pleasure. The interest of the subject now consists much in its bearing on the great question of capital punishment, in reference to which we know its importance. How changed are our views since the middle of the last century! Of the 160 offences which were capital in England, and the 115 which were capital in France eighty years ago, each country now practically retains the penalty of death for murder only, and even in that, the most favourable case for its infliction, its propriety is not unchallenged. The stress laid in the quality of exemplarity once led to mistakes pervading our entire code. In England, and still more in other Europeau nations, it led to devices which, in a great degree, defeated what is now regarded as the main object of judicial punishment. Branding, slitting the ears or nose, maiming, and the like, while they do not disable a convict for the commission of crimes, tend to make him an outcast-driven to associate for life with the infamous, among whom his brand is not a degradation. The mere sense of irretrievable humiliation and disgrace is a powerful preventive against reformation with many minds. This is one strong ground of objection to public flogging. The result of the discussion in Parliament on this practice in the army, during the last session, is very important. Without venturing to express any conclusion of my own on the question, how far it is morally justifiable, or practically useful, to inflict punishment as a warning, I may say of it historically, that public opinion has reached this point: that we now generally look upon the effect of a punishment as a deterrent to others than the criminal himself, as constituting only a subsidiary consideration-to be regarded merely as an element in selecting between punishments otherwise proper. In the second aspect, in which punishment deters from crime, its effect on a convict who has undergone it, no one doubts its justifiability; but the melancholy frequency of recommittals is a proof of its inefficiency. I believe half the convictions for grave offences have been of prisoners who were convicted more than once; and instances occur in which the same offender has been imprisoned more than a hundred times. 66 extent to which confessions should be used. In my humble opinion our law requires alteration on this subject. Our books record some curious instances of pretended confessions. Our national feelings are marked by a very proper and just abhorrence of anything approaching torture or unfair play. It is possible, though certainly not probable, that a prosecutor or policeman may bully false admission that he is guilty. Very timid or or cajole a suspected innocent person into a foolish persons under suspicion might think that they would be relieved from trouble more speedily by appealing to mercy instead of truth, and tell a falsehood in the hope of exciting pity and being let off; but such an occurrence is very unfrequent. The singular examples of the phenomenon of false confessions afforded by the trials of accused witches cannot occur now, and are, I believe, to be accounted for in most cases by mental disease. The utmost that can be legitimately inferred from such considerations is, that confessions may occasionally be untrue, and so mislead us, as may any other human evidence. Of all lies a false assumption of guilt is the most rare, and I do not believe that there ever was any recorded experience which, as a matter of statistics, would justify the apprehension that self-accusing statements may probably be false. Yet this, usually regarded as the most convincing species of testimony, has been rejected because, in one case, a prosecutor said: I only want my money, and if you give me that you may go to the devil;" in another, because the prosecutor said: "It is of no use to you to deny it; for there are the men and the boy who will swear they saw you do it," and in another (a post office case), because a clerk said to the prisoner's wife: "Do not be frightened; I hope nothing will happen to your husband beyond the loss of his situation." It would be easy to multiply similar instances in which confesions have been rejected, because they were held to be (in the language of an eminent judge) "fraud for the mind by the flattery of hope or the torture of fear." A very general practice has grown up for policeman to caution prisoners about making confessions with a view of removOne principal cause of the failure of punishment. The statute law requires the magistrate ing the possible effect of any previous inducement as a deterrent is its uncertainty. It has before whom the accused is brought to caution been roughly estimated (a) that of the crimes him in a particular form. committed, and the criminals engaged in them, have gone so far as to discourage prisoners Some magistrates more six-sevenths escape undetected or unfrom making confessions. Statements made punished. I am under the impression-though before magistrates are open to many techniit is, perhaps, a mistaken one-that there is more cal objections, one of which illustrates the known crime unpunished in our islands than in extreme length to which the doctrine of France, or the rest of northern Europe. As a inducement has been carried. A confession motive of human conduct, the certainty of a only if it be, but even if it purport to be, on before a justice of the peace is inadmissible, not oath. It is assumed that the accused, when sworn to tell the truth, may suppose himself bound to inculpate himself, if truth require it. Such an idea would be a mistake; but if this sistent than to reject a statement as possibly were otherwise, can anything be more inconunreliable because made under a sense of obligation to disclose the whole truth? No doubt, compulsion in any form, used to extort a statement from the accused, should not be tolerated for a moment; but it is only by a strained metaphor that such cases as I have referred to can be construed into cases of compulsion. At truth as in the first surprise of detection. It is no time is a guilty person so likely to state the the first step to repentance. The process of the greater evil which our courts continually To the least acute of minds, still more to those cautioning powerfully checks this tendency. exhibit; a crime detected and exposed, yet unpunished. Every such case operates as a direct habituated to that sort of watchfulness which incentive to criminals, just as witnessing a suc- inevitably suggests the possibility of escape by usually accompanies the practice of crime; it cessful gambler is a powerful temptation to play; our courts become counter-reformatories. is, if not enjoining the accused, at least advisa skilful exercise of hypocrisy and cunning. It It is vain for the most grave or the most eloquenting him, to conceal the truth. Its effect has, I of judges to attempt to counteract the effect of such scenes by any warning or admonition. I shall not advert to the questions- so usefully discussed at former meetings-touching fundamental changes in our criminal procedure. Much may be done to prevent the injurious consequences to which I have referred, under our present system, by caution exercised by committing magistrates and grand jurors. But notwithstanding the large improvements in our criminal law, there are still some defects of detail which perhaps have not attracted the attention they deserve. One question which frequently occurs and is intimately connected with the working of any system of police, is the small amount of suffering deters men more than the magnitude of any uncertain danger. Nothing damps human energy so much as hopelessness. If escape is impossible, the action is not a venture but a sacrifice. On the other hand men are inclined to be hopeful-especially the sanguine and careless, who are most prone to crime. It is, therefore, in accordance with the ordinary workings of human nature that such great chances of escape render powerless the terrors of the law. Such chances and their evil conse quences may be considerably lessened by improvements in our system of police. The possibility of such improvements is a subject to be considered at our present meeting, and I doubt not that the discussion of it will elicit much that is valuable. But the mere failure to detect a crime counteracts the deterrent effect of laws far less than (a) See Transactions of 1865. minal to check the first right impulse of a still sibility? I have no doubt that if it should appear that a statement was obtained by improper means, likely to effect its truth, a jury would be quite competent to judge of it, and by no means disinclined to disregard it. I need not refer to the question so often and so ably discussed in this association, whether the accused should be allowed to give evidence in his own behalf? On this subject we know there is still a very wide diversity of opinion. If the law should ever be altered. I cannot but think it would work a great change in our views respecting confessions. It has been suggested that the accused on his arrest, or on being first brought before a magistrate, might be asked where he was at the time of the offence; and whether he wishes to make any statement in reference to it? We are all, I believe, agreed in condemning the continental system of requiring a prisoner to answer questions to a judge, and there are strong objections to interrogating a prisoner after his commitment to prison, or under any species of coercion to answer, beyond the legitimate inference to be drawn from his silence, subject to any explanation he may give of it. There is one strong argument for receiving confessions with caution, which I am not inclined to undervalue- the probability that they may be misunderstood or misrepresented through the zeal of prosecutors or policemen. The same considerations afford strong reasons why we should not increase the temptation, to which such persons are unavoidably exposed, to endeavour to obtain admissions from the accused. But the question is, whether the judg ment of the jury and the proper control of superior police officers, is not a sufficient safeguard against these dangers. I may mention one practice which appears to me exceedingly objectionable the rewarding of officers directly or indirectly according to the number of convictions obtained on their evidence. I shall perhaps be pardoned for referring to another instance in which our criminal law appears to me to treat the guilty with an over-refined delicacy. Notorious offenders are a class whose existence is unWhy should not a man who is supposed to have doubted by the police, but ignored by the law. committed several offences of the same kind, be several successive employments in all of which tried for them together? If he has been in his employer was robbed, though never robbed before or since, the inference must be that the accused committed the thefts which always happened where he was, and never when he was not there. This becomes stronger with each offences called "felonies," each charge must be successive instance; yet in all the more grave tried wholly by itself, and a profound silence be observed as to the others. The practised thief must be treated as if never before suspected. This rule does not apply to misdemeanors, and three cases of larceny or embezzlement against has been relaxed by the statutes which allow the prosecutor, committed within six months, to be comprised in one indictment. That a limitation should be fixed as to the period within which the offences should be committed is reasonable, though "six months" seems a short one; but what is the reason for requiring that the property should be the property of the same tions of the crime should be investigated? If person? Or that no more than three repeti a lodger and the landlord in the same house are for several employers whose moneys are emrobbed, or a man is employed in collecting debts bezzled, the diversity of the ownership of the identity of the criminal. It is unreasonable that property rather increases the probability of the expose the rogue to no more risk than the three the commission of twenty peculations should to which the prosecutor is confined, and that a offenders who commit felonies which is denied privilege should be accorded to the more heinous to the less guilty, who commit only misdemeanors. There are minor technical diffinotwithstanding the numbers that have been culties which still embarrass criminal trials, removed; such, for example, as the rules relating to venue and amendments. I think we are, in considering such matters, apt to forget the cir grown into a system. It was at one time most cumstances under which our criminal law has unjust to the accused, and shockingly bloody Judges endeavoured to counteract the effects of a system at once unfair and cruel, by strained but merciful applications of legal doctrines. But it is not reasonable to apply in favour of a prisoner allowed professional assistance, who may examine his witnesses on oath, and is tried under a humane and merciful code, considerations adapted to a procedure in which he was denied the right of advocacy or calling sworn evidence, and to a code of most terrific severity. From the infirmities of judicial punishment, regarded merely as a deterrent, let us turn to its more agreeable aspect, the influence of reformatory treatment. Reformation is of course incompatible with any form of capital punishment. It was equally forgotten in the various minor punishments formerly in use. Among the good and great whose efforts mark the first epoch of change in England, perhaps the best known is Howard, whose labours extended from the middle to the close of the 18th century. Improvements have now spread even to Turkey. The Bagnio, that celebrated human menagerie, is no longer the only prison at Constantinople. In the city gaol established there under the guidance of Alla Bey, our improved discipline is to a considerable extent adopted. The earliest amelioration of the English penal system grew out of that curious institution, "benefit of clergy," a contrivance singularly characteristic of English ideas. The necessity of doing something with criminals thus saved from death, led to the introduction (about 1590) of transportation. This was at first probably borrowed from the ancient idea of banishment, but it assumed a form not unlike slavery, from the practice of selling the labour of convicts to contractors who bore the expense of their deportation. It soon became, with improvements, a favourite punishment. In the consolidation of the criminal law effected by the statutes of 1827, and the subsequent years, it is the penalty for all grave crimes, not capital, usually with an alternative of imprisonment accompanied by hard labour and solitary confinement. When hard labour was first introduced by statute (a) in Ireland in 1777, in lieu of transportation, in certain cases the convicts were employed in productive work on the Liffey. When it became more general as a sentence it was confined to unproductive exertions. The treadmill and similar devices, painful and profitless like the sentence of Sisyphus, were introduced. I cannot avoid the reflection that the expression "hard labour" is an unfortunate name for an infliction which thus became simply a mild species of torture. Industry's inseparable companion, labour, should not be associated with a thing so degrading and hateful. At length public opinion became divided as to whether transportation should be continued as a punishment. The question was solved rather by the refusal of our colonies to admit convicts than by any decisive verdict of public opinion at home. Transportation as a punishment finally ceased in 1857, and as capital punishments are now exceedingly rare, imprisonment is with us almost the sole penalty with which the law visits crimes. Its proper administration has become, therefore, of the most paramount importance. The question has assumed a nearly similar aspect in the principal continental states of Europe and in America. Nothing is more easy than to censure the errors of the past, but it is unjust to con such obvious evils, and the common abuses prisoners to put by some small earnings for the There is a considerable difference of opinion as to whether the use of the associated system might not be more restricted, and the separate system more largely applied; but this does not affect the great principle of the scheme of treatmentthe gradual progress from the severe and terrible discipline of solitary punishment to the milder teaching of associated imprisonment. When at length a licence is obtained and the convict is allowed to go abroad among his fellow-men, and endeavour to take his place as an honest citizen, he is not left wholly to himself, and for the remainder of the period of his original sentence he must report himself to the police. He must, and, what is more important, knows that he must, be again arrested and imprisoned to undergo that sentence if even, at this last moment, he shows signs of relapsing. His demn our ancestors for the neglect of a study to connection with the police is, however, of the direct their attention. In our age, such neglect the French system of "surveillance," which, which the circumstances of the times did not slightest character, and wholly different from would be unpardonable; but it would be as far from reducing, rather increases the difficulties reasonable to blame men of bygone times (who in the way of becoming an honest citizen. The had heads as thoughtful and hearts as humane leading advantages of this plan may be illusas the present generation) for not using tele-trated by a retrospect at a few failures in former graphs, or not travelling by railroads, as for their treatment of criminals: Violence has with us ceased to be the characteristic either of culprits or punishments. Heroic highwaymen and fashionable duellists have passed away. In the days of Tyburn's celebrity, the spirit of violence pervaded all society. We may trace it in school whipping (which Lilly advised as essential in the teaching of grammar), as well as in the gallows. Humanity, in judicial punishments, was, prior to the date of the French revolution, as little regarded by our continental neighbours as by English legislators. In dealing with prison discipline, there were some matters which lay upon the surface. The moment attention was directed to the subject it was, of course, at once seen that the indiscriminate mixture of the prisoners was most injurious. To shut up together ascertained guilt and suspected innocence, hardened crime and youthful weakness, shocks by its injustice. It converted the prison into a school for moral corruption. But when (a) See stat. 17 & 18 Geo. 3, c. 9, s. 2. strike the mind of any one who reflects on the prison?" with the brand of the gaol upon him, to be performed, for which it is difficult to proconvicts, who willingly undertake such work, as cure other hands, largely employ discharged opening the door to an honest livelihood by free labour to contractors, according to the American In the working of this system there are dangers and system (a), seems for many reasons objectionable. that a prisoner is well clothed and housed, and difficulties not to be overlooked. The knowledge above all fed, while in prison, and will obtain a ment and a respectable livelihood on his dissum of money and pass on to decent employcharge from prison, affords a powerful temptation to get there, and if ever the hope of these advantages makes men commit offences in order to acquire them, the prison promotes, instead of lessening crime. To prevent this consequence, it is essential that the amount of pain to be his estimation all advantages he will gain; undergone by the criminal be so great and be known to be so great as to outweigh in and above all, that the suffering by which these advantages are attained in prison be clearly greater than should be undergone to attain the same result by honest means. All below the point essential for this are purely plans which reduce the infliction of punishment sentimental and mischievous. The interior arrangements of the prison cannot be kept a (a) See Transactions for 1863, p. 430. works, by which convict labourers were provided with shelter while it was raining, although free labourers employed at the same works were exposed to it and continued to work under all weathers. It is a most pernicious overflow of good nature to surround convict discipline with luxuries such as an honest freeman cannot obtain. The reformatory system in its integrity is applied only to persons undergoing severe sentences. Minor punishments are carried out in our county and local gaols-of which there are, I believe, in England and Wales 143, in Scotland 44, and in Ireland 42, besides bridewells. In these there is a great variety of discipline. The vast majority of sentences undergone in them are for very short terms, (a) in which reformatory discipline could not be attempted. But when the term exceeds twelve months, or even six, though it may be impossible to apply the process of reformation suitable to an imprisonment for five or seven years, still, I trust, we shall find that some more of the advantages accorded to worse criminals may be extended to these less guilty prisoners. Much has been done by "Prisoners' Aid Societies," to whom the statute of 1862 (b) gave a legal status and additional means of acquiring funds to assist discharged prisoners, though the success of their efforts was not at first, I believe, encouraging. (c) Many accept it as a sort of axiom, that an imprisonment even for two years is too short to operate usefully otherwise than by deterring. This somewhat desponding view might be tested by trying the effect of nominally somewhat longer sentences, with a power to the prisoner to diminish them to the present measure by obtaining good marks. A greater centralisation of prisons, for the treatment of prisoners undergoing any but the very brief sentences usually imposed summarily by magistrates, has been suggested as likely to lead to imprisonment and save expense. It can hardly be expected that a reformatory system can be effectually worked in prisons, when those who can undergo it are very few, and occasionally none, as in the case, at least, in several Irish prisons. (d) By the statute of last August (e) a very great improvement has been made in our local gaols by abolishing the power of sending lunatics to them-under a practice which, I believe, was peculiar to Ireland. For such unhappy beings a gaol is a totally unfit abode, and their presence seriously interfered with proper discipline. Yet the daily average number of them in custody in our Irish gaols during the year 1866, exceeded 400. Owing in a great measure to the exertions of members of this association, considerable attention has been recently directed to the reclamation of female culprits. Women, as a general rule, are less prone to crime than men. The proportion among our criminals is generally about one-third females, and two-thirds males. In towns where there are peculiar temptations to female degradation-generally seaports-the proportion is different. In Liverpool, for example, occasionally the female criminals are more numerous than the males. But all prison experience seems to show that the reclamation of female is more difficult than that of male prisoners: "Refuges" correspond in their case, in a great degree, to "intermediate prisons." And the last few years mark an epoch in the history of female reformation by the establishment of the "Carlisle Memorial Refuge." But the sphere in which we should natu (a) Of 24,334 sentences passed in Ireland in 1855, 20,349 (or nearly 84 per cent.) are for terms less than a month; and of these, 7999 (or more than three-eighths) are for forty-eight or twenty-four hours. In sentences of this class, all that is or can be aimed at is to deter, by giving the offender a salutary, warning from the pain of the punishment; 102 exceeded the term of twelve months, and 365 were for periods between twelve and six months. (b) 25 & 26 Vict. c. 44. (c) According to a statement made before the Association in 1864, it appears that of an average number of 1800 prisoners confined in the prison of Coldbath-fields, only by a society whose operations were limited to that prison. () It appears by the last report of the inspectorsgeneral in Ireland, that of the prisoners in all the prisons in Ireland sentenced in the year 1866 to imprisonment, there was only one for a term exceeding two years (which was in Dublin). There were eighteen prisons in which was not a single prisoner so sentenced for any term exceeding eighteen months. There were only three prisons in which there were more than five persons so sentenced for a period exceeding six months and under twelve. The number in many prisons were small: in twenty prisons they did not exceed half a dozen, and in thirty-one did not exceed a dozen-the number of prisons, according to the table, being forty-two. (e) 30 & 31 Vict. c. 118, 5, 9. 160 had, within six months, been found fit to be assisted rally infer that reformatory efforts would operate most successfully is that in which it is at the same time pre-eminently the duty of society to apply them. We all admit now the injustice and impolicy of merely punishing without reforming children, whose part in crimes is generally that of victims as well as perpetrators. The first great practical step in juvenile reformatories made by our French neighbours, under the direction of Mr. D. Metz, at Mettray, dates in 1830. Its English counterpart at Redhill dates in 1849. In Aug. 1854, the Legislature first sanctioned juvenile reformatories in England, and in 1858 in Ireland. (a) These institutions, the most mighty conquerors of vice and crime that mere human skill has yet created, rapidly increased. The number in Great Britain and Ireland fluctuates a little; it is now more than seventy, in addition to some sixty industrial schools in England and Scotland. Yet how startling at first was this great experiment of withdrawing children from their parents control. A child beginning crime is not necessarily the offspring of parents who practise it. The more common case is that the parents are simply idle or dissipated, and grasp at the child's gains, indifferent whether they are the produce of begging or stealing. Whether the child's initiation in crime is due to the parents' instruction and example, or indolent encouragement, it is equally essential that the influence should cease. The best that can be done is totally to separate them. Here, then, is the terrible problem, continually recurring, to "bring up a child in the way he should go," by working in opposition to one of the first laws of nature and of God, by substituting for the command, "Honour thy father and thy mother," the awful precept "shudder and shun them!" The efforts to promote juvenile reformation have been already signally successful. I see no reason to doubt the estimate made by a member of this association, that 70 per cent. of those who passed through reformatories become industrious and honest. There was the most surprising reduction of commitments to prison within ten years of their establishment, and, though the rate of progression may not now be so rapid as marked by this test, there is no reason to doubt the continued success of the system. Referring to Ireland only, I observe by the returns that there was but one juvenile under sixteen sentenced to penal servitude in 1865, and only one last year; and the entire number convicted in Ireland at assizes and sessions in the last year was but fifty-nine, of whom eighteen were charged with misdemeanors only. I believe the almost uniform result of the statistics of crime would show-as has been done frequently in special instances-that reformatories and other cognate institutions, ragged schools and industrial schools, have a most marked influence in reducing the number of criminals. This at once brings before the mind another social problem which is now in course of solution, and though not directly connected with punishment, appears a sort of corollary to the propositions established in the case of reformatories. How far should the State interpose, in dealing with children who have not committed actual crime, but who, from the vice or neglect of those about them, are likely to fall into criminal courses? How far is the State justified in interfering with parental authority, and the natural relations of society, merely in the hope of making better citizens? The nation has decided to a certain extent upon this vital question. The Industrial Schools Act of 1866 is framed so as to have a close correspondence with the Reformatory Act of the same session. (b) Both owe much of their usefulness to our Association. The Industrial Schools Act is perpetual, so that the principle at least is now authoritatively adopted. The further question has been discussed whether the imprisonment of young children as a punishment merely should not be wholly abolished? The general theory of our law favours their irresponsibility. If a child is naturally so perverse and wicked that, without being educated in, or compelled to practise, crime, he will do so, he seems rather a fit subject for an asylum for mental disease than for a prison; and if his misdeeds are the consequence of training or compulsion, it is unjust to punish him without giving him an opportunity of escaping from the irresistible influences which he of himself could not avoid. There is, and (a) 17 & 18 Vict. c. 86; 21 & 22 Vict. c. 103. (b) Stats. 29, Vict. 30, c. 117, 118. probably always will be, much difficulty in the way of reformatories and industrial schools, in enforcing payment from parents for their children, and there is the risk of affording advantages greater than the industrious and wellconducted poor can obtain. It would be a grievous injustice that the commission of crime by the young, or the neglect of plain moral duties by the adult, should open a door to worldly advancement which is closed to the innocent child and moral parent. In this faint outline of the progress of opinion respecting the treatment of the criminal classes, I have spoken of punishment in the two aspects in which it can be practically applied-deterring and reforming. I do not, however, hold the theory advocated by many, that the sole justification for judicial punishment rests on its adaptability to these purposes. I think the idea of retribution should not be disregarded in any criminal code. I mean by "retribution" the infliction of pain as a consequence of guilt, irrespective of making satisfaction to the party injured. The emotion of resentment-deliberate resentment, as it has been called by moralists, to distinguish it from passion or revenge-is a part of our human nature, and given to us for some purpose. The expression in reference to one who has committed a crime, that he "deserves to be punished," involves a truth which our moral perceptions compel us to recognise, and which means more than that the person spoken of "requires to be improved." It seems part of the scheme of Providence that guilt should deserve pain, and that man should be the means of inflicting that pain on his fellow man in cases involving their mutual relations. The question is not barren of practical consequences. If the theory which denies the right of inflicting pain for its own sake as an act of justice be carried to its legitimate consequences, the enormity of the crime should have no effect on the amount of the punishment. Indeed, on this theory, it is hard to see why the infliction of pain in some form or other, should be the means invariably employed with criminals. It is, of course, possible to have police regulations which may tend to repress crime, wholly irrespective of the personal punishment of criminals. But remedies of this kind, except where they destroy the means of committing the offence, as by abating a nuisance, are generally open to one radical defect, that the pain in enforcing them falls on an innocent person-the punishment is misplaced. The most ancient provisions of our law framed with this view are the power of requiring surety for good behaviour, and the law which prevents any one deriving through the felon from acquiring a title to stolen property, subject to the exception of sales in market-overt. When one person is under a moral obligation to control another, as in the case of parent and child, or lunatic and curator, the offence of the subordinated person implies a neglect of duty on the part of him who is intrusted with the control; but in all other cases, exacting the penalty from the surety can be justified only upon the ground of expediency and his voluntary contract. Depriving a criminal of the opportunity of benefiting by his crime is a most powerful preventive; and if stolen property could be made unsaleable it would go far to prevent theft. But depriving an honest purchaser of property which he has innocently bought from a thief does not effect this object. It makes an innocent man suffer, and leaves the price, as the fruits of his crime, to be enjoyed by the guilty. All laws which impose restraints on the innocent in order to remove temptation from the ill-disposed are open to the same objection. If a statute were passed to compel people to bar their houses or lock up their money, it might lessen theft; but we should at once condemn it as an intolerable interference with our freedom. In this country the tendency of our institutions and opinions is not likely to lead to many errors of this kind. It is true the exception to the rule respecting stolen property was further limited by a statute(a) restricting the sale of horses in public fairs, and it is only within the last year, and by a statute confined to England, that the injustice of the rule in its full extent was mitigated by an Act, (b) which gives to an innocent purchaser from a thief the money found on the thief's person. Whether the discussion on the organisation of our police will suggest any remedies of the class to which I allude, free from this (a) Stat. 4, ch. 11. (b) Stat. 30 & 31 Vict. ch. 35. have been entrusted to the care of competent and trustworthy men. These views were communicated by the council to the Attorney-General, with an earnest request that he would give the subject the consideration which it so assuredly deserves. The council also communicated with the provincial law societies and numerous country solicitors, urging them to press on their representatives the injustice of this provision. apparent injustice, I do not venture to anticipate. occupier shall deduct from the rent payable by him, There is one class of punishments frequently one-half of such special rate, to the extent of 2d. in inflicted for minor offences, which appear to me the pound on the amount of such rent; and that too often open to a similar objection-I mean when the recipient of the rent is himself liable to a pecuniary fines. Among the poor the punish-rent, he may make a similar deduction from the ment falls, not on the offender, but in reality on rent payable by him; that "rent" is to mean any rent service, rentcharge, fee-farm rent, quit rent, his family. A drunken or violent man is more likely to sacrifice the comforts, nay, the neces-rendered in money, or otherwise, by any occupier or or other rent, or any reservation, or sum, or value saries of his wife and children, than to forego tenant, or under any contract in respect of the occuhis own evil indulgences to pay a fine. The pation, tenancy, use, or enjoyment of any rateable The council have also exerted themselves in former may suffer to some extent by the loss of property in the metropolis, tithe commutation rent- opposition to Mr. Hibbert's motion for making barhis labour during imprisonment, but he must charges, sums in lieu of tithe, annuities, or other risters eligible for the office of County Court regisbear at least the chief part of the pain inflicted annual or periodical payments whatever, reserved, trar, considering that it is an office which an by it: of the fine they bear nearly all. For the or charged on, or payable out of any rateable pro-attorney is peculiarly qualified to fill. wealthy, fines, such as we often see inflicted, perty in the metropolis. even for serious assaults, are so inadequate that they are in truth no punishment at all. of which a short outline has been given, it seemed neither could landlords who are themselves under I have said that this section of the association deals with questions which arise only where crime exists. The review upon which I have ventured may lead us to the conclusion that the field is not the most hopeful to labour in. The fear of punishment is weak, and its application uncertain. Reformation works in a limited sphere. Other known remedies for existing crime are few and imperfect. Statistical evidence of the decrease of crime shows to some extent the success of such measures; but we are aware how fallacious such evidence is. Many other causes leading to the same result co-operate, for which allowance must always be made-the general improvement of society-the spread of education and the higher moral tone which pervades all classes. If then, while the tendency to crime exists, no punishment can be so certain and severe as effectually to deter, and no discipline so well-devised as surely to reform, where are we to look further for improvement? Let the effect of these cooperative influences teach us. The great social problems, how to banish the want and misery which so often stimulate and seem to excuse The Bill further provided, that every existing or crime, and the ignorance and vice which make future covenant or agreement by an occupier to pay the fitting instruments for its practice, are those such tax is to be void, that is, both retrospectively which go to the root of the matter. They em- and prospectively; and every lessee who has cove brace a field more hopeful and more extensive nanted to pay all rents charged, or to be charged on than is open to the labours of our special depart-the property leased, will be thereby enabled to ment. They aim at preventing the growth of violate the express conditions of his tenure. the noxious plants which our labours but struggle to destroy; they annihilate the disease which our labours can only mitigate. It is a great advantage of this association that all these questions are considered more or less in connection with each other. It is, perhaps, not to be hoped for among imperfect beings as we are, that society will ever exist in that exalted state which philanthropic enthusiasts have delighted to paint, when crimes will be no more; but it is not a wholly visionary hope that we may approach it more and more nearly. Let us trust, under the blessing of Divine Providence, that the topics we have been considering will yearly become less and less important, and that the time may yet arrive when the least engrossing branch of our studies will be that which deals with punishment and reformation; and the least extensive field of our labours, the "Repression of Crime." INCORPORATED LAW SOCIETY. (Continued from page 365.) rents. The principle of the Bill, as stated in its preamble, is the expediency of a portion of the charge for permanent improvements in the metropolis being borne by the owners of rateable property therein. Under the Metropolitan Management Act 1855, and the Amendment Acts of 1856 and 1862, the Metropolitan Board is empowered to assess on the several parts of the metropolis sums to be charged thereon for defraying the expenses of the board in the execution of the Acts, which sums are, under those Acts, payable by the occupiers. The proposed Bill enacts (clause 1) that the board shall distinguish, as being assessed for a special rate to be called "The Metropolis Improvement Rate," such part of those sums as the board may think fit, to the extent of 4d. in the pound per annum, on the rateable annual value of the property; and that the On the whole, it appeared to the council that the Bill was a novel and oppressive interference between landlord and tenant-that its retrospective provisions freed the tenant from legal obligations already entered into by him with his landlord; and its prospective provisions, by attempting arbitrarily to regulate the powers of owners in agreeing with tenants for payment of rates, were most injurious to property, and must end in casting a far heavier burden upon occupiers, inasmuch as, in future, rents will be made sufficient to cover all possible rates of the board, and an element of great uncertainty will be introduced in determining the terms of future agreements and leases. The council, therefore, expressed the opinion they thus entertained in a petition, which they caused to be presented to the House of Commons against the Bill. The Bill is still pending in Parliament. Bankruptcy Bill. The members were informed at the last annual meeting, that a series of observations were framed The council, however, found it necessary in the The restriction sought to be imposed, for the first time, under this clause, is not, in the opinion of the council, justified either by present circumstances, or by anything connected with the conduct or capacity of the few attorneys who have hitherto held the office of registrar; and experience shows that, in those offices connected with the administration of the law which are held by attorneys and solicitors, their practical experience and professional knowledge have eminently fitted them for their duties: and the public are well assured that their interests County Courts Acts Amendment Bill. This Bill has also received the consideration of the council. It is proposed, by clause 19, that trustees may pay, or transfer any trust-moneys, not exceeding 500%, to the registrar of the County Court; but the council considered that it would be more satisfactory if such payment or transfer were made to the treasurer, who gives ample security. It is true the money, but there is no provision making it that the Bill declares that the registrar may invest incumbent that the investment shall be made; and it is evident that in the cases of trustees and suitors, their interest and responsibility will cease when the money is paid into court, and they will have no further interest in seeing to the investment of the moneys paid in. Chancellor, that as the treasurer of the County Court is required, under existing orders, to give security, the money should be invested in the name and under the control of the treasurer, either solely or jointly with the registrar. The council, therefore, represented to the Lord Attorney's Certificate Duty Bill. This Bill, which the members will recollect is one for the reduction of the annual duty payable by attorneys and solicitors to the nominal amount of five shillings, was again introduced in the House of Commons by Mr. Denman at the commencement of the present session, and, as anticipated, met with a decided opposition on the part of the Government. After a series of divisions, taken at various stages of the Bill, it has passed the second reading, but a discussion will take place on the 25th inst., in committee of the whole House. It is hoped that by the time this report is submitted to the meeting, the principle of the Bill will have been again affirmed by a majority in the House of Commons. The sincere thanks of the profession are due to Mr. Denman for his disinterested exertions on behalf of the attorneys and solicitors in this matter. Law Classes and Lectures. The number of subscribers to the classes held in the past session was ninety-five. The Conveyancing Classes were conducted by Mr. Alfred Bailey, the Common Law by Mr. Schalch, and the Equity by Mr. Sturges. The attendance at the lectures has diminished to a considerable extent. This is no doubt attributable to the establishment of the classes, which are preferred by many of the law students. The Lectures on Conveyancing were delivered by Mr. R. Horton Smith, those on Equity by Mr. E. Charles, and those on Common Law and Mercantile Law by Mr. H. W. Lord. The number of subscribers was seventy-six. (To be continued.) PROMOTIONS & APPOINTMENTS [N.B.-Announcements of appointments being in the nature of advertisements, are charged 2s. 6d. each, for which postage-stamps should be inclosed.] The Lord Chief Justice of the Court of Common Pleas has been pleased to appoint Mark Whyley, of Bedford, in the county of Bedford, gentleman, a perpetual commissioner for taking acknowledgments of deeds executed by married women. A puisne judgeship at the Cape of Good Hope has become vacant by the death of Mr. E. B. Watermeyer, LL.D. been appointed to a clerkship. LAW DEPARTMENT.-Mr. C. T. Sansom, clerk in the master's office, Queen's Bench, Temple, has been appointed chief clerk, in the room of Mr. N. Aldridge, retired. INLAND REVENUE.-Mr. E. Hare, clerk, second section, second class, has been promoted to the first section, chief accountant's office; Mr. H. Fisher, clerk, third class, to the second section, second class; Mr. G. Prideaux, clerk, fourth class, to the third class; Mr. J. W. Justician, clerk, fifth class, to the fourth class; Mr. J. Birdseye, second section, second class, to the second section, first class; Mr. L. H. R. Lyne, clerk, third class, to the second section, second class; Mr. R. W. A. Hutchins, clerk, fourth class, to the third class; and Mr. W. E. Cumberland, clerk, fifth class, to the fourth class; and Mr. R. W. Elliott, first section, second class, and Mr. C. G. Powell, second section, first class, have been superannuated. Mr. G. H. Bishop, assistant surveyor of taxes, Tower, first district, has been promoted to Ashford; and Mr. G. M. Phillipson, surveyor of taxes, Ashford, has been removed to Tower, first district. EXCISE BRANCH-IRELAND.-Mr. J. Butler has been appointed to be a clerk in the Registry of Deeds office. limits over it; and that these fields are now covered THE LAWYER'S TRADE'S UNION.-It is easy to see how these organisations exercise, even without desiring it, a strong social influence upon their THE COURTS & COURT PAPERS. members. Every such body, by virtue of its existence, imposes a certain code of unwritten as well as written laws upon persons connected with V.C. MALINS.-Vice-Chancellor Malins, sitting at the Angel Hotel at Godalming, yesterday, had it; and this code, though not perhaps a very eleseveral applications before him. In the case of vated one in itself, serves to raise the average tone of the community. Every man who belongs to a Hook v. The Great Western Railway Company, Mr. club, whether that club is held in Pall Mall or in a Turner appeared for the plaintiff, a holder of Vale of Neath stock, and on behalf of himself and all pothouse, is compelled to show some deference to the opinions of his fellow members. However vicious others in his position sought to restrain the comor corrupt his natural inclinations are, he thinks pany from issuing preference stock to his prejudice, twice before he commits any outrage on moral or and asked for a declaration that the Vale of Neath social laws which will subject him to the censure of proprietors were entitled to have payment made to the association to which he belongs. No doubt this them at the end of each half-year out of the moneys influence may be exerted for evil as well as for good; which, according to the provisions of the Great men may grow to acknowledge no standards of right Western Railway (Vale of Neath Amalgamation or wrong except those recognised by their own comAct) of 1860, were to be the net profits of the community-may learn to think the interests of that pany. Mr. Kay, Q. C., Mr. T. Stevens with him, association paramount to every other consideration. raised an objection to the Vice-Chancellor hearing This seems to have been the case at Sheffield; but the motion on the ground that he was a shareholder. in the elementary stage of trades' unions, it is rarely, The objection His Honour overruled, saying that as if ever, the case. That the members of a craft it was vacation it was not competent to the plaintiff should stand by each other-that they should help to apply to another judge, but he refused the appli- each other in distress, and promote the general good of the craft, even at more or less of individual disadvantage these may be said to be the fundamental maxims of all trades' unions; and, though capable of misapplication, they are most assuredly not evil in themselves. Probably the most perfect specimen of a trade's union in what we may call the nonaggressive phase of development, is to be found in the association of solicitors known as the Incorporated Law Society. Every attorney with any claim to respectability belongs to this body, which exercises a sort of lax control over the conduct of its members. Its avowed object is to keep up the character of the legal community, and any gross breach of recognised legal morality or etiquette is Paul's, edited by Anthony Trollope. visited with expulsion from the association.-Saint cation. LEGAL NEWS. THE MANCHESTER FENIANS.-One of the most singular arrests we have yet had to record took place on Thursday. One of the witnesses who was in attendance at the police-court for the purpose of proving that some other person was not present at the attack on the van was identified by a large number of the other witnesses as having been there himself. This curious termination of an attempt at an alibi has caused considerable amusement. FEMALE JURORS.-In the New Criminal Act, jurors objecting to be sworn may make affirmation, and in the statute the words are "his or her affirmation. It has been supposed that the feminine gender was a mistake, but it has been purposely used to provide for "a jury of matrons," allowed in certain cases. MELANCHOLY DEATH OF A LAW STUDENT AT JERSEY. An inquest has been held at Jersey on the body of Mr. Thomas Charles Ernst Paezold, aged twenty-seven, a native of Madras, a student of the Middle Temple, London, reading for the bar. Deceased left London on the 12th of August in company with his friend, Mr. Herbert George Lousada, on a visit to Paris. On leaving there they came to Jersey, three weeks ago, and put up at the Hôtel de la Pomme d'Or. On the 16th inst. he went alone to Plemont and Grenez Point, to visit the caves in that part of the island. He obtained directions from a person in the locality, and was seen to wend his way in the direction pointed out. He was never afterwards seen alive, and his dead body was picked up on Tuesday on the beach. His coat was off, as were also his shoes and stockings. His watch and other articles were found upon him. It is supposed that the unfortunate gentleman, on entering one of the caves, had been overtaken by the tide, and was unable to effect his escape. A verdict of "Accidentally drowned" was returned. AMERICAN CLAIMANTS TO ENGLISH ESTATES.The Times Irish correspondent writes:-"Some time ago, writing to the Times on the subject of American claimants to English estates, I sent an account of the Ingraham claim to the city of Leeds. This brought out a correspondent who gave a history of the American claim to the 'Jennings estate,' heirs to which appear to be scattered plentifully all over the world; and these reports being reprinted on this side of the Atlantic have stirred up numerous other claimants to vast English estates. As Leeds was in danger from the Ingrahams, it appears now that the city of Hull is in danger from the Newtons, one of the heirs of which family writes an account of their claim to the New York Evening Post. He says they are the heirs of William Newton, who was born in Hull, but emigrated to America and settled in Virginia. In his will, dated June 16, 1784, he devised to his eldest son, John Newton, all my right and title to an estate that I have in Yorkshire, in Great Britain, at the town of Hull, on the Humber river, and my farm at a country village, Campbell's Forth, to him and his heirs and assigns for ever. The correspondent states that he and the other heirs are sanguine of getting the property, as their claim does not involve a complication of contingencies as in the famous Jennings estate, or of technicalities as in the Ingraham claim upon property in the city of Leeds." He says the portion of Hull under litigation was at one time called Newton's Old Fields; that the corporation of the city extended the municipal WILLS AND BEQUESTS.-The will of the Right and Wesleyan Missionary Societies, each 100%; the Reformed Wesleyan, Primitive Methodists, and General Baptists Missionary Societies, each 50%The will of John Clowes Grundy, of The Cliff, Broughton, near the city of Manchester, printseller and publisher and dealer in works of art, was proved in London under 20,000 personalty, the executors appointed being his wife, his sons John and James, his son-in-law, W. Blinkhorn, his assistant, W. H. Smith, and Cabmar F. G. Brooks. The will bears date March 1867, and he died in May following. To his wife he leaves an immediate legacy of 100%, and the furniture not enumerated in the schedule to his marriage settlement dated 1857, and leaves her the residue of his property, with power to act as proprietress of his businesses in Manchester and Liverpool, and on his youngest child attaining twenty five the trustees are to dispose thereof, and divide the proceeds equally among all his children. -The will of Miss Maria Jane Player, of Ryde House, Ryde, was proved in London under 45,000l. She has left to the Royal Isle of Wight Infirmary 100%., and to the Ryde Renevolent Society nineteen guineas.-Illustrated London News. THE LATE LORD H. SEYMOUR'S WILL. - The will of Lord Henry Seymour, who spent the greater portion of his life in Paris, has again come before the Civil Tribunal of the Seine for further directions as to the administration of the estate. Lord Henry, it may be remembered, made a holograph will, dated June 22, 1858, leaving his enormous fortune, amounting to several millions of francs, to the hospitals of Paris and London, subject to the payment of several legacies, amongst others, an annuity to Mademoiselle Sophie Chenan, and to the cost of keeping his favourite horses. Lord Henry died in Paris on Aug. 16, 1859. He executed several codicils, and reduced Mademoiselle Chenan's annuity from 10,000f. to 2400f., with the condition that she was not marry. At a later period, by another codicil, he revoked all he had done in her favour. With regard to the horses, Lord Henry, whose greatest pleasures during life had been derived from them, took especial care that the dispositions of his will in their favour should be strictly carried out. M. Despret, a notary, charged with that duty by the Tribunal, proceeded to divide the money left by Lord Henry Seymour between the hospitals of Paris and London. He was, however, opposed on behalf of both the French and English hospitals, on the point as to whether the legacies left were to be divided in parts equal to the number of hospitals in each capital, or to be given in two equal shares to each town. It must be remembered that in Paris all the hospitals are under one central administration, whilst in London each hospital has a separate and distinct existence; and the alleged number in London of these institutions was about 200. As regards the provision made for the horses, it was argued that there was no reason existing to raise a sum of money to pay for these old favourites, as most of them were dead, and very soon not one would be alive. The tribunal held, in effect that the property should be divided into two equal shares, one half to go to the London, the other half to the Paris hospitals-these beneficiaries to burden equally the cost of maintaining the favourite horses, and of the pensions and legacies to the old servants of Lord Henry and of the Marchioness of Hertford.Galignani. IRELAND. THE IRISH BANKRUPTCY LAW.-Amongst the more thoughtful papers which were read and discussed in the sections of the Social Science Congress, there was none perhaps of greater importance than that of Mr. James Heron on the Law of Bankruptcy in Ireland. This subject may not have for the general community an interest equal to some others, such as those of education or of health; and yet the principles and rules which regulate the transactions between debtor and creditor must more or less concern everyone, and will certainly exercise no immaterial influence, for good or evil, upon the advancing prosperity of the country. For many of the readers of this journal, however, it is unneces sary to do more, in order to engage their attention, than to refer them to the valuable and suggestive paper in which the topic is fully treated. Into the discussion of the suggestions which the paper contains we do not purpose just now to enter. We content ourselves with briefly repeating some of the remarks to which its reading gave rise. One member, who agreed with it in most points, doubted the propriety of introducing arrangement deeds into Ireland as being likely to encourage fraud, but thought the suggestion to introduce the Scotch system of allowing creditors to realise and administer the debtor's estate themselves was simply the principle of common sense. Another member agreed that the right course with regard to fraudulent debtors was to punish them criminally. Others remarked on the necessity for local administration, for amending the machinery by which the law is wrought, for dealing with chattels and real property in the same way, and for assimilating the commercial code of England and Ireland. It was also stated that the Belfast Chamber of Commerce had petitioned for the extension to Ireland of the proposed English Bankruptcy Bill, but had always |