The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1839-12-17 00:00:00

Vattrp.

ON SEEING THE BLIND ASYLUM AT
EDINBURGH.

BY LORD FRANCIS EGERTON.
Children, whom Heaven, in seeming denial,
Has reft of that light which to us it secures,
Unproved in our patience, exempt in your trial,
Shall we give you our pity, or ask.you for yours
11l would it beseem us, your darkness deriding,
To deem the false beacons we steer by are true :
Many a proud vessel of ours lack guiding,
And many among us arc blinder than you.
Though we bask in the light of this world, we may borrow,
Through the depth of your darkness, a ray from above,
A rebuke for our pride, and a balm for our sorrow,
A lesson of warning, of comfort, and love. ,
Though it bloom in concealment, yet sweet is the flower,
And the harp that is hid still enraptures the. ear,
And Heaven, in its mercy, has left you the power
The Word which was preach'd to blind nations to hear.
The Star, which- conducted the Magian stranger,
In vain on your pathway its lustre has thrown;
But the song of the Angels to Bethlehem's manger
Has led you as surely through regions unknown.
That song is not silent : around us and o'er us,
The ear of the spirit still traces the sound.
Swelling on, till the full host of Heaven in chorus
Proclaim, with hosannas, the threshold is found.
Though veil'd for a season, that Star's culmination
O'er the portal of Eden has still to aspire,
When the cherub who guards it, released from his station,
Shall sheath at that signal his weapon of fit e.
The steps to that portal, by Jacob in slumber
Once seen, hut. too many and glorious to count,
Your eyes, re-awakened, shall measure and number—
Your footsteps, assisted by angels, shall mount.
Await, then, in patience His second descending,

Who came the dark fetters of sin to unbind,—
And to cancel the sentence on mortal offending,
With words to the speechless, and sight to the blind. - -
And perhaps the bright vision of splendour unbounded
Shall burst on your long darken'd cycs more sublime,
Than on those which the world with its glare has confounded
Or diroin'cl with the mists of corruption and crime.

CONTEMPORARY PRESS.

RURAL POLICE.
(Penni the Preston Chronicle)

On Wednesday next the magistrates of the county
will meet at the Court-house, to make preparations for
bringing into operation the new constabulary system.
Some of the principal officers are to be nominated, in-
cluding the chief superintendent for the county, for
which appointment Captain Woodford, as our readers
are already aware, is a candidate. 'The magistrates, in
making the appointment, will, doubtless, divest them-
selves of personal prejudices and private prepossessions,
which if they do, Captain Woodford, standing en his
own merits, and his intrinsic qualifications for his
situation, must, we deem, have an excellent chance of
being chosen.
Reluctant as we feel to struggle against, infliction,
when all prospect of successful resistance is hopeless,
we cannot, howbeit con amore, forbear the opportunity
of giving one parting kick at this new, but ugly abor-
tion of parturient "liberalism"—liberalism prok pudor!
—liberalism libelously nicknamed ! It is a rather sin-
gular circumstance—a kind of inexplicable marvel, that
while in several other counties, the magistracy have all
but unanimously decided against the adoption of the
new surveillance system, the magistrates of our own
county have been so wonderously accommodating to
each other, as to receive and adopt the system with
open arms, and without so much as a breath of dissent.
How this has been, or can be, we really cannot divine.
Such excessive unanimity sure never was before heard
of. That it is so is all we know ;—the reason why it
is so we cannot explain. True it is, that for good or
evil " espionnage" we must have, and our only avail-
able commentary is, " Pity it is 'xis true."
The advocates of the new system ground their sanction
of it on three main propositions, all very good in them-
selves, but all not serving exactly as appliances to
prove the conclusion they are intended to establish.
First we are told that the present constabulary is ex-
ceedingly defective. No doubt in many instances it is
• so, and we are little disposed or prepared to defend it.
The present constabularly is defective. Granted ;
but surely no one will contend, that the mere ineffi-
ciency of an existing body of constables establishes
the tact, that the principle on which the organization
of that-body depends, is faulty. We contend for the
excellence of the principle which enunciaties our
present constabulary arrangements, viz.,—responsibility
to the rate-payers, to the gentry, farmers, and traders
in the locality. This we maintain, is a sound consti-
tutional principle in such matters. The alleged in-
efficiency of our constabulary is, however, no part of
the true principle, and does not interfere with it.
Wherever inefficiency exists, the fault is not in the
system, but in the administration,—and it is manifest,
therefore, that the consequences of the fault ought to
be visited on the administrators, and not on the system.
This is all we shall say upon this head, and it is, we
think, quite enough. It will, at all events, meet the
comprehension of every good old English-ified rate-
payer. We are told in the second place, that the
morel improvement of the working classes will be pro-
moted by the new system—verily, a singular—a most
marvellous averment. The same thing was formerly
said of the new poor-law act, and indeed, nearly all
the arguments applicable to the fatal measure, are
equally applicable to the new constabulary -infliction.
The one is a natural pendant to the other—nor does it
matter which moves primus. By the new poor-law act,
the labouring classes have been reduced to a lower
scale of living, and have been subjected.to a more per-
nicious competition, in order to procure the lower
scale of living. Hence the increase of crime and
violence which has subsequently taken place,—and
hence,we prove,—that what is now propounded for an
argument as the new constabulary system, has not
held good with regard to the new poor-law act. But
it may be said, that by admitting there is an increase in
crime, we go to prove the necessity of the new system
of constabulary—the new system specifically. Those
who thus reason, are 'equally guilty of fallacy in argu-
ment, and error in morals. First, the fallacy,. which
we think is apparent from this consideration—that con-
ceding there wants a more rigid police government,
the cure is to be found in carrying out the present
principle to its best purposes, and not in eradicating
the principle and establishing another. Secondly, the
errors in morals. It is not a difficult thing to feed
people into principles and practices of morality and
peace; hut it is an impossible thing to force them into
such principles and practices. You may by- a rigid
police inflict more aggregate punidiment, but you can
hardly expect to produce more aggregate virtue.
The third topic of argument is, that the rural police
system will strengthen the hands of the local magis-
tracy. This we altogether deny. The establishment
of a rural police, when carried out as it is intended to
be, will destroy the authority of the local magistracy,
and will render the country gentlemen less influential
-in the administration of just-ce, than the host of myr-
rnidoms whom the Home-office will call into existence.
The promise of control by the magistracy is all a cheat
and a sham. The truth is, all real power will centre in
the Home Secretary, and the magistrates will have
about as much authority independent of the Home-
office, as the boards of guardians have independent of
the poor-law commissioners. All their acts and orders
will be subject to revision and reversal.
In short, the rural police system is an important step
in that social revolution which has been proceeding so
rapidly during the last twenty years. Doubtless we
live in times of turbulence and turmoil ; but still the
question remains, whether a centralized police force,
responsible only to the Home Office, be the species of
force best fitted for emergency. We maintain that
such a force is objectionable in every point of view;—
that the force employed ought to be responsible to the
local authorities,—and that a constabulary, sufficient
to preserve peace, and to protect property, even in
the most tumultuous times, might easily be organized,
without violating the spirit of old and tried institutions;
and without doing a posith.,e, injustice to the influence
and interests of the rate-payers.