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land , " seldom the names of their occupants . Tins is easily explained . The term of the offices is almost always very shorth and it is only in meagre mtervals , left by professional avocations in the . Edinburgh Courts , that the Scottish legal officials can appear in St . Stephen ' s at alL Some few names have escaped this general oblivion . Dundas became known by the strenuous fight'lie maintained against the rising school of Scottish Whigs , political disciples of Diigald Stewart , orators of " the Speculative , " founders of the Edinburgh Review , but . still more by the higher positions to which Pitt ' s friendship and his own administrative talents raised him , and
K . eiiv ' Mr . Moncrieff , and Mr . Murray Dunlop . They are to revise all foundations and trusts , to regulate the powers and the elections of officebearers , the courses of studies , and the amount of fees They are to recommend the foundation of new chairs , and the . employnient of assistants . They are to consider the amalgamation of the four universities into one , the existing universities to become its affiliated colleges . The recommendation , often reiterated and presented in the act in various forms , to employ assistants to several of the professors , is to us the most important unachieved change . The
recommendatiori is nearly tantamount to the introduction of the tutorial system . If it be undeniable that the systems of training at Oxford and Cambridge fail , on account of a too exclusive dependence on private chamber instruction , and carelessness about the more spirit-stirring system of professorial prelections , the converse is , we believe , far more applicable to the Scottish colleges . We write from no inconsiderable personal experience ; and it cannot be denied that almost every Scottish professor either raises the standard of his teachings so high that a large majority of his class , unassisted by tutorial guidance , gain little or no benefit ; or , on the
other hand , actuated by a questionable but meritorious desire to be of general service to his pupils , fixes it so low as to drill rudiments into those who ought to have known them before they sat under him , necessarily at the expense of those who learn nothing new , and only go to school once again . There are not a dozen fellowships in all the Scotch colleges ; nothing to bind students who have " gone through their course" to iacademic retreats and pursuits . Both defects could be remedied by the one change . A fellowship ought not to be a mere reward for successful study . It ought to be the instrument for further teaching . How much greater would have been the hold on the mind of the age of such
a teacher as Sir William Hamilton , if the filial piety of old alumni or wise munificence of the State , had provided the requisite assistance to maintain , as fellows and tutors , for some four or half-dozen years , such men as Mr . Veitch , or Mr . Spencer Baynes , or Dr . Cairns—their own minds impregnated with Sir William ' s method , apt to teach , and who would have taught hundreds who have left the old class-room and gone into the world , ignorant of his ripe philosophy , and mindful of nothing else than the awe and respect engendered by " , to them , mysterious elaborations of half-perceived principles .
bv the iudicial investigation into his alleged pecuby the judicial investigation into his alleged peculations . One of the highest literary reputations of the day preceded Jeffrey to London , and bespoke for him an attention not commanded by his office . Mr . Butherford was known to the few as a man of high scholarship and culture . Mr . Moncrieff , enjoying a tenure of power under successive Ministers longer than four times the ordinary term of a Lord Advocate ' s office , has asserted a / high position in the House , if he be not sb generally known , as some of his predecessors out of doors . The last Lord Advocate , Mr . Inglis , laboured under special disadvantages . Twice did he fail as a parliamentary candidate , and he never
possessed a seat at all under Lord Derby ' s 1 S 52 Administration . And after the formation of the present Ministry > only a few months elapsed when , by the death of Lord Justice Clerk Hope , a judicial office became vacant , too tein ^ ting to be refused , and the acceptance of which withdrew him , still almost a young man , from the parliamentary arena in which he had only plucked his first laurels , and from the forensic contests in which for years he Lad distanced every competitor . But by his " Act to make Provision for the better Government and Discipline of the Universities of Scotland" he did enough to make his tenure of office memorable , and to entitle him to the thanks of - his fellow-coun-¦
trymen . . •' He had a difficult task to deal with . Legislation in this direction had been for long contemplated . Indeed , his Act only partially-carries out the recommendations of a Royal Commission which visited the Scottish colleges some five-and-tvventy years ago . But there were several vested interests which bristled up at what they ^ chose to call projected spoliation . The Scotch Established Church , a church in whose tabernacles a small minority of the people worship , wished to retain a monopol y of academic , as they still do of parochial , education . Edinburgh shopkeepers , who elect in their Town
Council professors of Greek and Metaphysics , refused to acknowledge their unfitness for the task . The body of graduates advanced impracticable pretensions . Every theorist wanted increased facilities for the collegiate propagation of his own theory . Every religious dogmatist wanted his own dogma taught from professorial chairs , to . the exclusion of all other opinions . That in the face of these and a host of minor obstacles , Mr . Inglis succeeded in passing a bill which does so much m the way of reform , and provides elastic facilities for the doing of so much more , is
most creditable to his own tact and perseverance , and to the responsive sense of Parliament . The act has a larger and a smaller obiect . It provides for the union of the two small colleges at Aberdeen into one univcrsfty ; and it makes certain bhaneesvuniform in general intent , but varied by special necessities , in the constitution of the governing bodies of the four Scottish universities . A Principal need no longer be a Professor of Theology , or even , a clergyman . The source of the governing power iu each university is to be a court , formed on the widest and most liberal basis , comprising the chancellor , professors , and graduates of every faculty . In the special case of Edinburgh , where most of the vacancies are now filled up by the Town
Council , they retain a large share of power and influence . The powers of these courts arc full and unequivocal , exoroising a hig her function than the """^ enatus-oireach-collegoj-bu ^ the ratification of the Sovereign m Council . We omit comment on these wiso improvements , in order to occupy what possible space remains to us with some reference to the latter , and in our eyes more important , portion of the act— -that which makes provision for further nndi larger changes . A commission of men eminently fitted for the task , is ' appointed to weigh nnd maturo these future improvements , Among the commissioners arc the Duke of jftvcgyli . Lords Aberdeen nnd Mansfield , Sir W . Gibson Craig , Mr . India himself , Mr . Stirling of
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STATISTICS OF CRIME . —ENGLAND . The statistics of crime in England and Wales in 1857 are contained in a large volume lately published by the Government , headed " Judicial Statistics . " It inoludes , first , Police , Criminal Proceedings , Prisons ; and , secondly , Common Law , Equity , Civil and Canon Law . Every one of these subjects is in due time to bo annually described At present , however , only the first part , confined to England and Wales , is literally complete . Scotland and Ireland have their own statistics . Of the second part , only a preliminary report is published , stating wliat is to bo done , and supplying models of
is the ease of " criminal justice" very different . Mr . Hill , the Recorder of Birmingham , long ago bore his testimony to the records being neither " full nor accurate . " " From year to year , " says Mr . Redgrave , " the jurisdiction of justices has been enlarged , important classes of offences have been added , but no steps have been taken to secure any complete record of the exercise of this extensive jurisdiction Legislation has been busy in many directions for the reformation and punishment of criminals , but very inadequate means have existed of tracing with what result . " Now , for the first
time , we " have returns Of what the police establishments throughout England effect , and what they cost , but this information , because newly collected , is admitted to be still very deficient . " Hitherto the knowledge of crimes and of their amount has been evidenced only by the number of persons proceeded against in the criminal courts . " " Lesser offences and infractions of the law , punished summarily , " have not been recorded . In future they will be . Now , for the first time , the number of coroners ' inq uests , which embrace a vast amount of crime , are included in the statistics of crime for the year 1857 . to be after be atter
TUifc inp . nrrinletft as these are admitted But incomplete as these are admitted to numerous additions and corrections , prior to 1805 the Legislature took no pains whatever to learn the consequences of its own penal enactments , and it went on multiplying laws without possessing any correct knowledge of the effects ot what it was doing . Mr . Redgrave charges it now with making laws without even the •" . means of tracing" the results of its own enactments . Being officially in * formed of its wrong doing by the Home-office , which makes itseif the censor of the Legislature ,
it may , perhaps , become more sensible of its own shortcomings , and take at least as much care to learn the consequences of increasing the number of offences , as to learn the number of pounds of cotton yarn exported and of silk imported . Reflectingm . cn are shocked at the great trouble and expense it imposes on the nation to secure correct accounts of every sheep and pig imported , and every pound of paper manufactured , while it has neglected to provide its constituents or the public with the means of testing exactly the utility of its most important
enactments . After these remarks the public will scarcely place implicit confidence in the statistics of crime committed in'England and Wales in 1857 . The facts stated are all true , but they are not the whole truth . They do not exhaust the subject . It is stated , for example , that the number of police , constabulary , &c , in 1857 , was 19 , 187 , and the cosfc 1 , 265 . 579 / ., which will be considerably greater in
1858 ; but not a word is said about the number and expense of ushers and clerks of courts , judges , and all the other instruments for administering the criminal law . Nor is there any means of ascertaining it , because it is jumbled up with the expenses of the civil law , so that the public is necessarily kopt in ignorance , and must be , notwithstanding this official information on one point , of the total cost and total evils of repressing and punishing
, We are told also by Mr . Redgrave that the " actual amount of crime committed cannot , probably , at any time , be cxaotly ascertained . Only of a few crimes , such as murder , ' robbery , burglary , &c , where a hue nnd cry is raised , and iu many cases of theft , do the returns approach to accuraoy nnd completeness . " They arc Ukcly , however , to be more complete of , . 1857 than of 1850 , and of every succeeding year than of the year which preceded it . For 1857 , the effects of summary junsdiotion arc , for the first time , stated ; and as the police returns , from which they arc gathered , arc unavoidably incomplete , it seems certain tlmt tno enormous number of persons reported ns dealt with
summarily iu 1857 will bo surpassed in 1858 . An 1857 , in England nnd Wales , with a population ot 19 , 300 , 000 , 869 , 238 were proceeded against summarily . Of these 135 , 474 were discharged by justices , and 233 , 759 convicted . Besides those summarily dealt with , 82 , 031 were I' ^ f ^ ngainBUhy ~ indichnonL .-makin g a total of 40 i i * " * persons prosccutod criminally , though tlioy -aunot include all the criminals of the community « 1857 . This number is , however , equivalent to every 45 of the population . Now , when tno number of irresponsible persons , such as mwoWf imbeciles , and idiots , is considered , tho » ul ]" , J persons engaged in the administration ot t « ° ' •* ;;{ nnd tho various branches of the public service , n »« tho well-to-do middle classes , who rarely or never incur the penalties of the law , nnd whenwo coH 3 i « i »
the forms hereafter to be filled up . it must be well understood that these elaborate accounts , present and future , speaking of them as a whole , state only what is done under the law by the- judicial authorities , and leave the more important oucstions of what the law ought to bo , and how it should be administered , and what are the causes of crime , independent of laws to punish it , wholly untouched . By accounts of tho means taken' to inflict punishment , and how muoh is indicted , we never can get at tho reason for inflicting it , nor at any of , its consoquences , further than the more or less punishments continually recorded , whioh are an index to the crimes committed . As a review of tho wholo
subject of crimo , those stntisUcs > however enlarged -ftfficf acouratc , must always bo incomplete Hitherto ™ reoords of the punishments inflicted and of tho proceedings of the judicial authorities . No returns , says Mr . Redgrave , tho compiler of tho present volume , speaking of civil justice , give us " tho particular information necessary to a clear and concise elucidation of the jurisdiction nnd procedure of each court ; such returns have been from time to time prepared for Parliament , but they ; oxbibil ; , only isolated facts to moot epooinl inquiries . " They am necessarily misleading from being imperfect . Nor
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A ^ Q THE LEADER . [ No . 443 , September 18 , 1858 . WOO • . . : : - '—I ; —^ ,-. —_—1 - — . ... - —J ^~—__; ¦ ' ..... ; .. . ¦ . . , . - ¦ _
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Leader (1850-1860), Sept. 18, 1858, page 968, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse2.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2260/page/16/
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