The Express.
London, England, 1867-04-17 00:00:00

HAYMARKET.

Tnis Evnnnto, PERlrit-ilt./K7 1r: Kendal k Mk• Burks.—
As YOU LIKE IT. Mem Rowe, Compton, Farrell, Chippen-
dale, de.; Mrs. Soott-siddmut—ierues trona Kohl E.)
AND JULIE . Mrs. Scottdlddont.—And SMOCKING EVENTS.

Tars Reasons, NO. I,IOI.NDTILS CORNER. Messrs.
Shore and Forrester. —And IT IS NEVER TOO LATE TO
MEND. Messrs. Vining. M. Vllllers, Verner, Shore, Calkutem,
and Mellon ; Musses Page end Rodgers,

LYCEUM.

On EA ,TER MONDAY. BAillijariNO. Mr. Price and Min
Kate ilish..p.—And THR DUKE'S MOTTO. Mr. Feenter,llesara.
Jminn, Emer), Price, Widdlentun. Fitzpatrick, dc.; Mires
Ilenrade, Elsworthy. Grattan, and Carlotta Leciaren.

THIN EVENING, :WEEfar:Ai:hi AND WIVES. Mr. Bel-
ford ESMF.RALDA ; OR, THE SENiATION GOAT. Meson.
Ihnrue, James. Ruhson, and Turner ; Mesdames fiwanborough,
Hughes. Weatherby, ae.—And THE FRENCH EXHIBITION.

HOLBORN.

THIS EVIIIIIING MY --
Yoota and Lennoi—AndTANLV4ll". Mr.
rake;
vou _ ; ; _ KITS
_Marrs. Ne....e Bt.
Leere FidarL,L4 0.421"x=4F..4.06.Phar C.

=wane.
THU Evattnio, Two Acts otiOß BOY, with Grenadier Guards
from the Tower—FAUnT. Mrs. Lane, %flows Edwin. Booth, dr.
—Grand Concert, Mr. Green, Madame Polley, Mr. Adams, Little
Lotto, Miss Bennond, the M•Bafiles: Your Marvels of Mexko.

HIGH WATER AT LONDON BRIDGR.
Till DAY —Morning. OR 69m......After500t. lb. Mk.
TO-NlOAROw—Nornbag, lb. 42m.._..A!{rrn0ol. A. lm.

LONDON, WEDNESDAY, APRIL 17.

THE revolting scene which was exhibited yester-
day at Horsemonger-lane Gaol may not, we hope,
be without its good effects. One fact, according
to the common saying, is worth a thousand argu-
ments, not, perhaps, as an instrument of rational
conviction, but as a means of popular im-
pression. Opinion in England is undecided in
regard to the infliction of capital punishment, and
still more as to the propriety of public executions.
A single incident, timely occurring, may furnish
the occasion for the adoption of opinions for which
there has been a long but secret preparation. The
circumstances and details of the execution yester-
day of JAMES Lomon mar are likely to have more
weight in favour of the abolition of the punish-
ment of death, or, if it be retained, against its
public infliction, than volumes of argument and
cart-loads of reports.

Little can be said on behalf of the prisoner.
His crime was so outrageous that oven Mr. WAL-
POLE, in spite of the recommendation of the jury
and the representations of the Chaplain of the
gaol, backed, within the last few days, by a peti-
tion from the country gentry and others dwelling
about Dorking, where the murderer had resided,
could see no reason for commuting the sentence.
Viewing the age of the offender and his unde-
veloped mental condition, which was said to rise
little above imbecility, it cannot be pretended that
his crime was greater than that of the murderer
WAGER, whom MI. WALPOLE has lately spared ;
and the fanciful reasons, derived from the Report
of the Royal Commissioners on Capital Punish-
ment, on which he acted in the one case, apply
almost exactly to the other. But the Royal
prerogative of mercy is little better now than the
HONE Seetterser's prerogative of caprice. In this
case Mr. WALPOLE was capriciously right.
During the twelve months of the murderer's con-
finement his demeanour appears to have been
inoffensive, and, according to the regulation-judg-
ment in such cases, exemplary. He was respect-
ful and, in his way, attentive to the Chaplain,
and obedient to the prison authorities. He exhi-
bited some degree of natural feeling on the visits
of his relations ; and expressed, on being moved
to do so, compunction for his crime; and, as seems
to be habitual with great offenders, forgiveness of
those by whom he had been injured. But his
strongest feeling seems to have been a kind of
animal clinging to life. When the convict was
brought face to face with the executioner and
the apparatus of death, the instinctive re-
sistance of life and strength broke forth. He
wrestled with the turnkey who led him;
it was necessary to throw him down, in order that
Ca.Leasrr might pinion him securely. It took
four or five warders to hold him, of whom one
or two were severely injured by the blows and
kicks of the prisoner. On reaching the foot of the
scaffold, he renewed his violence, and he had to
be forcibly dragged up the steps, and held under
the beam by three or four men, while the rope
was fastened round his neck, and in a short time
the frantic " struggle for existence" was over.
If the last and gravest act in the administration
of justice should partake of the solemnity of its
preceding stages, the system which gives occasion
to such scenes as these is of very questionable ex-
pediency. Public executions take place expressly
and solely for the sake of them that stand
by; and to present to them, not the
submission of a criminal to the laws
he has offended, but what in its outward inci-
dents—we do not speak of its spirit and justifica-
tion—is indistinguishable from the crime which is
thus punished, the violent slaughter of a strug-
gling and fainting victim, is to defeat the purpose
of the exhibition. The decency of the classic
stage forbade MEDEA to slaughter her children in
the presence of the audience ; and if the
mock-murders of the theatre need to be
kept behind the scenes, actual homicides surely
should not be perpetrated comm populo.
It is worse than trifling to talk of the moral
lessons of which Mr. Cswasrr is the medium.
The impression on the senses would, even in edu-
cated and thoughtful men witnessing such exhibi-
tions, overpower all others. With the men and
women—and they form the bulk of the crowds
that stand round the gallows—who have never
been taught to look beneath the surface of things,
these impressions must necessarily occupy the
whole mind. How cagily the sight of death becomes an
animal pleasure, and the desireto witness itananimal
craving, entire periods of history, as well as indi-
vidual cases, prove. Public executions are a train-
ing school for violence and murder. Scenes like
that of yesterday may be rare and extreme ; but
rare and extreme cases test a principle. Some-
thing more or less like them is witnessed or
imagined in every instance of public strangulation.
The eager and quick attention which is directed
by tens of thousands of eyes upon the ,
demeanour of the dying criminal, and the