The Express.
London, England, 1867-01-08 00:00:00

THE EXPRESS, TUESDAY EVENING, JANUARY 8, 1867.

state of animation, sod i" .iirgeon had seen him
in that condition, instead of giving him a lump of
dry bread, he would have taken care to order him
some bland nutriment, warni and easy of digestion,
until his vital powers had been sufficiently re-
stored to enable him to derive support from solid
food. We c; t very severely blame the offi-
cials at the relieving•house for not perceiving the
critical state in which lisooas came before them.
The poor man himself does not seem to have been
aware of his danger, great as was his extremity ; but
there seems no reason why a piece of dry bread
should be the invariable form of parochial relief.
A basin of soup might form the alternative, at all
events in cold weather. The cost would be
trifling, and nature would teach those who needed
the soup to ask fur it in preference to bread. If
such a chance had been open to this poor man, he
would probably have been alive now. After this
experience we may hope, and indeed expect, that
warm nourialiment will he given to the distressed,
at any rate during the prevalence of excessive
cold. In the meantime, this terrible case may
remind us how real are the sufferings of the poor,
and how far they may be from mitigation, even in
the midst of our groat charitable organizations,
and notwithstanding the undoubted desire of the
public to do all that humanity dictates for their
relief.

OUR CONTEMPORARIES.
(THIS DAY.)

PEII,',N.II.ITW4 IN OONT;ttoV::11,1Y. (ARTI!, M.P.. AND

MR. Stßlo.tr",

While the political chiefs either side have had
the discretion, observes the TIM,S, to keep clear of the
commotion of the time, more than one of the weaker par-
tisans seems to hs v, lost his head entirely. Mr. Denby
Seymour is deceived by an obvious misprint into charging
Mr. Bright with the promulgation of a doctrine too absurd
and monstrous to be uttered by any but a French nom
muni►t ; and. without even the excuse of a misprint, he
turns " half- into "all," and makes the subject of his
criticism talk simple nonsense. But it has been reserved
fur Mr. Garth to ~bow how unruly a member the tongue
may become when the excitement of a local election
is a '.led to the excitement of a national agitation.
This gentleman, though an experienced lawyer, has been
hurried into waking a number of assertions most deroga-
tory to Mr. Bright, and into an attack on private charac-
ter entirely unau;.portcsl by proof. In the correspond-
ence Mr. Bright has plainly the better of his oppo-
nent. The incident should be a lesson to speakers in the
position of Mr. Garth. lie doubtless never reflected on
the importance, we might almost say the enormity, of the
offences he imputed, nor remembered that the reporters
were there to give his charges a circulation far beyond
the limits of hi' borough. The consequence is a
humiliation at the beginning of his political career which
should make him a wiser and more cautious man. The
moral we may draw from this incident is a very old one,
but one which requires to be now and then brought to the
minds of all those engage.' in political discussion. It is,
" avoid personalities." When a nun engages in public
life his public conduct is all that him opponents have a
right to criticise. It is by refuting the statements, and
reasoning against the conclusions, of the radical party that
the conservativea, who are for the most part the repre-
sentatives of classes which have had the advantage of
education and refinement, may expect to carry with them
a part of the British public.
The Standard says that if Mr. Bright was not hooted by
his firm it is clear that the omission was owing either to
accident. or to that personal prudence of which he has
given such remarkable evidence in his relations with the
recent reform riots. As to advancing loans, the very
slightest reflection would suffice to show that the accept-
ance of a loan to be repaid out of wages would have
effected for years to conic the virtual enslavement of the
operatives. He subscribed indeed to the relief fund 50f. !
Mr. Garth was somewhat imprudent in accepting, on
the authority of general rumour, facts affecting the per.
sonal character of a political opponent ; though they were
facts of that kind which are freely used, on no better
authority, in election contests. But this is the whole
extent of Mr. Garth's offending.
Mr. Bright, rays the Telearaph, himself has mid hard
things and indefensible things ; but, however serious may
be him trespasses in that respect, he has certainly never
placed himself in such a position that anybody could
write to him as be has written to Mr. Garth :—" With
whatever respect is due to you." Such are the words
with which he justly concludes the correspondence ; and
such—unless we err—will be the funeral epitaph of the
political career of Mr. Richard Garth, M.P. for Guildford.

A POLITICAL DUEL.-PROFEISOR BLACILIZ AND NIL ZENEMT

JO2lKm.

The Times describes Professor Blackie's enterprise as in
the style of the true knight errant. Nothing could be
more chivalric, medieval, dramatic+. It must be acknow-
ledged too that the combatants were not ill-suited to one
another, each of them possessing imagination, knowledge,
and temper. But impartial byestanders must confess that
the attack and defence were alike superficial and unsatis-
factory.
The Dail) News notes with pleasure the attention with
which the radical city listened to the assailant on reform,
and draws the inference that it is not the opinions of Mr.
Lowe, but his manner of advocating them, which excites
the popular indignation. Professor Blackie's address was
indeed as uncompromising as the most ardent tory or the
most renegade whig could desire. It is curious to note
the conceit with which these advocates of intellectual
aristocracy proclaim that they and such as they are the fit
rulers of the tuition, but vehemently deprecate our taking
the opinion of any but themselves and their friends on
that question. They confess, indeed—it is the very source
of their alarmed outcry—that if the whole public
were to be polled, they would not be selected
as rulers. But this, they answer, is a proof
that the whole public is incompetent to decide.
The result of a more perfect representation would be that
in details and adjustments certain classes would obtain a
hearing who are now condemned to silence, and, having
obtained this privilege of speech, an inevitable dictate of
human nature would lead them to seek for the men of
highest rank, the most intelligent, the most respected,
that they caa find to be their leaders.

irhe Court.

OSBORNE, JAN. 7.
The Queen walked in the grounds this morning
accompanied by Princess Louise.
Princess Beatrice went out also.
Mr. Arthur Helps and Miss Helps left Osborne to-day.

Despatches were received yesterday at the Colonial-
office from the Governor of the Bahamas.
The Chancellor of the Exchequer and Mrs. Dismvli
an iced in town yL,.O rday from Hughenden Manor.

RBITRATION PROPOSED TO THE UNITED
STATES.

We ( rsu,) have authority to state that, in reply
to a communic.ition received from the government of the
United States, her Majesty's minister at Washington has
been instructed to ascertain whether that government is
prepared to accept the principle of arbitration upon the
pending differences arising out the late civil war, pro-
vided an agreement can be come to as to the points to
which such arbitration should apply.

' out resources, and did not knew where to sleep. A
considerable purse was subscribed for their imme-
diate wants by the reporters and others in court.
The rest were found guilty (of what precise offence
I cannot collect), and sentenced to various terms of
imprisonment, varying from three to ten years.
At 2 o'clock this afternoon the Correctional Tri-
bunal of Paris delivered judgment in the case of
the alleged secret society known as the affair of
the Cafd de la Renaissance. All the accused—
those who appeared as well as those who made
default (22 in all)—were found guilty, and sen-
tenced to terms of imprisonment varying from
three to fifteen months. In addition one of them
was fined 500 fr., and most of the others 100 fr.

The upward movement at the Bourse, accelerated
by systematic purchases in the Rents, announced for
some time to come on the part of public establish-
ments, makes decided progress. Reute rose to-day
20c., closing at 70fr. 20c., both for cash and ac-
count. Mobilier rose 3fr. 73c. ; Credit Foncier,
2fr. 50c. ; and Comptoir d'Escompte, sfr. Italian
was without change.
Although there are so many versions of Victor
Emmanuel's New Year's speech that we do not
know here exactly what he said, it seems, I think,
pretty clearly established by explanations that he
merely expressed (perhaps in ill-chosen terms) his
wish as a soldier that the cadres of his army should
not be weakened, but had not in view any ex-
pected contingency of a war.

THE CONVICTS UNDER SENTENCE OP DEATH
AT MAIDSTONE.

Although some efforts have been made to pro-
cure a commutation of the capital sentence passed upon
the woman Anne Lawrence, who was convicted at the
recent grand gaol delivery for the county of Kent, before
Baron Channell, of the murder of her child, a boy four
years of age, by cutting his throat, it appears that they
have been unsuccessful. A communication was received
yesterday by Mr. F. Scudamore the acting undersheriff for
the county of Kent. from Mr. Walpole, the Home Secre-
tary, to the effect that the government had carefully coo-
sidered all the circumstances connected with the crime
of which the prisoner was convicted, and they are unable
to discover anything that would justify the execu-
tive in recommending her to the clemency of the crown.
It has been already stated that, although the wretched
woman persisted, even after sentence of death had been
passed upon her, in declaring that she was innocent, and
asserted that the murder was committed by her paramour,
which was the defence set up for her at the trial, almost
immediately afterwards she confessed her guilt, and made
a detailed statement of the circumstances under which the
murder was committed. According to this statement, it
appears that the prisoner represented that she was so
maddened by the infidelity of the man with whom she was
cohabiting, that she was almost beside herself, and the
thought suddenly struck her that she would murder him
and the child, and that when she went downstairs in the
morning to get breakfast, leaving her companion in bed
asleep, she saw the razor, and resolved at once to carry out her
deadly intention. She first destroyed the cum by cutting
his throat, and it appears from her statement that he died
without a struggle. She then attacked the man with the
billhook, but he awoke at the first blow and seized her,
and she was thus prevented from carrying out her inten-
tion to destroy his life. There seems to be very little
doubt that if she had succeeded in killing the man Walter
Frighten she would have destroyed her own life, and
that it was only when she found that she was unable
to carry out this intention that she resolved to
endeavour to fix the crime upon her paramour,
and during the many months that she had been
in custody, she persisted in the meet extraordinary man•
ner in asserting that this was really the case. The earnest
manner in which she asserted her innocence to Mr. Hughes,
the professional gentleman who conducted her defence,
produced a strong belief in his mind that she was speaking
the truth, and it has since transpired that the learned
judge who tried her, Baron Channell, was to some extent
impressed with the opinion that there really was some
doubt in the case, and the life of the prisoner might pro-
bably have been spared, if she had not made the eon-
fesnon of her guilt. The case then, of course, assumed
a very different aspect, the crime of the prisoner being
very much aggravated by the persistent attempt she
had made to fix it upon an innocent person ;
~and the
Home Secretary did not feel himself justified in in-
terfering with the course of the law. Since her conviction
the wretched woman appears to have conducted herself
very well, and she seems to be sincerely penitent, and to be
prepared to undergo the penalty of the law. She is only
twenty-eight years old, and is what may be considered a
tall good-looking woman, evidently possessed of very great
determination and courage. With regard to the other
culprit, James Fletcher, who was convicted of the delibe-
rate murder of one of the warders of the Chatham Convict
Prison, where the prisoner was confined under a sen.
team of seven years' penal servitude for a robbery
accompanied by violence, it was felt from the first that
the case was of such a description as to preclude all chance
of the government interfering, and the culprit, who is a
remarkably fine young man only 20 years of age, appears
from the very moment of his apprehension to have been
prepared for what be considered the inevitable result of
his act. The execution of a woman at Maidstone ap-
pears to be almost unprecedented, no record of a similar
occurrence having taken place, at all events within a very
long period, being in existence. This execution will take
place on Thursday morning at 12 o'clock.