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902
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THE INTERMEDIATE PRISON SYSTEM. jebb ver...
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Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
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Prussian Politics. ¦The Manner'in Which'...
and aspirations of the heir apparent were in unison with their own . Adroitly availing themselves of the oscillating tendency of the King ' s mind , they contrived , towards the close of 1 S 48 , to persuade him that the preservation of the monarchy depended on countervailing checks being provided against the abuse of all the popular concessions he had made in the spring of that year . His Majesty would have honestlv revolted at the blunt suggestion of a direct coup " d ' etat ; but through his love of mysticism and casuistry he was gradually inveigled into undoing nearly all the good he had previously done . The elective franchise was circumscribed and fettered bv successive conditions . The constitution of the Chambers was rendered more oligarchic , and their legislative action was clogged by jealous reservations of all descriptions . The laws of property which Stein and Hardenberg had relaxed , were again perverted to the ¦ ¦ maintenanceof feudal privileges and exclusions . The press was once more placed under the yoke of Government censorship ; and , one by one , every man suspected of sympathy with liberal ideas ¦ w as supplanted in the royal confidence , and eventually driven from power . Surrounded by the friends of Russia and reaction , the puzzle-pated sovereign became politically alienated from his brother , and from the counsellors of his youth and prime . Prince Wiliiain Jlenry never occupied and never sought the questionable position of head of a party in reversion ^ such as George IV . aspired , to in his father ' s reign , or Louis Philippe -during the reign of Charles X . His nature is averse to intrigue ; and his views have never been either speculative or ambitious . His temper and training contribute alike to predispose him to the adoption of moderate and practical measures . He seems equally to despise display and . popularity . When public order ' ^ Ll . u . ^ . _ A * a . — J m ¦«« ¦ O VI O ¦ 1 ^ wwt ** * - * «^ % *^*«^ b v ^ # - T ^ N TTS \ I T ^ lr \ F ^^^\^« uiuiih
vest the supreme executive power in the hands of the Prince of Prussia , either royally or vice-royally , f 01 As Joon as that event shall occur , it is confidently - believed that a great and salutary change may be looked for in the foreign and domestic politics ot the 'kingdom . The- partisans of absolutism , who have exercised for a considerable period too powerful an influence over the Court and . Cabinet ot Berlin , are well aware that their ascendancy , draws near its close . Devoted to Russia in . foreign policy , and to reactionary views in domestic matters , the party of the Crenz Zeitung , as they are commonly ± . J ! , __ -. 1 ^ -r . r . » , v >/ -lo > . cfnr \ r 1 lnvnr lit . t . i fi tllfi ODllilOnS
^ *^ WOS . turccttcllcLl ill J oxa , uc was pivjurpu uu » -cj his sword for the defence of the throne and the stern repression of anarchy . But "when tranquillity had been re-established by his personal courage and discretion , he affected no increased importance , and lent no encouragement to the retrograde schemes which began to be formed by the aristocratic and military classes . He disdained to flatter the people in the hour of their triumph ; but he would have had faith kept with them in the day of trouble . It is no seoret that in this sense he more than once offered his counsel to the crazy and bewildered king . But his advice was overruled or rejected ; and the Prince quietly withdrew from Court , which he only visited at intervals as matter of duty for a considerable time . The ominous indisposition of his brother in the summer of 1857 summoned him from his retirement . During the last twelve months he has exercised the administrative functions of Jjieutenant-General of the Kingdom ; and the country being materially prosperous and externally at peace , the wheels or tn , e , state . mechanism have continued to revolve safely and noiselessly on their old axes . The oondition of interregnum , however , cannot be indefinitely prolonged . Either an abdication or a regency is inevitable , if the physical life of Frederick William is prolonged . The hoir apparent will then choose his own ministers , call the two Houses of Parliament together , say out plainly what he believes to be for the good of Prussia , and , in a word , begin to reign . It is very possible that too much will be expeotcd from him . The apprehensions of the reactionists are but ill concealed , and the hopes of the longdeptC 3 acdJib . ai ; ul 3 » aixuwlixudyuittytt ; . dJ ^ clY . _ j : hQ . alliance of the Prince ' s eldest son with the Princess Royal of England inevitably suggested a contrast with the ties that have hitherto linked the family of Prussia with that of the Czar j and those who have witnessed the evil consequences of the one aro inluitively led to infer opposite results from the ) ther . The cordial greetings given to our Queen iurjng her recent visit to her daughter indicate in joine degree the depth of tins feeling . England is the ally above all others whom the people of
Prussia would desire , the experienced counsellor in all that touches European freedom whom they would like to trust . But beyond these general <* ood offices and acts of international fraternisation there is little or nothing which we can do to further the disenthralment of Northern Germany from its present absolutist yoke . If ever' the Court or . Cabinet of London becomes suspected of meddling in the domestic policy of Prussia , the golden hopes we have been glancing at will be overshadowed , and the joy of the young Princess , whom we lately sent forth with so much sympathy and pride , will be withered ere it has had time to bloom .
902
902
THE LEADER .
[ No . 441 , September 4 , 1858 . % ^ ———^— hi >
The Intermediate Prison System. Jebb Ver...
THE INTERMEDIATE PRISON SYSTEM . jebb versus crofton . There is a new feud between England and Ireland —a grand protest against anything like a union between the two countries ; but this time the O'Connellite is an Englishman , a man in office , a Conservative , a representative of the status quo ; while , strange enough , the whole right lies with Ireland , and the leader who stands forth as the representative of that country is an English county magistrate , also holding ' office in Dublin Castle . The two combatants in this most extraordinary warfare are Colonel Jebb , who stands at the head of the Commission as director of the convict prisons in England , and Captain Walter Crofton , who holds a precisely similar position in Ireland . About a month since Colonel Jebb ' s report on the English prisons was published , and in _ this volume , which it is the duty of the director of the convict prisons to present to the Home-office , there are some rather comprehensive observations on the Irish system of prison discipline , which Colonel Jebb sets himself to criticise with all the freedom , independence , and dash of a newspaper editor . If the annual report on conv let prisons had . been the Morning Post or the Morniny Herald , and the Colonel had been writing a leading article , he could not have discharged his duty in a more appropriate style . In fact , he-seems to consider himself as the editor of the prisons , and in dashing at the Irish system he is only firing a broadside at " our contemporary . " The conclusions at which his somewhat elaborate criticism ultimately arrives are stated by himself thus : — First . The character of the convicts in this country , and the circumstances , differ so much from those in Irelanrl fhnf oi-. tr nlan few (• nn < rrfin'atinfl l them together | + » j 1
A ?*•¦ ^ A 1 | U fc * W ** MT ^ »* » a «* ^* » ^* ^^ «— y ^ — r ^ ^^ I—^^ — —^ J ^ l ~ under less . control than is at present exercised would not he calculated to render them more fit for discharge , or give the officers to whoso care they might be consigned better , or even the same , opportunities of judging of their character , as those which exist at present . Secondly . That even if such objects could bo promoted by removing selected convicts into separate smull intermediate establishments , with diminished control and more voluntary action , the exhibition of convict discipline in such a form would impair the exemplary character and deterrent effects of a sentence to penal servitude , which , on all accounts , it is most essential to preserve as the most formidable of our secondary punishments . Thirdly . That however desirable it may be in a penal colony , and however successful in Ireland , it would be impossible in this country to carry out any general superintendence over discharged prisoners by the police without interfering witli the means of their obtaining employment , and thus a greater evil would bo created than any good which could possibly follow . Fourthly . That the experience gained in Ireland of th . o advantages pf assisting prisoners on discharge , fully confirms the views that have been frequently pressed upon the attention of the importance of such a measure , in order to secure thq results of a good system of discipline . Fifthly . That if such moans could bo systematically organised aa proposed , pugo 165 , it would bo very dosiruble to afford convicts some special information or instruction in connexion with their futuro prospects during the last few months of their confinement , not in separate intermediate establishments disconnected from the prisons , but in the stage of discipline which precedes discharge . Now it is diffioult to ooncoive any representation . pf . flp . PQmpap ^ . a , Jflngjih ^ yhiph ^ qQultl oQnfcajn ,, a , larger ^ ,, „ amount of misconception , misstatoincnt , and suggestiofalsi . No one can suppose that Colonol Jebb is intentionally misrepresenting , or that lie wishos ^ to state what is not the fact in a " safe" manner , but his position on this particular quostion has * boou such as to blind his eyes to the truth , while ho has the strongest moral interest in not seoing it , Sinoo the people of this oountry , however , have an intorost in knowing the facts , Captain Crofton has performed a publio servioo in publishing a reply to Colouol >
to be absolutely incorrigible , or who perpetually relapse , and who must go through their whole sentence in unmitigated and unqualified imprisonment . Besides the intermediate prisons , the prison directors of Ireland have lattrely established the use of ingeniously constructed huts , each capable of holding about one hundred men , and easily taken down and put up again where out-door labour may render such kind ot shelter requisite . This enables no small number of convicts to be employed in out-door work . While they aro thus engaged they are still subjected to hard prison fare ; and they have the opportunity of performing work harder than that which is exacted from them in the prison . Their privileges consist in the opportunity ot earning a small gratuity , which they may lay out at once or lay by , in associating together , and in enjoying some degree of freedom —under the strictest watch and guard . To a great extent the labour thus employed renders the prison self-supporting ; but the oluef effect is that the prisoners * are gradually trained in some cases for a return to a life of industry and freedom out of doors , in others not for returning to that life , but for making their first acquaintance with it , since they have never known it . Colonel Jebb ' s third conclusion assumes that although a plan of police superintendence over discharged prisoners may succeed in Ireland it is iiupraclicublc in England ; but hero again the Colonel clashes his head against the rock ofevidenoe which stands to confrout him , not only in Ireland but in England . Such a superintendence u maintained in this oountry . a , ? Capj , ai tyQyoftpfl s )\ ows by q \ ioting the bllie-book of the Seleot Committoo on Transportation about t / hUfee sessions back—that committee which Colonol Jebb tried to convince that transportation must bo continued because it would be impossible to oontrol the conviotsat homo or to provide for them on discharge But in Ireland the prisoners aro disolmrgod ; I hero are at present bo I , ween fifty and sixty convicts in I ho , j oity of Dublin ulono in employment . Now ns the system is , some of these men havo been in regular
iaua , anu . ; -co umu , way be true if the Colonel simply means that ouc may hear more of the *' brogue in Ireland , that the convicts may exhibit a larger proportion of violence and a minor proportion of theft , that they may be Roman Catholic rather than Protestant , and so forth . But essentially the classes are the same . — ignorant men , ill-bestowed in life , growing up with passions and bodily powers which they Know not how to control , —hungry ,-lawless , uncared for , and falling into bad courses through example and circumstance . One of the distinctions which Colonel Jebb pretends to see is , that in Ireland the general feeling is more with the convict than in England a conjectural inference drawn from the treat incut of lawless characters by the peasantry in the sister island * while Colonel Jebb applies it by assuming that the employing classes are more ready to receive discharged convicts as workmen and servants . There is ¦' not a shadow of evidence to support this assumption . The second of his conclusions assumes that the convicts for the intermediate establishments must be selected , and that the general discipline must . be modified . These , again , are assumptions the reverse of the fact . In Ireland , as Captain Crofton shows us by these Notes , the convict goes through the larger proportion of Jus sentence in the ordinary prison ; should his cdnduet there be orderly , he becomes eligible to be transferred to one of the intermediate prisons , those in which the convicts are cmplyed on rude labour , or in some kind of artisan work , according to their previous training and bodily capacity . But there is no other " selection" in this process . About seventy-five convicts , or indeed a larger number , prove to be , sooner or later , available for this transfer ; the selection , if such there is , is found in that residuum of convicts who prove ^*
niau nitLiiuuinaiiiui nnuii ^—^——^^^^ Jebb in the form of Notes on Colonel Jebb ' s Report on Intermediate Prisons , printed by Messrs . Tliom -and Son , of Dublin . We take Captain Crofton ' s Notes as a memorandum , but we may remark , that having kept the subject constantly in view long before the present contest between England and Ireland was created—before , indeed , the present system of convict discipline was establishccl- ^ can confirm Captain Crofton ' s statements to a great extent from our own knowledge , and can sustain his opinion with our . , and without qualification . It will be observed that , in the first conclusion , Colonel Jebb assumes that the character of convicts differs from the character of the same class in Ire-1 1 _ .. _ 1 J . 1 .. J _ ll . _ ' ... A 4 . t «<« aJ'a v * j- » * vn > J i J I rf- » <¦* . a Tl * ll 1 /¦ It i v % -
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Citation
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Leader (1850-1860), Sept. 4, 1858, page 14, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse2.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_04091858/page/14/
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