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100 THE XEAPEB, [No. 358, Saturday.
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PRISON DISCIPLINE. Mr. Charles Peaeson, ...
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STATE OF TRADE. Thk trade reports for th...
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Transcript
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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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Birmingham And Midland Nistituxe. A Soir...
Arandel , Torquay , Marylebone , Cripplegate , Lambeth , Derby , Bury , Totness , Evesbam , Knaresborough , Chesterfield , and Edinburgh . At Marylebone , a letter was read from Sir Benjamin Hall , who observes that the Chancellor of the Exchequer has already intimated the intention of Government not to take advantage of the literal wording of the act . Sir Benjamin adds that he has always hoped for a more equitable adjustment of the tax , and that it will'afford him the greatest pleasure to record his vote in favour of any scheme which shall ensure tbe accomplishment of that object .
A deputation from a society established in the City for promoting the interests of the trading community had an interview with the Chancellor of the Exchequer at Dowanng-street on Tuesday . From the opening address of their chairman , Mr . Stratton , it appeared that their object was to suggest the entire removal of the income-tax from incomes which do not exceed 150 r ., and the exemption of the first 150 ? . from higher incomes , so that the possessor of 5001 . a year would only be chargeable on 850 / . It was argued by several of the speakers that one of the objections to direct taxation is that persons who have great difficulty in procuring the necessaries of life are obliged to pay the tax in a lump ; and that various tradesmen ( grocers , for instance ) are already
exposed to considerable hardship in being compelled to pay duty iu large sums at a time on several articles which they sell , though they only receive it back in small retail purchases . Dr . Challice stated that he knew of several persons possessing an income of 150 / . a year who had been compelled to take their children from school on account of paying income-tax . The prices of necessaries , b . e said , were getting very high , and persona with only 150 / . a year had a hard time of it . Having made aa allusion to the deputation of the previous Friday , and intimated that he understood the Chancellor of the Exchequer to show a disposition to readjust the tax , Sir G . C . Lewi 3 interrupted him , observing ; , * ' I said nothing on that occasion about making
any readjustment . I said I -was quite ready to entertain any detailed propositions of that kind which might be made to me . " Dr . Challice also remarked that many bachelors evade the tax by living principally at clubs . The Chancellor , amidst some laughter , said he was afraid a bachelor-tax might operate as a constant incentive to imprudent marriages . Mr . Gannon , who had been a small tradesman in Clare-market , stated that very few of his fellow-tradesmen were able to put by anything for their old age . ( i He could conscientiously say that the indirect taxation paid by the middle and labouring classes on the every-day necessaries of life averaged from 35 to 40 per cent ., and on some articles it was as much as 100 per cent . He was certain , if it
were the rule , instead of the present mode of indirect taxation , to send collectors round and make monthly or quarterly demands for a specified sum of money for tea-tax , and so on , the people would never for a moment tolerate such imposts . In his own case , as a small tradesman of thirty-one years' standing—and the same might be said of thousands of others—if he took the average of assessments to the local taxes made upon him during that period at 16 / . a year , it had amounted to 496 ? . ; if indirect taxation paid upon the indispensable asces 3 aaries of life be added 20 ? . a year , that would make 620 / ., making a total of lllG ? . Could it be wondered at that with the competition of the day , and such sums abstracted from men like himself , that our workhouses
prisons , and lunatic asylums had so many inmates who were respectable , industrious tradespersons at one period ? This state of things was causing a serious amount of discontent , which he was convinced would sooner or later be exhibited in some striking manner . " The Chancellor of the Exchequer said : — " With regard to the question of the pressure of the poor-rates in parishes where there is a large poor population , that is a necessary consequence of the present parochial system . It is true that in St . George ' s , which is a rich parish , the poorrates are considerably lower than in St . Clement Danes , in wh 3 ch Mr . Gannon lives ; but many people think it la essential to the present system of poor-laws that the taxation should continue parochial . Proposals have
been made—particularly with regard to towns—to extend the area of taxation ; but all such , proposals have met -with great opposition . Each parish holds to its own separateness and to ita exclusive right to manage its own affairs ; and every other plan has encountered many difficulties . As to taxation on tea and sugar , as well as income taxation , the taxation of the country must either be direct or indirect . You must either go on income or you must go on articles of general consumption—such as tea , sugar , beer , spirits , and the like —or you must resort to both those means of taxation aa now arranged ; but at present it does not fall on the
principal articles of consumption . There is no tax on broad or biscuit ; on meat , dry or salt ; fiBh , dry or flalt ; native fruit , or vegetables . These are utaplo articles of food ; and if a man could confine Iub means of subsistence to them , ho need not pay any taxes . But If Mr . Gannon ' s views wore adopted , I fear the -unavoidable consequence would bo , not that tho Income-tax would bo lightened , but that it would bo neccasarily aggravated . " The caee of Mr . Walker , with which pur readors are already acquainted , having been montioned , Sir O . C . Lowis uaid ho would causa inquiry to be mado into it .
INAUGURA . TION OF A NEW SCHOOL OF ABT IH SHEFFIELD . The opening of a new school of art in Sheffield was celebrated on Monday evening by a public conversazione , at which Mr . Roebuck , M . P ., presided . After addressing the meeting in a speech , in which he insisted on the ennobling and comforting influences of art , he gave place to Mr . Cole , of the Government department of science and art , who , speaking of the various schools of design scattered through the country , observed : — " The Exeter school was founded some two or three years ago , and , though the population of that town -was only 40 , 000 ,
the average number of students coming up there for examination from the various parish schools and schools of other denominations was no less than 835 ; and in the Exeter school of art there were , besides , 190 students . Iu Cheltenham , with a population of only 35 , 000 , the number of art students from all the schools is 1350 ; in Chester they have 1200 students from the public schools ; and in Worcester nearly 500 . But in Manchester , which was an old school , and w here there was a population of 300 , 000 , he -was sorry to say they had only 230 students from the parish schools . In Sheffield the number was only 18 . "
MB . ERNEST JONES ' s POMTICAX . SOIREES . ~ M . r . Ernest Jones delivered another of his political lectures at St . Martin ' s Hall , Long Acre , on Tuesday evening . The subject -was " Foreig n Affairs , " and his rernaTks contained a fierce denunciation of England and Russia as the two great upholders of despotism . Alluding to the distress of the operatives , he thus wound up his discourse : ¦— " The hour [ for emancipation ] is near , but it has not come . When it arrives , you will not mistake it . It will be when the cup of youT misery
overflowsit is not full yet ; when from every trade comes up a cry of misery—not from one or two alone ; when confidence in Parliament and Crown is lost entirely—you still cringe to both ; when you no longer go creeping to workhouse doors , but swarm up to palaces instead ; when you begin to say 'To seek redress from those who live by injuring us , ia useless—let us redress ourselves ;' vrhen you are no more whining about Parliament and Throne , but cry : 'We , the people , are the Throne and Parliament . * Then I shall know the hour has arrived ; and then I'll throw myself , a soldier , in your midst . "
100 The Xeapeb, [No. 358, Saturday.
100 THE XEAPEB , [ No . 358 , Saturday .
Prison Discipline. Mr. Charles Peaeson, ...
PRISON DISCIPLINE . Mr . Charles Peaeson , the City Solicitor , has addressed a communication to the Lord Mayor on tbe subject of prison discipline ., in fulfilment of a promise recently given by him . We were prevented last -week , by an unusual press of matter , from introducing our readers to this interesting document ; but we now append some extracts which will show the attention -which Mr . Pearson has given to the subj ect , and cast some light upon one of the most perplexed and solemn questions of the age . It will be seen that the City Solicitor finds the solution of the enigma in some middle
ground between the savage ignorance of the past and the over-indulgence of tlie present . Hard , stern labour , directed with an eye to pecuniary profit , so that the community may derive some advantage from those who , up to the time of their imprisonment , have clung to society like a curse , is the method by which Mr . Peat-son would indemnify the honest for the evil they have suffered , and . open to the wretched creature of bad education and defective arrangements a path out of the sterile desert of his brutish abandonment
and callous disregard of right . Labour , the great source of the world ' s riches and of the earth's healthy progress , is to be , under Mr . Pearson ' s system , the regenerator of our criminal population . After dilating on the old system , which he calls "the cheap and cruel system , " he speaks of the present u expensive and effeminate system , " and remarks : — " Tho system is thus pithily described by its most able and zealous advocate , tho chaplain of Keading Gaol , who thus observes , ' The essentials of the separate system are seclusion as a punishment , labour as a relaxation , and scriptural instruction aa a corrective , ' as explained by the regulations and illustrated by the practice of tho gaol . Tho chaplain ' s short description may
bo thus translated into plain language ;—Under tho separate system criminals are to have a great deal o £ solitude , a groat deal of victuals , a groat deal of warmth , a great deal of Bleep , a great deal of mental instruction , a great deal of religious teaching , with a very little exercise , and labour sufficient only for tho purposes of recreative relaxation . By the combined influences of theao corporeal , mental , and religious agencies , it waa assumed by tho enthusiastic advocates of tho systom that the hearts of criminals would bo softened , their unruly wills subdued , their minds -would bo enlightened , thoir souls converted , and thoir lives reformed . It was , moreover , aaid b y its advocates , that by uniting secrecy with solitude , by placing criminals in cells ho constructed aa to exclude- both sight and sound , iby hooding and masking thorn vrhon led out to chapol or oxorcioo ,
and by changing their name for a letter by which they were to be known from their admission into prison up to the time of their discharge , by a little secrecy an a good management a prisoner might upon his release maintain his incognito . It was said the world would forgive or forget his crimes , and he might go abroad as an exile , of be restored to society as having completed his penal punishment , or be released in this country on a ticket of leave . " a
Further on , he observes : — " Solitude has its peculiar vices and evils as well as society ; man is for good as well as for evil a social bein . ? and this unnatural , unsocial treatment has often , very often , exercised a most baneful effect , as -well upon the body as the mind of those who are for *& ny length of time subjected to its action . The laws of nature cannot be outraged with impunity ; walls and bolts and bars cannot shut the devil out from , his own favourite worishop—the heart of an idle man . "
Mr . Pearson proceeds to expound liis own conceptions of what the future , or self-supporting , 6 r " labour-and-appetite system" should be , first commenting on the course taken by the Govern ^ ment with reference to the proceedings of a committee of the House of Commons oh the subject which sat a few years ago : — "As the ticket-of-leave substitute for the plan wMch the committee recommended to the consideration of her Majesty's Government must force itself upon the
attention of the House at the very commencement of the ensuing session , we shall learn what has been done by the Home Secretary between 1850 and 1857 towards the examination of the extensive details which the committee were unable to investigate for want of sufficient time for the purpose ; one thing only remains for me to say , —I have never been summoned before any committee or commission appointed to conduct such an inquiry . The other witnesses , who were prepared with plans , drawings , and estimates to confirm their former
statements , inform me that th » y have never been called upon to offer any further observations or to submit themselves to any other examination . As far , therefore , as I am informed , the Government ha . ve allowed the plan to remain entombed in a blue book which I have j ust ascertained weighs five pounds and three quarters avoirdupois . If the report and evidence be permitted to slumber in the pages of that monster blue-book , they might as well have been buried under the pyramids of Egypt . " Of the new reformatory system we read : — " The proposed plan for accomplishing these objects , as described to the committee , contemplated the establishment of large industrial ; prisons , secure and strong ,
plain and cheap , with separate sleeping cells for each inmate . The prison to be surrounded by strong and lofty walls , enclosing 100 O or 2000 acres of land . I propose that each of these prisons shall accommodate 1000 or 2000 inmates , classified , sub-classified , and distributed in different prisons , according to their economical condition , whether artisans , mechanics , or labourers ; according to their physical state , their age , and strength ; according to their moral and legal status ; whether felons or misdemeanants under longer or shorter sentences , and whether hardened offenders or novices in crime . By having one superintending power to deal with tlio large fund of labour of our prison population , means would readily be obtained
for a most perfect system of classification—legal , moral , social , and economical—for the purposo of meeting all the various objects I have described , so that tho mutual contamination of prisoners might be prevented , discipline might be enforced , and the separation of the prisoner—one of tho first objects of the system—migbt be promoted , at the same time that justice would be done to the ratepayer by turning the confiscated labour of tho criminal to the best and moat profitable account . When the proposed plans for the classification of prisoners is complete , I propose that they shall , as nearly an economical considerations and prison arrangements will admit , be employed in the pursuits at which they are moat apt , and to which they will bo returned at tho termination of tlieir sentences . "
State Of Trade. Thk Trade Reports For Th...
STATE OF TRADE . Thk trade reports for the week ending last Saturday show a further increase of activity , except at Manchester , whore business opened heavily , a decline in prices being arrested only by the firmness of the Liverpool cotton-market . At Birmingham , thoro is an advancing tendency in iron , owing to tho American and also the Continental demand . In tho general trades of tho plact ) there haa been no particular alteration , but in somo cases employment ia checked by tho uninterrupted
advance in the prices of raw material . Tho Chamber of Coniraereo have resolved to aid the movement for procuring a reform of tho bankruptcy laws . The Kiddorminatcr Bank , which stopped on the 18 th ult ., shows tlobts amounting to 45 , 872 / . against assets estimated at 34 , 700 / ., and n dividend of 12 s . 6 < 1 . is expected . At Nottingham there Uus boon general aotivHy , and , notwithstanding tho advanco in pricea , the stockaof hosiory arc lower than ever . In tho woollum districts there is full employment , and tho Iriah linon-miirkota aro without change . —IHmes .
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Citation
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Leader (1850-1860), Jan. 31, 1857, page 4, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse2.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_31011857/page/4/
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