The Express.
London, England, 1860-12-07 00:00:00

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LONDON, FRIDAY, Dia 7.

iaiworning Mr. A1i.... ..d SWOT Alibis, Mr.
Idowk, Mr. I.olileo. modereherif, the Bev. Kr.
DV* the aelleary ef /slaplie. Kr. Jerk Ihe governor,
nod Mbar aliKie, to the NU tire the odor.
boob seem. Aim euovirloi et Kobel streloos
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snits II" al" °II 11014.. abn Nth tistmoL The peer
*Se is placed Is • seem Mo.* toieogleguo me.
of the there helm; ail aimismehliss ifir
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verde est ter sow Is Malmo ismeete else
par riot to the spiritual iiieboelles el lb.
Davie. the aliorjr, but abs =promo a bias, bat life will
to 7.+L—Evesieg raper.

Wa should like to know who is reepossible for this
stupid piece of brutality. When we read yester-
day morning that an intention to do something
of this kind was entertained, as " it was customary
to make a communication to that effect to persona
convicted of a capital crime," we were unable to
believe it. The anuounossest, by whomsoever
authorised, is a wanton and barbarous infliction of
pain. Anne Padfield will not be executed on the
114th inst. It is morally impossible. Society, which
has no ruth when a Palmer or a Mains is
to be maiden down, will not endure the
outrage. Why is it said that that unhappy woman
is to be hanged I Not surely because certain for-
malities have been observed at tie Old Bailey, un-
ites also the reasons for which these formalities were
instituted require her death. Iverybody who was pre-
sent when Anne Padtield was tried saw that her con-
demnation to the scaffold was only &pima of solemn
routine. The learned and Inman* judge mast have
felt this more than anyone else in court. The jury
had not eenesated to the peiseser's death. They
had been instructed that if they believed the pri-
soner committed the offence imputed to her they
must find her guilty, and they did so ; but they
said, " We strongly reonuitnend her to mercy on
the ground of her seduction, poverty, and
mental anguish, and her previous good character.",
The prisoner had bees a domestic servant in the
family of a Mr. Frederick Bryaat, of Holloway,
and while in that service became prepaid. There
can be no reasonable doubt that the father of the
child was Mr. Frederick Bryant, junior, who ap-
peared at the trial, and admitted that since her
departure from his father's house be had been in
correspondence with the prisoner respecting the
succour she required in her distress. It appears
that he sent her a sovereign, under a feigned name,
to avoid responsibility as he thought, but with an
intimation that he could do nothing more for her.
It was amply proved at the trial that she always
acted a mother's part to the child, washing it and
dressing it, and, in the words of Mn. Mead, with
whom she lodged, " appearing very fond of it." She
provided it well with clothes, had it vaccinated,
and in every way &bowed that its welfare was bound
up with her life. But a time came when her means
were utterly exhausted, and abs must do something
for a living. To the iniipector of police who appre-
hended her can the charge of murder she said, " I
have been in great distress ; I have even wanted
bread ; but I did not do it isysidf. If you take
me I will let it all oat, for the father of the child
has behaved very cruelly to me." The anguish of
mind she suffered after the deed drove her to take
into her partial confidence a fellow-servant, who
appeared against her at the trial, and depend that
she was always in low spirits and crying. These
facts as much belong to the case, and are as mom-
eery elements in au estimate of Anne Padfield's
guilt, as the evidence immediately establishing the
homicidal act. So the jury thought, and they would
not find her guilty without repudiating, in words as
explicit as they could select, any intention to con-
sign her to the gallows. They acted like men not
to be deterred from keeping their oaths by any
weak fear of consequence. Juries just as well con-
vinced as they were of the truth of the facts al-
!aged often acquit their prisoner. These jurymen
did their duty courageously, never doubting that
those other, in whose betide the poor trembling
woman's fate was to be left would do theirs. The
judge's opinion of the sentence he was called to pro-
nounce is indicated by his close and almost per-
functory adherence to the bare forms of law.
The crime of which Anne Padfield has been found
guilty is use about which there must be no un-
steadiness of opinion or weakness of nerve in society.
The sacredness of life most be maintained if neces-
sary by punishments which wring the heart of
these who have to adjudge them. But in this came
how can the interests of the community be served
by taking the poor woman's life 1 How can the
community look at her dreadful situation, apart
from penal consequences, and believe it has the
right to visit her with the punishment of death I Its
own laws, which are all in favour of the seducer,
were deliberately made to create a desperation such
as drove her into a foul and unnatural crime.
It is part of our wonderful system of
protecting the strong against the weak,
and we are reaping the [rude of it in an increase
of infanticide which is alarming. If juries would
always return verdicts according to the evidence in
cases like the preseut, and throw ou the Home-
office the responsibility of hanging the prisoners,
the country would be astonished at the extent of
crime now concealed by the verdict " Not Guilty,"
auJ the atrocious law of bastardy could not be
miuntainal fur smother year. This is a subject
which the public will have to look seriously in the
face. Meanwhile it is certain that Atom Padfield
cannot be banged. We put up with a good deal to
keep up respectable fictions, but the English con-
science cannot and will not stand the deliberate
minter of that deeply injured Wl.:11:LLI.