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

(FROM A CORRESPONDENT.)

As Parliament is now to meet, and Townley's case will
be brought before the House of Commons, it is as well in
order to promote the great ends of justice, to summarise
the chief points.

lat. As to the contention that the 3 and 4 Vic., cap. 51,
did not render it obligatory upon the Home Secretary to
arrest the course of justice, but giving him a discretion-
ary power to do so, if it should prove, upon his looking into
the facts and circumstances to be reasonable and expedient.
21. As to the contention that the certificate on which the
warrant for the removal of Townley to a lunatic asylum
was granted was invalid, and consequently the warrant for
the removal was illegal, null, and void, ab initto
3d. As to the proper course now to be taken by the

Government.
First. With reference to the newly discovered powers
given by the act of ISO. The words of the first section
are that it any person in prison, except under civil process,
shall "appear to be insane, it shall be lawful for two
justices of the peace of the county, city, borough, or
place where such person is imprisoned, to inquire, with the
aid of two physicians or surgeons, as to the insanity of such
person, and if it shall be duly certified by such justices and
such physicians or surgeons that such person is insane, it
shall be lawful for one of her Majesty's principal Secretaries
of State, upon receipt of such certificate, to direct by war-
rant under his hand that such person shall be removed to
such county lunatic asylum or other proper receptacle for
insane persons as the said Secretary of State may judge
proper to appoint." Now if the words, "it shall be lawful"
for the Secretary of State to remove Townley to a lunatic
asylum, are to be construed as absolute and compulsory,
instead of merely giving him a discretionary power, a num-
ber of gross and glaring absurdities will necessarily follow
by inevitable logical sequence. First, if these words "it
shall be lawful" mean, not what they say, but what they do
not say, namely, that the Home Secretary " shall, whether
he sees good and valid reasons or not, remove the alleged
lunatic to an asylum," the direct consequence is that the
intention of the Legislature and the meaning of the act is
to give a coupl e of country magistrates and a couple of
country doctors, power to rescue any criminal they choose
from the hands of justice. The act applies alike to all persons
in prison for anything whatever except under process in a
civil action, from murder down to a mere misdemeanour.
Is it possible that this can be the intention of the Legis-
ture and the meaning of the statute P Every lawyer end
every layman of common sense must answer this inter-
rogation with an emphatic negative. The Home Secre-
tary ought to have ascertained that the facts of the case
really supported the certificate of insanity given by these
country doctors and country magistrates. Another absurdity
that follows from the construction that the words "it shall
be lawful," are compulsory and imperative, instead of dis-
cretionary and optional, is, that if this is so with regard to
the Secretary of State, it must be equally so where the same
words are used in the same sentence with regard to any two
magistrates, and any two physicians or surgeons in the
country. The act, as we have seen, says, that "if any
prisoner shall appear to be insane, it shall be lawful fur any
two justices, with the aid of two physicians, to inquire into
and certify his insanity." Therefore, if the words "it shall
be lawful" in this first section of the act are to be construed
as peremptory and leaving no discretion, the absurdity will
follow that it is obligatory upon every magistrate in the
country to be for ever inquiring into the mental state of
every prisoner in his county, city, borough or place ;" and
also obligatory upon every physician in the country to be
for ever inquiring into the mental state of every prisoner in
the country, there being no restriction in his case to his
own "county, city, borough, or place," to the end that
they may certify insanity where it is found to be the mental
state of the subject of their inquiry. This absurdity,
monstrous as it is, is not in the least more monstrous than
the absurdity of supposing that a pair of country doctors
and a pair of country magistrates were intended by the
legislature to be invested with power to set aside the ver-
dict of a jury and the sentence of a superior judge, after a
solemn trial, and that by means of a simple certificate given
after a secret inquiry, which is of such omnipotence that it
is to compel the Crown itself through its organ the Home-
office, to rescue a wilful murderer, notoriously, not mad at
all, from the punishment which the law has ordained for
the safety of society and the preservation of life and pro-
perty from murderers and robbers. Secondly, as to the
certificate. As this matter qtauds at present, it seems
that some think the certificates are impeachable upon various
grounds. One of the persons who signed appears to have
thought that he was only signing a statement of his own
opinion, and did not know the force of the document to
which he appeeded his name. It also appears the certi-
ficate on which the Home-office acted was not given and
dated until after the warrant purporting to be founded upon
it was issued. But these matters will, no doubt, be wade
clearer when the discussion comes on in Parliament. There

is another point, however, connected with the certificates
of more importance still. It is that the Home Secretary
does not appear to have thought it worth while to enquire
into their validity, or the validity of the grounds on
which they were given. The report of the Lunacy Com-
missioners affords some insight into the grounds
upon which Townley seems to have been con-
sidered of unsound mind by those whose minds
and judgments are so unsound as to see in him any-
thing else than a perfectly sane, but withal an unusually
perverse, revengeful, cruel, bloodthirsty, and wicked man.
This combination of bad qualities may constitute eccentri-
city and an abnormal disposition, in the sense that happily
there are few such wretches in the world ; but this is not
the insanity which exempts from punishment ; on the eon-
trary, it is peculiarly in need of punishment to keep such
men in order.
This brings us to the pretence on which the plea of in-
sanity was set up. It was agreed that Townley is an atheist,
a materialist; that he does not believe in God, in a future
that he had a right to Miss
state of punishment for the wicked
Goodwin's life. In other
; and that he has a con-
victionwords, he has a right to glut his vengeance, for being re-
by cutting her throat. Then
ywaboo ui
some
ere that has not, at some
of Townley's freaks and
jpeculiarities.
young üßs nt
a story
woman,who
time or other, shown -a disposition to freaks,
Practical jokes, eccentricities, &c., quite as strange as Town-
ley's. There aro times when everybody is merry and fro-
licsome, and inclined to play off all sorts of tricks, and say
odd things. There are odd ways which everybody has, and
which are peculiar to themselves, like Dr. Johnson, the
sober-minded, intensely sane phlegmatic Dr. Johnson, col-
lecting all the scraps of orange peel he could lay his hands
on, and touching all the posts down Fleet-street—a thing
which, he asserted, made him feel very uncomfortable and
dissatisfied.

But even if Townley were mad about white hate, or mad
upon theology, in company with Epicurus, Hume, Comte,
Hegel, and no end of great philosophers in all ages, or mad
about the theory of property, and the law of meum and
tuiwin, like the slave drivers who firmly believe they have
a divine right, under the Bible, to Property in man, as
Townley believed he had a property in woman,—what has
this to do with his being really mad in the sense that he
could not pee and understand the connection between his
murdering Miss Goodwin and the punishment annexed
to that crime by the law ? If he could see and understand
this, he was a fit object for punishment, punishment being
intended to prevent crime, to protect society, by means of
the fear it inspires, restraining people from murder,robbery,
and the like. _ .

With reference to the third point, namely, the proper
course ter the Government now to adopt_there can be no
doubt, that in the mind of any reasonable and benevolent
man who understands the law, who desires that human life
shall not be exposed to the first ruffian who takes a fancy to
destroy it, and whose healthy sympathies are not with the
murderer but with the victim. The first section of the Act
of 1840, 3 and 4 Vic., cap. 54, provides that insane prisoners
removed to a lunatic asylum by the Home Secretary's war-
rant, shall remain there " until it shall be duly certified to
one of the principal Secretaries of State, by two phi sicians
or surgeons, that such person has become of sound mind,
whereupon the said Secretary is hereby authorised, if such
person shall still remain subject to be continued zn custody,
to give his warrant to the keeper or other person having the
care of any such asylum, directing that such person shall be
removed back from thence to the prison, or if the imprison-
ment or custody of such person shall have expired, that he
or she shall be discharged." Now, there is no doubt that
Townley is perfectly sane, however wayward, wicked, per-
verse, revengeful, obstinate, and cruel he may have been.
He " still remains subject to be continued in custody ;" his
" period of imprisonment or custody has not expired," The
life of every man, woman, and child in the country is en-
dangered while Townley is rewarded for a wilful murder of
all but unexampled ferocity and brutality, by being com-
fortably and gratuitously provided for in a lunatic asylum,
his only plea for escape consisting actually is that very
ferocity and brutality which renders his crime so appalling.
All our lives are jeopardised by this flagrant and outrageous
failure of justice. That the course of justice has been
wrongly arrested is no reason whatever why so heinous and
unnatural a criminal should escape in the end. Society
must be protected, life must not be exposed to ruffians of
he Townley stamp, Fiat lustitia runt Mum.

GALLERY OF ILLUSTRATION.

Last night the new' Anglo-Egyptian Entertain-
ment," entitled " The Pyramids; or, Footprints in
the Sand," written by Shirley Brooks, Esq., was
given for the first time at the Gallery of Illustra-
tion, by Mr. and Mrs. German Reed and Mr. John
Parry. At the commencement we find Mr. and
Mrs. Reed, in company with their friend John
Perry, in Alexandria, with an intention of " doing"
the Pyramids, &?.., &e., the scene representing the
reception-room in the house of Signor Quarantino,
the consul for Whackpanderso and the Bicephalons
Islands. Just at the moment of arrival a quarrel
springs up between the wedded pair o❑ a very
peculiar question--viz., the right way of stewing
kidneys, and as to whether mushrooms or truffles
should accoTripany them. The aid of their mutual
friend, Mr. Parry, is sought, and he at once sug-
gests that both should be used; thus the admirer of
truffles can please his palate, and leave the
mushrooms for those who prefer them. His
advice is rejected, and rather than give in Mr.
Reed determines to " du" the Egyptian tour quietly
by himself, and, accordingly, he takes a fortnight's
absence without leave, confiding his better half to
the care of his friend. The wife and friend, of
course, follow the runaway by " the very next
train," and then we have the great scene of the
Entertainment, the tent of the Hon. Dangleton
Spangledore, in front of the Great Pyramid. We
must here diverge a little to compliment the artist,
Mr. William Telbin, o❑ the extreme beauty of his
painting; the "set" is certainly one of his most
triumphant productions, and one that will on every
occasion of its display elicit universal approbation.
To the right of the Pyramid the aforesaid exquisite,
Mr. Spangledore (Mr. German Reed), has erected
his tent, and furnished it with every luxury, even
to a grand pianoforte and an unmistakeable English
bulldog. bpangledore, who belongs to that class of
voyageurs who have a desire of travelling all over the
world in a feather bed, has for the last three weeks
been endeavouring to get himself into a proper
state of mind and body to ascend the pyramid, but
as yet he shudders at the idea, and prefers doing
his " weed" and fondling his dog " Tear'em." Here
Mrs. Reed enters as Miss Rose O'Grady, and quita
captivates the fortunate owner of the tent. She

then gives a racy Sketch of the journey from Lon-
don to Alexandria, via rail and boat, which is cer-
tainly the best bit of the entertainment. The next
visitor to the world's wonder is a certain English
M.P., one Mr. Barnabus Boanerges Bradshaw (Mr.
John Parry), a po►itical economist, who can see
nothing in the much talked of brick mountain; and

another very humorous, incident is the rehearsal by
Mr. Bradshaw of the speech he intends delivering
in the "House" on his making a motion to the
effect that the British Government recommend his
Highness the Viceroy of Egypt to pull down the
pyramids and erect baths and wash-houses with the

materials. Tnese visitors are followed by the Pacha
Suleiman, Arthur Wimbledon (a cadet), and Bobby
Bow, represented by Mr. Reed; Archilles, a yoang
Greek, Abdallah, an Arab boy, and Mrs. Saiatford
Bow, a lady from London, by Mrs. German Reed ;
and Signor Morgantino (a magician), Ibrahim (a
dragoman), and Muley Ali (a slave merchant), by
Mr. John Parry. From the foregoing enumeration

it will be seen that the entertainment is rather more
dramatic than usual, and we must confess we wish

it had not been so. There is a want of that joyous
merriment which hitherto has been the distinguish-

ing feature of Mr. and Mrs. Reed's entertainMents,
and another great mistake is that having intro-
duced a grand piano -on the scene it is left

entirely untouched either by Mrs. Reed or by
John Parry during the whole of the evening. At
one time we thought the economist, Mr. Bradshaw,
was about to give his opinion up an things in general

with a musical accompaniment, but such was not the
case, and the disappointment was evidently felt by
the audience. The pianoforte, therefore, had better

be removed from the scene, for, without it is wanted
for some especial purpose, it is a positive absurdity
in its present position. Thcre is a song for Mr.

Reed as the cadet, and another for Mrs. Reed as
Mrs. Bow, but they are very ordinary pro-
ductions, and certainly not on a par with the
musical illustrations given in former entertain
men ts.

We feel certain that both Mr. and Mrs,

Reed will at once perceive the weak places in
" The Pyramids," and will set about strengthening
and improving the same, more especially as they
have the materials ready to hand " cut and dry."
As far as the assumption of the characters repro-

vented by the clever trio is concerned, nothing could
be better—each was a perfect photograph of its

original ; but to make them " go," good music is
required, and as that most certainly is, as we have
already said, easily attainable, we shall regard the

representation of last evening in the light of " a
grand rehearsal," and look forward eagerly for a
new and improved edition of " The Pyramids."
The Gallery was filled in every part by a very
brilliant and fashionable company.