The Sun.
London, England, 1864-05-04 00:00:00

PRIVATE BILLS.

The following bills were read a second time :—Ponty-
pri,ld Water, Sudden Bridge and Bury Roads, and Wliitby
Water.
The Whitehaven Water Bill was read a third time and
passed.

HIGH COURT OF BOMBAY BILL.
This bill was read a third time and passed.
Their lordships then adjourned.

HOUSE OP COMMONS—Last Evening.
The SPEAKER took the chair at four o'clock.
PRIVATE BUSINESS.

The London and South Western Railway (Kensington,
&c.) Bill was read a third time and passed.
NON• IN TERVENTION.

Mr. COBDEN gave notice that he would move a reso-
lution to the effect, that'the policy of non-intervention in
the affairs of foreign countries in Europe should be adopted
in reference to China.
THE COUNCIL OF EDUCATION• _

Sir J. PAKINGTON gave notice of a motion to in-
quire into the whole subject of the appointment and con-
stitution of the inspectors of public schools.
PAYMENT OF RATES AND TAXES BY MILI-

TARY OFFICERS.
Col. NORTH asked whether any decision had been ar-
rived at by the War Department and Treasury as to the
payment of rates and taxes by officers of the army occupy-
ing Government houses in the performance of their duties.
The Marquis of lIARTINGTON said that no decision
had been arrived at in respect to this subject. It was a
question that concerned the Admiralty rather than the
War-office, and at present the Government were not pre-
pared to take any steps in reference to this matter.
AUSTRIAN SQUADRON IN THE DOWNS.
Mr. D. GRIFFITH asked the First Lord of the Trea-
sury whether an Austrian squadron had not arrived in the
Down and other of our harbours ; and whether the Channel
fleet had not been ordered round to the Downs; and, if so,
whether it was the intention of her Majesty's Government
to allow the Austrian ships of war to proceed to the Baltic
or the North Sea without being accompanied by the Chan-
nel fleet ?
Sir G. GREY said that there were three or four Austrian
ships is the Downs, and he believed there were some
others on the way to this country; but he under-
stood the only orders that had been issued by the
Austrian Government were that they should protect
German commerce in the North Sea. The Channel fleet
was in the Downs, but there had been no instructions given
to the commander, as it was understood the Austrian
squadron would not proceed to the Baltic.
THE SEWAGE OF THE METROPOLIS.

Lord 14. MONTAGU asked the First Commissioner of
Works why the return ordered by the house on 24th July,
1863, on the motion of Mr. Ayrton (viz. No. 67, Sewage
(Metropolis), copy of all advertisements published by the
Metropolitan Board of Works, &c.) had not been prefented,
and when it would be laid upon the table and printed.

Mr. COWPER said that this subject did not pr3perly
come within his department, but he was in a position to
state that the return in question was nearly completed
and would be shortly laid on the table.
LEGAL PROCEDURE IN JERSEY.

Mr. PAULL asked the Secretary of State for the Home
Department whether his attention had been drawn to a bill
intitled "a Bill the amend the Constitution, Practice, and
Procedure of the Court of the Island of Jersey," purporting
to deal with the judicial establishments and taxation of the
said Island, and asked whether such bill had been intro-
duced with the concurrence and approval of her Majesty's
Goverment.

Sir G. GREY said that his attention had been drawn to
this subject in consequence of the bill that had been laid on
the table by his hon. and learned friend the member
for Southwark. That bill was read a second time,
but he understood that it would not be proceeded
with at present. A. similar bill was introduced about
three years ago, and there was no dissent to the measure
oa the part of the Government, or he believed any member
of the house.

Mr. BRIGHT said he wished to know if the right hon.
gentleman had expressed any concurrence in this bill ont of
the house.

Sir G. GREY said that no communication hal taken
place between him and the hon. and learned member who
introduced the bill, and he had expressed no opinion on the
subject further than what he had stated in the house.

ALLEGED BUTCHERY OF INDIANS SEEKING

PROTEC CION IN BRITISH TERRITORY.
Mr, HENNESSY asked the Secretary of State for the
Colonies, if it was true;that Major Hatch, commanding the
United States troops in Minnesota, applied in the month of
March last to the Governor of the Hudson's Bay Company
at Red River for permission to pursue and kill within
the British territory, wherever they might be found, a
tribe of Sioux Indians who had fled within the British
boundary for protection ; and if it was true that the Go-
vernor of the Hudson's Bay Company granted their request,
stipulating only that the Indians should not be butchered
in the houses of any of the settlers with whom they had
sought refuge.

Mr. CARDWELL said that inquiries had been insti-
tuted, from which it appeared that there had been much
exaggeration on this subject. Steps had been adopted to
prevent the murder of innocent women and children.
PUNISHMENT OF DEATH.

Mr. EIVAIZT moved for a select committee to inquire
into the expediency of maintaining the punishment of death.
The hon. member, at some length, urged the n3ual argu-
ments in favour cf the abolition of capital punishment, and
referred to those countries where it had been abolished
to show that the remission of capital punishment had not
been followed by any increase in the crime of murder. He
went in detail intc statistics, and cited the authority of several
learned judges in support of his views, and denounced the
punishment cf death as a failure in deterring from the com-
mission of murder, and opposed to the growing opinion and
Christian sentiment of the day.

Mr. DENMAN seconded the motion, and contended
that the effect of capital punishment practically was to in-
crease instead of diminish crime. The natural horror which
persons felt in condemning a human being to death led
to an exactitude of evidence being required that in many
cases totally defeated the ends of justice, and in many in-
stances prevented the possibility of conviction, particularly
where females were concerned, He was able to bear
personal testimony to that fact from having been profes-
sionally engaged in the trial of persons in-
dicted for murder. This subject had not been brought
before the house since 1556, and as there was a great
deficiency in regard to digested data and information
in reference to it,. much benefit would necessarily result
from the inquiries of a select committee. He impressed on
the house the fact that in no case where capital punish.
meat had been abolished abroad had it been reimpoaed.
Lord H. LENNOX proposed as an amendment that a
select committee to appointed to inquire into the operation
of the laws relating to capital punishments, and pointed to
the notorious cases of Jessie M`Lachlan, Samuel 'Wright,
and William Hall, as showing that whilst the first of them,
one of the mast flagrant of criminals, had escaped the ex-
treme punishment of her offence, the second had been
executed for having taken the life of a woman in a drunken
quarrel, and the third had been very properly respite&
This uncertainty about the administration of the law
rendered it desirable, he thought, that the inquiry should
not be restricted within the narrow limits suggested by Mr.
Swart, but should be more comprehensive in its scope and
objects.
MITFORD seconded the amendment, recommend-
hag that public executions should be discontinued, as pirates
were now no longer hung in chains at cross-roads or the
heads of traitors stuck on Temple Bar.
Mr. A.lderrnan. ROSE observed that, from his own ex-
perience as one of the Commissioners of the Central Cour
he could undertake to say that juries for the most part dis-
charged their functions conscientiously, and that capital
punishments were useful in a moral point of view.
After a few words from Mr. NEATE,
Sir G. GREY objected to both motion and amendment,
cn the g,i °mad that the question was not one that constituted
a fit subject for reference to a committee. Considerable
changes had of late b mu effected in the criminal law, and for
many years capital punishment had been limited exclusively
to cases of conviction for wilful murder. He thought it would
not be either safe or expedient to abolish capital punish-
ment altogether, for by so doing the security which now
fenced round human life would be removed, the number of
murders be permanently increased, and the deterring effect
which the apprehension of capital punishment now exer-
cised be destroyed. If any secondary punishment
could
be devised that would be more effectual for the preservation
of human life he should gladly adopt it, but
according to
the judges who were examined before the Lords'
c
tee, which opinion agreed with that of the committee them..
selves, the punishment of death ought to be maintained for
offancea of the gravest character ; and he believed that no
punishment was so much dreaded as the punishment of
death. The right hon. gentleman stated, however, that
whilst opposed to the motion of the amendment he had no
objection to the notice placed on the paper for the appoint-
ment of a royal commission to enquire into the provisions
and operation of the laws under which the punishment of
death is now inflicted in the United Kingdom, and to
report whether it is desirable to make any alteration,
Mr. BRIGHT, alluding to the remarks of the Home Sec-
retary, said he attached little importance to the opinion of
the judges upon this subject; for almost every ameliora-
tion of our criminal cJde had been carried against the
opinion of the majority of the judges. The question was,
ought capital punishment to be retained or abolished,
and, denying
as he did that it was a dete:rent of crime,
he contended that it ought to be blotted ouitacfthe statute
book. It was unfortunate that England l
had been always
the most barbarous of Christian countries punishments;
Seeing
o f
and so it was now, notwithstanding h
death was visited upon the crime of murtdear punishmentonly.
what we had done for the amelioration of our criminal code

he did not think there was a man with a particle of reason
who believed that human life was more secure because 10
or 12 men were publicly put to death every yea . Human
life and its security did not depend upon any su " miserable
and barbarous contrivances as that, but upJn a reverence
for human life. If they estimated the securitit a for human
life and put them at 100, and calculated how much was
owing to our savage laws and how much t the reverence
for human life implanted in the human soul, he believed
that only 5 or 10 might be attributed to the influence of law,
whilst 90 or 95 were due to the feeling he had referred to.
When a man was hanged in the face of the public, if the
shocking nature of the punishment operated in the slightest
degree to deter from crime, he undertook to say that by so
much were the other and greater securities that depended
upon reverence for human life weakened. If a commission
were appointed he hoped no judges would be placed upon
it, but that it would be constituted of men in whom the
house and the country would have confidence, and who
would receive evidence from whatever source it might be
offered them. If that were done he had no doubt the result
would be at least to produce a considerable improvement in
the law. _

Mr. 1,4 EIVDEGATE replied at soma length to the ar-
guments of Mr. Bright, which he pronounced fallacious,
and vindicated the character of the judges from the insinua-
trons thrown out against them by that gentleman. He
repudiated the idea that England was a barbarous country
because she punished with death the man who robbed her
of one of her citizens.

Mr. GIL PIN spoke in favour of the total abolition of
capital punishment, and Mr. Roebuck and Sir J. Walsh
for its retention.

Mr. HIBBERT suggested that the commission should
include within their inquiries the mode in which public
executions were inflicted in this country.

Mr. MAGTTIRE mid the Government had acted wisely
in consenting to the appointment of a commission, and ex-
pressed a hope that the present Parliament would conse-
crate its memory by an act which would satisfy the best
feelings of the people, at the same time that it did no injury
to any public interest.

Mr. EWART having intimated his acceptance of the
proposal of the Government, the motion and amendment
were both withdrawn ; and on the motion of Mr. Neate a
resolution was agreed to, to the effect that an address be
presented to her Majesty praying her to issue a Royal
commission to inquire into the provisions and operation of
the laws under which the punishment of death is now
inflicted in the United Kingdom, and the manner in which
it is inflicted, and to report whether it is desirable to make
any alteration therein.

Leave was given to Mr. FERRAND to bring in a bill
for compensating the families of persons killed by boiler
explosions through the neglect or default of the owner.
Sir G. GREY obtained leave to introduce a bill for fur-
ther regulating the closing of publichouses and refreshment
houses within the metropolitan police district; and
Mr. BASS had leave to bring in a bill for the better re-
gulation of street music within the metropolitan police
district.

The Insolent Dcbtors' Bill, the object of which was to
enable poor debtors imprisoned for sums less than £2O to
obtain their discharge after a short confinement, provided no
lawful cause was shown to the contrary, was read a second
time on the motion of Mr. PAULL after some discussion.
The Customs and Inland Revenue Bill was read a third
time and pased.

The Partn,rship Law Amendment Bill was committed,
and the other business on the paper having been disposed of,
The house adjourned at 5 minutes past 1 o'clock,

THE WAR IN DENMARK,

(From the Times Special Correspondent at the late Danish
Head-quarters.)
COPENHAGEN, April 30.
We received yesterday at this place the intelli-
gence of the evacuation of Fredericia. The fall of
that fortress comes closely after the capture of the
Dybbol bastions; it will be no less speedily followed
by the abandonment of Alsen.

I shon'd not at this moment be in Copenhagen
had there been the faintest hope of a different issue
of the contest. From the moment I saw with my
own eyes what I could not have believed on other
people's report—when I saw, on the morning of the
19:h, masses of Prussian infantry coming out of the
Dybbol bastions taken by them the day before, and
marching down the hill in serried ranks to the
tete-de-pont, and to the very margin of the Sound,
—when I saw, on the other side, the Danes stand-
ing idly to their guns at the Church Battery with-
ont firing a shot, when hardly a shot could be fired
without striking almost a bout portant into the
enemy's columns—from that moment, I say, I felt
that there must be some reason for the overween-
ing rashness of the Prussians, and for the inaction
and forbearance of the Danes. At first I thought
a temporary suepensicn of hostilities had been privily-
agreed upon, but day after day passed and we re-
mained in the island in a state neither of war nor
truce. The two hostile armies stood looking at each
other across the water; a cannon shot at very rare
intervals was exchanged ; a parlemcntaire from time
to time rowed across on either side to settle matters
about the dead and wounded, but the Prussians
evidently were in no hurry to force their way across
1 the Strait, and the Danes were in no mood to
attempt to dispute the enemy's passage.
Day after day, as I rode about the island, I was
struck with the rapid disappearance of the relics
of the Danish army. The lo3s of Dybbol occurred
on the Monday. On Tuesday night three regi-
ments were secretly embarked. On the following
day the battalion of the Guards, the only corps
that was yet intact, was smuggled away, The
headquarters had been removed from Ulkebol to
HorupHav, as if their business was not to lead the
troops into the field, but to see them safely out of it.
Only one division, we were told, was left for the de-
fence of Ala ; the main part of the army was hasten-
ing to Jutland. That division, however, as far as I
could ascertain, did not exceed 2,000 or 3,000 men,
and its artillery consisted of about 12 field-pieces.
On Saturday morning the Staff embarked for Funen,
and I preceded it. I understood that headquarters
were to be established at Assens, not at Fredericia,
nor even at Middlefart. and then I concluded there
would be no more fighting either i❑ Als or Jutland,
and travelled to Copenhagen with the conviction
that the war was at an end.
I was not mistaken ; during the last few days, we
are now informed the troops and niateria had been
gradually withdrawn from Fredericia. A trifling
skirmish occurred the day before yesterday at out-
posts, on the left, on the banks of the 0 verswolmeso.
The Danes withdrew behind that broad ditch in the
evening, and during the night they quitted the for-
tress and came across into Funen. The few remain-
ing defenders of Alsen will also give their enemies
the slip, at no distant period, if they have a chance.
The cavalry division, under Linderkrone, which is
now far away in North Jutland, will embark on the
first opportunity, and the whole Cimbrian peninsula
will lie at the discretion of the Austro-Prussians.
The Danes have shown in these backward move-
ments the same adroitness which characterized
their retreat from the Dannewerk. It is a pity
they were not allowed to exercise the same inge-
nuity ire falling back from their position at Dybbol,
when it had become untenable. They have now
greatly facilitated, if not altogether anticipated,
the work of the London Conference. There is now
a virtual armistice between the Danes and the Ger-
mans, unless the latter take it into their heads to
cross over into Funen, an attempt which would
seem incredible, and in which they might pos-
sibly meet with greater difficulties than they are
likely to foresee, Evidently Funen has now be-
come the place (Forme of the Danish army. With
the exception of the narrow strait dividing that
island from Jutland, between Fredericia and Snug-
hoi on one side and Strip Middlefart or Kongebro
on the other, and with the exception of the inlets
about Fanoe Island, where the water is on some
points hardly more than half a mile across—the
Little Belt is a good auxiliary to a State which has
not yet lost its maritime superiority, and even on
the banks of the narrower channel the Danes by a
concentration of their forces will be able to show a
bold front. Experience has taught them, however,
that thsir old-fashioned artillery is no better than
a mere row of popguns when brought into collision
with the rifled callow] of t;-:e Prussians. It is only
this new-fangled engine of war that wore out the
constancy of the Danes at Dybbol and advised the
abandonment of Fredericia, as it will, no doubt, de-
termine the evacuation of Ala. The Danes have
been true to their programme throughout. They
have come to no terms with their enemies; they
have given up nothing; they have merely suffered
them to take what they could not withhold. They
have always made at least a show of defence; they
have put the Prussians to the trouble of the begin-
ning of an attack. The traveller beset by the high-
waa-man has not tendered his purse. Ile has even
buttoned up his coat, and laid his hand on his pocket.
It may be an idle, unavailing protest ; but the world
must take it into account, and give it such credit as
It deserves.

THE PRUSSIAN ARMY,

(From the limes Special Correspondent at the. Head-
quay ten of the "lilted Armies.)
HAMBURG, May 1.
The Prussian triumph at Duppel, although much
facilitated by Danish exhaustion and unwariness,will
still be admitted by all impartial and competent
judges to be a creditable feat of arms, on a scale and
with results sufficiently important to eclipse the
earlier actions of the campaign. If it be true, as
there are some grounds for believing, that the Aus-
trians, sensible of this, were desirous in their turn
to distinguish themselves by the assault of Freda-
ricia, the evacuation of that place, which yesterday
surprised every one here, will to them have been a
disappointment. Probably, many of their friends
will nevertheless consider it a piece of good fortune
for the two great German powers that they have
thus been prevented from displaying their force
against a foe so enfeebled and crippled as poor Den-
mark. Alsen will doubtless now be occupied without
opposition, and the war must be looked upon as at
an end. Probably we shall soon hear of an armistice,
to which it seems as if there couldnow be no grounds
for objection on the part of any of the belligerent
powers. All neutrals will rejoice at the termination
of the unequal struggle, and that they are spared
the spectacle of another monster bombardment, the
guns for which were already on their way to Jut-
land. The 24 brass pieces you were told of as lately
lying at the Flensburg railway station, left that
place by road on the 27th, and should have arrived
in the vicinity of Fredericia yesterday or today, if
their progress was not arrested by news of the
fortress they were to demolish having been aban-
doned. You will perhaps have been surprised to
read in some of my latest letters from Schleswig
that the siege of Fredericia could not be commenced
immediately, because artillery which was coming
from Prussia had to be waited for. It might natu-
rally be supposed that the formidable and nume-
rous park which so successfully battered Duppel
and burnt Sonderborg would be more than suffi•
cient to perform a similar operation at Fredericia.
The fact appears to be that the fresh guns brought
up came not as an addition, hut to replace others no
longer serviceable. These so-called new guns were
merely old ones rifled and converted into breech-
loaders. In the Italian campaign, a great many,
if not all, of the French rifled guns were made from
the old smoothbores. Probably Most of the Prus-
sian artillery used in this war had never before
been fired against an enemy, ilesides the date
of their conversion, which on those I saw was
1863 or 1864, many also barb that of their original
casting, in most cases
Prussian artill- 'oetween 1830 and 1840. The
ay officers inform me that in their
new form they are equal but to a very moderate
amP;ant of work. Those at Gammelsmark have
eeen shelved, after firing on an average 800
rounds each. Opinions differ as to the facility
of repairing the damage so as to render them
again serviceable, but some of the officers who
have been using them, and who must be considered
highly competent judges, seem disposed to condemn
them altogether, and to recommend the manufac•
ture of new iron guns on the same principle. It
appears that the converted brass guns not merely
became leaded, as some supposed, but that their
breech-loading apparatus got worn and deranged.
The principle on which they are constructed is
nevertheless maintained to be excellent by all who
have had opportunies of practically judging of it,
and you have been repeatedly told that the accuracy
of the Prussian f re before Dappel and at Fredericia
was such as to excite the unfeigned admiration of
all foreigners who witnessed it.
Apropos of foreigners, the Russian lieutenant who
was the Czar's sole representative with the allied
armies, received, early in the present week, orders
to return home, and was about to depart when I
left Flensburg. The reason he alleged was, as I
understand, that the interest of the campaign, and,
indeed, the campaign itself, was to be considered at
an end. So it has since proved, but it is not the
less true that he had made all his preparations to join
the Prussian headquarters at Veile when he re-
ceived the orders to move in another direction.
Although Russia lies under the suspicion of having
worked to bring about this Danish war, she mani-
festly has of late viewed it with much dissatisfac-
tion—probably because it has not taken the course
or led to the complications she had anticipated,
and in :prevision of which she herself has made
such extensive warlike preparations, and increased
her rifled artillery by enormous ordera given
to Prussian manufactories. There can be little
doubt that Prussia, also, had reckoned on things
going in some respects d.fforently from what they
have done, and that her preparations were made
for the great war which might have sprung from
the unequal contest in Schleswig and Jut-
land—preparations on a large scale, and which
date from the latter part of last year. The
Prussian Government was then already resolved
on war, in great measure for domestic reasons, and
on taking the risk of a great conflict arising from its
onslaught upon a petty Power. It is the opinion of
some who, more than most people, have had oppor-
tunities of studying what passed behind the scenes
that no concessions Denmark could possibly have
made would have saved her from attack, and that,
had she evacuated both Duchies, a pretext would
have been found for attacking her in Jutland.
You will hardly understand in England that a
costly conflict, possibly entailing one of far greater
magnitude and much less promising result, should
be entered into for the sake of maintaining an
unpopular system and strengthening a Government
whose home policy had left it almost without sup-
porters in the nation it ruled. Such, nevertheless,
has been the case in the present instance, and if the
reports that reach me from Berlin be correct, the
plan has been to a considerable extent successful,
and the Prussian Liberals, delighted at the lustre
cast upon their army by its recent success—per-
haps, too, anticipating some solid advantage as
fruit of the triumph—have abated their feeling of
hostility to the present Ministry. This is
the rumour that has come to me ; but in Schles-
wig I rarely saw the Prussian papers, and it
will only be on my return to Berlin that I shall
ascertain with anything like certainty the real state
of public feeling there.
Before leaving Flensburg I visited the Bellevue
Hospital there, one of those got up by the Johan-
niter, or Knights of St. John. This Order, its own
resources having been aided by contributions from
private persons, has had several establishments
of the kind open for some time past. Besides the
Bellevue, beautifully situated in a garden on the
height immediately behind Flensburg, sot far from
the picturesque cemetery where stood the Lion
of Idstedt, lately overthrown, the Order has
another hospital in what is called the King's
Garden, just outside one of the old-fashioned
getes, above which are displayed the arms of
Flensburg, a quaint specimen of bh.zan, intended
apparently to represent two cats jumping out of a
dairy window. Then there is a branch establisn-
ment near to what was a fortnight ago the Prussian
front, at the Village of Nubel. This was intended
for those patients whose hurts were too severe to
allow of their being transported far. I believe there
is also a dohanniter hospital at Schlesa ig, but it
must have been opened since my last visit to that
town. This week the number of patients in the
Flensburg and Nubel establishments was between
GO and 70, four-fifths of them at the first-named
place, and mast of them recovering or not severely
wounded. In the Bellevue on Wednesday were
three or four bad cases. The Danish Colonel
Schow had died, and Count Stolberg himself, as I
was informed, took his body to the Prussian ad-
vanced posts to deliver it over to the Danes. At the
King's Garden hospital was ‘lsjor Noetitz, one of
Marshal Wrangel's aides de-camp, and son of the
well-known General, still living, who was on
Blucher's Staff in the 'Waterloo campaign. Major
Nostitz lately had his leg broken by his horse fall-
ing with him. Sisters of Charity were in attendance
at Bellevue when I visited it. In an outer room
was a bar, or dresser, covered with plates
containing
meat sandwiches, quarters of oranges, and other food
and comforts for the wounded. They were all officers
and non-commtssioned officers who lay in that hos-
pital. I had gone before the hour at which visits
are allowed, but I nevertheless was permitted
to see two of the rooms, in one of which I found
a young engineer officer of my acquaintance, who