THE MATAMOROS PAPERS.

Evening Star, Volume VII, Issue 1983, 13 September 1869, Page 3

THE MATAMOROS PAPERS.

No. IX. A few clays ago a person escaped the punishment which the law awards to those unfortunates who sign other people’s names to cheques and so forth. Many people were much annoyed at this. Now I cannot see what the country could possibly have gained by having to find that gentleman for four or live years or so in board, lodging, and washing. Rogues may be divided into two well-defined classes—those in jail and those out of jail. Now I must confess that I infinitely prefer the latter class. There is something low about those who pass a considerable

part of their time in jail. They have a sort of slinking, slouching gait; they are dressed so unfashionably and, speaking generally, they are not desirable looking persons. On the other hand, the rogues who keep out of jail are charming fellows for the most part your real men of the world, genial, candid, and unprejudiced. It seems therefore that it should be a matter for regret when a rogue out of jail is forcibly put into the class of rogues in jail. Moreover, the public gains nothing bythe removal. Rogues live on the public whether they are in or out—indeed, I doubt very much whether a convicted thief does not cost us more than an unconvicted one, if the cost of prisons, guards, &c., be considered. The only benefit that we get from our present mode of punishing criminals is that we altogether deter a certain number of young persons from entering the ranks of roguery. Those who have once been in gaol are not to be caught by any such chaff. They know that, prejudice aside, they are far better off than they could possibly be, if they were at liberty. That this is the case may be seen from the alacrity with which old habitues of the gaol hasten to requalify themselves for another term after they have been discharged. If we had a punishment system of the right sort, this of course would not be the case. For instance, if a man were to receive for a crime, for which he now is condemned to free quarters for three years, fifty lashes with the cat, and had thereafter work provided for him by the Government at low wages, till he could get the means of earning an honest livelihood, can we doubt that for ten cases of relapse which now occur there would not be more than two or three 1 But lam persuaded that there is another method of dealing with rogues which would, I do not doubt, be attended with the very best results. The plan which I propose is not Utopian. It has already been tried in this city, though as yet only on the rogue out of gaol. The whole thing was carried on in the columns of your morning contemporary. It appears that for a long time persons in the habit of using Newcastle coal had thought that they were getting less than the proper quantity. Some of these suspicious persons went so far as to get their tons of coal weighed, and thus had their doubts resolved into certainties. Some one under the nom deplume “ Justitia,” wrote to the Daily Times on the subject. Now mark the result: — all the honest coal merchants in the town wrote to the Times too, giving hints and advice as to how the tricks of ■ dishonest traders might best be discovered. Nothing could exceed their hearty zeal in the matter. For this, of course, the best thanks of the citizens are due co them ; for ray part, i think some public recognition should be made of their services ; for such disinterested uprightness is only too rave in these degenerate times. Strangest thing of all, however, the dishonest coal merchants were so abashed by the conduct of their fellow-tradesmen, that they one all fled from the city immediately ; only those who wrote to the Times remaining. Thus it appears that all the rogues belonging to one profession were got rid of simply by appealing to their sense of shame. Of course, this plan could be indefinitely extended, each trade or profession purifying itself. St. Ouen.