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Leader (1850-1860), 4th September 1858, Edition 1 of 2, Page 903, Untitled Article

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      daily employment for two years . And how is tins managed ? By the unceasing exertions of Captain Orofton , of Mr , Organ , the chaplain , and of their coadjutors , to find employment , to keep up the men at their duty , to multiply employers , to multiply the examples of success in this direction , and in . short to carry out that system which Colonel Jebb pronounces to be impossible . Everything is impossible to the unwilling '; possibility sometimes means nothing more than the will to do the tiling . Colonel Jebb assumes that police superintendence is iranracticable . because , he says , in the earlier part

      that the chaplains have begged the discontinuance of the experiment . Colonel Jebb imagines that these cases amount to something like an experiment of the Irish system in England : we will not insult the understanding of the reader by showing how puerile is such a supposition . Evidently his idea of " some special information or instruction , " consists of a little schoolmaster tutoring—a sort of lay preaching—a writing-Jesson style of treatment for the men some months before they arc finally discharged from prison j and again we will not insult the reader by exposing the puerility of that notion . The Irish system has been barely three years in operation ; since January , 1856 , 1327 prisoners have been

      discharged from the intermediate prisons , 511 unconditionally , 816 on licence . Of the 816 , 30 have been re-convicted . Colonel Jebb assumes that 30 per cent , will relapse , but in Ireland we find on practical experience that only 4 per cent , do so . Of the same number , 45 have had their licences revoked—have been recalled to prison for relapsing into bad courses , drinking , keeping evil company , failing to report themselves , &c . The information on these subjects is positive and specific . Of the 511 discharged from the intermediate prisons unconditionally , 5 have been re-convicted—not one per cent . It is needless to contrast this practical experience in Ireland with Colonel J ebb ' s unfounded and unargumentative assumptions .

      Of his Observations , if the police know the convict his -employer will know , and bis fellow workmen will . know , and he will be driven away from his engagement . This may have been true in some instances where , as in England , the police have no distinct indications to guide them , but in Dublin , under the -ceaseless superintendence of Captain Crofton , the police jmanage to maintain a watch over the dis-• charged convicts ; they are the instruments to convey to the head-quarters a standing report upon the behaviour of the men , a report marked by extraordinarily few instances of failure ; and as we liave seen already the system continues to expand ,

      instead of being prevented by the impracticability -which so alarms the imagination of Colonel Jebb . Jn the fourth of his conclusions , admitting the impressiveness of the experience gained in Ireland , ¦ Colonel Jebb insinuates , as he has done more distinctly in an earlier portion of his Observations , that the intermediate system carried out in Ireland ori-§ mated in England , and almost with his own epartnient . He points to the ltefuge at Fulham , established on the strength of an opinion by Lord Pahnerston , that it would be very desirable to place women "in some intermediate condition between close imprisonment and discharge on licence "

      —not a very specific description , certainly not indicating anything like the system we have already described .. But this treatment is applied to women exclusively ; Colonel Jebb contending that men should be dealt with in masses , women alone individually . He shows no grounds for this extraordinary anthropological dictum . There can be no doubt that the value of mass treatment is very similar with regard to men and women both , and that the training" of both sexes must principally depend upon the close application of of a system to the individual character . In the case of women , however , there is rather a considerable difficulty . Their numbers are not so great

      amongst the convicted classes , and it generally proves that their characters are more irregular , while there is much greater difficulty in restoring them to regular life , partly on account of the severer retribution which attends the fall of woman . Thus an intermediate stage is applied by any official machinery with much greater difficulty , while there is not the same large'demand for it . On the contrary , it has been found in Ireland that a charitable apparatus , the agency of certain charitable associations , has been sufficient for the purpose and the most suitable ; and this is very intelligible when \ ye remember how much women arc governed by feeling , and how good a medium such associations are for the application of feeling to the case . The system employed in Ireland , however , with recard to menwhose numbers and condition 11

      . VYXUIJI J . *> £ tlJLU % I \ J lllbil , nUUdU UUUIIf ^ ta CIAA UUilu * 1 i * v *» domand the whole strength that the State can bring to bear upon the subject , began with Captain Croiton and his associates in the Irish department , 'in 1855 or before , when they endeavoured to adopt the process of individualising as tlio basis of t lie reformatory system . Colonel Jobb ' s fourth conclusion is evidently calculated to create the impression that if he does adopt the Irish example it is only booause Ireland has adopted his example , but he will not bo suiTered to carry oil' that impression long . The fifth conclusion assumes that the best plan of carrying out the intermediate training for men would be , not by separate prisons , but by " some special information or instruction , " &o . —terms sufiioxontW vaftue . Hn assumes that l . hu Irish system .

      wouw not succeed m England , because a gang ol men have been employed at Vorn Hill on the fortifications , at some diatanoe from Porllnnd Prison ; and he thinks that if the Irish system wcro introduced amongst them , it might make thorn more zealous at thoir work , but might give oocasion to aome disorder . For within tho Portland Prison associated rooms have been , triod—rooms in which tao prisoners are allowed to meet for meals , fo . i raiding together , and for conversation in the evenings , with auoh serious detriment to their morals ,

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      RESPONSIBILITY OF DIRECTORS . The sense of responsibility in directors of companies , which immunity had lulled to sleep , has of late been rudely roused . Following at no long interval the punishment inflicted on the directors of the lioval British Bank , in consequence of a criminal indictment , a civil action has now decided that the directors of such institutions are responsible in their own fortunes for the losses to others their misrepresentations may cause . The action , too , of Smith against Dixon , decided at Liverpool , is understood to be only one of several actions already begun , while it is likely to encourage sufferers to bring such actions wherever they have a prospect of making wealthy directors pay for losses occasioned by their easy negligence or acquiescence in fraud . In all such cases , whether the common law or the statute law speak , it is quite in conformity with the moral feelings of the public , outraged for a length of time by the impunity enjoyed by great offences , while trifling and boyish ' freaks brim * many youths to gaol and ruin them for life . Sucli decisions give almost universal satisfaction . They strengthen the sense of responsibility in all , and confirm the almost wavering morality of the public . For directors of joint-stock companies , including

      They no more particularly need the verdicts c tribunals to form their morality than other classes but as they look much to them , we rejoice ths these are now expressed in strong and unmistakabJ language , and enforce a rigid responsibility . Couli some other classes be made equally responsible the careless concocters of foolish political scheme which harass and plunder society , to no end bit self-glorification , would not enjoy continual immu nity , nor even be honoured as public benefactors . These decisions and the pending actions seem likely to have a very-important influence over the

      formation of joint-stock companies . Gentlemen of property and character will be very shy of lending themselves to new schemes which may deprive them of their fortunes or shut them up for a few months in the House of Correction . If the law will enforce the responsibility of the servants of such companies , it will no longer spare those who suffer their name and station to be used for purposes that may be fraudulent . Gentlemen will be obliged to be verywatchful and very cautious whom they trust . We pointed out a short time ago that the success of our joint-stock banks was in a great measure due to

      each of them being placed under the control of one directing and skilful man . In France companies have generally succeeded by the great power which has been legally placed in the hands of the gerant ; but now even in France they excite mistrust from repeated failures . In general ,. companies cannot be made to succeed by any other means than by entrusting the management to some one skilful person . If , therefore , gentlemen should become shy in implicitly trusting any one , as it seems likely they will be as long as dishonesty continues prevalent , joint-stock companies will not be so readily formed as they have been . Some enterprises can only be carried on by means of such companies , and

      from necessity they will be formed ; but they will be modelled by the necessity which calls them into existence ; and we are not likely to have , in spite of the expected influence of some modern enactments , companies formed hereafter by hundreds to carry on every species of industry . The elevation of the labouring multitude by becoming shareholders in such companies , which is expected by some of our wisest philanthropists , who have , therefore , promoted them , is , we are afraid , not likely to be realised . It can only be the growth of time , not of contrivance .

      We now seem to have come practically , after thirty years' experience of the effects of the zealous legislation of 1 S 2 G in favour of joint-stock companies and against private bankers , to the conclusion that the princi p le of that legislation was erroneous . The individual responsibility the Legislature then pronounced to be insufficient we find ourselves now obliged to enforce as the best guarantee Jbr correct action . Individuality in society is always preserved , and is natural and unavoidable . Individual responsibility to society is , consequently , the great law of moral life . On this alone we must rely for

      success in trade as well as for honesty and honour in professions . For individuals , joint-stock companies legally formed are bad substitutes ; they can only be intelligently conducted by individuals , and only be made responsible through them . We cannot get rid of individual responsibility , which belongs to shareholders as well as directors , and would still inhere in each one of the labouring multitude , though they carried on industrial occupations by joint-stock companies . As these decisions may affect the format ion of joint-stock companies hereafter , their influence will probably be very great , and it may reduce all tho legislation on this subject , which has of late excited so much interest , to ft minimum of importance .

      banks and railways , they establish a responsibility not hitherto felt '; and ' must juvaken in all the dormant sense of duly , encourage exertions to fulfil its dictates , increase vigilance , and give confidence to honesty . They will be . extremely beneficial to mercantile men , who , looking more to the decisions of tribunals than the inevitable consequences of conduct , are too apt to conclude that , nothing is wrong which the former , do not condemn ; and are supposed just now , we believe without reason , to be more lux in their dealings than other classes . They belong to the new growth of society ; as they acquire wealth they share the power of the older

      classes , nnd excite at once enyy and misapprehension . No classes , howevor , are more dependent , than they arc for success on their own conduct . They oll'or their services in the open market ; they are exposed to unlimited competition ; the material commodities they deal in ' are always and generally speedily brought ' to the test of use or consumption ; anil frauds by them are , us the rule , sure to be detected . They can only succeed by well serving others . If tlicy lost tho Chinese market for calico , as is said , by supply incr it with inferior articles , as

      thoy at . one time lost the market for woollen cloths in the United States by the same negligence , thoy . W . OK 0—thoUlwI ^ niiU-tJio ^ gii'oatoS'U . BaflViJi'oiis-by ^ t'hoii ' own wrong-doing . Thoso whose services have reference to supernatural punishments or promises , cannot , if fraudulent or erroneous , bo found out this side tho grave . The dealers , too , in legal niceties arc legal necessities , who dictate their own terms anil impose their own views on other men ' . Statesmon , too , settle at once what thoy shall do , and how they shall be paid for it ; but tho mercantile classes bargain fairly for what they receive , and ob » tnin only what others award them in tho opon market . For them deceit must end in discomfiture .

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      / No . 441 , September 4 , 1858 . | THE 1 / E A 'D E K ^ 903

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      PAINTING AND GLAZING . Tub proceedings nt Guildhall have not , as ninny conceive , exposed tv new , but uncovered nn old , p hase in the mysteries of picture-dealing . The brood , of knowing picture-soiling Barneses is a nU'in ei'ou 8-o nor-ft " l—1 tvs—ex-isted—fo I' -cen trui'i es- ;—and- —• the family of rich and credulous picture-buying Peters is ' by no moans confined to the metropolis , and boasts an equal antiquity . Flats and sharps will always flourish side by sido in a civilised community so long as Mammon is tho " ono thingj uoedi ' ul , " nml as long as one portion of humanity is born with empty , anoihor with full pockets , bo long will human ingenuity bo oxorcisocl in dovising ingenious modes of eneeling a change in tho position of tho breeds , or , ns Lord Brougham might possibly phrase it , making their relations somewhat

  • Citation
    • Leader (1850-1860), Sept. 4, 1858, page 903, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2258/page/15/