The Sun.
London, England, 1863-02-11 00:00:00

SPIRIT OF THE PUBLIC JOURNALS.

TIMES,—The short discussion in the House of
Lords last night on the practice of granting tickets
of leave to criminals under sentence was a mild ex-
pression of the very general and very uneasy feel-
ing of discontent on the subject. Were these partial
remissions of punishment, or hal pardons, only
exceptional, their consequences would not excite so
much attention. But time has developed a practice
into a system, and the system into an abuse ; and
only those who have fought against an evil can form
any estimate of how strong and formidable it may
become when it has struck root. Give the most
mischievous abuse time to create a few " interests "
to support it, and it will long evade, and often defy,
even the power of Parliament. The " interest" will
get itself strongly represented in that body itself,
and do battle against the public as stoutly as if it
defended the best of principles. Criminality has
acquired its privileges, some of them at variance
with the law of the land ; and there are stiff doctri-
naires who uphold their own theories as to the treat-
ment of criminals at the evident expense of the
honest portion of the community. There are philan-
thropists who contend for the comfort of rogues as if
it were one of the rights of man. Their theory of the
perfectibility of scoundrels has been rather rudely
shaken lately by the conduct of their clients ; but it
will require something stronger than the gentle cen-
sure of a few points of the "system," pronounced in
the Peers last night, to give practical effect to the
public condemnation. Something, however, has
been done, It is not much, but as it places some
check on a lenity that was growing dangerous the
advance is in a salutary direction. From Lord
Granville's answer to the question of Lord Stan-
hope, it appears that a circular has been sent to the
Chairman of Quarter Sessions in reference to cri-
minals who are re-committed after having been
convicted of former offences. To this class of cri-
minals, for the future, no expectation of a remission
of any part of their sentence is to be held out. For
such an offender—the hardened and " relapsed"—a
prior ticket of leave is not to become a complete con-
donation of previous crimes. His old score is to be
remembered against him, and he is not to open a
new account with the consideration that may pos-
sibly be extended to those who are young in crime.
For his new offence he is actually to undergo the
punishment the law awards. Intelligence of any-
thing that affects the professional prospects of the
criminal class spreads very rapidly among the mem-
bers of it, and a general knowledge of this regula.
tion or instruction will probably have a deterring
influence. Small as this may be, it is a public gain.
It tightens the grasp of the law and takes some-
thing from the discretion and indiscretion of the
authorities, by whom the sentences of the Courts
have so often been modified. With a twice or thrice
convicted prisoner before him a judge will now
know what punishment he is awarding, and if he
thinks five years' imprisonment the just penalty for
the crime he will not be compelled to inflict ten, to
ensure half the number. The "old hands" among
the criminal class will not come as inexperienced
beginners before governors and chaplains, and their
power of loosing where the law has bound will be
restricted in such cases as one we report this morn-
ing of a thief who was sentenced to ten years' im-
prisonment, having had nine former convictions.
With his great experience, no doubt, this " person"
would have made a very good " prisoner." He
would have given the authorities no trouble and
obtained honourable mention as a promising sub-
ject. But on a tenth conviction society is not un-
reasonable in demanding the measure of protection
secured by putting such a confirmed offender under
restraint for the full term of his last sentence.

These strong cases have lately turned up very op-
portunely, for such facts prove most convincing ar-
guments. Another statement elicited by last
night's discussion is also satisfactory. It appears
that the ticket-of-leave men now at large are not so
entirely exempted from supervision as they formerly
were. Recently these rovers, who prey on the
community under the 'gaol "letters of marque,'
have been made "amenable for leading disorderly
lives, keeping company with thieves, or committing
offences of which the general law of the country is
not exactly cognisant." This, we presume, means
that their indulgence has been forfeited, and they
have been placed under lock and key again, on their
uncompleted sentence, without the intervention of
a trial and a jury. The supervision is not so com-
plete as it has been made in Ireland, where extra-
mural vigilance is a part of the system. But some
control has been found possible, and the ticket of
leave is not a wholly unrestricted licence. But,
considering the magnitude of the evil and the pub-
lic alarm, the Government might have done more
in the same direction without turning the question
over to a Royal Commission. It looks too like re-
sorting to an old expedient, which is certain to post-
pone, and very likely to evade action, where some
immediate course is needed. The Commission will
probably open a hundred topics, some of which will
call up feelings almost sectarian. Scores of wit-
nesses will fight out their several theories, and the
inevitable Blue-book will embody much fierce phi-
lanthropy. The most probable result will be the
throwing over the subject to another session. A
satirist might without much injustice represent the
our Government as in a perpetual state of interroga-
tion. The Executive does not act, but " inquires,"
through commissions and committees; and these
bodies which make the inquiry cannot act, they can
only recommend. But the public derives no benefit
from a mass of "recommendations." Paying well
for the machinery of the law that catches and locks
up criminals, it wants to be assured that a "higher
law," called Prison Discipline, shall not make their
punishment a farce. This the Home-office has full
power to do without shifting its responsibility upon
a Royal Commission.
HERALD.—The American war is more tedious
than a five-act tragedy. It is still dragging its
slow length along, and the end appears to be further
off than ever. The Hibernian, true to its name,
brings us a farrago of news in which nothing new
can be discovered. The account of the army of the
Potomac is just what might have been expected.
Gen. Burnside, as we know, has resigned the chief
command. Gen. Hooker, one of the most active and
efficient of the innumerable soldiers of the North,
has been appointed in his place. Burnside is about
to be examined before a committee of the Senate at
Washington concerning the interference of subordi-
nate officers with his plans. Should this interfe-
rence be proved it is Gen. Burnside who should be
blamed first of all for it. In permitting it he must
have been forgetful of his duties as commander-in-
chief; in suffering himself to be led against his
judgment he was sacrificing the lives of those en-
trusted to his care. We have no high opinion of
Gen. Burnside's abilities as a soldier, and if it be
proved that he consented to abdicate his functions
as commander there will seem to be nothing left
that any one can urge in his excuse. The unfortu-
nate man has been entrusted with responsibilities
that were far beyond his capacity, and he has done
his best to make shipwreck of the Federal cause.
Now that the barometer of public feeling is at zero
as regards him, the star of the discarded M'Clellan
is once more in its zenith. He is being fated at
Boston, where it is proposed to give him a public
reception, after the manner of Americans. As Mr.
Martin Chuzzlewit received an ovation as soon as it
was known that he was going to settle among the
rattlesnakes, this public tribute to M'Ciellan is in-
tended as a prelude to a fresh expedition of this
general against the Southern armies. The idea is
not peculiar to Boston. It extends to the capital.
We hear that a proposition made in Congress to
place M'Clellan once more at the head of the army
was welcomed with loud applause by the people in
the galleries. It is natural that the only commander
who has not yet been disgracefully beaten should
still remain the most popular of the Northern gene-
rals. The telegraph favours us with an account of
the dispositions of the army on the Rappahannock,
the head-quarters of which are still at Falmouth.
We cannot say that we find them very interesting.

Of what importance is it to learn that Smith com-
mands the right, Brown the centre, Jones tile left,

while Robinson presides over an army that cannot
move P A general of Loui.,. XIV. of Frt»ce once
forwarded to the King a precis of a hundred reasons
why the army under his command was unable to
bombard a certain town, the first on the list being
that he had no guns. The King was satisfied with
this, and did not read the remainder. Now there
may be many weighty reasons to binder the army
of the Potomac from advancing once more against
the enemy. We read, however, that " the snow is
six feet deep at Falmouth, and Ihe roads are im-
passable," and this is quite enough for us. Mean-
while, the discontent of the Democratic party of the
North is gaining ground. Gold, which was at 57
premium on Jan, 30, had risen to 59 on Jan. 31,
and there was a perfect panic among the monied
and mercantile class at the financial crisis that
seemed to be impending. The legislative and judi-
cial authorities of the middle States are assuming
an attitude of open hostility to the Government.
Resolutions have been proposed, and are likely to
be accepted in the New Jersey Legislature, which
amount to an expression of want of confidence in
the Administration, and call for a sort of dictator-
ship under M'Clellan. The judge of quarter ses-
sions of Philadelphia having instructed the grand
jury to postpone all other business to the considera-
tion of the arbitrary arrest of the editor of the
Evening Journal, the grand jury have investigated
the circumstances and returned a bill of indict-
ment against the officers concerned in it. This
is an arraignment of the Government of Pre-
sident Lincoln in the persons of the subordinates
who acted under his command. The State of Ken-
tucky has refused to allow negro regiments to
pass across her frontier, and the people of Mary-
land and Missouri have been alienated from
the Northern cause by the proclamation of slave
emancipation. The difficulties of the Federal Go-
vernment are increasing hourly, and the fragments
of the old Union that still claim to hold together are
so rending apart by reason of their diverslty of
feeling, that some day, when ripe for the final dis-
integration, they may fall asunder in pieces with
one accord, And Mr. Lincoln and his Cabinet be left
alone at Washington.
DAILY NEWS.—The first words which Alexander
11. addressed to the representatives of the Polish
nation after his accession were, •' No illusions,
gentlemen ; above all, no illusions." The commen-
tary on this language is now being written in
blood. It would have been well for the Emperor's
reputation if he had some one to tell him that the
hopes which a brave nation draws horn history,
contemporary experience, and its own conscious-
ness of great qualities are not entirely at the mercy
of a phrasemonger, even though he be Imperial.
The Emperor must by this time have become con-
vinced that the illusion was Suite as much on his
side as on that of the Poles. The man would be
very rash who should venture to predict the course
of the great movement of which we are spectators
It may be that this insurrection may be trodden
out as former insurrections have been. It would not
be at all wonderful if insurgents who have few
arms save such as they have taken from the enemy,
and whose bands are for the most pa it composed of
pikemen and scythemen, should be overcome by the
well-organised and fully-equipped brigades of the
Czar. On the other hand, it is to be observed that
I elements are present in this conflict which have not
affected the issue of former insurrections in Poland.
1 The internal state of Russia is not what it was in
1830. The social condition of Russia in Europe

was then comparatively settled and compact. Now
all is in a state of transition. Through the mea-
sures which the Government has taken for the
emancipation of the serfs the old bands have been
loosened, and the great mass of the people are
moving onwards to a new position. The recent
speeches of the Czar to the peasants prove that he
is aware that he has awakened expectations which
his measures have not satisfied. And those mea-
sures he has solemnly declared to be final. Under
these circumstances the issue, by the Polish leaders,
of the Proclamation, which we give in another
column, and in whiCh the cane of the political in-
dependence of Poland is bound up with the promise
of new rights of property in land, may have an im-
portance reaching beyond its effect on those to whom
it is immediately addressed. In old countries, Go-
vernments have uniformly found that no revolu-
tionary movements are so difficult to compress as
those which are connected with a struggle for the
ownership of land. The Central Committee, which
have declared themselves the "only legal Govern-
ment of Poland," and which in that capacity de-
mand the zealous obedience of every Pole, have con-
nected the national cause with this powerful incen-
tive. They say :—" From this moment the land,
which the agricultural population possessed on con-
dition of paying rent or giving task work to their
masters, is unconditionally their property, and that
of their heirs. The families of all labourers who
join the ranks of the defenders of the country, or
die in glorious death while serving, shall receive a
share of the land won from the enemy out of the
State property." We are of course unable to esti-
mate the influence which these promises have actu-
ally had upon the peasantry whom the Russian Go-
vernment believed it had effectually detached from
the national cause by exempting them from the re-
cent conscription ; but we know as a fact that the
peasants who were at first reported r‘s standing aloof,
are now heartily with the movement. The consp-
quences have been such as the Rtis'im Government
could never have looked tor. By the latest ac-
counts, the number of person,jaiumg the insurrec-
tion was continually increasing, and extensive die-
tricts had been entirely cleared of Russian troops,
who had taken refuge in bodies of 500 at a time
within the Prussian frontier. Hitherto the suc-
cess of the insurgents has surpassed the expecta-
tions of Russia and of Europe, probably it has
exceeded their own hopes. Still it may prove but
transitory if the Russian Government be permitted
to organize and advance its forces at leisure. It
may be otherwise if the contagion of agrarianism,
as embodied in the Proclamation of the Polish Cen-
tral Committee, should extend to Russia and excite
agitation among the peasantry, whose situation, as
we have seen, renders them peculiarly susceptible
to influences of this order, in that case the Russian
Government might find too much employment for
its forces at home to be able to subdue Poland. We
shall not, however, speculate on the course of events;
it will be:better simply to observe and understand
them from day to day. As to opinion, there is no
reason why we should not speak with the utmost
freedom. Certainly, we need not hesitate to do so
from any fear of contributing to inflame a sangui-
nary war. Journalists sometimes, in speaking of
their responsibilities, employ a language which be-
tokens an exaggerated estimate of their influence.
The moral forces which are called out in wars of
nationality, religion, or opinion, are too powerful
to be seriously affected by the likes or dislikes of
inactive bystanders, however gracefully expressed.
We most ardently wish the success of the Poles in
their unequal conflict. By history and religion
they are clearly marked off from the Russians.
Russia has had plenty of time to establish her
moral ascendancy in Poland, and has utterly failed.
For her own credit, therefore, as much as for the
sake of the Poles, we should be glad to see her
abandon an experiment which is hopeless. No
Power in Europe could so well afford to rectify its
position. Should the prudence of the Government
secure internal peace and tranquillity, Russia will
receive in the rise of a numerous middle class, and
in the rapid increase of wealth and population, the
reward of the wisdom which dictated the emanci-
pation of the serfs, and will be more poweful than
ever to fulfil its true mission—the development of
civilisation among the peoples and tribes of its
Eastern territories. Experience, however, bids us
look for the establishment of national independence
to the valour of peoples rather than to the reason-
ableness of governments.

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