Camden journal. [volume] (Camden, South-Carolina) 1852-1852, 1852-10-08
suaResti ons to our Grand Juries.

suggestions to our Grand 5uries.
The sitting Of the approaching Courts will
afford fine opportunity for the Grand Juries of
the different Districts to urge upon the Leglsla-
ture the passage of such acts rs the moral wants
of their communities may require Should any
thing like arespectible number ofthem unite upon
A presentment, it would more effectually secure
the attention of the members OF this body thah
Z the same suggestions from any other source, eH=
cept perhaps the direct instruction of their const
: tuents. .r
Are there. then, no measures Of public utility,
of such Importance as to require the aid OF these
conseryators of the morality and good order of
the StateP
We think there are, and will proceed to point
then. out, under the hope that they may be
brought before the proper tribunal, in such
manner as to secure a prompt and respectful con
sideration. =,
8 First, then, the necessity of a more efectual
s system of punishment for our criminals has long
been felt. 1t cannot be denied that it bears no
proportion to the crimes for which it is now In
5 Sficted. Although many Improvements have al.
ready been made in our penal code, some OF
: its enactment are still so extremely barbarous,
that the feelings of the community revolt at
a conviction, and Others so lenient that the pun
ishmeut often bears no proportion to the enor-
J mty of the crime. A poor, starving wretch, tor
instance, maysteal few hams of bacon, or some
other property of but little value, and he is pub
lcly tied to the whipping post to receive the most
disgraceful punishment that can possibly be IN
ficted upon freeman, and lost to all shame or
selfrespect, instead of being reformed is turned
loose upon the community in state of mind we'll
fitted for the most desperate crimes. On the 9TH
Ter hand should public brawler, in fit fmad-
ness, deprive fellow-being of that life which
it is the privilege of God alone to take away, ne
IS probably confined few months in the common
iaii of the District, with the full privilege of the
whole house, and of every luxury and amuse-
ment which his friend may afford him.
The only plan for the graduation of punish
ment to the various crimes is the Penitentiary.
1T more efectually combines the objects of all
punishment, the prevention of crime and the re-
formation of the criminal, than any other system
that has ever been adopted; and what is no
small item it relieves the State from the expense
Of supporting her criminals. Wherever this
system has been adopted it has met with uni
yersal favor. The labor, solitary confinement,
instruction, both literary and religious, for they
are generally provided with libraries as well as
chaplains,) have had a wonderful effect in not
only reforming the criminal but in preventing
crime, for in the States where Penitentiarles are
established, no criminal escapes his just deserts.
The certainty of punishment being found by ex-
perience to be of more importance than its Sc
verify, they are invariably convicted, and what
is still better, punished, and better STILL often re-
formed.
: No fact is better established than that the
penitentiary system Of punishment is the best
that has ever been devised, and why our State
so studiously refuses to bestow attention to the
matter we are at loss to determine We hope,
however, that the press and the people will take
the matter in hand and agitate it until the Le-
gslature is forced to YIELD at least until it as
certains from reliable data that the number of
criminals in the State will not justify its adop-
stion.
Another crying evil, which it would be well
for our Grand Jurors to present for the conslde-
ration of the Legislature is the carrying of deadly
weapons concealed about the person.
In consequence of the great perfection to which
the mechanical arts have attained, these mur-
derous instruments are now offered at so tri6ing
q cost that every school boy, out OF the pocket
change which he is allowed by his parent or
guardian, can arm himself in the most deadly
manner: and as the bare possession of a wea-
POI, of this description almost invariably imparts
a desire in the person who babitually carries one
to use it, he is prepared, upon the slightest pro-
vocation, to deprive his assailant or perhaps in
nocent by-standers of their lives. Human life
is too precious to be heedlessly taken, and the
most stringent laws should be enacted against a
habit by which it is momentarily endangered.
4 There are other suggestions which we might
have made, but we have already transgressed our
limits, and perhaps have been engaged in fruit.
less effort; we have the consolation, however, of
knowing that we have discharged public trust,
and will leave the duty Of acting upon those more
Immediately responsible.-Lauremsuille Herald.
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HEAT OF THE SUM. Secchi, Of Rome, has
made a series Of photometric experiments on the
disc OF the sun, by means Of thermo-electric
pile. He has found that the heat of the bor-
ders Of the disc is nearly half that Of the Gen.
tire, which confirms, as regard' radiation of heat,
what was already known for light and chemical
action But he observed further, that the heat
was not the same at all points equi-distant from
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