The Sun.
London, England, 1868-12-21 00:00:00

very seriously inter opted, and was only read through
to the end, as one, may say, under protest. Under
protest so outspoken that one of the more energetic
Republicans in the Senate, Mr. WiLsoN, of Masia-
chusetts, hesitated not to pronounce the Message
"disrespectful and untruthful, and the acrid outpour.
ing of A DISAPPOINTED BAD MAN." The Message
speaks for itself. And to it we would urgently com-
mend the attention of our readers. It will be seen
from that, how far the above scornful estimate of the
nature of the Message, as well as of the character of
the PRESIDENT, was justified on the part of the
United States' Legislature. In any case, it can-
not but be allowed that this incident of the reception
of the Message not unfitly rouncli the circle of
ANDREW JOIENSON'S Presidency.

TILE Social Science Association has brought before
the notice of Government an important item of the
formidable arrears of legislative work that await the
Householders' Parliament. The deputation which a
few days back waited upon the HomE SECRETARY
touching the repression of crime, opened a
parliamentary campaign that can have but
one issue. Crime and the criminal classes of
the British population are alike on the increase.
Pauperism, the rapid growth of which greatly out-
runs the increase in the population of the United
Kingdom, furnishes an unfailing supply of vice,
which the great efforts of late years have failed to
keep down. All that is expressed in the phrase the
" spread of civilisation " has not availed to prevent
the natural result of the rapid multiplication of the
unemployed and the destitute. The instruction of
the working classes, the special training of homeless
and uncared-for children, the industrial education of
the convict youth of both sexes, and the employment
of the destitute, are all noble undertakings which
have brought about much good ; but it would be idle
to ignore the fact that want on the side of vice has
more than counterbalanced every agency on behalf
of virtue. The influences which counteract crime,
though of incalculable value, are less potent than
the means which produce it. Though prevention
is better than cure, there can be no doubt
that cure is the second best thing ; but in this respect
also much remains to be done. We have in great
measure failed to satisfactorily dispose of our con-
victed criminals ; the law is at fault both as to the
term and the mode of punishment and the restrictions
on notorious offenders when set free. This result is
to be attributed largely to the circumstance that
legislation on this subject has been little more than
a series of experiments, without much ex-
perience to guard against error. The difficulty, as
a whole, is new. But a very few years ago the law
did nothing in the way of prevention, and repre-
sented but one idea on the subject of cure. The
principle that dead men tell no tales was extended to
the formula that dead criminals can .no longer be
troublesome, and on this hypothesis the law had but
one remedy, the gallows. The murderer, the forger,
the highwayman, the housebreaker, and the
shoplifter all went the same way. When
this Draconian code was repealed we had
to discover the right mode of action ; the loss of
our sheet-anchor, the cross-beam and uprights, has
embarked us in a sea of social perplexity. Of the
numerous experiments that have been tried, none has
satisfied the most urgent necessities of the case ;
neither transportation nor the present system of penal
servitude, not to speak of many lesser changes,
has answered all reasonable expectations. A
problem which never can be solved satisfactorily
remains as yet without any solution at all.
The time has come when this unavoidable period
of groping in the dark should come to an end.
Tentative legislation has in great measure done its
work : it has shewn how far the great burden of
national crime can be lightened, and what are
the best means of accomplishing this object.
It has become evident that legislative efforts
must be directed chiefly to the prevention
of the systematic or professional exercise of
crime. The criminals who make dishonesty a trade
are by far the most numerous and most dangerous
enemies of society, and they are, besides, the only
class with which restrictive law - can deal. First,
offences always form a very small item in the calendar.
There must be a yearly recruiting of the ranks of the
dishonest in order to keep the force ; but this annual
contingent the law cannot reach except by the
indirect means of education and the encouragement
of philanthropy. To reduce to a minimum the
injury wrought by systematic evildoers who are cast
loose on society after punishment, is and always has
been the great difficulty. Transportation is no
more to be thought of. It is difficult
to find eligible lands which may serve as
areas into which we may shoot our social rubbish,
and there are besides other overwhelming objections
against the system. The only hope of furthering the
repression of crime lies in improving the present
penal system. It is not difficult to perceive where
that system is at fault. In the first place, the license
or ticket-of-leave principle is fundamentally good,
but the great laxity attendant upon its applica-
tion has been very baneful. It was first designed
to save expense to the State, and at the same time
increase the chance of reforming the convict by per-
mitting him to spend part of his term of sentence out
of prison, under surveillance. The amount of remis-
sion varies according to the good conduct of
the criminal while in prison. An incentive
to reformation was thus afforded at the outset.
It was not unreasonably deemed probable that the
malefactor would be more likely to fall into ways
of honesty if the first years of his liberty were
spent under • State tutorship than if he were
at once discharged to return to his old habits without
restraint or inducement to do better. The enlightened
spirit of modern legislation, mercifully averse to the
waste of human life, has laid down the maxim that
imprisonment should be reduced to the narrowest
limits consistent with public safety. Still the license
system has been productive of much evil to the com-
munity. The most indispensable condition of its
employment, the exercise of a complete surveillance
over the convict whilst his term of license endures, has
not been complied with. Where the ticket-of-leave
men have been well watched—and some counties and
boroughs have been exemplary in this respect—the
system has worked well and has been clearly produc-
tive of good ; but where the surveillance is less
perfect the convict often manages to escape observa-
tion and returns to his old haunts and associates.
To improve the supervision of the license-holder
must be the great aim of any alteration.of the law in
this respect.
ofa
The
central authority l
existing means of controla need
addition directing n record-
ing the movements of convicts on license. At present
the various bodies of police have the care of these
evil-doers on probation, in addition to their many
other duties ; and though with proper assistance the
work might be adequately done, at present the sur-
veillance frequently ceases when the convicts choose
to move from one place to another. There is no
special communication between the different police-
centres. With the aid of a central authority every
action on the part of a license-holder, and especially
his deputure from any place, would be registered,
and the information thus gained could be sent to the
police authorities who might require it. The super-
vision, which is. now a work of chance, would
become a matter of certainty. It would be
much more difficult for the ticket-of-leave
man to embark on the career of crime which is
at present the frequent result of his liberty. The
great object to be aimed at is to bring the career of
every criminal, from the time that he first enters
upon crime, within the jurisdiction of a State depart-
ment.

LONDON, MONDAY, DEC. 21, 1868.

Andrew JOHNSON'S career as President of the
United States promises to be so far of a piece that its
close in one sense is very much like its commencement.
That commencement, who can have forgotten ? This
close, who is likely very soon to forget ? By having
been elected Vice-President, he became President
very soon afterwards by misadventure. So that in
point of fact his presidency in a manner dates
from the hour of his vice-presidential inaug-

And the latter, as all accounts
unanimously record it to have been, was re-
garded by those who witnessed it as little less than a
national disgrace and calamity. The Times' Corres-
pondent, fresh from beholding that extraordinary ex-
hibition, wrote of it as of the inauguration of a Rowdy.
Explanations came afterwards from the friends
of Mr. JOHNSON to the effect that he was out
of health at the time, and that, being na-
turally and habitually a very abstemious man,
he had, under medical advice, swallowed a
nip of raw brandy or of some other stimulant just to
steady his nerves before appearing for the first time
in his official capacity before the great Democratic
Legislature at Washington! And that, hence and hence
only, came the unseemly excitement and incoherence
with which he addressed the assembled representa-
tives of the United States upon the occasion of his
auguration thus, or installation as Vice-President.
Since then, the incident has been overlooked and
almost forgotten. Steadied first of all by dismay, no
doubt, on his own part, on awakening to the fact of his
having so flagrantly, and manifestly so unwittingly
committed himself—but steadied far more probably by
the astounding casualty which swept the late President,
ABRAHAM LINCOLN,out of his path, and thereby caused
the supreme authority to devolve upon himself, accord-
ing to the wise provision of the great Republican
Constitution for the rest of the prescribed interval of

uration.

four years which had still to elapse should have
run Out—ANDREW JOHNSON, Vice-President no
longer, but President thenceforth of the United
States, redeemed the reputation for statesmanship
and for personal dignity which, for one disastrous
moment, he seemed to some to have altogether for-

'cit ed. His responsibilities, always heavy from
,he outset, encreasing enormously upon him as

time ran on, Mr. JOILNSON eventually secured
to himself the earnest sympathy of millions who were

attentively observing his career from their stand-
point on this side of the Atlantic, when it was ob-
served by the latter that he as PRESIDENT was, with
the utmost malignity on the part of his enemies,

being formally threatened with a solemn Impeach-

ment. The spectacle of one man calmly and un-

dauntedly withstanding the attacks of a multi-
.

.udo of assailants, won for him the earnest

sympathy of many who were not by any means
originally in any way prejudiced in his favour. The
Impeachment as a political move fell through. Mr.
JOHNSON'S authority as President remained in every

essential particular undiminished. Animosity was for
a while silenced. Time ran on ; and, at last in due

course, the period arrived when the electors of the
United States had to choose from among the candidates
for that high office, who should be the new President.
GEORGE WASHINGTON, the founder of the great Re-
public, was twice President. THOMAS JEFFERSON,
in like manner, was re-elected to that post of honour
and authority on the expiry of the first four years of
his Presidency. So also was it with JAMES MADISON,
with JAMES MONROE, with ANDREW JACKSON, and
last of all with ABRAHAM LINCOLN, the last-men-

tioned, as it happened, being: re-electe-1 to be as-
sassinated almost immediately afterwards. There
were, thus, half-a-dozen precedents for re-election.
Bat uo one for a moment thought of acting upon
those precedents in the instance of a man who was
only there, to begin with, in that highest post of all,
purely and solely through misadventure. The choice
as to his successor lay simply, as was seen at once,
between SEYMOUR and GRANT. By an over-
whelming majority, ULYSSES GRANT was elected
to the Presidency. The days of ANDREW JOHN-
SON were then, in the naturally course of things,
clearly numbered. He had escaped Impeachment.

He bad tided on somehow in spite of the most viru-
lent opposition. Isolated, single-handed, almost alone,
he was there simply to fulfil the allotted period of his
tenure of office, and then to pass out of public view,
and to give place to his soldier successor. Before that
period could arrive, however, there was one other
great Presidential act that ANDREW JOHNSON was
called upon to perform. lle bad to produce and
to transmit to the proper authorities another—•his
final—Message. This document be composed, this
document he transmitted to its destinations—to the
assembled Congress—simultaneously to the Senate
and to the house of Representatives of the United
States. Upon the very day of his doing s,, there
came flashing to us the announcement, through
the Atlantic Cable, that the Senate had re-
fused to listen to the reading of the PLESI-
DENT'S Message. The text of that Message
has now come to hand via Southampton, through the
steamer Deutschland. And, reading it, the extraordi-
nary decision of the American Legislature, bewilder-
ing when first announced, can now be readily enough
comprehended. The reading of the Message, it turns
out, was not absolutely refused, as first stated by
the Atlantic Telegraph, but, having been threatened
with a refusalof its reading being continued, it was

This principle may be carried out still farther.
Not only must the criminals who are still
under the sentence of the law be strictly
guarded, but they must not be lost sight of
even when their full term of punishment has ex-
pired. The great evil of professional crime can never
be dealt with successfully until it is laid down that a
confirmed evil-doer is at all times answerable to the

THE SUN, LONDON, MONDAY EVENING, DECEMBER 21, 1868

authorities. Public opinion, which has been much
directed to this subject of late, has erred rather in
the direction of asking too much ; but there can
be no doubt that some reform is possible. Between
the non-intervention of the law as it stands and the
extreme rigour which has been called for lately, there
is a just mean which the Social Science Association
has discovered. Though it is hardly possible to
entrust the police with the power of apprehending at
will those whom they suspect of meditating an
offence, yet it is quite within the province of the
law that a notoriously bad character should be
accountable for his manner of life until he reforms.
To carry out this principle, a confirmed criminal has
been defined as one who has suffered two convic-
tions. Such an offender, the association suggests,
should no longer be a free agent. So long as he
lives in honesty he shall be left in peace; but
if his doings are at all suspicious he is to be liable to
apprehension. Any criminal who has suffered two
convictions and is known to associate with thieves, or
is unable to shew that, he is earning an honest living,
may be required to give bail for his continued good
behaviour, or, in default, be sent to prison.
The law must not wait until an act of
mischief be accomplished; the intention ought
also to be taken note of. Of course some organisation
will be required in order to exercise this supervision
over bad characters; but the same central authority
as that recommended for the license-holders might
also be employed to watch those who have not
actually incurred penalty. Thus we should have a
complete register and surveillance over the whole of
the professional criminal class. Should such an
organisation be brought about—and there is no
doubt it can be—
gar experiments will not have been
in vain.

LATEST INTELL WINCE.

NEWSP.

(REUTER'S TELEGRAMS.)

IBUTION.

The Daily News, in an interesting and somewhat lengthy
article, describes how the London papers are circulated in
the country—how they are sent away, in fact. The house
described is doubtless that of Mr. W. H. Smith, who
defeated Mr. Mill at Westminster. "It is Saturday
morning, a little after four o'clock, and we are at one of
the headquarters of newspaper distribution. One hundred
and fifty thousand morning journals are sent out from
here every day, and the processes of folding, sorting, and
addressing are in full progress now. A large building, like
a gigantic bank, long counters and tables intersecting
it, and galleries running round it to its roof ; strong men
and active youths all busy, some with the papers at the
folding tables, others with brown paper parcels like bales
of calico, and others again rushing out laden to the red
carts in waiting ; monotonous cries of the various journals'
titles, and ever and anon a stimulating or encouraging
word from an active little man who acts as general—such
was the scene. The great thing,' we are assured, is 'to
get the work done in time.' From five to six
is our greatest rush, and it's only by watching
and care that we don't miss one or other of
the earl• trains. These are nearly all about six a.m.
There's one of the London and Chatham's goes at 5.50—
that's the earliest of all ; but the great bulk of the news-
papers even by that line leave by a train at 6.15 ; and be-
tween 6, which is the time of the London and Brighton,
to 6.30 the South Eastern's, and 6.35 Waterloo, the train:,
of all the great London lines go out. We've got a new
plan now at the Great Western. They've given us a room
on. the platform, and we've eighteen men there who do all
the folding, addressing, and checking you see going on for
the other lines here now—close to the train. The papers
are taken down direct from the various offices just as they
leave the press, and don't come near this central depart-
ment. Then, tbe.North Western Company accommodates
us in another way. On their line we have a special double
carriage fitted up as a newspaper room, and in this four of
our men go down by the early train and fold, and dis-
tribute papers all over the North-Western Railwayy
district. Their journey ends at Stafford, and they come
back again every day by the two o'clock train. Our system
is a very simple one. These large sheets of stout brown
paper have printed labels, you'll observe, pasted on each
side. Ona of these is the agent's or customer's
address ; the other is a list of the different newspapers we
send out, with blanks for the number to be supplied.
These are filled in the day before by clerks, who copy the
particulars from the order-book, so that, as you see, when
morning comes, and the brown covers are sorted into
districts in this room, the packers have but to call out so
many of the Times, or Daily News, and so many of the
other journals in rotation, according to the list before
them. The parcel is not tied up until its contents are
counted by another man, so that there may be no
nistake."