The Sun.
London, England, 1857-01-20 00:00:00

T U ESDA Y EVEN IN G, JAN U Alt V 20, ;857.

3[R. C. PEARSON ON PENAL PUINSLIMENTS.

Mr. Charles Pearson, the City Solicitor, has addressed a
communication to the Lord Mayor, in which he embodies
his opinions upon penal punishment, including prison dis-
cipline, transportation, and the ticket-of-leave system. In
this communication Mr. Pearson gives an elaborate sketch
of the policy adopted towards criminals from the 16th to
the present century, commenting upon its barbarity and
general results, citing authorities and facts, and proceeds
to give his views upon penal punishments generally. He
classes them under three heads :-1. The system of past
days, or the cheap and cruel system. 2. The present, or
the expensive and effeminate system. 3. The future, or the
self-supporting system. Referring to the first head, Mr.
Pearson dilates upon the cruelties to which transports were
subjected in former times, and proceeds thus with the
second head :

" Seeond—The present, or the expensive and effeminate
system. This system, which is generally known as the
separate or cellularor solitary system, was invented by some
pious philanthropists in America. It was imported into
England about 20 years ago by Mr. Crawford, an able and
intelligent gentleman, appointed prison inspector by the
British Government. It was designed to supersede the old
prison discipline and transportation systems. Reading and
Pentonville prisons were erected to serve as models for all
classes of criminals. The system is thus pithily described
by its most able and zealous advocate, the chaplain of
Reading Gaol, who thus observes, `The essentials of the

separate system are seclusion as a punishment, labour as a

relaxation, and scriptural instruction as a corrective,' as
explained by the regulations and illustrated by the practice
of the gaol. The chaplain's short description may thus be
translated into plain language :—Under the separate sys-
tem criminals are to have a great deal of solitude, a great
deal of victuals, a great deal of warmth, A great deal of
sleep, and a great deal of mental instruction, a great deal
of religious teaching, with a very little exercise, and labour
sufficient only for the purposes of recreative relaxation. By
the combined influences of these corporeal, mental, and re-

ligious agencies it was assumed by the enthusiastic advo-
cates of the system that the hearts of criminals would be
softened, their unruly wills subdued, their minds would
bo enlightened, their souls converted, and their lives re-
formed. It was, moreover, said by its advocates that by
uniting secresy with solitude, by placing criminals in cells
so constructed as to exclude both sight and sound, by hood-
ing and masking them when led out to chapel or exercise,
and by changing their name for a letter by which they
were to be known from their admission into prison up to
the time of their discharge, that by a little secresy and
good management a prisoner might upon his release main•
tain his incognito. It was said that the world would forgive
or forget his crimes, and he might go abroad as an exile, or
be restored to society as having completed hispenal punish-
ment, or be released in this country on a ticket of leave.
" It was confidently affirmed by the eulogists of the sys-
tem that, although its first cost and annual outlay wore
considerable, it would be presently found that the number
of prisoners would be so much reduced from the effects of
its reformatory influence that a considerable saving would
be effected by the country in prisons and prosecutions as
soon as its deterring and reformatory treatment was known
and felt.

" Your lordship heard me, several years ago, in the pre-
sence of a number of its most talented advocates, ridicule
what I termed the absurdities, and denounce what I con-
sidered the serious evils of the system. I once heard Lord
Brougham express himself on this subject, but experience
has proved, as I never failed to predict would be the case,
that the study of mental religion and theoretical virtue, as
taught in these prisons, has not had, and will not have, any
practical effect in diminishing either the number of pri-
soners committed to our gaols or the number of crimes they
may be tempted to commit when they get without their
walls.

" Solitude has its peculiar vices and evils as well as so-
ciety; man is for good as well as for evil a social being, and
this unnatural, unsocial treatment has often, very often,
exercised a most baneful effect, as well upon the body as the
mind of those who are for any length of time subjected to
its action. The laws of nature cannot be outraged with im-
punity; walls and bolts and bars cannot shut the devil out
from his own favourite workshop—the heart of an idle man.
" As an instrument of lengthened punishment for grave
offences the separate system is pregnant, as I have else-
where observed, with evils of an opposite character, ac-
cording to circumstances not at all affecting the criminal,
either before his imprisonment or while in gaol. Its sove•
rity or laxity in such cases is dependent upon the agencies
by which it is intended to bo carried out."

Mr. Pearson then adduces evidence of persons connected
with prisons in support of his views upon solitary confine-
ment, and proceeds to the third head of his subject.
“ To aim society with powers of self-defence against
crimes of violence and plunder, by compelling hardened
criminals to maintain themselves by labour in industrial
prisons, from which they cannot escape and will not be re-
leased, is the object of what I venture to hope will become
the future system of prison discipline. I term that system
for shortness the ' labour and appetite system,' the leading
characteristics of which I will now proceed to describe.
" The future, or manly and self-sustaining—the labour
and appetite system of prison discipline professes to be
founded upon the Word of God, as given to mankind in
both the Old and New Testament. The first sentence of
penal punishment ever pronounced upon man was a labour
and appetite sentence. It was passed by Almighty Wisdom
upon a guilty race in language which, for sublimity and
beauty, is not surpassed by any other sentence in that sa-
cred book. In the sweat of thy face shalt thou oat broad
till thou return unto the ground, for out of it wast thou
taken; for dust thou art and unto dust thou shalt return.'
Happily for the world God did not leave the execution of
this sentence of penal punishment to man's voluntary obe-
dience. To secure its observance, the face of nature and the
physical constitution of man were entirely changed. Ap-
petite for food and rest, essential conditions of this penal
sentence, become daily recurring stimulants to obedience,
which no human contrivance can anticipate or postpone.
Christianity is said by lawyers to be part and parcel of the
law of England, and the precepts of the Bible aro assumed
to be the basis of our written and unwritten laws, and yet
all our systems of penal punishment ignore the teaching of
God's Word, which so plainly points to the association
labour and appetite in the punishment and repression of
crime. The means and appliances by which I propose to
give a practical application to the principles foreshadowed
in these quotations in founding a comprehensive system of
prison discipline were developed in minute detail by myself
and several witnesses. I was examined before the House of
Commons Committee, to which I have already referred. Sir
J. Pakington moved, Sir G. Grey supported, and the com-
mittee unanimously adopted, a resolution upon this subject.
"As the ticket-of4eave substitute for the plan which the
committee recommended to the consideration of her Ma-
jesty's Government must force itself upon the attention of
the house at the very commencement of the ensuing session,
we shall learn what has boon done by the Home Secretary
between 1850 and 1857 towards the examination of the
extensive details which the committee were unable to in.
vestigate for want of sufficient time for the purpose ; one
thing only remains for me to say—l have never been sum-
moned before any committee or commission appointed
to conduct such an inquiry. The other witnesses, who wore
prepared with plans, drawings, and estimates to confirm
their former statements, inform me that they have never
been called upon to offer any further observations or to
submit themselves to any other examination. As far,
therefore, as I am informed, the Government have allowed
the plan to remain entombed in a blue book which I have
just ascertained weighs silb. avoirdupois. If the report
and evidence bo permitted to slumber in the pages of that
monster blue-book, they might as well have been buried
under the pyramids of Egypt. I hope, however, before
the subject is ventilated in the House that the public will
have before them a cheap edition of this and other docu-
ments necessary to be considered in discussing the impor-
tant questions of prison discipline and penal punishment,
questions that have now forced themselves upon public
attention, and upon which action in some ono direction
or another can no longer be either resisted or postponed.
" The expense in the cost and management of our pri-
sons is so excessive under the existing system that the State
is obliged to sanction the passing of short sentences, and the
Government is compelled to resort to tickets of leave and
other temporising expedients, still further to abridge the
actual sentences of the law. If judges and magistrates were
to pass such sentences as they in their consciences believe
to be necessary to effect any solid reformation in the mind
of the criminal, the prison accommodation throughout the
country must be doubled to provide for the additional
number that would constitute the average prison popula-
tion.

" If there is at the command of her Majesty's Govern-
ment so large an amount of confiscated labour, which the
State has a right to claim and apply to its own use, why
should not this be done, particularly so if it can be proved
that such au application of the labour of criminals would
be made conducive to their moral and social reform as welt
as to their maintenance and support ? There is one, and
only one way, in my opinion, by which this object may
be effected, and that is by making it a condition of prison
discipline that the labour and appetite sentence shall be
strictly applied in all cases where the health and strength
of the prisoner will admit.
" The proposed plan for accomplishing these objects as
described to the committee contemplated the establishment
of largo industrial prisons, secure and strong, plain and
cheap, with separate sleeping cells for each inmate. The pri-
son to be surrounded by strong and lofty walls, enclosing
1,000 or 2,000 acres of land. I propose that each of these
prisons shall accommodate 1,000 or 2,000 inmates, classified,
sub-classified, and distributed in different prisons according
to their economical condition, whether artisan, mechanics

or labourers ; according to their physical state, their age
and strength ; according to their moral and legal status—
whether felons or misdemeanants under longer or shorter
sentences, and whether hardened offenders or novices in
crime. Byhaving ono superintending power to deal with the
large fund of labour of our prison population, means would
readily be obtained for a most perfect system of classifi-
cation—legal, moral, social, and economical—for the pur-
pose of meeting all the various objects I have described, so
that the mutual contamination of prisoners might be pre-
vented, discipline might be enforced, and the separation
of the prisoner—ode of the first objects of the system
might be promoted, at the same time that justice would be
done to the ratepayer by turning the confiscated labour of
the criminal to the best and most profitable account.
When the proposed plans for the classification of prisoners
is complete, I propose that they shall, as nearly as econo-
mical considerations. and prison arrangements will admit,
be employed in the pursuits at which they are most apt,
and to which they will be returned at the termination of
their sentences."

Mr. Pearson then enters into some details respecting
plan, and concludes as follows :

"My Lord Mayor,—lt will be said, I dare say, as the
Parliamentary committee reported of my proposed plan,
that ' many difficulties would probably arise under a dis-
cussion of its details,' and therefore a disposition may exist
in some quarters to postpone its consideration for another
seven years. But the Government will now be beset in
all directions by difficulties upon the subject of penal
punishment, the extent of which they will be compelled
to weigh and compare. They cannot stand still, and they
must not go back. Society will not call again into
requisition the gibbet and the pillory, the whipping-post,
the stocks, and the branding irons, the underground dun-
geons, the penal settlements, and slavery and chain gangs :
neither will they tolerate the prison palaces and castles of
indolence, where ablebodied men in the prime of life cost
for board and lodging 301. or 491., and earn only 31. or 4/.
per annual ; where they have labour for relaxation only,
and spend their time in qualifying themselves to deliver
lectures upon a variety of subjects which it would have
puzzled the Admirable Crichton to deal with."

M. LEDRU ROLLIN TO THE ELECTORS OF

FRANCE.

NO EVASION !- YOU MUST VOTE !

Having boon consulted, from many places, on the ques•
tion of how voters should conduct themselves at the com-
ing elections, I take the liberty of replying to you collec-
tively, and my reply is, without hesitation,—No evasion !
you must vote !

To abstain from voting, to assume a lofty position, with-
out an effort at aiding oneself, is"asceticism, fatalism, the
practice of recluses of bonzes, of Mussulmans ; this is not
our part, this is not the part of politicians, whose domain
is the world present, and who cannot influence events
without actively mixing themselves up with them.
The blessings of liberty, like the blessings of nature,
must be conquered, and are not bestowed on any but those
who seek them by constant exertions. Progress, incessant
activity, is, both in the material world as in the ideal, the
law of life, the true condition of progress, which condemns
in principle all inaction, all abstention.
Besides, iu fact, abstention is not an effective arm, from
the moment when it is not universal, embracing all, and
reducing the condemned system to perish by such aban-
donment. I could understand this system if it were a de-
privation of fire or of water, an ixcommunication which
would snatch the bread from the mouth. But to separate
ouesslf politically, without actual rebellion, without re-
fusing to serve as a recruit, and without refusing to pay
taxes, is to do nothing. Of what matter to the tyrant is
your partial abstention from voting, while you swell his
Pretorian guards and augment his treasures ? With these
two forces he can enslave you ; and while he lives as a m—
(et Wen qu'il vivo do m—), you aro not the less slaves—he
lives, and that is enough !

rafter all, what are the reasons why you should not vote?
Can it be that, by voting, you misconceive any of tho pri-
mary principles the preservation of the integrity of which
constitutes our power?
I munt confess I cannot perceive the validity of this
objection. What will be its effective operation ? To
carry out the system of universal suffrage, to exercise a
right which owes its birth to the Republic, and not to the
Empire, and to exercise it with that object ? With the in-
tent to overthrow that very Empire. Then, in making use
of this republican right for a republican object., how are
you guilty of au anti-republican act? I repeat that this ob-
jection is beyond my comprehension.
Vainly they urge that, to address the municipal autho.
ritios to register you, and to receive your electoral card, is
to unconditionally recognise this odious Government, and
to make common cause with it.

To which I reply, what has a man in common with the
adversary whom he holds at point of sword, or covered by
his pistol? Absolutely nothing more then the
hfeeerlei
anfie6rf
recognises the
killing him that you may not be killed by him.theWhat
does a man recognise the Empire when ho is compelled to
be married by this game municipality, left he should begot
attri-
butesb
presented,as t a r
od fs ,c ot
thatir.
citizens
because,
t.hyi whens not
h i
view.s
be
a excludedm childrennr eemofgaryno
Em-
pire when he repairs to the police to obtain his passport.
At this rate how many republicans would have been for-
sworn who have nevertheless remained its most implacable
enemies ?

Let us hold fast by the truth : without being a casuist,
or without saying with Machiavel, that all means are good,
even dishonour, to regain liberty, it is allowable to discri-
minate between unimportant and insignificant formalities,
imposed under all Governments, and an open, barefaced
recognition, which is baseness and apostacy• The public
conscience, a good judge in this matter, does not deceive
itself. It knows that, whether with or without the stamped
paper, the right of locomotion is not less inherent ; and
also that, with or without the formalities of registering,
the right to vote remains not less inalienable. But what
the puidic mind feels above all is, that of all methods of
recognising the Empire, that which consists in submitting
so long a time, without an attempt, without a movement,
without even a despairing effort, is the most degrading at-
titude in the eye of history.
A truce to such mistaken exclusivism; let us commit no
outrage for the advantage of our enemies. Let us adhere to
principles ; it is our duty and our power; but, at the same
time, lot us show ourselves to be practical. In universal
suffrage we have the legitimate point of departure, and in
the overturning the Empire the supreme object. Let us
know how to make a good use of it ; not to deliberate—for
whilst we deliberated the enemy surprised us—lot us act,
this time, in our turn.
To be enabled, with regard to the elections, to excite
every kind of rancour and animosity, and all those feelings
of justice which slumber in the depthsof the human heart,
to give them a voice, to restore confidence and energy to
the social'body, to have six long months before us, when
it may be easier for us to draw near to each other, to con.
suit together, and to count upon each other—this is a con-
venient opportunity, a good fortune, whence the revolution
may emerge !
I will even add, in all sincerity, that this work of assi-
milation is, in my view of the subject, the chief point,
the electric stroke, which will resound from one end of
the country to the other. This regenerating ferment will
be of more weight, in my opinion, than the final success of
the election itself.

Not that it is worthy of all your efforts, for if the man
of the 2d Dec. came off victorious from the contest—if, in
spite of his sbirri, his functionaries, his army, his good
city of Paris should escape him (de par) the ballot (le
scrutin)—thou consider him like one blasted by Heaven,
ruined in the eyes of all Europe, and abandoned, betrayed
by his own accomplices. He would in vain attempt a new
coup d'atat, after so many broken promises ; and amidst
au endenaical and increasing misery in a population, which
has within the last six months been shaken even to its very
base. It is impossible to return the fire of the electric
fluid.

Will
ho, therefore, dare everything to obtain success ?
With his audacious frauds his jugglers' tricks, his
oppressive actions of every kind I cannot avoid see-
ing the difficulty under which he labours ; but, never-
theless, I am apprehensive, as the waves have ascended
to so great a height and the current appears so irresistible
that success is not impossible.

It is a question of union and civic courage—nothing
more ! When workmen and citizens are once agreed on a
single point, I know neither stratagem nor force which
can call them to account—especially in presence of an army
divided by a thousand conflicting interests.
Yes, this triumph is not a vain dream ! for it may be
achieved by energy and perseverance, I would almost say
by desperation ; but, above all, by force of discipline.
Therefore, I beg you will not assail the names of the can-
didates with vituperation, provided they be republicans,
of whatever hue. Let us not forget that neither our judg-
ment on the past, nor the personification of a Government
for the future, is now a subject for consideration. Those
candidates will never be aught else save " fascines," behind
which the entrenched revolution marches more safely to
attack the hostile citadel. When that is once carried the
place is the people's.
With regard to the other question propounded by you,
and which appears to produce considerable excitement,—
to wit, whether the elected candidates must be sworn or
cot ?it is, believe me, premature. Force them to fulfil
you are able, but do not
fifdiscord among you. The
an interest in distinguish-
enhotgenitiarht
pseeeanlrgft.ai
sgte
questionmp oelni
et
ebs ,
andaaos utt boo trolcehs
greatso,
The first act will be to inscribe one's name, to consult
together, to vote, and to succeed. The success of this will
dispense you from the second; for whatever their names
may be, if your candidates are drawn from the urn, they
will call themselves the Revolution.
London, Jan. 13, 1837. LEDRU-ROLLIN.

Sin E. B. LITTON AT GLASGOW.—On Friday night Sir
E. B. Lytton was entertained at a public dinner in the
Glasgow Gallery of Art, in acknowledgment of his dis-
tinguished literary attainments. The Hon. the Lord Pro•
vost was in the chair, supported on the 2ight by the guest
of the evening, Sir E. 13. Lytton ; Sir J. Maxwell, of Pol-
loc ; the Rev. Dr. Hill, Mr. C. Bruce, M.P. ; Col. Pule,
commanding the garrisoia„; Lieut.-Col.[Hamley, author of
Lady Lee's Widowhood, "the Story of the Campaign,"
&c.; and Mr. W. Buchanan, of Shandon. Oa the left by
the Earl of Elgin, K.T. ; Sir A. Alison ; Bailie Gal-
braith ; Mr. Cayley, M.P. ; Mr. William Stirling, of
Keir, M.P. ; Professor Aytoun, of Edinburgh; and Mr.
Sheriff Bell. Sir James Campbell fulfilled the duties of
croupier, supported on the right by Sir Michael Shaw
Stewart, M P.; Mr. Wm. Stirling, of Kenmure ; the
Rev. Dr, Craik ; Mr. «m. Hamilton, of Nortbpark ;
Mr. H. E. Crum Ewing, of Strathleven ; Mr. Alex.
Morrison, Dean of Faculty ; and Mr. Wm. Baird, of
Elie ; and on the left by Sir James Fergusson, M.P.
The speakers were lavish of compliments and courteous
expressions. Professor Aytoun pronounced Sir Edward
B, J.Jytton. "the greatest living author in Britain.",

TIIE 2N E ffr A MERICAN TARIFF.

I It is expected that a discussion of the tariff will
be commenced to-day in the House of Representa-
tires at Washington. The discussion has already been
avoided twice by the house—first in Aug. last, and
again in Dec. Yet there has been no subject of pub-
lic interest, either in the lobby or on the table of
Congress, possessing a greater claim to an immediate,
frank, and deliberate examination than the tariff ;
and, whatever prudential reasons may have existed
heretofore to justify this postponement, there is
evidently no reason now why the tariff question
should again be shirked, or its consideration
crowded further into the future. Our industrial
interests are too vast and too important to be
played with longer by politicians, and the sooner
our tariff is permanently adjusted on a financial
rather than a political basis the better will it
be for the whole country. The rival theories of
free trade and protection, when sot forth as the
fundamental and inflexible principle of a national
tariff, are absurdities. As theories merely they are
good for party effect, but as sweeping systems, ap-
plicable to every aspect of commerce and trade,
they are entirely impracticable in the United States.
It is quite 'right that in framing a tariff for this
country such a policy should be adopted as will
tend to establish our industrial independence. For
this end the nature, history, and industrial value
of every article that we import from foreign coun-
tries should be examined separately, arid its rate of
duty should be determined according to its indi-
vidual circumstances. The natural result of this
proceeding will be the adoption of a tariff which
opens to free trade those raw materials on which
our own labour may be most largely and advan-
tageously employed, and all articles of general ne-
cessity which are exotics, or which are prodced
only in small quantities in the United States. At
the same time, such a tariff will establish a protec-
tion for our own industry by taxing those manu-
factured articles of foreign countries, the importa-
tion of which tends to destroy their manufacture
here, and thus impoverish our own labour. A
tariff formed on these principles will accomplish
what is now universally needed—the establishment
of all our industrial enterprises on a permanent
basis. It is simply to tax those final products of
foreign labour which come here for a market ; and
to exempt from taxation all those raw materials
composing those fabrics, on which our own labour
may be profitably exponded.—New York Tones,
Jan. 6.

2TUTINY IN THE MERSEY.

LIVERPOOL, MONDAY.

This morning►, shortly after ten o'clock, the report of
firearms was heard to proceed from on board the Ame-
rican ship J. L. Bogart ; and soon a flag of distress was
hoisted. Captain Conway, who was on shore at the
time, hastened to the American consul's office, and im
mediately pr ,seeded on board. The consul instantly
communicated with Mr. Clough, the in-door superinten-
dent of police, and he shortly afterwards despatched
detective officers Scott and Eaton, with two others of
that department, and they, taking ten other officers,
proceeded on board the ship. On approaching the side,
they perceived a regular battle going on on the deck,
and even the bulwark uf the ship bore traces of the
contest. On going oil board, the deck round the forecastle
presented a horrible appearaoce, and was covered with
pools of gore, the men showed shocking proofs of savage
treatment, and the first mate had his head nearly cloven,
and lay on the deck. One of the craw was in front of
him, also on the floor of the ship, having been wounded
in the thigh by a pi- tol fired at him, as be states, by the
second mate. The officers immediately stayed the
tumult, and then proceeded to make arrests. The captain
and officers charged the crew with mutiny, and the latter
accused the officers of brutally ill-treating them. Sixteen
of the crew were placed in custody for mutiny and
injury to the officers, and the second mate was arrested
for shooting at and wounding James Christie, an able
seaman on board. Christie received the wound in the
upper part of the leg, and the ball lodged in the thigh.
He was taken to the Birkenhead landing-place, whither
the other 15 charged were carried, together with the
second mate, and he was thence conveyed to the
Birkenhead office. The bullet yet remains in the wound.
The first mate, whose name is C. 0. Thorber, was carried
to the Northern Hospital, where he now lies. He has
received a bad wound in the head, and a stabbed wound
in the shoulder. They are not supposed such as to
place his life in danger, however. The whole of the crew
in custody are more or less injured—some of them very
severely. Officer Scott took from the person of the first
mate a pistol ; and, on being carried to the hospita',
" brass knuckles" were found in his pocket. We under-
stand that inquiries made on board lead to the conclusion
that the officers from the moment the ship cleared com-
menced ill-treating the men, and that this ill-treatment
reached such an acme on yesterday morning that the
teen struck work, and refused their ordinary duty. The
officers immediately resorted to arms, shots were fired,
and Christie fell wounded. The men then seized what-
ever was at hand and attacked the officers, wounding
the first mate as we have stated above. The occurrence
has created much sensation in town.

One alleged cause of the mutiny, as stated by the
crew, is that they shipped for New York, under articles
to that effect, and as they were nearly all black or
coloured men, on learning that the vessel was bound far
Mobile they refused to go, that being a slave state where
they would all be retained in slavery. The men who
are in custody are all blacks, and the ship has certainly
cleared for Mobile.

ANOTHER GREAT MEETING OF UNEMPLOYED

IN SMITLPFIELD.

Yesterday afternoon, at one o'clock, another great
meeting of the unemployed artificers connected with the
building trade was held in the open space of Smithfield,
for the purpose of considering their general depressed
conviction, and to adopt measures for amelioration. The
attendance was much larger than on the previous occa
sion, and the proceedings throughout being conducted
with the greatest ciecorwoolaud good order.
Mr. HUGEL PEARCE was unanimously called to the
chair, and opened the proceedings with a ♦ery long
address.

Mr. CHARLES MIIRR.AY moved the following resolu-
lotion :—" Teat this meeting, consisting chiefly of
operatives unemployed (by causes for which they are
not responsible), demand of the authorities that the
Inehns of existence be extended within our reach by
useful and profitable employment in agriculture and
manufacture ; that until such employment be
afforded we fall back upon our ancient and indisputable
right to parochial ailsistance, unacompanied by the in-
sulting, debasing, and infamous conditions at present
persisted in." In support of the motion Mr. Murray
spoke at great length, complaining of the arbitrary man-
ner in which the working-classes were treated by their
rulers, and alleged as the cause the absence of political
power amongst their class. It had cost the country some
millions to civilise Russia and the Kaffirs, and more
recently the Chinese at Canton, and therefore he saw no
reason why the Government should not spend one or
two millions to civiline them, or, in other words, to alter
their condition. (Mears.)
The motion having been seconded by Mr. Dowimia,
Mr. KENT wished to say a few words, but in conse-
quence of some remarks that fell from him several per-
sons exclaimed that he wished to disturb the harmony
of the meeting, and after some slight confusion, Mr.
Kent proceeded, and suggested that those present should
parade the streets in procession, and also that they
should endeavour to obtain political power based on the
principle of the people's charter.
The resolution was carried unanimously, After which,
Mr. M‘Heath, the honorary secretary, read a lengthy
address, calling on the employed not to work any over
time whilst one man was out. .

The address was adopted, and a resolution pledging
the meeting to support the National Assiociation of
Unemployed of Great Britain was also carried, after
which the meeting adj )urned.

RAILWAY INTELLIGBNCE.

NORTH-EASTERN.

The Bishop Auckland branch of this company's rail.
way was examined last week by the Government In•
Spector, and although a large traffic in coals and coke
has been carried over the line for some time, it was
thought advisable to allow the embankments a short
time longer to consolidate before opening the railway for
passenger traffic. It appears that the bridges and other
works have been well constructed and the signals satis-
factorily arranged.