The Sun.
London, England, 1865-11-13 00:00:00

Archbishop Manning on the Reformatory
System.

A large and influential meeting was held at Man-
chester olm. Friday evening, in aid of St. Bernard's
Roman Catholic Reformatory. The chair was
taken by Mr. D. LEE ; and among those present
were some of the leading Roman Catholic families
in the county, and the Roman Catholic Bishops of
Salford, Birmingham, Nottingham, Shrewsbury,
and Northampton. The Chairman was supported
on his right by Dr. Manning, the recently-elected
Roman Catholic Archbishop of Westminster, who
had promised to deliver an address on the reforma-
tory system.

The CHAIRMAN delivered a short speech, at the
close of which he introduced Dr. Manning to the

meeting.

Dr. MANNING was received with much enthu-
siasm, the audience rising. He said the sole
motive which had induced him to undertake the
task of speaking in this city, where the subject
of Reformatories was so thoroughly understood,
was to render some assistance to the Refor-
matory of Mount St. Bernard's. The subject
was one which, if not exhausted, had, at
least, been treated by those whose life had
been spent in the charitable administration
of the justice of the country, such as Lord
Brougham and others, including those who had ex-
ercised the office of chaplains in our great country
gaols. Therefore, it would be imprudent to attempt
to treat a subject—on which he could speak only
superficially—in one of the greatest centres of in-
telligence and industry in England, whither he
could never come without feeling a deep impression
in the enlightened and civilised discharge of the
duties, both private and public, and the people of
this city. . Having visited the Reformatory of St.
Bernard's two or three times since the late Cardinal
Wiseman's inability to discharge the duties of
visitor, he (Dr. Manning) was intimately acquainted
with its condition, which was now greatly improved
He was happy to be able, at the outset, to refer to
a very candid and temperate pamphlet, the report
of a Committee appointed by the Visiting Justices
in Manchester. In this report was a remark, to
correct.which he was sure would be an act accept-
able to those gentlemen who framed the statement.
In it was stated that the disposal of the boys of
Mount St. Bernard's, and the reformatory con-
dition of that institution, were, as might be an-
ticipated, in a less satisfactory state. In answer
to this, he (Dr. Manning) was happy to say that the
details upon which that statement was founded re-
lated to the period before 1863, and not to the ad-
ministration of those zealous and charitable gentle-
men who now had the direction of the institution.
(Hear.) He might further say that since 1863 the
remark made in the Report would not be found ap-
plicable either to the disposal of the boys or to the
reformatory operation of the institution. Now, he
might turn immediately to the subject. In a pam-
phlet written by Lord Brougham some ten years ago,
he found a statement which appeared to contain the
substance of this question. His lordship said, "All
writers upon the subject of penal laws have laid it
down at the outset of their tractates that the only
end of punishment is to teach others by example and
to prevent the criminal himself from repeating his
offence ; but I go a step further, and ask what right
have we, even in the case of perpetual imprisonment,
to leave the criminal unreformed." It would seem to
him (Dr. Manning) that the comment of the noble
lord might have been carried further. By the teach-
ing others by example should be understood also
vindication of justice, teaching that penal evil and
moral evil were linked together, that an offence com-
mitted against right was an offence committed against
a supreme legislator, that that supreme law was the
will of God, that the will of God was the conserva-
tive order of society, or that peace is, aswe were told,
the tranquillity of order, and that he who violated it
violated the moral law of right upon which human
society was founded, and so offended against the
founder of that society, God -hircelf..—(-2.7
plause.) The teaching by example must neces-
sarily include all this. The first end, therefore, of
the administration of justice, was undoubtedly to
teach by example, or rather the vindication of
justice, next the protection of society, for society
should be protected from the wrongs that were
committed against it, and to protect society from
corruption. If moral evil was a corruption which
spread by infection, it was clear that in the execu-
tion of that primary duty of self-defence, society
was bound to amputate the festering limb and
protect itself from the corruption which threatened
its life. (Applause.) But, further, the end of the
adminstration of justice included the reformation
of the offender. All administration of justice in
the form of punishment contained this principle,
that the subject of that punishment ought to be con-
templated by the legislator and the judge as the
object of compassion and mercy, and that even in
capital punishment, the State was bound to temper
that judgment with mercy, and to provide for that
criminal all that could be required for his good.
(Applause.) Human legislators and human judges
would act unjustly if they were to cut off natural
life without, at the same time, providing the means
of preserving the spiritual and eternal life of the
condemned. This principle ran through the whole
administration of justice. Thank God, that both
the Legislation and the public opinion of this
country had become illuminated and purified
in the last twenty years to such an extent
that the recurrence of what he was about
to relate was now impossible. Still within
the memory of the youngest in the assembly
before him in Norfolk Island, the penal colony of
our penal colonies—in the year 1834, took place a
most solemn and terrific judgment. 130 convicts
conspired to murder their guards, and by that
means to obtain liberty. They were discovered by
the revelation of some of their accomplices. Of the
130 men, about 50 turned evidence against their
companions, about 50 were put on trial, which re-
suited in ,the condemnation of thirty to capital
punishment. When these were condemned, one
man of singular intelligence, who had conducted
the cross-examination of witnesses against him with
great skill and promptness, begged, with tears and
lamentations, that he might not die without first
seeing his priest. Another of the condemned men
appealed to the corruption which prevailed among
convicts as a ground for mercy. Eventually, the
Judge was so impressed that ho took upon himself
to reprieve the condemned men until he could re-
ceive instructions from the Home Government. In
the end, 11 of the men were condemned to die ;
those of them who were Protestants had the assist-
ance of clergymen sent to them specially, and those
who professed the Catholic faith received the spi-
ritual consolation of the Rev. Mr Ullathorne, vicar-
general, and now the Bishop of Birmingham, who sat
on the platform. (Applause.) Penal administra-
tion of justice, not tempered by the mercy which
provided for the reformation of the criminal, espe-
cially in case of capital punishment, was a violation
of justice, human and divine. He extended the
principle he had just laid down to the case of those
who, though not condemned to capital punishment, '
were subjected to prolonged imprisonment, and he
affirmed that it was a violation of justice, human
and divine, to imprison any man not having free
access to his pastor. (Hear, hear.) He was thankful
to know that from the statute-book of England the
iniquity had been lately expunged, and that now a
man could have the privilege which was before denied
him. This principle he held to be safe, and, in
touching it, he must refer again to Norfolk Island,
because so recently as 20 years ago the principle was
not recognised as it now was. In 1845 or '46, the
late Duke of Richmond, one of the most benevolent
and zealous of our public men in matters relating
to penal discipline, put into his (Dr. Manning's)
hands a written report given to him by a person
whom he (the Duke of Richmond) had recommended
for appointment in Norfolk Island, a very superior
person, who bad been for many years in the Penton-
vine prison. In reading that report, he (Dr. Man-
ning) sickened, for it was such a narrative of .hor-
rors, such a history of abominations, including
attempts to murder, to poison food, and other things
as he had never before seen. He put that report in
the hands of the Colonial Minister of the day. What
passed he (Dr. Manning) knew not, but he quoted
it only for this reason let us never hear the

condition of the prisons in foreign countries.
spoken of as justifying the pretext for revolution,
The principle, then, to which he had brought them
was this, that the administration of justice required
that any man imprisoned ought to have the means
of reformation, and that the means of reformation
could only be provided by giving him a free mini-
stration of his own religion. (Applause.) An attempt
to reform a Catholic prisoner except through the
Catholic faith and holy sacraments was an absur-
dity, and more. (Applause.) He knew that it was a
principle of human law volenti non fit injuria, and it
might be said that the poor who entered willingly
after application into the workhouse was not injured,
but it was a principle of Christian morals that
esurient quanz maxime fit injuria. If a man and his
family came under the pinch of hunger, his only
way of getting bread for them was to accept that
form of compulsory relief, and it was doing him an
enormous wrong to incarcerate him in a workhouse
and not to give him free access to his religion, and
his pastor free access to his children. He quite ad-
mitted the principle that if a man voluntarily ac-
cepted the legal relief, knowing that he was to be
deprived of that spiritual blessing, no legal wrong
was committed ; but he was not arguing upon legal
wrongs, but that which was beneath them—moral
and Christian wrongs. (Hear, hear.) The con-
duct of Liverpool, Preston, Manchester, and other
parts of Lancashire, was a luminous example to
the whole of England. The magistracy of that
county had, in the face of the • whole coun-
try, exhibited an enlightened and civilised ad-
ministration of justice, and he rejoiced to have
that opportunity of offering his thanks for it.
He was bound to say, also, that the Govern-
ment had set an example in some of its ad-
ministrators— especially Sir George Grey and
Colonel Henderson—which nothing could exceed
for fairness and and equity to all questions in which
the Roman Catholics were concerned. (Hear, hear.)
He hoped that the spirit and the principles which
directed Lancashire would be followed by other
counties. What he had said about the reformation
of adults applied a thousand times more cogently to
children, and ten thousand times more so to the poor
children in reformatories. It was a maxim qui non
habet patron populi est filius, and he maintained that
the State was invested with the duty of taking care
of those children not only in their temporal but in
their spiritual condition. Every child that contra-
vened the public law became the ward of the state,
not so much for punishment as for reformation.
Our Saxon forefathers venerated childhood more
than we, and punished parents for the offences of
their children. The principle which dictated that
law should direct us now. Before they were punished,
children should be taught what was right and what
was wrong ; and unless the administration of public
justice was tempered with mercy he feared that it
would have little real effect. He hoped we had
merged from that period when the iron hand of the
law came down on a man without offering him the
means of repentance, and that we had come to see
that it was not only better and safer, but that it
was cheaper, to reform our criminals than merely
to punish them. The late Mr. Clay, of Preston,
had stated that the estimated amount of annual
depredations in Liverpool was £700,000, and
in 1853 the Times calculated that every pick-
pocket sent to Holloway prison cost the pay
of a curate. In 1856, Mr. Murray, of Dublin,
estimated the cost of the administration of
justice at 31 millions. He (Dr. Manning) should
like to put as a parallel the amount of money
spent in education and reformation. Mr. Rushton,
of Liverpool, stated to a committee of the House of
Lords in 1847 that 14 boys were arrested and tried
for certain offences ; 10 were transported and cost
Liverpool £1,400, whereas 77 boys placed in the
asylum at Warwick cost £1,200, and 40 were re-
claimed. The reformatory schools of this country
were now costing the country £66,000 annually ;
towards this the parents paid £2,000, and £lO,OOO
was contributed by charitable people. The money
which had been spent Dn the children in reforma-
tories to which the £66,000 related was dispropor-
tionately small compared with that which had been
lavished on our prison system. (Cheers.) We had
passed, he hoped, from inflicting penalties without
seeking for the reformation of criminals, and had
entered into what he might call a penitential sys-
tem tempered by mercy. (Hear, hear.) He was
glad to see that the Roman Catholics, who num-
bered only one-twentieth of the whole population,
had promptly taken advantage of the Reformatory
and Industrial Schools Act, so that they now pos-
sessed one-eighth of the reformatory schools and
one-tenth of the industrial schools in the country.
(Cheers.) He was glad also to find that of the 12
largest reformatories six belonged to the Roman
Catholics. This was evidence that at any rate they
had been doing their work like men. (Hear, hear.)
He strongly denounced the system of punishing
children who had never heen taught the
difference between right and wrong ; but, on the
other hand, he would not say that hunger would
perfectly justify stealing. Certain jurists, casuists,
and moral writers laid it down that hunger would
justify many acts which he had not and would not
describe, because he had the terror of those well-fed
theological controversialists who, whether he was
right or wrong, would misrepresent what lie said.
(Laughter, and hear, hear.) His experience in the
reformatory at Hammersmith had confirmed the
observation of Lord Brougham, " the first offence
wisely treated became the last offence." He was
glad to find that parents were being made respon-
sible to the State for the support of their children,
and he hoped that the suggestion of Mr. Sydney
Turner would be made law, and that parents would
become chargeable on the first term. Cases were
continually occurring, and one, in which eight
young heroes had become generally known through
the country had just occurred, which proved that
education ought to precede punishment, and that
punishment ought to be tempered with great mercy
towards those who had not been so educated.
(Hear, hear.) Notwithstanding the great efforts
that had been made during the last twenty years to
promote education, he feared they had failed to
accomplish that moral change which they had a
right to expect—to form the religious conscience
of the people. State education alone would
never suffice, but there was one system sufficient,
and it would be sufficient whether helped by the
State or not. It was the true education and culti-
vation of the conscience and heart by the faith and
by the church. The conviction forced upon him by
the observation of the last 25 years was that a
general system of State education in England was
not only morally impossible, but would be morally
unjust and morally ruinous to the Christianity of
England. (Applause.) The only form of education
which was just and morally possible, and which
would make the English people Christian, was a sys-
tem of free, independent, denominational education,
in which every body of Christians in the land should
receive from the State, which was of mixed religion,
from a Legislature of mixed religion, from revenues
raised from mixed religion, a proportionate assist-
ance to their voluntary efforts. (Applause.) This
he said more gladly in Manchester, because he knew
that this was the principle which had guided the
people, and especially the public men, of this city,
and that they had stood forward, at all times, to
vindicate the perfect independence and freedom of
every religious body in this country, and to protest
against all attempts to interfere with the religious
convictions of those who were sincerely convinced of
their own faith. (Applause.) In conclusion, he had
only to say that the condition of poor children was
the most urgent work to be done. It was said that
the majority of the children of the working classes
were neither at work nor at school, and that of the
parents of these children the majority could h
a d p
their schooling if they would; and he ay
heard,for
too, that there was a most excellent insititution
named the "Education Aid Society"—(applause)—
which lie wished God speed with all his heart, be-
cause it was an institution founded for the aid of all,
without interfering with conscientious belief. (Ap-
plause.) He heard one singular remark in respect of
reformatory schools. It had been said that the aver-
age of those reformatory children who were recom-
mitted after leaving the schools was larger in the
case of Catholic institutions than of Protestant.
Mr. Sydney Turner had made that assertion, and
he believed it was correct. Why was this the case ?

Because the Catholics had not the means of fluffing
employment for their poor children after they came
out of the reformatory school. Catholic tradesmen
and employers were few and poor, because Protestant
employers and tradesmen possessed the wealth of
this commercial country, and because there were so
many Protestant reformatory schools, though small
in the aggregate number in agricultural districts,
surrounded by those who were ready to take the
boys when they left those institutions. (Continued
applause.)

On the motion of Bishop TURNER, of Salford,
seconded by Bishop ULLATHORNE, of Birmingham,
a vote of thanks was passed to Dr. Manning for his
addre-is.--Sir R. GERARD, Bart., proposed a reso-
lution acknowledging the benefits of the reforma-
tory system, and pledging the meeting to sup-
port it.—The Rev. G. NUGENT, of Liverpool,
seconded the resolution, which was passed.—ln pro-
posing a vote of thanks to Mr. Lee for presiding,
Archbishop MANNING acknowledged the large
amount of good which Mr. Lee had rendered to
the Roman Catholic cause in Manchester. The
vote was adopted, and the proceedings terminated.

THIRD EDITION.

SUN OFFICE, 7 o'CLocK.

TAT rERSALLS'—This Evening

First Report of the Commissioners upon
lute or limited, the commissioners suggest that no
the Cattle Plague. cattle should be allowed to be turned on common or
uninclosed land.
5. The commissioners suggest that steps should
be taken for obtaining periodical returns of the
horned cattle and sheep within the area of every
parish of Great Britain, and of their sanitary condi-
tion, with especial reference to the present disease.
6. The commissioners deem it their duty to make
some reference to the peculiar circumstances of Ire-
land. The disease, they state, has not yet broken
out in that country, therefore there is no necessity
for the measures which have been recommended by
Great Britain. It is still possible, by the adoption
of suitable precautions, to avert the calamity from
Ireland altogether. The importation of cattle into
that country has already been prohibited for some
weeks past. Considering, however, the destructive
character of the disease, it will not be judicious to
reply upon that precaution alone for escaping it.
The evidence which has been laid before them leaves
little doubt that it can be conveyed by persons who
have been in contact with infected animals, as well
as by the animals themselves. In case it should by
any accident be carried over, the Government should
be in readiness to eradicate it from any spot in
which it may appear ; and unless preparations are
made for doing so before the plague shows itself,
the authorities will hardly be in a condition to act
with the necessary speed and vigour when the emer-
gency arises. In Prussia, upon whose eastern
frontier the disease frequently appears, a system of
precaution has been adopted for stopping its further
progress which has hitherto met with invariable suc-
cess. It would probably not be difficult to make
provision for the application of similar measures to
Ireland, and so to secure to it a permanent immunity
from the calamity under which Great Britain is at
present suffering. But the extreme rapidity with
which the disease spreads makes it important that
all arrangements for stamping it out, in case of its
possible appearance, should be made without delay.
A separate report, signed by Earl Spencer, Vis-
count Cranbourne, Mr. Read, and Dr. Bonce Jones,
is appended, stating that these commissioners are
unable to join the other members of the commission
in recommending the total stoppage of all move-
ment of cattle in Great Britain. If such a measure
were practicable, they say it would be more effectual
than any other in extirpating the disease. But they
do not believe it to be practicable. It would involve
an interference with the course of trade at variance
with our national habits, and it would demand sac-
rifices from large numbers of people, who are re-
moved from the presence of the disease, and who
will therefore not see the necessity for so stringent
a measure. The sudden transformation of the enor-
mous cattle trade, by which the large towns are
supplied, into a dead meat trade, would involve
difficulties and dangers of the most formidable kind.
The foreign trade, which at this moment furnishes
a considerable proportion of the meat consumed in
the large towns, would be seriously interfered with.
The price of meat would in consequence rise mate-
rially, and suddenly these difficulties would lead to
the evasion of the prohibition ; and if it is largely
evaded, as they think possible, it will become then
useless.
Earl Spencer and Mr. Read are, however, of
opinion that store animals maybe permitted to move
from the farm of the seller to that of the buyer,
provided they have a certificate from a justice of the
peace, acting in the district where the sales takes
place, showing that they are free from disease, and
that they have been located for a certain time on
the farm of the seller.
There is also a separate report of Mr. M'Clean,
who is opposed to the interference with the trade in
cattle ; and who states that the evils arising from
it would be greater than those arising from the
disease itself.
The commissioners have likewise give some sana-
tory recommendations to prevent the spread of the
disease, certain remedies when the disease had at-
tacked a locality, and measures for disinfecting
sheds and cattle.

The first report of the commissioners on the cattle
plague was held on Saturday afternoon. After a
few preparatory remarks upon the purpose of the
commission, the report states that the disease was
first observed and recognised in Great Britain
towards the close of the month of June. Two Eng-
lish cows had been purchased on June 19 in the
Metropolitan Cattle Market by a cowkeeper resid-
ing in Islington, in whose shed they were when the
symptoms of disease attracted, on the 27th, the no-
tice of the veterinary surgeon in charge. Similar
symptoms of disease were observed on the 28th by
the same surgeon, in a cow belonging to a dairy-
man in Hackney, which had been purchased in the
same place, and on the same day. Two Dutch
cows in a Lambeth shed, likewise bought in the
market on the 19th, were attacked on the 24th. The
malady broke out immediately afterwards in many
London dairies, and spread with extreme rapidity,
destroying great numbers of animals. The Islington
cowkeeper losther whole herd of 93 ; she afterwards
bought more, and lost them also, making 106 or
107 in all. An inspector who had charge of a great
part of the north and north-east of London states
that in his own district more than four-fifths have
either died or been slaughtered, and the :general
average within the precincts of the metropolis is
probably at least as high. Very early in July it
appeared in Norfolk ; a little later in Suffolk and
Shropshire ; then in one county after another, and
before the end of the month it had invaded Scot-
land. In all the earlier cases, at least, it seems to
have been directly traceable to purchases made in
the Metropolitan market ; but Norwich-hill and
other country
markets speedily became, in their re-
spective districts, subordinate centres of infection.
On the 14th of October it had extended to 29 coun-
ties in England, two in Wales, and 16 in Scotland,
and was still advancing. From the Metropolitan
market the disease appears to have crossed the sea
to Holland with some oxen which had been shipped
from Rotterdam to London, and had been exposed
during threesuccessive marketdays, and, not finding
a sale at an adequate profit, had been reshipped
from London to Rotterdam.
The commissioners come to the conclusion that
the disease is contagious, and that the contagion is
extraordinarily swifland subtle, being most destruc-
tive in its effects. ffe commissioners also conclude

that it is the same disease as the rinderpest, or steppe
murrain, the symptoms during life, the results of

post mortem examination, and the whole train of
general characteristics leading them to that conclu-
sion. Nor is it the first time the disease has made
its appearance in this country. As early as 1348-9,
after the Black Death had produced great mortality
among men, a grievous plague attacked cattle, which
perished by thousands. Again, at long intervals, in
1480 and in 1715, 1745, and 1757 it decimated our
herds of cattle, and appeared to have taken deep
root in the country. A commission for Middlesex
was appointed on Nov. 25, 1745, to inquire into the
disease, and they appointed cowkeepers and butchers
as inspectors of cattle, and instructed them, among
other things, " to certify to the destruction of cows,
for each of which the Treasury gave 405." Orders
in Council of a very rigid nature were issued ; and
in 1746 one of these orders declared the disease of
" an incurable nature," and framed regulations to
prevent its spread. In 1757 an act was passed de-
claring " that sales of cattle should only take place
when the seller had them in his possession for 40
days; calves not being allowed to be sold, in order
that they might be preserved for breeding purposes,
and severe restrictions were put on the sales of the
hides of diseased animals. Various orders were
issued stopping local fairs, and the plague, in con-
sequence of these orders, was extinguished where
the local authorities acted with vigour, but lingered
in other places, from whence it spread, after a time,
as rapidly as ever.
The recommendations of the commissioners for the
suppression of the disease are six in number :-
1. They recommend that Government should have
the power to suspend for a limited time the move-
ment of cattle from one place in Great Britain to
another ; that they should extend or shorten such
period, and renew the prohibition as often as circum-
stances may render necessary. IA. The commis-
sioners suggest certain regulations as to cattle traffic,
should recommendation 1 not be adopted. These,
they believe, are the only means to eradicate the
disease, and that the end fully justifies the means
suggested :—First, a period to be fixed, and which
Might, if necessary, be extended ; no lean or store
stock should be permitted to be sold at any fair or
market ; and sale of such stock by auction or ad-
vertisement, or in any other manner whatever,
should be prohibited. Second, cattle might be
moved for immediate slaughter to a market, or to a
slaughter-house licensed for use, but only under
a license for transit granted by the magistrates in
petty sessions. The licence for transit should cer-
tify to the healthiness of the district from which the
cattle came. With this exception, the transit of
cattle over any public road should be prohibited.
Third, precautions should be taken that every
animal sold for butchers' meat be slaughtered within
a short and fixed period. For the convenience of
this purpose no slaughter-house should be used
without a licence from the local authorities, and no
such licence given except on the butcher under-
taking to have all cattle which may be sold or con-
signed to him driven direct to the slaughterhouse or
premises attached to it, from whence they are not to
be removed alive. Cattle sold at a fair or
market should not be aliowed to leave the
precincts of the borough, or other place
where the fair or market is held, alive. To in-
sure this object it might be required that cattle
entering a fair or market should be branded on
entrance, and cattle sold elsewhere to a butcher
similarly marked at the time of sale, and that it
should be penal for any one but a butcher to
have a marked animal in his possession. In
every place where a public market is held
lairs should be provided, in which unsold
animals could remain from one market-day to
another. Fourth, it would be desirable to
draw some distinct line between infected and
uninfected districts, so that whenever a case of
infection is discovered the district should be " pro-
claimed" as infected in the Gazette and the country
papers. The egress of cattle from a proclaimed district
should be strictly prohibited, but cattle slaughtered
within it and certified by the inspector to be fit for
food might be sent out of it under proper safeguards
for disinfection. Provision should be made for en-
abling districts which had been proclaimed to be
publicly set free on proof being furnished that all
risk from infection was at an end.

2. The commissioners are of opinion that the power
to seize and slaughter vested in inspectors by the
consolidated order may properly be withdrawn ; or
that, if retained, it should be exercised only in cases
where the inspector's directions as to the separation
of sound from diseased stock, &c., or any general
preventive or sanatory regulations issued by the
Government are not complied with. This power is
right and useful when the disease has appeared only
at isolated spots and attacked a few animals ; the
public benefit is then very great, and the private
sacrifice very small ; but in proportion as it extends
the hope of thus arresting its march diminishes, the
inevitable waste increases, and the sense of hardship
tends to become insupportable. In principle a sys-
temof compulsory slaughter should be complemented
by a system of compensation, and the objections to
promising compensation to individuals out of the
public treasury on an extensive scale appear to us
insurmountable.

. As regards foreign cattle, the commissioners
state that, should their first recommendation be en-
tertained, and an absolute embargo placed on all
traffic in cattle within Great Britain, they think that
imported cattle should be slaughtered at the ports of
landing. They arr) further of opinion that cattle
should be allowed to land at certain ports only,
where proper facilities can be afforded for inspection
and transport. In the other alternative, it will be
sufficient to say that foreign cattle, if passed by the
Customs ins; ectors, and not comingfroman infected
district, may be sent by railway to any market in
Great Britain, but shall then be subject to the same
regulations as British cattle.

4. During the period of prohibition, whether abso-

'e Financial Condition of Mexico.

The following account of the financial condition
of the Mexican Empire is given by Mr. Middleton,
her Majesty's secretary of Legation in Mexico, in
a Foreign office commercial report which has just
been issued :

As near as I have been able to ascertain, the following
is an approximate calculation of the amount of the revenue
and expenditure of the Mexican Empire for the present
year:--

Mr. G. C. Bentinck, M.P., at Taunton.

The high constables of the borough of Taunton,
Messrs. Evans and Chapman, invited the high
bailiffs of the borough, the civic officers and their
friends, to a banquet on Thursday evening at Patti-
son's Castle Hotel, to inaugurate their year of office.
After the usual loyal, patriotic, and local toasts,
Mr. H. BaDcocK said that the toast which he had
the honour to propose certainly had the charm of
novelty. He never heard it proposed at a civic
banquet before, still he was quite sure they would
receive it with acclamation on account of the name
connected with the toast—" The Houses of Lords
and Commons," coupled with the name of Mr.
George Cavendish Bentinck. (Prolonged applause.)
By their applause they admitted he was a true pro-
phet. (Hear, hear.) They knew what the compo-
sition of the House of Lords would be, but they did
not know what the composition of the House of
Commons would be in the coming Parliament.
Although they had the misfortune to lose two very
good representatives for the borough of Taunton,
yet in the member for Whitehaven they had, a man
who, whatever might happen, would be honest to
his principles, and do his duty as became him.
(Great applause.)
Mr. G. C. BENTINCK, on rising to respond to the
compliment, was greeted with a perfect ovation.
He said he begged to return his most grateful
thanks to his esteemed friend Mr. Badcock, and to
his numerous friends for the manner in which they
had spontaneously responded to the compliment
paid him. The toast was " The Houses of
Lords and Commons ;" but for the House of
Lords he could not say much, as he had not the hon-
our of being a member of that august assembly, nor
had he the least chance of being so, either by his
own individual merits, or by other means. (Laugh-
ter.) As a member of the House of Commons, which
never mentioned the House of Lords, but always
referred to it as " that other place" (laughter), he
begged to say that he had great confidence in " that
other place," and they would always be found to
do their duty, and defend that constitution which had
made England great, glorious, and free. (Applause.)
It gave him the greatest pleasure to meet them on
that occasion, because it afforded him an opportu-
nity of acknowledging the very great kindness he
had always received at the hands of the electors of
that borough—from those who had supported him,
as well as those who were opposed to him. (Hear.)
A spirit of good fellowship always seemed to hover
around their connection, and he hoped the same feel-
ing would be extended to those who had succeeded
him and his late colleague. (Hear.) His duties as
a member of Parliament, as far as Taunton was
concerned, were light, but he had endeavoured faith-
fully and honestly to discharge them towards his
constituents. Whether he did so or not to their
satisfaction it was not for him to say, but of this he
was convinced, that since he had been a member of
Parliament he bad never either forfeited a pledge
given or departed from any one article of his politi-
cal creed. (Applause.) He was quite sure that
every one then present would join him in lamenting
the death of that eminent man, Lord Palmerston.
(Hear.) It was his (Mr. Bentinck's) lot to differ
from that noble lord in politics ; at least he did so
nominally. He had enjoyed the honour of Lord
Palmerston's personal friendship, and any man who
knew Lord Palmerston was aware that a more hos-
pitable host, a more congenial companion, or a kinder
friend never existed. With regard to Lord Palmer-
ston's political conduct, he (Mr. Bentinck) was pre-
pared to admit that his death at the present time was
a national loss, for Lord Palmerston, during the last
few days of his life, had endeavoured, and success-
fully endeavoured, to resist any change in the con-
stitution of the country. It was true that he had
ejected Lord Derby's Government upon the cry of
Radical Reform, and that his Government was
pledged to carry a bill to that effect; but no sooner
was he securely installed in office than he saw the
intelligence and education of the country was op-
posed to what he termed " organic changes," and
he therefore courageously shelved the obnoxious
measure never to be revived during the existence of
the last Parliament: Session after session
Lord Palmerston " scattered the enemies of our
constitution and confounded their politics." (Loud
applause.) He shut up the ballot box—laughter)
and drove his (Mr. Bentinck's) friend Mr. Berkeley
to the opposite side of the house to agitate the ques-
tion. He extinguished Mr. Baines's bill. He silenced
the fire of Mr. Locke King's ten pounders. (Cheers
and laughter.) By this policy Lord Palmerston had
in his (Mr. Bentinck's) opinion condoned many past
errors of a political life, and deserved well of his
country. Lord Palmerston was no more—a great
crisis had arrived—Lord Russell was at the head of
the Government, but it was doubtful whether he
could longer "rest and be thankful." By his side,
in the Cabinet, sat the Chancellor of the Exchequer,
a restless spirit, who for 28 out of 33 years of poli-
tical life had been Tory and Conservative. He was
now before the public in a new character. Rejected
byOxford he stood unmuzzled and untrammelled--
a ready instrument in the hands of Birmingham, and
prepared, if they might judge from his recent speeches
at Glasgow, to advocate, with all the unscrupulous
zeal of a renegade, the doctrines which the Glasgow
Reform Union commended to his notice, and with
which that illustrious but unwashed body proposed,
in their own expressive words, to " sweeten the
breath of society." (Laughter.) He (Mr. Bentinck)
saw breakers ahead, but still he had confidence in
the new Parliament. The Ministerial party claimed,
it was true, a gain of some 20 or 25 seats, but when
it was remembered that many candidates succeeded
merely to support Lord Palmerston, and that cer-
tain investigations, which always follow a general
election, would have to be conducted—(hear)—he
thought the state of parties in the present Parliament
would be found not to differ materially from that in
the preceding Parliament. Under these circumstances
we should again have a weak Government, depen-
dent for its majorities either upon an extreme poli-
tical section whose views it did not profess to repre-
sent, or else upon the independent support of 300
gentlemen who occupied the Opposition benches.
Now he (Mr. Bentinck) desired au end of this state
of things. He wished to see a coalition of those men
who, thinking alike upon all matters of importance,
were now separated either by idle party cries or by
motives purely personal. He trusted those to whom
he referred would put their shoulders to the wheel
and form a great constitutional party. As great
effects sometimes sprang from trifling causes serious
evils arose from the indiscriminate use of the terms
" Liberal party " and " Liberal." It was his mis-
fortune not to be able to understand the term " The
great Liberal party," for he saw its so-called mem-
bers holding opinions as widely distant as the apace
which separates the poles. (Hear, hear.) Mr. Lowe,
for instance, was said to be a member of the Liberal
party, and yet in the last session he had delivered a
speech against any lowering of the suffrage—an out
and out Tory speech, the best on the subject that
had been heard within the walls of the late House of
Commons. Again, Mr. Horsman, Mr. Gregory,
Lord Grosvenor, Lord Elcho, Mr. Augustus Smith,
and many others held the same views. Could it be
said, then, that these gentlemen belong to the so-
called Liberal party, of which Mr. Bright and his
followers are members ? Why, the conclusion is pre-
posterous! (Loud applause.) The same principle ap-
plied to those entrusted with the elective franchise.
There was a constituency not 100 miles from Taun-
ton which he had canvassed frequently, and when
soliciting certain voters he would perhaps be asked
to state his political opinions. The voters would
then admit they concurred in his views, but when
he was about to book their votes as a matter of
course, he would be met with the rejoinder " I beg
your pardon, I vote for Mr. Somebodyelse, the
rival candidate. I agree with you and disagree with
Mr. Somebodyelse, but then I am a Liberal, and so
is he, and I must go with the great Liberal party,"
and thus the vote is given to Air. Somebodyelse,
who is often ready to stand in for extreme doc-
trines, and may be possibly even a revolutionary
socialist. Now he (Mr. Bentinck) had no hesita-
tion in saying that such conduct was not straight-
forward, that it was an un-English, that it was
" illiberal" in the strongest possible sense. (Great
applause.) He should like to find all men openly
backing their political opinions by deeds as well as
by words. He was very glad to hear from Mr. W.

A. Sanford that the aristocracy were best fitted to
represent the country, and he had no doubt, there-
fore, that if two democratic gentlemen were sent
from Birmingham or elsewhere to contest the
Western Division, Mr. W. A. Sanford would sup-
port the aristocrats and vote for the present mem-
bers. (Much laughter and applause.) Another com-
plaint he (Mr. Bentinck) had to make of the so-called
Liberal party was their want of liberality. He would
cite the cases of Mr. Bernal Osborne and Mr. Augus-
tus Smith, of Truro, who were ousted from their
seats because, to use Mr. B. Osborne's expressive
phrase, " they were disobedient to the crack of the
official whip," and thus eminent men were lost to
the country whose place could not easily be sup-
plied. It would be admitted, he thought, that so-
called Liberal gentlemen at election times often
said more than they really meant ; but now that
they had been allowed their say on the hustings he
trusted that, on taking their seats in Parliament,
they would throw off their muzzles and join with the
Conservatives to form a great constitutional party
which should advocate the cause of real progress,
and cease to meddle with subjects that led only to
agitation and discontent. (Applause.) Mr. Bentinck
concluded by saying that when he first had the
honour of meeting the men of Taunton they were
good friends—they had continued to be good friends
—they parted as good friends, and he trusted, when
they should meet on some future occasion, that they
should be better friends than ever ; and although
no longer representing them in Parliament, he should
always do his best to further their cause to the
utmost of his ability. (Cheers.)

The Postman and the Increase in the Price

of Provisions.

On Saturday night a general meeting of letter
carriers was held at the school-room, Aldersgate-
street, to take into consideration the necessity of
applying to the authorities for an increase of pay,
on account of the increase inthe price of provisions.
Mr. Baker, who war stated to be a first-class letter
carrier, was called to the chair, and in a few earnest
remarks reminded the meeting that they were called
together for the purpose of considering a question of
vital importance to the welfare of the men, and he
hoped that no one, by travelling out of the strict
business of the meeting, would make observations
that might tend to defeat rather than to advance the
object they had in view. Mr. Padfield then moved,.
and Mr. Lockfield seconded, a resolution to the
effect that, owing to the increase in the price of pro-
visions and also of rent, the existing scale of remu-
neration to letter carriers was inadequate to the sup-
port of themselves and their families, and that a
deputation should be appointed to wait on the head
of the department, for the purpose of representing
their case, and urging upon him the necessity of an
increase of pay commensurate with the rise in pro-
visions. Both the speakers in guarded and temperate
language called attention to the fact that necessity
alone had induced them to come forward to advocate
the claims of themselves and their fellow-men. From
their statement it appeared that the present rate of
wages was on a graduated scale, commencing at
about 18s. a week, and reaching after about 12 years'
service to 255. per week ; and the Mover of the re-
solution entered into statistics to show that with the
present high price of provisions a man with a wife
and four children (which represented the average
position with regard to families of the London
postmen) could not support himself in decency
even at the highest rate. Proper house accom-
modation for such a family could not be obtained
under 6s. per week, bread cost ss. 3d. ; meat,
reckoning 11b. per day at the low price of 9d., cost
ss. 3d. per week ; butter 2s. ; coffee and tea,
Is. ; sugar, 7d ; vegetables, 4d. per day ; coals,
1 cwt. per week, ls. Gd. ; candles and wood, 9d. ;
and soap and soda, 6d. He thought on examina-
tion this would be found little enough for six per-
sons, and if the various items were added together it
would be found that these, the mere necessaries of
life, would cost more than the whole of the wages of
the first-class letter-carriers. It was indeed well
known that if the letter carriers had to depend solely
upon the wages that they received from the Post-
office they could not exist. The seconder of the
resolution controverted the assertion that a sum of
money sufficient to make up for the scantiness of their
wages was received by the letter-carriers from the
public in the shape of Christmas-boxes, but quite
acknowledged that the public were liberally disposed
towards a class of servants so generally meritorious
as the letter carriers. He was sure that any increase
in their wages would meet with the approbation of
those who were so largely interested in the removal
of all temptation from the letter carrier. The reso-
lution was agreed to unanimously, and a deputation
having been nominated, the thanks of the meeting
were given to the chairman and committee, and the
proceedings terminated.

SPIRIT OF THE PUBLIC JOURNALS.

THE EXAMINER ON THE CATTLE PLAGUE.—The
panic on the subject of the cow pest begins to show
some symptoms of abatement, for the more it is in-
quired into the less formidable does it appear. The
actual number of horned cattle that have died of it,
or that have been destroyed on suspicion of the in-
fection, amounts to no more than 18,000, and the
cattle of Great Britain being reckoned at 7,000,000,
the loss amounts to a fraction of one quarter per
cent. But as more than half the number destroyed
were sent to the shambles and the markets, the loss
is reduced to one-half even of that trifling fraction.
But the loss, estimated at the highest figure, has
been far more than counterbalanced by the increase
in the number of foreign cattle. By the returns of
the Board of Trade it appears that the number of
bulls, cows, and calves imported in the first seven
months of 1864 was 88,082, but it amounted in the
corresponding months of the present year to
119,591 ; the difference amounts to 31,509, and
therefore, supposing the whole 18,000 horned
cattle to have been lost as food, the im-
portation exceeds it by some 78 per cent. -At one
time it was given out by the cow doctors, and
we are afraid believed by the Royal Commissioners,
that the sheep had caught the cow pest from the.
cows. Of this, however, we hear no more, the
believers being, we should hope, ashamed of their
credulity. For our own part, we never for a
moment believed in this ridiculous story, and would
as soon as have fancied that the illustrious Gamgee
had caught the farcy or the glanders by visiting an
infected stable ; or that his horse, if he had one,
had died of hydrophobia from the bite of a mad
dog. The truth seems to be, that all kinds of cattle
have suffered more or less from the atmospheric
influence of a very unseasonable summer, and those
subjected to an artificial life, the dairy cows of
London, in the greatest proportion. Whatever
mortality may have taken place in sheep, if any
beyond the natural rate, it has, as in the case of
horned cattle, been more than compensated by in-
crease of importation. In the seven first months of
1864, the sheep and lambs imported amounted to
189,334, and for the corresponding months of this
year they have risen to 322,074. We may add that
the supply of flesh meat has been increased, in a
comparison of the same times, by an importation of
swine and hogs, which has increased from 26,000
to 49,422. An allegation has got abroad that
the carcase butchers of London, taking advantage
of the pest panic, have raised their prices from 25
to 35 per cent. There is evidently no falling off in
the supply to justify such a rise, or indeed any rise
at all ; but certain it is that somet)ody is taking a
dishonest profit. Even London tavernkeepers,
who charge 2s. a head for ' dinner from the joint,'
have added, on the plea of enhanced price of meat,
from 3d. to 6d. to their charge on every dinner:
But now as to the source of the murrain. It must,
like every other plague, have sprung up in some
special, favourable locality, and we think now, as
we did from its first appearance, that the London
cow sheds were of all points of origin the most
likely. Our continental neighbours certainly trace
it to England. At all events, there must now be
an end to ascribing the cattle plague to Russia ;
for in consequence of the charge made against it in
England of being the source of the disease, the
Russian Government has instituted an inquiry, and
finds that since the year 1859, or for six long years,
the Empire has not been visited by what Germany
calls Rinderpest, or any other form of cattle ram...
rain. We are sorry for the prophet Gamgee, and
for those who believed in his soothsaying.
THE " SATURDAY REVIEW" ON THE RECONSTRUC-
TION OF THE MINISTRY.—Lord Russell cannot have
thought of tendering office to Mr. Bright. If ability
and eloquence were the only qualifications for
power, the question would be, not whether Mr.
Bright should be a Secretary of State, but how it
was possible that a cabinet could be formed without
his co-operation. It would indeed be a triumph to
reduce into the condition of a docile colleague so
formidable an auxiliary or opponent. When Mr.
Bright consents to waive his opinions, to command
his prejudices, and • even ostensibly to forgive his
enemies—though he will scarcely be any longer Mr.
Bright—he will be an ornament and support to the
Government, if the House of Commons can be per-
suaded to believe:provisionally in his conversion. It
would perhaps be difficult to find a suitable office
for the assailant of almost every English institution.
Mr. Bright would scarcely be contented with
a sinecure, and he has heretofore urged the
abolition of the Keepership of the Privy Seal and
of the Chancellorship of the Duchy. A s Presi-
dent of the Council, he would have to administer
the denominational system of education which
he has loudly condemned, and at the War-office and
the Admiralty he would be providing means for
the warlike practices which he only tolerates when
Republics have empires to conquer or reclaim. The
Home-office would place Mr. Bright in official rela-
tions with the country gentlemen whom he has in-
cessantly reviled ; as Colonial Minister, he would
think that the colonies ought to be abandoned; and
as Secretary of State for India, he ought in consis-
tency to propose to split up the Indian Empire into
petty independent provinces. The Board of Trade
is occupied by his only political adherent in the
Cabinet, and, by universal consent, no change is to
take place at the Exchequer. It would be unjust to
complain that Mr. Bright's newspiiier organ urges
his claim to office, although the announcement of
such an alliance would bring Lord Derby into power
within a fortnight after the meeting of Parliament.
A Conservative Administration, and a break up of
the Liberal party, would be not. unacceptable to
the representative of extreme democracy. If ihe
rumour of the Duke of Somerset's resignation is
well founded, and if any ally of suitable Parliamen-
tary rank can be found in the House of Commons,
the departments represented in the house by Under-
Secretaries will be reduced to two. At present
the Cabinet is almost equally distributed between
the Lords and the Commons. The Prime Minister,
the First Lord of the Admiralty, the Secretaries for
War and Foreign Affairs, are balanced by the CChan-
cellor of the Exchequer and the three remaining
Secretaries of State. Lord Hartington, Mr. L Nrard,
and Lord. Clarence Paget, are .not in a position to
be placed. at the head of the respective departments
which they represent with considerable ability as
subordinates ; and if a new member of the Cabinet
becomes First Lord of the Admiralty, he will have
some difficulty in satisfying the house and the
country of his administrative superiority to the Duke
of Somerset. Lord Granville, as he necessarily
loses the lead in the House of Lords, may naturally
feel inclined to exchange his post in the Government
for a foreign Embassy. The managers of schools,
the inspectors, the clergy, and the schoolmasters
will hear not without alarm of the Duke of Somerset's
probable succession to the Presidency of the Council.
Vigour And industry are useful in the conduct of
every public department ; but when voluntary
co-operation and private pecuniary sacrifice are
of the essence of an organisation, a tolsrant,
considerate, and conciliatory disposition is
not without its value. At the War-office, the
unbending character which is attributed to the pre-
sent First Lord of the Adiralty might have a bene-
ficial effect on the relations of the civil Government
to the professional administration of the army. The
efficiency of the Cabinet is not like to be largely in-
creased or diminished by any internal changes. At
present it is in some respects weak, but it is impos-
sible to foretell the duration of a Government.
The Tory Cabinet, after the death of Mr. Perceval
and the extrusion of Mr. Canning, was supposed to
be hoplessly weak, yet it remained in power for 15
years. Lord Melbourne's Government survived for
seven years the withdrawal from the Whig party of
Lord Stanley and Sir James Graham, although both
its former supporters took an active part in the
opposition which was conducted with unequalled
skill and vigour by Sir Robert Peel. If Lord Rus-
sell can either pass a tolerable Reform Bill or per-
suade the House of Commons to dispense with a
change, he may not improbably remain in power
until the time arrives for Mr. Gladstone's entry on a
vacant inheritance.

Major-General Sir C. Van Straubenzee, who has
been acting Commander-in-Chief in Bombay, re-
turns home on the arrival out of Sir Robert Napier. His
divisional command will, in all probability, be filled by
Brigadier-General Frank Adams, C. 8., now commanding
a brigade at Aldershot. Brigadier Adams had formerly
commanded a brigade in tho Bombay Presidency, which
ho gave up last spring, on the return of his regiment, the
28th, to England.--Army and Navy Gazette.
A monument, to cost $B,OOO, is to be erected in
Genessee county, New York, in memory of General Wads-
worth.

BREAKFAST BEVERAGE.—Homoeopathic practitioners, and
the medical profession generally, recommend cocoa as being
the most healthful of all beverages. When the doctrine of
homoeopathy was first introduced into this country, there
were to be obtained no preparations of cocoa either attrac-
tive to the taste or acceptat le to the stomach ; the nut was
either supplied in the crude state, or so unskilfully manu-
factured as to obtain little notice. J. Epps, of London,
homoeopathic chemist, was induced in the year 1830 to turn
his attention to this subje t, and at length succeeded, with
the assistance of elaborate machinery, in being the first to
produce an article pure in its composition, ald so refined by
the pert. et trituration it receives in the process it passes
through, as to be most acceptable to the delicate stomach.
For general use Epps' cocoa is distlituulshed as an invigo-
rating, grateful breakfast beverage, with a delicious aroma
Dr. Ilassall in his work, "Food and its Adulterations,"
says—" Cocoa contains a great variety of important nutritive
principles ; every ingredient necessary to the growth and
sustenance of the body." Again, "As a nutritive, cocoa
stands very much higher than either coffee or tea." Direc-
tions : —Two teaspoon full of the powder in a breakfast cup,
filled up with bailing water or milk. Secured in tin-lined
}-Ib., i-lb , and 11b. labelled packets, and sold at ls. ad. per
lb. by grocers, confectioners, and chemists.