The Sun.
London, England, 1859-09-01 00:00:00

_REPORT ON LIMB PRISONS.

The 37th report of the Inspectors-General on the
general state of the prisons of Ireland (1858) has
appeared in the shape of a thick pocket blue-hook.
The report properly so called states that on New
Year's-day, 1859, there were 2,844 prisoners im-
mured in the gaols and prisons of. Ireland, against
3,265 in 1858, 3,419 in 1857, 3,561 in 1856, and
5,080 in 1855. _ It is gratifying to be informed that
crime has largely decreased in Ireland. The re-
duction in crime in 1858 has even exceeded that in
1857, and is, on the whole, more satisfactory in its
nature than in any of the precedidg years in which
this gratifying result has been noticed, for it has
been more substantial, more general, and more
equally d'stributed. In 1857, although the decrease
was large, it was almost entirely confined to
females; but in 1858 it has taken place in both
sexes to nearly the same amount, not only as re-
gards the number of committals, but also in the
daily average number confined in prisons. In
juvenile crime, too, the improvement noticed last
year has been fully Maintained, the number of
offenders of this class having fallen to such an
amount as may easily be dealt with in the refor-
matories which are being established throughoht
the country. Last year misdemeanours and drunk-
enness formed exceptions to the general rule of the
diminution of crime ; but an examination of the
tables will show that in 1858 there was a decrease
in every description of crime, with the sole excep-
tion of breaches of the revenue laws, in which a
very trifling increase has occurred, and in military
offences.

Crime has decreased in the county and city of
Dublin (the city being a county in itself), in Cork
(county and city), in the city of Limerick, in Wick-
low, in both ridings of Tipperary, in Queen's
County, and in Carlow. Crime has increased, as
regards both sexes, in Antrim
_Louth, and Donegal ;
as regards males, in Meath, Roscommon, Sligo, and
Fermanagh ; and as to females, in Drogheda
(Louth), King's County, and the city of Kilkenny.
The decrease in the commitals of 1858 was 5,667,
or 14 per cent.—viz., 15 per cent. in the and
12 in the female. The committals of females were
43 per cent. of the whole, against 42 in 1857. It
appears from the premises that the reduction of
crime, which in 1857 was exclusively confined to
females, was in 1858 distributed equally, or nearly
so, between the two sexes. The largest decrease
occurs under the Vagrant and Larcency Acts.
Drunkenness has also apparently diminished very
considerably, but the tables afford no certain test.
Four men were condemned to death last year, and
243 to penal servitude for life and for various
terms ; 107 women were also so condemned. 63 per-
sons were fined, and the sentences of 155 were re-
sPited and not passed. 14,246 males and 12,507-
females were sentenced to various terms of impri-
sonment. Of 33,999 persons of both sexes com-
mitted last year, 9,493 read and wrote, 6,662 read
imperfectly, 1,718 could spell, 1,214 knew their
letters, and 14,498 were " wholly illiterate ;" 3,795
only of those committed were Protestants, and 709
Presbyteriaps. The great majority-29,027—being
members of the Romish persuasion, or Papists.
There is a marked decrease of juvenile crime : one-
fourth of those committed were orphans, and two-
fifths of them had lost one parent. " Reformatory
schools alone can provide for this class."
As to the state of education of the prisoners on
committal, there has been scarcely any change in
the last two years; the improvement observable in
the males in this respect, in 1857, not having pro-
gressed, and, on the other hand, the females not
having retrograded, as was the case in 1857. Of the
males committed in 1858, 37 per cent. could read
and write well, and 35 per cent. were wholly illi-
terate. Of the females, only 15 per cent. could read
and write well, while no less than 52 per cent. of
them were wholly illiterate.
From the above return it appears that 11.2 per
cent. of the prisoners committed in 1858 belonged to
the Established Church ; 2.36 per cent. were Pres-
byterians ; and 86.33 per cent. were Romanists.
The gaols were very healthy during the year ;
only 38, or 1 in 1,000, died, against 61, or 1 in 719,
in 1857. The expenditure of all the gaols was
£73,834 against £77,056 in 1857. The total cost
of each prisoner was £23 18s. 9.6 d. against £22 55.,
7.7 d. in 1857. The inspectors appear to prefer the
" separate" to the " classification system of disci-
pline.

RUSSIAN ENCROACHMENTS IN CHINA
AND JAPAN.

The privilege of having a regularly established
religious and scientific mission at Pekin could not
fail to be highly advantageous to their aggressive
policy; and we therefore safely infer that the " few
worthless provinces"—as the Russians are pleased
to term them—in the Amoor district, were tacitly
under the government of the Czar. That this
policy of Russia, silently but surely carried on,
had the best result, may be gathered from the
fact that, in 1842, " the Emperor of China
ceded to Russia a vast tract of territory
between the Yablonoi Mountains and the
north bank of the Amoor." Not a word is said
as to the conditions under which this district was
ceded, not a word about the consideration, and
further, we are left completely in the dark as to
the real extent of this district; various authors dis-
agree as to the line of boundary, but, by placing
different accounts together, we are enabled to
gather that, not only is the whole of the naviga-
tion of the splendid River Amoor in the hands of
the Russians, but that the whole territory between
that river and the mountain range just mentioned
has been quietly delivered over to that power.
That is to say, a large fertile district abound-
ing in all the products which nature has
lavished on that part of the world--in round num-
bers, a thousaad miles long, and with an average
breadth of three hundred—has become Russian

territory, under the very nose of the other great
Western Powers, and scarcely nothing known
about it. This acquisition will enable the Rus-
sians to extend their commercial relations with the
great empires of the East ; the fertile portions of
Siberia will be—by the light-draught steamers
now being sent for the Amoor navigation to that
river—brought into contact with the Pacific. The
produce of the rich mines of Nertchinsk will be
readily conveyed down the river to the coast of
China and the Islands of Japan, and every advan-
tage will be taken of the extreme richness of the
soil for the purposes of cultivation.—China Tele-
graph.