The Daily Times.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1860-08-21 00:00:00

she sought no revengeshe was to the last for-
giving " with all her heart," and would appaL
rently have withheld her dying testirtiony if' she
could have saved hint. Poor, and probably
illiterate, 1s they both were, had he been honest,
persevering, sober, and well-intentioned, content-
ment, at least, might have been their lot; and a
young family rising, perhaps, to enjoy an easier
sphere, might ultimately have proved an ample
reward for all their little passing troubles—
troubles from which, perchance, families even in
higher spheres are not altogether exempt. But,
as the case stood, it was very different ; and
ignorance, unregulated temper, intemperance,
and idleness, have brought forth their bitter
fruit, and given another victim to the gallows.
The doom is pronounced by which this wretched
wife-murderer must, in a few days, perish at the
hands of the common hangman. His only defence
was the state of body and mind he had fallen
into through drinking. Even if true, this pretence
is only an aggravation of the crime ; certainly it
is not to be admitted as an excuse for, or pallia-
tion of, the offence. A man wh3 harbours mur-
derous thoughts may absorb from the bottle that
brutal courage which is necessary to overcome
what remains of his better nature, and may after-
wards seek to screen himself from justice by
pleading the effects of the foul agency he
employed to enable him to do it ; but, for-
tunately, the law ignores such a plea. Were it
otherwise every fiend in human form would have
at his hand a ready agency for the execution
of his worst schemes, and a correspondingly
easy exculpation. If a man voluntarily sub-
jects himself to an influence he cannot control,
he is most properly held answerable for whatever
crimes of violence he may commit. Whatever
may be our opinions as to the justifiableness or
propriety of capital punishments generally, we
think all must feel painfully assured that if ever
man justly merited the fate that awaits him it is
this miserable culprit. Let no morbid sentiMent
induce us to dwell on his dying agonies, forget-
ful of those he remorselessly inflicted upon his
poor wife. Without denying the difficulties con-
nected with the dismal question of the scaffold
as an 'f institution," let us rather interest our-
selves in the best and most effectual means of
removing the cause which has been so fruitful in
supplying it with victims. Prevention is better
and easier than cure : and while we deplore the
miserable fate of the condemned murderer, let
us think of the hosts of poor neglected juvenile
vagrants growing up in ignorance and vice, and
_resolve to use our best endeavours to rescue them
timeously from the course of crime which im-
pends over them, by imparting to them a sound
moral and religious education, and training them
up in habits of honest and persevering industry.

FOREIGN INTELLIGENCE.

FRANCE,

(FROM OUR OWN CORRESPONDENT.)
MONDAY, August 20.
You may shortly expect to hear of the termina-
tion of the inquiry which has been so long going
on relativt to the commercial Treaty between the
two countries. It is rapidly hastening to its close.
The Superior Council of Commerce held five
sittings last week, instead of four ;
some of them
lasted till seven o'clock in the evening, and one
or two till half-past seven. The inquiry on the
two first days was devoted to the silk trade, and
on the other three, to the manufacture of spirits arid
chemical productions. About one hundred and
fifty manufacturers, representing in their different
degrees these most important branches of national
industry, appeared before the council, Last
Saturday's sitting was terminated by an interest-
ing statement by M. Boutanel, proprietor and
manager of the extensive dyeing establishment at
Clichy La-Garenne, and justly famed for the per-
fection and skill of his manufacturing processes
and for the cheapness of his products. The
council is still presided over by his Excellency
M. Rouher. The functions of delegates to the
council on behalf of the alcoholic and chemical
interests were discharged by Messrs. Pelicot and
Bareswil, in conjunction with M. Ame, director
of the Paris Custom-house.
No little time will be required for the arrange-
ment, consideration, and application of all this most
voluminous evidence, which has been of a by no
means uniform tendency. People talk as if two
years at least would be required to digest the
information that has been thus obtained: to recon-
cile innumerable interests ; to revise, alter, and
amend tariff tables ; and above all, to overcome
the objections of French protectionists to the
reception of the principle of reciprocity—a print
ciple which the British merchant and manufac-
turer is surely justified in stipulating shall be
recognised sooner or later. The space of two
years is a considerable period in the history of
our fast-going age. It is a still more precious
amount of time in the history of a French dynasty
in the nineteenth century ; and I suspect that
most of the supporters of the treaty would have
hesitated to throw up their caps in the way they
_ _ _

.. ~
did in England, in its favour, if they could have

foreseen one half of the difficulties. delays, and
dangers, which still stand in the way of the final
settlement of its provisions, and of its being prac-
tically and beneficially put into operation.
An exhibition of manufactures, agricultural
and horticultural, organised by the Horticultural
Society of La Haute-Marne, is to take place on
the sth proximo, at St. Dizier ; as respects manu -
factures and agriculture, it will include speci-
mens from the eleven departments of the east,
and also from Paris; and for horticulture, the whole
of France and foreign countries. St. Dizier
is the central and the most important market
for metallic products, and as on this occasion
the whole of the metallurgical resources
of the eastern districts will be brought
together, an opportunity will be afforded

.0 France and to foreign countries of see-

ing the extent and progress which the manu-
facture of articles of this kind has attained in
these districts. I may here observe that this is
by no means a solitary instance of the rapid
strides which France is making under the new
empire, in the development and encouragement
of every department of industry ; and her
advance in these respects is in no direction
more marked than in those connected with agri-
culture. This science, in all its branches, has
long been in a most deplorable state in France,
owing, partly, to the minute subdivision of landed
property effected by the abolition of the law of
primogeniture and to the innumerable burdens of
all kinds to which real estate in France is sub-
jected, and partly to the difficulty of borrowing
money on the security of landed property, owing
to the insecurity of title, the expense of con-
veyance, and other causes. The Constitutionnel
had a long article, the other day, recommendatory
of a new agricultural loan society, which has
been established here with a considerable capital,
for the purpose of making loans to agriculturists
and others desirous of improving their estates.
Its machinery is very similar to the system on
which advances are made by the Drainage Com-
missioners in England, an d'great success is augured
from its operation: Of course, it is aided by the
Government.

The permanent commission of valeurs, charged
with the duty of reviewing each year the
prices of commodities entered in the Table of
French Commerce, has just addressed to the
members of agriculture, of commerce, and
and of public works, the report upon its labours
for the session of 1860. This document enters
into a variety of interesting details, to which I
shall, perhaps, turn at a future time. At present,
I merely give you the closing paragraph with