The Sun.
London, England, 1864-01-15 00:00:00

THE SUN, LONDON, FRIDAY EVENING„TAINITARY 15, 1864.

before and since the trial, have had exclusive charge
of the prisoner, and have watched him day and night.
_ _

The result of this examination of the officials of
the prison, of which the detail will be found ap-
pended to our report, may be stated briefly as in
effect establishing, without dispute, that there has
been substantially no change in the prisoner's
mental state since the trial ; that such difference or
alteration as may have been noted has been an im-
provement ; and that he has been altogether more
at ease, more resigned, and at times even cheerful,
since the sentence was passed upon him. Not at
any time since he was first brought to the gaol,
according to the testimony of all who have had the
means of watching him closely, does he appear to
have been more rational than he is at present.
In the endeavour to form a satisfactory opi-
nion as to his existing mental state, we have found
it impossible to exclude the consideration of
what his mental condition had been during the
entire period of his imprisonment. What it is now
it has been throughout ; and the detail of what
Pas elicited from him at our interviews, ap-
pended to this report, is probably sufficiently
ample to enable the Secretary of State to form an
opinion for himself as to the prisoner's moral con-
dition, the views entertained by him of
,the mur-
der he committed, the motives that impelled him
to it, and the reasons by which he justifies it. We
have to remark that generally his manner during
these interviews, with one or two exceptions which
we have noted, was remarkably calm, quiet, and
self-possessed; and though he seemed to have had
no difficulty in at once, from the questions put to
him, correctly inferring the object and drift of our
examination, we saw not the least grounds for
suspecting him of any intention to mislead us by
putting on a manner not natural to him, or feigning
what he did not feel.

In view of the extravagant opinions thus delibe-
rately professed by him, of his extraordinarily per-
verted moral sense, and of the hereditary taint
alleged, and apparently proved, to have existed in
the family of the prisoner's grandmother, we cannot
consider him to be of sound mind; but his views of
right and wrong, false as they are, appear to have
been coherently acted upon, and with a full sense
of what they involved. He reasons now, as he acted
in committing the murder, Upon the point of his
alleged belief in a conspiracy against him we
pressed him very closely ; but we could not satisfy
ourselves thet this was in the nature of a delusion.
It seems certain that some members of the deceased's
family objected to his engagement with her, while
others favoured it, or were indifferent ; and that the
former had obtained an influence over her some
little titre before her letter was written, which was
meant finally to put an end to it. Hence he believed
that she had been acted upon by a conspiracy,
which was meant "in the tenderest point" to injure
him ; and all the questions we put upon this part
of the case failed to draw from him anything that
ccuid bear other construction than that he had
taken a disordered and morbid view of an actual

occurrence.
Being of opinion, therefore, that the prisoner
continues to be now in,the same mental state as
when he committed the murder and underwent his
trial, we think that, applying the law as laid down
by Mr. Baron Martin in this case, the prisoner,
George Victor Townley, was justly convicted.
W. G. CA3IPRELL.
JAMES WILKES.
JOHN FORSTER.

by what transpired iu court, so in fact I had nothing posi-
tive to communicate to the Magistrates. The pros and cons I
which had been traversing my brain for two months I could
not place in my journal—a history of my embarrassments
would not afford any insight to the state of the prisoner's
mini. Supposing I had considered him insane on his ad-
mission, all was done for him that could be done. Magis-
terial authority is very limited over a prisoner before trial ;
after conviction it is extended, and it becomes an important
duty with me to report to de Visiting Justices the phy-
sical capabilities of prisoners to perform their different pri-
son duty ; it is also highly imperative on me to look after
the mental state of sentenced prisoners, so that if insane
they may be removed to Lutatic Asylums.
Dr. Goode thus explaifls his share in the matter :
No steps having been taken by the Visiting Justices to
inquire into the state of the 3riminal'a mind, some magis-
trates were applied to under this clause (of the Prison
Discipline Act) to take wish them two medical men and
make the necessary inquiry; the proceedings and the act
were duly explained to the Chairman of the Visiting
Justices, and an order obtained fur admission to visit the
prisoner; and let it be observed that if those who desired
this inquiry were in a minority among the Magistrates, at
least their judgment was corroborated by that of the autho-
rities at a distance, who acteally did send down Commis-
sioners. The "local commission," as it has been termed,
having for a few hours detertd its visit to suit the conveni-
ence of some engaged, met it the gaol some persons stated
to be the very Commissioners required. The Local Commis-
sion was of course of necessity deferred, and would have been
omitted altogether but for an feeling that no act of forma-
lity should remain unfulfilledin this emergency ; it hence in
due course entered on a careful examination of the prisoner,
and the members, acting or their convictions, signed the
necessary paper ; this paper was simply drawn up in formals
compliance with the act, aid no reasons were appended
to it, because it was decided to leave to persons more
conversant the task of collecting and comparing the
evidences for the Secretary of State. No friends of
the prisoner, nor his solicitor, bore any part in or
were present at the examination. Subsequently, to
this proceeding, an informality having been pointed out,
since but ono of the magistrates was a county magistrate, a
second examination was undertaken in the presence of two
county magistrates to avcid the technical difficulty, and if
it was needless, at any rate the amount of undue influence
exercised thereby in obtairing a reprieve may be judged of
by the fact that it had not yet left the town when the re-
prieve arrived. The magistrates engaged justly remark that
if the friends of Townley did not interfere, who else would
by possibility do so, and in this they are sustained by the
fact that since the time 31 the trial the visiting justices had
never visited the prisoner, though it must not hence be in-
ferred that the magistrates who did visit Townley had any
personal connection whatever with his friends. It has been
objected to the individuals who conducted this examination

that they were all already committed to maintain the pri-
soner's insanity, through having already signed petitions
for the prisoner to the Secretary of State. This allegation is
not true. Doubtless two magistrates had signed a petition,
but the third had refused to do so, though he had signed a
document praying for a commission ; and neither of the two
medical men had signed any document whatever ; one, Mr.
Harwood, from his public opportunities, has the experience
in judging of insanity attained by but few general practi-
tioners; of my own fitness as the other I may not speak, but
I would ask why was my name before all others called
for by the public local press at a previous stage of these pro-
ceedings ? Although partner with the surgeon of the gaol,
I have myself no connection with the gaol, and had had
nothing to do with the prisoner, and participated in the
general bias entertained against him. With regard to the
proofs of insanity exhibited by the prisoner, I may remark
that the account of his ordinary be: ring, and ultra opinions
on religious and other subjects, have been already much
discussed, and are well known, I need not hear repeat them :
we find a man whose creed is annihilation after death, and
possess in flesh and blood, as before, the
yettha
twheefisrhda lhliamgaeixnulting and gaining flesh on the conviction
victim he has himself destroyed; from this and his other
delusions we mayfairly draw a key to explain what we might
otherwise simply call hardened impenitence, and conclude
he is not simply impenitent, but mad. If a person enter-
tains impossible and irrational convictions on matters of
fact, irrespeclive of the teachings of superstition or ignor•
ance, such persons may fairly be accounted insane. The
delusions entertained by the prisoner having all reference
to conditions immediately upon, and subsequent to, the
commission of his crime evidently follow, and do not pre-
cede it, though it must bo confessed that they prove the
material from which have emanated these manifestations of
unsound mind.

in meeting with persons willing and' able to lend them the
necessary funds. The consequence was, of course, a rapid
augmentation of the national debt. The debt, which at the
end of the first year of the war, in June, 1862, amounted to
£125,000,000, in June, 1863, was £250,000,050. It was esti-
mated that in June, 1864, it would amount to £375,000,000,
and if the war continued to June, 1865, and if that war,
different from other wars, did not become more costly the
longer that it lasted, the debt would then amount to
£500,000,000. Now, a portion of that debt bore no interest.
It had been employed as a medium of circulation to answer
the purpose of money ; but it was found that the quantity
which could be disposed of in this manner was necessarily
limited. That limit was taken to be about £30,000,000, and

it had been already reached. All the rest of the debt, and
all the money that must be borrowed for the future, most
necessarily belong to the interest-bearing portion of their
debt, and inasmuch as the average rate of interest of their
debt was 6 per cent., next June the amount which would be
annually payable for interest on that debt would be about
£16,000,000 or £17,000,000—a very respectable sum, even
when placed by the side of the interest which we had to pay
ourselves for a debt:incurred during ages and generations of
wars. (Hear.) Now, these figures, large as they were, would
appear still larger if contrasted with the slenderness of the
proportions of the figures for these same purposes before the
war, only three years ago. In June, 1861, the capital debt of
that country was not more than £l7,ooo,ooo—that was to say,
about the same as the interest that the debt would amount
to in a very few months ; while the income necessary to
cover the expenditure, which had now reached the large
sum of L 150,000,000, was then not more than £12,000,000 or
£13,000,000. Now, applying a scale of the same magnitude
—for it was equally applicable to the other circumstances of
the war, to the destruction of private property,—to the
waste of human life. Bear it in mind that the facts had
shown that; war could not be carried on without breaking
off all allegiance to liberty ; that we had seen the Habeas
Corpus act suspended, trial by jury and the independence
of the judges interfered with, liberty of the press and of
speech things of the past, and we could form some idea,
imperfect no doubt, of the burden and sacrifice entailed by
that war. Now, it might appear a redeeming feature of it
that if not the origin, if not the object of it, at least the end
of it would be the extinction of slavery—(hear, hear, and
applause)—and the conferring of freedom upon vast num-
bers of human beings who had been born and were held in
slavery. (Cheers.) But alas! there were many forms of
evil. Slavery was one—a hateful and most-to-be-abhorred
form ; war was another ; military despotism, too, was an
evil and it was a question whether even so great an object
as the extinction of slavery might not be purchased at too
high a price. (Hear, hear.) Probably it was because
some persons thought that however the war might end
slavery was doomed that we found opinion in this country
so much divided on the question. If slavery were the only
hinge upon which the question turned, there would be na
difference of opinion—(hear, hear)—but slavery apart, it
was open to ask such questions as whether this war, eiffe-
rent as it might be in form, was not in principle the same
as that which was waged by the American colonies against
ourselves—whether we might not trace in it the spirit of
1776—whether we did not see in it the influence of the New
World, which it was perhaps too presumptuously supposed
was to exercise so predominant an influence upon the whole
world—whether it was not the influence of the New World
acting upon a part of itself, and whether, in short, that
same centrifugal force which separated the American colo-
nies from this country was not now operating to separate a
part of those former colonies from the other. (Cheers.)
He should not attempt to offer any answer to these ques-
tions. It was not of great importance which direction the
sympathies of people took ; what was important was the
line of conduct which this country, as a whole, had pur •
sued. This country had steadily adhered to a policy of
nonintervention, and he believed that never were
the Americans more anxious for disentanglement in
the intricacies of European palities than had this country
been anxious for disentanglement in this American struggle.
(Hear.) So faithfully had we adhered to our policy of neu-
trality that, as usually happened with very fair people, we
had disappointed both sides at different times. Thus the
North complained that we had been too hasty in acknow-
ledging the South as belligerents, althc ugh they were com-
pelled to do the same thing quite as early as ourselves.
(Hear.) On the other hand, the South thought we were
too tardy in their recognition, although it was clear they
had not even now succeeded in establishing their indepen-
dence. But appeals had also been made to the Government
in reference to the acts of private persons and the rights of
neutrals. He referred to the vessels of war of a formidable
class. If these vessels were constructed in our ports a belli-
gerent could not, of course, enter our ports and seize them,
because he must not violate our neutrality; and when they
issued from our ports, far from being liable to seizure, they
were much more likely to seize the vessel sent after them.
(Laughter.) He admitted the difficulty of drawing the line
between such vessels and other munitions of war, but he
thought there was a distinction. These vessels had a sort
of distinctive character, they sprang forth a Pallas armed—
when they left our ports they were fitted and prepared at
all points to prey upon the commerce of a belligerent who
might be at friendship with ourselves, and in that way our
ports might be viewed as starting places for hostile expedi-
tions. Fortunately the case had been provided for by anti-
cipation. An act was passed many years ago giving power
to seize such vessels, and some of them had been seized for
violating that act—the Alexandra, for example, and the
ronclads at Birkenhead. It had been decided that the
Alexandra was not strictly liable to be seized. The policy
of our Government would be, however, to do as we
would be done by. (Hear.) He hoped when the war was
over that both sides would acknowledge that our conduct
had been eminently fair. (Hear.) The impending rupture
• •-,rth of Germany was a very menacing subject;
in the
he might appropriately preface his re-
but he thougtn. . - very joyful subject—the birth
marks by glancing at 4. of this country, and he
of an heir to the future throne, ' of good to us all as
hoped that event might prove as fruitfu, of Wales.
happiness to her Majesty and the Princess ees-
(Cheers.) Denmark was a very small country, and the u
tion in dispute was a very small one, but it had brought
matters to the verge of war, and it was much apprehended
that if war should break out there it would drag all Europe
into the vortex. There were two points in dispute, one being
the question of succession to the government of the Duchies.
In the Duchies the rule of succession had been in favour of
the male line, while in Denmark the female line was not ex-
cluded from the throne. On the death of the King of Den.
mark these rules of succession would have separated the
dominions of Denmark into two parts, and as all the great
Powers of Europe were agreed that the integrity of these
dominions was of importance for the maintenance of peace
in Europe, they agreed in 1852 te, recognise the title of the
present King to succeed to these Duchies. The States of
Holstein, it was said, were not consulted, and did not con-
sent to this change, hence the present difficulty. The other
question arose from the Duchy of Schleswig being inhabited
partly by Danes and partly by Germans; and Austria and
Prussia had threatened to march their forces into Schleswig
unless the King of Denmark withdrew his Constitution,
which virtually incorporated Schleswig with Denmark.
England in 1862, to prevent things coming to the present
crisis, proposed a very sensible plan of a bond of union of
our own, which it was to he regretted was not adopted ; and
now, acting as usual on the side of moderation and peace,
had proposed a conference on the subject which, it was to
be hoped, would extricate this question from the arbitrament
of the sword. (Cheers.) It would not be surprising that when
there was cause for so much anxiety in general there should
be an unanimous wish that England should be strong, and
that justice should be done to her strength. (Hear, hear.)
He was happy to believe that the forces of this country,
supplemented by the well-disciplined body of volunteers,
were never in a more effectiVe condition than at present, and
could confidently be counted upon as equal to any emer-
gency. (Cheers.) It has been the object of the Government
to combine efficiency with economy. In the last financial
year the expenditure of the country was, for the first time
for some years past, under £70,000,000, and showed a real
reduction, as compared with the average annual expendi-
ture of the three previous years, of no less than £2,500,000.
But the satisfaction which this would produce would be seen
more complete when it was remembered that the estimated
expenditure of the present year—and there was no reason
to suppose the estimate would be exceeded—was £1,500,000
less than it was last year. (Cheers.) Thus the expenditure
of this year would be £4,000,000 below the average annual
expenditure of two or three years back. It followed that
with a reduction of expenditure a diminution of taxation
could be made; and in distributing the relief derived from
that source the Government had been anxious to effect a
twofold object—namely, to give direct relief to the taxpayer,
and also to encourage the commerce and industry of the
country. Among measures passed for the widening of our
area of commerce might be mentioned the repeal of the
paper duty in 1861, and the repeal in 1860 of the customs
duties in connexion with the commercial treaty with France.
In the sense of direct relief to the taxpayer, reference might
be made to the remission of taxation during the past year.
(Hear, hear.) During 1863 the income tax was reduced
i
from 9d to 7d in the pound, with the not
inconsiderable
additional boon of allowing a man Theeo inco
cme n
was less
than £2OO a year to deduct £6O. frustio o f
T htehree
duty on tea was a matter which spe
cemmodity, not a necessary of life, which was
was no
so universal a favourite, and whose cheapness and ex-
cellence were so much appreciated. The increase in the
consumption of tea was no bad measure of the habits and
customs of the people, and that increased consu
Whereas tion
at
had been wonderful during the past 20 years.
that period 40,000,000113 of tea were consumed there were
now 80,000,0001 b, showing in some
degree an addition to
the rational and do perhapsny of the. people.
(Cheers.) It might be thought that with these
great reductions of taxation the revenue of the country
-must show a great falling off. But the tables of the revenue
lately published told a very different and more gratifying
story. Nothing, in fact, could yield more gratifying proof
of the general sound condition and healthy prospects of the
country. It was not to be efpected that the decline in the
distress would receive a check with the advance of winter,
but the additions which had as yet been made were small,
compare 1 with the additions made at the corresponding
period of last year. But, whether the distress advanced,
receded, or altogether disappeared, it would be remembered
both for its severity and for having been passed through
without the aid of Parliament, without a single penny from
the Exchequer. (Cheers.) And if the cultivation of cotton,