New-York daily tribune. [volume] (New-York [N.Y.]) 1842-1866, 1856-12-12
How small, Of all that human hearts endure,
Tie part that Kings or Courts can cause oE cure


The daily and nightly fears which murder sleep
and hinder honest men from eating their meal IN
peace, cftener spring from the thought OF the bur-
gar, the incendary, the assassin in his den than
of the king upon his throne. How TO grapple with
this great and in .cate question Of crime-ts pre-
ventioD, its cure, it's punshment-iS what puzzles
the brains of the uisest of statesmen and the most
sagacious of pbianthropis's. In England, the
question What is to be done with our convcts y
is growing into one of overmas.erng urgency, and
demands, day by day, an apProximative if not
satisfactory answer. And the attention OF the
English public is fastening more and more earnestly
upon it, and calling for the Coming Man that is to
solve tbs Sphinxan Enigma of modern times.
The old method Of dealing with criminals was
very summary one. Hang them - was the gen.
eral cry, and the wisest Of the of that genera
ton land not the least humsne) would say IN favor
of this panacea that they never knew man TO CON-
nit crime a second time after he was hanged for
tie first. The logic seemed to be irresistible, aud
the gallows was kept constantly fed with human
victims in the faith that it would deyour up their
crimes rs well. Our readers know well enough all
about the bloody code of England az the beginning
of this century, and the difficulty Macintosh and
Romiy had ip coDqueriDg it's gradual amelloratlOn.
The fears of the public stood behind the lave, and
the general feeling was: if death will not deter
men from crime what will And SO the hsngman
hoursbed AID waxed fat on bis weekly blood
money. But il was at last forced upon the atsen-
ton of sensible mea that, though the criminals who
had been once well hanged never repeated their Of
lenses. still the Ofrnses would come, and the
amount of crime grew in spite of the externnatlon
Of successive generations Of criminals Then trans
rortation was tired until the Colonies grew strong
enough 10 compel attention to their circumstances
against il, and penai exile became but mime IN
,tead Of terrible fat. Sentences Of transporta-
tion are, as general thing, worked out IN some OF
the prisons of England and the convict at the eXpi-
ration or remission Of his sentence finds himself Just
| where he was when his unwilling seclusiOn began.
The number Of desperate and Of petty criminals
which is thus retained in the body polite, is IN
dOubtedy greater than az any recent PERIOD AZ
comparatively few of those who were actually eI-
ported to Botany Bay or the other penal settlements
ever found their way back again. The tcket-of-
leave system, devised SIS an encouragement at once
10 good behavior in person, and as a means OF
diminishing the thrcng of prisoners, is popu'srly be-
Heyed 10 aggIayste the mischief. By this plan, q
prisoner who has conducted himself so as to merit
the favor il discharged on ticket OF leave before
his sentence is expired, by virtue Of which ne IL
allowed to 90 at large as long as he behaves we'll
.ubiect TO be reclaimed and deprived of bis ticket IN
case of misbehsyior. The number of burglaries,
highway rcbberes-not IN the old heroic fashion oil
Duyal and Turpip, with pistols and blood horses
bu, by means Of cborofow, of gdrroting, and Of
"Iite pre,eryers"-snd other crimes of violence
has greatly increased within few year, and Is
probably Justly attributable TO considerable extern