The Sun.
London, England, 1863-05-07 00:00:00

1 whose energies are exhausted by years of toil,
whys° hopes are damped by that bitter experience
that time brings to all of us. It is not probable,
scarcely possible, thet of the thousands hitherto
fully employed in the cotton districts, even hun-
dreds would choose emigration voluntarily. It is
the pressure of want, the force of circumstances,
that would drive them to it, and the enforced
severance of all home ties would dishearten
and depress them at the very outset of their un-
dertaking. We would by no means discourage
emigration, which is often a blessing to both the
old country and the new, but to be successful it
should be voluntary. Let those who are fitted
for the life, for whom the change has charms,
be assisted in every way possible, but do not
let those who shrink from it be driven to
adopt it as a last resource from pauperism.
['here is the less need for such an enforced emigra-
tion, as there appears to be no reasonable doubt
that the cotton trade will before long revive its
wonted strength. The many sources now opened—
India, Queensland, Jamaica,Western Africa, Egypt,
and Italy—must ere long bring us in supplies which
will render us commercially indifferent whether the
doors of the Temple of Janus ere open or shut in
the troubled Western hemisphere. Our merchants
have had to pay a heavy price for their own per-
versity and shortsightedness in depending wholly
upon one foreign source. Unfortunately in this
as in so many other cases, the chief trouble has fal-
len on those undeserving of it, but the experience so
dearly bought must surely be productive of some
good, and a similar catastrophe is not
likely to recur in our time. If, then,
the prospects of the cotton trade are so
far satisfactory, why should those who look to it
for bread leave us just as the clouds are breaking ?
Why should those best fitted for the work depart
for a new and untried sphere of action, leaving less
experienced and able hands to fill the place of those
" who have borne the burden and heat of the day,"
Under these circumstances we see with great
satisfaction that, in accordance with the recent
observations of Mr. VILLIERS, a gentleman has
been despatched by the Government to the cotton
districts, for the purpose of reporting:on the possibi-
iity of employing the able-bodied operatives at fair 1
, wages. He inspected the different bodies of men
now engaged in oat-door work, and examined the
industrial schools. On the day he arrived, there
happened fortunately to be a meeting of the Gene-
ral Purposes Committee, to which he explained the
object of his inquiry. He informed the committee
that the Government were prepared to advance
money to municipal bodies, local boards, and simi-
lar associations, for the purpose of carrying out
sanitary improvements or works of public benefit,
which should be the means of giving employment to
the idle hands, and thus carry them safely over the
time, until supplies of cotton arriving from a thou-
sand new plantations shall set our mills merrily at
work again. We should hope this very rational
and feasible scheme may be carried safely into exe-
cution.

Last night the House went into Committee on
the " Security from Violence Bill," and a short de-
bate ensued. Mr. PEACOCKE moved an amendment
to insert the words " that some previous conviction
must be proved." This after some discussion was
lost by an immense majority of 154, deciding that
the clause should remain as it was. This on the
whole is a desirable conclusion, since it would be
weakening the case as it now stands to alter or
commute the sentences inflicted by it. Mr.
PEACOCKE gave as a reason for his proposal that
he Ns ished legislation to " proceed from principle,
and not to be prompted by panic." This is all very
well, but there is no panic in providing proper and
suitable measures for the suppression of such
crimes as those here refered to. Mr.
ADDERLEY said there had been no undue haste,
since it was six months ago that the garotting
outrages look place, and therefore he did not agree
with the proposal of the hon. member. .Af:er a
few other remarks, Mr. BENTINCK spoke very
forcibly and sensibly on the subject, and said that
hon. gentlemen opposite seemed to deal with these
questions as if they were discussing the rights of
their fellow•subjects, but " ho thought that crimi-
nals of the most hardened class should be considered
as separate from the rest of their species, he pro-
tested against all maudlin sentiment, and thought
that the evil should be firmly and promptly dealt
with." This is the right way of taking up this
question, and Mr. BENTINCK's remarks are most
applicable at the present time when so much folly
is perpetrated in the management of criminals.
Really honest people are left to starve, and the
virtuous in trouble may pine away in unnoticed
obscurity, while the hardened felon and the con-
victed criminal are to be pampered in every way;
their crimes passed over, and their penalties an-
nulled. There is no greater anomaly in the present
state of society than this premium for crime,
that seems held out by really sensible and
well meaning persons. The present lu

in the excitement that prevailed concerning
garotters is not to be depended on, for as soon as
the dark nights return we shall hear of more depre-
dations unless now some stringent measures are
adopted and passed into law. There is no greater
preventive than disgrace for this class of offences,
and the knowledge that ignominy will be attached
to the act of violence will do more to deter
its repetition than any other system that can be
devied. It is, therefore, satisfactory that the
decision of last night should have ratified
Mr. ADDERLEY'S bill, and that gentleman is en-
titled to the thanks of the community whom he has
done so much to serve in the plans he has prepared
for the consideration of the House. " Prevention is
better than cure" is a well-known adage, and it is
well to let it be known among the lawless outcasts
of the metropolis that severe measures will be in
force against them before they again molest our
streets and make the condition of the greatest city
in the world a byeword and a reproach among sur-
rounding nations. False kindness, or as Mr. BENTIN
CX
properly denounced it, " maudlin sentiment," is a
cruelty to the evil-doers themselves, and an injustice
to the rest of the community. What with the
absurd leniency of the convict system; juries recom-
mending criminals to mercy, when convicted of bar-
barous and savage assaults; with the apparent im-
ps oe se sriebtial
ri ye s ofo fp rsotvaitnegbceai
being
cases p
s ofr omp poisoning;
toprocure and with
par-
don
for the felons, if by any mischance they
have been sentenced to the extreme penalty
of the law, it is so difficult nowadays to see
things called by their right names, that it is
a refreshing change to find our legislators adopt
for once a decisive course. The penalties cannot

be to severe, nor the preventives too stringent that

operate against such malefactors, and the result of
Mr. ADDERLEY'S motion on tho subject will be tc

militate against the dangerous practice that gains

ground of making such exploits a subject for boast-

ng, while if it is once an established fact that

shame is attached to the offender, in such in-
stances, it will prove a more potent auxi-
liary than any other that could be employed
in the cause of order. It is to be hoped that this
decisive Step is the forerunner of many others in
the same direction, and that the absurd plans that
have hitherto so signally failed will be put aside at
once and for ever,