strongly expressed throughout all Europe. The difficulty of "fixing the liberty of the press by positive ordinances," leads our author to propose as a question Among the evils of the latter, the following is, perhaps, the most strikingly expressed, but is very far from being conclusive : establishment of peace and liberty; or that this distinguished statesman has been invariably the liberal and unanswerable advocate of England, whenever she has been, in ignorance or in envy, charged with aiming only at commercial monopoly, or with attempt- "Does the system, which prevents the ing to establish her own prosperity upon abuse of the press by police legislation, or the ruin of other states. But, with a that which punishes its abuse, when comfull sense of his claims upon our res-mitted, by penal laws, deserve to be prepect and gratitude, we must express ferred ?" our regret that he has written the pamphlet before us, and our entire dissent from his opinions upon the subject of the Liberty of the Press. It seems that great importance is, by the nations of the Continent, very naturally attached to the freedom of the Press, which has induced M. Gentz to attempt to prove, that it is a good which is mixed with so much evil, that even in England it would be better that a censorship should be established. His statements are, however, clear and candid; his mind appears to be entirely free from any bias towards arbitrary power; and, in deference to his high and well-earned reputation, we do not therefore hesitate to extract passages wholly at variance with our own opinions. The author's object and sentiments will distinctly appear in the following passage : "If, in any remarkable case, general attention be excited, by public accusations, provisional arrests, and all the solemn apparatus of a judicial trial, having perhaps at last a tragical issue, then all is agitation, and the far-famed guarantee lumniated as a feeble bulwark, a treaof literary freedom is on every side cacherous snare, and an instrument of the hasest tyranny. The momentary terror, however, soon passes away. Every author, even the individual most conscious of having overstepped all bounds, and who may have dared all the vengeance of the laws, hopes, as far as regards himself, to be able to weather the storm; and, as the thunderbolt falls on but few heads, and seldom on the most criminal, the hope is not wholly unfounded. Even in the most extreme case, the progress of the trial "In all European States, England alone excepted, the press has, until very The defendant may rely on the ability of presents many chances of deliverance. recently, been constantly regulated by his counsel, on his own talents and elomeasures of Police. The privileges pos-quence, or on the preponderance of the sessed by the English writers were not, in former times, regarded as subjects of censure or reproach for other governments. It was readily perceived that they were intimately interwoven with all the remaining peculiarities of the British Constitution, and that, were they detached from it, or removed to another soil, where they would be in contradiction with the form of government, the legislation, the administration of justice, and the national manners, they could not be expected to thrive. But as the human mind, along with the actual possession of a higher cultivation, and the chimerical notion of more extended faculties, has become accustomed to see, in ancient regulations, nothing but ancient fetters, the wish to emancipate the press from the dominion of the police, has been actively and This assertion is slightly qualified as a note. popular feeling in his favour. Many see, in a trial of this kind, only the means of acquiring celebrity, and regard even the threatened punishment (especially before its effects are felt) as a new claim to the approbation and sympathy of all who entertain similar sentiments, or as an honourable martyrdom." The difficulty of defining libel is next in trials for that offence, the Judge strongly urged; and it is argued, that must necessarily extend his judicial functions, and become, in point of fact, a Censor, and therefore that this duty might be better confided to some authority in the state. "The duty of pronouncing judgment on a publication, with respect to its effects on the public interests, the mischief it may, under certain circumstances, create, and the danger to which it may expose the general tranquillity; or of deciding on any of the relations which may subsist between the author and the public authority, is either not at all, or very remotely connected with the other functions of a Judge. This duty is entirely of a political nature; it implies a knowledge of state affairs, of political relations, both foreign and domestic, of public life in general, and of the whole constitution of society, which can only be possessed by one who has a decided inclination, or has paid particular attention to studies of this kind. To desire an ordinary Tribunal of Justice to pronounce judgment on the political tendency of a publication, is not more hazardous than to call for its decision on the value of à picture or a musical composition." M. Gentz is here singularly unfortunate in his illustrations; for the value of pictures and of musical compositions is determined frequently in our Courts by the verdicts of juries, which give entire satisfaction.-Of Mr. Fox's Bill, declaring the jury, in cases of libel, competent to give a general verdict of guilty, or not guilty, upon the whole matter in issue, M. Gentz speaks as of an evil smaller than some others which presented themselves : "The decision of Parliament, in the year 1792, is still viewed as the common triumph of the rights of Juries and the Liberty of the Press, and is consequently regarded, by the friends of both, as a most fortunate event. Whether it is proved to be such, by its results, is a question to which, on account of the diversity of views and feelings, very different and opposite answers may be expected. We shall not conceal our own opinion on the subject, however little it may correspond with the favourite notions of the day. We must, however, in the first place, remark that this Parliamentary decision might appear justifiable, even to those who entertain a more unfavourable opinion of its practical effects than we do: for there is still another question behind; namely, whether the opposite decision would not have been attended with worse consequences. What might not have happened had the Parliament allowed the old wavering and equivocal practice to continue, or had, by a solemn decision, sanctioned the maxim that Juries, in actions for libel, were only competent to pronounce on the fact of the publication? The Judicial Power, which, in these stormy times, has too often had to share the fate of the other authorities, would have become, in the highest degree, odious and suspected. The inevitable consequences of every public prosecution against offences of the press-the analyzing of the offensive article, the defence of the accused, usually more bold and always more mishievous than the libel itself, the scandal of the public discussion, the sophistry of the Counsel, the contest of the Crown Advocates with the Defendant, and often of the Judge with the Jury, in short, all the various circumstances which, in these dangerous proceedings, are of far greater importance, and are attended with far more serious consequences than any verdict of acquittal or condemnation can be -would have remained unchanged. The Jury would still, as they had formerly done, have sometimes acquitted the defendant, ground of the proof of the acts of printing contrary to all legal evidence, on the and publication being insufficient; or in the case of that being impossible, would, by a dry return of NOT GUILTY, have reduced the Judge to the perplexing alternative of either setting the defendant at liberty, with the fullest conviction of his The licentiousness of the press would not guilt, or declaring the verdict invalid. have been restrained, whilst the remedies against it would have been still further degraded in public opinion. Thus according to our view of the subject, the Parliament of 1792, by throwing the whole responsibility on the Jury, made choice of the lesser evil." As our extracts are intended merely as specimens of the work, and as we can by no means attempt to follow the author through all his reasonings, we conclude with one passage, in which a certain class of our political writers is, at least, properly appreciated. "The Constitution of Great Britain has maintained itself not by, but in spite of, the degenerate liberty of the pressBut why should a question of this kind be driven to its utmost extremity? Why calculate how large a dose of corrupting and destroying matter a state may receive without accomplishing its destruction? If the licentiousness of the Press do not actually threaten the existence of England, is it not evil to poison all the sources both public and private of her moral life? The disorganizing principles which the periodi cal pamphleteers, particularly those of the common order, instil into the lower classes of the people, are truly alarming in their nature; but still more alarming, when it is considered that the men who promulgate them exercise an unbounded controul over the opinion of millions of readers, who cannot procure the antidote of better writings. Those perfidious demagogues incessantly address the people, in declamations on violated rights, deluded hopes, and real or imaginary sufferings. Every burthen which may fall heavy on individuals, every accidental difficulty, every inconvenience, produced by the change of times and circumstances, is represented as the immediate effect of the incapability, selfishness, and culpable blundering of the administration. The most criminal and absurd designs are imputed to the Ministers; and lest the oppressed should delay to seek redress, at their own hands, the future is painted to them in blacker colours than the present; thus, a thick cloud of dejection, bitterness and discontent, is spread over the nation; men's minds are filled with hostile aversions and gloomy anxieties; and the poor man is, at last, deprived of comfort, cheerfulness, and all enjoyment of life. Every feeling of satisfaction and security, and of confidence in the government, the tranquil and willing obedience of the people, their steady resignation under unavoidable sacrifices, and all the fruits and ornaments of a good constitution, are falsified, perverted, and discouraged by the harpy hands of these iniquitous scribblers. That neither the intellectual nor moral cultivation of the people can prosper in such a state of political corruption is self-evident. -Is this then a trifling evil?" On these observations of M. Gentz, we have only room to remark, that he is alarmed on our account without reason; for the English character, formed, as it has been, under our free Constitution, and enlightened by our free press, is to these vipers but a file which they seek in vain to gnaw. The admission of M. Gentz, that our's is the only nation which is sound enough to bear this liberty, is, indeed, sufficiently flattering; but so far from regarding it as a source of danger, we feel that it is to us SECUThe monarch is never in ignorance of the real sentiments of the people; the Ministers collect the public voice, and dare not disregard its warnings; but, on the other hand, they feel assured that the RITY AND STRENGTH. clamour of the disaffected, or disappointed few, will never be mistaken for the voice of the many, and that they never appeal in vain to the loyalty and good sense of the nation; while detection, exposure, and shame, are heaped upon the heads of those wretches who gain a miserable livelihood by their seditious attempts to disturb an order of things, which it is the interest of every true lover of rational liberty to support. With us, observes the eloquent Curran, "Sedition speaks aloud, and walks abroad-the demagogue goes forth, but the public eye is upon him; he frets his busy hour upon the stage; but soon weariness, or punishment, or disappointment, bear him down, or drive him off, and he appears no more. But how does the work of sedition go forward in countries, where public communication is not open to the people? Night after night the muffled rebel steals forth in the dark, and casts another and another brand upon the pile, to which, when the hour of fatal maturity shall arrive, he will apply the flame." An Inquiry, whether Crime and Misery are produced or prevented by our present System of Prison Discipline. By Thomas Fowell Buxton, Esq. M. P. 8vo. 5s. 12mo. 2s. 6d. Arch, London, 1818. Notes on a Visit made to some of the Prisons in Scotland and the North of England, with some general Observations on Prison Discipline. By Joseph John Gurney, 12mo. 3s. 6d. London, 1819. The design of Mr. Buxton's very interesting publication, is sufficiently indicated by its title. To the "inquiry" which he instituted, he has given but too plain an answer, by his descriptions of several ill-regulated prisons: at the same time, however, he has presented us some instances of a more to favourable kind. As the most material of Mr. B's accounts of prisons have been laid before the public, in numerous ex- | with a small bed, and measuring thirtracts, which have been inserted in the teen feet square. Of the lower rooms, daily journals, we shall not detain our one is for male criminals of all descripreaders with any passages from his tions, the other for male vagrants; of widely circulated book; but shall the upper rooms, one for females, whesimply remark, that, upon the whole ther debtors, vagrants, or criminals; view of his case, he has most fully es- the other for male debtors. tablished the following important pro"Fifteen persons have at times been position, viz. that, by those jails on locked up together for the night in the the one hand, which are conducted on apartment allotted to male criminals, bad principles, crime and misery are that apartment measuring, as before produced and multiplied: and, on the stated, thirteen feet square. The state other hand, that prisons, in which the of these poor wretches, when thus siprisoners are classified, inspected, in-tuated, must have been in a very high structed, and employed, have a power-degree miserable and unhealthy. In ful tendency to that, by which crime the male vagrants' room there is no and misery will certainly be lessened, light when the door is shut, except viz. the reformation of criminals. through a hole in the door, and of course no ventilation. The criminals in this jail are ironed; they are allowed eightpence per day and firing, but neither clothing nor soap. They are totally unemployed, and receive no instruction whatever. Forty persons have been confined in this jail at once; but at this time there were only five prisoners here. The doors of the four rooms being necessarily kept open during the day, the prisoners of all descriptions, debtors and criminals, male and female, associate freely together. Who can wonder that crimes increase? Who does not perceive the tendency of such an association to convert into felons the vagrant, the misdemeant, the debtor? One of the vagrants at this time in the prison was a Scotch woman, who having lost her husband, and having herself just recovered from a serious illness, was travelling homewards in company with her little child. she complained bitterly of her situation. "What could I do?" she said-"I dared not steal; I liked not to beg: destitute and afflicted, what could I do, but apply to the magistrates for a pass? The consequence is, that I am shut for a week in prison, and exposed, perhaps, to the worst and most vicious of men." The case speaks for itself.” To strengthen and confirm this proposition by a variety of additional facts, is the chief object of Mr. Bevan's "Notes", which were taken in company with his sister, the well known and benevolent Mrs. Elizabeth Fry, during a journey through the north of England, and in part of Scotland, performed in the months of August and September of the last year. These notes, (our author informs us,) so far as respects all the more important prisons visited by him, have been read to the respective jailors, and have been carefully corrected since the date of his visit, by gentlemen on the spot. They may therefore be considered accurate, and will be found to dwell less on the minute details of each prison, than on particulars which are most connected with considerations of an important and interesting nature. Upwards of thirty prisons were visited by these benevolent travellers; and the accounts of some of them are as gratifying, as those of others are painful, to the feelings of the benevolent mind. We shall select two or three examples, of each class, and shall then call our reader's attention to Mr. Bevan's very important observations on prison discipline. Doncaster Jail."This jail consists of a small court-yard, two rooms on the ground floor, and two others above them; the rooms severally furnished up In justice, however, to the intelligent magistrates of Doncaster, it ought to be known that they are anxious to correct these lamentable abuses. Mr. Bevan "Connected with these day-rooms, is a small range of sleeping-cells. The whole prison is so exceedingly insecure, that the criminals cannot be permitted to make use of their day-room except in the presence of the jailer. Thus they are almost constantly confined in their comfortless sleeping-cells. Nor is this provision deemed sufficient; when their cases are bad, they are chained to the wall. The injustice and barbarity of such a mode of confinement are too conspicuous to require a comment. Neither criminals nor debtors have any airing-ground. The prison allowance is six-pence per day. No cloathing is allowed, nor is there any provision for medical attendance or religious instruction. The last of these defects is probably remedied ere now, by the voluntary kindness of a clergyman, the vicar of the town, who informed us of his resolution to visit the prisoners weekly, without any remuneration:such an example is well worthy of being followed." In Dunbar Jail, which is as deplorably filthy and wretched as any which Mr. B. visited, happily no one was confined. Very different, however, was the case with the County Jail at Had dington, which he found crowded with prisoners, in consequence of a riot that had taken place in the neighbourhood. And seldom indeed have we seen any poor creatures so wretchedly circumstanced. "That part of the prison which is allotted to criminals and vagrants consists of four cells on the ground floor, measuring respectively thirteen feet by eight, and one on the second story, filth. measuring eleven feet by seven. It is difficult to conceive any thing more entirely miserable than these cells. Very dark-excessively dirty-clay floors no fire places-straw in one corner for a bed, with perhaps a single rug-a tub in each of them, the receptacle of all In one of the cells we observed three men who had been engaged in the riot; in another, a woman (the wife of one of them) and two boys; in a third, two more men and a woman (the wife of one of them). We understood that one of these women was a prisoner, the other a visitor; but have since been informed by the jailer that they were both visitors. "None of the prisoners were ironed, except one man, who had attempted to break prison. This unfortunate person was fastened to a long iron bar. His legs, being passed through rings attached to the bar, were kept about two feet asunder, which distance might be increased to three feet and a half at the pleasure of the jailer. This cruel and shameful mode of confinement, which prevented the man from undressing, or from resting with any comfort to himself during the night, and which, by the constant separation of the legs, amounted to torture, had been continued for several days. We earnestly entreated for his deliverance, but parently without effect. ap "Another scene of still greater barbarity was iu reserve for us. In the fourth cell-a cell as miserable as the restwas a young man in a state of lunacy. No one knew who he was or whence he came; but having had the misfortune to frequent the premises of some gentleman in the neighbourhood, and to injure his garden seats, and being considered mischievous, he was consigned to this abominable dungeon, where he unvaried solitary confinement, for eighhad been, at the date of our visit, in teen months. W. Horne, Esq. the sheriff of the county, has kindly engaged to ameliorate, as far as lies in his power, the situation of this most afflicted individual. It is most obvious that his present place of confinement is in every respect improper. |
