The Sun.
London, England, 1864-01-18 00:00:00

TO TAE EDITOR OF THE SUN.

Sin,—lt is good to point the moral of a lesson while it is I
fresh in the public memory. Strike while the iron is hot,
or it will be too late to make an impression. Anybody who
wants to be comfortably provided for for life, at the public
charge, can easily realise his modest and moderate desires
if he will follow the course which recent facts and the
law, in its present state, point out to him, All
he has to do is to murder his wife and children,
or burn down half a dozen houses, and then go and give
himself into custody,
and declare he wants to be hung and
got out of the world. Thereupon the whole pack of mono-
maniacs who sympathise with the murderer and criminals
generally, and are ready to swear that every criminal is mad,
will rush to the rescue. Two magistrates, members of the
" Great Unpaid," and two parish doctors under their in-
fluence, will be cajoled into signing a certificate that the
murderer or incendiary is mad, and he will be delivered
over by the secular arm to those monomaniacs, and com-
fortably taken care of in an asylum for the term of his natu-
ral life, like that interesting captive George Victor Townley.
His food, clothing, and lodging will be the best adapted for
health and general comfort. He will have plenty to eat and
nothing to do, and all day to do it in ; but lest this should
prove tedious, and the interesting captive should be troubled
with ennui, there will be plenty of amusing and instructive
books to read, diversified with proper exercise and such
recreations as chess and drafts, and a variety of other pur-
suits of a cheerful and exhilarating character, Why
the monomanieal sympathisers with the murderer
should evince such a strange fascination about him
is perfectly inexplicable, If Townley were really mad
one could understand it on the principle that "a fellow feel-
ing makes us kind." But everybody who is sane knows
perfectly well that Townley neither is nor was mad at all.
Besides, there is Wright
and nobody ever even pretended
that he was mad. Sir, this is not only a ridiculous, but a
most heinous and attrocious state of things. It is not only
impunity, but solid substantial reward that is held out for
most horrible and appalling forms of murder and crime,
This state of things must not be allowed to last, or we shall
have to borrow Judge Lynch, with Vigilance Committees
and conventions of public safety from across the Atlantic.—
Yours, &c., COMMON SENSE.

MR, MACFARREN's NEw OPERA, on the subject
of " She Stoops to Conquer' is in rehearsal at Covent-gar•
den Theatre.

A despatch from
Eng-
lish steamer Atlas from Marseilles has gone ashore at that
place. Damietta states that the
EST IL POSSIBLE P—lt 18 reported that M. La-
martine is about to marry a B,u9sian Princess of large

fortune.
MR. F. GOODALL, THE NEW ROYAL ACADEINII-
orArr,has delivered his diploma picture to the body of which
he is now a full member. The subject of this work is an
old Nubian singing
at the corner of a street in Cairo, and
accompanying himself upon the'native harp or lute. He
is surrounded by a
motley group of listeners, representing
all the elements of an Oriental street crowd.
OF
CENTENARY
BEETHOVEN'S BIRTH.—The 17th
of December last, the hundredth anniversary of Beetho'ven's
birth, seems to have
passed everywhere without any notice.
We hear, however, that a committee was formed on that
day in Vienna far the purpose of erecting a monument to
the great master, to be unveiled on his birthday is 1870.
THE POET-SCULPTOR. -- Mr. Woolner s full-
sized model for the marble statue of the late Lord Macau-
lay, which is to be placed in the library of Trinity College,
Cambridge,
is now completed. In the studio of the same
sculptor may be seen the colossal model for the bronze
statue of Godley, the founder of the Canterbury settlement
in Now Zealand, 'which will bo erected in the city of Can-
terbury.
A CENTENARIAN HEROINE.—Mrs. Catherine
Shepherd has just died at Hudson, New Jersey,
upwards of 100 years of age. Her father was Jacob Van
Winkle, a descendant of 0110 of the original Mitch settlers
there. Her husband was a soldier of the revolution. From
a steeple at South Bergen she saw the British fleet take
possession of Now York, and the British army marching
to Philadelphia. The British soldiers hung her father be-
cause he would not give them up his money, and after
leaving him for dead she cut him down and restored him to
life. She risked her life in carrying a message to the
American commander at Belleville to warn him of a night
attack from the British forces, by which she saved the
American troops from destruction.—New York paper.
THE CRAWLEY COURT-MARTIAL.—We under-
stand that the officers and non-commissioned officers of the
Inniskilling Dragoons, who were ordered to attend at
Aldershot upon the occasion of the recent court-martial,
have been directed to remain in England, pending the action
at the suit of Sergeat Major Wakefield in the Court of
Queen's Bench,--Orniefd ,Service firzate.