On this page
-
Text (2)
-
Untitled Article
-
Untitled Article
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.
-
-
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
from an increased energy in production , a greater spirit of economy , and a freedom from the interruptions and losses consequent on strikes . The late unhappy and formidable differences between the mechanic engineers and their employers , which brought to light errors on both sides , though much good also , and an evident desire in each party not to exceed its rights , would probably never have arisen had there existed a good law of partnership , and of sufficient age to have had time to work its way into practice and into a right understanding with employers and employed /'
Our extracts are taken somewh at at random , because the space at disposal will not admit of our following Mr . Hill through his systematic exposition ; and these fragments will , we hope , be more acceptable than a dry analysis . There are two subjects which we must allude to ere we close , —the duration of imprisonment , and the comforts of the prison . On the former , Mr . Hill ' s suggestions are worthy of profound consideration . He thinks the duration should not be proportioned to the offence , but to the prisoner ' s conduct . In other words , that prison discipline being reformatory , not vindictive , the prisoner should remain until a cure is effected , and no longer . Considering the criminal as a lunatic , ke should be treated as such .
"No one thinks of sending a madman to a lunatic asylum for a certain number of days , weeks , or months . We content ourselves with carefully ascertaining that he is unfit to be at large , and that those in whose hands we are about to place him act under due inspection , and have the knowledge and skill which afford the best hope for his cure ; that they will be kind to him , and inflict no more pain than is necessary for his secure custody and the removal of his malady ; and we leave it for them to determine when he can safely be liberated . " It is true that , great as have been the improvements of late years in Lunatic Asylums generally , and admirably as some of them are now conducted , there are stiil many and great abuses . But , however much these abuses may be condemned , no one for a moment suggests , as a consequence of their existence , that madmen should henceforth be subjected only to specified periods of confinement . Instead of this the public demands , and rightly demands , that a more efficient system of inspection should be established , and that the governors and managers of Lunatic Asylums should be held to a stricter responsibility .
" Perhaps it may ultimately be found by cautious experiment that a somewhat similar process may be safe and expedient in the treatment of criminals ; and that while it is still left to the courts of justice to determine on the guilt or innocence of the accused , and on the necessity of the ir withdrawal from society , it may be assigned to those entrusted more or less directly with the reformatory treatment to determine the time of release ; subject , however , to a most competent , well-appointed , careful , and responsible supervision and control , such as ought to be invariably exercised in the case of madhouses ; and subject to the proviso , that no amount of subsequent good conduct should be considered sufficient to warrant the liberation of a person who had once been guilty of deliberate murder . "
On the second point , that , namely , of the prison * comforts , every one who has walked through a model prison must have been struck with the superiority in cleanliness , ventilation , food , &c , over what the common labourer enjoys ; and much natural indignation has been vented on this subject . Mr . Hill shows the opinion to be superficial . He shows , that with all the improvements in physical comfort , prisons are far more terrible to criminals than they used to be . In the old time , a prisoner in Scotland was actually smoked out by brimstone because he would not leave it ; " he had been there twelve months for other people ' s pleasure , " he said , " and now he should stay for his own . " We once went over a model prison with a clergyman , who , with a humorous look , pointed to a prisoner reading the Bible while awaiting his turn on the treadmill , and said , " Ah ! that is the punishment to him . " It is indeed the moral discipline which makes a prison irksome ; the foregoing of old habits , the forced adoption of cleanliness , work , regularity , decent behaviour ; or , as Mr . Hill says , —
" But let the visitor reflect that , first , as respects the honest workman , the prisoner has entirely lost his freedom , and ceased to be his own master ; that he is not only cut off from family and friends , but that , generally , ho is deprived or" companionship altogether ; that he must neither whistle , ning , nor , shout ; that , day after day , and month after month , except at the intervals of exercise , he is confined within the four walls of his little coll , Sundays and holidays affording no relief , the very changes of the- season almost unknown to him , for all , at least , that he can partake of their charms , —let him think of this , and he will probably be of opinion that , though the prisoners were fed on turtle , instead of barley broth , and slept on down , instead of Btraw , there would still bo few applicants among the honest working class for permission to occupy their places . "And lot tho visitor , further , make himself acquainted with the habits of criminals , and with thoir ideas of comfort and luxury , and ho will probably come to the conclusion that thoir distress must indeed be sovero , and mich as to mako thoir being at largo dangerous to all around thorn , before such persons would
voluntarily enter a prison . " For what , owing generally to wretched training , are the habits of criminals ? Idleness , late rising , and indulgoucc in drinking , smoking , and gambling . And whut regard is paid to these habits , however strong they may be , on entering a ? Scottish prison ? Not tho slightest . However great a . sluggard , he must rise , the very morning' after his admission , even in the middlo of winter , when tho clock HtrikeH six . Then , although he would probably prefer remaining in his dirt to tho trouble of milking himself clean , he must immediately wash himself , and that in task of
thoroughly . So soon as that is done , ho must , if ho has l > cen tried , bega labour , with the prospect of losing his dinner if ho be kiiUoii and refuse to complete it . Should he ask for n companion he will lio at once refused . Between times ho may wish to comfort himself with a pipe , or at least with a pinch of snuff ; but , no , tho rules inexorably and most properly forbid nil luxuries especially such as foster habits of oxpcnHO . At dinner , ho may ask for ut least ai little beer ; but he in again refused , and ho finds that , however much against his will , ho has suddenly becomo a member of a total abstinence Hoeioty . As for opportunity of gambling , ho lms neither anything to ntuko nor any person with whom to pluy .
" When it is considered bow painful an oflbrt is generally necessary to break through a mn le bud habit , it may bo judged how much a person , under such cirouinatances , must sutler ; and it will ho ' hook that that which is pleasing to tho oye of tho visitor , und oxcolleut in itBelf , is often obtained with much though necessary
pain ; and the delusion will be dispelled that the prisons have ceased to be places of punishment . ' " Having indicated , though imperfectly , the nature of this work , we leave it to the farther meditation of our readers .
Untitled Article
MARK HURDLESTONE . Mark Surdlestone , the Gold Worshijpper . By Mrs . Moodie , Author of "Eoughinff it in the Bush . " 2 vols . Bentley . It is not often that the preface is the most interesting portion of a novel j yet such is the case with Marie Eurdlestone , and we beg no reader into whose hands the book may fall , to skip that preface . The story itself is common-place , and can only be read with large allowance of the skipping privilege ; but the preface shows , for the thousandth time , the superiority of reality over fiction . " The story of Mark Hurdlestone , the Gold Worshipper , which I here present to the British public , forms the first of a series , that employed my pen during the long , cold , winter nights of 1838-9 ; when the protracted absence of my husband on the frontier rendered the privations and solitude of my forest home more hard to bear .
" In the fall of 1837 a magazine was started by Messrs . Lovell and Gibson in Montreal . In the December of that year Mr . Lovell wrote to me to obtain contributions from my pen , both in prose and verse , for the new-born periodical . With a generosity unusual in this country he requested me to name my own terms . "An offer so unexpected , and so liberal from a perfect stranger , appeared like a message sent to me from heaven ; and , poor as I then was , I felt tempted to contribute w / hat I could gratis . But my infant family of four small children , the eldest not quite six years old , put an effectual check upon my impulsive generosity . I found / upon reflection that this was entirely out of my power . Time to me was j » OHey < --it belonged by right to my family , and was too valuable a commodity to give away . I therefore named five pounds per sheet , as the price required for articles from my pen ; which had to be written after the labours of the day were over , and the children were asleep in their beds . The magazine was of large size , with double columns , and in very small type . It required a great deal of writing
to fill a sheet . " Strange as it may appear to the reader , these literary labours were a great refreshment to me , instead of an additional fatigue . They helped to fill up the hungry void at my heart , occasioned by the long absence of my husband ; and I forgot the hardships and privations of my lot , whilst rousing into action , after long disuse , the powers and energies of my mind . And then the reward was so great , so unhoped-for ; it seemed an answer to my earnest prayers , that I might be able to do something to help us out of our difficulties , and supply my family with the common necessaries of life . It was a joy to me that I was writing for bread , and with the prospect of winning it ; and I was amply rewarded by the delight of the children , when the labours of these winter nig hts purchased shoes for their little bare feet , and procured them warm and comfortable clothing . "
We spare the rhapsody which follows , and pass on to the following remarks on the state of Canadian literature : — " Twenty years ago Canada was not in a condition to foster a literature of ler own , and the upper province had not given to tho world a native-born author of any distinction . Peopled almost entirely by U . E . loyalists , or poor emigrants from the mother country , who were forced by necessity to devote all their time and energies to obtain food for their families , they had no leisure for the study of books , and no money to spare for the purchase of them . Besides , the greater portion of such emigrants were perfectly uneducated ; many of them unable either to read or write . Their occupation was to liandle the axe and the handspike , to guide the plbugh , and kindle the lagging fire ; not to drive the pen . Learning would have been of little use to the first pioneers of the great wilderness : it would only have impeded their progress ,, and filled their minds with disgust while contemplating the difficulties which hard and unremitting labour could alone surmount .
" The industry of the first settlers , who were the original founders of towns and villages , enabled them to place their children in ' more easy circumstances ; and their descendants , born in the country , and brought up to tho liberal professions , form the aristocracy of Canada . From this class her legislators and local officers are generally chosen ; and they are exceedingly jealous of foreigners interfering , in any way , with what they consider their rights as Canadians born . " Illiberal as this view of things may appear to strangers of education who coino to settle among them , it is not without its advantages ; as it fosters a love of country , from which all true patriotism must naturally spring .
" Since 1832 the colony has made rapid strides in moral and intellectual improvement . It is really wonderful to remnrk tho great change which a few years under a more liberal government has effected in the condition of the people . Education was then confined to a very few ; it is now diffused through the whole length and breadth of tho land . Every largo town has its college and gnuuniiir-Hchool , and free schools abound in every district . Tho poorest child may be taught to read and write at tho public expense His parents have only to wash his hands and face , and send him to school ; and the eagerness with which the poorer vAam seize every opportunity of improving their mental powers , in the hope of raising themselves to an equality with their wealthier neighbours , will booh place thin great and rising country on an equal footing with the mighty republic , whotto gigantic strides to political and commercial importance may perhaps be traced to the education of her people .
" There is now no lack of books in Canada ., of money to purchase them , and per-Kons to read and understand them . The rending class is no longer confined to tlio independent and wealthy : mechanics and artisans are all readers when they havu time to spare ; and tho cheap American reprints of the best European works enublo them to gratify their taste , without drawing very largely upon ( heir purse . " Tho traflie in books from tho United . States employs n great many young men , who travel through tho country , selling and taking up subscriptions for new works ; and tho astonishingly low price at which they can be obtained is an incalculable benefit to the colony , however it may intcifiiro with the lights of European publishers .
" Of books published in tho colony , we have very few indeed ; and those which have boon issued from a Cnundiiui press havo generally been got out , cither by huI ) - Hciiption or at ; tho expense of tho author . It is almost impossible for any work publiHhed in Canada to remunerate the bookseller , while tho United States cuu produce roprintfl of tho works of tho first write ™ in tho world , at a quarter the ox-
Untitled Article
tgg tfil t ' EADER . [ Sawrday ,
-
-
Citation
-
Leader (1850-1860), Feb. 19, 1853, page 188, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1974/page/20/
-