The Express.
London, England, 1865-12-28 00:00:00

OUR CONTEMPORARIES.

(THIS DAY.)

THE CAPITAL POWL4II3III2IT EXPORT.
The commissioners, the Times thinks, actea wisely
in paining by the abstract question whether capital punish.
meet should be retained, for the controversy on that matter
turns on deeper and broader inure than oars be determined
by such evidence as they were able to obtain. The right of
society to declare the life of any one of its members
to be forhited, and the policy of exercising that right
if it exists, are problems of the future. Sooner or later,
but probably not in our own time, they will have to
be determined by parliament. It is satisfactory to find
that the commissioners draw • distinction between pre-
meditated and unpremeditated homicide, and the alters.
time they propose in the law is judicious. No one can
justify a rule which visits with the same penalty such a
crime as Palmer's and an act which a humane man might
possibly commit under the influence of excitement without
intending muider even at the moment. The commis-
sioners suggest an act should be passed constituting infan-
ticide • separate offence, punishable with penal servitude,
" unlawfully and maliciously to inflict grievous bodily
harm or serious injury upon a child during its birth or
within several days afterwards, in case the child
has subsequently died." The motive of this pro-
posal is of course to get over the am-malty of proving that
the child was completely born alive, which, combined with
the sympathy of juries for mothers destroying their own off-
, storing in the agonies of childbirth or in • paroxysm of
shame, so often defeats the ends of justice. The Times can.
I not but doubt, however, whether a statute thus worded
1 would answer the purpose. With regard to their recom-
misedation of private executions, the Tina wants to see the
evidence by which the commissioners were guided—intimst-
fMg • distrust of the opinions of mere " authority " on the
matter, and suggesting that the real question is the
effect of public, executions on the millions who stay away.
The Herald taunts the a Ivocates of the abolition of
Genital punishment with their failure to obtain from the
II
commissioners a recommendation of their favourite theory.
Upon the main result, of the inquiry the peace-loving and
law-keeping portion of the community may fairly be con.
gratulated. The report embodiss the sound feeling and
practical good sense of the nation. It recogniam
punishment as a duty, painful but necessary ; it
takes hold of every reasonable pretext on which
the criminal can be spared without sacrificing the
interests or jeopar.lising the safety of society. It shows
every disposition to meet ackoowledged difficultiee, and
yet evinces a wise firmness when dealing with the sug-
gestions of misapplied philanthropy and sickly 'anti-
mentalism. Under these circumstances we may hope that
the abolition " cry" will, for the future, be effectually
silenced, and that another pretext for chronic and mis-
chievous agitation may now be treated as one finally
disposed of.

At a general ordination held by the Lord Bishop
of Gloucester and Bristol in the cathedral church of
Bristol on St. Tbornaa'sday, the following gentlemen were
admitted into holy orders,:—Deecons : Henry William
Barber, 8.A., Queen's College, Oxon ; Donald McLesia
Claxton, 8.A.. St. Edmund's Hall, Ozoo ; Thomas Cor-
field. B A., Jesus College, Cambridge ; John Harold
Giles, 8.A.. Magdalen College, Cambridge ; Robert
Gleadewe Burk, 8.A., St. John's College, Cambridge
THE JAMAICA COMMISAION AND THE LIBERAL% I Willie= John Lofty, 8.A., Trinity College, Dublin ;
The Star believes the government has not yet completed Welter Henry Scott, 8.A., Trinity College, Dublin ;
the arrangements for the Jamaica commission, or decided William Henry aA- ,Orin and CM" CcalaMlN
Cambridse. Priests : Mut' Nerobliard Thwaites. Lite.
upon the name of a gentleman to acoompsay Mr. Russell rate ; William Pinder Went, LL.B., Christ College,
Gurney. It is naturally much to be desired that some Cambridge. The Lord Bishop licensed the following to
member of the commission should be selected from the Tasks cameos : The Rev. H. W. Barber, Holy Trinity, Bristol ;
at the liberal pull. The government has already ap. the Rev. D. McLean Cliztoe, St. Marv, Redcliff, Bristol ;
pointed two comeervativea. Against neither is there any- the
the re Thom field' tr St.E Birdao2 ou: tr. r sit! ;
thing whatever to be urged Tigard to his political °Pi- the Rev. R. G. Earle, Micheldean ; the Rev.' W.
Mons any more than to his personal character. Mr. Rumen Mills, Stapleton ; the Rev. W. H. Scott, Highwarth,
Gurney is admitted on all sides to be a man of the striates% Wilts.
impartiality, wholly incapable of Mending partisan feelings DeATH IN A Cauaca.—Samuel Read, an old
with the conduct of such an inquiry. But the government a?" 84 yews of ago. walked on Chrienesas-dar from the
Carlton to
will doubtless regard it as only proper that some member village
it
c?fatliagllzte* duetr:°f•elolfb:crilu
of the liberal party should be associated with the two immediately expired. The deceased had been hard to my
geatlemen already named. that he should die en Christeamday.