The Press. — London, England, 1856-08-02 00:00:00

At •. INK "1-r • - •-*.* 7t 4 1 • • *'• • .114 THE WEEK. •., THt I BEYOND the closing of Parliament, the week has been almost without incident. The Queen evidently did not think the Speech of sufficient importance to deserve delivering from her own lips. Tho Spanish revolt flickers yet at Saragossa. It has been suppressed on all other points. The Special Ambassadors are wending their way to St. Peters burg. The Commanders-in-Chief of the allied armies have returned from the Crimea. A French army of observation continues to form on the Pyrenees, and its head-quarters are to be pushed forward to Pau MAzzlsi has addressed a letter to MANIN, gravely arguingi what should be the disposal of the lion's skin after the lion is slain—that is, what form of government Italy shall be called on to adopt when Italy responds to the revolutionary summons. The Sound Dues remain unsettled, a point of importance, as the time approaches when the United States, according to their notice, will refuse to pay further dues. What will the Powers of Europe do should a collision occur ? When Lord PALMERSTON boasted that the French alliance was one of the glories of his Administration, he overlooked two notable circum stances—first, that that alliance was founded by the Foreign Secretary of Lord DERBY'S Administration—a measure, as the result proved, of most prudent precaution ; and, secondly, that the Governments of France and England can scarcely be of one mind at this moment con cerning the affairs of a country in which England must always take peculiar interest from the glorious war she waged to secure its inde pendence of foreign domination, The Moniteur has declared that the French Government regards with satisfaction the overthrow of the late Spanish Ministry, and that it approves the measures adopted by Marshal O'DONNELL. Does our Government concur in this view ? Has it a perfect understanding with the French Government as to the meaning of that concentration of French troops which is taking place on the Spanish frontier? No country of Europe has suffered so greatly from misgovernment and from continued insur rections as Spain since the policy of Lord PALMERSTON ani the services of General EvAss's foreign legion founded the Throne of ISABELLA. At present, the prospect of Spanish affairs can afford Lord PALMERSTON'S Ministry little satisfaction. Either Marshal O'DONNELL may succeed in establishing his Government without serious resistance, or there may be a short civil war with French intervention, or a long civil war without it. If the first is the case, Lord PALMERSTON'S past policy is utterly overthrown : if the second, there can be no doubt on which side the interference would be ; and though Lord PALMERSTON, in 1836, in defiance of the policy of all British Ministers, from Wer.roix to CAN NING, invited French co-operation in aid of Queen ISABELLA, he will scarcely now view with approbation the Government of O'DONNELL supported by a French corps d'armee at Madrid. To keep French troops out of Spain has been a fundamental maxim with all our great British Statesmen ; to bring them into it has been the result of the policy of Lord PALMERSTON. And, as the third alternative—should French intervention be averted — Spain may have to endure a long and desolating civil war. For the moment, it seems probable that the Queen IsAssm.t's Government may be sufficiently strong to overcome resistance ; but the tranquillity is unlikely to be lasting, and the dangers we have indicated may be but delayed by the temporary triumph of O'DONNELL'S policy. Great are the reports of the preparations of the several Foreign Ambassadors to St. Petersburg, to do honour to the Emperor's coronation, fixed for the 31st inst. Count ESTERHAZY takes his diamonds, and Count MoRNy the most magnificent carriages and horses, and the most brilliant of liveries for his footmen ; while our President of the Council takes the Duke of DEVONsHIRE'S plate and— Sir ROBERT PEEL—the Right Honourable Baronet who was fully persuaded that the crimes of the Empress CATHERINE were being expiated at the siege of Sebastopol, and that the war should never cease till, Poland was liberated, Circassia free, and the Crimea for ever wrested from the Russian empire. A gentleman of Sir ROBERT PEEL'S pertinacity, holding such opinions, must, of course, be the right man in the right place as Secretary of Legation to a special embassy, appointed as a compliment to the Emperor of RcsslA, and the most acceptable person to present to ALEXANDER 11. But how excellent and appropriate becomes the appointment when we remember that Poland is not liberated, Circassia not free, nor even the Crimean jewel torn from the Russian Emperor's crown? Englishmen, at this particular moment, are, unfortunately, so ill received at St. (Petersburg, that their Russian friends decline to ask them to their houses, and walk over to •the other side of the street to avoid a meeting. Perhaps the appointment of Sir ROBERT PEEL has taken place with the view to set all this to rights. The statuett , s and portraits of the French Emperor will disappear from the streets of Moscow and St. Petersburg, and the bust of the magnanimous PEEL will appear in lieu thereof. Our late Foreign Secretary has arranged this matter with his usual discreet conciliation. The Second Report of the Select Committee on Transportation has just been published. The preponderance of evidence is, on the whole, against the present system, and in favour of a return to that of transportation. Judges and policemen appear to believe that this punishment has a much greater deterring effect than any other, and. as regards the criminal himse lf, his chances of becoming . an honest =a are far greater in a foret t cointry than here. In addition to 4 4.0 / e RESS. SATURDAY, these arguments, it cannot be doubted that society would feel much more at ease with the knowledge that such ruffians as our wife-beaters and burglars were safe across the sea: instead of prowling about the country with tickets of leave. On this side of the question were Sir ARCHIBALD ALISON, Sir MArrnaw BAR. RINOTON, Mr. JUSTICE CRESWELL, Mr. JUSTICE ERLE, and Sir RICHARD MAYNE ; on the other, hardly any one of note but Mr. HILL. We must remember, however, what Sir JouN PAKISOTON told the Government some months ago; viz., " that of the tickets of leave granted since the " system came into operation, not more than five and a half per cent " had been recalled for misconduct." We entertain no doubt ourselves as to the abstract merits of the two sorts of punishment. But the great practical difficulty to be solved, is, where we are to have our penal colonies. Till this can be settled, we must try and make the best of the present system. There are some good reasons why the recommendation to mercy by the jury who tried DOVE should not be listened to, and why the wretched murderer should be duly hung on Saturday next as the law directs. He is evidently incurably vicious ; society will be all the safer for getting rid of him, and hanging will be a much cheaper, as well as a more effectual expedient for that purpose than life-long im prisonment. Economical considerations aro decidedly favorable to hanging. But there is something to be said on the other side. The evidence proved that he was incorrigible from infancy. He was a notable exception to the rule laid down by our Premier that all children are born good. To his misfortune, he was born bad. Subject to all good influences—an orderly religious home, good teaching, to Gospel reading, and WEstEv's hymns, and occasionally to the severe discipline of the rod— he could neither be instructed nor thrashed into humanity. His father's female servant thought it a shame a boy of such defective intellect should be so often flogged—what will she think of his being "polished off" by the law? If an incurably vicious disposition, manifested almost from birth, be a kind of madness, and the most dis tressing of all kinds of madness, then we think the evidence may be taken as establishing that mad he was. How far he knew right from wrong is another point. Few lunatics are entirely ignorant on that head. They generally know that if they do certain forbidden things they will be in some way punished, and it is common enough to find them resorting to the most artful stratagems to conceal their delinquencies. Why should they not be amenable to punishment as well as this miserable male factor? The glimmer of reason which leads them to conceal crime is about the same in each case. Very lately, two murderers, CORRIGAN and WESTRON, were saved from the gallows through partial but by no means conclusive evidence that they were not reasonable beings at the time they perpetrated the murders. DOVE had new been a reasonable being. His mind was so malformed that it was impossible to prevent him from exercising his destructive propensities on cats, cows, horses, any living thing that came in his way. If he is hung, there appears no reason why any criminal lunatic should escape. Why spare them? They never can be of any use in the world. Hanging would be the easiest mode of getting rid of them all. Trouble and expenr - , would cease when the executioner's fee was paid. The only answer to the hanging argument that we know of is, that Providence for its own inscrutable purposes is pleased to send these half witted, malicious creatures into the world. We cannot tell. They may be intended to exercise our patience—to touch our hearts with tenderness—to raise mingled pity amid awe—to call forth an active humanity in corn passionating their dreadful infirmity, and in guarding them as we best can from evil—through respect for the human, want ing almost or altogether the Divine spark that should irra diate it. We know how humane parents treat such unfortunate crea tures when born to them. They are the objects of double solici tude—of more tender care and vigilance. They think they under stand God's purpose. They recognise their cross and they bear it with resignation. Has not society some such humane duty to fulfil ? Ought it not to shrink from sending to the gallows a creature labouring under the heaviest of all Providential visitations? The official evacuation of the Crimea has at length been announced. The last British soldier has left Russian soil, and the Cossacks are once more in full possession of Balaklava. Marshal PE LIMIER has visited Malta, Athens, and Corsica, and probably by this he.s arrived at Marseilles General CODRINOTON readied Paris on Thursday, and is hourly expected in London, and thus the last act of the Russian war is brought to a close. The opportunity for drawing a fine moral is good, but some more practical points require to be remarked. The Russians and the Turks have already commenced their petty misunderstandings. The Isle of Serpents at the mouth of the Danube, evacuated by the Russians at the commencement of the war, and since held by the Turks, has been invaded by the Russians, who assert their right to re-enter upon their post here, as the island was not included by the Treaty in the delta of the Danube. At Kars, also, the Russians have re-entered the city, with 12,000 men, are completing the destruction of the for tifications, anl refuse to deliver it. up on the plea that the Turks have not vet evacuated the Circassian coast, On both these points the Turkish Government has made representations to the Western Powers; but, as the Treaty of Peace is signed and sealed, very little satisfaction will be obtained by Turkey from the Western Powers. In the absence of all definite settlement by treaty, the Russians are not disqualified from destroying the fortifications of Kars, Ismail, or Reni; neither are they prevented from re-entering upon the Isle of Serpents. The discreditable part of the transaction, if there be any, attaches itself to the allied Powers as committing such gross errors of omission in the text of the Treaty of Peace as to leave undecided such important questions as the occapition of the Isle of Serpents andlthe