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gw ha ? grea % J ^ nprovQd amo . tint . md » in kind . ? vea since 183 $ the coat of medical relief has increased ffc ^ JS ^ OOta . to 312 , 050 ^; the extra fees have W % 4 l mcr ^ ased , also the money expended in vaccwa ,-tipn , . l ! Ke sys ^ m of "tenders has been abolished i mer dical d ^ tricts have been abridged ; higher qualifications in medical oJScers aye , required j ; greater responsibility is enforced , and . better rewmeration is given . Sir John T ^ oelope also poised the Poor Law Board , and deprecated medical relief by tb , at institution to persons not " paupers ; " it would discourage private benevolence and medical clubs . Some conversation followed , and the subject was allowed to drop , Mr . Meles consenting .
TBANSPGBTATION Y The new arrangements , regarding transportation , have been stated by the Lobd Chanceudob . Western Australia , the only colony now open to our authority , can receive , annually , from 800 to 1000 convicts—no more . That number , then , represented the number of convicts who could be transported from this country . From those annually sentenced to transportation it would be necessary , therefore , to select the most criminal for actual transportation . Over 5000 persons , in the United Kingdom , are annually sentenced to transportation , andv of these , there are about 800 or 900 sentenced to terms of fourteen years or upwards .
These , then , must be the persons remitted to Western Australia . With regard to those sentenced to lesser terms , they would , instead of the usual transportation and subsequent ticket of leave , have their sentences commuted , wjth reduction of the period , into penal servitude at Gibraltar , Malta , or Bermuda . Those who have been transported for ten years will have penal servitude for eight , and those transported for terins above fifteen years will bave _ penal servitude for ten years . One good , at least , of the change will be that it will do away with all mystification . At present 5000 persons are annually sentenced to transportation , while it ia well known that but 1000 can be transported .
• . Lord Gbet wished to know what is to be done with those convicts who have entered such places as Portland , Dartmoor , and Bermuda , withrthe expectation of being relieved , after a time , from the severe servitude of those prisons . We will have 3000 or 4 <) 0 Q such persons to be disposed of , next year , and , at present , there are 1234 convicts who have expected to be relieved , in a certain time , from the continuous labour , the strict discipline , and the monotonous life of these places . The bill now before the House has a great defect . Under the old system , the Crown had the right of keeping in
penal servitude any person transported , and the practice generally was to relieve well-conducted convicts , after four years of service . This had a very good effect in our modern prisons . But , under the new system , the term is fixed , and no matter how the convict conducts himself , he is to be released after a servitude for a certain term of years . The change from transportation to penal servitude for life , is likewise inapplicate with regard to persons sentenced to transportation for life . You cannot keop a man to penal servitude for life : the country would not endure it . The now system is also objectionable , as in it there ia no room for the ticket of leave system .
Under the present system of transportation it had been found of the greatest advantage that convicts should not be discharged at once from a state of punishment to a state of unrestricted liberty . Tho system , therefore , was to place thorn under a modified state of freedom by means of what were called " tickets of leave . " By bad conduct those tickets of leave could be at onco withdrawn . That had been found to work well , and to have a very beneficial effect- Men with sudden and unrestricted froedom . were much more likel y to relapso into crime than men whp onioyed a restricted degree of freedom by moans of tickets of leave . In a country so thickly inhabited as England was , it would bo utterly impossible to enforce precisely theearao in tho colonioa
regulations which vrero now adopted as regarded tickets of leave ; but it would not bo at all impossible to devise means by which persons might bo discharged from prison under conditions which would enable the Crown to rem and thorn into custody if those conditions woro broken . They might bo required to live in some extreme part of the country , and to give an account to tho palieo how they lived . An arrangement of that kind would bo tho means of holding such porsons to good bail , and during ' tho proaont Croat demand for labour in tho country it would not bo arduous to obviate somo of tho difficulties connected with tho change ft'om a system of transportation , to ono ot imprisonment * ho much good in
Lord BnouciHAM said saw sense tho suggestion . Tho abolition of transportation ia now inovithblo , but , as a substitute , much might bo dono for improving * tho system of secondury punish mont * , by penal servitude in this country , coupled with something like tho tickot-of-lcavo system . Tho now bill , instead of fixing four yeara ponnl servitude for offoncoa now liable to transportation for flovon years , should institute seven voar 8 penal ncrvit «( lo , with the understanding that , according to tho conduct of the convict , tho term would bo roducod . But prevention should bo tho lir » t
aim of a wise Government , and , as a means towards that , infant education and infant training was the most complete , the most radical preventive of crime , that could be imagined . Another means of prevention would be a secret police . A secret police , consisting of intelligent , active men , so dressed as no # _ to put intending criminals on their guard , having the whole body of offenders continuually under their eyes , and well acquainted with all their persons and habits , would always prove the best possible preventive . Such a
force would completely destroy all confidence and trust among criminals , and prevent the adoption and execution of any criminal plan calling for the exertions of more than one person . It might be said that there would be two objections to the establishment of a perfect secret criminal police such as he meant . The first would , no doubt , be the point of expense . But that would be cheerfully borne by the community . The other objection would be , that it would sow distrust among members of the community . His answer to that was , that ifc would only create distrust among the wicked towards their own accomplices .
The Duke of Newcastle expressed a hope this bill was but the initiative of a course of legislation , part of which would include an improved education for the younger branches of this country . This hope induced him to believe that any inconvenience arising from the reduction of transportation would be obviated by remedial measures—among which Lord Shaftesbury ' s bill [ on Juvenile Mendicancy ] might be considered as a means of materially reducing the nurseries of crime in great towns . The remarks of Lord Grey and Lord Brougham on penal servitude were deserving of attention , especially the suggestion that the duration of the punishment should depend on the conduct of the
convict . But penal servitude for a term of years , as long as to which persons had been transported , would be too onerous and severe for the endurance of criminals Even the establishment of four years' penal servitude in lieu of seven years' transportation , would , in fact , be heavier than the terms of imprisonment hitherto usually substituted for that period of punishment . Lord Grey ' s suggestion of a ticket-of-leave system , carried out in this " country , was being considered by the Government , and now that great public works were being carried on , it might be practicable . As to the operation of the present bill , there is plenty of room in the prisons for the convicts likely to accumulate .
Lord CampbexIi hoped that new penal settlements would be established . The bill was then read a second time .
RELIGIOtTS TESTS IN SCOTTISH UNIVERSITIES . In lieu of the oaths now taken by office-holders in Scottish universities , professing conformity to the Westminster Confession , Government propose to substitute a simple declaration , by the Professor , that he will not teach anything contrary to the Holy Scriptures . Sir Robebt Ingms denounced this , as contrary to the Scottish Union , as facilitating fche preaching of nnti-Christian doctrine from tho chairs of theology , chemistry , and , above all , astronomy , by leading the students to believe in the perfectibility of man and in the boundless advances made by science , and by degrading
religion to the level of science . Lord Elcho replied that thoso tests were a snare , for they taught the church to look to legislative enactments for security , rather than to its hold upon the feelings and affections of the people , and they woro a source of danger , as they embittered sectarian differences . Tho present law is also partially inoperative , as fully one-fourth of tho Scottish professors havo never signed tho Confession of Faith . Tho Scottish universities arc not appendages of the church , they are intended for tho education of tho people j they have no ecclesiastical features , excopt that they teach theology as well as any other science .
These tests have been used to gratify sectarian animosities : for instance , when an attempt was made to turn out Sir David Browstor , as it was said , " for the glory of God and thq ' benefit of tho University . " ( Laughter . ) Tho Scottish members do not oppose tho bill , and ono would think that Sir Robort Inglis would havo quite enough to do in keeping out reformers from tho University of Oxford . Lord DjuumxanriG expressed a hesitating , and Mr . Newbegat J 5 a decided disuent to tlio bill , tho latter attacking it as " a bill for admitting infidels and papists to the Univorsitica . " Mr .
LookirAUT followed in the B ( uno Htrain , and Sir GeobcM ) 0 it is y defended tho bill , which ' wub rend a second time , by 106 to 17 . ( During tho discussion , Lord Eloho pnssingly justified tho bill , by reference to tho commiamissioncr s' report on tho U « ivor « ity of Cambridge , and Mr . Henmoy nnd Mr . New » eGATE expressed 11 fear that this indicated a BimUar attack on tho English universities , a ¥ tho portion referred to by Lord E ; loiio " bore ominonaly" on tho question , whether lay chairs should or should not bo open to persona in communion with tho Church of England . ) IRISH ritlEflTS AT 15 TJ 5 TIONB . Tho intimidation uaod by tho Kevorond John Burko
and the Reverend Michael Clune , was brought before the House by Mr . Wiixiam Miles ( chairman of the late Clare Election Committee ) . The committee had reported , that one of the priests had excited the people to : riot , and that the other had taken part in the riot himself . Father Burke was heard to say , " Mre , vboys ; rescue Keene ' s men : " , " Boys , stand to your religion . " Did the Government intend to proceed against those priests ? Mr . Milnes , as a member also of the Clare Committee , said , that so important a question should not be incidentally introduced . It was also a difficult and doubtful question ; the evidence was perplexing , and , in many respects , contradictory . Lord Paxmebstok , in reply , was adroit in his treatment of the point , and positive in a clear " pronouncement : "—
" I own , sir , that it is a long lane which has no turning —even the longest lane has a turning ; and I think that the longest bridge—even the Six-mfle-bridge , ought to have an end . ( Laughter and cheers . ) It was the intention , as * has . been stated , of her Majesty ' s Government originally , that these two priests should be prosecuted for the conduct which they pursued on the occasion of the Sixmile-bridge affair . But the Irish Government , acting upon and with the advice of its legal officers , judged differently . It is , therefore , not the intention of her Majesty ' s Government to order any further proceedings upon this case . But I am bound to say , and I say it with great regret—but I am bound in sincerity to say it—that the conduct of many of the Catholic priesthood at * the . late election , some of the highest and some o £ the lowest rank , who
was such as I think must give great pain to all those wish that the ministers of relig ion—be they Catholic or be they Protestant—should continue , by their conduct , to preserve that respect and deference which is essential to the due performance of their sacred calling . Things were said and done upon that occasion by Catholic clergymen which , if they had been said or done by Protestant clergymen in this country , would have raised a cry from the Land ' s End to John o' Groat ' s . " Still I wouid conjure the House to-draw" a veU . ofobh . vion over everything that then passed . I conjure them not to rake up animosities which are now calmed and extinguished . I should hope that these reverend gentlemen feel that the dangers which they anticipated had no real existence , and that they will reflect more seriously upon their position and their duties .
An irregular and protracted conversation , which Lord John Rttsseix tried in vain to preclude , followed . Mr . Hume pointed out that there is nothing like the ballot for counteracting priestly intimidation . Serjeant Shee exculpated the priests and attacked the Established Church ; and Mr . Ltxcas with vehemence justified the conduct of the priests as necessary to counteract the intimidation by the landlords . He then mentioned how , at the former Sligo election , the agent of Lord Palinerston himself had used his lordship ' s name to influence the people to vote for a particular candidate . Lord Paimerston explained : —
" I wrote to my agent stating that , so far as my wish was concerned , nnd those porsons who felt disposed to attend to my wishes , my wish was that my tenants should vote for tho two candidates then sitting—one of them being tho honourable baronet and the other an honourable gentleman who lost his seat at tho last election ; but I also stated that thoso tenants wero at perfect liberty to voto as they pleased—( cheers )—and that no consequences whatever should ensue to them if they did not vote in tho manner I wished . ( Loud cheers . ) I havo been credibly informed , and I havo no reason to doubt tho fact , thai , ¦ when the candidate whom they supported was going into tho town to bo nominated , ho was told that there wero waiting for him , at his entrance- into tho town , a mob of 2000 people , headed by a priest with a double-barrollod gun . " ( Koars of laughter . )
Relieved but by the Home Secretary ' s liveliness , the discussion lasted drearily for two hours of Irish talk . It then dropped . THE " MASSACRE" BEGUN . Wednesday morning was distinguished by the decease , with tho consent of thoir parents , of three bills —on tho subjects of " County Rates , " " Probate of Wills , " and " Church Simony . " For committee on tho County Rates nnd Expenditure Bill a host of " amendments" had been intimated ,
chiefly by tho Opposition ; and giving this an a reason , its author , Mr . Mir / NEK Gibson , asked , wan thoro any truth that Government , being in favour of the principle of tho measure , are themselves about to bring in u bill to carry it out . Lord Pai-mehston , advising Mr . Gibson to postpone tho threatened weekly conversaziones on tlio bill , said that tho Government assented to tl \ e principle- of representation with regard to tho county rutos , und would bring iu a bill on tho subject
next session . Sir John Paicinoton advised tho Homo Secretary to be " cautious , " and not to proscribe for all England after a feeling that applied only to Lancashire . Mr . Vincent Scully hoped tho bill would , be uiado to apply to Ireland . The next suppressed bill wan that on the probate of wills and grants of administration . tya loading ' principle is tho establishment of an \* vrufo * rw probate for tho United Kingdom . Mr . Habfiewd , tho mover
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£ & % * 1 ^ 1863 . 1 THE LEADER . 677
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Leader (1850-1860), July 16, 1853, page 677, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1995/page/5/
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