The Express.
London, England, 1849-10-24 00:00:00

THE PUNISHMENT OF DEATH.

PUBLIC MEETING AT BRIDGEWATER.

A public meeting of the inhabitants of Bridgewater
was held in the Town Hall on Monday, Oct. 22, the Mayor,
Jamas HAI/MAIM. EA., in the chair, for the purpose of
oonsidering the propriety of sternorialiming the Queen to
commute the sentence of death pained upon Charlotte Harris
fur one less ohnoxiim to the common feelings of humanity.
Capt. BROWN, R.N. (rcagistra:e), having briefly alluded
to the circumstances of the cue, moved that the following
memorial be signed by the mayor on behalf of the meeting,
and forwarded to Sir George Grey for presentation to her
fdajesty :
To the Queen's most excellent Majesty.—May it please
your Majesty,—We your Majesty's faithful subjects, inha-
bitants of Bridgewater, in public meeting assembled, moat
respectfully beg to draw your at.ention to the case of Char-
lotte Harriewho, being in a state of pregnancy, now lies in
the gaol at Taunton under sentence of death for the murder
of her husband. The prisoner is to be preserved and tended
through the pains of childbirth, and the punishment of her
crime is only to be postponed until she has been strength-
ened to rise from her bed of &aerial! to endure a vio-
lent and revolting death. Your memorialists wish to convey
to your Majesty their deep distress and painful feelings on
behalf of this unhappy woman, and they most earnestly
entreat your Majesty will be pleased to commute the sen-
tence of death pesed upon Charlotte Harris for one less re-
pugnant to the common dictates of humanity."
- ' •

Mr. F. J. THOMPSON seconded the resolution. lie
remarked, that were the question of capital punishment
generally to be considered, he believed it might be shown
that executions did not further the ends of justice, nor deter
from the crime at murder, but that, on the contrary, they
tended to demoralise public feeling, to familiarise peo-
ple with killing, and to gratify the depraved ap-
petite of the mars for scenes of violence and
blood. The subject they were met to consider need not
occupy time. It was to decide whether they should memo-
rialise the Queen to commute the sentence of death passed
upon Charlotte Hanle. She was now confined at Taunton
in a state of pregnant, ; she would receive medical old, and
when restored to partial strength, the last penalty of the law
would be ioffisted. The idea was too painful to dwelt. upon.
The reality would be horrible and disgusting.
The resolution was carried unanimously.
Jonte Daowie, Req., proposed, and Dlr. Taos. BLACH
st conded a vote of thanks to the mayor.

LORD DENMktg.—The retirement of Lord Denman
from the beach on account of ill health is again rumoured in
the profession.
ANOTHER DISPUTE AT EXETER.—For some time
put a difference has existed between Mr. John Hooker,
who holds the office of secondary in our cathedral, snd the
chapter. For some reasons, to which rumour gives all sorts
of colours, but which we do not judge it needful to detail,
Homer has been desired to give up his office of secondary
or chorister. He says no charge has been made against
him of sufficient weight to induce him to comply with this
desire ; his apprintment being of the nature of a freehold,
of which he cannot be deprived, while he is able to attend
in his place. Mr. Hooker his taken Dr. Adams's opinion
upon the case, who thinks the appointment Is in the nature
of a freehold. The case has been going on sines Lady.
day last, many pros and eons having been exchanged, always
ending with the chorister maintaining that it is his right.
This day (Monday) on Mr. Hooker's presenting himself, a
bar was placed across, so as to prevent his entrance. the
case, we understand, will be carried before the competent
tribunals, it being the flint of the kind that has arisen since
the Reformation=Derionsidire Chronicle.

A STRONG FEELING HA, BEEN EXCITED AT ERLE
STOIC*, which has led to an act of violence, in consequence
of some protetdings which Sir John blubbouee thought
proper to take at the late Devizes petty sessions against
three young gentlemen of the place for a breach of the game
laws. It appears that Sir John, for the convenience of his
preserves, had stopped up, and diverted a road, through
which the owner of Bruncker's Farm hat a right to pass.
Dr. Johnson, the owuer of the fano, feeling annoyed at
Sir John's conduct, determined, since the petty ael-
sions, to assert his right to this road; and for
the purpose. he borrowed a car and two horses,
and was driving through the swedes with which the
original road is now planted, with the intention of cutting
down the gate at its end, but his progress was arrested by
Mr. Beegin (Sir John's house-steward), and several men
who were present. The doctor, however, got out of the cart
and walked unmolested through the swedes, but without
injuring the gate. A few days afterwards, the gate was
completely demolished by a party of young men from an
adjoining village. For the purpose of preserving his deer,
Sir John had placed another gate across a road leading to
the church, which caused an obstruction. Dr. Johnson
served S's John with notice to remove this obstruction, and
Sir John, feeling that he bad no legal right to place the gate
there, hu caused it to be taken away; but the whole place
continues in a ferment.—Devises
CAPTURE OF FOUR SMUGGLER/.—On Monday nigh*
labout 10 o'clock, a Coast Guard boat, belonging to Ports-
mouth harbour station, with four men and Lieutenant
Brown, were rowing in Stokes Bay, when • large boat was
seen coming from toe westward ; chase was instantly given,
and in • few minutes the strange boat was boarded, and
found to contain 42 tubs of foreign spirits and four men,
Henry Morton, George Bullard, W. Laisbley, and John
Byle, all known smugglers. Seven tubs which bad been
thrown overboard by the smugglers, in order to aid their
escape, were picked up close by, and the whole conveyed to
the station. The lollowing morning the prisoners were taken
before the county magistrates at Portsmouth, and remanded
for a week to await instructions from the Commissioners of
Customs. The spirits consisted of 160 gallons of Geneva and
brandy, more than 40 per cent. over proof.
CRIME no WatwlcKsHlM—The Rev. Mr. Lang-
berme, chaplain of Warwick gaol, reports " • reduction in'
the number of committals to the county gaol during the put
year to the amount of 162. Whilst there has been an in-
crease of 21 committed from the county, there has been a
decrease from Birmingham of the large number of 183 ; like.
wise in the House of Correction there his been an increase
of 166 from the county, but a decrease of 125 from Bir-
mingham, making a total reduction in the committals
from that borough during the year of 308, and a total in-
crease from the county of 187. The conduct of the prisoners
has been upon the whole as satisfactory as could be expected
from the crowded state of the wards • and though there has
bean the average number of punishments inflicted for pri-
son offences, those offeuces have been generally of the usual
description, not calling for any remark ; two attempts, how-
ever, have been made to escape, and one of them under
circumstances of an aggravated nature. In his intercourse
with the prisoners, the chaplain has continually found one
meet painful mane of crime to be the strong temptation to
intemperance and extravagance held out by the present
class of beer-houses; and many, of their own accord, fre-
quently confess to him that they trace their first steps in evil
to the unhappy practice of frequenting such places. Num-
bers, again, never attend any piece of worship; and others,
who have once been in the habit oleo attending, have lately
neglected that duty, and the reason constantly given is
' that they have not clothes sufficiently good to appear
there;" the money that ought to have provided them for
themselves and households having been squandered in the
beer-houses. And the evil is not confined to the husband or
father aline ; independent of the evil consequences of a bad
parental example, the drunkard's family are reduced to a
state of destitution and wretchedness—half naked, half fa-
mished, they cannot attend a place of worship, they spend
the Sabbath in habits of idleness and sin ; and so the evil con-
tinues increasing, until the whole family are oftentimes re-
duced to the same state of misery and crane, and the home
which formerly produced but one criminal, now supplies the
prisons with many. Another universally. admitted cause of
the great prevalence of crime is the dense ignorance that pre-
vails ; and in this particular thou committed to the Warwick
prisons, though probably not worse than in other counties,
will certainly not bear any favourable comparison. It is
desirable that a schoolmaster should be appointed for the
instruction of such prisoners as desire it, and wh-us conduct
entitles them thereto, and the eresent appears to be a
moat favourable opportunity for such appointment, when,
owing to the decrease of prisoners expected from the open-
ing of the Birmit gham gaol, the present fehoolmaster for the
boys will have much lighter duty devolving upon him An-
other circumstance, too, renders the present a favourable
opportunity ; namely, the increased denim for reading and
general knowledge lately manifested amongst the men, and
which the chaplain has already taken advantage of by
selecting a mere varied collection of books for the use of the
prisoners, con•aining both useful and religions knowledge."
—The Rev, P. L. Sandberg, the aeting chaplain at Coventry
Gaol, reports to the effect that the number of prisoners com-
mitted during the year was 480. Severs! of the prisoners
were inclined to receive religious instruction, and had con-
sulted him as tothe means of obtaining an honest livelihood
when their terms of imprisonment should expire.