The Express.
London, England, 1855-03-09 00:00:00

THE EXPRESS, FRIDAY EVENING, MARCH 9, 1855.

IRISH JUSTICE.

WITH a good deal more of indignation than
utonishment, we learn that Mr. Joni CARDEN, of
Barnane—the Irish gentleman who wan sentenced to
two years' imprisonment for the attempted abduction
of Miss ELINOR ARBOEHNOT—has been roloasea from
. _

prison a considerable time before the expiration of
his sentence. It is true that the favour has been
granted under certain restrictions, and in obedience to
the advice of his physicians ; but, after making every
possible allowance, we are driven irresistibly to the
conclusion that this act of the Irish Government is a
simple mockery of justice. It is with the greatest
reluctance that we find ourselves compelled once more
to ail public attention to the disgraceful circum-
stances under which Mr. CARDEN was brought to trial.
The story, however, may be told in a very few words.
Mr. CARDEN had been an unsuccessful suitor to
Mies Euxoa Atteurfoor, and, finding that he could
not win the lady's affections by legitimate means, he
bad recourse to a plan more desperate and atrocious
than :the most daring writer of fiction would have
ventured in these days to imagine. Miss ELINOR
Anstrrnear, her two elder sisters, Mrs. Gouou and
Miss ARBUTHNOT, together with a Miss LINDEN,
are returning from divine service at Rathronan
Chapel, in a covered car. When about half-
way home the car is suddenly stopped by
a man mounted on horseback, who rides up and
cuts the reins. Mr. CARDEN bursa open the door on
the side opposite to that on which Miss Emma
Aesuruscrr is anted, and drags Miss ARBUTHNOT
and Miss LINDEN out of the car in raosession—Mrs.
Outrun managing to make her escape during the
nag. He encountered, indeed, no small amount of
resistance. Miss LINDEN struck him so violently in
the face, that he bled from the effects of the blow;
Miss Euttoe Aantrrauvr kicked him in the chest ;
and it is certain that, except for the courage thus
displayed by his antagonists, he would have suc-
ceeded in carrying off the object of his fierce enter-
prise. As it happened, sufficient time elapsed for the
arrival of rescue. Miss ELINOR ARBUTHNOT was
never dragged from the car—Mr. CARDEN fled, was
pursued, and captured.
Nor was this disgraceful attempt the result of
sudden passion or idle caprice. It was deliberate
and premeditated. Every precaution had been takes
against failure. Mr. CARDEN had hired a baud et
scoundrels to saga him, two of them mounted at

horseback, six more armed with pistols and "ekall-
crackers;" a carriage and four was at hand, and
nothing but the sudden intervention of a superior
force, joined to the courage of the ladies who were
attacked, could have hindered these desperate bravoes
from effecting their purpose. The contents of the
carriage furnished further proofs of the determined
and deliberate character of Mr. CARDEN'S design.
Chloroform, iodine, and drugs of various descrip-
tions, were among the instruments to which this
Irish gentleman did not blush to have recourse, in
case he had succeeded in getting poessesion of his
prize, and still found her obstinate in her refusal to
yield to his wishes.
Mr. CARDEN was brought to trial, charged with
the felonious abduction of Miss ARBUTHNOT. He
was only convicted of an attempt to commit the felony,
and condemned to two years' imprisonment. Before
half of that time has expired he is Mewed from pri-
son, on condition that he movie' the remaining
term of his sentence in foreign travel. And this is
celled justice! Six months spent in prison, in the
enjoyment, we believe, of every indulgence, is re-
garded by the Irish Government as a sufficient penalty
for the crime perpetrated by Mr. CARDEN. For
ourselves, the only thing we regretted In the previous
history of the transaction, was the extremely lenient
nature of the punishment awarded. We thought then,
and we think still, that Mr. CARDEN should
have been tried foe the weightier offence.
We thought then, and we think now, that if Mr.
CARDEN had not been in the high social position that
be is, he would have met with a very different fate.
Bat the leniency accorded to this " gentle ruffian
at his trial is as nothing when compared with the
leniency accorded to him since. No one will believe

that Mr. CARDEN'S prison life has been the dreary,
desolate, hard-worked existence that it Is generally
supposed to be. We can hardly imagine, for exam-
ple, that this favourite of public justice was
confined for so many hours a day to the
treadmill, or that he fared on bread and water,
or that he suffered many of those privations which
belong to prison life in general. No, indeed. Justice
is always merciful, sometimes tender and compas-
sionate. Justice—that is, Irish Justice—hovered,
like a guardian angel, over the restless couch of her
favoured CARDEN, sent him pleasant dreams, and did
all that in her lay to undo the wrong that she had
been compelled to inflict. And then, when every-
thing else had failed, when Mr. Csnottx was
still sinking beneath the weight of his misfortune, the
doors are opened and the prisoner is free. Eight
short mouths ago this man was concocting a foul
conspiracy against the happiness—it might have
turned out against the life—of a young lady. He
stuck at nothing. Urged on by the passion, not of
love, but of revenge, he dared—so great was his
cowardice—to call upon his myrmidons to assist him
in his foul enterprise. Eight short months ago!—
and the perpetrator of this disgraceful outrage is
now as free as the air he breathes.

In Ireland this is called justice. It is just to make
a broad distinction between a rich and a poor
criminal. It is just to punish the poor man to the
full extent that the law allows. It is just to release
the rich man before he has paid half his penalty. If
anything could be added to what we have already
said, we could easily draw fresh arguments from
the estimation in which Mr. CARDEN'S crime is held
by a considerable number of his countrymen. In their
eyes the abduction of a lady is no crime at all.
Mr. CARDEN is not a criminal but a victim.
He acted like a man of spirit. Who wee Miss
ARBUTHNOT that she should refuse the addresses of
Mr. CARDEN ? Was not he a" raal" Irish gentleman,
and she bat a Saxon girl? Such are the opinions
professed by some of Mr. CARDEN'S friends, and the
ignorant creatures from whom his " bravoes" were
selected; and to such persons does the Irish Govern-
ment pander when it liberates Mr. CARDEN from
prison.—Daily News.

THE LATE CZAR AND HIS SUCCESSOR.

A letter from Vienna, is the Constitutionnel, says
" The accession of a new Czar being in Russia almost always
accompanied by some political commotion, fears were en-
tertained in our high regions that, in the present state of
excitement in Russia, the sanguinary scenes which took
place when the Emperor Nicholas ascended the throne
would be renewed. It was specially feared that the Grand
Duke Constantine might become the chief of the party of
resistance represented by the old Muscovite party against
the party of moderation, of which the new Czar has always
been considered as the centre of gravitation. The Etonian
legation at Vienna has hastened to dissipate such apprehen-
sions by information of the highest importance. It appears
that the Emperor Nicholas was not the lut to perceive the
opposite directions to which the Hereditary Grand Dake and
the Grand Duke Constantine tended. Foreseeing that this
might produce, sooner or later, intestine and fatal conflicts,
he took the resolution to make the Grand Duke Constantine
take in his presence, on the Holy Gospels, an oath of
fidelity and obedience to the heir of the throne. The oath
was taken on the occasion of the birth of the fint son of the
Hereditary Grand Dake by his marriage with the Princeu
Mary of Hesse. It is added that when the Czu saw that
his end was approaching he called the two Princes to his
bedside, and, before giving them hie blessing, made the
Grand Duke Constantine, in presence of his august mother,
renew the oath of fidelity to his elder brother ; and he ob-
tained from both of them a solemn promise to remain for
ever closely united, in order to sue the couatry, which is
threatened by the European coalition."
A letter from the same city, given by the Augsburg
Ga:ette, contains a few additional details relating to the
death of the late Emperor. His Majesty, it is said, had
lately exerted himself to an unusual degree. "One of his
Ministers, who had been in the habit of transacting business
with him for fourteens hours a day, states that the Emperor
surpassed him in activity, and that everything went through
his hands. A person who had lately seen the Emperor was
astonished at the change which had taken place is his ap-
pearance, voice, and ideas. The war in general, the details
of the war in particular, and the alliances which were formed
against him, had shaken his mind. Although ho had
acquired by some late events a proof of the resisting
force of Ramis, yet the loss of the battle of Inkermann had
proved to him the power of the allies, and the last check
experienced near Eupatotia bad much affeated him. On
Tuesday he was still in good health, on Wednesday he felt
himself indisposed, and was compelled to keep his bed ; the
rest is known." _ _

A letter from Berlin, of the sth, in the Post Gazette of
Frankfort, says:—" The Emperor Alexander 11. has writ-
ten to the King of Prussia a letter to announce his accession
Ito the throne, and to beg of him to continue with Russia
the relations which existed between the two countries in
the time of his father."
One of the most moving scenes which has occurred here"
sap another letter from Berlin, "in connection. with the
death of the Emperor Nicholas has been the celebration of
the service for the dead according to the Greek rites, in the
chapel of the Russian Embassy. The Grand Duchess Olga,
dressed In the deepest mourning, we. present, as was also
her husband the Crown Prince of Wurtemberg, the
King of Prussia, and all the Princes and Princesses of the
royal family. When the liturgy was terminated and
the prayer offered up for the blessings of helves on the de-
ceased, the priests extinguished the wax candles, and the
Duchess Olga also extinguished the candle which, according
to the rites of her church, she had held in her hand. As
she did so, the Duchess, who had previously been deadly
pale, threw herself into the arms of the Queen and sobbed

aloud."
The Belgian liondissir announces that the Court will go
into mourning for a month from the 6th, on the occasion of
the death of the Cur.