have been keeping up establishments thought by some persons too great, but which were, in fact, not very considerable; we have thus been enabled to secure a surplus revenue, to reduce taxes, and abolish customs duties which pressed upon the energies and checked the industry of the people; we have enabled our population to grow rich, and we have seen in the last war what that wealth was able to effect; for when our enemy was exhausted, and our ally was so far weakened in its finances that its war spirit flagged, the Government of this country found that, owing to our wealth, we had more than sufficient to pay for the large expenditure of the war; and the spirit of our people, if terms of peace had not been accepted, was such, that for five, six, or ten years longer, if necessary, we might have made the exertions necessary for war. Now these are the things which produce good terminations of wars, and not large and expensive establishments, with generals and admirals growing so old that they are unfit for their duties when war comes. It is by relying on the greatness of the country and on the spirit of our people that you will be most formidable in war, and not by any new-fangled system of increased estimates during a time of peace." (Cheers.)

Mr. M. Gibson dissented from that part of the Address which approved of the Persian war, and reiterated Mr. Gladstone's question, which had not, he said, been answered, "Who was to pay for this war?" He condemned the course adopted towards the King of Naples, and suggested that it would be wiser for this country to desist from dictating to foreign nations what government they should have.

He had great difficulty, he said, in the absence of information, in agreeing to that part of the Address which related to China. He commented upon certain portions of the Royal Speech, and upon its omissions, contending that, after the war, broader views relating to our domestic policy should have been announced in the Speech.

Mr. Hadfield made some observations, to which Mr. Vernon Smith replied, respecting the cultivation of cotton in India.

Sir John Pakington expressed his desire that that part of the Address which expressed approbation of the measures taken in China might be omitted; to which Lord Palmerston having given his assent, the motion for the Address was agreed to nem.

con.

Shortly after the commencement of the Session, the House of Commons was called upon to exert a jurisdiction which, happily, it has not often been required to resort to, but which in the present instance was necessary to vindicate its own character, and to satisfy the public feeling. This was the expulsion from the House, of Mr. James Sadleir, the Member for Tipperary, who had been lately implicated in gross frauds and illegal practices in the management of the Tipperary Joint-Stock Bank, and who, to avoid the proceedings instituted against him, had fled from justice. On the 19th of February the Attorney-General for Ireland moved the following Resolution :

moment a Commission for the Consolidation of the Statute Law: nobody unacquainted with the subject could comprehend half the difficulties which beset it; but the Commission had succeeded in consolidating the whole criminal law, and Bills similar to those which he laid on the table on the last day of the previous session would be introduced for the purpose of effecting that consolidation. He should also ask their Lordships to refer the second report of that Commission to a Select Committee, in order to consider the proposition in that report for the adoption of means to improve the manner and language of current legislation. The member who introduces a Bill is generally so glad to have it passed, that he consents without difficulty to any alteration that is proposed in it; and the result is, that, when the measure becomes law, its various provisions are found not to dovetail together. Moreover, the language of the statutes is frequently discrepant, leading to uncertainty as to the meaning. What the Government, therefore, propose is, that there should be an officer appointed, who should be a very able lawyer, and whose duties would be to report, when called upon, on every Bill introduced for the alteration of the law; to explain exactly what its effect is, what is its bearing on the existing law, and generally to put the whole statute in order: further, after a Bill has gone through Committee, the House should refer it, when thought fit, to this officer to examine, and state the alterations it has undergone in passing that ordeal, and also to point out how far those alterations affect its general tenor. Of course, this officer would have it in his power

to offer suggestions for improving the language of an Act; and it is to be hoped that the result will be to render our statutes more clear, less verbose, and more in harmony with the common feelings and understandings of mankind. Another part of the same officer's duties will be to classify the various Acts passed within the year. His functions would, of course, be at first extremely tentative; but, no doubt, as they become gradually more defined, they would prove highly useful. useful. Before concluding, it was right, also, to mention, that the Home Secretary intended to introduce a measure into the other House on the subject of Secondary Punishments.

Sir George Grey, in fulfilment of the intention last stated, brought the subject of Secondary Punishments before the House of Commons on the 9th of February. Public attention had recently been much excited on this subject, chiefly in consequence of a number of crimes and outrages perpetrated in various parts of the country, in which convicts liberated under the new system of ticketsof-leave had been prominently concerned. From this cause an opinion had gained ground that the system was likely to prove dangerous to the peace of society, and a sort of panic in regard to the ticket-ofleave men had sprung up, especially in certain parts of the metropolis, where burglaries and robberies, attended with personal violence, had latterly become rife. To vindicate the law from the exagge rated complaints made against it, and at the same time to remove some of the defects with which it was justly chargeable, the Secretary of State for the Home Department now appealed to the House of Com

mons, prefacing his motion with an able and temperate speech. He commenced by stating the reasons for the change of system introduced by the Act passed in 1853, substituting in certain cases other punishments in lieu of transportationnamely, the cessation of a demand in the colonies for convict labour, and the general and strong feeling of the colonists against the reception of criminals-the main provisions of the Act, and the system, including tickets-of-leave, under which those provisions were carried out. He then proceeded to show what had been the effects of the Act of 1853, so far as appeared from the number of sentences of transportation and penal servitude passed at different periods, the number of licenses granted on the ground of good conduct, and those revoked for misconduct or forfeited by re-conviction. In giving these details Sir George explained the rules and principles which guided the Secretary of State in granting letters of license, and declared his belief that the alarm excited by the liberation of convicts under tickets of-leave, although to a certain extent well founded, had been greatly exaggerated. Looking at the general state of crime in the last two years, he found that, while there was a small fractional increase in the summary convictions, the committals for trial had decreased from 25,922 in 1855 to 19,433 in 1856, or about 25 per cent., notwithstanding the disbanding of the militia. This state of things did not, he thought, justify the great alarm prevalent in the country. Sir George then adverted to the reports of the Committees of both Houses which sat last Session, who concurred in recommending a continuance of transportation, as far VOL. XCIX.

as practicable. To carry this proposal into effect without a breach of the engagements entered into with the colonies, which the Government had not the remotest intention to violate, was, however, the great difficulty. Western Australia was at present the only colony which would receive convicts. Its capabilities were said to be great, and the colonists had been represented to be desirous of convict labourers. After full consideration, the Government had determined to propose to give effect to the recommendation of the Committee of the House of Commons, that the sentence of penal servitude should be lengthened so as to make it of the same duration as that of transportation under the old law, and they proposed to remove all obstacles to the removal of convicts sentenced to penal servitude to any possession of the Crown, so that such a sentence should carry with it, though not necessarily, removal from the country; the Government being thereby enabled to send convicts to Western Australia, or to avail themselves of any additional facilities for their transportation to other penal settlements. With regard to those convicts under sentence of penal servitude who would be kept at home, he indicated his views as to the rules which should govern remissions of the sentence, and proposed, he said, to maintain the power, which he thought useful to retain, of granting the conditional licenses called tickets-ofleave. A few minor points were touched upon by the right hon. Baronet, one of which related to the hulk system, which was, he said, in process of abandonment.

Sir J. Pakington thought the alarm regarding the ticket-of-leave system was misdirected rather than [C7

exaggerated. With respect to the proposals of Sir George Grey, he thought it would be better to wait until the Bill was before the House. The question involved two points: first, what was to be the state of the law as to secondary punish ments; secondly, the manner in which the law was to be administered and carried out. There was an impression, he said, that there had been an indiscreet exercise of the prerogative of mercy by the advisers of the Crown, which he believed was exaggerated, but not without foundation; and that the punishment under sentences of penal servitude was not made sufficiently severe, He thought the inference which the public would draw from the comparison between the crime of 1855 and 1856 was, that there had been a decrease to the extent stated by Sir G. Grey in the graver crimes, whereas by a change in the law during the interval a large class of offences, formerly left for trial, were dealt with summarily.

Mr. Collier contended that, with respect to our worst criminals, it would be far better to imprison them for life at home than to incur the expense of imprisoning them abroad. The next class might be dealt with, as proposed by the Government, either by trans portation, or penal servitude at home.

Sir J. Ramsden doubted whether the advantages attending transportation, as a secondary punishment and as a reformatory process, were not overrated, though it was difficult to exaggerate its importance to the mother country. The proposals of the Government, he thought, deserved the approbation of the House, but he hoped their attention would be directed to a

change in the condition and treatment of prisoners.

Mr. Adderley cordially concurred with everything that had fallen from Sir G. Grey, suggesting, however, whether it would not be better to abolish altogether the ticket-ofleave provision, the few advantages attending which were overbalanced by its evils. He dwelt upon the obstacles in the way of transporting our convicts, which he attributed to that Minister who attempted to force them upon an unwilling colony.

Mr. Labouchere observed that, although it might be doubted whether transportation had in all cases a deterring effect, there was no question that, as a means of disposing of a part of our criminal population, for home purposes, it was a most valuable secondary punishment. He would not say that besides Western Australia other places might not be fitted to receive convicts; but he pointed out objections to Vancouver's Island, the Gulf of Carpentaria, and the Falkland Islands. Western Australia possessed many advantages as a colony where the labour of convicts could be employed; at the same time, he should not be justified, he said, in holding out an expectation that it would be available, except to a limited extent and for a certain time, the measure requiring the utmost caution and the most judicious management.

Mr. Bentinck was not convinced that the measures proposed by the Government were calculated to effect the object in view, which, in his opinion, would be more readily attained by establishing penal settlements nearer home, and by utilizing convict labour in this country. He condemned the morbid sentiment in favour of convicts.