The Express.
London, England, 1864-01-02 00:00:00

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LONDON, SATURDAY, JANUARY 2.

lr will probably strike the most solicitous
student of the soothing speech delivered yesterday
by the Emperor NAPoLEos that when the Sovereign
who of all others has the issues of peace or war
in his hands, and who has already " fought for
" the independance of Italy " and " lifted up his
" voice" for Poland, is " convinced•' that, notwith-
standing all difficulties, peace will be maintained,
an operation for the rise is the most natural and
legitimate consequence of such a conviction. Go
the other hand, without being alarmists, or be-
traying unjustifiable suspicion or mistrust, we
may take the liberty to observe, that had the
EMPEROR spoken in any other Nuac thin thil on
the ere of the grand debate in the Legislative
Corps his words would have surprised even more
than at present they should re-assure the most I
candid and careful observer. For even the'
Emperor of the FRENCH can only be con-
sidered the arbiter of peace and war
in Europe in one sense. Ity opening or
closing the palm of his hand he can transform a
local into a general war, and bring all the armies
of Europe into the field against some monstrous
aggressive alliance, iu which his voice should no
longer be lifted up for Poland nor his sword drawn
for the independence of Italy. But N-u•oLEus
is not responsible for the ills which the madness of
the German people or the rashness of the Ger-
man Princes may bring upon Europe. He cannot
answer for the consequences of German rapacity
in the North of Europe, or of Italian impatience
i❑ the South. No doubt, by giving up the pet
project of bringing the sovereigns or the diplo-
matic representatives of Europe together to tight
over a table in Pans, by setting at once the ex-
ample of disarmament, and withdrawing his troops
from Rome and Mexico, the EMPLEoP may power-
fully display a conciliatory spirit, which not even
the IioLV FATHER seems likely to display at a
Congress.

For our own part, we are persuaded thaj all the
rational and sober-minded portion of the French pub-
he are sick of fighting for empty glory and desirous
of consolidating an honourable peace. Yet un.iues-
tionably there ern causes and principles at stake
in Europe for which even the most sober-minded
of our gallant and chivalrous neighbours would
rush to arms. As for the Emperor .NAPOLEQN,
we are convinced that ho desires peace at
least as ardently as the most pacific of his subjects;
because no Frenchman knows better than himself,
after some experiences of campaigning in Italy, his
own scientific capabilities as a military chief ; be-
cause no Frenchman knows better than tile Emeesoa
that in a great European war the military chief of
the French army mast be a Boller of genius ; anl
because there is no room in all France for a victo-
rious soldier of genius a,,,1 a N ArtiLEoN. No ; we
are confident that Naroluos 111. desires peace. But
peace without liberty, as M. EMILE PE GINALDIN
truly remarks, is as impossible as war without
glory ; and is the EMPEtt•IK prepared to accept
peace abroad with liberty at home ! Only the
other day his Minister of State, replying to M.
DE LA GCEERONNIEI:E, repudiated the proposition,
and declared that France had already liberty enough.
Now, the Opposition in the Chamber, who make
up for numerical weakness by moral authority,
are as ardent for liberty at home as for peace
abroad ; and the only dissentients iii their party
are two Democratic Deputies of Paris, more disposed
than the rest to accept Imperialism, but on con-
dition that the Second Empire will not only give
liberty to France, but go to war for Poland.
So that even if we take \'i,-ros EMMANUEL'S
New Year's appeal to his subjects as the purely
spontaneous inspiration of a soldier-King chafing at
inaction, and conscious moreover of his own
domestic difficulties, and if we contrast it ever so
forcibly with the very peaceful Speech delivered
yesterday by his magnanimous ally, we cannot in
common prudence lose sight of the fact that, how-
ever " convinced" the EMPEROR may be of the con-
ciliatory spirit of his brother Sovereigns, he is
himself exposed to trials, temptations, and re-
sponsibilities which have no relation whatever to
"events in different parts of Europe," but which,
although they begin and end within his own domi•

THE

nions, are perhaps not altogether under his control,
because they are of the very Nance of absolute
power, and because a NAPOLEON is as likely to be
their slave and victim as their master. This, we
affirm without malevolence or disrespect, is the one
great danger to the peace of Europe ever im-
pending under the Second Empire. How un-
feignedly should we rejoice if it could be dissipated
by yesterday's deliverance at the Tuileries !

Ir is announced on authority that GEORGE
TOWNLEY, the murderer, has been respited. A
medical inquiry instituted by the Stearrsar of
STATE is said to have established the fact of his
insanity. If this is the truth, the respite is a
necessary measure, for nobody would approve of the
execution of a madman. We trust that the docu-
ments in the case, which mast be placed before the
public, will clearly show that Towiner has been
reprieved on account of the state of his mind at
the date of the inquiry, and not at that of the
crime ; and further, that they will contain
no recognition of the extraordinary theo-
ries of insanity which were produced at the
trial, and have been repeated with modifications
in the letters of medical men published in the
newspapers. The convict's state of mind at the
time of the trial was a fact for the jury to decide,
wnilo the theories of the doctors are in their ten-
dency most destructive to society.
It would be a public calamity if the belief
should become common that TOWNLEY'S life has
been saved in deference to the views of insanity
which have been urged in some quarters, in order to
take away his responsibility for the Wigwell Grange
murder. Of course, the external evidence as to
the condition of the prisoner's mind—as for in-
stance all that can be proved as to the existence of
an hereditary taint of madness in his family—ought
to receive the most earnest attention. But in the
present case it is in the act itself that reasons have
been sought for absolving the agent from criminal
responsibility. We cannot help thinking the argu-
ments that hare been addressed to the public with
this object a disgrace to the intelligence of the
age. We have reason to believe that this is also
the feeling of the public, which has never ceased
to confirm the verdict of the jury. The act of
TOWN LEY, although it is possible to give a
romantic colouring to its circumstances, was
in its essential feature one of the com-
monest and most simple of crimes. He
had been wronged, and was of a nature to
feel the wrong most acutely. He allowed disap-
pointed passion and wounded vanity to possess his
nature until they became predominant. Whoever
has seen a spoilt child in a paroxysm of anger has
seen in little a picture of GEoaur TOWNLEY'S
mind when he murdered his sweetheart. If we
are to be told that the exuberant passion of a
mind unaccustomed to control itself is to release
the subject of it from responsibility for violence,
then half the crimes upon which the judges pass
sentence will be absolved.

But, in fact, nobody believes this. The appear-
ances which might lead to an opposite supposition
are easily accounted for. There is a class of
persona who, because they think that capital
punishment ought under no circumstances to be in-
flicted, are ready to countenance any argument or
promote any method of procedure which may save
a convict from the scaffold. And while the news-
papers which advocate these views publish articles,
the friends and relations of the prisoner write
letters to the press, publish the opinions of
doctors, and, it is said, in certain cases can even
induce fashionable preachers to recommend me-
morials to the Hymn SECRETARY and petitions for
mercy. These people seem stronger than they
are, because they have the field almost entirely to
themselves. They uk for mercy to one whose
life, forfeited to the law, is in danger. And although
everybody feels that, if false theories of responsi-
bility are to avail murderers, society will be in
danger, nobody nevertheless likes to come forward
on behalf of society, when to do so would be to
ask that a fellow creature may be put to death. We
have laws, and judges and departments charged
with the execution of their decisions, and
we have a right to expect protection from them.
Unfortunately, however, it is becoming more and
more unsafe to rely on these for security. The
Home-office is perpetually giving woy before the
well-organized attacks of the friends of convicts.
From the moment the SECRETARY of STATE
assumes a responsibility which it might be sup-
posed he would dread and avoid, that of deciding
on the life or death of a prisoner, we can see
pretty well how matters will end. The proper
course would be the constitution of a Clurt of
Criminal Appeal capable of dealing judicially with
cases like this of TOWNLEY. This measure has,
however, hitherto been opposed by Secretaries of
State ; and meanwhile, in the case of nearly
every murderer, a false public opinion is paraded
and urged on the Home-office in order to ob.
tain a reprieve. Should this unwholesome prac-
tice continue, a very unpleasant duty will be cast
on that portion of the public which thinks that the
lives of the GooowiNs are as much the care of
society as those of the TOWNLEIN and we may
have to insist ou the claims of public justice and
public safety as strenuously as flaccid senti-
mentalists plead for a misplaced pity.

A letter from Warsaw says :—"The capture of
the Alibi' Mackiewicz was. it appears, effected by accident.
On the 18th December ho was resting in an inn on the high
road, feeling exhausted by constant fighting and want of
rest. It was late, and a Russian elbow at the bead of a
convoy perceived that the lights in the inn had been cud-
deoly extinguished. This excited hia suspicions; he sur-
rounded the building with his men, and after some search
the abb6 was found in an excavation in the neighbourhood.
He hail but two men with hini. The value attached to this
capture by the Russians may be estimated from the fact
that a reward of 4,000 roubles and the Cross of St. Wlitdmir
has base given to the officer. Mackiewiez is now being
tried at Romeo. The issue cannot be Ilouatful, especially
as be was a priest as well as a anklier. His memory will be
inseparably attached to that of the insurrection of 1863,
and be has shared with Sarbutt the dangles and the
glory of a prolonged campaign, sustained with an heroic
perseverance."

The Berlin papers& record the death of the King's
head gardener (Flute'mann), at Gharlottenburg, on Christ-
mas-day, at the age of 'ID. When young, he was employed
at Sans Souci, and he loved to tell how Frederick the Great
owed to point to the finest figs with his cane and make
him fetch them down from the trees. It was he who
cultivated the first dahlias, which Alexander von Humboldt
introduced into Prussia, and to him are due the chief attrac-
tions of the gardens on Peacock's Island. near Potadarn, the
favourite resort of Frederick William 111.

THE ACCIDENT To THE V IcEROT OF EGYPT.--SGTne
particulars of the recent accident to the Viceroy of Egypt,
intelligence of which was first received by telegraph, have
reached us. It appears that his highness was proceeding
in his carriage to Cas.rel-Nil. when, on leaving Abdin, the
horses took fright, and ran off at a furious pace towards
the Nile. Observing that the coachman bad lost all COG
trol over the animal., and that there was danger of being
precipitated into the river, the Viceroy threw himself
from the carriage, and fortunately fell to the ground
without sustaining any serious injury. The runaway hones
were subsequently stioped, and his highness, mounting
another equipsge, drove on to Cboubrah, apparently none
the worse for the alarm which must hare attended the
inimioeat peril in whirl be was planed.
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