 51b,
ifs; 121 b, 225; 241 b, 40s. Barry du Barry and Co., No. 77,
Regent-street, London; also Fortnum and Mason; and all
g-toccrs and chemists in every town of the United Kingdom.

THE SCHLESWIG-HOLSTEIN WAIL

:From the Times Special Correspondent with the Danish
Army.)

DANISH HEADQUARTERS, SONDERBURG, ISLE
OF ALSEN, Feb. 8.
A week has barely expired since I landed at this
place from Korsor and Copenhagen, on my way to
the headquarters of the Danish army, with a hope
to be still in time to witness some of the incidents
of the fight for the Dannewerk, and here I am,
already, back again at the end of six days, after
seeing the close of that fight.
I was at Schleswig on Friday evening, the 6th,
somewhat disposed to lay aside all expectation of
any great events for the night, although there was
a talk about a contemplated attack on the part of
the enemy, when an artillery officer, with whom I
had become intimate, and with whom I had dined
and sat after dinner that very
day, oame back after
a few minutes' absence, and with an altered voice
and under the strictest reserve told me that "the
Council of War, upon receiving positive intelligence
that the enemy had been that very day reinforced
to the full extent of 35,000 men, had resolved upon
the sudden abandonment of the position of the D m-
ot, werk and an immediate retreat upon Flensburg
and Aleen. He asked my word of honour not to
telegraph the sad news for the whole of that night,
but it was a superfluous precaution ; the whole tele-
graphic establishment at Schleswig was already
packed up in vans at the bead of the retreating
columns, and I since found the same measures had
been taken at Flensburg and every where on the
road till I came to this place, where I am assured all
telt-graphic communication with England is inter-
rupted, not only at Sunderburg, but at Copenhagen
itself.

I was not the earliest, but certainly by no means
the latest, to receive a hint of the intended back-
ward move of the Danish army. One of the briga-
diers in command placed himself at the head of his
cultuna at 10 o'clock in the evening with the full
understanding that he was to march to the advanced
posts at Fredericksburg and Bustrup, when, on the
very ground, he received orders to take the road to
Flensburg. The surprise, the humiliation, the rage
of the Danish officers may better be conceived than
described. I did not see them breaking their sword
blades on the ground, as I saw French officers do
on the marble tables at the Milan cafes after the
armistiee and Peace of Villafranca, but the indigna-
tion of these Northrnen, although less demonstrative,
was no less heartfelt and genuine. They all asked,
" Why was not the Danuewerk given up on the
first summons by Wrangel if Denmark was not
sufficiently strong to defend it with honour; and if
there was a chance of a generous, however ultimately
unsuccessful, resistance, why were we not at least
allowed to strike a blow fur that costly line of
citadels ; why were we made to quit the spot like a
duellist who refuses to condescend to any reasonable
apology before appearing on the ground, then flies
the ground just as the time has come when there
can be noretreat without ignominy ?" They allowed
indeed that the lime was too long, the defending army
too small, the disproportion with the enemy too
great, and that by tarrying on their position the
Danish army might have been taken in the rear by
some of the Austro-Prussians breaking through the
line of the Schlei ; but all these difficulties could
and ehou:d have been foreseen from the beginning,
more than 10 days ago. Nothing, since Wrangel's
intimation had been met with such bold defiance,
had occurred to alter the position. Either that posi-
tion was too weak to attempt any defence whatever,
or such defence should have been pushed up to the
broadest exigencies of honour, regardless of conse-
quences; the Danuewerk should not have been
eiven up without at least some deed of arms worthy
of the high respect with which the world had been
taught to pronounce the name of that stronghold.
Ihe conduct of the Government and of the Com-
mander-in-Chief appeared to the Danes inexplica-
ble, and they thought that their warlike fame had
been sacrificed to the pitiful shifts of a craven home
policy or to the treacherous intrigues of a remorse-
less foreign diplomacy.
I had nothing to fear for myself had I made up my
mind quietly to await the arrival of the Austru-
Prussians at Schleswig, but I was, in a certain men -
eer, attached as a correspondent to the D inish
army, and made it a point of honour to follow its
fortunes, wherever they might be. Ali the mines of
Potosi, I felt sure, could not at that pinch have
helped me to a horse or a conveyance; but the
friendly captain, to whom I was already indebted
if I ever got a chair to sleep in or a table to write at
since i had come to headquarters, offered me a seat
on his military van, and I have been travelling
with him ever since. They had given him the post
of honour at the rear-guard, and it was past 10
when we set out with his battery on the road to
Flensburg.
The weather had been soft and sloppy for the last
five or six days at Schleswig, but the snow, which
had been falling in large sluggish flakes on Friday
morning, began to gain consistency before we set out
in the evening; the wind rose, keen and boisterous,
from the north-east, and at its very first blast the
state of the atmosphere and the look of the country
were changed as if by magic. The snow thickened
and hardened on the ground,the road became smooth
and bright as glass, horses and men slipped dread-
fully, and fell almost at every
step. Not ens horse
in the whole Danish army was rough-shod that
night—on the contrary, the shoes both of saddle
and draught horses were worn smooth by the last
five or six days' incessant march on muddy ground,
and the progress of the army met with terrible hin-
drance at the outset. The wind was so chill and
violent, the melting snow in our faces was so blind-
ing, that in spite of my multitudinous wrappings I
soon found my Beet in the open van intolerable, and
alighted, together with the motley crowd from thou-
sands of vehicles (not two of which were covered),
and took my place in the line of march by the side
of nay brave captain, who had also quitted his saddle
and was tramping along, now at the head, now at
the rear of his battery.
It was not long before our march began to exhibit,
on a small scale, some of the horrors of the famous
retreat of the French from Moscow. The night was
dark, the cold terrible ; the thermometer, I dare say,
aid not mark more than four or five degrees below
the freezing point, but the chill in our veins told a
very different tale, and the slipperiness of the road
was perfectly awful. The snow, which was falling
thick and fast at frequent intervals, lay in the
fields three or four inches deep, and fringed the
rees in the forests with the most plcturesque fret-
work; but it was trodden to the thinnest layer by
all the feet, hoofs, and wheels of a whole host, tilt
it glistened like ice in the occasional gleam of some
pile star, as one or two peeped out in the sky
through the gaps opened in the mass of clouds by the
fitful blast. Dragoons, artillerymen, all who travel
on saddle, were dismounted, even led-horses were
put to the direct exertions to keep their footing ;
draught horses had to be held up, and cannons,
caissons, and ammunition or luggage waggons to
be dragged by the sheer strength of men, whose
tread was no steadier. The falling of men and
beasts, the cracking of wheels and axletrees, was
prodigious. It took us all nine hours to go over
the first Danish mile and a half (less than seven
English) of ground. Morning broke upon us long
before we were half way between Schleswig and
Flensburg, and we reached the latter place about
4 o'clock p.m. on Saturday, having accomplished
the whole distance of 22 English miles in 18 hours.
The halt at Flensburg was of only two hours. Soon
after dark we were again toiling onwards in the
direction of Krasau and Gravenstein ; we reached
the latter place at about 8 a.m., after a second night
rehearsing all the horrors of the previous one in an
aggravated form, and only came to the end of our
journey here at sunset last evening, after little less
than 48 hours' unmitigated suffering. The cutting
wind, the drifting snow, the darkness,
the slipperi-
ness of the roads, were the same throughout. Eren
at Sonderburg, even in the streets and open places
of the town and environs, where horses had to be
picketed and the soldiers to lie by their side as they
beet could, men and cattle had to strive hard with
the treacherous ground, they had to weather the
furious storm as Heaven sent it, not a few of them
cursing in their hearts the madness of Kings, who
must needs go to war and must needs wage war in
deep winter!
I have touched, in a few words, and without the