CO885-(2-3) — Page 5

CONFIDENTIAL.

The Disposal of our Criminals.

PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE

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TC.O.

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2 PUBLIC RECORD CLONDC

THE public mind was never before in so favourable a condition for Favourable state of dealing with this great question; never in a condition which gave so good public mind. a chance of a hearing to the thorough and consistent thinker; never in a condition which offered so hopeful an opportunity for action to the courageous and logical statesman. The nation is full of the subject; and the difficulty which usually meets us on the threshold of such cases-that of fixing attention and exciting interest―is, therefore, already overcome. The people are in a panic, and consequently clamorous for prompt, decisive and extensive proceedings, and little inclined either to count the cust or to cavil at the means. They are angry, with the wrath of fear, and, therefore, disposed towards severity; and we all know that the prevalence of a morbid and fanatic tenderness has for years been one of the chief impediments to the adoption of a salutary system of criminal management and repression. They are in utter perplexity, and therefore prepared to hear with favour and to accept by acclamation any plan of action which is based upon a sound foundation, which carries completeness and coherency on its face, and which indicates, in the Ministers proposing it, an entire comprehension of all the conditions and all the requirements of the problem to be solved. Again: the people have come to the end of all their contrivances for evading or postponing the difficulty, and are dimly conscious that it must now be met: they have exhausted all expe- dients, and are, therefore, at length in the state of mind in which alone, as all experience shows, Englishmen will search for or listen to a principle. Lastly, in their disgust at having liberated criminals let loose upon them, they have accidentally, imperfectly, clumsily, and passionately got hold of the idea which, in the writer's view, contains at once the suggestion and the key-stone of a better system.

It appears to the writer that system may be sketched out so obviously just and impregnable in its informing and fundamental idea, as to receive almost universal concurrence; a system whose difficulties (which ̧ cannot be denied, and need not be extenuated) will be simply difficulties of administration, agencies, and details, such as practical aptitude, and the added experience of each succeeding year, will soon reduce to a very endurable and manageable minimum. If the PRINCIPLE be sound, the application will not baffle us; and both for executive and legislative action, there is no strength so unassailable or so irresistible as that derived from standing on a principle.

The outlines of this system, and the principle on which it is founded, Outlines of plan may be thus briefly stated.

suggested.

Criminals may be divided into two classes, which it is essential to Distinction between keep apart in dealing with this subject-the casual, and the regular enual offenders or professional offenders--those who lapse from innocence, and those who and the criminel live in guilt. The former will be found everywhere, and at all times; no population. laws, however judicious, no police, however skilful or pervading, no average national morality, however high, will wholly eliminate them from any community. The morally feeble, the undisciplined and the ill-trained, the sorely tempted, the vehemently passionate, will always exist, to present examples of outraged morals and violated law. But these are not the offenders who menace our peace and constitute

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