The Press. — London, England, 1856-05-31 00:00:00

516 THE WEEK. As journalists, we are thankful to be free from two subjects—the trial of PALMER, and the Illuminations. The former caused more excitement than was healthy—the latter is a form of rejoicing not very well suited to modern habits. Both are happily over. In PALMER'S case, the medical evidence for the defence, without weakening one of the strong points on which the presumption of his guilt rested, is sufficient to deprive the verdict of thit absolute certainty which every one must. wish to see established when life is at stake. The case against him is greatly overstated when it is said that no circumstantial evidence could be stronger. This would be true had strychnia been discovered in Comes body, but that it was not discovered is the one weak point in the case. Might it not even yet be possible to try another analysis? If strychnia be so easily detected as some of the medical witnesses have asserted—if it be possible by certain tests to detect the presence of one fifty-thotisandth part of a grain in any matter capable of analysis—it would sothat the only proof required to make the guilt of PALMER absol, certain might yet be supplied. His friends are said to be makitit efforts to get up a ease for the merciful consideration of the Crown. We imagine it is quite impossible that such application can be listened to ; and it will be charity to the wretched prisoner —who, probably, yet entertains some hope that his life may he spared—to let him know that his fate is absolutely determined on. The details of the trial have been too universally criticised to call for comment at our hands. To our thinking the " summing-up." as it is termed, of the Chief Justice, was the least satisfactory feature of the trial. The judge was partially lost in the advocate. Lord CAMPBELL'S mind is not large enough to maintain that serene impartiality which so grace fully becomes the judgment-seat. We are occasionally reminded in an unpleasing manner of his old habits of partisanship. He is another instance of a principle often observed and commented on, that there is nothing more rare than to find a genuine Whig capable of clearing his mind from prejudice. In this case his " summing-up " was rather stronger against the prisoner than the reply of the Attorney-General. One point favorable to the supposition that Coox might have died from natural causes seems to have been overlooked by the Judge. On the Sunday night, Coox was seized with symptoms of giddiness, which seemed to anticipate the attacks of the two nights following. He related the next morning that " he thought he should have gone mad." If there were no connection between this seizure and the con vulsions of the succeeding nights, the coincidence was a strange one. Had the Judge balanced the evidence with more care, and been less explicit in his intimation to the jury of what their verdict should be, the trial, as a great example of our criminal jurisprudence, would have been free from flaw. The illuminations and fireworks called all London and London's eountry-cousins—the most remarkable spectacle of the whole—into the streets and parks on Thursday night. The illuminations were neither very general, nor much above the average of birthday nights. There was less of novelty and of taste than might have been antici pated. Many of the gas designs obstinately refused to show off all their proportions. The fireworks continued for two hours, and cost, in addition to the money expenditure, and the five lives lost at Wool wich, one or two lives of pleasure-seekers, and a good deal of mutilation. The socket-sticks struck one man dead, fractured some skulls, and put out a few eyes. The metropolis was up all night, the streets not being clear of vehicles and crowds till long past daylight. The demeanour of the people was on the whole exemplary, though not quite so " noble." " beautiful," " impos ing," " courteous," and " sublime," as the bombast of some contempo raries would represent. " They abandoned themselves," says the Times, " to the celebration of a joyous epoch ;" and also, truth compels us to add, to the consumption of a considerable quantity of gin and beer It is rally worth considering, whether in the event of any oc casion of future rejoicing, the money set apart for festivities might no be spent in some manner better calculated to afford rational and healthful recreation to the people. If we were asked what was the most striking sight to be seen on Thursday night, we should say, that it was at a house standing in a fashionable quarter without a single light in window or on wall. We allude to a mansion in Great Stanhope-street. There was a hatehment over its door, and its dark walls contrasted with the brilliant effects of the Marquis of ABERCORN'S (Chesterfield -house), and other distinguished residences. It was the house of the late Field- Marhhal Lord RAGLAN ! The gallant veteran had fallen in the cam paign which bad brought about " the Peace " for which London wai then in a blaze. The house looked melancholy, and one could 'pot help thinking of the beloved " FITZROY SOMERSET," and all the gallant spirits that had been sacrificed to obtain " the Peace " celc b ated by the splendours of the night. Our street improvements, sanitary regulations, and fine buildings in every quarter, though they may possibly render London a pattern city in 1056, yet, for the time being, by demolishing the haunts of the SATURDAY, poor before decent lodging is provided for them, drives them d together in certain localities under circumstances of misery, v i ce, and suffering almost incredible in this age of baths, washhouses, and education. A case in point has ,just been exposed by Dr. LETHEBY. One morning this week he visited Plumtree-court, between Shoe lane and Farringdon-street. In this court of two hundred and forty feet in length and an average width of about eight feet six he found twenty-five three-storied houses, containing from one to three families in each room. The squalor, the filth, and the misery he found these people living in, heried together from necessity, could scarcely be believed to exist in London. The cause was clear —the people had nowhere else to go. Their own dwellings had been pulledt down to make room for new streets, and they gradually drew closer and closer together. Is not this result too high a price t o p ay fo street improvements? Why should not dwellings for the poor be firs built before they are driven like beasts to herd in wretched hovels or snore miserable cellars? It is pitiable to reflect that with a ll our charitable institutions, schools, and societies, and all the efforts daily made to ameliorate the condition of the poor, so much mise r y s h ou ld i still exist. Do we not, while aiming at moral mprovement, too surely forget the physical sufferings of the class whose condition we would ameliorate, and too often in our rage for an improved street archi tecture, neglect the interests of those for whom such improvements are supposed to be undertaken ? The Derby this year was attended by an enormous crowd. A good Derby-day is, perhaps, the most characteristic sight of socia England. The variety of classes, and the absolute equality of all ; the free and familiar intercourse in the betting-ring, the equipages, the boundless display of wealth and comfort, the buoyant heartiness of the throng, are all matchless. Then, too, the sight of so many fair women who can stand daylight make the Derby a rare sight, though year after year it is becoming less aristocratic, as the railway has increased the quantity but diminished the quality of the visitors. A daily contemporary has moralised on the connection of PALMER with the Turf. But it would be just as appropriate to have indicated his connection with the medical profession. Without his technical knowledge of sickness, PALMER could not have made his sinister combinations in Coox's case. The Turf is no more discredited by PALMER than commercial speculation by Sir JOHN PAUL or political life by JOHN SADLEIR. There is more reason to regret that the Turf should be used as a Stock Exchange, and it shows that the mercantile classes are in nowise superior in wisdom to others in the community. Yankee legislators are certainly behind the age in civilisation and good manners. What is to be thought of a senator who first insults a waiter at an hotel, and then, after a personal struggle with him, draws a revolver from his breeches-pocket and shoots him down like a dog? And yet such a scene occurred at Willard's Hotel at Washington on the Bth instant. A Mr. HERBERT, member for California, ordered his breakfast at the hotel at an hour when, according to the rules of the hotel, no breakfast could be served without au order from the office. The waiter explained this to the senator, and was struck between the eyes for his civility. Th* waiter retaliated, and flung a plate at the senator. The senator replied with a chair. They then "clinched " and fought. Other persons interfered. HERBERT drew his revolver. He was restrained for seine moments, but as soon as he got free he rushed on the unfortunate waiter, and, seizing him round the neck. put the pistol to his breast and shot him though the lungs. The man died in a few minutes, and Mr HERBERT, after an excellent breakfast at a friend's house, delivered himself up to justice, and after a partial examination was remanded. The American papers, in com meliting upon this horrible murder, do not appear to regard it in any other light than a questionable point of honour whether a gentleman carrying a revolver be justified in provoking a quarrel with an unarmed man. The better question for our American contemporaries to con sider would he whether carrying revolvers in one's breeches pocket is at all consonant with the habits and customs of civilised society The sooner Washington hangs one of its senators as an example, the better for American society in general. An excellent opportunity appears to be offered to them at present. The organ of the Premier has been labouring with some dexterity this week to throw cold water on the idea of any advantage resulting from that " crisis " in Italian affairs which the Ministerialists have heretofore been so eager to precipitate:— " British statesmen [Lord PALMERSTON'S Administration, of " course] must be aware of being urged into the adoption of a hasty " policy [the regeneration of Italy, to be sure], either by the " earnest persuasion of foreign Powers [Sardinia alone can "be intended], or the stress of a too impulsive public " opinion at home [a plain hit at the Liberals]." Then follows a disheartening list of the difficulties which the Premier now perceives must retard the political regeneration of Italy. England might have to go to war with Austria and solicit Russia as an ally ; the task would be of gigantic difficulty from the discordant elements prevailing in Italy!; land, above all, the "Powers of Europe can in no " way lend themselves to the designs of the revolutionary party : In fine, the Italian people are not yet ready for liberty, and must wait until the necessities of the Liberal party here again require a crY• " The Italian people must first shake off the thraldom of secret " societies, and abandon the low node of political morals so assiduously " cultivated by the advocates of insurrection." The meaning of all this is, that in face of the Triple Alliance, Lord PALMERSTON finds it impracticable to pretend longer to favour Italian Liberalism. THE PRESS.