The Evening Star SATURDAY, OCTOBER 18, 1873.

Evening Star, Issue 3327, 18 October 1873, Page 2

The Evening Star SATURDAY, OCTOBER 18, 1873.

We last evening published a report of a most interesting charge by Judge J oknSTON, bearing on the classification of prisoners in gaols, which we commend to theearnestconsideration of all classes. It introduces to public attention, in a most attractive form, a slight sketch of proceedings that, but for thus being brought under special notice, might have been overlooked and forgotten. His Honor has truly described the International Penitentiary Congress as inaugurating a new era in civilisation. Meeting in an unpretentious way, without the prestige of public recognition, almost unnoticed by the Press, were delegates from twenty-two nations. It was not for any sinister purpose that they met : not to plot to dethrone a monarch, nor to organise opposition to existing forms of government. Had that been the case, the world before this might have rung with the news of the result, and the Press have teemed with accounts o' slaughter, devastation, and ruin. The conference had a different object ii view ; though one of a more revolutionary character than anything that has been yet attempted. The revolution contemplated is one of mercy; a change in universal mode of thought

and feeling: a change which, now that it has been begun, must progress ; for it is based on recognition of the moral and spiritual value of man. The Congress is a remarkable characteristic of the age. Those who are accustomed to look backward for their models of mental and moral excellence, and have formed their standards of thought upon the assumed wisdom of our forefathers, will do well to inquire whether such a meeting would have been possible in times when all kinds of crime could be commuted on payment of a tine ; in default of which the criminal was subjected to cruel punishment, degradation, to slavery, torture, or death. In those days, from which we have been slowlv emerging since the time of J OHN Howard, even the most humane men had very imperfect notions of human duty, and had not realised the idea of a prison being made a reformatory. We are told that in 1777, when he published his 4to volume on the “ State of Prisons of .England and Wales, and an account of some Foreign Prisons, “ the world was astonished at the mass of valuable materials accumulated by a private, unaided individual, through a course of prodigious labor, and at the constant hazard ol life, in consequence of the infectious diseases prevalent in the scenes of his inquiries. ” The novelists of that peiiod supply us with graphic pictures of the moral characteristics of those earthly hells, and the late Commissioner of Police of Victoria, Mr Price, some years ago furnished descriptions of the convict stations at Port Arthur, Byd' ney, and Norfolk Island, that equal in horror many ©f the ideals of Dante’s u Inferno.” Much as lias been done since then, society has not realised the full extent of the duty of making prisons reformatories rather than places of punishment. It is assumed that when a sin against society has been expiated by suffering the prescribed penalty, society has fulfilled its duty, and the criminal, without change of mode of thought, and without any better preparation than before to resist temj> tation, or to obtain an henest livelihood, may be turned loose upon society, and his reformation left to chance. It is refreshing to think that occasional efforts have been made during the past few years towards a better system; but they have been fitful and unsystematic, like all early attempts at improvement. Not only so, they have not met with general sympathy ; some have looked upon them as well-meaning but useless schemes, the kindly hobbies of good, enthusiastic persons, who have lain themselves open to be imposed upon. Some have suffered through too readily believing in supposed reformations, and have become disheartened. Some have arrived at the conclusion that it is unjust to the honest and those who have not fallen, to give such kindly cave to the vicious and unprincipled, and to overlook the claims that they have upon the sympathies of thenmore influential fellow-countrymen. Necessarily these motives retard individual effort, or even that of small associations, guided in their operations by no well-defined and well-founded plan. It is felt that benevolence is not sufficient to secure success. Not only is this heaven-born motive required, but there must be knowledge, skill, and well-trained agents. These cannot be secured from the ranks of those who have only seen human nature in its healthiest aspects. Human health has been advanced through attention being directed to investigation of the causes of disease : no physician would be able to prescribe for the cure of sickness, who had never seen any but robust and vigorous men and women. The conditions of health and modes of cure have been discovered through the contemphir tion of disease ; and in like manner we anticipate the highest social results from careful study of the curative effects of prison discipline. We have long looked upon our present modes of education as imperfect, and not adapted to develop human faculties and capabilities to the utmost. Apart from the penal character of the suggestions of the Congress, there is much that should interest society, because of its bearing upon mental and moral habits. That training which will enable a human being to resist temptation after punishment for crime, would have prevented its having power over him before he committed it. The Congress proposes to make him a new being, able to perform his part well on discharge from prison. Surely if this is possible, it is worth careful investigation by everyone; for a remedy always points to the existence of specific disease. What has led to moral disease must be avoided : what will induce healthy habits of mind is equally necessary to the reclaimed criminal and the man who is free from crime. The subject should not be lost sight of. 1