The Sun.
London, England, 1853-03-17 00:00:00

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two great Commandments of CHRIST, and those
two Commands the DrviNE AUTHOR of our faith
himself declared were but the summary of the law
and the prophets. Indeed, he borrowed their
very words from the Pentateuch. There is, then,
no moral ground for excluding the Jew ; it must
run up to the ceremonial and theological ground
only—just the ground on which Sir FREDERICK
declared his reluctance to fight the battle ! He
felt strongly enough, that to enter upon that ground
would be to deliver the Jews much as they
were saved on one occasion in their history,
by all the contending sects rising up to destroy
one another. The apostolically baptised would
deny the Christianity of those who had been
merely sprinkled by " unauthorised teachers," the
evangelicals would denounce the Puseyites as
" leading immortal souls to hell ;" the Spoonerites
would cast out the Catholics as "idoliters and oath-
breakers"—while all of them would, with the tone
of excommunication, affirm that " Socinians were
no better than Infidels," and that both must be
treated as " Heathen men and Publicans." Well
may theology be a tabooed theme in the House.
We want no more BAREBONES' Parliaments, nor
QUEEN MARY'fi Parliaments either.
Our Legislature has long lost the distinc-
tion of an Episcopal Church, or even an Esta-
blished Church, Legislature. All sects, but
the one under discussion, find easy admis-
sion into it ; while the Atheist would certainly
not be deterred by oaths which he regards as
mummery, and a WILKES found them no bar to
his entrance. A man who seriously violates the
moral precepts of Christianity, is surely, by uni-
versal consent, a greater foe to its interests, than
a Jew who keeps his own law. The advocates of
a Christian Legislature (in their technical sense)
ought, therefore, to have election committees to
try the question of the moral character of their
members, and to examine whether it was consis-
tent with the oath in which they professed Chris-
tianity. Woe, then, to the frequenters of Epsom,
Ascot, and Newmarket, if the Evangelicals hap-
pened to be a majority on the tribunal ! Our
creed on the subject is very short. Let a man's
Christianity show itself in conduct which induces
his fellow-men to trust him as their representa-
tive ; nothing more is needed. Real Christianity
needs no oath to bind it, and false Christianity
will be bound by none. If the social and moral
conduct of the Jew equals or surpasses that of the
Christian, he is as worthy of confidence as the
Christian ; and it can be nothing but religious per-
secution to visit him with political disqualifica-
tions, because he differs from you in religion only.
We have again, with pleasure, to commend the
language, as well as the course of Government,
on this occasion. The speech of Mr. SIDNEY
HERRERT was masterly and thoroughgoing, and
Lord JouN was quite worthy of his life-long right-
mindedness on the question of religious liberty.
Should he, however, fail to carry his measure
through the Lords, we shall be obliged to censure
his want of generalship ; since we maintain that
the House of Commons is quite competent to
settle the question by a simple resolution of its
own. It ought not to submit to the dictation of
the Upper House, as to the indulgence needed by
the consciences of its members.

Among the multitude of books which continu-
ally come under our notice, it is long since we
have met with one more interesting than a work
bearing a perhaps not very attractive title,*
written by the late Inspector of Prisons. We
earnestly commend it to the careful perusal of all
concerned—and who is not concerned ?—in the
well-being of the community of which they form
a part. Mr. HILL's opinions are worthy of
attention, because they are not the wild
speculations of a theorist, but have been
subjected to the tests of actual experi-
ence. He prefaces his remarks with a prudent
caution to the eager philanthropist against undue
expectations formed with regard to any indvidual
r4form. Each improvement, good in itself, is
chiefly valuable as part of a general system. This
fa
n. fact cannot be too much impressed upon the atten-
ft. of those rival benefactors of society who,
e ch believing that universal happiness must
b the result of some infalliable scheme of their
o n, will suffer no co-operation with their endea-
vours, but wage war against all who would do
god by any other means. The field is wide
enough, Heaven knows, for us all. Every reli-
gious denomination, every political creed, may
here find enough occupation for all its members
apart from sectarian differences. When the enemy
knocks at the gates of the citadel, all good citi-
zens, no matter what their municipal misunder-
standings, form into rank and march together
against the foe. One common danger annihilates
immaterial differences, and the bond of brotherhood
is at once recognised. The force of that example
makes itself very palpable to us when contem-
plating this large volume by our side, containing
hundreds of pages, and all filled with the records
of Crime ! This enemy—this common enemy—is
within our gates, consuming the vitals of our pros-
perity, but before we can combine to repel his
advances, Politicians pause to decide about the
colours they must carry, and Christians wait to
arrange the order of their precedence 1
Gloomy as the records of these pages are,
it is nevertheless satisfactory to find testimony
borne by one so well competent to give it as to
the diminution of crime of latter years, com-
paratively. How much yet exists to sadden the
hearts of the thoughtful, and to bewilder the
combinations of the statesman, may be seen from
a very cursory glance at the facts here collected.
The object of this work is threefold. It sets
forth the Amount, the Causes, and the Remedies
of Crime. Of Causes Mr. HILL enumerates
six :

1. Bad Training and Ignorance.
2. Drunkenness and other kinds of profligacy.
3. Poverty.
4. Habits of violating the laws engendered by
the creation of artificial offences.
5. Other measures of legislation, interfering
unnecessarily in private actions, or presenting
examples of injustice.
6. Temptations to crime, caused by the proba-
bility either of entire escape or of subjection to an
insufficient punishment.
The advocates of popular education will here
find abundant corroboration to their arguments.
In one account, among the prisoners of _one year,
we find that less than one in three could read
well, not one in thirteen could write well, and
only one in fifty had learnt more than mere reading
and writing. We shall take another opportunity
of considering Mr. HILL'S suggestions on the
all-important matter of Education, in one very
significant portion of which he reminds us of
the efficacy of good parental training, by showing
that a large part of the inmates of prisons are
orphans, or hare lost one parent. So widely ex-
tended is the subject-matter of this work, that our
only intention in these remarks is to direct to it
the attention of our readers, reserving a further
consideration of its " Remedies" for another time.