The Sun.
London, England, 1847-03-31 00:00:00

day six months. After a short debate, the Hon.
M.P.
mher withdrew t amendment.

The House then went into Committee pro forma,
and, on the motion of Mr. F. MAULE, it was agreed
that the Chairman should have leave to sit again
to-day.
The Irish Waste Lands Bill passed through Com-
mittee, the report to be received this day.
Lord MORPETII then brought in the Health of
Towns Improvement Bill, which was read a first
time, and ordered to be read a second time on the
23d of April.

The House adjourned at Half-past One.

The Bill for limiting the term of enlistment in the
army has excited the wrath of many of the old
officers--men who cannot tolerate the idea of any
improvement or amelioratio❑ in the condition of the
private soldier at variance with their own preju-
dices—who look upon him as a dull, unreasoning
machine, without the feelings of ordinary huma-
nity, whose comfort and happiness is a matter of
perfect indifference, so long as he can be brought to
go through the usual routine of his duty, and who
disregard the motives by which he is led to
the performance of those duties, the main-
tenance and preservation of discipline, and of a fit and
proper subordination. The Marquis of LONDON-
DERRY on Monday night led the attack in the House
of Lords. He could not wait patiently until the
measure, to which he was opposed, had been brought
properly under the consideration of their Lordships.
He could not restrain himself for the brief period
that must necessarily elapse until the Bill was brought
into the Upper House, when in his legislatorial capa-
city, he would have the full opportunity of express-
ing his opinions, and when his brother Peers
would be well pleased to hear the fruits of his
experience. He sought to 'attain his object by
asking whether the illustrious Duke 'at the head of
the army had sanctioned and approved of the measure.
It must have been obvious to the Noble Marquis that it
would introduce a most dangerous precedent as regards
the confidential communications of persons holding
high official stations, if the opinions expressed by
them, as to the prudence and feasibility of any con-
templated enactment, while the same was under con-
sideration, were to be promulgated and published ;
and that any answer to his question must be denied.
The veteran Commander-in-Chief is a Member
of the Senate, and most punctual and assiduous
in the discharge of his duties. It is not
to be supposed that he will suffer the Bill to be passed
sub silentio, without stating his opinion as to the pro-
bable effects and policy of a measure of such import-
ance to the service over which he so worthily presides.
We have every respect for the Marquis of LONDON-
DERRY as a gallant and distinguished officer. We
have not any desire to detract from his brilliant ex-
ploits, or the acknowledged services he has rendered
to his country on many a sanguinary field; and
through many fierce encounters ; but with all that re-
sp'ect, we cannot succumb to his authority, nor would
we do so, even to that of the Iron Duke himself on
a point where an opinion could be formed on the jus-
tice and propriety of the proposed change. We shall
gladly weigh and pay full attention to the arguments
which the Noble Marquis may urge in favour of his
own views, but if not convinced thereby, we cannot
3 ield to the authority of his name, or the respect we
entertain for his distinguished services.
We cannot agree with the Noble Marquis, that it
is a question that can only be understood by military
men, and on which they alone should decide. Expe-
rience has proved that persons interested in any
profession are the worst legislators with respect
thereto. Their minds are chained down to petty for-
malities, and are more or less prejudiced, so that they
cannot take enlarged or comprehensive views on the
subject. We should be sorry indeed if no change in
the law could be effected without the sanction of
those who made the profession of the law their pe-
culiar study. We conceive that a person of clear in-
tellect and sound judgment would be as fully quali-
fied to decide on the means by which crime could
be repressed, although wholly unskilled in legal
subtleties and technicalities, as the sharpest prac-
titioner in the criminal courts. In In like
manner. we conceive an intelligent and well-
informed civilian as competent "/' to form a
correct opinion as to the policy of limiting
the time of enlistment, or improving the condition of
the soldier, as those who have spent their lives in the
service. Indeed, more so; for he would have no
pre-conceived opinions to obstruct his view or bias
his judgment.
The opponents of the measure contend that there
is no necessity for it, because a man, if he has good-
conduct marks, can obtain his discharge at the end of
ten years' service for a mere trifle. We confess that
we would prefer retaining the services of such men, if
by any means they could be induced to remain,
and getting rid of the less meritorious soldiers.' By the
present system, the careless and good-foi•-nothing
man, who is perhaps disgusted with the army, is
forced to remain, and in consequence he becomes ab-
solutely reckless. He has no hope of being discharged
within any fixed time, and he frequently commits
offences in order that he may be sentenced to trans-
portation, or—still more horrible—maims and mutilates
himself, in the hope of thereby obtaining his dis-
charge. He becomes an habitual drunkard, or deserts,
because he is without hope, and cannot look for-
ward to the time when he will at length be
liberated from his thraldom ; but if there is a certain
time for his discharge, he consoles himself with the
idea that he will shortly be free. His chagrin
passes, his pride, and the desire of having a good
character at the time of his discharge, induce
him to behave himself properly ; he becomes con-
tented with his position and probably re-enlists,
or else the service gets rid of a man unsuited
to the military life. Many will enter the army under
such circumstances with the full consent of their
pa

rents and friends who would not otherwise be pro-
cured, and in cases of emergency there will be a body
of men trained to arms, ready to come forward for
the protection of their country or the maintenance of
its rights and privileges.

The Easter vacation has happily not arrived before
the Poor Relief (Ireland) Bill has passed triumph-
antly through Committee. Parliament has nobly
fulfilled the expectations of the people in labouring
night after night for the alleviation of Irish destitu-
tion, for the diminution of Irish mortality, for the
assuagement of Irish sorrows, for the final termina-
tion of Irish misgovernment. Nobly has the present
Administration championed on the aggregate Legis-
lature of which it is rendered by the laws of the
Constitution the natural guide and admonisher
—nobly, we say, has the present Administration
championed on the aggregate Legislature in these
labours of political benevolence and national gene-
rosity during days of unparalleled darkness and

Matters hare come to the pass we anticipated.
The increase of juvenile criminals has, so far as the
letter of the law is concerned, thrown justice off its
balance. The Judges, actuated by motives of the
highest benevolence, wink at the provisions of the
statute. Youths are placed at the bar of criminal jus-
tice of such an exceedingly tender age, that common
sense resists the supposition that they could scarcely
have been either the conscious or willing instruments
in the perpetration of the offences with which
they are charged; and humanity revolts at the
idea of the certain consequences, adverse to
their morals and future welfare, that would
directly emanate from their commitment to prison.
Our prison discipline is so imperfect, so deficient
in point of classification, that would admit of
a wise discrimination being exercised between the
different ages and characters of prisoners, that the
youthful offender is sure, at the termination. of his
sentence, of quitting the gaol far more depraved in
his morals from the contamination he has suffered by
having been mingled with old and hardened
criminals, than when he first entered within its
walls. Thus, upon the whole, we have a fearful
picture to contemplate. We have first crime
gaining a rapid and frightful ascendancy; ne it, we
are unprovided with the requisite means for checking
it in a salutary manner ; and, lastly, we have the
Judges shrinking from the strict performance of their
duties, as enjoined by law. Society is diseased down
to its very roots. According to Mr. Sergeant ADAms,
the judge at the Middlesex Sessions, we are assured
thst " experience has proved to a court of jus.:ice how
often it happens that parents endeavour, by i uducing
their children to commit crime, to throw the m upon
the State for support, and that only a few dad 'a back
he had four cases where the parents had endea,'7ourea
to rid themselves of the natural burden of their ch ildren
by prosecuting them !" Last week, at Bury Sc. Ed-
munds, a boy of ten years, stood indicted hefore
the LORD CHIEF BARON ; no com)sel app(
whereupon the jury were addressed by the Judge in
the following terms :
He was unable to comprehend what benefit the
public could possibly derive from the prosecution .of' the
child. His parents were able and willing to take care
of him ; they were respectable persons, to whom the
task of reclaiming him might safely be confided ;, and
without determining the age at which responsibility
might safely be enforced, or disregarding the poss.ibility
of precocious maturity, he thought that, as the deposi-
tions did not show the boy to have been the to )1 of
others, the interests of society did not require th at this
child should be branded as a felon for life, and be e .xFosed
to the contamination of a gaol On these grounds he had
not permitted the boy's plea of ' guilty' to stand ; on the
same grounds he should abstain from offering ev.'d ence
for the prosecution, so that it would be the duty ,f the
jury to acquit ; and on the same grounds he should ch. ecr-
fully encounter the whole blame, if any was merittul, for
the course he now adopted."
One cannot but commend the excellence of the
motive which induced the Chief Baron to tak a this
step. On the other hand, we cannot shut ;our• eyes
to the fact that a precedent has herein been set which
might lead to pernicious results. A disp, ?.Ltsing
authority was assumed which the law does not re

cognise. The Judge clearly stepped beyond his pro-
vince. He is bound to administer the law as; he
finds it laid down, regardless of the consequ, aces,
good or bad, in all its bearings ; instead of whi c h he
declined to enforce it, because in his indivi dual
judgment, the effect upon the criminal W( tuld
be prejudicial in the extreme. This is, iry Vact,
to confound the duties of the judge -with
those of the legislator. Again, this judicial laniel icy
may tend to increase the very evil by which s ocie ty
is beset. Parents may be stimulated, by its e xhib 1-
tion, to persevere in their atrocious speculation, as in -
dicated by Mr. Sergeant ADAMS in the fore going;
for whilst their offspring may escape with imi )unity,
the parents take the chance of benefiting the: riselves
by the amount of the property whit h they
have incited the children to steal. o.ne of
two things must happen ; either the Law in

respect to prison discipline, as affecting juvenile
delinquents, must be promptly and materially r evised
and amended, or the Judges must be taught not to
go beyond the limits to w hich they are r esti •ained
by law. The first of these is undoubtedly the. task to
which the Legislature should at once devote i is .unre-

miffing attention. Matters cannot remain as they
are. It is not very easy to provide an efficient
remedy for the disease which is preying u. pon the
vitals of society. We shall, however, upon a a early
occasion, offer some suggestions for future legi olation
on this important subject.