The Sun.
London, England, 1869-10-01 00:00:00

LATEST INTELL MINCE

(REUTER'S TELEGRAMS.)

AMERICA.
(Per French Atlantic Cable.)
NEW YORK, Sept. 30.

COMMERCIAL INTELLIGENCE.
CLOSING PRICES.

Gold closed at 1291 ; the highest quotation dur-
ing the day was 1311; the lowest, 1291.
Sterling Exchange on London lOB.
5-20 U. S. Bonds, 1882 l2O.
44 " 1885 ll9.
44 " 1867 ll7l.
10-40 64
1091.
Illinois 1351.
Erie
Cotton—Mil upland 27lc.
Petroleum—Standard White 3lc.
Flour, extra state, $5.95c. to $6.55c. Corn, old
mixed, sl.6c.

CHLVA.

HONGKONG, Sept. 2.

The Austrian Embassy bas opened negotiations
at Pekin for the conclusion of a treaty, but it is
said that the Envoy is annoyed at the needless de-
lay on the part of the Chinese authorities in ar-
ranging terms.

THE BOMBAY MAILS.

SOUTHAMPTON, OCt. 1.

The Peninsular and Oriental Company's steamer
Delhi, with the above mails, has arrived here with
30 passengers, £9,374 in specie, and a general cargo.
On the Nth die spoke the titer:mar Masailie.

MARSEILLES, OCt. 1.

The Peninsular and Oriental Company's steamer
Poonah arrived at Marseilles at one o'clock this
morning. The mails leave for London at 10.45.

FRANCE.
BOURSE, Sept. 30.—Three::o'clock—The market
closed as follows :

4 per Cent.
End of month -
3 per Cent
End of month 7O 87i-
Credit Mobilier 215
Transatlantic 262 5G
Credit Foncier 1695
Paris Gas 1620 -
RAILWAY

Bank Shares 2837 50
Itaßan rives 53 10
Austrian Fives
Ottoman Loan
Do. Debt 42
Spanish Threes
Rome Debt —
Deferred —
8.

Cash
Orleans , ... 963 k
Western
Northern ... 1095
Strasburg . 592/
Lyons and Mediterranean
Southern..... 612/
Sardinian
Austrian 767/
Lombard 5OBl
North of Spain 49
Saragossa
Roman 5O

THE SOCIAL SCIENCE CONGRESS.

BRISTOL, THUIZSDAY.

Sir Stafford Northeote has won golden opinions both by
the character of his address and the effective way in
Vhich he presented it to his audience. In the President's
delivery it would have been difficult to detect a flaw. Not
a single point missed its mark, and had it not been that
the printed slips, from which it was read, were visible, it
would have been scarcely possible for anyone to detect
that the address was not an extempore effort.

The departments have been in full swing to-day. At ten
o'clock this morning there was a large gathering of members
and associates in tho Victoria Rooms to hear the address
of Mr. George IVoodyatt Hastings, the President of the
Department of Jurisprudence and Amendment of the Law.
Thence an adjournment was made to the various meetings
of sections.

OUR PREAL AND CIVIL LAW.
The address of the President of Jurisprudence and
Amendment of the T..;,w Department was a lengthy one.
Mr. Hastings, aft:r dwelling upon the importance of the
subject of i':_risprudence, proceeded to investigate the best
means of arranging and enforcing the criminal and civil
la so as to secure the greatest benefit to the general com-
munity. "If punishments are merely vindictive, if an
exaggerated severity beget a reluctance to convict, or a
mistaken leniency abolish the certainty of sentence, if
prisons corrupt without detening, cr enervate without re-
forming, if prisoners are dismissed as idle and thriftless as
they came, or are tizzifed adrift without help to find employ-
ment as they ,Atn, if old and young, the casual offender and
the praeivise4 criminal, are treated with a stupid sameness,
if a predatory class is allowed to wage war on society with no
control and little molestation, if the police be inefficient, or
prosecutions be ill-conducted, or the matistracy be incapable
then the criminal law, however well intended, will fail in its
object, and the cry of the people for justice and security will
remain unappeased." All these faults have at some time
or other disgraced our penal law, and many of them exist
still. Wearisome delays, costly and complicated processes,
distant and intermittent courts were not less injurious to
the efficacy of the civil law. Mr. Hastings congratulated
the association on its success in advocating the better
treatment of criminals. "Continually since our
first Congress, and especially since our meeting
at Dublin in 1861, when our members had the
opportunity of visiting the Mountjoy prison, and that
remarkable establishment, the intermediate prison at Lusk,
we have advooated the introduction into Great Britain,
and the complete development of the Crofton system. I
call it, as it ought to be called, after its distinguished
founder, whom at this meeting we are able to name as the
Right Honourable Sir Walter Crofton, raised to the rank of
Privy Councillor by the Irish Government in recognition of
his invaluable services. Guided and instructed by him, the
association has repeatedly affirmed the true principles of
convict discipline, the individualising of the prisoners, the
division of the term of sentence into several stages,
of separate confinement, of associated labour, of inter-
mediate probation, and of release under supervision,
through which a convict rises by a system of marks in
exact proportion to his good conduct and industry, and in
any one of which he can be at once relegated for miscon-
duct to the bottom of the scale." Agreeing with the
opinion that drink and bad company were the principal
causes of crime, the President devoted much attention to
the licensing question. The power of granting licences
should, ho said, be placed solely in the hands of the
magistrates. Something in this direction had been
done by the Act of last session; but this
measure by no means represented all the reform
that the question required. "It is well, indeed, to have
taken the first step for the removal of that curse which the
Beerhouse Act entailed on the country, but let us remem-
ber that this amendment of the licensing system is only a
means to an end, and not the end itself. The object to be
aimed at is the cure of, perhaps, the greatest evil that now
afflicts our population. It has been said, indeed, in answer
to every proposal for legislative interference, that you cannot
make men sober by Act of Parliament. Nobody has ad-
vanced that you can. It is no more possible to create tem-
perance, in its true sense, by enactment, than it is to create
chastity, or honesty, or ?ruth. But the point on which I
submit that the law sins against the canons of jurispru-
dence, as I have ventured to express them, is this—that it
legalises temptation to vice. Speaking from the most
moderate view of the question, putting on one side the
total abstinence ideas, is it not certain that the number of
licensed houses in the kingdom vastly exceeds the amount
required for any purpose of reasonable refreshment ?
But is it not equally certain, argue how you will,
that every house in excess of that amount is an inde-
fensible evil? Yet it is an evil existing under the direct
sanction of the Legislature, which by professing to regu-
late the number, undertakes the • responsibility that it
shall not exceed the legitimate limit."
Sir Stafford Northcote highly complimented Mr.
Hastings on his address, describing it as a complete
vindication of the usefulness of the association in promoting
the amendment of the law.