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    December 13,1856.] THE LE AD E'fc 1189

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    LESSORS TO JOURNALISTS. The exasperated ...

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    PENS AND BAGGERS. A iveeklt centemporary...

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    Cheek's "Stunner" And Tiir True Life Pre...

    Judges are all talking in the same strain . " Transportation ! " they cry . But , if none of the existing colonies will receive transported convicts ? Then , says the Times , let us send the Incorrigibles " to Caffraria , "—and go provoke a new Cape rebellion ; " to Vancouver ' s Island , "—and so make another Norfolk Island ; "to the Talkland Islands , ' 'ditto ; or to the islands that gem the Pacific , — and so stud that distant ocean with a

    multiplicity of Norfolk Islands ! Denied transportation , England is put in no worse position than other countries which are "without colonies—Prussia or Prance , for instance . Are we more criminal , that we are less able to contend with our criminal population . ? Do we not pretend that we aTe wiser , more ' practical ? ' Have we really arrived at that pass that we must proceed at once to chaiu or kill the 16 , 000 Mauleys that Iteep " Tyburniensis " in trepidation ? "We might grant the right to kill as many Mauleys as could

    be found ; "but are we not sometimes mistaken ? Are there not Copes mingled among the Mauleys ? Are the 16 , 000 really 16 , 000 criminals ? It is a critical question . If men will follow the inquiries of those Avho have taken the pains to go among the criminal orders aud the classes which recruit them , we shall find that a large proportion of that 16 , 000 are not there by tlieir own free will or the impulse of malice , but by the neglect of those who ought to know better . They have been ,

    perhaps , thrown out of work ; they may have been horn out of work . The . Daily News was showing on Thursday how the whole class of domestic servants are incompetent , idle , dishonest , and treacherous , because they have no training to their work ; so , badgered by harsh masters aud mistresses that will not teach them , they are cast upon their own resources , and are open to be seduced by the epicureans that abandon them ,, or by the gentry prowling about Tybumia that use them , as a means of admission to the

    household . We have no schools that the young of the country can go to ; we make destitution a disgrace ; we have thousands upon thousands of females around whom every temptation is crowded , and supply them with ¦ no teaching , with no intelligence , no knowledge of the world , to prevent their becoming the procuresses of crime . If we look a little closer ^ perhaps we sha ll find that the 1 G , OOO might be reduced ; and , in point of fact , Mr . Adbjsiiley has calculated that , by withdraw-. ing those who ought to be taught better , we might reduce the number of criminals by three-fourths .

    " When we have done that , as a mere matter of school teaching and industrial provision , we have then other duties to perform . Before we can demand full protection of the law against wrong , wo must ourselves do equal justice . Police magistrates have lately astounded ' gentlemen' by inflicting upon them the same punishments that they would to the ' lower orders . ' Yet to this day a

    Uoxnsohild can command an amount of police assistance for following his cash , which is denied to an humble victim ; while the highborn thief shall be spared under charitable arrangements , with charitablo constructions that his propensity is a ' disease . ' Small pity fox that disease in a man whom hunger bids to steal . Equal justice first , and then , complete protection .

    But we apeak to the consciences of men , — arraign them before a ' higher tribunal , ' and so forth , Through what influence ? Through the influonco of religion . And Where shall that be taught ? In church . And yet wo have waited until this day , until the appointment of Dr . Tait , before wo have it confessed by a BiBhop of London that

    churches ought not to be built ; without arrangements for admitting the 'lower orders , ' and treating them as Christians , instead of sending them into corners and galleries , and so \ degrading them by social comparisons in the House of God . "When we have given to the se & ucible classes strength against temptation ; when

    we have ceased to forfeit our claim by unequal justice ; when we have put ourselves right before the highest Power by equal religion ; then we may ask what we shall do to deal effectually with the 16 , 000 ,, or the incorrigible part of that number . Pour thousand offenders for a population , of two millions and a half ! Is that so formidable ?

    Would it not be possible , even within the hounds of our own country , to construct great prison establishments open to the vievr , surrounded by a deep ha-ha , with an insurmountable wall in the midst , and theie to set the incorrigibles upon supporting themselves by compulsory industry . In that rough , school we might find that some few of the

    mcorriglbles were not incorrigible . Those that were so we should force into a more healthy mode of life than they , with their stunted and confiued faculties , can shape for themselves . It appears to us that in this whole process more would be done to preserve life , than hy hanging up twenty Mauleys for every Cope , or adopting the indiscriminate use of Mr . Cheek ' s" Stumier . "

    December 13,1856.] The Le Ad E'Fc 1189

    December 13 , 1856 . ] THE LE AD E'fc 1189

    Lessors To Journalists. The Exasperated ...

    LESSORS TO JOURNALISTS . The exasperated Lord Hastings called on the editor of the Norfolk News to punish hian . Being not a mauof proud stature , and finding a gentleman who could have hung him over a clothes-peg , as a certain Kircudbrigbit was hung not many years ago , he confined the punishment to violent : infliction of " words that burn . " His ' behaviour was purely ridiculous , and not criminal , ' as it might have been had Jacob Asti / e y possessed the valour of Thomas Astlet , the good knight killed at Evesham . Or was it the thrift of Gilein that made his hand " shake , but delay to strike , " like the hand of Death in the ' epic ? Certain it is that the writhing Justice , who imprisoned the poor labourers of Holt , made his way out of the office , and that all Norfolk is laughing at him . But there are Hastings out of Norfolk . Not to reeal the painful follies of Lord Luoan , or the blunder of the Dumbarton Sheriff , there has been a little burlesque at Oldham . The actors were : a Mr . Fielding-, Chairman of the Board of Guardians , and fourteen other individuals ; a fifteenth , Mr . "WuiTWORTii , exempted himself from the ridicule elicited by the proceedings . Well , then , it was declared by Fielding that the Oldham Chronicle had attacked the boai'd

    JSeither lie nor the board could point out any inaccuracies that have appeared in . the reports or articles published "by that journal , but they vero exasperated , and therefore , in their exasperation , could think of nothing moro dignified than expelling the repoxtcr . The reporter was expelled ¦ but not until the guardians had uttered several ludicrous tirades , without a shadow of an attemx > t to prove that they had been misrepresented or maligned . Of course , under such

    circumstances , iho affair is a compliment to the Oldham Chronicle . We notice it , however , chiefly because it illustrates the growth of a foolish feeling on the part of petty individuals , and of corporate bodies equally potty , to tamper with the pross , soino resolving to intimidate an editor with a walking-stick , others by expelling a reporter , others by going to a jury for damages . All ^ these moans have hitherto failed ; and it is time that others were adopted .

    Pens And Baggers. A Iveeklt Centemporary...

    PENS AND BAGGERS . A iveeklt centemporary recom mends the Italian patriots to revive no bitter bygones . This wise and charitable advice is given apropos of the narrative we lately published of M . G-ai , i . enga' s scheme to assassinate the father of the PiedmonteseKing , from whom he has been glad to receive employments and rewards . " . Let bygones be bygones . " But the proceedings of M . Gallenga , which have extorted the testimony that has ruined him , are not bygones . The frienda of Italy will understand what we mean when we say that , not content with vilifying M . Mazzini in his pretentious but untrustworthy work on Piedtese ¦ history , he has since been engaged in writing against him and his party . M . Mazzini detected him , and M . Galeen ^ a well knows with what object these attacks were levelled against his compatriot and former friend— -the great revolutionist from whose table he took the dagger with the handle of lapis-lazuli . It is not a forgotten act of a young enthusiast that M . Mazzini has punished ; it is a perpetual attack from which he has shielded himself by unmasking the author of anonymous insinuations , / not injurious to an individual alone , but to the cause of Italy , and tlie true interests of the Italian people . There are some things which we should be glad to count among bygones—the libels that are sent from Turin to London , and imposed upon certain of our contemnoraries ; the English misrepresentations inspired by Italian maliee ; the false accounts of " Mazzint ' s political position ; the miserable efforts made . to increase the popularity of the Piedmonteso Court , by calumniating all men who are not courtiers or their agents . These are not bygones . They are thework of the day . Their authors are persons who roust be expoised , because some of them , occupy positions into which they have crept by abandoning their duties , satirizing their friends , and forgetting the afflictions of Italy . Other letters may be produced in addition to that from Egypt , the publication of which M . Gaxlektua ' s friends affect to invite ; but of which M . Gallenga himself has not ventured to furnish an account even to the Opinione . This we may say , — "that there have been in certain quarters attempts to ruin M . Mazzini , and that when he printed at Genoa the letter which , within three months , has become celebrated , he did no moro than had been rendered necessary for the sake of his reputation , and for the sake of the principles of which he is so eloquent aud so honourable au advocate . As for M . Ga-Llenga , he has sunk into ignominious obscurity . Compelled to resign the decorations he had not been ashamed to wear at the Courb of Yioxoit Emmanuel , whose father ' s steps lie haunted with a knife in his hand , he can never again come forward under pretence of serving the Italian cause . Miserable as his discomfiture has been , ho merits it , for lie had not played a patriotic or manly part . Ho was afraid to use a dagger against CiiAitLES Ar / iiEitT , but in the service of Charles Albert ' s son he has used a pen which he hoped would give him . the privilege of being an cnvier and a detractor with impunity . In self-defence , the distinguished Genoese has recriminated , and has crushed hia assailant . This is not a " squabble of Italian patriots . " It is an exposure rendered unavoidable by M . Gallenga himself . Better that the world should be witness to this quarrel than tluit secret agencies should be at work to undermine the foundation of Italian hopes . Bub wo are spared the task of apologizing for the- letter from Genoa . M . Gallbnoa accepts it , and is doing public penance at Turin . Ho is nov indeed a by-I gone—and a bygone wo arc willing bo shall be .

• Citation
  • Leader (1850-1860), Dec. 13, 1856, page 13, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_13121856/page/13/