412 REVIEWS. 



REVIEWS. 



Our Convicts. Bj Mary Carpenter. 2 Vols. Longman & Co., 

 London ; Dawson & Co., Montreal. 



Very slowly and gradually have even the wisest men learned to recog- 

 nise law in the results of human feelings and actions, as well as in the 

 mutual influences of external things, and have thus laid the founda- 

 tions of a science having for its object the social relations of human 

 beings, and the means by which they may be so regulated as to confer 

 the greatest possible amount of diffused happiness. Much more slowly 

 still the masses ot mankind are learning to put some confidence in the 

 truths of this science, and to attempt their application in the manage- 

 ment of affairs, instead of regarding them as unsubstantial theories 

 with which ingenious men amuse themselves, but which have no con- 

 cern with the actual business of life. Political principles have been 

 regarded as party prejudices, traditional sentiments, or professions 

 made with a view to personal aggrandisement. Questions affecting 

 the wealth, progress and prosperity of whole communities, have 

 been decided in conformity with the confined views and selfish inte- 

 rests of individuals, without a thought of there being better means of 

 judging than their limited experience and petty aims. The rude 

 methods of barbarous times have been continued in the treatment of 

 those who violate established laws, or have only been relaxed into an 

 inefiiciency of control or an encouragement of wrong-doing which is 

 most alarming to contemplate. Gradually, however, the signs appear 

 of a better state of things : already we have a political science, and an 

 economical science, resting on solid foundations, clear as to what they 

 undertake to accomplish, and leading towards practical conclusions 

 which alljntelligent men will be obliged to accept — and if other spe- 

 cial branches of social science can scarcely be said to have advanced 

 so far, it may be found, that, having less powerful interests and pre- 

 judices to contend with, when once brought into notice, their progress 

 will be more rapid. Nothing can be more important than the 

 branch of social science to which Miss Carpenter's book invites our 

 attention. The pestilence of crime is worse than plague, yellow fever, 

 or cholera. Like them, its existence depends on definite causes which 

 may be understood, and to a considerable extent counteracted. As 

 with them, our hope of checking its ravages, and of treating with sue- 



