The Press. — 1853-11-19 (London, England)

THE PRESS.  I waa 111141tYcl% ed. like thousand:4—but too late. I had raised my bubbles gaily, and they burst while 1 tt as gazing at them. I was now in my simple home %min, but help'. Ilegb was DO more. My early amusements had no chasm now. AU was too.. I could only feel 1 was unhappy, without a lope to Cheer in. it. to the noun.% Snowdon looked frowning at me—the hills became gloomy ONeelpi. Wftrl I really set apart to endure a peculiar destiny!' Oh, no--1 was only one in the MAI% of sufferers, who east their all upon a worldly die, mid draw a blank. It is in the utteratiee of such ladylike moralising that this writer excels. Her pen easily runs into this %Ail' of writing ; and her emotional passages have great sweetness, if they have but little strength. Here is a short rithhage highly eharaeteristie of her Milliner:—  1 have often been surpriaed at novele. They pnifess to display charaeter and exemplify life. Alas ! they end where they should beautiful young woman, confused among a shoal of ailittin.ni, choosing one whose ample brow or ending hair has horns away the' rise from all ettlitiwiitons, sparkles awhile, creates envy and leasing, and leaves us in a wreath of 'nano flowers; while we twit from the altar to gaze after the meteor, behold her entering a chariot mid four, 011141 " peep an end." Thee flutter hi over, the el • eis made, hat we are not allowed to see tau queue.% of that choke; yet the bride is but then commeneing life. and her sorrows and joys are to eo . It would surely excite many a youthful naiad to ponder if they were put in possession of the knowledge how many prides exchange the orange•flower wreath for Imam of the deadly nightshade, and dolt the splendid lace dress to wrap themselves in the garment of heaviness. others, again, walk with uncertain slept+ anal slow to whisper vow■ in plain white muslin, sod retire unheeded ; yet their lite has been pleasant, and their pleasures past the telling. It is not how lift. is begun, but how it wears anti is brought to nn Call, that we require practieal lessons.  Our extracts give upon the whole, perhaps, a ►tttt re favourable impression of " Tho Roses" than wo would %Vital tAI convey. Thu novel ia one of those which, without finding admirers. will " rend very well " at circulating libraries. Its authoress eannot graduate with Mrs. Trollope, Mrs. (lore, or Mra. Marsh. iler plaeo 11111011gHt female tieti •sts, who are now Jost ling eseh other in eompetition for public favour, is something not so high am Mrs. limy, but superior to Mrs. Mackenzie Daniel and Mrs. Crawfioll. She eannot invent character: Mid Lev illeheripilloW4 of society are feeble. Yet the sweetness of her tone, a certain soft, ladylike utterance, and the variety, if not the power, of her delineations, combine with du; total absence of aught that is olfensivo or disagreeable to make " Thu Roses" a novel worthy of perusal.  Charye to the Graaf! Miry of Birminyhant. By M. D. Hill, Esq., Recorder. Hsi:outwit Mu's charge to the Birmingham jury will be read with interest, as referring to subject which has hardly ceased to occupy our columns, and which placed the administration of renal justice in this country in no flattering point of view. The learned gentleman has, in the plinimeology of certain sects, "improved the occasion." Ile has not dwelt on the pain,  ful minutiac of the ease, to 110 could have answered 110 good purpose ; 111141 he has clearly indicated as operating causes of win management the defects of our existing prison system. Under that system, as enforced in the Birmingham gaol, " pain was the " great, if not the sole, agent relied upon." A strictly and exclusively penal discipline Was established, and carried out with no deviation from consistency, though at the cost of much cruelty. What resulted? Punishments were not diminished in number, nay, were largely increased. Offences bred offences. Despair led some weaker sufferers to attempted suicide : a sense of injury hardened those of more callous tempenunent. Out of doors the effect was yet worse. A deep impression has been produced abroad by these exposures, and the moral power of England to trotest against acts of oppression in m 44 other la is thus weakened. Throughout the country " the criminal haw become an object of sympathy 1114 against " the ministers of the law." Publie opinion, which usually shows a tendency to become morbid on such subjects, is extensively demoralised :  Magiotritleo ari, lowered in popular ehtithatilat, rudely thrust from the twitch to lm• played at the Ipar ; cri 11l i l tabs leme the wk laid tire rtti%e4lo the witneint-b..x, their evi ilenre, in the exeite.l «tide ..f the pokily mind, taping re• eeived without donne doubts and thiagivithga which, in a calmer butte of (rulings, Mould noc.iobruily and properly attach tlstAaarylves to tobtuAturry titairu fruit) %Whit iloiluttal fitflLret:  Thus, as regards the two principal objects of I►w►ishinent—efteet on lite l►ul►li►• mind, and impression on the criminal himself—the ►cnal or disciplinarian system has failed. What. then, is the alternative? A return, says Mr. llill, to the opposite praetiee, as re runuuendu►l and followed by Captain MaCollechits :- The captain proposes to prisoner who has fallen into crime as a penion is treated by soritay whir Isy his indolence, his pnidigality, and his imprudence. has Men into ailremity. Such a lIIVIII4III IS left lu Wt Isis way out of the unhappy position in %%Welt lie has plowed himself, and the unh difference which the captain would make tee stilts front two one is, that as the thloctinilitet of the criminal is graver, so must his silver slay Iw more profound, and Ins sultvrings, for lass own sake as well as for that of ilociety,iuon•syvere thins those tf his brother in affliction; such seierny essential to his reformation. The remaining cireutustatice is, that the criminal bring in rsptia ity. his actions are more e,narte,t,iy, cooler