The Sun.
London, England, 1864-01-07 00:00:00

difficult to depart, and instituting a custom that it
will be almost impossible to recede from. It is
high time that this suhjrct was taken up at once
by those most competent to deal with it, and re-
garded in the only light in which it can be viewed,

with clearness and perspicacity. As it is, the
weak-winded and self-pitying ones of humanity

are making extraordinary efforts to undo all the
good that long years of watchfulness and the stern

enactments of justice have been bringing about.
The consequences of ail this will be that in a short

time those who are now but half converted, or per,
naps even without scrup,es, will be convinced that
the extreme penalty of the law cannot be enforced
any longer—that it is a remnant of the barbarous
ages, and must militate against our doctrines of
mercy. The experience of all time, and the attesta-
tion of those most competent to give an opinion,
all concur in stating that for murder there is but
one deterring influence of any weight, and that
is the dread of death, and the horror of
an ignominious end. These are the only checks to

:he dark and dreadful deeds at which Heaven

frowns, and which earth refuses to hide. It is the
only true way to put a stop to the commission of
the worst of crime to hold out the terrible penalty
of death. As is always the case with sentimentalists,
the real victims are left unpitied ; the nameless mar-
tyrs who have been hurried unprepared into eternity,
who have bean snatched from the enjoyments of
life, perhaps in the prime of their years, with
families dependent on them for support, are of no
account; but the hardened ruffian, the ruthless
villain, the cruel destroyer of his kind, is the object'
of universal symyathy, and the theme of deep-rooted
pity. What can be a greater prostitution of the
softer and gentler feelings of the heart. Such a
practice is very much at variance with all that the
dictates of common-sense would enjoin, and totally
distinct from the holy nature of sorrow for the
sinner which should animate every Christian spirit.
Real philanthropists would grieve for and with the
offender because of the enormity of his guilt, not la-
ment on account of his having to endure its chastise.
ment. This infliction is not the serious part of the
affair to the understanding of those who rightly
view, and fully comprehend such subjects. It is
much to be regretted that so much inconsistency
should prevail with regard to the carrying out of
the sentences decreed by the Courts that sit in
judgment on the murderer. 'When the sentence is
pronounced, who can feel impressed with its solem-
nity when they reilect that i❑ all probability it

may never be carried out at all; and again, this
uncertain sty le of action is very unfair
to the prisoner, because it is not likely
that the condemned one will address himself to the
consideration of such serious subjects as his awful
doom imperatively demands, when ho is buoying up
his hopes with the notion that a reprieve will be
obtained, and his fate averted. The constant recur-
rence of the practice of declaring that the guilty
parties are suffering from mental aberration is a
most pernicious one, as it makes a loophole for every
crime, and will finally serve to account for the com-
mission of all murders. This laxity and temporis-
ing will not do. It must be very much altered or
altogether abolished. Let it be distinctly under-
stood, whether we are to have capital punishment for
murderers or not, and if we are, let some more sure
safeguards be adopted to secure the carrying out
of the sentence. It is a mockery of justice, and a
subversion of all right influence—the offended ma-
jesty of the law is set at nought, and the very van-
tage ground of authority undermined, by this
capricious mode of revising the codes of our laws,
and subverting the decisions arrived at by the
time-honoured institution of the land. Of what
avail is all the paraphernalia of courts and the
cogitations of judges, if a subsequent investigation
is at hand to alter all pre-arranged forms, and to
stop the execution of the stern sentence of justice.
The sooner all this anomalous proceeding is righted,
the better it will be for the vital interests of
society.

There are, proverbially, two sides to every ques
tion, and the gaiety and rejoicing which mark this
festive season in the abodes of wealth and luxury form
a strange sad contrast to the wretchedness visible
in the miserable, squalid homes of so many thou-
sands in this great metropolis. Among all the
brilliant galaxy of Christmas books which have
as usual appeared at this peculiar epoch
of hospitality and gift-giving, one little
book which makes no pretension to that
title appears to us to be super-eminently
a Christmas Book.* It is evidently inspired by the
truest and most rational benevolence, find it appeals
in the irresistible language of plain facts and sober
cc•mmon-sense to those human sympathies which
ought more especially to abound at this season of
nominal charity and benevolence. In some hun-
dred and twenty graphic pages, and some forty or
fifty dr- adfully truth-telling illustrations, Mr.
GODWIN has given a picture of the homes
—if they can be called homes !—of the poor of
London, which is enough to appal the thoughtless
and make the boldest shudder. Gladly would we

take refuge in incredulity, but, alas ! the facts are
too substantial. Ghastly and ghostlike as they are
their reality is only more painfully apparent when
exposed to the searching investigation of daylight.
In one page we recognise the pestilential vapours

insidiously arising from the poisonous cellars, above
which, "unconscious of their doom," little children
are playing. In another page the crowded work-
nom, and again the closely-packed sleeping cham-
bers, or rather sleeping holes, where entire
families are stowed away, " show the eyes
and grieve the hearts" of all who may
chance to turn over this most impressive
little volume. "The way in which life is short-
ened, health depreciated, happiness prevented,
how the manners are degraded, and crime and
sorrow increased," it has been Mr. GODWIN'S
object in this work to demonstrate, and very truth-
fully and very effectively has he performed his self-
appointed task. Unfortunately his pictures are
taken from the life, and cannot be gainsayed. Here
is a painful illustration :--
We trust that the day is not far distant when compul-
sory drainage, thoroughly carried ant, will be made a rule
in connexion with the dwellings of the poor. Remarking
that the scavengers perform their duty very badly, we pass
on to Hartshorn-court, a singular locality, which, with the
parts adjoining, is inhabited to great a extent by thieves and
the most dangerous characters. This is the entrance to a
labyrinth of courts which, like the intricate workings of a
Gloucestershire iron-mine, lead in all manner of curious
and mysterious directions. In front of five houses is a kind
of square, which formerly has probably been occupied as
gardens; here swarms of children peer curiously out,
neglected little creatures, so forlorn, so helpless for good,
that the first impulse is to ask---What is to become of them?
What path in life, according to present arrangements, are
they fitted for ? What, except by chance, is there for them
but beggary or the prison ?
The' houses mentioned are single houses (one room deep),
without any openings at the back, Like those previously
alluded to, these dwellings are, so far as exterior is concerned
not in bad repair, but anything worse than the interiors
cannot be easily imagined. Let us step up one of the dark
narrow staircases ; in one room, on the door being opened,
a man had risen hastily from his bed; a strong active •look-
in,g woman was there, and from the mass of rags swarmed
out a number of children (it was about ten o'clock in the
morning). Few could look at thes3 helpl a things with-

* Another Blow for Life. By George Godwin, F.R.S,
Allen and Co,