The Sun.
London, England, 1864-01-02 00:00:00

TO THE EDITOR OF THE DERBYSHIRE ADVERTISER.

Sir,—As many surmises and conjectures seem to be afloat
concerning myself and one who was very dear to me, I
feel bound in justice to her memory to make known the
facts of the case. Our sad story is this :—Five years ago
we were fondly attached to each other, but having the un-
pardonable fault of being poor, friends interfered and we
were condemned to separate. We did so with much sorrow
and with much pain. Hinc lacrytnce. Was it not
natural, therefore, that on our meeting again, under what
appeared happier auspices, our old affection should revive
with redoubled strength, and that she should return to her
first and early love, whom she had never forgotten, and
whom she found still faithful to her ? What wonder if we
vowed never to part again, come what might ? But we
have been again cruelly separated, to meet again no more
in this world. I would wish to say, that it was from a
desire to do what was just, right, and honourable that she
lost her sweet life. These few words I feel bound to say in
justice to the memory of one whose beauty, goodness, and
kindness of heart had endeared her to all who knew her,
and whose cruel and early death has plunged many into
hopeless misery and thrown a fearful shadow over my
own life.—l am, sir, yours, &c.,
Cheshire. FRANCIS R. BRYAN'S.

Our Derby contemporary also publishes the fol-
lowing interesting details :
Most of our readers are aware by this time that the exe-
cution of the sentence upon George Victor Townley, who
murdered Miss Goodwin, has been respited, and in order
that the public may know how the respite was obtained,
we proceed briefly to state what steps have been taken by
Mr. Leech (the prisoner's solicitor), hii relatives, and
others, to secure that object.

Immediately after Tbwnloy's condemnation application
was made to Mr. Baron Martin, the judge who tried him,
with a view to induce him to suggest to the Home Secretary
the desirability of directing a commission of inquiry into the
state of the prisoner's mind. Before, however, the applica-
tion had reached the learned Baron, his lordship had already
been in communication with the Home Secretary on the sub-
ject. Statutory declarations of numerous persons, including
several of the leading medical men resident in London, Man-
chester, Leeds, York, Scarborough, and Chesterfield, were
also made, together with a record of numerous cases of
hereditary insanity in the prisoner's family. Statements
were also made to the Home Secretary to the effect that the
extraordinary theological and moral views of the prisoner,
as expressed by him to Dr. Forbes Winslow, were entirely
opposed to the notions which he had previously entertained,
and that his previous lifa was most ex-mplary and remark.
able for its morality. Some rather singular statements
were made on oath by Mr. Bolin and others, as to the
alleged past delusions of the prisoner. Mr. Dolan's evi-
dence was to the effect that he was an intimate friend of
Townley whilst in London, two :rears ago. He also knew
about that time of the first breach of the engagement be-
tween Townley and Miss Goodwin, and although the former
apparently acquiesced in what had been done, and returned
the unfortunate young lady's letters, his conduct at times was
extremely eccentric. On one occasion, in London, Mr. Dolan
stated that Townley purchased seven white hats and three
umbrellas at one shop, and in order to distinguish one hat
from another he cut square holes in them of different sizes,
and wore the hats on alternate days in spite of remonstrance.
On another occasion Townley accompanied Mr. Dolan to
some swimming-baths and plunged in with his clothes on.
On being told about it he expressed his surprise at what had
occurred, and said he believed he had been undressed. He
also turned the pictures in his rooms upside down, and
otherwise acted in a very extraordinary manner. An ex-
planation was given to the Home Secretary as to why this
evidence was not known or adduced upon the trial. Nine
of the jury who tried Townley signed a memorial to the
Home Secretary, stating that, although their verdict was a
just one, they were of opinion that an inquiry should be
made as to the present state of the prisoner's mind.
Petitions in favour of commutation were sent from London,
Manchester, Leeds, York, Hull, Derby, and other places,
the aggregate number of signatures obtained being about
30,000. A certificate was also signed by three local magis-
trates and two medical men, in accordance with the provi-
sions of an act of Parliament, expressing their view to the
effect that they believed Townley to be insane.
Sir G. Grey being unable to withstand these influences
determined to appoint a lunacy commission of inquiry, and
Dr. Foster, Dr. Wilkes, and Mr. Campbell, solicitor, the
commissioners selected, arrived in Derby at four o'clock on
Saturday afternoon last, taking up their quarters at the
Midland hotel. They at once proceeded to the gaol, told
the governorr their errand, and were ushered into the con-
demned cell, without any previous arrangement or Townley
being made aware of the object of their interview with him.

After an interview of two hours they left, and returned to
the gaol on Sunday, when at one o'clock they proceeded to
examine Mr. Sims, the governor; the Bev. Mr. Moore,
chaplain; Mr. Gisborne, the surgeon; Mr. Carrington,
head turnkey, four under turnkeys, and Mr. and Mrs.
Townley. Dr. Foster also attended the Sunday afternoon
service at the gaol chapel, and, unknown to the prisoner,

watched his conduct narrowly. The Rev. Mr. Moore
preached on the Sunday morning and afternoon, the follow
ing being the text selected :—Morning, Ist Timothy i. 16—

" Howbeit for this cause I obtained mercy, that in me first
Jesus Christ might show forth all long suffering, for a pat-
tern to them which should hereafter believe on him to life
everlasting." Afternoon, St John xiv. 6—" I am the way,
the truth, and the life : no man cometh unto the Father but
by me."
The lunacy commissioners were engaged from 1 o'clock
on Sunday afternoon until 7 the same evening in examining
witnesses; after which.they had another protracted inter-
♦iew with Townley in his cell. They then. left the gad,
On Monday morning they prepared their report,and at noon
proceeded by train to London, having arranged to present
the report at the Home-office between 4 and 5 o'clock the
same afternoon. Sir George Grey was spending the Christ-
mas holidays at his seat, Fallados, in Northumberland, a
distance of 323 miles from the metropolis, and a special mes-
senger was at once despatched to him with the commis-
sioners' report, together with the evidence taken in the in-
quiry. The messenger reached Falladon between 9 and 10
o'clock on Tuesday morning, when Sir George Grey perused
the documents, and then at once despatched the messenger
to Derby, who arrived here at 7 p.m., on Tuesday evening.
He reached the gaol at 7.15 p.m., where every preparation
was being made for carrying out the sentence, the scaffold
being in course of erection. The messenger at once handed
the respite to the Goverror. It was to the effect that the
execution of the sentence of death passed upon George Vic-
tor Townley be respited until further signification of her
Majesty's pleasure. Mr. Sims at once communicated the
news to Townley, and whilst all the officers of the gaol
were overcrome with feelings of satisfaction, Townley re-
ceived the information without the slightest emotion.
Directly afterwards Townley's family, who were in the
town, were made acquainted with the contents of the de-
spatch, and on the sa• le evening they had an interview
with the culprit in his cell.
Previous to receiving the respite on Tueslay,a deputation,
consisting of two leading members of Parliament,a physi-
cian, the Rev. Cosmo Gordon, Mr. Wright, the prison
philanthropist (all from the neighbourhood of Manchester),
and Mr. Leech, the prisoner's solicitor, had been organised,
and had actually started on their way to Failed= fur the
purpose of having an interview with Sir George Grey; but

upon the arrival of the messenger, they were telegraphed
for back.
With regard to Townley's health we may state that he is
heavier now than at any time since he entered the gaol. He
never was in better spirits, and a few days ago talked cheer-
fully about his execution, and remarked that on Thursday
(yesterday) he should be restored to Miss Goodwin. Since
the respite his conduct has been much the same, and he
still remains in the condemned cell with two warders in
charge of him day and night. Whatever opinion may pre-
vail as to whether or not he ought to have been executed,
there is but one opinion as to the able manner in which his
defence has been conducted by Mr. Leech, to whose un-
wearied exertions the culprit is indebted for the respite of
his sentence.

Russian Official Accounts of Events in

Poland.

In an article confuting certain assertions made
by the official Dziennik of Warsaw, in contradiction
of Polish news published by the Journal des _Wats,
the French journal makes the following remarks on
the accuracy of Russian reports generally :
With regard to young Rawicz and the tortures to which
he is said to have been subjected during the detention which
preceded his condemnation and punishment, the Dziennik
confines itself to a repetition of the statement, " that no
civil or military tribunal has any right to apply torture, be-
cause the law has suppressed it." But where are law and
right in Poland at the present day ? Has not the state of
siege suppressed them also ? The 'act is attested by a large
number of correspondents of various nations—English, Ger-
man, and Polish—writing in all the journals of the world,
and who are opposed, not by a categorical denial, but by an
argument, we are told, that the law has suppressed torture;
that the Russian Czar has also abolished the penalty of
death since the reign of Catherine ; yet every day people are
hung or shot by imperial order in the whole of Poland, both
in the kingdom and in the provinces annexed to the em-
pire. . .
As the Dziennik appeals to our impartiality, as it justly
invokes the rights of truth, and speaks of rectifications,
we have been induced to examine the Russian telegrams,
to sex whether they, too, are not sometimes full of exagge-
ration, and whether they are to be blindly credited. It is
right that public opinion should be enlightened on this
point. No one has forgotten the telegram from St. Peters-
burg, dated the 23d January, immediately after the exe-
cution of the famous recruitment, announcing that in the
night of the 22d of that month the Poles had failed in an
attempt to renew the St. Bartholomew massacre against
the Russians. On the 31st it is officially announced from
Warsaw that nothing is known of the proclamation of a
state of siege in Lithuania and Podolia. These provinces
are tranquil, and yet, three days after a telegram from St.
Petersburg says that numerous bands have appeared in the
district of Troki, government of 'Wilna ; and on the 7th
Feb., as announced in a Warsaw despatch of the 10th,
Gen. Maninkin has a battle with 6,000 insurgents at Sie-
miatycze, in the Government of Grodno—notwithstanding
which, the Warsaw telegram of the 17th March declares
that " no movement has taken place in the western provinces,
and tranquillity has not been disturbed there."

" These instances will suffice to show what confidence
Russian official despatches and denials generally deserve ;
but they are as nothing compared with the extraordinary
adventures of Ihe Polish chiefs related by the Warsaw tele-
grams. One of them, Bogdanowicz, was, according to a
Warsaw telegram of the 20th Feb., taken prisoner, another
of the 27th states he was killed in battle—and a third,of the
7th March, declared he was condemned to death and shot.
Another well known Polish chief, Padlewski, is killed by an
official despatch of the 14th March, and his papers fall into
the hands of the Russian troops. He reappears in the de •
spatch of the 27th March, to be beaten and put to flight;
and it is only after his death and posthumous defeat that he
is definitively taken prisoner in the telegram of the 23d
April, and shot a few days after. Czachowski, whose death
we announced quite recently, had already been killed in a
Warsaw telegram of the 25th March, and his papers, as
usual, had fallen into the hands of the imperial troops ; this,
however,did not prevent his reappearing alive in the d espatch
of the 12th May, his being in action for several months, and
his being spoken of in several subsequent official telegrams.

• . There are sometimes curious contradictions between
the official telegrams from Warsaw and the official reports
of the lnvalide Busse. Thus, quite recently, a Warsaw de-
spatch of Dec. 12 deciared that the news given by the Paris
journals of certain battles, particularly of that of Ociosianki,
fought by Bosak and Chmielinski, were a pure invention;'
while the Invalids Russe, in its number of Dec. 15, gives a
detailed account of this very battle of Ociosianki fought by
Bosak and Chmielinski.
. _ _

"But let us now pass to another class of facts. It might
be alleged that errors and omissions might slip into the re •
citals of numerous engagements over the whole extent of a
country where communications are difficult. Lc t us now
speak of cases where the perversion of truth cannot be ex-
plained by accident. It will be remembered that a Warsaw
telegram denied the report of the condemnation to death of
the prelate Bialobrzeski after the closing of the profaned
churches in the night of October 15, 1861. The following are
the words of a St. Petersburg despatch, dated a few days after
(January 2) The guilt of Canon Bialobrzeski having been
confirmed in his trial, the military tribunal has condemned
him to death. This penalty has been commuted by General
Luders, the imperial lieutenant in the kingdom, to banish •
ment to Siberia. . . . On Dec. 20, 1862, a St. Peters-
burgh telegram gives the following unexpected news— 'An
Imperial ukase, published to-day, annuls all the confisca--
tions which have been hitherto maintained in Poland. The
confiscated estates shall be returned to all Poles that return
to their country, both to exiles even and to those who have
been born abroad.' The text of the ukase arrives, and it is
found that no confiscation has been annulled, no restitution
of estates ordered; on the contrary, all confiscations are
confirmed and the estates are declared as reverting defini-
tively to the imperial exchequer; all that is abandoned is
further search after what may have escaped the investiga-
tion of the police for the last 30 years. It was simply a

sensation telegram, like that which, in the spring of 1862,
announced the approaching proclamation of a constitution
in Russia, just at the moment when Russia was about to
negotiate a loan abroad.
" An official telegram of the 24th June last denies the
authenticity of the instructions to General Mouravidffi
published in the European press, founding its denial on the

assertion that no document was ever signed with these
words—lmperial Chancellery.' We must first observe that
this assertion is incorrect. It is notorious that the imperial
Chancellery is the highest institution in Russia, the first in-
strument of the Imperial Government, and that it is sub-
divided into sections, of which the third has precisely the
charge of the higher police and the safety of the State. The
despatches proceeding from this department are all headed
Imperial Chancellery, section of —,' as is usual in all
great institutions of this kind. The error would, therefore,
appear to consist in the sign of the authenticity of the docu-
ment in question having been placed at the end instead of
at the beginning. But, without insisting on this detail,
which is a mere matter of form, we see that whole passages
from these instructions have been reproduced, almost word
for word, in General Mouravieff's circulars, and that these
instructions are not only literally executed, but even in praC-
tice exceeded, at Wilna. We will take but one phrase from
the official denial of June 24—that which says ' no rigorous
measure has been ordered against women '—and compare it
with the ordinance of General Mouravieff against women
in mourning, dated 25th June, which contains the follow-
ing passage Women appearing in mourning in public
shall be punished with a fine of 25 roubles for the first
offence, of 50 for the second and by arrest, and by the same
punishment as is given to those who participate in the
revolt for the third. .
"This very incomplete list will suffice to show how Rus-
sian official despatches and journals write history, and what
credit is due to their testimony."

RECENT WILLS AND BEQUESTS.

(From the Illustrated London News.)

The wills of George Hobson, Esq., of Westbourne-roal
was proved in the London Court under £lOO,OOO personalty.
The testator has bequeathed the bulk of his property, with
the exception of an annuity of siooo to be held in trust by
his executors for the benefit of his son, including the testa-
tor's interest and share in the business and firm of Messrs.
Reid and Co., brewers—his son receiving £lOO a year during
his minority.

The will of William Gardner, Esq., of Sussex-gardens,
Hyde-park, was proved in London under £20,000 personality
by his brother, Henry Gardner, Esq., the sole executor, to
whom he has entrusted the whole of his property, making a
provision for his (testator's) wife, and leaving to his (tes-
tator's) niece life interest in the sum of £60,000.

The will of George Edward Russell, Esq., late in the Hon-
ourable East India Company's Madras Civil Service, who
died at his residence, Hyde Park. street, on the 27th of
October last, was proved in the London Court under £70,000
personalty, the executors and trustees being G. B. Carr,
Esq., of Cumberland-terrace ; W. Moncton, Esq., Clifton,
Gloucester ; and the Rev. H. Russell, of St. John's College,
Cambridge, to each of whom a legacy of £2OO is bequeathed.
To his wife th; testator has left an annuity of £l,OOO, with
all the furniture; the plate, paintings, and books, upon her
decease, to become the property of his eldest son. To his
sons he leaves the residue of his estate, bequeathing to the
children of his late daughter, Mrs. Hill, £lO,OOO ; to his
daughter, Jane Leonora, £15,000 ; together with certain
contingent interests to his children, and an annuity of £250
to his sister, Leonora Russell.

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