The Sun.
London, England, 1864-01-16 00:00:00

AMERICA.

The Inman steamer City of Edinburgh, from
New York on the 2d instant, has arrived, after an
unusually stormy passage.
There is very little of real interest transpiring in
financial circles, and the usual holiday of quietude
is the ruling feature. A comfortable feeling is every-
where manifest, and the New Year is ushered in
under circumstances which are highly favourable.
Our financial affairs are in a healthy state, and pro-
mise a steady improvement. The apprehensions
which prevailed ons year ago are no more felt, and
it is the general belief that there will henceforth
be a steady growth in prosperty. The advent of
the National Banks has marked a new era in the
financial world, and there is no question that this
new system of banking will tend to the good of
.the country.
111 r. Charles Christmas, of the firm of August
Belmont and Co„ representatives here of the Roils
onilds, retires from the firm after an experience of
nearly half a century in Wall-street. Mr. Mat-
thiessen also withdraws from the house. The busi-
ness will hereafter be conducted by Mr. Belmont.
The movement in general trade has been light,
though fair for the season, Oa Thursday there was
but little business done, the merchants being more
desirous of squaring up than of assuming new obli-
gations. We hear of many proposed changes, some
of which are of the oldest and best known firms in

the city. The mat kets were firm for the most part,
at the close—merchants generally anticipating an
active movement soon. The stock of some kinds of
goods on hand were not fully made up on Thursday,
but they will appear in our next issue.
Gold has not been subjected to any very violent
changes since our last, though the bulk of the sales
have been at rather lower rates. The closing rates
at 5 p.m. may be found below. •
Foreign exchange :has baen dull, and the busi-
ness for the steamer wits light. Sterling bills have
been sold at 166 k per cent.
The telegraph announces, that 35,000,000 of

legal tender interest-bearing Treasury Notes will
soon be delivered to the public. They are to be
negotiated through the National Banks. The
notes under 100 dole. will be without coupons, and
payable in one year from January 1, 1864, with
interest at maturity. The note of 100 dole. and
upwards will have coupons, and payable semi-
annually, and the Principal will be redeemable
in two years from the Ist of January, 1861. These
notes will bear a uniform date. 50,000,000 dole. of
these notes were sold in advance to the Associated
Banks in September last,
Which will be paid before
they are delivered to the
The loan market has been rather more active, but
rates are the same. Call loans are quoted 7 to 8,
but regular borrowers have no difficulty in obtain-
ing accommodation at the inside figure. There
is much speculation concerning the probable effect
of the proposed negotiations through the National
Banks of the interest-bearing legal tender Treasury
Notes at par and interest.
The market for Government securities remains
without decided change. The twenty-year six per
cent, bonds are rather firmer, as likewise the certi-
ficates and coupon sixes,

The bidding; for £400,000 Government bills on
India were received at
the Bank of England on the
16th. The applications Vithin the limits amounted
to £1,240,000. £210,000 were allotted on Calcutta,
£170,000 on Bombay,
and £20,000 on Madras. The
minimum price was unaltered, ls. 111-d. per rupee
on Calcutta and Madras,
and ls. 1 lid. on Bombay.
Tenders at ls. Hid. 011 Calcutta receive about 9 per
cent.; on Bombay at os. Old in full, no allotment
~
being made below that ;ate; and at le. lltd. on
Madras, about 60 per cent. On the Continent money
is rather higher in Paris, and at St. Petersburg
rate; are merely nominal.
There has been tin active movement in stocks
since our last, though the market has not been very
buoyant. Some few 4
shares have sold largely on
speculation, but at irregular prices. On the whole
rates are rather lower. Some kinds, however, are
hi
considerably
higher. Government stocks were
steady. The princi-
pal sales at the Board were of
the Five Twenty Year Sixes at 101.: to 1011. There
was no second session of the Board on Thursday
afternoon, it having been voted to adjourn over
until to-day.

H THE IMPERIAL SKATERS.—To see the Emperor
1
daily indulging his favourite exercise of skating, or
being pushed along in a sledge en the ice of ono or other of
the ponds of the Bois de Boulogne'
one would never imagine
he had just escaped so imminent a danger I But Louis
Napoleon is a man of no common nerve (with all due respect
to Mr. Kinglako be it said), and his fatalism, which is said
to be one of the leadinB features of his character, in so far
stands him in good stead. Whilst driving a few weeks ago
at Compiegne to a meet, a gun vi"s
fired off in the imme-
diate proximity of the imperial carriage. The Emperor
fixed his glance sternly on the Empress, as if to enforce on
her side an appearance of calmness and indifference, and
succeeded so very far that although
the Imperial Eugenie's
cheek was blanched into deadly paleness, she suppressed
Yao untowardly interrupted. This
any cry,which could betta emotion, and continued tho con-
versation which had keen
anecdote I can vouch for, having heard it from the ladye
who accompanied th Imperial pair on this particular
occasion.

What is the Law for Murder ?

TO THE EDITOR OF THE SUN.
SIR,—I have said the words "it shall be lawful," which
occur in the first clause of the act of 1840, under which
Townley has been reprieved, are permsssive, not peremp-
tory. Their meaning, I contend, is that the Secretary of
State "may" reprieve the prisoner if he sees reason, not
that he " must" do so whether he sees reason or not. And
my reason for holding this view is that, if it is not the right
one, then it must have been the intention of the Legislature,
and is the meaning of the act, to give power to a brace of
county " Dogberries," arm in arm with a brace of "starved
apothecaries," to overrule and extinguish the Lord Chief
Justice of England and a jury, to quash the judgment of the
Lunacy Commissioners, to nullify the opinion of the Crown
lawyers, headed by the Attorney and Solicitor-General as
well as the Secretary of State ; and finally, to make the
Crown itself subservient to the execution of their august
crotchets. Now, I submit it is utterly impossible that this
can be the meaning of the act, or the intention of the
legislature.

We have heard great clamour lately against the punish-
ment of death for murder. But what proof more conclusive
that hanging is the most efficient preventive of murder, than
this very clamour raised against it on the ground of its
severe and terrible character ?

But this clamour raised against hanging in general and
the hanging of Wright in particular, proves something
mere. It proves how unwise, how unjust, how cruel to
society whose lives are endangered, it is to let a murderer
escape the punishment he deserves. Directly one murderer
is allowed to get off, like Townley, it is immediately put
forth as a precedent for letting other murderers escape. If
Townley had not been wrongfully exempted, Wright would
not have been the object of such misplaced morbid sym-
pathy, or the subject of a protest against awarding to
murderers the severest punishment known to the law,
merely because he was rightly hung. No sensible person
has any feeling in the matter ; nobody capable of reasoning
feels anything like vindictiveness against either Townley or
Wright ; nor is it pretended by the wise and humane that
either should be punished for the sake of mere expiation.
But what we say is, that your life, Sir, mine, and every-
body else's ought to have the best protection and security
that the law can give us ; in other words that, murder being
the worst of all crimes known to the law, the convicted mur-
derer should with the utmost speed and certainty undergo
the severest punishment known to the law, in order to deter
men from destroying life. We have heard a good deal
about Wright being hurried out of the world too rapidly
for repentance. I exposed this nonsense before. It is a
blasphemous reflection upon the character of the all wise,
all merciful, omnipotent, and infinitely just Supreme Being
to urge that He cannot, or will not, make all due allowance
for the circumstances of the case. It is not necessary to
criticise the implication that a few weeks or months of sel-
fish and equivocal repentance under sentence of death ought
to wipe off whatever punishment, present or future, is due to
the shedding of human blood, which is death by the Divine
law, by which these very sophists pretend to be guided.
Wright expressed himself quite happy and comfortable in
his mind, and quite sure he was forgiven, and that he had
nothing to fear in the next world. Men ought to be punished
twice over, here and hereafter, or they ought not;
in the one case deathbed repentance will not save them,
however prolonged ; in the other, deathbed repentance is
not necessary to save them. Indeed, it is doubtful how far
it is expedient to make murderers believe that they have
only to say certain prayers, and think certain thoughts,
and that their crimes will b© forgiven in the next world, so
that they have only "a bad quarter of an hour" to suffer in
the present outside of Newgate or Horsemonger-lane,
cheered and sustained by the huzzas of a mob drunk and
delirious with excitement, and shouting "Bravo!" "God
bless you, my lad I" " Judicial murder !" "No more hang-
ing I" Truths, sir, ought to be told. There is an immense
deal of morbid cant in the world ; not only morbid, but mis-
chievous. There are those who would place the lives of
the whole country in jeopardy, from an unnatural abnormal
sympathy with the shedder of human blood. To save the
life of one who has destroyed human life they would make
all human life unsafe, and expose every member of the com-
munity to the knife of the assassin. Against this sin,
which is virtually murder in the second degree, as being
accessory in general before the fact, pray, sir, publish the
protest of

COMMON SENSE,

What the Emperor said to the Ambassadors
on New Year's Day,

It was just three minutes past one when the Em-
peror entered the Salle des Marechaux, and the
clock of the Tuileries struck the quarter past as
the company left the hall. It is but just to say that
his Majesty made the best use possible of the twelve
minutes allotted to the service of diplomacy, for in
that restricted space ho found means to pay his
usual annual compliment to Monseigneur Chigi, the
Pope's Nuncio; to hope (aloud), in the ear of M. de
Budberg, that the amicable understanding between
France and Russia would continue to exist ; to ex-
press, in a marked manner, to Djemil Pasha all the

pleasure which his master the Suitan had afforded
him by his ready acquiescence to the invitation to
the Congress, to which Djtmil Pasha winked and
stuttered, and made a most truly graceful and
Oriental bend of the head, but answered not a
word, which silence may be accounted for by his
total ignorance of the French language. Then a
few words to the Count do Goltz, to condole with

him on the indisposition which has prevented the
King, his master, from holding the usual reception
on the occasion of the New Year; to thank M.
Isturitz, in many words, for the cordial reception
accorded to the Empress, and to assure him that
both their Majesties would preserve an eternal sou-
venir of the regal hospitality of Spain. Then came
the turn of the Republican Dayton, who also re-
ceived his share of compliment in the wish ex-
pressed by his Majesty that the coming year would
be one of conciliation for the adverse parties in
A merica.

Prince Metternich got his ready made phrase
likewise, and so did M. do Kern, but when his
Majesty came to Lord Cowley he seemed to hesitate
for a moment, then passed by without uttering a
word. It might be that time presser; it might be
that he had nothing to say ; or, better still, that
there was so much to be said that he felt that it
were wise not to begin. But whatever the cause,
the consequence was great astonishment on the
part of the company, and some little embarrass-
ment on the part of his Lordship. The greatest
wonder of all, however, in the morning's perform-
ance was the late arrival of M. Nigra, the Italian
Ambassador, who entered the hall absolutely radiant
with smiles—all gay with bright "good mornings,"
just as the whole assembly was leaving. Those
who know more than they read declare that the
negligence was intentional, that Victor Emmanuel
wishes neither to receive nor bestow compliments
just now, and that M. de Nigra had received in-
structions from Turin concerning the behaviour h©
was to adopt; others assign for the omission merely
a natural cause. His Excellency's toilet was most
elaborate, his tenue unexceptionable. He is a late
man—twelve o'clock is an early hour—and there-
fore was the Chevalier Nigra rather behindhand
with his Now Year's compliments. The only thing
which could justify suspicion was the perfect un-
concern with which the Chevalier took hi.; misfor-
tune, for he joined the groups who were departing,
and mingled in the conversation on the stairs, with
as much ease and freedom as though he were
ascending to the hall of audience instead of descend-
ing without being heard.

CONSPIRACY, OR NO CONSPIRACY P—TV e have no
further details about the plot, writes the Paris
correspondent of one of our morning contemporaries, and
as is invariably the case, some sceptics set a rumour afloat,
which, however, few people are simple-minded enough to
believe in, that the whole is a trumped-up affair. I can re-
member that under Louis Philippe the Republican journals
used openly to complain that the police invented the con-
spiracies which marked that unfortunate monarch's reign
to claim credit for putting them down. Only two days
before Fieschi's attempt (see Guizot's " Memoires ") one of
the papers actually printed this :—" The Citizen King yes-
terday came to the Tuileries from Neuilly, with 'son
auquste Tamale.' He was not in the least assassinated."
Two days later Fieschi's infernal machine scattered death
throughout the King's escort. It is the same sort of spirit
that denies the existence of the present plot, which, after
th

e particulars given in the official law papers, no man in
his senses would venture to deny. According to the _ltalie
of Turin, Trabucce is a native of the Terra di Lavora, and
has been several times in gaol. Greco was brought up,
according to the same authority, at the Seminary of Piano ;
he was expelled from the Jesuits' Convent at Naples, after-
wards expelled from the Barnabite Convent, and finally
found a refuge among the Immaculatelli at Castellamaro—
a kind of political Bon Basilio. Buth ho and Trabucco are
said to be musicians.

ROSSINI'S " MOISE," AND AUBER'S " MA-
SANIELLO," are the great attractions of the Grand Operas

in Paris.

MIL BENEDICT has returned from his rush over
to Germany to superintend the production of his "Colleen
Bawn."

WILLIE PAPE, THE AMERICAN BOY PIANIST,
is making a very successful provincial tour.

MME. ARABELLA GODDARD, the planiste, will
return to town, from Boulogne, next week.