The Sun.
London, England, 1864-03-30 00:00:00

of these unmanageable Keys. Al a meeting of
the irresponsible potentates, it was decided that
the articles in the journals mentioned were "a
contempt of the House and a breach of its privi-
leges." It is a new version of the old story about
Kings and Parliaments, only the vox populi is in
this case one of the parties. The point where
jest passes into serious earnest, and absurdity
becomes illegal and intolerable; is now reached.
The two owners of the journals were summoned
to the bar of this self-elected House, and an ample
apology was demanded. One of them, Mr. FAR-
MIER, agreed to apologise ; the other gentleman,
Mr. BROWN, proprietor of the Mona Herald, re-
fused to do so, and was consequently marched off to
prison, there to remain during six months. This
is a little too much in this country, at the pre-
sent day, after all our battles for the liberty of
the press and the freedom of the subject. Public
indignation, we are told, is up to fever heat, and
subscriptions are being formed in the town for
the purpose of trying the legality of the act by
a writ of habeas corpus. We should imagine that
the affair might be settled in a shorter and more
simple fashion. Let the Home Secretary forth-
with inquire by what authority, or for what
offence, this gentleman has been imprisoned.
Such an act can hardly be done, in the face of
all existing regulations of law and order, without
some one being made responsible ; and the affair
has now assumed a degree of serious importance,
which necessitates some notice being taken of it by
the Government. It is useless to make protests on
behalf our citizens abroad, if we cannot insure
them from arbitrary imprisonment at home. If
Mr. BROWN has outstripped the ordinary courtesies
of the press, the remedy is easily found in the
law of libel ; but for any body of self-appointed
men to summon a journalist before them, and de-
spatch him to prison because he will not retract bis
words, is something almost too extravagant to be
credited. If the most influential of the Manxmen
prefer mud to paving stones, rushlights to gas, and
have a well-founded objection to sewerage and
street cleaning, it is a matter of little moment to
the rest of the empire ; but a petty local dispute
rises into national importance when it subverts the
great principles of our English law, and tramples
on the safeguards of our constitutional liberty.

The report of the Committee of the House of
Lords on the present state of discipline in Gaols
and Houses of Correction, will again revive the
disputes and discussions that have taken place
on this subject. At all events it is better to
bestow too much attention rather than too little
upon a question of so much moment, and it may
yet appear that out of so many conflicting and
confused statements, such divers opinions and con-
trary arguments, a beneficial judgment has
been taken, and a practical advantage has accrued
to the community. It may well be said of the many
various suggestions that have abounded, and the
different proposals that have been recorded by
those who took the question up, and studied it
in its detail, Tas Homines, tat sententice. We may
rest assured that what is undertaken by the House
of Lords will be done thoroughly, and that a
calm judgment will be taken of the whole transac-
tions. The result of their protracted researches
must have enlightened them not a little concerning
the difficult and complex subject upon which they
entered, and it is earnestly to be hoped that, skill,
zeal, and information combined in no meagre form,
and associated in no common degree, may work out
for us a satisfactory result, and bestow upon the
community the blessings of security and the con-
sciousness that the po rrers that be are grappling
with crime successfully and surely. It is a
fearful consideration to take home with us from the
whirl of business and the vortex of pleasure, and
reflect upon in solitude, that all the vaunted apps•
nages of the State, all the mighty machinery of the
law are of no avail in putting down the spread of
evil, or. instifling itspower. Some of the schemes enter-
tained by their lordships may be moulded into plans
of great utility, and eventually effect a real and,
lasting improvement in our system of penal see-
vitude. In the first place, the suggestion relative
to the uniformity of treatment is a very desirable
one, for to make a distinction or difference among
men who are under the same category is a great
mistake, and can but be productive of deleterious
effects. Then there is great cause to approve of the
proposal which discourages in some degree the
practice of confining the labour of prisoners to in-
dustrial occupations solely, and thus putting a stop
to the penal part of the system, which from its re-
pugnant character must serve to exercise a greater
check, and be, as it is styled in the report, a " de-
terrent influence." The fact is that this forms
part of the system which has prevailed to so great
an extent in all the ramifications of our penal system
of late years. The object seems to be to keep the
men quiet by whatever means can be employed. The
best satire on the efficacy of such policy as regards
its ultimate working is the fact that recommittals
are so numerous; When more than 41,000 are re-
committed in one year, it is time that some striking
reforms be introduced, and some stringent regula-
tions enforced. When we reflect upon the very in-
sufficient style of punishment to which these men
have been subjected, perhaps it would be more
astcnishing after all if the result were different.
The difficulty is to draw a line between over
severity and faulty leniency. The tendency of the
present day is to err greatly on the side
of laxity. A sort of maudlin sentiment
has sprung up and flourished to a wonderful
extent among us. Directly a man commits a crime
he seems to be considered in the light of a martyr
by some infatuated members of society, and the
circumstance of a murderer suffering capital punish-
ment fills them with virtuous indignation, and
excites pious horror that know no bounds. These
would-be philanthropists forget that it is a treason
against virtue to encourage vice, and that sin must
not bo palliated and put aside after this fashion, for
it is going against the order of nature so to do, and
if the statutes of wise laws are infringed, divine as
well as human wisdom calls fcr an expiation. It
is enough to say that the supposed kindness is a
positive cruelty ; the innocent suffer for the guilty,
and the persistence in this faulty course has plunged
many into deeper sin, and spread snares and pit-
falls more plentifully around the steps cf those who
wander unprotected in the desolate highway of the
world. It is a scandal to our most vaunted system
of penal servitude that so many recommittals take
place, and the sooner the authorities will acknow-
ledge their error and set to work to rectify the
mistakes that prevail to so great an extent the
better it will be for all concerned. The committee
lay great stress on the importance of maintaining
the separate system, and it sounds to senso that
this plan presents the greatest advantages, and
possesses a superior claim over any other in the way
of keeping up discipline and working out the re-
medial agency which it is hoped that the term of
incarceration will in some degree effect. Nothing
could be stronger than the manner in which the com-
mittee have expressed themselves on this head, and it
is doubtless their well-grounded conviction that has
!put such vigour to their decision, and uniformity
io their opinion. They consider that the separate
system must now be accepted as the foundation of
prison discipline, and that its rigid maintenance is

a vital principle to the efficiency of county
and borough gaols." It is impossible to say more
than this, and when it is considered that this is
the decision arrived at after minute investigation,
careful analysis, and extended experience, it must
be conceded that the greatest regard should be
given to the advice. Sometimes a simple treatment
of a bad case will prove more efficacious than a very
complex and elaborate one, and if some of the most
important features that appear in this report be
strictly adhered to and steadfastly upheld, there is
good reason and well grounded expectation to hope
that beneficial consequences will ensue; at all events
it is worth tha trial, and without the exercise of
any undue severity, or inflicting injuries on the
health of the prisoners, it is high time that a
stop be put to the permission of comforts and
sometimes luxuries which honest poverty,strugglicg
in unaided toil at home, can never dream of.
There is something very wrong in the
penal system, when pi:Aners prefer the prison to
the workhouse. They commit offences to be trans-
ferred to the former; and if this is not an unanswer-
able argument in favour of a radical change, it
would be difficult to find one at all. Prejudice and
partiality do a great deal to deter the introduction
of remedial measures in all things; but their day
must pass away at last, and let men walk in the
light of truth and be swayed by the dictates of
reason. Surely the time has arrived for common-
sense to come to the rescue, and let us call things
by their right names. Let not all prisons be such
a lamentable failure that they may be styled the
nursery of crime and the fostering influence of
guilt ; but let their rules and regulations be so con-
structed that, in so fir as human means can effect it,
all possible checks be put in the way of crime, that
the man of sin may find no refuge for him, where
his evil ways are lightly thought of, but that the
knowledge may go forth surely, if slowly, that there
is no peace for those who make evil their profession,
and increase their crimes tenfold by drawing others
into the same evil ways which their own footsteps
are pursuing to perdition.

THE ROYAL ITALIAN OPERA,

Madlle, Lagrua's Norma,

The eighteenth season of the Royal ItaliatOpsea
commenced last evening. And Mr. Gye ought,
certainly, to be sttisficd with the success of its
inauguration. For, an opening night could hardly
have gone off more brilliantly or more auspiciously.
The magnificent house itself was filled throughout.
It is never, in the ordinary acceptation of the word,
crowded—each occupant of a seat there (even those
relegated to the pit and amphitheatre) having plenty
of elbow room : but last night, we repeat, it was
filled in every part, and looking superbly. If there
was no conspicuous novelty apparent in the mere
selection of the opera chosen for this first night's
performance—there was, at least, one especial
attraction (there being also several minor attrac•
tions, visible at a g;ance to the eye of any habitué)
in the cast of the chef d'csuvre thus, and with good
reason, picked out for the first night, from the
Royal Italian Opera's ample repertoire, Bellini's
lovely lyrical tragedy of " Norma" has often, of
course, been (as it certainly never can too often
be) heard in this country— heard season after
season, and that alternately, sometimes simulta-
neously, at both houses—at Her Majesty's of late
years with Madlle. Thiene as the High Priestess—
at the Royal Italian (until now) with Madame
Grisi as the love-lorn Druidess, a character in truth
which, it will long be remembered, was high up
among the glories of la Diva! Bat last evening
"Norma" was heard for the first time with Made-
moiselle Emilia Lagrua as the heroine of the grand
lyrical tragedy. The first night of the season was
the first night of Madlle. Legrul'e appearance, here
in England. The debutante was there, moreover,
upon the scene of so many of Grisi's triumphs,
was there to rival one of Grisi's most renowned
impersonations, was there, in fact aspiring to
occupy the position of Grisi's successor. And, as
the result of her triple daring, we may now say,
at once that she has not only aspired to it,
she has assumed it. Mademoiselle Lagrua's
success last night was unmistakeable. Even
from the frigid and fastidious audience of
Co vent Garden she extracted round after
round of applause. Called before the curtain at the
end of the first of the two acts—her success being re-
cognisable from the very commencement—the fair
soprano was again summoned to the footlights at
the conclusion of the opera, thence retiring, at the
close of her first night, amidst a burst of acclama-
tions, the cordiality of which had about it, as a token
of her success, a very manifest
significance. The
I wonder, perhaps, would have been—remembering
her antecedents—had the result been otherwise.
For, during several years past, Madlle. Lagrua has
enjoyed a high reputation, among the highest repu-
tations, as a leading soprano in both hemispheres,
in America as rell as in various parts of the Euro-
--enae, possibly, the early fresh-
ness of her lovely voice has apparently passed away
peen continent. If
already, before her advent to England. Though,
when saying this, we cling to the belief that our
impression, as to its being so, may prove
to have been
suggested by the not unna-
tural nervousness incident to every debutante, no
matter hew familiar already that debutante with
the lyrical stage elsewhere. Judging from appear-
ances there was certainly no one touch of timi-
dity about the Norma of last
night, either in her
acting or in her singing, but—in
lieu of any signs
of timidity—every token of the most complete self-
possession. Nevertheless, either from the hidden
nervousness we have supposed, or from the disap-
pearance already of the earliest freshness of her
voice, the exquisite organ of Madlle. Lagrua
(excepting only upon three or four rare and for
that very reason, of course, thrice-welcome occa-
sions) seemed to lack the resonance requisite to fill
the immense building, and the capacity to soar
now and then above the harmonious tumult of
the orchestral accompaniment. It appeared to us,
in fact, that Madlle. Lagrua last night was for
the most part singing under herce, was the most it may be frankly said at o
no-
ticeable where, for years, we have in Norma
been the least accustomed to look for any sense
whatever of deficiency, n
capabilities. This
impassioned scene
with Pollio and Adalgisa, and immediately after-
wards in that
tremare, ')
sameerfido" in
scene the
e
namely,
in th ely, in the " Oh non
fi Oh! di qual sei
to vittima," Grisi, however, in this, probably, has
taught us to be over exacting, as Pasta must have
done—in that character which was hers especially,
hers par excellence—in the former generation.
Having made this one exception in regard to
the Norma of Madlle. Lagrua, we have said
all that we have to say—in the way of
exceptions. Otherwise her impersonation of the
High Priestess of the Druids was a triumph both of
acting and of vocalization. Her every movement
is grace—her attitudes again and again were pre-
eminently statuesque. Personally she has the all-
essential advantages for a leading soprano, of hand-
some and intellectual features, of a finely developed
form, and of a noble bearing. Her rendering of
the famous " Casta Diva"—in which the Priestess,
armed with thesgoldeu sickle, apostrophises the
moon as the Goddess of the Druids, in the midst
of the kneeling multitude--was delicious through.
out, in every phrase, and note, and cadence : the
audience at the close of it evidencing their appre-
ciation by their plaudits. Usually, this prayer is
sung by Norma with her arms extended towards
Heaven. Here, in the very In inner of her delivery
f it, the Nerma of last night, stood before us—excep-
tionally: her Lends, from the first note to the last
—that is, of the " Casta Diva," and of its con-
tinuance, the " Tempt's, to do' coca ardenti"—being