The Sun.
London, England, 1848-10-05 00:00:00

THE SUN, LIOISDON,

We most heartily wish the Financial Reform
Association good speed in the arduous path on which
they have entered. They must make up their minds
to encounter reproach,:ridicule, and obloquy, in every
form, from those interested in maintaining the present
state of things, of evading the demands that should
be made upon themselves, by placing them upon the
overburdened shoulders of the " many" who, with all
their patient industry, are sinking under the
weight. But they need not fear that a de-
cisive triumph will ultimately crown their
exertions. A glorious example is before
them in the rise, progress, and final success of the
" Anti-Corn-law League." Let the leaders of the
present movement exhibit but a moiety of the energy
and resolution of the members of that League, and a
similar result must follow their exertions—and that
in far less time than it required to achieve the first
victory. We are rejoiced to find it announced that
the meeting to which we hare alluded is but the first
of a series, in which it is intended to consider the
important questions introduced to the public notice
upon that occasion.

Imprisonment is slavery; and slavery is the surest
means of degenerating the faculties of man. Now
that the punishment of felony is changed from trans-
portation to imprisonment, it becomes necessary to
reflect upon the consequences of the latter penalty, in
order, if possible, to prevent results which might
prove destructive to the whole social system of our
population. It has been found by experience that
the effect of slavery upon an individual, when that
individual has been deprived of all hope of manumis-
sion has conduced to a profound physical and moral
degradation : no stimulus whatever has incited the
bondsman to exertion ; he has lapsed into a depraved
torpor or a brutalised sensuality. From a preva-
lence of this stubborn and unnatural system in Nor-
folk Island, the wretched convicts in that settlement
sank from criminality to criminality until they were
at last wallowing in a slough of sin such
as was calculated to fill the imagination even of
a - Sun or a DE BALZAC with astonishment.
ateds which make us shudder to think
ef;and the recital of which causes the heart to sicken
with horror, became- the habitual practices, or the
casual recreations of the prisoners in that beautiful
but abused region. And so it would inevitably have
continued up to the present moment, but that a
novel and admirable system was introduced by Cap-
tain MACONOCEIE, R.N.. at the period when he was
Superintendent of Norfolk Island, a system which
gradually diminished the sloth, and with the sloth the
crimes of the unfortunate felons under his direction.
This system, which was practised for nearly four
years, namely, from March, 1840, up to February,
1844, was christened by Captain MACONOCHIE the
Mark System. Although from certain causes, which
were found to be insurmountable, the system was
tested very inadequately on Norfolk Island, its
correctness was sufficiently proved by the remark-
able change for the better, perceptible among
the criminals. To explain in as few words
as possible the principles upon which the Mark
System was founded, we may observe that they were
classified in these three divisions :
I. The duration of sentences was to be measured
out by good conduct and labour combined, with a
minimum of time, but no maximum.

1 11. The labour which was thus declared to be re-
quisite was to be represented by marks, a certain
number of these marks, proportioned according to the
culpability of the felon, being required to be gained
in a penal condition before release.

111. In order to afford additional strength to these
moral restraints and stimulants, the prisoners were
distributed in parties of half-a-dozen, with common
interests, each man thus labouring and refraining for
others as well as for himself.

Without entering more minutely into the arrange-
ments of this scheme of improvement, it is obvious
that the consequences of its operation must by neces-
sity be beneficial, inasmuch as it holds out the most
powerful inducement to good behaviour, and the
strongest incitement to exertion. The men worked
" with a full knowledge every stroke brought them
nearer to liberty." The chief punishment then—
labour—was transformed from an end into a means.

As an end it had been barren and pernicious; as a
means it became rapidly fruitful of advantage to the
convicts, whether in their individual or aggregate
capacities. "In the sweat of their brows" they
earned not only " their bread," but their freedom.
Now that the action of the criminal law has been
reversed, in as far as the punishment of transporta-
tion is concerned, now that the felons are retained at
home, to work in Portland Island instead of in Norfolk
Island, now that the necessities of prison discipline
have consequently become of a more immediate and
complicated importance, the adoption of the admir-
able system contrived by the ingenious humanity of
Captain MACONOCHIE, appears to us to be the most
rational determination that could be arrived at by our
Government. It is a matter, at least, which demands
the most serious attention of the Home Secretary ;
and Sir GEORGE GREY must reflect, moreover, that
the Mark System is no merely hypothetical sugges-
tion, but that it is, on the contrary, a plan which

has been tried under the most severe circumstances,

n a den of villany and licentiousness, where a]

the aids of precept and example, of Christianity and
civilization are little less than invisible. That some-

.hing beyond the barren fulfilment of certain duties

is requisite in our places of incarceration,
preserve the prisoners from indolence and vice, has
arce in order to
been forcibly shown by a century of experiment. The
medium of probation mug undergo a radical modifi-
cation, or, rather, a complete re-organisation ; other-
wise, with the extension of our prisons and the ac-
cumulation of our criminals, we shall inevitably have
a frightful increase in the horrors resulting from a
false system of expiation.

We are almost weary of commenting upon the
frequent recurrence of some new instance of the
futility of human hopes and the instability of mortal
fortunes. Of such events the present year has already
afforded us an innumearble variety, and now another
is added to the momentous catalogue. The inimit-
able verses of Dr. JOHNSON illustrate the " Vanity of
Human Wishes " far less effectually and less impres-
sively than does the casual perusal of two newspaper
paragraphs now to be met with. The one tells of the
Count DE NEUILLY in his retirement ; the other
chronicles the baptism of a Princess with twenty
names. Another grand-child is added to Lours
PHILIPPE'S numerous family—a child whose birth
was perhaps looked forward to with as much of
anxious and ambitious hope as crowded around the
cradle of the Count DE PARIS. Hopes and ambition
were futile in both instances. The young Duchess
Of PORT ST. MARY'S, the Infanta MARIA ISABELLA
&c. &c. &c., the presumptive heiress of the
Crown of Spain, is, it is true, the daughter of
the Duke of MONTPENSIER, but she is not,
as was so confidently expected, the grand-daughter
of the KING of the FRENCH. Little matters it to the
exile of Claremont whether or no the Pyrenees now
exist. Little matters it to Louis PHILIPPE now,
saving only as regards his son, whether or no his
grandchild be the Sovereign of Spain. In a political
point of view the subiect is wholly unimportant to
him. And this is the guerdon of his many sacrifices

perused the opinions we have from time to time puc
forward on this deeply interesting and all-
important subject. We can never have our trade
and commerce really free and unrestricted until
the imposts levied upon the introduction of the pro-
duce of other lands have been wholly, or at least to a
very great degree, abolished. Then indeed England
would become the emporium of the world, the mart
in which the commodities of every nation would be
exchanged. It would be impossible to assign limits
to the commercial activity that would be thereby
occasioned, or to the stimulant that would be
applied to our native manufactures. The
people would be contented and happy, while
the actual burden would be borne by those who, in
justice and equity, should be saddled therewith—the
possessors of that property, for the preservation and
improvement of which, our National Debt was created,
and the great bulk of the national expenditure is ren-
dered necessary. Every person who attentively considers
this vitally important subject, without bias or preju-
dice, must arrive at the conclusion, that every prin-
ciple of justice and equity, of policy and expediency,
demand the substitution " of a direct system of taxa-
tion, fairly and equitably apportioned on property and
income, in lieu of the present unequal, complicated
and expensively-collected duties upon commodities."

and his arduous endeavours ! It was for this he broke
up his cordial understanding with England, for this
he sacrificed his popularity in France, for this he lost
his crown, his power, his position! Behold the
triumph of the Machiavellian diplomatist. Behold
the issue of the wisdom of the Ulysses of modern
times. He has won, and he has not won. He has
gained the object, the literal object, of his endeavours,
and he has lost, he has utterly lost the real
object at which he aimed. His hand will
n„,,r sway the destinies of France and Spain. We
can aba:ost imagine that at such a moment, the birth
of his Spa:nish grandchild—an event which under
other circumstlAnces would have filled him with exulta-
tion—must be pru.'ducte
of grief rather than of rejoic-
ing. It cannot be bt:t i
this event must cruelly remind
v
nas
him of his cherished &ea.. now so utterly dispelled,
and his cunning schemes no, ' so irremediably over-
thrown. We should not wish to add to the bitterness
of the cup which the dethroned kOnarch has been
doomed to drink, we should be loth to aggravate the
weight of sorrow which must weigh dowii his aged
head ; nevertheless, any sufferings occasioned
by his interference in Spain must be
regarded as a fitting, although appalling,
retribution. We will not again particularise
the unhappily too well accredited enormities of Lours
PHILIPPE'S conduct with regard to the Spanish
marriages. That conduct has been adequately
punished. He has not only not gained the object of
his sinful schemes, but he has sustained a more than
equivalent loss in addition. And now, in his day of
adversity, while he sojourns in exile, the child
which was to have been the crowning evidence
of his greatness, comes into the world only,
to make more evident the failure of his am-
bition. Alas I for human hopes for human
hopes based on no surer foundation than those of
Lours PHILIPPE. Are we wrong in adducing the
birth of the new Infanta of Spain as another instance
of the mutability of fortunes ? Are we wrong in re-
cording this particular instance, more especially to
the attention of any Sovereigns (if such there now
exist) who may wish to play the same game as that
just played, with such ill success, by Lours PHILIPPE,
or to any Ministers whom " the brain may reason out
the heart," as it is said to have happened with a late
Minister of France ?