The Sun.
London, England, 1869-03-17 00:00:00

111 TURN OF SIR JOIIN LAVRENCP..

The late Viceroy of India after a most successful
reign returned to the old country on Monday night.
His rule has gone a long way to establish in peace
our dominion in India. Quietness has hardly yet
been secured on all hands ; but if his policy be
persisted in by his successors, we shall
soon have no more news of rising natives,
massacres, and threatened revolts. At the
Charing-cross Station, on Monday night, he was
met by Sir It Montgomery, Sir A. Phayre,
Colonel Becher, C,8., Mr. George Campbell, and
other gentlemen among his friends and acquaintances,
who were anxious to welcome the late Viceroy of
India on his return to his native country. Sir
John came in her Majesty's steamer Caradoc to
Brindisi, and thence over Mont Cenis and by Paris
to England.

THE REPRESSION OF CRI3IINALS.

The humanitarian view of the criminal qu s'aon is
still taken by a small minority of our public writers,
by Mr. James Greenwood amongst the rest. On the
day after he wrote protesting against the theory of
thieves co-operating together, and of pawnbrokers
quickly disposing of stolen property, the letters of
"N. A. W." appeared in the Ti2;:es. These
conclusively chewed that the thieves do, for
some purposes at least; co-operate together.
They act to protect and hide one another, and have
houses in which they regularly meet. There arc
regular leaving shops which take in, and very
quickly—too speedily the police say for detection
under the present system—stow away, the goods. Mr.
Greenwood appears to be still unconvinced however.
The latest thing which has frightened him is the
proposal for a brand on criminals. He brings before
our eyes the old picture, albeit not from life, of the
would-reform-if-he-could criininr.l being hunted
down by the brutal officer,. not tieing able to obtain
work, and being driven back to live the life he wished
so much to shun. The criminal has Mr. Green-
wood's full sympathy. his extermination is a thing
to be guarded against. The policeman, on the other
hand, is an evil, and Mr. Greenwood has one con-
solation left, that the suppression of crime would
lead to the disbanding of the odious officers of the
law. We should have no objection to the times
becoming so quiet that the policeman might, " with
due regard to all vested interests" be sent about his
'
business. But while Mr. Greenwood would rejoice
at the absence of the man in blue, we should more
exult if the slouching rascal who had been wont to
liceonconnection other
with this subject the complaints con-
peoples money had disappeared.
In
cerning the Irish police may be noticed. We are
about to model our system Somewhat on the Irish
plan,
and we should be, careful that we copy only
that which is good. The Dublin correspondent of
the . Standard, referring to the increase of un-
detected• crime, says: " The strictly military
organisation of the force disables its mem-
bers from discharging the most 'important
duties of a police; they cannot lay aside the habits
allthe
and bearing of the parade, alter their personal
People as if they were of
tahpepmea2raanndceb,
comixme with
things to all men," as the
Londen detective or the French mouchard does with
such effect when ferreting out information or hunting
down a criminal." The Tipperary magistrates
e
have taken the matter into consideration, and
have unanimously resolved that the attention of the
Government should be called to the matter, the
opinion of the meeting being that a special corps of
detectives should be added to the force, and that
encouragement should be given to those members
of the general body who should distinguish them-
selves in, or chew special aptitude for, the tracking
of criminals and discovering the plans of the insti-
gators of crime.
MURDERERS ON CAPITAL PUNISHMENT.

We must commend to Mr. Gilpin, M.P. for North-
ampton, a p Dwerful argument in favour of the aboli-
tion of capital punishment, which he will hardly fail
to use when next he brings the subject before Parlia.-
meat. The American papers report a meeting held
under permission of the warders in Thomaston
State Prison. The meeting was made up of con-
victed persons, and all the
.officers were under
sentence of death. The question discussed was
capital punishment. The following resolution on
the subject was passed :—" That we appeal to the
humane Christian citizens and legislators of the State
in behalf of society itself—society which is brutalised
and made a breeder of criminals by its infliction of
punishments which are
vindictive—not to go back a
quarter of a century, and re-establish this relic of
barbarism, the gallows—not to go back to incurring
the ever-impending
danger of shedding the blood of
innocent -men—to statutes which statistics spew
have a tendency
to increase crime and make
the members of society less secure in their persons
and property. We ask this because it is not so
much Harris we would save from ignominy as the
State." This is not extracted from the pages of
Punch, .but . is, so far as we know, a true story.
The extreme unselfishness of these men is remark•
able—" it is not so much Harris we would save from
ignominy as the State."