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    ( N ^1^141 vlvjAtll VUAUMU4U ?

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    protects them ? They may , by an act of neglect , forfeit their individual claims , "but the British Government does not thereby forfeit its maritime rights . As to naturalization , it is a process unknown in the Easfc ; the Chinese Empire claims as its subjects all the Chinese in tne world , whether in Hong-Kong ,

    Borneo , Singapore , or California ; but that is no reason why the Americans should not protect a Chinese shipowner settled in California , or why the English should abandon a Hong-Kong crew , even without inquiry , to the mercies of the Canton police . Remember , it is not a question whether we should shelter Chinese criminals . Had tlie men

    committed offences on the imperial territory , or against imperial subjects , it was tlie duty of the local governor to apply to the consul , who would have been bound to order an investigation . No person is competent to interfere in a discussion of this kind who is not minutely acquainted with the political habits of

    Orientals , and no person possessed of this knowledge will deny that the course adopted in Persia and China has been humane , rational , and necessary . The result , probably , will be that , by acting with promptitude and decision , we shall spare both countries the calamities of a long / war- —the inevitable climax of a weak and timid policy .

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    THE TICKET-OF-KEAVE PARLIAMENT . Eithee the ticket-of-leave men , and all who belong to the allied classes of the condemned or condemuable criminals- —either the men have faculties , feelings , and minds such as other men have , or they have not . If they have , they must be amenable more or less to the same influences with other men ; if they have not , they belong rather to the category of disease and lunacy than of crime . They are either pitiable or hopeful . We believe

    criminate . Evidently we do not cure crime by the present plan ; we did not cure it by transportation , even wien wevrere free to use that expedient ; but in some cases it has been cured , or the incurables have been safely disposed of . There is an example in Ireland , in the Irish prisons under the Chief Superintendent , Captain Waitbe Cbofton . The prisoners are allowed a conditional

    freedom , as the reward , not of pretty' behaviour , but of genuine good behaviour ; undergoing an industrial discipline before they attain that stage . Captain Crofton is already a"ble to give many examples of successful treatment in this way . But there are seme incurables —the incurable lunatics of crime ; and the same tests which warrant the conditional

    release of the curable criminals , detects the incurable nature of other men ' s congenital disease . An intelligent system of prison discipline meets the difficulty presented by the ticket-of-leave men at Iiord Carnarvon's meeting . The man whom , we have chiefly quoted said , " If there were an institution

    for men when they come out of prison , it would do good ; " exactly the opinion , of Captain Crofton , Mr . M . D . Hiix , Mr . Addhrxey , and other earnest reformers of our criminal code . Some institution , "which , in the name of Christianity and humanity , will help back the sinner to an honest life . Mr . Hienry Matthew las added to our

    information by bringing ticket-of-leave men face to face with those who equally desire to restrain and to reform .

    that the heterogeneous classes who are described as criminals , thieves , convicts , or ticket-of-leave men , may in fact be more correctly divided into two divisions—men like others who have gone astray , but may be redeemed ; men unlike others , who have not the ordinary share of faculties or feelingswho are idiots or lunatics . The ticket-ofleave men who met at Parringdon Hall on the summons of the Earl of Carnarvon , evidently belong to the better class of the redeemable .

    They have erred , and they have been punished for their error ; the account between them and society is balanced , and they have at least the claim of misfortune . Beginning afresh , they begin at a disadvantage . "We take the case of one ticket-of-leave man described by another : — " I saw a man the other day pick out of the mud a crust of bread , who said he would -work two hours for a bit of bread . Ho aaid he had no home , could get no work , and had nothing to do but to starve . Ho was twenty-six years of age , strong , hearty , willing to work , and yet famishing for food . There ia not sufficient employment for the honest , and how can wo expect employment ?"

    The same speaker told his own case . The police know him as a housebreaker , and if a house is robbed in his neighbourhood , it is ascribed to him . " What is he to do ? what are all steh men to do ? " Transport them , " is the eas y answer ; but the colonies will as little have them as the honest employer . There is one resource open to them , and that is the " old racketing . '' They may be impri-Boned and punished , but thcro is no punishment so sovero as starvation .

    The speaker whom we have quoted maltes another suggestion . The tickot-of-loavc man Jio says , "is flesh and blood like others ; ho lias sense and reason , and knows when ho ia trodden on . " Ho can toll on which aide his bread is buttered—when he has learned to dis-

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    COLONIAL APPOINTMENTS . It is vulgarly supposed to be the function of journals , especially of radical journals , to carp at all official appointments whatsoever , without the slightest reference to their fitness , or the reverse . "We ha"ve never , our readers will bear us witness , acquiesced in this unworthy conception of independence . " We may not be able to praise so often as we could wish , hut the rarer the opportunity , the more gladly do we seize it . Two admirable Colonial appointments signalize the

    administration of his department by Mr . Xiajbouchert ; in a very hopeful manner this week , and embody , so to speak , one of the leading principles of Administrative Reformers . It has been too much tlie practice throughout every department of the public service to ignore the principle of promotion for seniority of service and ability among the subordinate civil officers of the Crown , and in the Colonial Department , for example , to supply vacancies with a perpetual succession of new and untried men . The motives for such a

    licence of expression is pushed beyond Europe an limits , and the language of the honourable members is often tropically warm . The local press , too , is prying , bitter , and contentious , incessantly provoking and sharpening public and personal animosities , and scrutinizing the slightest acts and movements of official dignitaries with a reckless and insatiable jealousy . AH these heterogeneous elements of "West Indian polity demand the presence of a strong will , a calm temper , and a clear

    decisive judgment in the Governor , who niuSt evex be on tlie watch to maintain the prerogatives of imperial authority without encroaching upon the rights of the dependen cies . Firmness andT conciliation are equally indispensable to such a position , but , above all some little knowledge of the natives , "We believe that in the two appointments which have suggested these remarks , all these requisites are fully Satisfied . Mr . Thomas Peice , late Treasurer of Antigua , is

    understood to have displayed in an eminent degree those qualities which peculiarly fit him for the Presidency of the "Virgin Islands , to which he is now appointed , and Mr . C J . Batlet , whom we find promoted to the Government of the Bahamas , is recommended by Ms able services as Colonial Secretary in the Mauritius . Such , appointments as these deserve to be pointed out for special commendation , as an example and an encouragement to public servants , and an indication of a true sense of responsibility in Downing-street itself .

    system of appointments aro as obvious as its effects , and both are equally objectionable . So long as the appointments of the Crown were regarded by the Minister of the timo being as so many feeders of Parliamentary corruption , the Ministerial whipper-in was in effect the distributor of imperial patronage . In such a calculation the fitness of the functionary was almost as little considered as the wishes and the interests of the colony ho was commissioned to misgovern . Time has worked some wonders in these respects .

    Colonies have been presented , for hotter or for worse , with responsible governments , and if they consent to a-ccept a governor from England , he must know his business . On the other hand , tho cry of the civil service begins to bo heard ; seniority and capacity are permitted to asacrb their claims . In our West India islands the office of government is no bod of repose . Party foelin g runs high , tho Tory whites and tho coffee-coloured lladicnla wnge fierco battles in tho Houses of Assembly , with Homeric epiaodea of 'liquors ' to inflame the combatants . Parliamentary

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    THE UNEMPLOYED AT T"EDE UNIONS . Considerable advantages have already accrued to the unemployed population in London from their strain upon the Unions . "We can only advise them , to persevere . They have a right to relief , without being made paupers , nor will their claims be resisted if urged by large bodies , and in a resolute manner . Some

    of the magistrates have thought fit ^ to war n them against violent or threatening demonstrations . Such counsel , we think , is superfluous . The men out of employment have exhibited no tendencies of this kind . They have simply proved that they are beginning to understand the reality of their rights secured to them by the Poor-law .

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    SECRETS OF THE PURCHASE SYSTEM . ( To the Editor of the Xeocler . ^ Sir , —Many people complain that they find it impossible to understand the working of the purchase system in oar army . Colonel Buck , who ought io know something about it , in his recent correspondence with Lord Cardigan states that he cannot , : vftor the most diligent inquiry , discover the process by which his Lordship obtained command of a reg iment at such an unusually early age . Perhaps I can enlighten Colonel Buck and j r our readers on the subject . The regulation price of a lieutenant-colonelcy of cavalry is 6200 / . lord Cardigan is currently reported to havo paid for his 35 , 000 / ., in other words , he expended nearly 30 , 000 / . in bribing his seniors out of his way .

    Similar cases aro by no means uncommon , though Lord Cardigan ' s has si deserved pre-eminence , from tlie magnitude of the sum paid , and the unusually sliort period in which the command was obtained . It is not often that a , young nobleman is to be found in a regiment , passionately desirous of command , with unlimited pecuniary means , first-rate interest ; at the llorso Guards , and senior officers ready to make way for him . But , on a smaller ecale , the samo thing is going on every day ; not one commission in twenty is sold for tho regulation price . True , thcro are strict orders

    ( N ^1^141 Vlvjatll Vuaumu4u ?

    ( Dpttt CmraciL —^—

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    . [ IN THIS DEPARTMENT , AS Att OPINIONS , 3 IOWEVKR KXTREHE , AM ALLOWED AN ICJilMtltSSION , THE EMITOIt SJECESSAltlLY HOLDS HIMSELF RESPONSIBLE FOB SONB . ]

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    There 13 no learned man but will confess he hath much profited by reading controversies , bis senses awakened , and his judgment sharpened . 11 ' , then , it be profitable for him to read , vr ~ hy should it not , at least , be tolerable for his adversarv towrito 1—Milton

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    110 THE LBADBB . ¦¦ pSTo . 358 , Saturday .

• Citation
  • Leader (1850-1860), Jan. 31, 1857, page 110, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2178/page/14/