The Sun.
London, England, 1863-01-13 00:00:00

IRELAND.

DUBLIN, Jan. 12.

The Board of Superintendence of the Dublin
Prisons, in their annual ieport just printed, make
some imporcant and seasonable remarks on ticket-
of-leave men and the Irish convict system. Refer-
jog to the number of criminal offenders sentenced
to penal servitude, which shows an increase from
42 in 1861 to 78 in 1862, the Board express their
gratification that, while the English convict sys-
tem has been pronounced a failure, the Irish convict
system, from its judicious management and effec-
tual supervision, has not only been found free from
such alarming evils as prevail in England, but has
been of much benefit to the convict desirous of
changing his former life. Conceding, ho waver,
to the warmest advocates of the ticket-of-leave
system all the advantages believed to be derived
from it, it should, nevertheless, be remembered
that the Irish system has not yet had time to
develops itself, nor has it the same difficulties to
contend with as exist in England. The experi-
ence of the Board of Superintendence leads them to
apprehend that the present convict system is un-
availing with the harden:d and habitual criminal ;
that professed thieves and burglars, brought up from
their youth in vice and crime, cannot possibly be
reformed ; and that if some more rigorous method of
I dealing with such hardened offenders be not devised,
" garotting" and other acts of personal violence will
soon extend to Ireland. It has often been remarked
by those practically conversant with the working of
the convict system that the treatment which con-
victs receive in the Government prisons affords them
such advantages as to furnish an inducement to com-
mit crime. In many instances it has been found that
criminals, when receiving the sentence of the court,
earnestly supplicate to be consigned to penal servi-
tude. As an instance of this, the report alludes to
the conduct of a large number of the paupers who
pleaded guilty to the charge of setting fire to the
South Union Workhouse, and subsequently on re-
ceiving the sentence of the court. The opinion of
the Board of Superintendence is, that whenever such
characters are convicted of any serious offence, after
having been discharged from penal servitude, tran-
sportation should be their next sentence.
The Ballinasloe winter fair, which was held on
Saturday, is said to have been the dullest since its
estabiishment seven years ago. The supply of
cattle was equal to former years, but visitors and
buyers were scarce ; not more than a fourth were
sold, and these at prices 30s. a-head for cattle less
than last year. The causes assigned for the bad
demand were the late heavy rains, the distress in
Lancashire, and the want of due publicity in the
newspapers. There were buyers enough, however,
if they could have got great bargains. But the far-
mers preferred not to make the sacrifice, and drove
home their stock. Their being able to wait is a
proof that the farmers are not so badly off as some
represent.

On Saturday George Samuel Matthews, a respect-
able looking old man, was brought up at the Head
Police-office, in custody of Acting Inspector Daw-
son, of the G division, charged widi stealing a num-
ber of books—in all about 100—from the libraries of
Trinity College, the Royal Dublin Society, and the
Dublin Young Mel's Christian Association. It ap-
peared that on the 2d inst., Dawson, while in the
pawn-office of Mr. Cairns, saw the prisoner offering
a book entitled " The History of Greece" in pledge.
Suspecting that he had not come by it honestly, the
detective searched him, and found pawn-officedupli-
cates for nearly 80 volumes in his possession. He
then, of course, arrested him, and recovered the
books, which consisted of costly medical, scientific,
and historical works. The prisoner had obtained
admission to the libraries of the College and the
Dublin Society, as a reader, and had been known
by the librariiss in the latter place for ten years.
A number of witnesses connected s ith the libraries
having been examined, the prisoner asked his
worship to dispose of the matter at the earliest pos-
sible moment. He felt that his character was gone,
and the result, be it what it may, was a matter of
indifference. The magistrate decided on sending
the case for trial to the city sessions.

FOUR FRENCH STATESMEN.

As Sketched by Daniel Stern.

M. LEDRu RoLLrer.---The new Minister of the Interior
was sufficiently gifted to become conspicuous in the ranks
of the militant democracy ; but from the moment he was
lifted up to the pinnacle of power, these gifts lost much of
their value by the absence of a quality which ought to have
united, and in some degree crowned all ether advantages.
M. Ledru Rollin was devoid of authoritative power.
Neither his private life, which he had not been able suffi-
ciently to regulate ; nor his sincere, but somewhat ostenta-
tious patriotism ; nor his open and generous, but slightly
unsettled character ; nor his more showy than solid acquire-
ments; nor even his natural uprightness, too open spoilt
by an excessive thirst of popularity, made him fit for com-
mand. Lie was quite conscious of this incapacity, and to
escape the uneasiness which it caused to him, he made use
of a device well known to minds whose ardour is not sus •
tained nor tempered by judgment. He affected haughti-
ness of speech , he used big words, and tried to play the
despot. Feeling not sufficiently strong to lead the revolu •
tion, he wanted to outdo it. Unable to impose respect, he
attempted to create terror. It is here that lies the secret of
all the contradictory actions and movements of M. Ledru
Rollin. From the moment that he began to perceive the
success of his tactics; from the day that he saw fear take
hold of the public irnaginati ,n, and beard his name pro-
nounced in faltering accents; from the time he knew him-
self compared by his flatterers to Danton, he fancied he
possessed an immense power. The more his form of speech
was in exaggeration of his real sentiments, and his words
opposed to his intentions, the more he believed himself a
profound politician. He seemed to think with native sim-
plicity that the best method to prevent a recurrence of the
terrorism of 1793 would be a suspended threat of the same.
He evidently did not understand that this momentary
effect could impose upon none but the most verdant in poli-
tics.

M. GuizoT.—To see this large head, too big almost for
the feeble shoulders, thrown back with an effort as if to
grasp a power which will escape ; to regard this pale and
ascetic face, the high furrowed forehead, the fine, proud
mouth, thet bilious lines of the depressed temples, the eyes
so full of subdued fire—to regard this whole form, the im-
pression is left as of a long struggle in a proud soul between
good and evil, ending in a victory of all that is great and
noble over low and vulgar passions. But from the moment
this head begins to speak, the picture changes, and we see
nothing but a man p ssessed of no faith. Under a sea of
imperative formulas is hidden a deep current of inveterate
scepticism, which is involuntarily communicated to the
hearer. We hesitate; we suspend our judgment; we fee
an insurmountable uneasiness in listening, and we end by
either disliking the orator, or according him a forced admi-
ration. Though Prime Minister, M. Guizot was never able
to divest himself of the professor, the man of Geneva, the
Calvinist.

M. PROUDHON.—M. Proudhon appeared in the political
arena with an audacity of aspect and strangeness of speech
which struck all bystanders, and, the circumstances being
favourable, at once fixed public opinion on him and his
works. Born in a small village of Franche-Comte, he went
through a painful system of self-education; but in spite of
great personal sacrifices, was only enabled to make the most
incomplete studies. With the rude stubbornness of tt2 ,
men of -his province, he first turned his mind towarctlsefi
reli-
gious questions, and occupied himself with researches
la-
the origin of Christianity. But soon after
he
literary
addressed to
bours took another direction, and in 18041nOoir,
in which he
the ,_Academy of Moral Sciences ra
eat of his researches
most respected, and
stated that, having chosen for thteEudb!
" one of the oldest, least coarth,,,
namely, the right t
most universal things upon ea.
ved at the • right to
conclusion that
hold property, be had finally am.
an absolute ne-
there was no suchrighhte. lie insisted upon
Theft.unth inSktinrugckpebo
gation, expressed in-t
-ec2)cerni)tririe3ilt6;
c' ste le vol, propertYdiseu,
pyleChtehereupon be-
of these forms and i
gan to fancy that there was a profound originality in M.
rroudhon's writings ; and even a few more serious minds,
who had gone through his works superficially, joined the
chorus of admiration. They all regarded M. Proudhon as
a philosopher, while he was nothing but a sophist,
M. DE LA.MARTINE.—. de Ltine few rivals
His rich and highly coloured poetical sty hase, splendid often
to gorgeousness ; the sonorous flow of his diction, accom-
panied in speaking by a deportment and air full of majesty ;
the even march of his sentences, which come rolling on, in
their magnificent monotony, like the waves on the sea-
shore, make him an orator of gigantic proportions. Rarely
he rises into a passion ; more rarely still he descends into
familiarity. Neither the heat of the debate, nor the right
L of replying to an attack, ever brings from his lips a bitter
Iword, or even the shadow of a sarcasm. His thought
always dwells in serene regions. The very essence of his
mind is foreign to satire, and to French humour in particu-
lar. He has never read Aristophanes ;he detests Rabelais,
and does not understand either Montaigne or Lafontaine.
It may almost be said that the faculty of observation and
criticism exists not within him, and that he is conscious
only to a very feeble degree of the necessity of facts (le
Nevin do la certitude).