The Sun.
London, England, 1827-07-23 00:00:00

SPIRIT OF THE PUBLIC JOUR

'AL S.

We insert to-day another letter from Lisbon:
We have reason to believe, that the opinion men-
tioned by our correspondent to be entertained in
Portugal—that the Infant Miguel will be allowed
to return to his country without previous arrange-
ments and guarantees, and the acquiescence of
the principal Powers of Europe—is altogether
erroneous. It is, indeed, industriously circu-
lated by the rebel party, that such will be the
fict ; and they pretend the authority of Miguel
for the assertion : but there is not the least
foundation for the rumour, nor for the pretended
communication from the
.Infant.— Times.

It is impossible not to feel indignation at the
unjustifiable course pursued by some of our co-
temporaries. They 'put forth an impudent fa-
brication, and when it is flatly contradicted, they
have the extraordinary effrontery to exclaim—
., We made the assertion in order to obtain a
contradiction," or " Our timely animadversion
has prevented a disgraceful job." Thus it was
positively stated that Mr. Sturges Bourne had
received a pension for the short period of his
service as Home Secretary. There was not a
shadow of foundation for the assertion ; but
when the parties who made are compelled to re-
tract it, they pretend that they had prevented
what was never fora moment contemplated.
They boasted, in the same manner, that they
had stopped the appointments of Messrs. G.
Tierney and Mr. James Brougham to be Com-
missioners of Customs. There never was the
slightest ground for this most absurd declaration.
The only vacancy in the Customs was that filled
up by Lord Graves : and as to the two gentle-
men whose names have been so unwarrantably
brought before the public, neither themselves
nor their friends ever heard a syllable on the
subject. It was altogether one of the most gra-
tuitous and shameless calumnies ever broached
even by the present Opposition or their tools.—

We perceive from the account of the Salford
Midsummer Sessions in the Manchester Gazette
of Saturday last, that it was stated by Mr. Nor-
ris, the Chairman, that the number of persons
now confined in the prison of Manchester for
trial, on charges of felony, is 133, scarcely one-
half of that committed for trial at the last Quar-
ter Sessions, and considerably lower than has
been known at these Sessions for many years
past. Mr. Norris says, " If there is any cause.
to which more than another it ought to be attri-
buted, he has no doubt that cause is the improve-
ment which has recently taken place in the trade
of that neighbourhood, by which the condition
of the labouring classes has been greatly ame-
liorated." So far there is cause for congratula-
tion. But Mr. Norris proceeds to remark," One
fact, however, I am extremely sorry to observe,
namely, that no less than 45. prisoners out of
133, have been previously,convicted of felony
This is a fact which deserves our most serious
consideration. The Magistrates of the Di-
visiOn are resolved to enforce and observe the
strictest discipline within'the walls of this prison ;
and I do hope. that their perseverance in this
course, will in time work great good, and that we
shall not find prisoners who have been convicted
coming again so frequeutly as has hitherto been
the case. Persons who have been convicted of
offences must not expect to find themselves as
comfortable within the walls as honest and in-
dustrious labourers are able to make themselves
out of prison ; and I dosho.pe that we shall find
the number of offences .diminished by a strict en-
forcement of, .He
,adds,. that he
sse-,
lie; Much -sift the, ei.itorcenent of an Act passed.
last Session, providing, that persons convicted a
second time of felony, may be transported for
life.—We have heard, this lamentation repeated
almost totidenz verbis at every Sessions through-
out the country for many years, as also the ex-
pression of a confident hope that a change for
the better would soon take place. One charge
to a Grand Jury might, in this respect, serve for
all succeeding charges. We are reminded of
the famous passage in " The Vicar of Wake-
field" about Cosmogony. The Magistrate, like
a mill horse, goes his constant round, lamenting
and hoping, because, if he makes a plausible
well-rounded speech he has discharged all that is
expected from him. It is stated in praise of
Burke 's ingenuity, by Jeremy Bentham, that
before his famous Bill the salaries of most
of the servants of the State were greatly in ar-
xear ; but that he remedied an evil against which
ail the sermons in the world have been fruitlessly
directed, by the simple expedient of ordering the
smallest salaries to be first discharged, and pro-
hibiting any Minister from touching a farthing
of his sales): till all the subordinate functionaries
had been paid. When it became the interest of
great men that the State should be a punctual
paymaster, punctuality followed as a matter of
course. If, in like manner, it were the interest
of men connected with the administration ofjus-
tice that there should be few criminals returned
to prison, their invention would soon be tasked
to effect this object. Unfortunately almost all
the best-informed men on these subjects
.have a
direct interest in the multiplication of criminals,
rather than their reduction, and thus we have
fine speeches instead of those skilful adaptations
of means to ends, which are observed in com-
mon life. We have little faith in that reform in
the character of a criminal which can be effected
in a prison, by sneans of its discipline ; and it is
always to be borne in mind, that if punishment
be severe, prosecutors will often hang back, and
Juries fail to convict. It IS, no doubt, a well
known fact that, in this country, a man who Ilea
once been within the walls of a prison, almost
always returns to it. We have a Society, in this
Netropolis, formed for the avowed purpose of
suss srling one great cause of this evil, namely,
thart of persons eaving
the impossibilitY
prison of finding eme plopyment. . l Who would
employ a man who had once been in prison ?
The Society had for object the finding employ»
meat for persons in this situation ; but if, as weal
stated by an intelligent Magistrate of 'Surrey,
3,000 individuals passed through the pri-
sons of that county alone in one year-,
the finding employment for some half a dozen of
individuals,to which their means were at most equal,
leaves the evil exactly where it was., Magis-
trates can know very little of the character and
habits of criminals ; for they hardly ever see
them off their guard, and acquire their knowledge
of them at second hand. Gaolers and turnkeys,
who listen to their conversation, possess often
the requisite knowledge, but they seldom know
how to communicate it. The surgeons a con-
vict ships have excellent opportunities of knowing
the habits and ways of thinking of' criminals, and
we believe more useful information could be
obtained from them than any other persons
whatever. It would be strange indeed, if in a
passage of many months, an intelligent gentleman
should not be able to form a tolerably correct
estimate of the individuals placed under his
charge. Mr. CunninOiatn, who has Cour times

conveyed convicts to Australia, has just pub-
lished two volumes, under the title of " Two
Years in New South Wales," in which, amidst
much valuable information respecting the Colony,
he gives us a great deal of curious insight in the
character of criminals. Mr. Cunningham adverts
to the subject so feelingly fomented by Mr.
Norris, namely, the return of offenders to prison,
and satisfactorily proves, we think, that the indi-
vidual who has ever been in confinement, is
placed under the necessity of being a criminal
for life :

" The great imperfection of our prison arrangements
(say-s Mr. C.), is that prisoners for variety of offence,
are so mingled as to make a gaol more a place of convivial
enjoyment than of punishment ; which, instead of the prin-
ciples of the prisoners undergoing reformation, they become
more and more corrupted, from the recital of larcenous ad-
Ventures and exchange of larcenous opinions. After leaving
prison too, the individual who had been sent there for some
petty offence, is recognised as a fellow-sufferer by the de-
praved characters he may have been associated with, whose
company he is consequently inveigled into, and his morals
thoroughly polluted. If, therefore, a gaol could be so con-
structed that none of the inmates could exchange a word
with each other, or even to see each other's faces, and con-
sequently never able to know who were immured along
with them, the above evils would be avoided."

Mr. Cunningham thinks he has discovered a
means of securing prisoners from this evil ; and
without deciding as to the practicability or effi-
ciency of his plan, we shall lay it before our
readers :

" Let a series of cells, of strong oak, be constructed,
nine feet by four and a half, and seven high, hooped round
with iron bars, and covered with plates of the same, to
prevent being cut through; having a strong iron grating
at top, or a sliding or folding cover, with a bull's eye in it,
which the prisoner could open and shut, and small port-
holes and slides at the bottom, for admission of air.—
A hammock slung between two rings might serve for a
bed, setting the bed. clothes out to air daily ; the cells
being all placed under a common open shed, having a warm
air-pipe passing up between them, and communicating by
a stop-cock with each cell, to admit the prisoner warm-
ing it in cold weather, or whenever requisite. These
cells being placed on trucks could be moved out into
the open air, to give the prisoners the benefit of a sunning
in fine weather, while the nine-foot-length of each would
afford quite sufficient space to take exercise in when its in-
mate became accustomed to that limitation, as any one
who has been at sea can amply testify. A narrow gallery
overhead, extending the whole-length of the shed, would
serve as a place for the watchman or patrol, to prevent
conversation, and guard against escape. The prisoners
would not be enabled to see or speak to each other in the
cells ; while on their being placed at the mill, or allowed
to walk out upon occasion, they should be dressed in loose
flannel frocks, having the number of their cell painted
thereupon, and have tin masks on, so roomy as to admit of
wiping their faces, without taking them off, du► ing labour.
" A gaol of this description would thus consist but of a
high wall inclosing rows of open sheds, with a few neces-
sary buildings for the officers, &c. and could not possibly
cost one-third of what gaols commonly do; while as this
solitary confinement would be one-third worse than the
mode of imprisonment now followed, the period of incar-
ceration might be relatively reduced, and the expences to
the country reduced in the same ratio, while the prisoner,
by obtaining his liberty earlier, would also be a gainer. In
large towns, where ground is valuable, arched galleries
might rise in successive stories above each other, partition-
ed off into cells, admitting a free ventilation through them,
the archways having doors on account of the great ex-
posure from height. The galleries :night thus form a
square, with the other requisite buildings in the centre.
But the greatest advantage of all is, that the prisoners
would never ie able to know who tlyAr gaol-mates Were,
or recognise each other on liberation, so that the man who
was s,•nt to prison, would come out of it at least no worse
than when he went in. Prisoners ought also to be carried
masked to and from the Court-houses and Police-offices to
the gaols, by which means the degrading exposure of hand-
cuffed individuals through the streets would be avoided."
Before concluding this article, we shall lay
another extract, from this instructive, and at the
same time amusing work, before our readers, in
order to show how little reliance is to be placed
on those pretended transformations in person, of
which so many well-meaning persons are con-
stantly the dupes :

Having read much of the great reforms wrought among
the convicts in the hulks, and in New South Wales, by
infusing a sense of religion into their minds, I set about
exhorting them on my appointment to my first ship, to
amend their lives, seeing they were hound to a place where
former misconduct would be no longer thought of, if they
pursued a different course ; and stating that I should take
great pleasure in reporting the behaviour of those to the
Government who had changed for the better, and made a
good use of the religious books placed in their hands. It
was not long before my advice was, in all appearance,
strictly attended to—a very considerable number becoming
grave and decent, whom I had before noticed as among
the worst in the ship, while scripture readers and readers
of religious tracts multiplied around me on all heeds, and
I soon saw a party formed for the reading and expounding
of the scriptures, and closing the conference with prayer
and singing of hymns and psalms. An old fence (receiver
of stolen goods) was at the head of this devote party, who
had served a seven years' term in the hulks, and who, I
was pleased to observe thus setting a good example to his
juniors, although I could not but think at the time, that
the congregation might have pitched upon some other place
for their devotions than the birth contiguous to the hos-
pital, where I had in a manner to rub my shoulders
against them in every sick visit I made. Still however, I
deemed that their fixing upon this conspicuous place, as
well as their invariably meeting at the morning and even-
ing hours, when I visited the sick, might arise from their
anziety to demonstrate that my advice had not been thrown
away.
" This meeting had continued about a fortnight, when
a complaint was made by one of the leaders, that a knot
of blackguards' (as he termed them) had been lately in the
habit of whistling, coughing, and pelting them with bis-
cuit, whenever they began their religious exercises ; so I
forthwith sent for the chief captain of the deck' to point
out those guilty of such conduct, and to know why he
had not put a stop to it before. This was a shrewd, clever
Yorkehireman, who knew especially well the ways of those
over whom he was now presiding ; and, on hearing the
complaint, be answered, with a knowing smile, It .is out
of no disrespect to you, sir, that the praying party, has
been pelted and laughed at, but because they want to hum-
bug the others below as well as yourself. They care not a
straw about religion, hut expect you to do something for
thland ; now if you will just walk into the
hospital
whenb; the}'
theeo
other door, you will. see how quickly they
will drop away—for, indeed, some are tired of it already.'
" I was certainly mortified at what I heard, but resolved
to take his advice; and, true enough the party did drop off
one by one, till none remained but the old fence, who con-
tinued Bible-reading to the end of the voyage, drawling
out the words of Scripture with deep sectarian drone, and
casting at me ever and anon that sort of significant glance
which seemed to whisper ' Don't you see how religious
I am?'
" After this circumstance, there was a gradual falling
off among all the devotionally iuclined, till the whole
became reduced to some seven or eight, and in few of these
did I place much faith. There were, for instance, two
very pious persons from the west of England, where, as I
had ascertained, they, under the pretence of prayer-meetings,
had held confederacies for planning robberies. Another,
one Thomas Jenkins, had formerly joined to hie avowed
profession of travelling Methodist Preacher, the more
gainful one of sheep stealing !----but still there remained
William Jones and John George, against whom the breath
of suspicion had not, as vet, been levelled ; for being the
only-two individuals from a Welch gaol, nobody of course,
knew anything about their history. Jones was, in fact,
quite enthusiastic in Scripture-reading, and I never passed his
birth without observing him earnestly toiling away with a
pair of huge spectacles arched over his nose, or else the Bible
lying close to his hip, ready to be snatched up on the
instant. Indeed, so earnest was he in his religious exercises,
that he could net even attend muster on Sunday without
the Bible in his hand, and his fore-finger stuck be-
tween the leaves, to mark the passage he had been read-
ing. Just previous, however, to this godly person's dis-
missal from the hospital (where he had been placed on ac-
count of a fit of illness) my assistant lost a sum of money ;
and it ultimately came out on the evidence of Jones's bro-
ther saint, John George, that the former was the culprit.
Honest John, indeed, had a finger in the pie, but was in-
duced to 'peach on account of Jones (whom he denounced
as being the greatest ruffian in all Wales) having attempted
to bilk him out of his due share."

Mr. Cunningham very jus;,ly observes, when
these people are crowded thus knave upon knave,
those who may be seriously disposed are jeered
Out of it by the rest, and the reformation you

bring about is a mere barn meant to be turned to
gainful account by making a dupe of you. He
deserves great credit for the honest and manly
way in which he has opposed himself to the de-
lusion.—Morning Chronicle.
When men choose to intrude their private
concerns upon the public, the statements, such
as they are, become public property, and fit
subjects of public animadversion ; and no man,
be his rank and situation, or his own opinion of
himself, or of his case, what it may, has any right
to complain of the freest judgment, where judg-
ment is so manifestly courted and called for.
Unless it be that the grossness, in every point of
view, being without parallel, is on that account
less likely to produce one, we know of no do-
mestic scenes which have come before the world
so calculated to injure public and private morals,
as that which is known to the present age, as it
unfortunately will be to posterity, under the
name of the " Wellesley Case." We wish we
could discover one redeeming quality about it ;
but it has unfortunately none ; unless it he, that
the principal actor may be charitably supposed to
be labouring under a degree of mental delusion—
an idea, however, hardly reconcilable with the share
of worldy -minded understanding (if we may so ex-
press ourselves) which he has shown through-
out. When the Chancery proceedings terminated
in the sound and righteous judgment delivered
by Lord Eldon, Mr. Wellesley had as a prudent
man, no reasonable course to take but to submit
to that decision. He has chosen, however, as he
had a right to do, to act otherwise ; but why,
because he has appealed to the House of Lords,
he should therefore appeal to the public, and
drag before a tribunal, which can have no useful
cognizance of the matter, the mass of private do-
cuments which his recent pamphlet contains, we
are totally at a loss to discover. He gives as his
reason, to be sure, that he is compelled to do
so, because he is driven to prosecute his appeal
before the Lords, " without receiving that coun-
tenance and support from the different members
of his family, which he had a right to expect, and
has so anxiously laboured to obtain." A more
egregious fallacy than this can hardly be con-
ceived. By support, we suppose Mr. Wellesley
means the votes of his father and uncles, upon the
hearing of the appeal ; to bespeak which on the
one hand, or to give them on the other, would be
an act the most indelicate, not to say unwise
and unconstitutional, that could well be ima-
gined. If members of a powerful family could,
as Peers of the realm, act in the way here sug-
gested, would it not be poisoning justice in her
highest seat, and rendering the House of Lords
a Court of Appeal, not to wisdom and expe-
rience, but to prejudice and private interests?
Nor were it otherwise, could Mr. Wellesley, we
imagine, have the smallest ground, much less
" right to expect" this support from persons,
who it is part of his complaint, and of his show.
ing, have been uniformly opposed to all his pro-
ceedings ; and who, it must be manifest to every
one but Mr. Wellesley, even were their feelings
and opinions otherwise, would naturally abstain
from taking any judicial or legislative
part whatever on a question on which they
cannot be said to be impartial judges ? Mr.
Wellesley is therefore in our estimation, without a
shadow of excuse for thus dragging before the
world persons and circumstances with which the
world have nothing to do ; and is only inflicting
a sting which will recoil with redoubled force
upon himself when the hour of reflection, as it
must do, arrives. As he appeals to the judgment
of the public, we would, as part of that public,
with perfect good will, advise him to abstain
from such modes of forcing himself and his con-'
cerns into notice. We do not wish to inflict an
unnecessary wound, when we say that he owes,
both to his family and to his country, years of
penitence for years of mischief ; and that if his
anxiety is to stand right with the world for the
time to come, it can only be by rendering the
future in all respects the very reverse of the past.
—Morning Herald.

The British Catholic Association held an
open meeting on Saturday, to consider the ex-
pediency of petitioning Parliament for a repeal
of the Corporation and Test Acts. Our opi-
nions on that question are already recorded, and
we repeat them. If it can be shown that. the
Church, as established by law, is entitled to no
peculiarity of privilege, it may, by precisely the
same line of argument, be shown that it is entitled
to no peculiarity of protection. . The only reason
that can be assigned for the establishment of a
national Church is, that its doctrines and its forme
of government are best adapted to the civil Con-
stitution with which it is connected. If, by the
repeal of the Test and Corporation Acts, it be
virtually and practically conceded that any doc-
trines and any form of church discipline are as
well suited to the welfare of the State as those of
the Episcopal Church, why, in the name of com-
mon sense, should the State extend its favours
to that Church alone, from which it receives no
more return than from others ? We do not say,
nor have we ever said, that the downfall of the
Established Church would follow immediately,
or soon, from the repeal of these Acts. We
may not see it ; but it seems to us to follow as a
necessag consequence, and as a consequence
which will be admitted by every one who rea-
sons fairly and impartially on the subject. To
return to the meeting : Lord Stourton was in
the Chair. The principal speakers were Mr.
Blount, the Secretary, Mr. Rosson, and Mr.
Eneas M'Donnell. We have given their speeches
atlength, because we are anxious to do justice to a
highly respectable portion of the community, the
English Catholics, whose conduct has, at all times,
contrasted most favourably with their brethren in
Ireland ; and because we think the best way to
judge of the value of the cause they advocate, is
to put the public fairly in possession of all they
have to say for it. The speeches of Mr. Blount
and Mr. Rosson bear pretty directly on
iktahid,epopotend:
sub-
jectneii ofis tahespmeceiemtienng
o;
ft htahteoofrdMiiria.
ordinary
Eneasmode
by great orators of his country, of speaking at
the question, rather than to it. After some al-
lusions to Lord Farnham, who is, Mr. Ikl‘Don-
nell mys, fond of making exhibitions (the best
reason tinder Heaven, to long as the idenz velle
forms a bond of friendship, why his Lordship
and Mr. Eneas should admire each
,other), and
Captain Gordon, and others, IVlr.pl‘Donnell
proceeded to decide as umpire a bp.ef dispute
which took place, some time agq,.
between
the Courier and the Dublin Eve*ng Post,
on the comparative state of crime in Ireland
and England. The way in which the umpire
decides leaves the question pretty much
in the same state in which lie foundlt. The
committals in England and Wales, according to
him, in 1812, were 6,576,—in ISO they
amounted to 14,437. In 1812 the ale So-
ciety began—in 1825 it was is its highest, pros-
perity. Who does not envy Mr. IVDDonnell
the felicity of his deduction ?—cc So much for
the operations of such men as Capt. Gordon !"
Aouin in the seven years preceding 1612, the

capital punishments were 4,120—in the seven
years preceding 1825 they were 8,240, notwith-
standing all the labours of " Gordon and his
gang." This, says Mr. M'D., is a subject on
which one cannot be jocose. We fully agree with
him ; hanging is no joking matter. But we would
just whisper, that, by possibility, the increase
of crimes, about which, assuredly, we can-
not be jocose, might be accounted for without
the agency of the Bible Society. Might not
the prosperity of the one period alluded to, com-
pared with the other, in some degree influence
the number of crimes in each ? And might not
the number of lawless characters, whom the
peace sent abroad into the community, also in-
fluence it ? The argument, however, is a silly one.
It is not the number of committals or condemna-
tions that indicate the character ofthelower classes
in any country ; these merely indicate the state of
its laws and police ; and it is pretty notorious in
England, that the former are severe, and the latter
vigilant. A murder, such as that committed by
Thu?tell, no more marks the character of the
English people, than any of the black spots on
the Sun marks the nature of its substance.
1 Where is there in the modern history of
England such a murder As of the Sheas ?
'Where is there such a murder as that of i\lr.
Chadwick, to take a more recent instance ?
Will Mr. point out a case where a fellow-
creature has been deliberately shot in the sight of
a number of his own tenants, and labourers, or in
the sight of strangers, without an attempt
to save him or to seize his assassin ? Is
there any thing in Ireland of that horror of
blood, which is felt by the common people
in England ? But we must quit a subject,
most painful in itself, and where no dis-
putant can gain honour by victory. England
and Ireland are one in their laws, one in their
Constitution, one in their King. They can gain
nothing from the degradation of each other.
Mr. M'D. has another quarrel with the Courier,
which we shall leave it to manage ;—we mean its
sentiments respecting Mr. O'Connell. Mr.
M'D. is anxious, we see, that our contemporary
should again take up that subject. He says he
has visited Peel's every day to see if it had.
We hope our contemporary will consider of this,
and not allow him again to visit Peel's (a most
ominous name by-the-bye for a Roman Catholic
place of resort) without satisfying him on that
point.—New Times.