The Sun.
London, England, 1864-01-22 00:00:00

WESTMINSTER.

A VERY INGENUOUS DEFBNCE,—TIIE TRUMPETER
AT CREMORNE.—James Jabey, an elderly man, was placed
at the bar, charged with stealing a cloak from a shop door.
Mrs, M‘Mahon, of 7, Little Chapel-street, Westminster,
said that there was a cloak hanging just inside her door for
sale yesterday. At about half-past four the prisoner lifted
it down from the nail on which it was hung, and took it
next door for sale. She was told that her cloak was stolen
and where she should find it ; and she accordingly followed
into a shop, where she found the prisoner, and, shaking
him, she inquired how he dare steal her cloak ? He said he
knew nothing about it, but that did not satisfy her, as she
found it beforo him on the counter. She then gave him
I into custody.
Prisoner—l did not take it,

Mr. Selfe—The woman says she found you in the chop
with her cloak.

Prisoner—l can perfectly account for that. I saw a boy
steal the poor woman's cloak, and I followed him into this
shop, where he went to sell it, in order to secure it and get
book the cloak,

Mr. Selfe—ls the shopkeeper here ?
Mrs. Bull stood forward and said that prisoner came into
her aunt's shop and offered the cloak for sale, but she re-
fused to buy it after some conversation with him, and he
went two or three doors off with it.

Mr. eelfe—Did he follow any boy into the shop with it ?
Witness—No, He brought it tu himself, There was
no boy there at all.

Prisoner—Oh, ahe had been drinking, your worship, and
does not know what occurred.

Witness—Dear me. Oh, your worship, a teetotaller.
I have been so these five years.
Mr. Selfe —That may be, but you know sometimes—
Witness—Oh, never, I assure you.
Mr. Selfe—ls prisoner known ?
Dennis, the gaoler—He was the trumpeter at the Cre-
morne Tournament.

A policeman said that when he took the prisoner last
night he found he was intoxicated.

Prisoner having elected that the magistrate should dis-
pose of the case, he was committed for six weeks to the
House of Correction.

FEDERAL LOSSES AT CHANCELLORSVILLE.—The
official report issued at Washington respecting the Federal
killed and wounded at the battle of Chancellorsyille, gives
28,000 as the total loss of Union soldiers.

" Gentlemen,—l am directed by Secretary Sir G.
Grey to acknowledge the receipt of your letter of
the 15th inst., which he received on the 18th inst.
"While the magistrates in whose names that let-
ter was written entirely agree that it was impos-
sible for the Secretary of State to refuse the inquiry
recommended by the judge into Townley's state of
mind, they appear to think that the inquiry could
have been conducted in the same manner as an in
quiry in the case of a commission of lunacy directed
by the Lord Chancellor where the sanity of a per-
son possessed of property is in question. They ask,
' by should an inquiry involving the momentous
issue of life or death, and which thereby affects the
reasonable sense of justice in the masses of the
p eople, be conducted in a less satisfactory manner
than an inquiry touching property only ?' The
answer to this question is, that in the one case the
Legislature has prescribed the manner of inquiry,
and has provided the means of its being publicly
conducted, the evidence being taken on oath before
v. judge and a legal commissioner specially appointed
to preside over it, or one of the judges, if the Chan-
cellor shall so direct. In the other case no such
provision has been made. It was not, therefore, in
the power of the Secretary of State to direct such
an inquiry, nor is it in his power to direct a public
inquiry, with evidence on oath, into the state of
mind of any person. The inquiry which he did
institute, in order to obtain the information which
was requisite to solve the doubt suggested by the
judge and to guide him is the discharge of his
duty, was necessarily of the same nature as those
which have on previous occasions taken place in
cases in which, notwithstanding the conviction of
a person of a capital offence, doubts have been sug-
gested as to whether, owing to his state of mind, the
sentence of the law should be carried into effect.
" As the actual order of removal to Bethlehem
Hospital was founded on the certificate of Dec. 29,
signed by two county magistrates, the validity of
which you do not impugn, it is scarcely necessary
to advert to your statement as to the alleged inva-
lidity of the first certificate. I am, however, to
inform you that the Secretary of State is advised
that its being signed on a Surday did not render it
invalid, as it was not a judicial act within the mean-
ing of the rule stated by the magistrates ; and that,
although it was signed only by one county justice,
the other two magistrates being justices for the
borough only, the terms of the statute are not free
from doubt as to whether the borough justices had
or not authority to sign it. . .

" You inform Sir George Grsy that, in the opinion
of the magistrates, Dr. Goode and his coadjutors,
meaning thereby, it is presumed, the justices who
signed the certificate, did not intend to sign a
document which would be obigatory on the Secre-
tary of State, and they submitted that the certifi-
cate being expressed in terns directly opposed to
the publicly declared intention of those who signed

it, ought not to have an effect contrary to such in-
tention.' No statement which could support this
opinion has ever been receives by Sir George Grey
from any one of the magistrates or medical men
by whom either of the certificates were signed, and
until he read this passage in your letter it never
occurred to him as possible that, in signing the cer-
tificates, and ferwardiug them to the Secretary of
State, the persons certifying were not fully aware
of the nature and effect of their certificate, or that
they did not intend that it should be dealt with by
the Secretary of State in conformity with the
statute, with the provisions of which they had care-
fully complied. After the doubt, however, which
you have suggested on this point, Sir G. Grey has
thought it right to call on the magistrates for an
explanation of the course which they took upon
this occasion, and for any observations they may
have to make as to this part of your letter, and also
as to the assertion that Townley's removal to
Bethlehem was effected by the agency of his soli-
citor and by the expenditure of money. He
has also desired the governor of the gaol to
inform him by whose authority he admitted
to visit and examine the prisoner the two medical
men who signed the certificates and the two borough
justices who signed the first certificate,assurning you
to be correct in saying that they had no authority
to act in the county gaol, though situated within
the borough.
" With regard to the entries in the surgeon's
journal of the 25th August and 6th October, which
the visiting justices for the first time brought under
the notice of the Secretary of State in their letter
of the Bth inst., Sir George Grey can only repeat
the expression of his regret that, considering the
importance now attached by the visiting justices to
these entries, they wholly overlooked them for so
many months, and did not discover them and send
copies of them to the Secretary of State till it was
too late to render them of any practical use.
" Yon say that the report made by the Lunacy
Commissioners on the 28th December seems to the
magistrates not to support the certificate of the
two justices and two medical men. Sir George
Grey has already informed you that he was not
called upon to act upon that report alone. Had he
been so, although the commisioners say that for the
reasons set forth in their report they could not con-
sider Townley to be of sound mind, Sir George
Grey yet would not have felt justified from the
general tenour of the report in assuming that his
unsoundness of mind was such as to exempt him from
the penal consequences of an act for which, accord-
ing to the law laid down by the learned judge, he
was legally responsible. But whatever was the
purport and character of that report, it could not
affect the validity of the certificate. In one point
of view only was the opinion of the Lunacy Com-
missioners-Townley was not of sound mind
material. thatltgave this additional weight to the
certificate, that it precluded the Secretary of State
from supposing what he would in any case have been
reluctant to do, except on the clearest proof, that
four magistrates and two medical men had, with-
outandany
de i b probableeta intention and with the wilful
of obstructing the
course of justice, signed a certificate of
Townley's insanity. Had any magistrate
thus wantonly and corruptly abused the power with
ragrounds,
which his office invested him, it is unnecessary to
say that he would have proved himself wholly unfit
to be continued in the commission of the peace, and
would have rendered himself liable to a criminal
information. Whether any alteration shall be made
in the law applicable to a case of this nature is a
question which will not fail to receive consideration,
but it is one on which Sir George Grey does not
think it necessary to enter in this letter.—l am,
gsntlemeu, your obedient servant,
1.1. WADDINGTON.

Middle
judges at dinner in
disiler.T
Justiceemple
Mn. JUSTICE SIEEE.--YoterdaY evening (being
their beautiftil hallo The guests invited, and who were
" Grand Day") the begncri.leirusstoilthmee
present, included the Chief Justice of the Common Pleas,
entertsitted several of her Majesty's
Mr. Justice Williams,
Shee, and Lord Justice Turner. A large number of the
benohers attended, including the newly-appointed Queen's
Council, Mr. Gray, and Mr. J. G. Powell, M.P., of the
Oxford Circuit. The new judp of the Court of Queen's
Bench, Mr. Justice Shee, met with a most enthusiastic re-
ception from the barristers and students.
COLONIAL MONEY-ORDER-OFFICE.—On the Ist
of February, and thenceforward, money-orders will
be issued by all money-order ores in the United Kingdom
the Aeleny of Trinidad, at I
same rates of charge and
on - regulations to those ose already in force with
wider the 5,..1-11, -;e3 with which money-order business
respect to other cow— . 4of Spain, Trinidad. Money-
is transacted, namely, Poi. 'ffice on all money-order
orders will also be issued by Ws ,_
offices in the United Kingdom, -', oply of

THE UTILIZATION OF SEAWEED.—The e., ""
seaweed on our shores is practically inexhaustible, be..._
estimated at 21,000,000 tons pe7 annum; while the present
consumption, both for kelp and for green manuring, does
not leach 1,000,000 tons. The wrack cast up on our shores
during the winter season is the largest in quantity and the
most valuable in quality, and it is now proposed to save and
th y this artificially by a contrivance for burning wet fuel,
and by which the seaweed itself is made to contribute
towards the heat required for drying largo quantities, at a
cheap rate, at all seasons of the year.

I have also been thus particular in mentioning Samuel's
regular compliance with all the duties of a Catholic, because
the unhappy man denied, and persisted in denying, that he
ever had been a Catholic. He left Norwich and removed
to London soon after the death of his wife. Up to that time
he had continued in the profession of the Catholic religion.
Both his children were born in Norwich, and baptised by a
priest there. His subsequent career is unknown to me, but
I never heard of his actually changing his religion, nor do I
think that he ever did. He evidently fell into vicious
habits and evil company, and lost the precious treasure of
Faith, and, probably, all sense of religion. After
the commission of his last dreadful crime he knew
what would be required of him, as a Catholic,
before he could make his peace with God, and, most
probably, had not the courage to go through it, after the
wicked course of life in which he must have been for some
time involved. So, on his first committal at Newgate,
he declared himself a Protestant, and on his removal to
Horsemonger-lane Gaol he persisted in the same. If he had
chosen to turn Protestant, he was free to do so, and abide
by the awful consequences of renouncing his Catholic faith.
But the worst, and to me the most unaccountable, part of
his conduct was, that he denied ever having been a Catho-
lic. He admitted that he had been a few times in a Catholic
chapel, and was married in one, but persist ed in declaring
that he never was a Catholic. Thus this un happy man, to
his other dreadful sins, has added wilful lying and epos-
tacy ; and with these upon his soul, has passed into
eternity I
It may be judged how painful his sad history was to me,
who had known him innocent and happy, regular and edi.
fying, and had had him for several years under my spiritual
care. I thought it probable that a few lines from his former
pastor might produce a favourable effect upon this unhappy
man ; and accordingly I wrote to him on the 3d of January.
This letter has been alluded to in several papers, but its
contents have been wrongly represented. In the Daily
Telegraph, it was stated that my letter "fervently entreated
him to abjure the doctrines of the Protestant Church ;"
but I never said a word about the Protestant Church.
I had heard indeed of his denying his faith ;
bat in my letter, I did not make the least allu-
sion to that denial. I wrote as if I supposed him still to
be, as I had always known him, a Catholic. I reminded
him of the happy days of his youth and innocence, and ex-
pressed my hope that all the religious instructions which he
had received here would revive in his mind in his sad con-
dition, and move him without delay to repent and make hie
peace with God. I assured him that his crimes, great as
they were, were not too great to be forgiven by God's infi-
nite mercy, provided that he sought forgiveness in the pro-
per manner; and that for this purpose I exhorted him to
lose no time in seeing the Very Rev. Provost Doyle, who
was a great friend of mine, and to place himself entirely
under his care, who would guide him safely after all to save
his poor soul. He was certainly well pleased with my "kind
and welcome letter," as he himself called it; and his brother
Michael begged of him to read it over and over again, and
do what it exhorted him to do ; but unhappily it produced
no further effect. He chose to be attended by the Protes-
tant chaplain.
Two letters have appeared in the papers, which he wrote
before his execution. One was written on Sunday, the
10th, and the original is now lying before me. It was ad-
dressed to his mother. in-law, the mother of his late wife,
with whom, as already mentioned, is his elder little girl
Fanny. The Telegraph gave this and another letter written
the next day to his own poor mother, as if botb had been
addressed to her ; but the irst was to his mother-in-law,
living here at Cossey. In the first letter he mentions hav-
ing received "a kind and welcome letter" from me, but
makes no further observation upon it. Deeply as I have
felt for him, as his former friend and pastor, and anxious
as I was to do anything to rescue him from an
ignominous death, I must own that I could see
nothing whatever in his case to extenuate his crime,
or call for the extraordinary feeling manifested in
his favour. I am persuaded that if Townley's case had
not happened just before, little or no notice would have been
taken of poor Wright, or sympathy shown for him. Though
I grieve acutely for the shocking crimes and untimely end
of one for whom I always felt great regard and pastoral
affection, I consider his fate as but too likely to follow from
the course of his life in the latter part of it. He began, as
too many do, by neglecting his religious duties; by degrees
he became hardened and indifferent about them, and got
entangled in vicious habits and evil company. The precious
gift of faith was withdrawn from him, and at last his un-
controlled passions led him to that dreadful crime which
cries to heaven for vengeance. Though few go thus to the
extremity of crime, his fate should be a warning to all o"
the dreadful danger of neglecting the sacred duties o
religion.

Cossey, Jan. 16th, 1864.

F. C. iIIISENBETH, D.D.

More of Mouravieff's Cruelties,

Private letters from Lithuania to the 25th of De.
cember are lamentable. One of the latest acts of
General Monravieff was to order the general com-
manding the district of Jezorosy not to appear
before him until he had completely suppressed the
insurrection in that quarter. The general came
to the conclusion that it was useless to make any
distinction in a country where the entire population
is favourable to the insurrection, and he determined
to strike a great blow. Having selected a colonel
and two other superior officers notorious for their
cruelty as his assistants, he arrived at Du-
slaty, a chateau belonging to the Counts Ladis-
las and Caesar Plater, which has been con-
fiscated by Mouravieff, and there established
his headquarters. He commenced by transporting
all the farmers on the estate en masse without any
trial, and with them the Abbe Viotwaricz, the
parish priest of Dusiaty—a man beloved by his
parishioners. The Canon Macewicz was the next
victim. Having got rid of all the clergy, the Gene•
ral proceeded to the village of Aulozers, consisting
of ten farmhouses. Determined, if possible, to dis-
cover the chiefs of the national organisation, he
ordered ten peasants to be brought before him, the
,greater number of them being fathers of families,
and having selected two, the bastinado was applied to
them during the night. The following day he ordered
ten victims to be led to the marketplace of Dusiaty,
and in the presence of the neighbouring communes
the General ordered that from 200 to 500 blows with a
stick should be inflicted on each. He nevertheless
failed to extort any confession from them. Their
mutilated bodies were then removed, and the Gene-
ral ordered Norbert Urbanus, fifty years of age, and
possessing great influence in the country, to be
brought forward. He first spoke to his prisoner
with great mildness, in order to induce him to
give information, but he could obtain nothing from
him. He then ordered that he should be beaten
without mercy, and that his wife and two children
should be committed to prison. Finding that
all was in vain, the General endeavoured to
terrify Urbanus by commanding that he should
bo shot. All the preparations were made, and
he was led to the place of execution. He
there exclaimed with a firm voice, " You
have commanded that I shall be shot, but that is
nothing new here. It is not two months since we
witnessed in this little town the death of one of our
brothers. If it be necessary that I should die for
the advantage of my country and of my religion, I
do not fear death." He was then released. The
General neat commanded that other villages,
containing in all 117 houses and 500 inhabitants,
should be plundered, and the inmates, men,
women, and children, brought to Dusiaty, where
they were exposed to cold and hunger in order to force
them to give information. The pillage continued
from the 7th to the 23d of December, and all the
,property of the villagers was sold for anything
"..red by the Burlaki, or " old believers." All the
'airal implements were given for nothing to
• who rushed on the houses of the Polish
'fire population of Dusiaty and of
-norted to Siberia. Of
all
-lot one offered to give
-eel. All bore their
,fidcnce of the

QL
the Burlaki, .
peasants. The eh.
Shopsistik were trap..,
these unfortunate people
information to the Ruesian Gent_
fate with fortitude, and in full Co—
resurrection of their beloved oountryT