Jan, a recent meeting of TLontrates there was an discussion concerning the proper punishment of youthfal delinquents and those brought before courts of justice for. the first time. Less than a century ago, sentences of imprisonment Jin these cases were very com-1on, even for comparatively offences. Readers of the nae stories.of Dickens will remember Alderman Gute,. the! magistrate, saying to the -poor heroine in The Chimes," "You are going to be married. You will quarrel with your husband and come to be a distressed wife. Now T give you fair warning that I have made up my mind put distressed wives down. So don't be brought before me. You'll have children—boys. 'These boys will grow up bad, of course, and run wild in the' streets, without shoes and stockings. "Mind, my young friend! T'll convict' thera summarily, every one, for Tam determined to put boys without shoes and stockings down." By "putting down," he meant imprisonment. No wonder it was. taken for granted in those days that the children in the slums of large cities would "grow up bad," for the poverty and depravity of their surroundings, as depicted by Dickens, were appalling. When they fell into the clutches of the law, as many of them soon did. they received little mercy. No doubt the magistrates and judges who inflicted severe sentences were just and as humane as the circumstances seemed to them to warrant, yet it must be admitted there' has been a great improvement in the administration of justice since their day. Haman nature is better understood: it is not incorrigibly evil. The proper object of all punishment is more clearly discerned; it should not be wholly retributive and deterrent, but disciplinary and_ reformative. Hence'at the Lon-seems to have been the unanimous opinion that young offenders, speaking generally, should be placed on probation and not sent to prison.
From this conclusion: few will dissent. But it does not necess-atily follow that all first offenders should be placed on probation in countries where law and order are not as firmly established as in England. One of our correspondents has complained of, the sentence of one month's: imprisonment passed on a youth guilty of obtaining money by means of 2 worthless cheque. Perhaps the matter has not been considered in all its bearings. Daring the discussion in London, in recommending clemency in "the treatment of frst offenders, the phrase, ''consist-cent with the safety of the State" was used more than once. This Proviso niast be the paramount consideration, not individual interests, in deciding when the severity of the law may be relaxed. "In the scheme of nature. the welfare, and even the existence, of the individual, count for nothing in comparison with the preservation of the stock: so, in social animals, the welfare and even the existence of the individual count for nothing in comparison with the preservation of the community."" All offences are to be judged from this point of view. As a corollary, when the State is peril, certain offences are punished heavily which can be lightly dealt with when the cireumstances are different. During a great war, a young soldier, perhaps a mere boy, exhausted by the bardship and strain of the! battlefield, falls asleep while on, sentry duty. He is sentenced to death. The sentence merciless, but grim necessity demands the sacrifice in the interests of the army. and the nation.. So it ig: that at different times. and. places, forgery, the passing of base- money, \horse-stealing, _sheep-stealing, have been, capital offences, because these acts were deemed dangerous to the welfare of the community. Apply: this to the case cited by our correspondents Shanghai is a business community and the offences it can least condone are those which render business difficult or impossible such as forgery, theft, fraudulent statements, and so forth. Moreover, offences of this kind on a larger scale, such as graft, robbery, misappropriation of public: funds, bribery, and official "'squeezing,"" are ruining China, Foreigners "friendly to her should advocate the stern punishment of this class of offences, whether the culprits be high or low, rich or poor. Probably nearly all business men in Shanghai, foreign and Chinese, will agree that. month's imprisonment for' passing a worthless cheque is not @ Severe sentence. many Chinese guilty of petty or At the same time, there are minor offences, who could" be wisely punished otherwise than by imprisonment. In England there are certain offences still punishable with the "'cet""" or! lash. In Chinese yaméng many' petty offenders are beaten. Why not try corporal chastisement more freely in Shanghai for small offenders? Some years ago at a foreign summer resort in China the Chinese magistrate kept good order by the use of the bamboo. Some good people oh-_ jected to corporal. punishment and the magistrate. abandoned Later, the same good people came to him complaining of the increased thieving and gambling. "What am I to do?"" said the harassed official. "*You will not allow me to use the most effective remedy; to fine "or send these offenders to prison will do, no good."" To quote a very old saying, '"Spare the rod and spoil the child." In mental and moral development many of the Chinese ave children, and should be treated accordingly. This principle is of wide application. Tu Lord Macartney's journey to Tehol the cook was batabooed by the mandarin in charge because the meat was tainted. We dare not suggest that in many a household an occasional beating of the cook, "boy,"" and: other servants when they were bad and excessively troublesome would clear the moral atmosphere; buf distracted and tired housekeepers would probably welcome it. Lastly, as criminals are made not born, it is far better to try to remove the poverty, depravity and ignorance which ' lead the young into criminal ways—tremendous and baffling as -the task may be in Chinese cities—than to wait until a crime haa been committed and then deplore the punishment.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.