The Sun.
London, England, 1846-04-10 00:00:00

K '

LONDON, FRIDAY, APRIL 10, 1846.

From the scanty particulars obtained at the meeting
of the Middlesex Magistrates, held y6terday, some
extremely important deductions may be drawn. WE
have taken occasion more than once to protest against
the system hitherto adopted for the suppression of crime
and the prevention oflocial misdemeanours. The prin-
6ple that " Punishment" is the Hercules to be em-
ployed in the cleansing of this Augean Stable of Vice has
ever appeared to us as rotten at the core, and hence we
have constantly and earnestly insisted upon the necessity
of some thorough transformaticn in the entire fabric of
criminal jurisprudence. We acknowledge ourselves
sanguine as to the consequences of a grand moral revo-
lution of this description, and we look upon its realisa-
tion as far from impracticable. Hitherto the question of
criminality in the populace has been considered
only us suppressible by retribution. Men were
to be awed into probity, shamed into decency, or
goaded into virtue. The experience of all ages
proves thin to bare been a most inefficacious
system. Penalties, now onerous, now lenient, have
been enforced—and still depravity has continued to
flourish. Justice has been erroneously pourtrayed as
wielding a sword, and sometimes, even, with the intention
of vindicating the " majesty of the law," the scales of
the benign goddess have been either tampered with or
forgotten. A more mistaken mode of purifying a king
dom from the disorders which have always been, more
or lees, prevalent in society, could not possibly have been
adopted. Prevent the recurrer ! of vice by instilling
knowledge and the right principles of morality into the
popular mind, and then, if any incorrigible specimens
of licentiousness present themselves, let the offence be
expiated. Give the multitude an opportunity of be-
coming decent citizens ; but, in the name of propriety
sense, do not tacitly encourage, by your
propagation of villany for the mere
crowding your penitentiaries, or of
lions of Australia. If we look simply to
ciiiaie; the mode by which it can be the
ly prevented becomes obvious. A. mss

guided by the dictates of wisdom is inevitably virtuous ;
by the right acquisition of knowledge he becomes ipsc
facto less liable to violate the natural code of right and
wrong ;—the inference of which reasoning must be
that vice is the child of ignorance. Hence for the
eradication or suppression of that vice, education is
the most rational and the most efficient instrument.
Animated with these convictions, we cannot but yearn
for some comprehensive change in this branch of legis-
lation. Everything goes to enforce the necessity of some
radical alteration of the kind ; nor do we consider the:
matter as anything but feasible. Some of the
calculations produced at the meeting of the
Middlesex Magistrates yesterday were significant
indications enough that we are at present proceeding
upon a most fallacious system. On this head let us
merely examine the criminal statistics there given with
reference to two of our metropolitan places of confine
ment. The numbers will be of themselves the advo..
cates of the reformation of which we are speaking; they
plead most eloquently for the interposition of the Legis-
lature. From the report produced by the visiting jus
tices of the House of Correction, Coldbath-fields, " it
appeared that there were at present one thousand and
t<renty three prisoners confined within the walls of that
gaol!" Here we have a large battalion of our fellow-
countrymen pent up in a state of comparative inactivity
and uselessness, a degradation to themselves, a burden
upon the country, and a disgrace to society, And yet,
by a judicious preparatory mode of instruction, those
1,023 human beings might, at the present moment, be
gaining an honest livelihood, and adding the impetus of
their ingenuity and their bodily strength to our national
industry. "Of these there are 757 males !" That is
surely enough of itself. On a similar authority we learn
that 677 prisoners are now the inmates of the West-
minster Bridewell: of these, " 500 were males !" To
this circumstance, however, we are compelled to add
another, infinitely more deplorable. We transcribe the
precise language of the report :—" Since the commence-
ment of the pulling down of the New Prison, Clerken-
well, on the Ist of September last, the num-
ber of commitmeits to Westminster had amounted
to 3,830, and that since the 21st of February
only they had not been feu er than 7 5 4." We
shall abstain from any detailed commentaries upon
this statement, conceiving, as we do, that the insuffi-
ciency of the existing mode of prevention is, in point of
fact, no mode of prevention whatever. Public attention
has been already directed to this great social blemish,
among others by ourselves; the inefficacy of punishment
for the eradication of vice is even now recognised, and
hopefully we anticipate some decisive movement. As
one step in advance we were rejoiced to perceive that at
the magisterial meeting in question a memorial from the
Philanthropic Society (" offering their establishment,
or a certain portion of it, in aid of the proposed reform-
atory for juvenile offenders ") was referred to a corn-
miette, " for the purpose of seeing what means could the
best be adopted, with a view to the checking of juvenile
crime, and reforming the juvenile offenders." These
efforts, of which the preceding is an example, have en-
gaged our warmest sympathies.

Accounts from Berne, of the 3d instant, state that the
Bishop of SOLEURE had addressed a letter to the consti-
tuent Assembly of the Canton of Berne, protesting
against any oath which the Assembly might see fit to
impose on the Roman Catholic clergy of that canton
with regard to the constitution then under consideration,
inasmuch as the clergy did not consider itself relieved
froiia the oath which, with the authorisation of the Holy
See, it had taken to the constitution of 1831. They also
prayed the Assembly to guarantee to the Roman Ca-
tholic Church, by a special article in the new constitu-
tion, the maintenance of its rights as stipulated in 1815.

The following appears in the German Universal Ga-
zette, under the date, Cracow, 30th of March :
It is a peasant named Sala who is at the head of
the insurgents who are still in the field, and these are
the terms on which he offers to order his men to lay
down their arms :—Abolition of the feudal service—sup-
pression of taxes—sale of salt at a fixed price per
quintal—a general participation of the land, one-fourth
to be allotted to the nobles, and the three other fourths
divided among the peasantry. It is said that a person of
note has the direction of the movement at Tilsna, and
represents the civil power, while Sala considers himself
to be the military chief."
A letter from Posen, of the 24th, in the Voss Gazette,
mentions a rumour that, in several of the districts of the
Grand Duchy, the peasantry have signed a declaration,
that, being grateful for the welfare that they had enjoyed
under the rule of Prussia, they were resolved to oppose
all attempts at revolution on the part of the nobles, and
by the energy of their own resistance render unnecessary
any proceedings on the part of the Government.
A letter from Breslau, of the 24th ult., states that a
band of insurgents, under a noble, is in occupation of
the forests of the district of Ostrolewka, which communi-
cates with the famed forest of Biavelege, in Lithuania.
This body is composed of a race of half noble peasantry,
called Kurpies, who from remote times possess lands
given to them by bishops or Starosts, in remuneration of
services rendered to the church or to the country.
These Kurpies, on multiplying, had partitioned out the
lands in numerous portions, but when the estates of the
clergy were confiscated by the Government, they became
tenants of the Crown, without being subjected to suit
and service.

A Cousistory is to be held at Rome on the 16th
April, at which the Archbishop of NAPLES will receive
a cardinal's hat. A letter from Rome, dated 20th ult.,

says that the POPE has obtained from Russia the per-
mission for au Apostolic Nuncio to reside at St. Peters.
burgh, and the Cardinal Prince ALTIERI will be ap.
pointed to that office.

The Augsburg Gazette publishes a letter, dated Odessa,
March 8, which contains the following important intel-
ligence from Persia
We have news from Persia by Trebisond. The
bodily health of the Shah is improved, but his mind, it
is said, suffers. It is now exceedingly difficult for the
foreign ambassadors to have interviews with him. Great
astonishment was excited at Teheran by the unexpected
return of Mirza llschafar Khan, the extaordinary, am-
bassador from Tiflis, without having continued his Jour-
ney to St. Petersburgh. It is known from a good source
that during his sojourn in the former city, the Governor-
General, Prince de Woronzow, received dispatches,
which authorised him to conclude a secret convention
with Persia, relative to several reciprocal concessions.
In order not to excite too much the jealousy of England,
the Russian Government, it is said, intimated to the am-
bassador that it did not desire his presence in St. Peters-
burgh. In place of a formal treaty, a convention was
nerely signed betweeen the Persian plenipotentiary and
the Governor-General of Trans-Caucasia. It is certain
hat Russia, even before the return of Mirza_Dschafar
Khan, was already in possession of the important advan-
'ages which this convention confirms. Naval arsenals
and dockyards were already commenced on the part of
the Russians in the Persian ports of the Caspian Sea, and
the harbours of Engeli and Astrabad are now in a certain
measure in their power. Between Reschz and Teheran
he construction of fortified caravansaries to protect trade
has also been begun, and from the manner in which the
soldiers of the Russian line conduct themselves, one would
almost imagine that the Cabinet of St. Petersburgh was al-
ready in possession of that province of Persia. At Astrabad
number of Russian miners were daily expected to work,
for the Russian Government, the rich mines of copper,
tin, and coal, abounding in that part of the country. The
Persian Government has farmed out these mines to the
Russians. It having been reported that the Russian
deserters in Persia were to be sent to the Araxes, a
number of them who were at Tauris fled for refuge to
Turkey. Many had entered the Persian arms , and
turned Mahometans. Pechmen Mirza, brother of the
Shah, is said to have favoured their flight. But some
of them, who had fixed their residence in other towns of
the empire, have been given up to the Russian authori-
I ties. The Persian Government has also entered into an
engagement to force the families of peasants, which had
emigrated from Arminia and Tartary, to return to the
Russian territory. All these conces.ions have been made
)3,, the Vizier to secure, by a formal engagement of the
Russian Government, the succession to the throne of the
,on of the present Shah, a lad of only 16 years of age,
and half an idiot. The Russians have, in fact, numerous
troops on the Araxes, to put down any revolt that
might be attempted in favour of one of the sons of Feth
Alisbah. It is only in case that Pechman Mirza, bro-
ther of the Shah, should declare in favour of this young
wan that he could Lave any chance of success. The
Army is well inclined towards him, and hitherto Pech-
man Mirza has Manifested great attachment to his bro-
ther and his family. The cholera is raging in several
provinces in Persia, having been originally introduced
by the Neret caravans into Khorassan. From thence it
spread all over the country. At Meschid, a third of the
population has perished, and at Teheran and Ispahan
the inhabitants of entire quarters have been carried off.
rowartis the middle of February Asserberdshan was
,till exempt from this plague.

Accounts from Madrid, dated the 4th instant, an-
nounce that General NARVAEZ had resigned, that
his resignation had been accepted, and that the fol-
lowing appointments had taken place :

M. Isztrarrz, President of the Council and Minister
of Foreign Affairs ;
M. AamEao, Minister of Marine ;
M. EGANA, to remain as Minister of Justice ;
M. MoN, Minister of Finance.

It was reported that the real cause of the crisis was,
the unwillingness of the late Ministers to agree to a
proposition made by EGANA and PEZUELA, for tle im-
mediate marriage of the QUEEN with the son of Dun
CARLOS. The law on the subject of time bargains %as
merely put forward as the excuse. Generals CONCHA,
CORDOVA, nog DE OLANO, and ARAOZ, had, on the
2d, after some delay, obtained their passports, and were
preparing to leave Spain without delay. GONZALES
I.3uAvo, who had resigned his embassy to Lisbon, had
arrived in Madrid. Orders were sent to Corunua on the
2d to place the brig-of•war Constitution at the disposi-

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