The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1854-01-24 00:00:00

butkyobring as deep and difficult considerations as can
Tarlinge the minds and consciences of Christian men. I
frnd it impossible to detach from punishment the ideauf
retribution. The retribution which I mean is the con-
viction, brought home to the conscience of the offender by
such pain and coercion as are compatible with humanity,
that he cannot and shall not break the laws of the land
with impunity, inasmuch as crime assuredly, when detected,
entails punishment. Were it, indeed, to be supposed
otherwise, were laws denuded of all that gives them life
and force, they would become mere dead letters, and•society
be speedily crushed beneath the foot of fraud and violence.
It may be gathered from what I have said, that the main
end of human punishment is the prevention of -future
crime; not only by the detected offender; but by others
who may witness, or hear of, this detection and punish-
ment. Thus, in decreeing and awarding punishment, both
legislator and judge ought to have their eye on two parties
—the criminal, and the by-stander. While repudiating
the idea of vengeance or vindictiveness, however, let us
not forget that we have to deal with one who has actually,
and perhaps repeatedly, violated the laws essential for the
protection of society ; and who stands altogether on a dif-
ferent footing from him who has not done so, but, on the
contrary, deserves well of society for the noble constancy
with which he has resisted temptation, enduring the keen
pangs of want, amidst surrounding plenty. The former
we regard with pity, largely tinctured with sternness ;
the latter with a warm and admiring sympathy. I would
lay it down, therefore, not only as imprudent, but a posi-
tive wickedness, to inflict the slightest degree of punish-
ment more than suffices to ensure the attainment of the
salutary ends proposed ; and this not only because we, in
doing so, exceed the authority delegated to us by the Su-
preme law-giver, but because we may brutalize the
offender; we are like to extinguish every spark of com-
punction that may yet smoulder within him, and, unhap-
pily, convert a criminal into a victim. It is the glory of
our age that our criminal legislation is becoming yearly
actuated by a more humane spirit. It is a vast experi-
ment that we are making on human nature ; but still, as
I said on taking my seat in this place, mercy and justice
must reflect each others rays, or neither deserves its name.
The practical problem is, how so leniently to administer
the criminal law, as not to encourage, perhaps I might
say even tempt, the commission of crime ; for there are
brutal natures whom nothing but a rod of iron can sub-
due and keep in awe—on whom lenity is thrown away,
and is as foolish and mischievous as severity is often cruel
and even criminal. Suppose a youth should come before
us with some eight, ten, or twelve previous convictions for
felony, and other offences, as it were suspended from his
neck in miserable profusion. Should such an one stand
at the bar, and be found guilty, what, as matters at pre-
sent stand, is to be done with him ? Am Ito render the
administration of justice ridiculous, that bar contemptible,
and ourselves laughing-stocks, by passing a light sentence,
quickly ensuring his return to us again and again, worse
and worse ? Are we not, rather, from the past to judge
the future ? and that if we go on as we have begun, in
weak dalliance with duty, so he will be only serving a
longer apprenticeship to crime ! He, whose heart is
even most thoroughly suffused with the spirit of
Christianity, and who would freely forgive a personal
injury as often as it is inflicted, stands clothed with
a sacred trust, when charged with the protection of
society, by vindicating the authority of its laws ; and is
called upon faithfully to discharge a different class of
duties—to be just and fear not. But I will tell you how
the noble spirit of Christian humanity would influence
such an one : it would make him see in the offender before
him, through the thick black haze of guilt, one to be re-
claimed ; feeling that to treat him as irreclaimable, is to
make him such ; and, in so doing, entail, on those doing
so, a fearful amount of guilt in the eyes of him whose
mercies we, ourselves, would fain experience every moment
of our lives. Such an one as I speak of would not expend
the force of his convictions on sentimental expressions, or
desultory efforts, but on actions regulated by untiring
patience and prudence. He would look, with true Sama-
ritan eye, on every youthful delinquent as a brand to be
plucked out of the burning ; and for that purpose would
not be too nice or fearful in approaching the flame. He
world say.—l regard your acts as evidence of a vicious
habit of mind : and a very little of this reflection would
startle him by suggesting the question " How was that
habit first acquired ?" And by and by he would.feel the
humbling conviction that, to a large extent, he himself, as
a member of the community, was responsible for the guilt
before him, and would say with some of old, we are verily
guilty concerning our brother ! And so indeed, in these
times, the voice of God is loudly telling us we are ; and if
we neglect that voice, let us well beware ! The con-
sequences may be equally serious, individually and
nationally. Let us not deceive ourselves, but each ask
himself what have I done, individually, to abate
this crying and alarming evil of juvenile delin-
quency ? To arrest this cancerous taint, fast eating
its way to the very vitals of the community ?
I repeat it, prevention is better than cure; and that pre-
vention is to be successfully sought for only in religious
education. This is the mighty lever to which every one
of us can put his hand, with what vigour he may, and
with the approving eye of God upon him. Why do we
so anxiously and with such effort and sacrifice educate our
own children ? For the very reason why we ought to
assist,—l say very advisedly, assist the poor in educating
theirs. Do not mischievously supersede their own efforts,
but tell them to put their own shoulders to the wheel, and
then aid them vigilantly and discreetly. I have tried to
explain the views on which I act, with circumspect
anxiety, in awarding punishment, from this seat of justice ;
each particular case standing on its own merits, as dis-
closed, at the time, to him charged with the serious re-
sponsibility of dealing with it, and possessing the best
means of information concerning it. No one in this court
feels more acutely than I do, for those with whom it is
my stern duty to deal most severely ; and with reference
to juvenile offenders, I sometimes think, as I look at them
from this chair, would that your profligate and abandoned
parents stood in your place ! And let us hope that the
legislature may presently find some means of dealing with
them, directly and effectively, so laying the axe at the
root of the tree. Gentlemen, my conduct in this seat,
my acts and motives, have been entirely misapprehended
—and that far and wide : God forbid that I should say
intentionally, but precipitately. It may not signify much,
perhaps, to any who hear me, but my feelings have been
pained, not a little, by the way in which I have seen
myself spoken of—compelled myself to be silent—in
• different parts of the kingdom, by those who were entirely
mistaken as to facts. But believe me, gentlemen, my
heart is a stranger to resentment ; and I know how to
put a liberal construction on the motives and intentions of
those who, I think, have dealt rather • hardly with mine.
If I can do nothing more in this seat, I will at least try
to show obedience to the divine precept, let your modera-
tion be known unto all men. 0, gentlemen, let not us
worms be too anxious about the opinions of our fellow
worms ; but all of us seek the guidance of an enlightened
conscience, in the discharge of whatsoever duties we have
cast upon us."

The views thus temperately and feelingly promulgated ;
the sentiments so eloquently expressed, are in every respect
worthy of the high moral purity and circumspect dignity
of the bench. Alike removed from arrogance, and dis-
daining servility, the position assumed and maintained by
Mr. WARREN on this painful and trying occasion is credit-
able to his feelings as a man and a Christian, and to his
temper and judgment as one appointed to wield the awe-
inspiring sword of justice.

NOTES, NOTICES, AND OPINIONS.

BY .TONANNES 817STICUS.

XVIII. CAHILL REBUICED.—Dr. Cahill having suc-
ceeded, by his writings and lectures, in bringing on himself
the most profound contempt of all English Protestants—
as evinced by the almost total silence of the English press
—and probably mistaking the cause of this silence—has,
by his last insane epistle, drawn on himself a castigation
from a quarter whence he probably least expected it,
namely, from a priest of his own church. The Rev. Mr.
Walford, in a letter to the Catholic Standard, condemns;
in the most unqualified manner, the " false statements,'
" the reckless and uncharitable assertions which Dr.
Cahill, a priest of the Catholic Church, is not ashamed to
utter against the Protestant clergy." After exposing
the falsehood of some of Dr. Cahill's "reckless assertions,"
respecting the University of Oxford, Mr. Walford goes on
to say, " I protest, by all that I hold most sacred, against
his assertion that the Anglican clergy ' learn in college the
science of iniquity, and not of grace,' and I do so first,
because it is wholly opposed to facts; and, secondly, be-
cause such rash and wicked assertion., tend to widen the
unhappy breach which severs us from our former friends."
Dr. Cahill should take this hint, and veil the spirit of
Maynooth and the inquisition for the present, acknow-
ledging the correctness of Mr. Walford's remark, that he
"would be doing equal service by tending some of the
church's children in our semi-heathen towns, [Liverpool
to wit,] as by delivering fierce controversial lectures, and
writing letters of ignorant and unchristian invective."
XIX. BEGGING MONKS.—Does the bankrupt state of
the Pope's exchequer account, in any way, for the hordes
of begging priests and monks who have been infesting
Liverpool for the last twelve months, levying their black
mail on every one over whom they can bring the least
influence to bear ? These long-coated mendicants are
known, in the true style of begging impostors, to thrust
themselves into the dwellings and private offices of Pro-
testant gentlemen, dodge them backwards and forwards,
in and out, and pester them with tales of Roman Catholic
churches, Roman Catholic schools, Christian brothers, Sis-
ters of Mercy,starving poor,and every variety of charitable
objects, until they succeed in extracting a donation from their
persecuted victim, when they retire to their " presbytery,',
and send out another of the gang, to go the same round.
Are the police regulations of no avail against these sturdy
impostors ?

XX. BRIBERT.—What is the moral distinction between
bribing a man by promising him " cheap bread," and
handing him five shillings to buy it ? Answer None, as
to bribery ; but as to the mode, much. In the former
case, the briber puts his hand into other peoples' pockets ;
in the latter, he puts it honourably into his own !

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