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they are accompanied that limits the meaning of the figures and determines the proposition to be proved by them . But , inasmuch as every statistical reasoner aiming to prove a certain proposition selects his figures within the range of that application , it follows that the argument is limited , and to a certain extent onesided . With a tolerable degree of truth , the astute selection of figures will commonly result in establishing the proposition intended , if that be sufficiently limited ; so that by statistics , as it has been often said , ydu may prove almost anything—both sides of a question .
By a judicious selection of statistics Sir George Grey seems to establish his assertion , that the abolition of capital punishments would not do . His argument is strictly what is called special pleading . It is said that capital punishment is rendered precarious by the reluctance of juries to apply it . Sir George Grey answers , that secondary punishments may also be rendered precarious by uncertainty of application . He adduces statistics to prove that certain crimes have increased since the criminal
code has been softened ; but the shifting of the statistical array might soon be made to prove that the increase of crime is in part apparent , and should be termed rather an increase of convictions ; that it is due also to other causes , mainly the increase of the population ; to the more distinct division of employments , which , as it were , isolates the criminal professions , ' and makes them more obvious to the vievv ; and to that large competition for work which throws increased numbers into the
open professions of thieving , forgery , &c . It is the shifty use of that convenient instrument statistics which enables Sir George Grey to put forth his assertion , that the abolition of capital punishments would not do , with some colour of reason . No progress has been made in the discussion of late years . The public has long been convinced , but the official leaders of the Legislature , who have , however " unconstitutionally" acquired by usage the direction of its activity in most matters ,
refuse to carry out the conviction . They take their stand on assertions like that we have quoted , and on the prejudice of the unthinking public against giving up " blood for blood "—the vindictive retribution of death for murder . At present there appears no probability that Ministers will be beaten , and the advocates of a better law should really take into consideration whether it may not be necessary to enlarge the question presented , or to present it in a more aggressive form .
It might be enlarged by including it in a reform of our whole system of correctional discipline ; which does , indeed , demand thorough revision . Apart from the barbarous nature of all retributive punishments , there are many reasons for a totally different principle of correction . The object of correctional discipline is , to coerce those who are
inclined towards wrong-doing into the opposite inclination towards right-doing . The most forcible means of coercion appear tu be , in the Jirst place , to establish the fact that the wrong-doing is impossible , or that its results are almost always frustrated ; secondly , that sooner or later the rightdoing is inevitable . There are some auxiliary measures which we need not now consider , such
as the education of the ignorant , the physical training of the badly organized , and so forth . Even the improvement of the criminal race , which has been noted for the beauty , intelligence , and good disposition of its progeny , the " Currency " population of New South Wales , suggests very important , instructive , and hopeful considerations . But we leave this aside for the present : the immediate object is , to determine the method of applying those essential principles of correctional discipline . They would be applied by a system that should
abandon the idea of retribution ; should seize the criminal as an erring creature who must be forced into the right path , and not relinquished until be has been so forced . To such a system the practice of fixed sentences would be alien : the criminal act must be regarded , not as the thing to be dealt vith , but as the overt sign and symptom of the inward disease which prompts criminal conduct ; a sign sufficient to place the trespasser under the control
of the Correctional Police . Once under that control the mischievous citizen should not be released until he had given some degree of proof that the process of reformation had taken elfect . If he were incapable of giving that proof , he certainly would not be a creature fit to go at large . i'hc process of correction must be one that is in its nature coercive , yet leaving to the individual will a certain freedom , and holding out an ultimate ope of emancipation as the consequence of proper
conduct . Captain Maconochie ' s plan of industrial discipline is distinguished by that character . He proposes that the prisoner should be sentenced , not to undergo a retributive term of imprisonment or the mortal agony of death , but to earn a certain amount of " marks , " a conventional representative of industry—a sort of prison money . The prisoner is thus placed in the position of being enabled to regain his liberty by going through the salutary process of industrial labour . The adoption of this system of correctional discipline , which is the only sound one before the public , would swallow up and supersede the sectional question of capital punishment .
But the moral Tories might be contumacious , even in resistance to a matured and imposing reform . They stand upon the popular prejudices * and taunt Mr . Ewart and his friends with the fact that " public opinion" is not matured on the subject of abolishing capital punishment . There is some truth in the taunt . Public opinion is not matured on that question , and it is not likely
to be so while popular prejudice receives the support of official authority ; it is not likely to be advanced beyond its passive condition while Reformers show so little earnestness in their vocation , that they will rather sacrifice their conviction on these and other vital questions than risk the official safety of the very men who obstruct their progress . Public opinion is not
matured on the subject of abolishing capital punishment any more than it is matured on the subject of abolishing the Whig Cabinet . The AVhig Ministers have chosen to identify their permanence in office with the permanence of many abuses . It has become clear that a preliminary to the abolition of capital punishment must be the abolition of Lord John ' s Government ; and it is quite well that the Radicals should be compelled to recognize the fact .
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A SITE FOR THE NATIONAL GALLERY . Mr . John Doyle , the eminent satirist , whose graphic designs are so familiar to the public , has put forth a pamphlet recommending that the National Gallery be removed from Trafalgar-square to Kensington Gardens * , altering the palace for its reception , or building a new edifice in the eastern part of the gardens , and leaving the structure in Trafalgar-square for the accommodation of the lloyai Academy . Mr . Doyle puts the usual grounds for such a proceeding in a very fair and distinct light , —the advantage of removing the pictures from the destructive atmosphere of the metropolis , and the intrusion of mere loungers , who are not merely attracted to the pictures , but drawn in by opportunity ; the claims of the Royal Academy to liberal constructions and State support ; and the saving to the public exchequer by not giving that support in the form of a present moneyallowance . The arguments on the other side , however , which are not handled by Mr . Doyle , remain in a shape unanswerable , or at least unanswered . The form in which the gift of rooms was originally made to the Royal Academy by George the Third is not equal to a State grant of a permanent abode . The strict letter of the law , therefore , is wanting to the claim of the Royal Academy . The funds possessed by the Royal Academy , and continually augmented in the proceeds of their exhibition , deprive them of any claim on the score of want . They are quite able to erect and maintain a building suitable for themselves ; and as they repudiate public interference with their constitution or management , they deprive themselves of any claim on the score of being other than a private body . The building in Trafalgar-square , then , might almost as well be given to the East India Company at once , to the Insurance Company over the way , or to any other body that might wish for premises in that quarter . It might with much more reason be given to the public for the purpose of public meetings , such as the somewhat exclusive practices of Exeter-hall leave without a commodious place of meeting . Most reasonably of all it might be pulled down , and a structure more imposing and more handsome erected in its place . Finally , the permanent attraction of a large concourse into Kensington-gardens—the appropriation of the space for the building , and for the traffic of a public institution would justify the objections raised against the temporary plans fur the Exposition of 1851 . If the
palace were used it should be made accessible from the western side . But we wholly deprecate afty makeshift plan at all . If we are to have a National Gallery out of town let us choose absolutely the best site for that purpose , and erect a building more fitted for it than Kensington Palace . If we are to remove the N * . ltional Gallery from the building in Trafalgar-square , let us apply that finest site in Europe to a realty public purpose .
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SUFFRAGE EXTENSION . Ministers and their friends are doing the best they can to accumulate immense force in the public demand on the next step towards popular rights . Lord John Russell ' s profession of bringing forward •* measures from time to time suited to the occasion , " , as it has been called , " Bit-by-bit Reform / ' is falsified by the event . He professes
willingness , but we do not get the thing , and whether he is unwilling or incapable it can matter little to the public . From the event we should say that he is not very solicitous on the subject , and that he is very incapable . His wishes are not 6 trong ; but his capacity falls far short of his wishes . From his conduct you might suppose that the people is perfectly contented with its actual exclusion from a share in the
representation . The Charter , which so occupied attention a . few years back , was received by a House , so thin that it is counted out . Mr . Locke King ' s proposal to recruit the county constituency by the perfectlysafe , reasonable , easy , and practicable plan of extending the £ 10 occupancy franchise , is rejected with sneers . The Government plan of extending the franchise in Ireland is thrown out by the Lords ; and no one expected that Ministers would stand or fall by their measures . In their estimation the extension or extinction of a constituency is an object of minor importance : their own remaining in , office is the subject of paramount importance .
If they had been sincere in their desire to extend the franchise in Ireland ; if they had even wished to convince the public of their sincerity , but had found it impossible to cope with difficulties , then they might have given some earnest of their wish by accepting Mr . Locke King ' s proposition . They might have said— " We are equally willing and weak ; we are against ' finality ; ' we wish a gradual extension of the franchise , beginning in Ireland ; but the Lords won't allow us : nevertheless , here is a small
modest and practical H eform . We have not proposed it , but it is too good to be rejected ; and to show our good faith , we will adopt it . " But no such course was taken , or even hinted at . The Chandos clause is preserved without the encroachment of a real constituency that might have supeseded it . The Whigs are preserving the county franchise for their friends the Protectionists . They are proving beyond the possibility of doubt , that any progress in political Reform will require as its preliminary the removal of the official obstructions *
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NOMINAL OWNERSHIP OF LAND . " The rents and profits which he [ the landowner ] can obtain from it are his and his only ; but with regard to the land , in everything which he doea with it , and in everything which he abstains from doing , he is morally bound , and should , whenever the case admits , be legally compelled to make his interest and pleasure consistent with the public good . "—John bTUAUT Mill . We are frequently told that there is no great question of reform now upon which the people of England could be roused to united action . There never was a greater mistake . Let some man in
Parliament professing to be practical and in . earnest , say John Bright or Richard Cob den , take the passage we have placed at the head of this article as a text ; let either the one or the other , or both , of these men look thoroughly into it , and they will gradually begin to see that the Land Question is one which must be settled , and which the people of England are already quite prepared to take in hand if they can only find leaders of the right stamp to point the direction in which they ought to go . We have named the member for Manchester and the
member for the West Riding , not because either of those two men has ever displayed any inclination to take the lead in a movement for enabling industry and enterprise to obtain free access to the land , but because they are , perhaps , more thoroughly acquainted with the monstrous evils arising from the present system of territorial mismanagement than any other two men in Parliament , and because they must now begin to see that to look for the removal of these evils from the action of free trade alone , without other changes , would be utterly hopeless . During the latter years of the Anti-Corn-Law
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July 20 , 1 S 50 . ] Sfce QeAUeV . ^
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? A Letter to Lord John Russell on the Future Location of the National Gallery and JJoyal Academy , X ' ublished by John W . Parker ,
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Citation
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Leader (1850-1860), July 20, 1850, page 395, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1847/page/11/
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