PUNISHMENT.
[TO THE EDITOR OF THE " SPECTATOR."1
SIR,—On reading your excellent article on " Punishment " in the Spectator of August 6th, a propos of the whimsical thesis debated at the recent meeting of the Hardwicke Society, under the presidency of the Lord Chancellor, I was irresistibly reminded of Bret Harte's parody on "Lea Miserables." Surely the following is the red uctio ad absur elum of the theory discussed by the Society, and although published some five-and-twenty years ago, might very well have been written as a commentary on the debate :—" When a man com- mits a crime society claps him in prison. A prison is one of the worst hotels imaginable. The people there are low and vulgar. The butter is bad, the coffee is green. Ah, it is horrible ! In prison, as in a bad hotel, a man soon loses, not only his morals, but what is much worse to a Frenchman, his sense of refinement and delicacy. -Jean Valjean came from prison with confused notions of society. He forgot the modern peculiarities of hospitality. So he walked off with the Bishop's candlesticks. Let us con- sider: Candlesticks were stolen; that was evident. Society put Jean Valjean in prison; that was evident too. In prison society took away his refinement; that is evident likewise. Who is society ? You and I are society. My friend, yon and I stole those candlesticks ! The Bishop thought so too. He meditated profoundly for six days. On the morning of the seventh he went to the Prefecture of Police. He said, 'Monsieur, have me arrested, I have stolen candlesticks.' The official was governed by the law of society and refused. What did the Bishop do? He had a charming ball and chain made affixed to his leg, and wore it the rest of his life. This is a fact."—I am, Sir, &c.,
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