The Sun.
London, England, 1861-08-15 00:00:00

which acts under the highest patronage, and
spreads among the poor a knowledge of the laws of
health, it being now admitted that much of debility,
disease, and premature mortality in this country re-
sults from ignorance and error, and might be pre-
vented. The society circulates many tracts upon
the subject, has lectures delivered in the poorer
districts of London, and engages in district visit-
ings, besides instructing the parochial clergy in the
work, and in many cases holding meetings in their
vestries, where poor women are familiarly instructed

on matters connected with health. The Criminal

and Reformatory Department presents very satisfac-
tory results ; and it may be fit at this meeting that we
dwell more especially on the Irish branch of the sub-

jest. The number of reformatory schools is but small,

and it is devoutly to be wished that they were mul-
tiplied. But the diminution of crime in this island,
of late years, is most satisfactory ; and, allowing
that the great migration, since the famine years,
has had much influence, enough of the improvement
remains to reflect the greatest credit upon the in-
structors of youth and the ministers of religion.
The decrease in the number of the people makes any
comparison of the commitments for offences incon-
clusive, unless we regard the proportion of these to
population. They were in 1856, as Ito 923 of the
people ; in 1859, as 1 to 1,117 ; and in 1860, as 1 to
1,217. The number of juvenile offenders decreased
in a still greater proportion. Pre-eminence among
the subjects engaging our attention must, in some
degree, be determined by local circumstances; and
we this year assemble in a capital that affords the
opportunity and imposes the duty of inspecting the
operation of the Irish convict system, which has re-

ceived the attentive consideration, not of Great Bri

tain only, but of the Continent of Europe, and of the
United States of America. In truth, it well deserves
all the praise it receives wherever the public mind is
awakened to the paramount duty of making such
exertions as may render the punishment of the crimi-
nal the instrument of his reformation. Here the pro-
blem has been solved how tO deal with convicts, and
send them forth cured, instead of subject to relapse,
infecting others—criminals and the teachers of crime.
Of this system, under the Board of Directors, with
Captain Crofton at their head, and his able colleagues
Messrs. Lentaigne and Whitty, the fundamental
principle, simple and rational, long ago laid down
by that experienced judge and steady patron of the
system, Mr. Hill, is to make the convict the agent
of his own reformation by annexing the condition
of good conduct to every indulgence beyond the
barest sustenance, :to removal from cellular to
social labour, and to shortening the period of his
confinement. His fate is placed in his own hands.
But he is not merely superintended and watched
he has constant intercourse with those in autho-
rity, as chaplain, teacher, director, whose treatment
is considerate and kindly ; he is treated as an indi-
vidual, not as one of a mass ; and this " individuali-
sation," as it is termed, has great advantages over
our English mode of dealing with the whole con-
victs in the bulk—the same advantage that a school
of many teachers and few pupils has over one where
a large number are under a single master. Another
superiority is in the rigour with which the condi-
tions of liberation are enforced upon the " ticket-
of-leave" men—arrest being at once enforced on the
least breach of the conditions. A third is the abso-
lute prohibition of all fermented liquors, even to
those who for their good conduct have earned a
small advance out of the fund set apart from their
gains kept the time of their discharge. Mr.
Clay, in the memoirs of his father (many years
chaplain of the Preston gaol, whom I knew well,
and, in common with all who knew him, held in the
highest esteem for his virtuous life and most useful
services), in comparing the English and Irish re-
turns, has remarked that the former take all ticket-
of-leave men as unconvicted against whom nothing
appears, whereas the latter more accurately give
the result of the information taken by tracing the
party ever since his liberation. This diversity pre-
vents us from making any comparison between the
numbers in the two cases ;but the different results
of the two systems may be gathered from the fact
that at Lusk we see numerous convicts set to work,
and only retained by moral restraint, without any
sentinels, while at Portland we see the convicts
quarrying stones for the breakwater under the
guard of sentinels with muskets and bayonets ;
and on the breakwater itself, which is more diffi-
cult to guard, free labourers, and not convicts,
are employed. Another test of the Irish system
may be stated as decisive—the eonfidence of the
public in the reality and the permanence of the
reformation effected, inasmuch as discharged con-
victs at once find employers willing to receive
them, experience proving that they may be relied
upon as steady and trustworthy servants. The
statement that has been put about, that the
Irish plan is only adapted to the local circum-
stances of the country has been entirely refuted
by a reference to the adoption and support of the
system abroad. Baron Holtzendorff, professor in the
University of Baden, has published an excellent
work upon it, and intends to honour this congress
with his presence. The celebrated jurist, Professor
Mittermaiere, of Heidelberg, has given his ample
and zealous testimony in Captain Crofton's favour;
and Count Cavour, in the midst of all his labours
and anxieties, during the last two years of his life,
applied himse' f to master the principles of the sys-
tem, whieti he introduced, under Cavalier Peri, into
the Tuscan territory. Truly we may reckon among
the best friends of humanity those who effect the
great work of making punishment conducive to the
only purpose which we can with any certainty
reckon upon its accomplishing. The tendency to
prevent offences by deterring through the force of
example is, in the opinion of all practical men, very
much more feeble and uncertain than might be
wished ; indeed, the number of offenders not pre-
pared by previous reformatory discipline, found
guilty of new offences, is a sad proof that not only
the example, but the actual experience of punish-
ment is ineffectual to deter. But of its influence,
under well-devised arrangements,to reclaim offenders
there can be no doubt. Of this influence we may
with certainty be possessed, and hence the high im
portance of the new system. In the great department
of social economy much attention was at the last
congress given to the important introduction into
the manufacturing districts of the co-operative sys-
tem—the establishment of unions by the working
classes, for the purposes of sharing in the profits on
the goods consumed or used by them, as well as of
preventing adulteration of those goods, and for the
purpose of carrying on branches of manufacture. In
both these kinds of union the progress has been very
great since last year, and in the latter those doubts
which seemed to exist of bac scheme's practicability
have been almost altogether removed. Above 50
companies for manufacture have been established
since last congress, besides many of mere stores.
In these last a capital of £500,000 is invested ; but
in the former the manufacturing concerns repre-
sent a capital of nearly £2,000,000, exclusive of
the Manchester Cotton Company (limited), whose
capital is £1,000,000. The returns of Mr. Tidd
Pratt show the creation of above 250 co-operative
societies within the last 12 months, enrolled under
the Friendly Society Act. It is not wonderful that
the members of such unions should be of an edu-
cated class, but that they should often exercise
themselves in literary labours is remarkable. Be-
sides entering into competition for the prizes offered
by the Dial newspaper and by Mr. John Cassell,
whose volume of above 20 working men's essays I
have just received, the working men of Manchester
carry on a monthly journal of co-operative progress,
without the help or interference of any other class.
A number of this work now lies before me, from
which it appears that in the second year of its exis-
tence the sale has reached 12,000; it is well con-
ducted, and a hope is expressed of improving it
when what they term " the detestable duty on
paper"
is given up. As might be supposed, the
savings and the profits of these good men are in
part applied to public purposes and to charity.
Thus at Rochdale they have given to the town a
drinking fountain and contributed £5O to the
Indian Relief Fund, besides smaller yearly sums to
the dispenstry and the deaf and dumb institution.
The effect of co-operation in preventing those Strikes,
so pernicious to the working classes and so danger-
ous to the peace of the community, has been every-
where felt. The late Strikes at Colne may be as-
cribed to the want of co-operative unions in that