The Sun.
London, England, 1862-12-01 00:00:00

rectors is answerable to the excelletco of the means. Gra-
dually public confide-nee has been created in the persever•
ranee in good conduct of ticket of-leave men, and sueh con-
fidence 13 justified and strengthened by the experience of
every succeeding year. While even as to convicts who
have been unable to work themselves out of prison before
the termination of their sentence, and who therefore have
never enjoyed the privilege of a ticket-of-leave, they, with
F 4 few exceptions, are in a much better state as regards
their desire to lead an honest life and their capacity for
acting up to their resolutions than they would have been
if their training had been confined to the mechanical pro-
cess which I have described. Let me add, that in Eng-
land patient submission to such a process would have
gained them their licenac. And hence the risk incurred
by benevolent persons in giving tbam shelter and setting
them to work is far from being so great as it would be in
England. With regard to the inefficient training of the
English ticket-of-leave men, I have the authority of Sir
G. Grey in stating that the illusion should be dispelled
that the holder of a ticket-of-leave is ascertained to be less
likely to relapse into crime than any other discharged cris
minal. But, although the Executive Government justly
Withheld its confidence in the reformation of discharged
criminals, it was benevolently desirous that they should ob-
tain employment. Hence the determination to conceal their
antecedents. But this policy was equally injurious to mas-
ters and servants. That a seeker for employment has been
in prison is a fact pretty sure to be found out. Thus all
criminals, whether reformed or unreformed, are of necessity
placed by the public in the same category, and trust Is in-
discriminately refused to each; the inevitable consequence
being that the greater pal c have no alternative between re-
e.urrence to crime on the one hand and starvation on the
other. It is clesi -able that such among us, if any largo
number there be, who object to supervision by police as
being over-harsh, should remember that it is only the ill-
doer who provokes hostility, and while supervision is
inimical to him, it is at the same time a shield of safety over
his former co.mate who perseveres in his new life of honest
industry. The relapses in Ireland are, including both from
January, 1856, to January, 1862, ticket-of-leave men and
convicts otherwise discharged, 10 per cent. And Sir W.
Crofton has challenged, without response, the disclosure of
the name of any convict under ticket-of-leave who has
broken his conditions, and who has been suffered to remain
at large. In England the conditions are a dead letter; the
practice, notwithstanding the warning " that it is not neces-
sary that the convict should commit a new offence," being
to refuse to take cognisance of any misconduct short of a
new offence, while even, were that practice reformed, and
were it now attempted to enforce the conditions, the Exe-
cutive Government has left itself but very inadequate means
of identifying the ticket-of-leave men who are spread abroad
through the land, and whose names and descriptions have
been kept back from the police. Tables of English relapses
are no doubt given, and in some of their aspects I do not
inpugn their accuracy. The numbers in these tables,
amounting to 16 per cent., show that at least so many as
are found there have relapsed, but they do not show that
the list is complete. From observation, and inquiry con-
tinued for years, I have arrived at the conclusion that the
number of English relapses must exceed 50 per cent.

THE BEV. DR. TEMPLE ON THE LAN-
CASHIRE DISTRESS.

The Rev. Dr. Temple, of Rugby, in company with two
other friends, lately visited Lancashire, and the former rev.
gentleman publishes the impression produced on hie mind.
The friends visited, either jointly or separately, Man-
chester, Stockport, Preston, Blackburn, and Burnley, and
made careful inquiries into the system of relief adopted
over the whole county.
" My first impression," says Dr. Temple, " was certainly
surprise to find the distress much less than I had expected.
I visited many of those who are now receiving relief—some
accompanied by a relief committee's visitor; some quite
alone. I only found one house without a tolerable fire. I
saw signs of hunger, but none of starvation ; I saw no bare
feet ; I saw nothing at all approaching to the misery of the
Irish famine nor to that which was to be seen in Coventry
two years ago. A very little inquiry, however, revealed
that this appearance was due, not to the smallness, of the
distress, but to the thorough efficiency of the system of
relief. The people parted with everything that could be
parted with of any value. Almost all their bedding, all
extra clothing, all spare furniture, all past savings—all
have been gradually absorbed. They are now standing
on the edge of a precipice from which they are only held
back by the strong arm of a more complete organisation
to aid them than I believe any other county in
England could have produced. The centre of this organi-
sation is the Executive Committee at Manchester; This
committee meets every Monday, and obtains as full reports
as it is possible to get, not only of the needs of each of the
distressed towns, but of the supplies provided, either from
local or other sources, to meet those needs, Upon these re-
ports the committee makes its grants, often accompanying
them with suggestions or requirements. The grants are
made in every instance to local committees who have under-
taken the duty of relieving the distressed in their own loca-
lity." To the county organisation, and, above all to the
Executive Committee, it is due that the administration
of relief is at once efficient and just, and that no one from
one end of the county to the other is in real danger of
dying for lack of food. ‘.‘ Most certainly anyone who
wishes to give, and wishes that his money should be
wisely and efficiently used, should send it to the Central
Committee at Manchester." _ _

The poor people seemed to feel that all was being done
for them that could be done. " Many of them were de-
jected, indeed almost prostrate. Many showed in their faces
the terrible struggle through which they had passed before
consenting to accept relief. One, a decent shopkeeper,
showed me his books to prove that his whole profits for a
week had only been 6d,, and asked if I thought ho had
done very wrong to come on the committee. Another spoke
cheerfully, as he hoped that an Englishman might feel
justified in accepting charity to save his family from star-
ving ; but while he spoke he turned pale, a spasm crossed
his face, and he rose suddenly and left the room, while his
wife burst into tears. Everywhere I met the marks of ter-
rible mental suffering. But nowhere did I find any com-
plaint against the upper classes, any sense of injustice, or of
having been hardly used. Never was there seen a nobler
simplicity of endurance. We cannot allow these people to
starve. We must continue to send them help. Though the
money now subscribed is well in front of the immediate need
it must not be forgotten that it flows rapidly out ; as to leave
the relief committees without money for a week would in-
evitably starve hundreds. To leave them without money for
a month would renew the horrors of the Irish fawine."
Dr. Temple believes it would be ruin to the smaller
ratepayers to strain the rates much farther. The mill-

. -
owners, as a body, are doing as much as ever
could be expected of them, but the landowners have
not appreciated the greatness of the need. "If the
riches of the millowner are liable to the demand of the
operatives, much more are those of the landowner ; and this
terrible crisis has seriously damaged the former; while it
had left the latter almost unscathed. If every landowner
in Lancashire would calculate what he would have to pay
if a rate of 2s, 6d. were levied, not on occupiers, but on
owners throughout the county, and make that bum his con-
tribution, Lancashire would have no need to talk of a grant
from the consolidated fund. That the property of the
county is well able to bear the burden there cannot be the
slightest doubt. If Parliament is to interfere, the interfe-
rence should consist in putting the burden on the right
shoulders, not in transferring it to the shoulders of the na-
tion: But I feel tolerably confident that the meeting next
week will render interference needless. A county which has
shown such admirable skill in administering funds entrusted
to its management is not likely to be unwilling to make the
needful sacrifices towards raising its share of such funds ;
and more than its share England will not ask to it do."

THE LANCASHIRE DISTRESS MEDICAL

FUND.

(From the Lancet.)

The dire and widespread distress in Lancashire has called
forth a living stream of sympathy and aid from every corner
of the land, Such a demonstration of fellow-feeling has li
proved, in the most convincing manner, not only how active
is tne principle or enmity in Eisislaud, but still more how
strong is the tie that binds all Englishmen together as
members of one family. Firstly, every individual looks
upon the cry from the cotton districts as a direct appeal to
himself. In the next place, every c runty, every town,
every village, every congregation, every public body, links
together its constituents, and in its corporate capacity helps
again.
In one way or another, we are too well assured that our
medical brethren, the never-failing friends of the poor, have
added their contributions, in money and in labour, towards
the alleviation of the appalling sufferings that wring the
heart of the nation. But the winter advances, and the
American strife still rages in insensate fury, withholding
the material of industry. For some months to come the
effort must be sustained. The occasion calls for medical men
row to act in a body as a profession. We invite them,
knowing their liberality, and the depth of the distress wait-
ing for relief, to institute a " Medical Fund." Every medical
practitioner knows how sadly want of the necessaries of life
causes and aggravates disease, and augments the difficul-
ties of treatment. None so well as the medical practi-
tioners in the distressed districts know how the distressiaisl
to be met most effectually. It would afford most moautenrtry
aid if the medical practitioners throughout the
would strengthen the hands of their colleagues
in c
shire, by supplying them with means
' of affording
medical
Lanca
comforts and food to the patient*. First of all remedies for
food, tiling, and
diseases that spring from starvationi
are
-
port, Blackburn,
clothing. We should ern
system of mutual aid ofthis men
lightening the burden that falls with such over-
whelming ?ressure upon the
medical
eesYdesire
profession to
organisein Stock a
kind—medical
and elsewhere. In this way we think
donethan other •
in any which yet re-
re
more good could be
open. We hope before next week to receive such in-
formation ation from our brethren in Lancashire as will give a
determinate direction to the funds we may be enabled from
time to time to collect. As a beginning—as an inaugura-
tion of the Medical Fund—we subjoin the following list of
subscriptions :7

The Proprietors of The Lana £lOO 0 0
Ernest Hart, Esq. 20 0 0
Dr. Barnes 2 0 0
J. F. Clarke, Esq.. .. .. 22 0
J. N. Radcliffe, Esc', „
......1 1 0