The Portland daily press., 1870-10-17

Monday Morning, oetobsr II, 1870
Moral In vaiidss''

s,Morai Invaiids."
The Advertiser latter week spent IN re
fection) thinks it sees an Inconsistency in our
affirming that criminal is sick man,-a
moral unbelievable we contend that muir
derers like Hoswell, who kill their adversaries
because tLey suspect or pretend to suspect
them of invading their domestic rights, ought
not to be acquitted. But there is not in our
position the slightest difficulty OF the kind
suggested by our contemporary. We express
~ stated in the article 10 which it refers that
it is the peculiar misfortune OF the class OF IN
valds called criminals that society mast, as
matter OF self-preservation, restrain them from
wrong doing ercn fit is necessary TO deprice
them ofli}e itseJ. The question is whether
they may not be more satisfactorily restrain
ed, and indeed their morbid, criminal impuls-
es cured, by moral and intellectual culture, of
which they have perhaps been deprived
through real misfortune, and by the guarded
and judicious employment of rewards for APP
parent penitence and reform as well as of pen
alties Tor past wrongs. And SO far as the par
ticular class of murderers referred to is con-
cerned, we have only ccntended that they
are just as ''sick" as other murderers, and
should be subjected TO the same treatment,
whether the gallows or beel-steak and bon
bons are found best suited to their case. This
being our position, we can find no meaning
whateverin the following sentences unless
the writer pleased himself with their specious
sound, and imagined that there is some mean
ing in them because they are sonorous:
The diagnosis Of the moral doctors, in those
cases, seems confused and unsatisfactory. Is
it possible, that with their fine words and
pleasant prescriptions, they are only a parcel
Ofquacks after all, dealing flippantly with
mysteries so deep and awful, that the wisest
men confess most humbly that we can only
accept them as facts and deal with them &C
cording to circumstances, without trying to
reduce them to strict theories and absolute
formulas.
Is there anything more of absolute formu-
las" and s'strict theories" in reforming Grim.
inal,-curing the invalid, in other words,-than
in rendering him incurabc? What "myste-
res" are they that must be accepted as facts
There is theory of crime and theory of the
proper treatment of criminals now accepted
and acted upon. Its results are acknowledge
ed to be unsatisfactory; must we never ask if
there be nc better theory and practice?
As for treating the subject "aippantly," we
protest that we have not done SO, and that
the levity of our contemporary i'll accords with
the sense of the Importance and solemnity O.
the subject with which we are profoundly i'm
pressed. We see no reason to modify a sin
gle sentence we have written on the sub;ect
Criminals are the most unfortunate of men
and if there is to be any error in their treat
ment let it be on the side of Ieniency rather
than OF severity. The old maxim, Tutor es,
erare in acqaietando quano in puniendo has
the advantage of possessing highly respecta
BILE antiquity and will on that account per
haps commend itself to our neighbours iudg.
ment, though our declarations to the same eff
feet be regarded as clearly heretical.