The Sun.
London, England, 1864-02-08 00:00:00

i C-4•A- -e

N EWSP ER

O;O,,,SNae,
4c,,Zyy,1),44,
~.....-'`,—.....1 ve...
lowed by Bell's. s Life, Pilot, and Taller Gai, but ‘., __ 1 4.,,`
0.4 ' :
ing the brook Pilot obtained the Second place, and 144.4t3 -/ 7
11 S

the far turn, where the lot closed up, and on passing&
stand the second time Yeller Gal and Bell's Life were the
leading pair. On reaching the water the latter cleared •it
slightly in advance of the heavyweight, the others following
a dozen lengths in the rear as they proceeded along the line
to the barracks. On reaching the watercourse in the bottom
the two leaders got safely over, but on Pilot reaching it he
refused and ran round, and in so doing came in contact with
Deception, the pair nearly coming down. At the succeeding
fence Bell's Life took a decided lead, and ultimately an ex
citing race by a couple of lengths. The others did not pass
the post.

Unjust and Unwise Commutation of
Townley's Sentence,

FROM A CORRESPONDENT.)

Townley's case grows worse and worse the more one hears
of it. At first a pair of country magistrates and a pair of
country mad doctors rescued this wilful murderer—now
admitted by the authorities never to have been ms.d at all—
from the rightful punishment pronounced upon him ;
,and
now four other persons, equally sitting in secret, like the
Inquisition, with closed doors behind the back of the public,
have consigned him to a punishment that is not the right
one. First, the murderer is wrongly rescued from the right
punishment; now ho is wrongly sentenced to the wrong
punishment. In other words, instead of rewarding Town-
ley for his hideous crime, by providing for him like a gen-
tleman for life, he is to be provided for for life in a way a
little less comfortable. Penal servitude is notoriously a

--- ---- --_____.
mockery of- punishment. It is the mere farce of penal dis-
cipline. Multitudes of honest labourers are not near so well
off as convicts under sentence of penal servitude. Miners
are not so comfortable. The labouring poor, on 10s. or 12s.
a week, are not so well off in one respect, except that of

mere confinement. But the convict has proper exercise in

the prison grounds. A miner is as much a prisoner as a
convict under sentence of penal servitude for life. No pri-
soners are treated so mildly, fed so well, lodged so comfort-
ably as the "lifers." The alleged reason is that they
cannot bear severer discipline for so long a term. The day
labourer, worn out with 12 or 16 hours a day, toil

exposed to all weathers, has no sympathy; but the felon,

the manslaughterer, the robber with violence, who has ga-
rotted, maimed, and crippled his victim for life, the wilful,
heartless, cold-blooded murderer, like Townley, whose sen-

tence is commuted, is to be treated tenderly and lovingly.

Penal servitude is the life of a prince compared with the
penalty inflicted by the workhouse for the unpardonablo
crime ,of poverty. The prison is a palace to the union.
And then there is the ticket of leave, and the money which

,he police slip into the ticket of leaver's hand to keep him
.‘ honest"—" Heaven save the mark I" The convict in

penal servitude is well provided for when ill or disabled by
casual accident, He is treated as well as a gentleman in his

own house, in the infirmary of the prison, where he has
wine, beef tea, and every comfort and even luxury, to say
nothing of such mere necessaries as well warmed, well aired,
and ventilated rooms. Bat has the honest labourer any-
thing like this, when disabled by sickness or accident ? No I
They are left to the alternative of death from want, or the
tender mercies of the workhouse; for their crime—poverty
--is more severely visited than housebreaking, highway
robbery, manslaughter, or murder, when the sentence is
commuted by some quibble from hanging to penal servi-
tude.

As it is now proved even to the satisfaction of the autho-
rities, who appear to be always the last to recognise truth
and fact, that Townley is, and has been throughout, what
everybody possessed of common sense knew him to be—
perfectly sane—the law ought to take its course; not out
of vengeance, not to make this wretch expiate the deed of
blood he has perpetrated by suffering on the gallows, but
to protect human life, to make the law respected, to let the
would-be murderer know that he cannot get comfortably
provided for, for life, by committing a murder, if only it be
sufficiently foul, unnatural, and revolting, for the mono-
maniacal sympathisers with the murderer to raise
a cry that he is mad. It is said that, after being
wrongly reprieved, Townley could not be rightly
hung. Why not ? The law is that when a mur-
derer who goes mad after sentence and before execution,
and is, therefore, reprieved, comes to his right senses
again, the course of justice shall go on as if ho had not been
mad at all. What can there be in the faot of insanity

having supervened, even where it really has supervened,
to frustrate justice and rescue a man sane when he mur-
dered his victim, and sane at the present time, from the
penalty due to his guilt. But Townley has not been naafi
at all. Townley's case is different from the case of a man
who really goes mad after sentence and before execution.
Townley is now proved never to have been mad, but only
wrongfully reprieved. And because Sir George Grey has
made an egregious blunder, therefore, it seems, justice is
to be frustrated and the law brought into disrepute and con-
tempt. It is here that the principal point is. The law is
brought into disrepute and contempt. An impression is
abroad among the homicidal and dangerous classes that
they have only to chew insanity, or to commit crimes suffi-
ciently abnormal and unnatural, and the mad doctors and
mad psychologists, will at once raise a clamour that they
are insane, and ought to escape punishment. That this
impression has got abroad is owing entirely to the mon-
strous failure of justice in the case of Townley, and some
other like Jessie M'Lachlan's. This impression, so pre-
judicial to the safety of society, so dangerous to human life,
is only increased and confirmed by this last blunder of com-
muting Townley's sentence. While he was kept in a
lunatic asylum under reprieve, as mad, the criminal and
murderer class knew that he might be brought out and
hung directly he was proved sane. But now they see
that comfortable provision for life is the punishment for
murder, the natural tendency of this lesson is to make
them believe that they can commit the same
crime with impunity. Penal servitude in its pre-
sent form is a less hard life than the criminal
classes are used to, oat of prison. There is nothing incon-
venient but the confinement, and there is always the hope
and expectation of a ticket of leave, by hypocritically cajol-
ing the chaplain, and currying favour with the parish
authorities. This commutation of Townley's punishment
is flagrantly against public policy and against justice. It
is an encouragement to murder, and danger to human life,
False mercy to the murderer is real cruelty to society.
But why did Sir George Grey have all these inquiries done
in secret? He might not have power to make witnesses
give evidence on oath in these inquisitorial and secret in-
vestigations; but he could have allowed as many persons
as he pleased, including reporters for the press, to have
'been present. He could have ordered practical lawyers to
have been present to watch the conversation between
Tcm'uley and the doctors and magistrates, on every occa-
sion then examinations have taken place. It is not to be
tolerateu! that secret inquisitorial tribunals, consisting of
four persans, whether doctors or justices of the peace, or
both, shall hen power to set aside and annul the sentence
of a superior jud.gre, after a solemn open trial before a jury,
with able counsel on both Bides, and force the Government
to arrest the course of justice, and save murderers from the
consequences of their guilt. It is doubtful if there should
be any power given to a functionary like a Secretary of
State who is not a lawyer, and has no experience in the
trial of criminals, to commute the sentences of the courts of
justice; in other words, to rescue murderers and robbers
from condign punishment. This is just as bad in principle
as the powers given by the Act of 1840 to a couple of pro-
vincial mad doctors, and a couple of country booby justices.
It is hoped that the present session will not be allowed to
pass without a thorough and sweeping reform.*

(From the Medical Times and Gazette)
It is of great importance that justice should be at last vin-
dicated, if not fully satisfied. No convicted murderer, once
respited, has ever, we believe, been delivered over to the
complete
vdi-
executioner ; we are therefore content that Townley Pho -1
be now condemned to penal servitude for life. But of
eyes.:uPdsicsattiilolugorferaatetironimalpmoretdaniccineeincoonutrainedin is
this last
the per- Ilacal report—of true medical science as distinguished from
theories of amiable enthusiasts in
leerYim'seluL Y and you may do
altogether, for you do away with
crime.
the ha-zY .
.. humanity. Ad-
mit the ?grounds on which it was attem
away wpittheot to found Town-
punishment for
be shrewd enough, or brazen enough, to assert,Lthetata as man
was brought into the world without his leave being asked,
therefore he is not justly
at
hnodungoh man
he
shraesa
da
yr it go hjtu tdroge jesuPail iphbuli
mei
df
sof
hor
rowat
hhn
eya
rt
soh, f et t
is i
id
Townleyos e sa ci
tn it,
did that poor girl---let him only show or affect such cynical
indifference and depravity as will shock any amiable expert
who may examine him, and he will be deemed so wicked
that he ought not to be punished. The greater his crime
and hardness of heart the greater his safety. Admit
such doctrine as this—and we may as well—
we must logically accept the famous or rather infam-
ous theory propounded some years ago by a cele-
brated authoress—that no man is responsible for his
acts ; ho is the creature of his organisation, the victim of his
cerebral and corporeal endowments. Townley adopted this
theory, and, to his surprise, found that it was accepted as
proof of his irresponsibility—to his surprise, say, for he
himself acknowledges, " I expected to be hanged, because
I killed her; and am not such a fool as not to know that
the law hangs for murder." Unfortunately for him, he has
now fallen into the hands of able and scientific physicians,
who, while they have deservedly high reputations for their
knowledge of insanity, have no crotchets as to crime and
insanity being convertible terms, and have no special ten-
der desire to protect criminals against society, while for-
getting that society needs protection from criminals ; they
bring to bear on this case what are called corn
o-called
result is a most admirable report, in which. the 'so-called
views, as well as scientific and special knowledge':
" proofs" of his insanity are blown to theiswrainu
soh indebted
We will only add that society
at largo
pressure they put
and the
to the magistrates of Derbyshire
it not been for their perti-
on the Home Secretary.
have been exploded, and a
insanity would probably nevetad
have been established.
ypothesis of Townley's
nmost
t y and
dangerous courage,
precedentth e sv t
_..._._._ _
_._ _ _ _
_al is
earl de
8 s h

THE COPYRIGHT QUESTION .—Mr. Adam Black,
who has been labouring most sedulously during the vaca-
tion on the subject, in communication with literary men and,
publishers, will early this session bring in a bill for
the
consolidation of the A.cts relating to Literary Copyright.