The Express.
London, England, 1848-03-09 00:00:00

PUNISHMENT OF DEATH,

A public meeting to promote the abolition of the
punishment of death was held yesterday evening at the
London Tavern, John bright, M.P., in the chairs The
room was crowded to excess.
The CHAIRMAN. opened the proceedings by a long speech,
in which he denounced the punishment of death as at once
most inhuman, most unchristianiike, and most inadequate to
the alleged purpose of repressing crime. On the one hand,
the example of capital punishment manifestly had no effect
in deterring the very persons who witnessed it from the
commission of crime ; and on the other hand it prevented
jurors who had conscientious objections to passing the sen-
tence of death upon a feliow-being, or from subjecting even to
just punishment the offenders brought before them. He re-
ferred in illustration to the two young women who, some
years ago, poisoned the it father and moth, r in Somerset.
shire, but were, on their trial, acquitted by the jury, though
their guilt was well established, solely because the jurors
could not bring themselves to put two fellow-creatures to
death.
A letter was read from Mr. Pattison, M.P., excusing him-
self from attendance, but expressing his hearty coucurrence
in the object of the meetii.g.
Dr. MOKTIMEY, in moving the first resolution, said he
objected to the punishment of death as wholly opposed to
the do:trines of Christianity. He observed, with retard to the
individual case of Annette Meyers, it was ene which combined
in itself all the arguments against punishment of death. If,
instead of taking with her own hands revenge for the atro-
cious injury she had received and the monstrous insult to
which she was subjected, by the man upon whom she bad
centred all her youthful affections—if, instead of hi rs..lf,
a brother had called the base seducer into the field, and there
made him expiate the mortal wrong lie had done, no jury
would hove pronounced the doom of the avenger. (Hear,
hear.) In a Christian point of view, he contended that tat,
induration of spirit by which this poor girl bail worked her-
self up into that phrenzied absence of all fear of
death, which the very act she had committed mani-
fested, showed that she was not in a fit state to die.
I He had only that morning seen Annette Meyer's late mis-
I tress, who had herselt prepared a memorial to the Queen,
and who spoke to him in the very highest terms of all she
had observed of the unfortunate girl's character and conduct
up to the commission of the offence for which she was con-
demned. He then moved as a first resolution the adoption
of the following memorial to Sir George Grey
To Sir 6. Grey, Bart., M.P., Secretary of State for the Home Depart.
meat.—The humble anal earnest memorial of the inhabitants of the City
of London, in public meeting amembled, showcth 'I hat your memo-
rialists are deeply interested in the ease of the wretched Annette
Meyers, now lying under sentence of death in her Majesty's gaol of
Newgate. Your memorialists would earnestly call your attention to
the mitigating cireunettances attending the communes of the crime
for which the convict is sentenoed; the atrocity of the conduct of the
deceased towards her, as appeared on her trial ; the cool villany of
which she became the victim; the heartless coldness with which she
was thrown off after the dece.e.ed had ruined her ; and your memo-
rialists would humbly submit that while three circumstances
cannot justify her Qui act, they warrant the conclusion
1 that her mind win unsettled when she committed the
a awful deed. dad she, in the parosysm of her grief and
despair, committed suicide, what coroner's jury would have hestated
to pronounce a verdict of temporary insanity, While therefoi re,
your memorialists do not plead for the pardon of Annette Aleyers,they
do most earnestly beg you wiu take these circumstances into your
consideration, and they do not doubt the result wall be that you win
recommend our gracious Queen to exercise her royal prerogative, and
to preserve the unhappy prisoner. Your memorialiga would also call
your attention to the fact of the strong recommendation to mercy
given by the jury, and to express their sincere desire that you will
carry that reoommendation into eke!.
The Rev, THOMAS BINNEY, us seconding the resolution,
emphatically paralleled the case of the high-souled Annette
Meyers with that of Mary Aims Hunt, who, after basely
murdering her benefactress, was saved from punishment
solely by the popular feeling in her &vow, on account o
the circumstance of her being pregnant. It would be said,f
perhaps, that if Annette Meyers were spared, it would be an
encouragement to the women to shoot the men ; but no, it
would not 11111091krade 1,11. 'MOM IQ shot the an,