On this page

• Text (3)

  Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.

  • 

    Untitled Article

  • 

    Untitled Article

  • 

    Untitled Article

• Transcript

  • Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.

    Additionally, when viewing full transcripts, extracted text may not be in the same order as the original document.

    Untitled Article

    gaum , "Why ? The reason was , that Belgaum was under the management of a gentleman who saw the fitness of the New Orleans species for Indian adoption , and who saw through the causes which had checked the growth . He succeeded , therefore , in extending the use of the New Orleans species , in checking the obstructions . That gentleman ,

    Mr . Alexander Siia . w , is now in this country , and is accessible to give every information on the subject . It is not impossible that he may be returned to Parliament for a northern constituency , and the interests of the country will then have an advocate practically and minutely acquainted with the question as it applies to Bombay .

    In the meanwhile those out , of doors who have information of practical value in Indian subjects will probably be aroused to the protection of their own interests . At the present day we must rely to a great extent upon the incorporated representatives of commerce , and we know of none who can act with more efficiency than the Manchester Chamber of Commerce . To

    that body any question bearing on its great staple must be of paramount and urgent interest , and we have reason , to believe , indeed , that it is already moving . Some of the iacts which we have stated are drawn from , a note addressed by Mr . Sha . ~ w to the Manchester Chamber of Commerce ; and . we are convinced that if that body should take the lead in the public movement , its influence would soon be felt in Parliament , and obeyed by the Government .

    Untitled Article

    A WEEK OE ELECTIONS . Wegtjeliit for Southampton , Codrinqtost for Greenwich , Cla . y for Hull , Kenhajid for Newport , Johnstoite for Downpatrick . There is little to be said for or agaiust the choice of the free and independent . Mr . Wegueiin is respectable , General Coprington is respectable , Mr . Ci ^ ax , Mr . Johnstonje , and Mr . Kennabd are respectable- We have a sympathy with Mr . Andjiews , and we recommend him to organize his forces for

    another contest . "We have a sympathy with Greenwich , and are glad it lias escaped Mr . SiiEiGH , whose return would have been a parody of ' representation . ' Mr . Seele y , the unsuccessful candidate for Newport , is a thorough Liberal , and may , on future occasions , find a constituency prepared to accept him . But , as tests of our public opinion , we repudiate the -whole batch of the week ' s elections . They are farces , follies , and

    illusions , and only serviceable as proofs of the necessity of parliamentary reform . No one will deny that an improper amount of money was expended at Southampton ; no one will affirm that , had the Government screw been worked for Mr . Sleigh , General Codbingtcxn would not have been in a minority . As for Newport , it is a political fungus at the foot of Carisbrooke , a thirteenth-century corner , with a few hundred electors , celebrated for

    returning , in 1700 , that knave John Shepherd , who was forced on his kiiees in the House of Commons , expelled , and sent to the Tower for infamous bribery . "We must decline to consider such an election as a constitutional proceeding at all . Indeed , the entire range of the elections now goingforward simply illustrate the corruption and the injustice of our present system . Why was General Codringtow elected ? Partly because the electors were under compulsion to vote for him ; but partly , also , because a

    Greenwich election is so costly , that only a Government candidate or a pupil of ancient Pistol can be expected , in the fifth year of a Parliament , to contest it . Consequently , no man of the slightest political respectability was found to oppose the Whig General , unpopular as he is , on account of his refusal to support the ballot , or abolish military flogging . Mr . Sleigh ' s pretensions were purely ridiculous ; his biography might amuse the electors , but certainly his representative statesmanship could have been of no service to them .

    At Southampton the conflict was carried on with almost fratricidal fury . Little rivulets of gold streamed out of interested pockets ; the . Bank Charter waa generous ; Mr . JVndukws was regardless of expense ; Sir Eo \ va . kd But leu must have drowned many a railway dividend in the bitter waters of Whig and Tory Htrifc . At Newport , the ground to be covered was not so large , so that Mr . Kennahd ' s atomic majority may he supposed to have been won ovor with

    winged words dipped here and there in a yellow solvent . Kor Downpatriek , the 5 Z . and 10 ? . householders , and the SI . rated occupiers , whose dwindling numbers threaten to die away , and who once claimed for their own the . Right Honourable . Toun Wilson Chokimi , luvo fixed their favour on the Orange Johnstonm , in preference to the less'brightly-tinted Khiui . In North Leicestershire , the delicate Toryiam of Lord John Mannjcuh is confronted by tho hard and heavy Protestantism ol' Mr . l ^ j ucwiflif . Lord John Mannkhs , however , in

    Untitled Article

    litate a better selection of convicts to be transported to the one colony talcing them , Western Australia . And it may perhaps end in some mode of holding for a longer time in prison hardened and incorrigible offenders . But the whole of any such improvement lies , not in the law , not in the specific enactments of the bill , but in the execution by the Government .

    might not be imposed upon the Executive , so as to prevent a one-sided exercise of'justice ' in times of political excitement , and a virtual change of the law in renewing practices which the Bill appears to discontinue .

    It is here that the bill dangerously takes too much power for the Executive . The j udge will pass a sentence apportioned in its term to the prisoner's guilt , and from that date the prisoner will be handed over to fate in the form of the Home Secretary . The sentence may be remitted to an almost indefinite extent , for although Sir G-eobge Grey thinks that it will be in general undesirable to remit more than one third or one fourth of the

    sentence , he believes that you cannot fix any precise limit . The prisoner may be released on ticket of leave , he may be detained the whole term in prison , he may be transported to the colonies at the pleasure of the Executive . The Minister might be lenient to someprisoners , very severe to others ; and although Sir George G-be y is not likely to be influenced by extraneous considerations , a time might come when prisoners vvoiild be sentenced for political offences under a Government actuated by strong political feelings . At such a time a sentence of the judge would constitute a vague surrender of the prisoner

    to the mercies of the Government , and those mercies might be dispensed with a dangerous discrimination . We have seen , as recently as 1842 , a condition of great disorder in the country , in which repressive m easures were thought to be necessary by the Executive , and in which popular agitation lead men into the commission of acts technically subjecting them to transportation . By . the present Bill they would be liable to a degree of punishment indefinite in its nature and depending upon the amount of leniency or rigour , of charitable feeling or party bitterness , in the breast of the Home Secretary .

    THE GREY TiCKET-OE-LEAVX Sib G / Eorgke Gbey ' s new law for the treatment of criminal offenders must be -watched on the twofold score that it is not quite sufficient for its purpose , and that it takes too much "pemer for the Executive Government . We take the two sections separately . Crime is increasing , though statistics tell us the reverse ; and Sir George Grey enjoins us

    not to be alarmed , for the number of prisoners convicted is declining . The proportion of offences committed by ticket-of-leave men is only sixteen per cent , on the total number of that class , or five per cent , on the total number of offences committed ; and ve ought to be satisfied with the progress . In the meanwhile , however , the public does not get over the facts that enormous frauds are

    committed right and left ; that gentlemen are garotted in the open day , in populous streets even of London ; that well-watched houses are entered by burglars ; and that the progress of civilization exhibits itself quite as much in the art with which thieves and ruffians surmount the impediments of police , as in the development of the police itself .

    Perhaps we ought not to complain of tho law in failing to check these evils , so much as of the state of society which tends to produce the evils ; but the bill at least gives us no fresh protection in any of these particulars . It continues the tickot-of-leave men ; it does not provide any means for procuring discharged prisoners employment ; it simply obviates the confusion arising from tho nominal sentence to transportation , and tho actual sentenco to penal servitude . Essentially it is not calculated to diminish the number of convicts , to carry any more of them abroad than are at present sent , or to withdraw a larger number of ticket-of-leave men from tho streets , ami help a larger number of persons in transition from a criminal to an honest life . But if doing nothing except the ono thing that Sir Geohciis Grey disclaims , it may , ij well administered , somewhat improve the discipline within our x > riso : ns . It will give judges a larger discretion in apportioning sentences to offonces . It will perhaps

    faci-• There is an ulterior possibility lying in the same discretionary power , equally against justice and the constitution . At present there are few of the colonies which consent to receive convicts . The chief Australian colonies threatened rebellion rather than submit . The Cape colony actually rebelled , under the administration of Sir Gjeoiiue G bey ' s cousin , Lord Gkey . Tho experiment would be very dangerous with the North American colonies , and no Minister

    ot the slightest discretion would z * isk it . But we have had Ministers of no discretion ; wo have had Ministers who despise the remonstrances of colonies . There have been on both sides of both Houses strong advocates for renewed transportation , is not Lord Deuby among them ? A time , then , might ariso when a Colonial Minister , theoretically favourable to renewed transportation , might not dislike to exercise his powers

    in the teeth of so contemptible a community as that of a colony . If any colonial settlement thwarted a Minister , he might even think it expedient to punish that community by inflicting upon it tho insult , disgrace , and curse of convict transportation . Wo have seen Ministers quite capable of that act of vigour . Tho present Jiill docs not actually provide for any auch contingency ; but we helicvo that in tho largo powers which it hands over to the

    Executive it involves sufiicicnt authority for any Biich course of proceeding . Its progress through Parliament , therefore , must be watched , with a view to seeing if ifcn provisions can be strengthened so far as to provide a more efficient penal discipline , aud also to see if further restraint

    Untitled Article

    Febihtary 14 , 1857 . ] THE LEADEE . 157

• Citation
  • Leader (1850-1860), Feb. 14, 1857, page 157, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2180/page/13/