The Express.
London, England, 1851-06-16 00:00:00

the Orpreoo.

TO CORRESPONDENTS.
A limed Edition of " Time cootelamy be IMMO *Wain..
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fir pa.
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day of pabOtolleo.

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LONDON, MONDAY, JUNE 10.

. „
IT is difficult to conceive a judicial act at once so
atrocious and so ridiculous as the condemnation just
*warded in Paris of six months' imprisonment and a
heavy tine to the son of VICTOR lluoo, for having
written an article against capital punishments.
The occasion of the article was the execution
of Mosacti,temsn at Chalons. MONTCIIARMANT
was in some degree a monomaniac, who had an
idea that every one was bent on injuring him.
Having been condemned for some breach of the game
laws, he took revenge on those who had aided
in convicting or arresting him, shooting them all, the
accuser, the yank champetre, and others. Endowed
with great physical force and ungovernable
passion, he was more dangemus than any wild
beast. lie was sentenced; but when brought for
execution he broke his fetters, seized the ladders,
tang himself Oil th- ground, and so strenuously re-
sisted till attempts to bring him on the scaffold, that
the execution was obliged to be deferred. And a
reinforcement of aid being furnished to the execu-
tioner, MON 1( IRRIIANT was executed that same

evening.
The subject was one that could not fail to call
forth strong expressions of disgust on the part of
those who look upon capital punishment as a bar-
barism and an injustice. do M. CIIARLF:.4Go
thought it, and he accordingly published in the
Bremen', tit his sentiments. Capital punishments,
always disgusting, were rendertsl a hundred fold
no in the present instancy, when) the execu-
tioner and Ins victiin struggktl fur hours before a
crowd. whose sympathies were in some degree
excited in favour even of this murderer. To avoid
such results, M. HUGO recommended execution after
the American fashion, in the court of the prison, if
capital punishment could not be done away with
altogether; with the addition of the usual ex-
pletives employed by an angry journalist on a sub-
ject on whichle feels strongly, such was the crime
of M. COARLYA ltre,o. And for such he is im-
snored fur nix months, and his year's earnings are
confiscated to the state! _ .

Nothing eau do Nct more fully the utter oblitera-
tion of all moral sentiment which pervades the
French at present in their public acts. The better,
the administrative and functionary clam, have but
one sentiment, fear of wwialism, and eonsequent dread
and horror of every innovation, which is of course con-
founded with socialism. One of the prevalent
theories with socialists is, that the entire system of
law is a humbug, that the profession of law is idle
and pernicious, that any man of common sense and
right reason, elected by his fellow-citizens to sit
on the seat of justice, would give more satisfaction
and deal forth better equity than the professional
and political judge. As the soldiers in France were
led to resent as a body the triumph over them and
the attacks upon them by the red republicans, so the
lawyer tribe arc amongst the most inveterate
enemw of the socialists, and heaven help the stray
professor of that sect, or of aught that resem-
bles it, who falls, as poor enaur.es ]deco did
the other day, into the fangs of a French court of
justice. As to the jure. they who compose it are
mere wax in the hands of the French judge, and
their verdicts and sentences are such as outrage com-
mon decency and common sense.
We should strongly recommend the memb:rs of
the Peace Society to choose sonic more hospitable
place of rendezvous for their next meeting than any
town in France. The name of Elmo, instead of
being a protection, will draw down persecution. If
an article in a journal against the punishment of
death he treasonable against the administration
of justice, a speech denouncing the oholo-
sale murder of war will be treason more
dire against the majesty of the 11.ar-otßee.
To preach, indeed, that society could have been mis-
taken in any of its old habits, such as wholesale
executions, sanguinary wars, feudal exactions, or !r-
-aiding time supremacy of the priesthood—all this
will be treason to France, and will be visited by
severe verdicts, and expiated in long hours of solitary
confinement.
_ .

When such are the risks, such the pains and
penalties of the French press in discussions purely
. philosophical, we can imagine how free it is in tho
region of political discussion. And yet the press
is the only mode of expressing opinion, for any
thing in the way of a public meeting is illegal and
strictly forbidden. The I. much, in the ensuing ycar,will
have to modify their constitution or retain it, will'
have to elect another Assembly or Assemblies, on
which the fate of the country will depend ; they will
have to enthrone another )'resident, or perhaps a
King. And yet discussion is so prohibited, and
• freedom of thought and writing so nullified in a
country endowed with these powers, that an opinion
repudiating the punishment of death. au opinion al-
ready consecrated by law for political offences, is
visited with penalties scarcely awarded to the house-
breaker or the footpad.

BATII is about to make choice of a new represen-
tative in parliament. Two candidates are said to be
in the field on opposite principles ; but the liberal,
we understand, is pretty sure of being returned.
Popular °pinkie in Bath owes itself some reparation
tbr the indolence or caprice which caused it to suffer
' the exclusion of Mr. Roenrcs and the intrusion in
• his stead of Lord AVILES% at the general election of
1817. We have often differed from the honourable
and learned:gentlenian on matters of detail • but we
have far more frequently. bad reason to dissent from
the noble lord on essential principles of policy. And
how the same constituency could have ever reconciled
itself to make such an exchange is more than we have
discernment to comprehend.
Lord Asitter's ascent to the chamber of peers
may not be deemed by his friends equivalent to hie
political extinction; though few reputations have
been known to survive after passing that bourse
whence no commoner returns. What wadi
Baovial is have given during the last fifteen
years to be buck in the theatre of his early
efforts and triumphs once more? What would
STANLEY give that he had not been be-
. trayed by his impatience of Pest's overshadowing
greatness and fame into premature elevation to the
peerage? Fur earnest and ambitious men, the House
of Commons is the fitting scene. They perish slowly
but certainly in the raritied atmosphere to which
they have been previously unaccustomed. Their
energy. dies out gradually for lack of sympathy and
recognition. The tine name fur lordly inaiffer-
once and ennui is philosophic and judicial ohm.
Bat whatever be the theoretic value of such
a ~,i-disost council of sedate sages, it is
plainly as dissimilar from the stirring, active,
fluctuating element of representative power as the
cut-stone basin wherein Fold and silver minnows
lost differs from the rushing stream. Nothing very
greet, in any sense of the term, ever came to ma-
turity in the one; and few whose habits and whose
powers have been formed in the other have endured
without suffering fl-om the change.
And if the late member foe Bath were a man of
capabilities or powers deserving in any sense the
same of great, we should apprehend injury free the
transfer he has recently undergone. Did be romps
• n we should fear the influence of the wel,l-
- of pity which manifestations of that ant
are likely to encounter in the House of &seers.
Were he an orator we should fear for his inability
to detain an audience engrossed till half-past seven
with apprehensions lest " the fish be overdone," and
from that hour till the witching time of night, lest
they should miss other pleasures inferior only to
dinner.

But Lord ASHLEY (dud mu) did not pretend to
be an orator. His egression= in dr many amiable
projects be from time to due patronised savoured
rather of philanthropic then of tat poetic
species of enthusiasm welaceg:intterance is elnquenee.
hit peers will never open their athetissitors Fyn' at'
‘
the new Lord Stuirresnears peribtmences in Air
tone. His monotonous tones, like thou 'of a street
organ familiarising the cadences of a German hymn,
will often be performed almost to inanimate walls.
Nobody can say the effort is not well meant, but if
evervliody were to tell the truth, the performance
would generally be voted a bore. So it was in the
Commons; so it will be in the Lords: neither much
better nor worse. So that, upon the whole, the new
ikre of the hereditary principle is likely to suffer
Les by the change than abler and more distinguished
Mu.
We know little of the personal qualifications of
the gentleman who it is probable will be named by
the constituency of Bath as their future representa-
tive. Politically we understand that he is tho-
roughly pledged to maintain the policy of commer-
cial freedom against all encroachments or modifica-
tions proposed in a reactionary sense. We hope ho
will be found equally firm in strengthening the
hands of the friends of electoral reform. Until
some comprehensive change of this kind
shall have been accomplished, the hope of
retrogression in all that the country has gained
daring
.the last ten years will not be finally
extinguished in the minds of the old oligarchy—the
power of attaining further and other benefits cannot
be secured to the industrious, improving, and intelli-
gent millions who are the body and the brains of the
state. So long as a system luta whereby, a consti-
tuency capable of appreciating the independence and
couraw, the talents and the attainments of a
man like Mr. Rorsecu, and desirous for many
years of being able to command his services
in parliament, can be cheated into getting instead
a condescending noble or dilettante lecturer on mo-
rality, whose instincts and antecedents arc thoroughly
identified in all constitutional questions with the
privileged and exclusive classes, and the mainte-
nance of their domination,—so long the country must
be disturbed by perpetually recurring fears of reac-
tion, hindrance, and lss. It is time to take inea•
sures on this fundamental question ; and the best
and most practical measure is that of securing a
majority in parliament pledged to efficient and com-
plete suffrage reform.