The Sun.
London, England, 1863-10-08 00:00:00

TEE SUN, LONDON, TIMESDAY EVENING, OCTOBER 8, 1863.

from a close examination of Sir W. Crofton's whole pro-
ecweeislninggsto ill-health regret
l hasrsa
beenellY felt at his retirement
. Th
materially lessened by the
choice as his successor of his friend Capt. Whitty, who had
been under him for years, and who has amply justified the
i eauniv
selection. The great opposition which the introduction of
the system into Great Britain encountered, and the mani-
fest leaning against it of persons high in office, filled all the
friends of social science with alarm. This has happily been
dispelled by the inquiry, first, of the commission tinder
Lord Grey, and again of the committee tinder Lord Carnar-
von in the House of Lords. Unforttanately, some of the
most important witnesses were not examined—as Mr. Balme
of Leeds, in neither inquiry, and Mr. Shepherd only in the
Lords', and our disthie—
ished colleague the Recorder of
Birmingham -,tl neither; but both reports, and especially
that '.:r the Lords' Committee, gave the most signal triumph
1
to the principles which for years, both on the bench and in
the National Association, he had been zealously, though
temperately, inculcating, We are not, therefore, surprised
executivei(
hf oprmet
ie tdiefhoairhnogdb
the
lt
ea
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sei
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ei
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eeni,
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that he should have heartily joined the Bristol Association
iilt without
delay the great imerovements so fully sanctioned by seven
years' experience in Ireland. The principles are shortly
these—every mitigation of a convict's sentence, whether in
treatment, diet included, or in duration of the punishment,
must be earned by himself, not only in abstaining from
offences, but more especially in pursuing a course of indus-
try. On obtaining a ticket of leave he must be placed under
constant superintendence, and the ticket revoked not only
on his misconduct, but on his leading a vagrant life and
not supporting himself by his industry. Convicts whose
sentence has expired are photographed, so as to be recog-
nised in case of new offences, and this, which had been
originally suggested by Mr. Hill, and adopted by Sir W.
Crofton, has been favourably mentioned in the Lords' re-
port, and confirmed by the governors of the Bristol, Wake-
field, and Leeds gaols, as well as by the experience of the
Irish prisons. The convict is deterred from relapse into
crime by the certainty of his being recognised wherever
he is committed, the photographs being circulated to all
gaols. The dissent of the Chief Justice from the majority
of his brother Commissioners is to be lamented ; but
he evidently had not fully weighed the evidence of prac-
tical men, accustomed to the management of prisons and the
control of criminals—such men as Crofton, Whitty, Organ,
and he appears never to have considered the opinion so
generally entertained of late years upon the deterring effects
of punishment, and to have regarded these alone, putting
them in contrast to reformatory treatment, as if the two were
distinct and opposite; whereas, any reformatory treatment
deserving the name must of necessity be attended with suf-
fering to the convict. Upon the subject of transportation
the Chief Justice agrees with the majority of the Commis-
sioners, differing from Mr. Childers and from the great meet-
ing held at Burlington-house in February, where our secre-
tary, Mr. Hastings, contended, with great ability, against
the revival of that punishment. One recommendation of
the Lords' committee deserves great attention—that mea-
sures should be taken for making the treatment, including
of course diet, the same in all gaols. The great diversity
which at present exists in this important particular makes
the same sentence entirely different according to the prison
where a convict happens to be committed. The last session
of Parliament presented few other measures for our consi-
deration. The consolidation of the statute law was, how-
ever, promoted by an act which gave an elaborate statement
of all statutes and portions of statutes which have been di-
rectly or indirectly repealed. This was ably prepared by
the same men—Messrs. Wood and Reilly--the latter re-
commended by our colleague Mr. Bellenden Ker, when en-
gaged in digesting the criminal law some years ago, and
afterwards when upon the Statute Law Commission. Both
Houses received the table rather from confidence in those
who prepared it than from discussion of the details, which
must necessarily have been impossible. It is much to be
lamented that nothing has been done to extend the depart-
ment of Judicial Statistics to Ireland. Our colleague, Lord
Clanricarde, when urging this more than once in the Souse
of Lords, showed that the addition of a single clerk
could supply the great defect which now exists. The
subject of Reconcilement was once more brought for-
ward on my presenting a bill prepared by an eminent,
local court judge, Mr. M. Kerr, and free from the main
objection to the former proposal, making the recourse to the
Court of Conciliation altogether voluntary, and not com-
pulsory either on the parties or the judge. The late period
of the Session at which it was introduced, there is every
reason to think, alone prevented the bill from passing; and
then we should have had the unspeakable benefit of a stop
being put to vexatious and needless litigation, as in Den'
mark, where nine-tenths of the suits commenced are
stopped by reconcilement. The Governor of St.
Kitt's,
Sir Benjamin Pine, who framed the new code for the
settlement, introduced reconcilement from the neighbouring
Danish settlements, where he found all classes, from the
Governor and the Chief Judge downwards, strongly in
favour of it. The close of the Session also stopped the
important measure for extending the great change in .thei
law of evidence—the examination of parties —.to criminal
cases on the ground referred to, and, with the restriction
mentioned, in stating the difference between the criminal
procedure of France and our own, It was intended that
Scotland should be included in the bill, where,
however,
the accused has certain advantages not accorded to him in
England. This would have been on every ace ,unt just,e
especially considering the great improvements which the
English law and practice have borrowed from the Scotch.
Of this number are the two most important measures of
late years—the establishment of county courts, which I
propounded upon the express statement of their success in
ticetland, and the granting execution on bills and bonds,
unless the debtor takes proceedings for his relief. The
benefits conferred by county courts are such as
it would
be impossible to exaggerate. Between 800,000 and
900,000 suits were brought in them last year for above
two millions, and the year before the number and the
amount were still greater. The actions brought in the
superior courts of common law were not one-eighth in num-
ber. : The relief to these courts afforded by the local tribu-
nals is manifest; but the great benefit is to the suitors,
who, in so many thousand instances, have enjoyed the ines-
timable advantage of having justice brought to their doors,
and of having their causes tried, which in very many in-
stances, but for these courts, would never have been tried
at all. The other measure borrowed from Scotland has
had the,beneficial effect of stopping many hundreds of causes
which otherwise would have been brought to trial, vexati-
ously and needlessly, and thus relieving the courts of the
trial of numberless undefended causes. We greatly erred in
not adopting the whole Scotch procedure ; it was in the bill
as sent down from the Lords, but the Commons altered it.
The progress of jurisprudence, with the study of it, since
our last Congress, has been most essentially aided by the
completion of Mrs, Austin's task in editing
her deeply and
justly-lamented husband's great work, by him cnly in part
published. It is now happily accessible, both in the whole
and in a portion of it, judiciously selected for separate pub-
lication, as containing the more popular views of the sub-
ject of jurisprudence. The friends of Social Science and
of the improvement of our law, which forms so important
a branch of that science, have not a more imperative duty
cast on them than the study and the encouragement of this
truly valuable work. In connection with our National
Association, the Society for Promoting
the Employment
of Women have diligently and successfully prosecuted
their benevolent vocation, and have been most justly
defended against the charge of interfering with the
labour of men; whereas the object is to employ them as
fellow-labourers in those lines which are open to both sexes,
but peculiarly adapted to women. The greatest benefit has
been conferred by this society in preparing and circulating
works useful to women in obtaining employment. No less
than eight of these have been published at so low a price
that the whole eight cost only ls. I may mention here that
the Dublin and Edinburgh societies for the same object are
still active and successful. The paper of Mr. Chadwick at
our Liverpool Congress, on the application of sanitary
science to the protection of our Indian army, led to a Royal
commission for examining the subject. The report has now
appeared; it shows that two-thirds of the deaths are pre-
ventible, and that this important advantage is capable of
extension to the rest of the inhabitants by the adoption of
the same means, thus effecting a reduction of 60 deaths or
more in 1,000 persona to 20 or less. We may justly regard
this report as due to the labours of the association. An im-
portant meeting of the Sanitary Section, held last Congress,
led to a most able and useful statement by Dr. Greenhow
on the expediency of legislative interference with the em-
ployment of workmen of certain descriptions in crowded
rooms. The consequence was shown by him to be the pro-
duction of fatal pulmonary disease. Indeed, the average of
deaths in other occupations being 3 in 1,000, it rises to 9, and
even 10, in those employed as the doctor describes. The
further discussion on this subject, as delicate as it is impor-
tant, will it is to be hoped engage our Sanitary Section of
the present Congress. As long ago as at the Bradford Con-
gress, Mr. Rumsey, of Cheltenham, in two valuable papers,
pointed out defects in the system of registering deaths, and
the want of a record of disease. The committee to whom the
papers were referred framed a series of resolutions for a sys-
tem of sanitary registration, and the council more than
once, with the co-operation of Dr, Farr, the eminent De-
PutY-Itegietrar, brought them before the Government.
During the last year, in further pursuance of a resolution
they cannot t
htoe
at the Dublin Congress, the council, in conjunction with the
Irish College of Surgeons and the Dublin Statistical Society,
pressed the subject upon the Irish Government ; and though
statement
entirely
of
something successful,
,
than
the Act of last Session has great defects, yet it is satisfac-
tory to think b e
thatsaid
mere registering of deaths being necessary has been brought
fully before the Government, and that this extension
may confidently be expected. It is well known that the
deeply and justly lamented Prince Albert gave his particu-
lar attention to the state of domestic servants, and delivered
an able and instructive address to the Provident Society for
their protection. The importance of this class is undeniable,
and he represented them as the most numerous body of the
subjects of the Queen. A meeting was held
upon the subject
this summer, which I regretted being
unable to attend. But
there was a most instructive paper read
which
useful discussion, and it may be hoped that thegsauvbjeect [rise
willto
come before our Social Economy Department. Theimp°re-
ance of the subject may be estimated from this,
that the
number of domestic servants in England is calculated to be
above a million, of whom 100,000 are in London, and 10,000 ,