MISCELLANEOUS ITEMS.

Lyttelton Times, Volume XIX, Issue 1085, 4 April 1863, Page 3

MISCELLANEOUS ITEMS.

Parliament was formally prorogued on the 13th of January to the sth of February, then to meet for the despatch of business. The ' Gazette' of the 13th instant contained the usual proclamation summoning Parliament for the sth February. The first serious business of the session will be to vote the ' appanage' usually bestowed upon a Prince of "Wales after his marriage. The amount is not yet rumoured, and must depend on the amount of revenue accruing from the Duchy of Cornwall—a subject on which contradictory statements arc always in circulation. The marriage, as we state elsewhere, will take place in March, and it is announced that the Prince, aided by one of his sisters and subsequently by his wife, will hold the next drawing-rooms.

The political speeches of the month have not been remarkable. Only two members of the cabinet have delivered public addresses—Sir C. Wood and Mr. Milner Gibson. The speech of the former, which was made at Halifax, was mainly occupied with the business of his own department and contained no points of interest for our readers. Mr. Milner Gibson's address was delivered to his constituents at Ashton-under-Lyne on Jan. 21. It embraced a variety of topics. Mr. M. Gibson touched in the course of it upon the question of Reform, and com-' plained that the country had not backed up Lord Palmerston in his zeal for Reform, and insisted that the abolition of church-rates had made positive-pro-gress in the House of Commons, in spite of the fact that the majority was converted into a minority. He indulged in ample statistical facts to prove the benefit which the French commercial treaty had been to the country, and showed, from the increased import of rags and the export of paper, that the paper manufacturers had benefited by the competition to which they were exposed. On the question of the American war the right hon. gentleman spoke in favor of neutrality ; but showed very plainly that his sympathies were entirely with the North. Amongst the other orations which have been reported since our last we may mention one delivered by Mr. Bright at the annual dinner of the Birmingham Chamber of Commerce. Mr. Bright spoke on the question of further changes in the martime law of nations, and the abolition of commercial blockade. He thought it very wise of our Government to give up the lonian Islands, and would also give up the rock of Gibraltar, with a view to closer amity and commerce with Spain. In reference to the " strange paralysis " of our Lancashire cotton industry, he complained that Earl Russell and Mr. Gladstone, by their careless predictions of the speedy triumph of the Southern Confederacy, had checked the commercial demand for Indian cotton, and thus discouraged its supply. He denounced the " folly and malice" of the ' Times' newspaper in its treatment of the Federals and their cause. The cause of humanity, he held, was the cause of the Northern States.

A substantial addition has recently been made to the ranks of the baronetage. This distinction has been conferred upon six gentlemen. They are—Mr. William Brown, of Liverpool ; Mr. Frank Crossley, of Halifax, M.P. for the West Hiding ; Mr. David Baxter, of Dundee ; Sir Daniel Cooper, the first Speaker of the Legislative Assembly of New Sotuh Wales ; Mr. Henry Rich, for many years a consistent supporter of Liberal principles in the House of Commons ; and Mr. Thomas Davies Lloyd, of Bronwydd. It has been rumoured within the Inst ten days that on the occasion of the marriage of the Prince of Wales two Earls are to be made Marquises, and six new Peers created. Five of the Peers, it has been said, are to be Sir C. Wood, Mr. W. Beaumont, Mr. M. Milnes, Colonel White, and Mr. IS. Ellice ; the name of the sixth lias not transpired. There has also been a rumour that Sir (jr. C. Lewis is about to retire from the office of Secretary-at-War. Earl de Grey, at present Under Secretary—an office which he filled under the late Lord Herbert—is spoken of

as Sir G. C. Lewis's successor. The ' Observer' says that the London season of 1863 is expected to be one of the gayest on record, though her Majesty is not expected to make any public appearance. It does not believe that any ministerial crisis is likely to arise during the session, and thinks there will be no general election till 1864. The' Globe' says that the reports concerning the new peerages are unfounded.

The nomination for the representation of East Kent took place on the sth January on Barnham Downs, near Canterbury. Sir E. C. Dering was nominated as a Liberal, and Sir Norton Knatchbull as a conservative. The show of hands was declared to be in favour of Sir Norton Knatchbull. A poll was demanded for his opponent, and it took place on the Bth. It resulted in the victory of the Liberal candidate by about 80 votes. The contest was a very keen one.

Lord George Manners, the Conservative candidate for the vacancy in the representation of Cambridgeshire occasioned by the retirement of Mr. E. Ball, has issued his address to the electors. It is understood that the Liberals will not contest Lord George's pretensions. Mr. John Pender, the recently elected representative of Totnes, has placed at the disposal of a committee the sum of £1000, to be applied as they may see fit for the general welfare of the inhabitants of that borough.

The second' vacancy for Totnes has been filled by the election of Mr. Seymour, Liberal. Mr. Seymour was opposed by Mr. Dent.

The working of our penal system has naturally attracted the attention of the county magistrates assembled at quarter sessions during the present month, and in more than one instance the introduction of this exciting topic has provoked a very animated discussion. At the Hants Sessions, Lord Carnarvon drew attention to the subject of prison discipline, and after detailing a number of striking facts with regard to the prisons of the county that had come under his personal knowledge, succeeded in carrying his motion for a committee of enquiry to examine into their present state, and report upon the system. Some of the facts mentioned by his lordship were, indeed, not a little remarkable. It appears that in Winchester gaol, for example, convicts sentenced to imprisonment with hard labour are divided into four classes, comprising respectively the men in the first, second, third, and fourth months of their confinement. The hardest work is given to the first of these classes, and that work extends, at the outside, to three and a half hours a day, and may very probably be less. The three other classes work for a period not exceeding two hours per diem, and the labor performed during this period is by no means severe. So much for the amount of punishment inflicted, but that is not all. The work imposed upon offenders is so far from expressing any penal degree of severity that it is actually not sufficient to keep the convict in good health. " You cannot," said Lord Carnarvon, " take a man ia the prime of life, as the majority of prisoners are, and clap him into a cell, however warm and comfortable, for the best part of 24 hours every day, without endangering his life." As the essence of the system, therefore is to keep the convicts in the best possible condition, "it has been found necessary to give the prisoners open-air exercise to such an extent that not only is it no punishment at all, but it tends greatly to aggravate the difficulties of carrying on the prison discipline." But then another step is taken. A strong, able-bodied man, carefully provided with sufficient exercise in wholesome air, acquires a very good appetite, and the inclinations of our convicts in tliis respect have been satisfied, accordingly by a progressive improvement in the dietary. There has been " a considerable increase in the amount of meat given to the prisoners, who have now meat five days out of the seven." Quite recently, too, there has been " an extra allowance of pudding." Moreover, there '* exists a system of extra diet, and that has grown to such an extent that, out of 300 or 320 prisoners, the number on extra diet is no less than 59." Of course such keep requires extra comforts to correspond, and so every prisoner now has "in the day time an additional blanket; and not only that, but, in order to keep his feet off the asphalte floor, and save him from any rjraughts that may creep through the exceedingly well fitted door of his cell, I perceived," said his lordship, " on a recent visit to the gaol, that you had actually accommodated him with a footstool." To all this it is added that the prison library comprises " works on history, on ancient Egypt and Greece, treatises on modern astronomy and astro-theology; books of Action, such as ' Frank Leverton' and the ' Dairyman's Daughter;' books of travel, such as Dr. Livingstone's ' Travels in Africa;' and, lastly, popular poems and prize essays." It was not to be wondered that, when such facts as these were adduced, Lord Carnarvon's motion for a committee of inquiry was agreed to. At the Warwick Session, on January 4th, Sir Robert Hamilton brought before his brother magistrates the ticket-of-leave system, and illustrated in a number of instances it capricious leniency and injurious effects as at present carried out. The hon. baronet dwelt witli considerable emphasis on the uncertainty which the loose and arbitrary working of this system had introduced into the sentences passed on offenders, urging that so long as this continues to be the case, there can never be that stability about the law which would assure the criminal population that for a certain offence they would get a certain punishment. After some discussion the court decided to petition in favor of legislative interference, on the ground that " the relaxation of punishment by the present system of convict treatment, and especially by the shortening of sentences passed upon criminals under the operation of the ticket-of-leave system, has failed to attain the laudable object designed—the reformation of offenders; whilst by introducing uncertainty into the measure of punishment, it has rendered punishment itself insufficient, and returned prematurely upon society a mass of unreclaimed criminals.