The Sun.
London, England, 1869-09-23 00:00:00

TETE SUN, LONDON, THURSDAY EVENING, SEPTEMBER 23, 1569.

is no room now for retrogression. NAPOLEON
if he is no CINCINNATUS, has, in another sense, put his
hand to the plough, and will not turn back. At great
e merge n cies like that of the ever-memorable coup d'itat,
he can act with the most startling suddenness—his
will manifesting itself like the crash of a thunderbolt.
But at other periods, and under other circumstances,
his guiding principle is rather to " hasten slowly."
Time was, within our own recollection, when the
utmost solicitude was expressed, by one now long
sin3e deceased, who had elicited from the EMPEROR
his MAJESTY'S promise that he would release the
Emir ABD-EL-SADER from the Chateau of
Amboise, in which that heroic wearer of the
green turban was so infamously imprisoned,
contrary to all the rules of war and
of chivalry by King Louis PHILIPPE'S Go-
vernment. One of the dauntless soldiers of Eng-
land, a personal friend of the EMPEROR, and a gener-
ous sympathiser with the great Arab Chieftain, had
besought the former to release the latter from con-
finement, as a signal act of clemency on the part of
the then Prince-President of the French Republic.
His Imperial Highness had responded to the appeal
by at once yielding his assurance that the Emir should
be released. Time went on, the promise remained
unfulfilled, but, at length, the day arrived when the
Prince, removing from the Elysee to the Tuileries,
appeared there on one of the conspicuous balconies
of the old palace, in which on the 20th of April,
1808, he had been born, and to which he returned
(literally going home again) on the day we have just
now referred to, a now historical day in the Decem-
ber of 1852—NAPOLEON 111. by the Grace of GOD,
and by the will of the People, Emperor of the FRENCH,
appeared there on the balcony of the old Bourbon
Palace, having by his side, arrayed in the white bur-
nous and the green turban of the descendant of
the "Prophet," the liberated EMIR AB-DEL-
'WAR. The long cherished doubts were scat-
tered and forgotten. The Imperial promise was
fulfilled. Precisely -in the same way will it be, we
are firmly convinced, in regard to the completion of
the constitutional changes upon which NAPOLEON
HI., has, in the seventeenth year of his reign, ad-
ventured. His recent illness has of itself been a
sufficient reason for a delay in the development of
his plans. The EMPEROR'S health has now, how-
ever, been happily restored. The Legislative Body
will in due time be brought once more together. 10
doubt, in regard to that, would be simply an absurdity.
There is every conceivable inducement before the reign-
ing EMPEROR to complete the great work he has so
recently and so conspicuously commenced. By com-
pleting it alone can he hope to consolidate his Dy-
nasty. The fulfilment of his fair promises to France
in this matter will alone insure the succession to the
Imperial Throne of his only child, his son and heir,
the young Prince Imperial, under the name, style,
and title of the Emperor NAPOLEON IV. Nobody in
Europe realises this more fully than the present So-
vereign of France. The crowning of the edifice is
assured, for it has been commenced.

THE long letters which Sir CHARLES TREVELYAN
has written to the Pall Mall Gazette upon the
Devonshire labourer do not contain much that is
new to our readers, for he does little more than
reiterate the arguments which we have used
repeatedly in these columns. Nevertheless we are
very glad to have so influential a witness to
confirm what we have said. Sir CHARLES
points out that there is no good reaaon why the
Devonshire agricultural labourer should be so badly
off. His fellow labourer at the other extremity of
England gets about double the wages for the same kind
of work, and experience has shewn that the extra sum
is more than repaid to the farmer by the extra work
which is performed. Mr. BAILEY DENTON has told
how, having some extensive drainage works in Dor-
setshire, he foimd it better and cheaper to import
Northumbrians at a minimum of 18s. per week than
to employ local labour at the rate of wages current
in the district, although it ranged as low as from 7s.
to Os. The result of this experiment was satisfactory
in every way. The dull Dorsetshire peasant, seeing
skilful and rapid work and the large earnings of the
Northern man, was, for the first time in his life, fired
with emulation and energy. At first the Dorsetshire
man took more beer in the belief that this would
give him more strength. Of course he found the op-
posite result. He then inquired into the diet of his
competitor, and found that instead of bad tobacco
and worse beer, the Northumbrian lived on butchers,
meat. We need not go to the two extremities of Eng-
land for a contrast. -It is to be found in the same
district. Tho Devonian is physically weak, mentally
torpid, and without enterprise. The Cornishman is
strong self-reliant and active. The first takes what
wages are offered, and when he is old goes on the parish.
The second, if he cannot get enough to enable him to
put by, will go elsewhere, even to the uttermost
ends of the earth in order to get more.
Here, again, the contrast is marked. The
Devonian takes his three or four pints of cider daily,
the Cornishman, as a rule, takes no intoxicating
beverage at all. The abominable truck system com-
pels the first, whether he will or not, to expend from
one-sixth of his wages on that which does not supply
the smallest nourishment, and which at the best is a
luxury, and is often actually noxious. The second is
free to spend the whole of his earnings to the best
advantage, and in such a way that his wife and chil-
dren can benefit. The first becomes demoralised
and selfish against his will ; the second is allowed
to develope those qualities of self-restraint and
self-denial which so largely strengthen the char-
acter and make a man manly. At the same
time the second profits physically by spending his
money upon strengthening food, and is thus enabled
to do more work. In this way he gets a double ad-
vantage. Ile is not only able to earn more wages,
but he is able to turn those wages to more profitable
account.

The inferiority of education in Devonshire is no
doubt another reason why Devonians are so much
behind Northumbrians and Cornishmen. Agriculture
as it has been conducted for the most part in Devon-
shire, has no influence in developing the faculties. It
is true that machinery is being gradually introduced,
but only on a very small scale, in consequence of the
excessive subdivision of the land into small enclosures.
In Cornwall and Northumberland which are burrowed
with mines the peasant lives in the midst of
machinery, and that in itself is an education.
So long as agriculture is carried on in the
old way, so long is the instinct of old-fashioned
farmers and landlords which makes them jealous of
education well-founded, for education makes the
labourer unwilling to be a mere beast of burden, and
makes him restless until he can find a higher occupa-
tion for the use of those faculties wherewith his
Creator has endowed him. But directly agriculture
becomes a skilled employment all parties will combine
to recognise the importance and advantage of educa-
tion. It is then no longer the stupid hind who
is wanted but the intelligent artisan. It must be
clearly understood, however, that when once raised
to that position the farm labourer will not be content
with anything like his present wages. His education
will tell him, among other things, that if the labour-
market is depressed in one place it is more active in
another. Ile has been taught to read, and his news-
paper will inform him where he can better himself
either in this country or in another. He has
been taught to write and • he will be able
to inquire for other parts where he may
get wages that will enable him to save against
old age, and so keep off the parish. The aboli-
tion of the wretched old law of settlement, has
removed one great obstacle to the free circulation of
labour. Education whether given directly by the
school, or indirectly by the use of machinery, will
remove another. There is no reason, however, for the
farmers to be alarmed, They hay now abundant, and

repeated, and irrefutable testimony that high-
paid is cheaper than low-paid labour, that in
fact there is nothing so dear as cheap labour. Let
them only believe this and act upon it. Let them
-begin at once by liberating their labourers from the
degrading system of the cider truck. Let them pro-
mote school education by every means in their power;
let them introduce machinery to economise human
labour, and they will at once increase the work done,
and improve and elevate the labourer. Thus they
will augment their own profits at the same time that
they enjoy the reward of a good conscience.

THE annual report of the Directors of Convict
Prisons, just issued, revives the subject of criminal
treatment. Next in importance to discovering the
best means of preventing crime is to find out how the
perpetrator of it may be effectually reformed. This
will never be done if our prisons are regarded only as
places of detention, places where the outlaws of
society are caged, with more or less discomfort to
themselves, for a given period for the security of the
community, but from which they will presently be
allowed to escape not one whit better than when they
entered. The Prison Act of 1865 was a useful mea-
sure as far as it extended to the system of separation,
a system which may, of course, be abused, but one
which must be admitted to be important for preventing
contamination. The Act of 1865, however, requires
to be modified, and chiefly in - the direction of pro-
moting useless unreforming occupations in convict
prisons instead of encouraging remunerative and re-
formatory labour. Setting aside the higher influences
brought to bear upon the minds of prisoners through
the medium of religious instruction received at the
hands of the chaplains, there is certainly nothing
which is so likely to produce the best effects
in the way of reformation as training the inmates of
prisons in remunerative occupations which will sup-
port them honestly after the term of their sentence
has expired. The objections to the system, though
not urged with the vigour which once characterised
them—for the simple reason that their validity has
been disproved—are still rife in certain quarters.
To say, as is said ad nauseam, that to teach
convicted prisoners trades of which before they were
ignorant, and thus inaugurate them in a way of life
at once respectable and profitable, is to run the risk
of disheartening honesty, and giving a stimulus to
crime, is so utterly futile that the argument, specious
as it is, hardly demands an answer. Who, in
his senses, would think it a good specu-
lation to attain a self-supporting position
by a process so painful as a long imprison-
ment ? The criminal population are self-indulgent to
a degree, and detest anything like order and regu-
larity. of toil. The report to which we have alluded
is full of statistics, which serve to shew that
the idea of employing prisoners in remunera-
tive labour is being worked out with the
best results. There are, it must be borne in mind,
two classes of results, the one moral, the other
material. The former, though of course of infinitely
more importance than the latter, are far less easily
seen. While the system for which we contend has
a strong, in our opinion the strongest, tendency
to reclaim the prisoner, it has also the advantage
of lessening the heavy burden which criminals impose
upon the honest tax-paying portion of the community.
It is undoubtedly hard that those who find it a matter
of the utmost difficulty to provide for their own
wants, and to meet the daily claims that are made
upon them, should have to pay so heavily in the way
of providing for the criminal, while he is doing
nothing, or next to nothing, towards his own support,
and is not even being initiated into a mode of life
which in the future may keep him from the commis-
sion of other offences against society. To put it
shortly, prisoners ought to be made to support them-
selves. The Governor of Massachusetts State
Prison informs us that last year the labour
of 558 convicts produced £25,230, which after
paying all prison expenses and salaries, left a
clear net profit of £5,529. The average earnings of
each prisoner were about £46, and the net profits of
the prison, over all expenses were in two years
£lO,OOO, which amount was added as a revenue to
the State. In contrast to the above statement
may be placed that which tells us that
the prisoners in Exeter Gaol for years past
have only earned about one farthing per day, or
about ss. per annum. This, we believe, to be not a
solitary instance. In France, on an average, pri-
soners cost about half what they do in England, and
earn nearly double. To all visitors to our gaols from
abroad it is a matter of great astonishment how little
they yield towards their own support. For every
reason, then, for the good of the criminal himself,
that for the future he may be lifted out of that
category and be able to obtain an honest livelihood,
and for the advantage of the community, already
heavily taxed enough, it is to be urged upon all who
have anything to do with criminal jurisprudence to
see to it that the employment of the men or women
under sentence of imprisonment shall be at once
useful to the individual and remunerative to the
State.

LATEST INVELL MENGE

(REUTER'S TELEGRAMS.)

AMERICA.
(Per French Atlantic Cable.)
NEW YORK, Sept. 22.
COMMERCIAL INTELLIGENCE.
CLOSING PRICES.

Gold closed at 1411 ; the highest quotation dur-
ing the day was 142 ; the lowest, 1371.
Sterling Exchange on London lO7.
5-20 U. S. Bonds, 1882 l2ll.

it 6i 1885
1201.
66 gi 1867 llBl.
10-40 66

Illinois l3Bk.

Erie 3*

Cotton—Mid. upland 2Bic.
Petroleum—Standard White
Flour, extra state, $6.200. to $6.80c. Corn, old
mixed, sl.loc.
PHILADELPHIA, Sept. 22.

It is rumoured that General Sickles has been
instructed to demand a reply by Spain to a Not•
about Cuba. Great excitement prevails in the
Stock Market. Gold premium advanced 4 per
cent., to 141.

GIBRALTAR, Sept. 22.

The Marseilles Company's steamer Poiton has
arrived here from the Brazils. Exchange at Rio
Janeiro on London on the 29th August was 19k for
commercial bills.

The Liverpool, Brazil, and River Plate Com-
pany's steamer Donati arrived at Rio from Liver.
pool, via Bahia, on the 29th August ; and the out-
ward bound mail steamer Pascal arrived at Monte-
video on the 22d.

POLICE INTELLIGENCE.-7his Day.

MARLBOROUGH-STREET.

GEETLEMEN CHARGED WITH ASSAULTING THE POLICE.—
Mr. Charles Demposter Love, of Arundel-street, gentle-
man, and Mr. James Alexander, of No. 13, Westbury-
street, Westbourne-square, accountant, were charged be-
fore Mr. Knox with being drunk and disorderly and as-
saulting Police-constable Arthur Rose, No. 179 C.
The constable said he was on duty in Jermyn-street that
morning about half-past one when he heard a female call
out " Police," and on going up the female complained that
one of the prisoners had struck her, but not seeing any
mark, and as they were causing a disturbance, he told them
all to go away. The female went away, but the prisoners
refused, and on taking hold of Alexander to remove him
Love pulled him down, and they rolled over one another,
and in the scuffle his eye was blackened.

In answer to Mr. Knox, the witness said both prisoners
were drunk, but that Love knew what he was about.

Love said the injury to the constable's eye was acci-
dental.

Rose Spencer, a smartly-attired young woman, said that
sho had known Lovo three years, that ho bad frequently
annoyed her, and last night smacked her on the nose. She
complained to the constable, and tho constable told them
all to go away ; and as soon as the constable took hold of
Alexander tho other prisoner struck the constable, and she
then pullod Love off the constable, and went for assistance,
thinking he was being badly used. She had no doubt that
Love did it all for a lark, but she did not treat it as one.

Love said he once took up tho witness in his arms, and
she fell, and ho was sorry she was hurt. In the scuffle
with the constable they both fell, and the constable was
hurt, but he might have been hurt too. He was sorry the
constable was hurt.

Mr. Knox said ho believed tho constable was hurt in the
struggle, and as there was a difference between the presen t
case and those of brutal assaults which some time came
before him, he should deal with it accordingly. The pri-
soners would each have to pay a fine of £5 or a month.