The Sun.
London, England, 1865-01-03 00:00:00

The question of what is to be done with our cri-
minals remains one of
,the most perplexing of the
social problems of the day. It is undoubtedly the
duty of every Government to protect the
honest and orderly citizens of the State from
the assaults and depredations of the dangerous
classes. In our highly civilised state the list
of offences is so wide and various, the means of
frauds so easy and so tempting, that for a consider-
able length of time the only thought of our legis-
lators on the subject was to protect property by the
severity of the punishment. Accordingly, a
penal code, Draconian ,in its nature, was
for many years the disgrace of our sta-
tute-book, and men, women, boys, and girls
alike expiated with their lives the crime of a trifling
theft. It was proved by practical experience, how- I
ever, that.so far from exercising a deterrent influ-
ence this extreme severity only encouraged reckless-
ness, for the offences against property went on in-
creasing rather than diminishing. Wise and good
men, too, were painfully sensible of the injustice
and hardship of such a code, so that by degrees a
change was brought about in which the honoured
name of ROMILLY stands prominent. At the pre-
sent day, when murderers often escape with their
lives, when a MULLER cannot suffer the extreme
penalty of the law without active remonstrance
being made on his behalf, men find it difficult to
believe that less than a century ago men were hung
for stealing a few shillings. As a natural result of
such excessive sternness a reaction has completely
set in, and we are now in danger of the opposite
extreme. The condition of the humbler classes
occupied very little attention in the busy times of
the European War, but the last thirty or forty
years have witnessed a most beneficial change. On
every side we seic efforts being made, not only to
relieve the distressed, but to instruct the ignorant
and to reclaim the fallen. The negligence
of our ancestors has left
us only too much
to do in these particular; but we may
reasonably hope that the efforts of the
present generation will produce their fruit among
those who come after us. It was very natural, un-
doubtedly, that thoughtful men, reflecting on the
duties which society owed to its weaker members,
should become sensible that even acknowledged
criminals had a claim upon their care, and that while
there was life there was hope in a moral sense no
less than a physical. From this conviction arose
the. efforts to ameliorate the condition of the con-
vict, to give him the means of instruction, to grant
him the stimulus of hope as a moral lever, and to try
the effects of kind and humane treatment where seve-
rity has so conspicuously failed. Those who thought
thus likewise considered with justice that very many
of those who offended the law were not hardened
ruffians, but weak, impulsive, or ignorant persons,
whom better moral training might have saved. The
principles on which the -so-called humanitarian
school was founded were undoubtedly wise and just
within due limits, but the mischief is that they have
been carried to an extravagant length, so as not
only to disregard the claims of the honest poor, but
to -defeat their own objects. The convicts found
that a well-sustained system of hypocrisy secured
their rapid discharge from punishment, while those
who had charge of them were only too glad
to find any means to keep them outwardly
quiet and well-behaved. It was worth playing re,
pentance and morality for a few weeks for the sane
of gaining the power to return to their old haunts,
and accordingly the reformation of our criminals
has come to be considered a very hopeless task. The
panic about the garotters having directed public
attention more closely to the treatment of our cri-
, ken soon became apparent that a system of
thedesirelenity was in vogue, and that, what with
to preserve good order in the Fisons,
and the anxiety not justice to overstep the bounds of
left and humanity the struggling
to most invidio comparisons between
still is, treated as a degraded Thbeei
convict
inde-i poor were
the pauper and the
forfeited all right of i
tt ndivid .ngp7per was, and
to whom the pey authorities one who has
kndence, and
might be as harsh
and tyrannical as they pleased without let or
drance. The felon way hin-
t'warml clothed, well fed