The Sun.
London, England, 1864-03-10 00:00:00

SPIRIT OF THE PUBLIC JOURNALS,

POST.—The campaign in J ntland has been opened
with a victory which the overwhelming strength
of the invaders, lees than their valour, enabled them
to secere. The Austrians have come in collision with
the Danish outposts and have repulsed them. With
the particulars of the engagement we are not yet ac-
quainted, but the reports from German and Danish
sources agree in sta.ing the result tot have been dis-
astrous to the Danes. At six o'clock on Tuesday
morning the Austrian army crossed the Koldingau
in two columns, and, after a march of about seven
English miles, encountered a small force of Danish
cavalry, which it compelled to retreat northwards
towards Veile. At this town, however, or, as it
would appear, on the north bank of a small river
which takes its name from the town, the Danes
e:ade a stand. Their force °illy consisted of three
infantry regiments, three batteries of artillery, ani
two regiments of cavalry; and, as we may readily
believe, after a gallant resistance it was compelled
to give way before the Austrian columns, and to
retire northwards towards Horsens, Whilst the
Austrians were advancing in a northerly direction
the Prussians proceeded towards Fredericia and
succeeded in driving in the Danish outposts at
Gudsal. In this affair the Danish General and
the chief of his etaff were wounded. According to
the latest telegrams the allies were advancing on
Friedericia in great force, and an attack upon that
town was hourly expected. In Jutland, as in the
south of Schleswig, superior numbers prove more
than a match for courage and valour. To those who
believe that England is not conclusively pledged
to neutrality, the course which events are taking
in Denmark may reasonably cause alarm. It would
neither be the duty nor the policy of this country
to make herself the arbiter of the disputes of other
States, but, as experience has shown, the greatest
prudence and the most extreme caution may prove
unavailing to prevent embroilment in quarrels
whose sphere angry disputants are determined at all
hazards to extend. The English Government have
been untiring in their endeavours to restore peace,
and the only apprehension which need be enter-
tained is lest they evinced in too striking a manner
their desire to abstain from war, The German
Powers have undoubtedly conceived the notion that
under no circumstances would England array her-
self in arms against Germany, and their entire
course of conduct since the commencement of the
present year has to all appearances been based
upon this assumjation. The Dano-German war is
scarcely two mouths old, and yet let any one reflect
on what was the state of public opinion in this
country before the Germans crossed the Eider
and he will be convinced how thoroughly mistaken
the large majority of persons were both in respect
to the policy of tee German Powers and to the pro-
bable attitude of the British Government. The in-
vasion of Schleswig by Austria and Prussia ap-
peared to most men such an act of madness that it
was forthwith set down as a pure impossibility.
The arguments so freely advanced and so apparently
conclusive must be fresh in the memory of all.
Setting aside the absurdity of the Great German
Powers proclaiming themselves the champions of
oppressed nationalities, we were reminded that
Austria had a watchful enemy ready to cross her
southern frontier, and that Prussia possessed cer-
tain provinces on the Rhine which, on her assuming
an aggressive attitude, might not improbably fall
into the hands of a crafty and powerful neighbour.
Besides, there was England, who would, as soon as
the first blow was struck against the integrity of
Denmark, blockade the German ports, sweep from
the seas the tiny fleets of Austria and Prussia, and
place at the command of Denmark an army suffi-
cient to hold the entrance to the peninsula against
any force which the invaders might bring to the
assault of the Danewirke. Then, again, we were
asked what the German Powers intended to make
war about. Were Austria and Prussia about to endan-
ger the peace of Europe,and risk a general conflagra-
tion in whoseflames they would undoubtedly be en ve•
loped, in order that Schleswigers should hear ser-
mons in German instead of Danish, or should be
ruled by an Augustenburg instead of a Glucksburg ?
The whole notion was too absurd, and the timid
were quieted with assurances that Austria and
Prussia, though apparently aggressive in their tone,
were in truth most anxious to preserve the peace of
Europe, and were only too desirous of curbing that
impetuosity on the part of the minor States which
would otherwise infallibly prevent war. We took
occasion to demonstrate the fallacy of these argu-
ments long before the appearance of the allied
armies on the banks of the Eider, and whilst the
Austro-Prussian contingent still constituted the
reserve of the slender force despatched by the Diet
into Holstein for the purposes of Federal execu-
tion. We pointed out how vastly different the
prosp3ct appeareda whenregarded from a German
point of view. In the first place we showed
that, whether rightly or wrongly, the German
Powers would conjecture that the occupation of
the Duchies by their armies would not be made
a easus belli by Great Britain. Tne English
Cabinet had always inclined to the belief that
Denmark had violated her engagements towards
Germany, and it was therefore not urvreas
sonabie to suppose that it would not resent an
attempt by the latter to obtain redress. Other con-
eideratione of a personal kind, unquestionably

erroneous, but such as might readily secure atten-
tion in countries less habituated to constitutional
government than our own, had no little share in
inducing Germany to believe that England would
remain neutral in the event of a Dano-German war.
As regarded fears of foreign aggression, States are
naturally slow to believe that their territories will
be attacked, and Austria and Prussia consoled
themselves with the reflection that by yielding to
the wishes of the minor States they could at any
time array on their side every msmber of the Ger-
man Confederation. Viewing the matter in this
light, the invasion of Sch'..eswig became by no
meacs so improbable as the majority of English poli-
ticians were inclined to believe. It was from this
point of view, however, that we regarded the pos-
sible contingency of a Dano-German war, and events
have since justified our conclusions. Austria and
Prussia believed that Great Britain would remain
a passive spectator of the occupation of the
Duchies, and no one will now question the solidity
of the foundation on which that belief reposed.
But the occupation of Schleswig has since been
followed by the invasion of Jutland, and the allied
armies have now commenced active hostilities with
a view to the reduction of the town of Fredericia,
which guards the land approaches to the Island of
Funen. As the English Government contented
themselves with a simple protest when the Prus
sians took possession of the frontier town of
Bolding, the invaders may not unnaturally con-
clude tat their present operations will induce no
change the policy of the British Cabinet. In
this they are most probably correct. But it would
be a most fatal error for the German Powers to
fall into, to suppose that to whatever lengths they
might deem it expedient to push their aggressive
policy Great Britain would remain perfectly pas-
sive. It is reported that Austrian ships of war
are on their way to the Baltic, with the view of
co-operating with the Prussian navy in an at-
tempt to reduce the Danish position at Duppel,
and thus place the Island of Alsen, together with
the little army it contains, at the mercy of the
Austro-Prussian forces. This report the Foreign
Secretary contradicted in the House of Lords on
Tuesday evening, on the strength of a formal as-
surance from the Austrian Government that it is
not their intention to send any naval force whatever
either to the Baltic or the Cattegat. Of course we
are bound to credit this statement, and to believe
that Austria possesses no more serious design than
that of despatching a few cruisers to the English
Channel for the protection of her merchant ship-
ping. But we may be pardoned for saying that if
the German Powers should entertain any project'
of combining their naval forces with a view either
to assist their land forces at Duppel, or to act inde-
pendently in any other quarter of the Danish
dominions, Great Britain could not remain a passive
spectator of such an outrage. The Foreign Secre-
tary may have acted prudently in declining to
make any declaration which would bind this country
to go to war, but he did not hesitate to let fall an
intimation which will not be lost on the German
Powers. The Channel fleet is now in British
waters, and if an Austrian fleet should venture
through the Straits of Dover it will not cross the
German Ocean entirely alone.
Times.—lt is a famous saying of Bacon that the
subtlety of nature greatly surpasses the subtlety of
the human mind. With equal or greater truth it
might be said that the secret springs of human cha-
racter and the motives of human actions are too
subtle for the moralist to analyse or for the legis-
lator to control by rewards and punishment. Crimi-
nal law is based, and must be, on the assumption
that acts of a certain outward complexion done under
certain conditions are of the same quality, and de.
serve the same penalty. The taking of life with
" malice aforethought," without legal excuse or pro-
vocation by actual blows, amounts in law to murder,
and the doom of the murderer is death. Perhaps no
more flexible definition of the crime would afford
adequate protection to society; certainly no other
punishment could be annexed to it without remov-
ing the chief safeguard against its more frequent
commission ; and yet what various degrees of guilt
does this legal idea of murder embrace ! We do not
speak now of differences in the power of self-
control, and therefore of moral responsibility, be-
tween different individuals. These subjects, though
they lie on the debatable frontier of physiology
and ethics, and at present occasion the utmost
perplexity to jurists, may possibly be reduced to
definite principles as our knowledge of both
sciences progresses. Tie most intractable and
recondite element of criminality—that which must
for ever baffle the foresight of lawgivers and con-
found the wisdom of earthly judges—is the mass of
antecedent circumstances and habits, from which
the crime sometimes appears to spring so naturally
as almost to exclude the agency of the will. • There
are murders which, originating in some evil passion,
carefully nursed, preceded by no train of causes
such as the ancients ascribed to a malignant destiny,
palliated by no sudden temptation, mitigated by ❑o
subsequent access of pity or repentance, are the
very type of diabolical wickedness. There are other
murders in which the slayer appears to be scarcely
less a victim than the slain—the victim of a cruel
and overmastering sense of wrong, not imaginary
but real, not transitory but permanent, blasting his
happiness, withering his hopes, making tyrants of
his tenderest and finest feelings, and demanding
vengeance with the voice of au imperious necessity.
Such a murder cannot be eliminated beforehand
from others of a far deeper dye, it cannot be tried
by different rules, or distinguished, even after its
true nature is made known, by a different verdict
and a different sentence. At yet, if human justice
is to bear any resemblance or relation to the
Divine, how can we consign the latter
class of offenders to the same fate as the former ?
The gulf that separates their crimes may be, and
often is, far wider than that which separates murder
itself from other acts of violence. To visit them
with one and the same retribution is to wound or
deaden the moral sense of the Christian community
—that moral sense which gives all penal laws their
chief efficacy and highest sanction. One of the
saddest and most pitiful stories of murder under
extenuating circumstances that have come before
the public for many a day appeared in our report of
the Warwick assizes on Monday. A young man
named Hall, of steady habits and gentle disppsition,
was married on Christmas-day to a woman whom
he had courted for several years, without the least
suspicion of her virtue. On the very evening of
the wedding-day she left him and returned to her
parents' house. The next day she was brought
back, but not to be a true wife to him, for she con-
tinued to "keep company," though secretly, with
another man, named Martin Toy, with whom she
had before been intimate. This nominal cohabita-
tion only lasted till January 3, when she deserted
her husband again, without giving any reason, and
lived in her father's house, consorting openly and
constantly with Toy. Hall met them together on
one occasion, and, on reproaching her with her con-
duct, got nothing but insults and foul words. His
wife boasted of her connexion with Toy, and vowed
that she would not give it up. So far from evincing
the slightest shame or compunction, she taunted
him with the wrongs inflicted by herself, and told
him that her first child should be fathered upon him
though. it would not be his. She even took out a
summons against him for threatening her unless she
returned, which was dismissed by the magistrates.
Again and again Hall visited her at her father's
house, and pressed her in the most affectionate way
to come back, but all in vain. To his master he
expressed in the most touching language his own
simple love and fidelity, and the misery which his
wife had caused him, To his fellow-workmen he
appeared as one distracted, but a crowded work
room is not the place for a wounded spirit to find
solace, and he afterwards complained that his shop-
mates used him cruelly. At last the cup of sorrow
and just resentment was full. On the evening of
February 16 he went to her mother's house, and re-
mained there, strange as it may appear, talking
with both the women, and now and then whispering
privately with his wife, whom he still, to all ap-
pearance, loved devotedly. His manner, we are
told, was very kind, and he gave no sign by word
or gesture of his gloomy resolve. For once his wife
followed him out when he rose to leave, and she
never was seen again alive. What passed between
them cannot be known, but she was found lyiiag
on Dartmoor-street bridge with a pistol shot through
her cheek. Hall admitted at once that he had killed
her, but the evidence as to his language is conflict-
ing, some testifying that he said he never intended
to do so, and some that he spoke of the deed as one
that he had long contemplated. Whether he used
either expression or both is of little importance
in law or in reason. It is enough that, being
wrought up to desperation by injuries that might
have maddened the best and calmest of men, he
employed ka deadly weapon to avenge himself.
Who can read the tale of this domestic tragedy
without a sentiment of compassion for the mur-
derer ? Who could have heard, without sympathy,
his pathetic appeal, after his conviction, from the
inexorable justice of human tribunals to the jadg-
nient-seat of Him who in justice remembers mercy ?
That appeal has reached the hearts of many who
were not present at the trial, and have no more in-
terest in the poor artisan than humane minds must
ever feel in a fellow-creature, more sinned against
than sinning, condemned to an infamous death.
The strong recommendation of the jury in his
favour has already been endorsed in a memorial
from more than 50,000 inhabitants of Birmingham
and its neighbourhood, and more signatures are es.
petted. We can hardly imagine a fitter case than
this for the exercise of the Royal clemency. The
crime of Hall, tried by any equitable standard, be-
longs to the least aggravated form of murder. It
might have been committed by a person possessed
of almost every virtue except the iron will that

holds-even legitimate passions in check. In some
respects, indeed, it reseasbies that of Wright, and
it is possible that this parallel will be pressed on
Sir Georve Grey. If injustice was really done to
Wright, it cannot be repaired by executing Hall;
but the truth is that all, and more than all, that
was assumed in the former case has been proved in
the latter. Supposing the facts stated in one of the
memorials which we publish to-day to be correct,
the ends of justice would be rather defeated than
served by allowing Hall to be hanged. Compared
with Townley, he has every claim to the merciful
consideration of the Home-office, and few can doubt
which of the two would be the more dangerous
character, if both were set at liberty in a new coun-
try. On every ground, theretnre, but especially
on the highest ground of all, we believe that a com-
mutation of tht sentence will be welcomed by the
public.

HEALTH OF THE METROPOLIS.

(From the Registrar-General's Weekly Return.)

In the week that ended on 27th February there
was an increase of nearly a hundred in the deathe
of London on those of the previous week ; and agaia
in the week that ended last Saturday (March 5) there
was an increase of nearly a hundred on the number
returned for the week immediately preceding. The
successive numbers were :-1586, 1677, and in last
week 1766.

The average number of deaths for the ninth week
in the ten years 1854-63 is, with a correction for in-
crease of population, 1,420. The 1,766 deaths now
returned constitute a very heavy mortality for the
beginning of March ; for they exceed the estimated
amount by 346.

By comparing the results of the last two weeks,
it is seen that the deaths under 20 years of age rose
from 741 to 778 ; those at 20 years and under 60 rose
from 498 to 564 ; while there was an increase at a
more advanced age. The deaths from bronchitis
(299) exhibit no increase ; but those from phthisis
rose from 157 to 192. Whooping-cough increased
from 65 to 77; typhus frbm 59 to 72 ; scarlatina from
57 to 65. The air has undergone considerable varia-
tion of temperature ; the mean values in the last
four weeks having been 37.6 deg., 37.3 deg., 33.0
deg., and in last week 40.9 deg.
Diseases of the nervous system increased from
167 fatal caves in the previous week to 194 last week.

A girl, aged one year and nine months, died on the
25th ult. at 8, Leg-court, Westminster, from " me-
senteric disease, accelerated by want of proper food
and care" (inquest), and on the following day the
wife of an in-pensioner of Chelsea Hospital died in
Charingscross Hospital of " collapse, apparently
from want" (no inquest).
At the Royal Observatory, Greenwich, the mean
height of the barometer in the week was 29.487 in.
The reading rose to 29.71 in. on Tuesday, and fell
to 29.14 in. on Saturday. The mean temperature
of the air in the week was 40.9 deg., which is 0.9
deg. above the average of the same week in 43 years
(us determined by Mr. Glaisher). The mean daily
temperature was below or differed little from the
average till Friday, when the excess was nearly 8
deg. The highest day temperature occurred on that
day, and was 58 deg. The lowest night tempera-
tures were 29.4 deg. and 29 8 deg., and occurred in
Tuesday and Wednesday. The range of temperature
in the week was therefore 28.6 deg. The air was
exceedingly moist during the week. The difference
between the mean dew-point temperature and air
temperature was only 1 deg. The mean degree of
humidity of the air was 96, complete saturation
being represented by 100. On six days the humi-
dity was near saturation. The wind blew from an
easterly, generally a south-easterly point, except
on Friday,. when it was in the south-west. The
rainfall was 0.65 in. There was rain on almost every
day. The mean of the highest temperatures of the
water of the Themes was 39.8 deg. ; that of the
lowest was 37.6 deg.