The Sun.
London, England, 1864-02-02 00:00:00

DENMARK.

am. immme•Otsl •

(Fr/A 4 1716 ,Special Correspondent of the Times.)
COPENHAGEN, Jan. 26.
I have been the best part of three days on my
way from Kial to Copenhagen—a fact sufficient to
explain the exceptional condition of the country in
these stirring times of forthcoming war. I have
passed from the catrip of the German Greeks to that
of the Trojan Dan Qs ; from the advanced posts of
the Austro-P russians to the strongly-guarded lines

of the Danne.werk. The movements of neutral tra-
vellers are e.s yet unimpeded, and my progress was

only delayed by some of those hindrances and petty
annoyances that aye inseparable from crowded

trains, belated sNamers, and overwrought post-
horses—the great, machinery of locomotion being to
some extent clogged and unhinged, but not wilfully

broken up or interfered with.
I left Kiel 'J n Sunday morning, without a single
soldier of any description, under protection of its
most inoffensive citizen-guard. The Prussians had
come no further than Plon ; and I found the Aus.
trians at Isreumunster. The train left me for two

hours at the latter place, and, having nothing better
to do, I sauntered along the endless main street of
that straggling market town, and inspected the
whole long line of the Martini Brigade, as, issuing
forth from its night quarters, it mustered in several
detachments along theroad in the gray of the morn-
ing. In what part of the empire its regiments are
recruited I know not, nor could I make out. I could

fancy myself in tiV allenstein's camp. My ear was as-
sailed by every variety of uncouth Sclavonian jabber
with a mixture of Istrian, Dalmatian, and even Vene-
tian dialects. Dark and dingy they looked, an ugly
set of Croatians :and Grenzer for the most part,
vith hollow cheeks and lank bodies, as gaunt and
wolfish a set of marauders, to judge by external ap-
pearances, as ever was let loose upon an ill-starred
country; very good soldiers, I dare say, long endur-
ing, venturesome, amenable to a strong discipline.
Their meat was plentiful, their bread excellent,
their kettles were boiling, and they seemed at peace
with the good Holsteiners, at whose expense they
fired so sumptuously.
Travelling in Germany, or for that matter in Den-
mark, is slow work, but it has this good in it—that
it allows ample leisure for reflection. I gezed at those
low-bred, coarsely- clad, un was!a ed, scampish-looking
instruments of the Kaiser's might ; I thought of the
hundreds of thousands following in their rear if
needed, I added the half-million of Prussians and
other Germans embarked with them in the same

enterprise, and bethought myself of the bread and
meat these myriads and myriads had been devour-
ing since the reconstitution of the German States in
1814 ; I thought of the check they had been on pro-
duction, of the terrible impulse they had given to
consumption in their country, and of the little good
they had been to it either for offensive or defensive
purposes, the Prussians boasting of no other laurels
to their standards than those reaped in the blood-
less campaign against the Baden Republicans i❑
1848 ; the Austrians wearing out their strength
against their master's own subjects, unable to over-
come the unarmed Magyars without Russian szp-
port in 1849, unfit to hold a position of their own
choice against the French or even against the de-
spised Italians in 1859, driven from fat Lombardy,
after no more than a two fields' experiment, leav-
ing their chivalrous young master to console him-
self us he best could with the fond conceit that " all
was lost but honour."
And now this million and a half unfleshed Austro-
Prusso-German bayonets are all turned against the
breast of comparatively helpless Denmark, and it
may be that those two emulous Powers which never
agreed upon any one point since the close of the
Seven Nears' War, and all the 86 Confederate
Princes who never were anything bat a faggot of
loose sticks in matters of home or foreign policy,—
it may he, I say, that Prussia, Austria, and the
Bund will give proof of great unanimity and go to
work with a will now that the aim of all their
efforts is to strip a third rate monarchy of one of its
provinces, now that they are six and thirty to one,
and, as they fancy, the man to be hit " has no
friends."
At Rendsburg, on the Eider, a few Saxon officers
were still at the railway station on the south side
of the river. They were the last troops of the Band
h till in the front line, and they were ready to march
to the rear as soon as their Austro-Prussian betters
should come up to supersede them. Anon the train
conveyed us over the narrow, ricketty bridge of the
Eider, and at once the scene was changed, as if by
magic. We stood on Danish soil, and no sounds but
those of the Norse language greeted our ears. Tall
Danish officers, blue-eyed, flaxen-haired—as if all
sprung from Harold Haarfager, crept into the nar-
row second-class carriages, stooping to get admit-
tance, and very much at a loss how to dispose of their
long legs and of their bright-scabbarded broad-
swords.

I was not a little struck, from the moment we
crossed over to the Kronwerk at Rendsburg, by
the universal prevalence of the Danish language ;
all the more forcibly struck, as I had travelled over
a good part of the Dachy of Schleswig only a few
days before, and the whole population with whom I
came into contact spoke German, the only difference
being between high and low German. It was not
tong before I perceived that German was a tabooed
language wherever the lordly Dane showed himself.
'The nationality of the Schleswigers is precisely the
great point on which the whole question at issue
now hinges, and it is good policy for a native of
the Duchy who has both tongues at his command
to humour his northern master whenever he comes
into contact with him by the use of the Danish, re-
serving his German idiom for those patriotic meet-
ings where he drinks his beer to the prosperity of
Vaterland.
Nay, the feelings of the Dane have been so
soured of late against anything German that the
mere address in that tongue on the part of a
stranger who cannot muster one word of Danish
calls forth a scowl upon his interlocutor's counte-
nance, and makes the latter forgetful of his innate
courtesy and good breeding; and it is only upon
perceiving his mistake, and being assured that no
offence was meant, that he meets you on the neutral
ground of French or English, and readily pats him-
self out of his way to oblige you by all kind offers of
assistance.
At Flensburg we left the railway, and proceeded
by diligence to Apenrade and Hadersleben ; hence
I've crossed the Little Belt from Aarinabund to
'‘"ens ; from Assens we drove across the island of
-I'Lla‘'n to Vyborg; a steamer conveyed us from the
latter Place to Halsloe near Korsor in Zealand ;
..4-`lhe nee a railway brought us in five hours to this
place. Both the Great and Little Belts are now
almost entirely free from ice ; and, although the
steamer chose to stop at Halsloe, and to land us by
means of small boats, forwarding us to Korsor by
postchaises, we found at Korsor steamers on the
point of quitting the harbour; from which we in-
ferred that it must be as easy to get in as to go out,
end concluded that the navigation was by this time
altogether unimpeded.
All along the road, by land and water, we met
hundreds of old soldiers, chiefly from Schleswig,
ho obeyed the orders lately issued by the Danish
Government, calling under,irms as a reserve all the
men bound to service up to thirty-five years of
age. Most of these men seemed aware that there
is a languagt spoken among the gods and
one used among mortals. They conversed in Ger-
man amongst themselves, and were ready with their
Danish whenever there was a chance of being over-
heard by strangers. Some of them were old sailors,
familiar with the Western and' Southern Ocean
they spoke English almost as well as their native;
language ; they were an intelligent, well-informed
set of men. Tney told me it was not without re-
pugnance that they undertook this weary jonrne •
that their hearts were with the Germans, and it journey
very hard flat y should have to bear arms against
their own friends and countrymen ; that they should
Vave to follow the standards of those very -Danes
against whom they
fought 14. years ego. They added
that they would fain have followed the example of
many of their friends who had gone over to Hol-
stein, only that they were not so sure Schleswig
might not remain Danish, after all, when they would
End themselves banished ft.= th,,,ir homes during
their lifetime. They assured me that Denmark would
Lave little cause to be satisfied with their servicee

and with those of the Schleswigers and Holsteiners,
which she held in her ranks against their will; that
on the first shot being fired they all would I ass over
en masse to the enemy ; that the whole of their
Duchy was German to the core, and that even some
of those belonging to the Northern Provinces who
actually could speak nothing but Danish were all
devoted to the German cause.

Of course, I did not take these words to the letter,
nor did I believe the Danish cause as hopeless as
they made it out ; what most forcibly struck and
amazed me, however, was the boldness and readi-
ness with which they gave utterance to such
thoughts before a perfect stranger ; for, although
I suppose I do not look like a spy or an in.
former, still I never told them I shared their
feelings in any way, nor gave them any reason to
believe they could rely on my discretion. Surely
some fire must be smouldering where so much smoke
appears; and if only one-tenth of what I every-
where hear is true, ;Denmark will have no little
trouble in guarding against such friends, if ever the
day comes in which she is to guide them against her
enemies.

JANUIRY 27.

I find the position of aff.iirs here one of consider-
able " tension." The Austrian and Prussian Mini-
sters have not actually left yet, but they have taken
their leave long since, and have only been detained
by the difficulties of embarking either here or at
Korsor. The navigation, as I said, is thoroughly
free at the latter place, and the two diplomatists are
expected to start this evening by the 7 o'clock train
to Korsor.

So far as I can make out, the Danish Government
have put themselves altogether in the right. They
have offered to make all such concessions as it is in
their power to make. To repeal the November
Constitution, in obedience to the demands of Aus-
tria and Prussia, by a mere, Royal decree:would be
tantamount to a coup d'etat, to trespass on the
King's part upon all the rights of the Danish peo-
ple. No monarch could venture upon such a breach
of the law with less hope of success than Christian
IX., a Prince who has but lately come to the Throne,
and looked upon till his accession as a stranger to
Denmark. All the Danish Government could pro-
pose
to do was to refer the matter to the Rigsraad,
or national Parliament, which should be speedily
called together for the purpose.
The present Ministers are popular here, and they
expressed great confidence,—indeed, positive cer-
tainty, that they would be able to bring the majority
of the Rigsraad over to their views, to obtain their
consent to the abrogation of the November Consti-
tution, and to the framing of a new national com-
pact, by which the Duchies should depend upon
Denmark on the terms of a mere personal union.
No apprehensions are entertained here of popular
movements in the city. The Ministers of Prussia
and Austria had, however, it appears, strict instruc-
tions to insist upon a full and immediate compliance
with their demands, and,• as the King of Denmark
could not, owing to the above-stated reasons, give
in, the march of the Austro-Prussians to the Eider

'rontier has become inevitable. From their posi,

tion on the Eider their ultimatissimum will be for-
warded to Copenhagen, with an injunction to the
Danish forces to withdraw from their position in
Schleswig. Before an intimation of that sort the
Danish Government could no more hear of negotia-
tion than a duellist could consent to explanations
when brought upon the ground pistol in band.
Contrary to the opinion entertained by most people

in the Duchies, and to some extent, also contrary to
my expectations, a collision on the Eider appears
now to be utterly unavoidable. What the issues of
such a conflict may be no man can foretell; for, on
the one side, the German Powers are likely enough

to bring into the field what they may consider an
irresistible force; and, on the other hand, the Danes
are said to have mustered 70,000 combatants in
Schleswig. They are almost providentially favoured
by the weather, and they are too well known for
their bravery not to offer a most gallant, desperate
resistance. Should a first success favour their
efforts, there is little doubt but the sympathy of
Sweden, and, perhaps, other Powers, may be enlisted
in favour of what is materially the weaker side.
Let the Danes only be on their guard against defer.
tion or treaci.ery ot their6chleswig•Holstein soldiery,
and, owing to the advantage of position, the strug■
gle msy still be less unequal than mere numerical
odds may seem to make it.

JANUARY 28.

As I informed you by a telegraphic despatch last
evening, the expected departure of the Ministers of
Prussia and Austria did not take place. It had
been positively asserted yesterday morning, and it
was generally believed in the diplomatic circles,
that those two gentlemen were to leave by the 7
o'clock p.m, train for Korsor, there to embark for
Eckernforde, but it was later in the day understood
that their journey was put off for a day or two. The
alleged cause of this delay was the imperfect state
of steam navigation, as the Bay of Eckernforde was
supposed to be still obstructed by ice. The same, how-
ever, was said of the harbour of Korsor, and I had
opportunity, as I told you, to see with my own eyes
that steamers could leave the wharf at that place
with perfect freedom ; and what I saw of the Bays
of Eckernforde and Kiel before I left, four days ago)
leaves me no doubt that, with the warm weather
and the heavy rains we have had since, every trace
of ice must by this time have disappeared. It is
possible that these two distinguished diplomatists
evince greater anxiety about the perfect safety of
their movements than would be shown, under the
circumstances, by ordinary persons. The simple fact
is that they tarry here, and, although any suggestion
en my part that they may be detained by some hope
of a peaceful arrangement of their difference with
the Danish Government is scouted and treated with
contempt by the knowing ones, although they assure
ire that, having taken their formal leave of the
King, ids sent tenses d'etre deja partis—still there
lurks about my mind some suspicion, which will at
least make me very careful to send you a telegram
in proper time to assure you that they are actually
and bodily gone.

Rumours of an intended arrangement proposed
by Prussia to Sweden, with a view to detach the
Duchies of Schleswig and Holstein from Denmark,
and to unite Jutland and the islands of Zealand and
Funen to Sweden and Norway,"so as to form a great
Scandinavian empire, have, I am told, circulated in
the newspapers, and will have found many unbe-
lievers. I am, however, in a position to assure you,
upon very good evidence, that the Prussian Govern-
ment have actually made advances in that sense to
the Swedish Minister in Berlin. To what ex-
tent the head of that Government, M. von Bie-
mark, knew and approved the proposal I am not
in a position to state, for Court and Cabinet are not
altogether one it Berlin in every respect ; but that
the Swedish Minister communicated such an offer
to his Government at Stockholm I believe to be a
positive fact, as it is also, I think, a matter of per-
fect truth that the Swedish Government not only
rejected the offer, but resented it as the gravest
insult. Yon know I would not take upon myself
to make such statements had I the least doubt as to
the sources of my information.
That a dismemberment and the extinction of the
Danish monarchy is a scheme that has often busied
the brains of German statesmen is a point that ad-
mits of no doubt, In Berlin and Vienna, and
throughout Germany, Denmark is as plainly doomed
as the old sick man upon whose inheritance Nicho-
las of Russia was in too great a hurry to reckon.
The German patriots, whom I found most earnest
in the cause of the emancipation of Schleswig and
Holstein from Danish thraldom, are by no means
unjust to the fine qualities, "the high spirit, the
chivalrous bravery, the genius, and worth" of the
Danes. It was and is a generous nation, in their
estimation, as far as it goes. But the Danes, they
say, " reduced to their present condition, are only
a small flock, the mere fragment of a nation."
They have a luminous past behind them, and they
re-
duced circumstances. o d countenance
But i event i
is an
nationtheir w presenthose r a
showis r u n ,a g
whose history for one or two centuries only
marks a period of not ignoble, but irresistible de-
cline. A nation of 1,82,0,000 souls,
barely
ing the calamities of 1801 and 1807,
stripped o-
sf
Norway, reft of her c3lonies, and placed in one of the
most important positions as keeper of the Sound,
has no right to live. The Danes are only a brunch
of the great Sendinal,ian family. Tinir

THE SUN, LONDO

tions should turn towards a reconstitution of the
great Northern Empire. Those three kingdoms
which once obeyed one sceptre, and were only torn
asunder owing to the improvident misrule of a
Danish tyrant, must be yearning for reunion.
Give Germany that of Denmark which is German ;
give Sweden and Norway what is Scandinavian.
The only obstacles in the way of such a settlement
are a dynasty and a capital. With the exception of
Christian IX., who reigns in spite of himself, and
of Copenhagen or Stockholm, which might very well
become alternate Beats of Government, such a con-
summation would be a real gain and a blessing to
all parties concerned, and to all the world besides.
It was as interpreter of these somewhat wild
dreams in Germany that the Prussian Government
tempted Sweden with the arrangement lately pro-
posed. The Berlin Court and Cabinet are aware of
the little popularity they enjoy throughout Ger-
many, but they are also aware that the statesman
who succeeded, either by diplomatic craft or by
might of arms, in wrenching Schleswig-Holstein
from the Danish dominion and adding one more
German crowned head to the 36 great and petty
Princes who occupy so much space in the muster-
roll of Royalty of the Alinavach de Gotha would by
that territorial addition to the already too wide
soil of Fatherland secure for himself absolution
from a multitude of sins of misgovernment—past,
present, and future. Alive as they are to national
feelings for what concerns themselves, the Ger-
mans too readily forget that other people also
have an individuality which they may be anxious
to preserve ; that the Danes, however defi-
cient in numbers, boast a long, glorious,
and powerful existence of their own; that, however
closely allied by blood to the Swedes, however
strongly relying on their support in the present
straits, they are no more ready to become Swedes,
to merge their own even into a kindred nationality,
than the English would be, for instance, to amalga-
mate with the Saxon or Norman people with whom
they claim common descent. The Danes have suf-
fered serious losses—indeed, they are reduced to a
small flock ; but they have always held their own in
Europe with honour; they knew how to command
the respect of their very victors at the time of their
differences with Great Britain ; they know how to
stand their ground against German encroachment
at the time that this odious Schleswig-Holstein
question was debated 15 years ago. Whatever might
have become of Turkey without the help of the
Western Powers in 1854. Denmark is no sick old
man, to give up the ghost without a struggle. It is
absurd for Prussia to propose to share with Sweden
the bide of a living lion, Were even Denmark alone
in the contest, the Dannewerk could not be stormed
without shedding torrents of blood. iThe impending
war between Denmark and Germany may eventually

THE TOWNLEY CASE.

lead to a closer union between the three Scandi-
navian kingdoms ; but this union need not be the
result of a political subjection to one sceptre, nor of
a fusion of three distinct nations into one people. It
may be a union springing from native attraction and
affinity, resting on the ground of reciprocal esteem,
and cemented by a mutual readiness to take up each
other's quarrel as a common cause. The three
nations may give the world the example of a politi-
cal combination in which, while each of the com-
ponent parts preserves its own individuality, they
may be as one to all the rest of the world.
I understand the Danes are busily at work con-
structing a railway line in the rear of the Danne-
werk from Klosterkvo.to the Treene. Two-thirds
of the enterprise are already accomplished, Every
one must feel the importance of such a means of
communication along a line of fortifications which
was deemed of too great an extent for the number
of its defenders.

RAILWAY INTELLIGENCE,

LONDON AND SOUTH-WESTERN.

The directors of this company have resolved to recom-
mend to the proprietors, at the half-yearly general meeting
on the 11th inst., that the dividend for the half-year ending
on the 31st of Deeember, 1863, be at the rate of 51 per cent.
per annum on the ordinary capital stock of the company.

', TUESDAY EVENING, FEBRUARY 2, 1864,

On Friday afternoon last an important meeting
of the visiting justices and other magistrates of the
country of Derby was held at the County-hall, for
the purpose of taking into consideration certain

communications received from the Home Secretary,

and also the letters that have recently appeared

from the " Local Commissioners," Messrs. Cox, Roe,
Scott, and Forman. Sir H. S. Blane presided.
After the matter had been fully discussed, the
following reply to Sir George Grey was unani-
mously adopted, and signed by Sir H. S, Blane on
behalf of the magistrates assembled :

Derby, Jan, 30.
Sir,—We beg to acknowledge the receipt of your letters
of the 20th, 23d, and 25th inst„ and the copies of the letters
from Mr. Scott, Mr. Cox. Mr. Roe, and Mr, Forman.
They were yesterday laid before the visiting justices of
the gaol and other magistrates (11 in number), assembled
at the county-hall, in whose names I am requested, in the
absence of Mr. Mundy, to send the following reply :
The magistrates cannot refrain from saying that they
have read your letter of the 20th inst• with regret. They
most emphatically repudiate the supposition " that four ma-
gistrates and two medical men had, without any probable

grounds, anti with the wilful and deliberate intention of oh -
stracting the course of justice, signed a certificate of Town-
ley's insanity." The magistrates believe those gentlemen to
be wholly incapable of co acting. The observation that
" Townley's removal to Bethlehem was effected by the ex-
pendittlre toi money" is shown by another part of the same
paragraph to refer to an expenditure of money in obtaining
the certificate by which he was removed. That was not an
illegal expenditure, but the fact remains that "Townley has
escaped by means accessible to the rich, but out of reach of
the poor." If the act in question had been applied, as the
magistrates have themselves applied it, and in the only way
in which they consider that such an act ought to be applied,
by the agency of the gaol authorities, equal advantages
would have been afforded to the rich and to the poor,
' With reference to the entries in the surgeon's journal you
have twice expressed your regret that the visiting justices
"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 themof any practical use."

Now, although the visiting justices made frequent inquiries

about Townley's state, they never until after his trial heard
from any officer of the gaol a hint of Townley's insanity, nor
until after the certificate of his insanity had they any spe-
cial reason for examining the surgeon's journal. To say,
therefore, that they had overlooked for many months en-

tries which until after Dec. 27th they had no motive to look
for at all, is an expression, to say the least, exceeding the
occasion. As soon as they were informed of the certificate
the journal was searched and the entries found, and sent to
you immediately. The magistrates do not know, nor do you
point out what "practical use" could previously have been
made of those entries. They could not have affected the ob-

ligation which you considered yourself under to act upon
the second certificate. But at the time they were sent they
were of this practical use—to show the divergence of opinion
respecting Townley's sanity, and to support the other rea••
sons assigned for further inquiry. If the surgeon of the
gaol, who had the most frequent opportunities of seeing
Townley, had considered him to be legally insane, there
could not have been a more fit person to sign the certificate.
He was present when it was signed.
The magistrates were aware that it was not in your power,
under the law as it now stands, to direct an inquiry upon
oath into the present state of Townley'smind, and therefore
they suggested that if the existing legal machinery was
deemed unequal to the occasion, Parliament might be applied
to to remedy the defect.
Your letter of the 20th inst. contains the following pas-
sage :—"You inform Sir George Grey that in the opinion of
the magistrates Dr. Goode and his coadjutors did not in-
tend to sign a document which would be obligatory on the
Secretary of State." In this passage the statement quoted
from Dr. Goode's published letter is represented as only the
"opinion of the magistrates," and the quotations are omitted.
Then the letter proceeds, "No statement which could
support this opinion has ever been received by Sir George
Grey from any one of the magistrates or medical men by
whom either of the certificates were signed.
In the first place, the quoted statement of Dr. Goode is
set forth as the opinion of the magistrates only, and then it
is asserted that no statement to support that opinion has
been received from any of the medical men, but a state-
ment signed and published by one of those medical teen was
sent to you, and its effact does not depend upon the channel
through which you received it.
The magistrates regrat that when you addressed inquiries
to the justices who had signed the certificates you did not
extend those inquiries to the medical men who also signed

them, and especially to Dr. Goode, whose important state
ment had been brought to your notice,
The magistrates did not need to be twice informed that
you were net called upon to act upon the report of the
Lunacy Commissioners alone, for they knew from you that
the removal of Townley was wholly founded on the second
certificate; neither were they ignorant that a magistrate
acting corruptly is amenable to punishment, nor can they
understand why such a remark is thrust into a letter to
them, inasmuch as they have not imputed corruption.
Dismissing these comparatively unimportant matters, the
magistrates proceed to those hearing upon the merits of the
case. It is not disputed that the proceedings relating to
both certificates were promoted, and the certifying magis-
trates and medical men put in motion, by Townley's solicitor.
i
cr h
denies
eynNo you a
sht
preparedah vi
se
os
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says cboyp i
that
copies
ae
tit
gt
the
es
vstated
oettshe
acotl
clerk,
trhke. the f
ol
,etmht letters rogsf
certificate
o°viewr
nh oi
form was prepared by the clerk of Townley's solicitor.
You say that you have desired the governor of the gaol
to inform ycu 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. Ths magistrates have, in the fifth para-
graph of their letter to you of the 15th inst., informed you
that the visiting justices consented to an inquiry as a pre-
liminary inquiry only. As that information does not seem
to have been satisfactory, the magistrates will now
verify it by the following published documents. In a
letter of the 4th inst. to Mr. Mundy, the chairman of the
visiting justices, by Townley's solicitor, that gentleman
says he had been informed that, "In order to strengthen
my application for the appointment of a commission of
lunacy to examine the prisoner (which I had previously
made) it would be well to obtain a satisfactory certificate of
local magistrates and medical men as to the state of the pri-
soner's mind, and, having resolved to obtain it, I waited
upon you on Saturday, Dec. 26, for a visiting justice's
order." The prisoner's solicitor adds that, not being pre-
pared with the name of any other magistrate than Mr. W.
T. Cox, a country and borough magistrate, he asked Mr.
Mundy to add the words, " and one or two other magis-
trates." Mr. Mundy added these words to the order,mean-
ing, of course, such magistrates as had jurisdiction within
the county gaol, which the borough magistrates have not,
nor ever before exercised; and under that order the two
borough justices, who had been subsequently applied to by
Townley's solicitor, obtained admission to the county gaol.
At the sessions on the following day, Jan. 6, Mr, Mundy is
represented to have said with reference to Townley's soli-
citor's application, "It was urged upon me that the certi-
ficates of these local gentlemen would enable the Home Sec-
retary to send down the Lunacy Commissioner." Dr.
Goode also states that he regarded the inquiry and certifi-
cate as only preliminary, and Mr. Scott says that he did
not understand the certificate as obligatory upon you. Thus
the inquiry asked by Townley's solicitor, and acceded to,
was asked and obtained for ono purpose and used for ano-
ther.
With regard to the first certificate, the magistrates are
confirmed by high legal authority in their opinion that that
certifieate is bad for the two reasons alleged in their letter
of the 13th inst. You observe that the certificate " was not
ajudicial act."
Mr. Cox, who signed it, says that he was applied to by
Townley's solicitor "to make a judicial inquiry into Town-
ley's state of mind," and did make it.
The second certificate appears also to be open to objection
on the following grounds, viz. :-
1. It is admitted by Dr. Goode, one of the four who
signed the certificates, that the inquiry was "a preliminary
to obtain Government Commissioners," and that "it was de-
cided to leave to persons more conversant the task of col-
lecting and comparing the evidence for the Secretary of
State," clearly showing that he did not intend the certifi-
cate to be final or obligatory upon you.
2. It is stated by Mr. Scott (another of the four who
signed the second certificate) that he "was unaware of its
effect as regarded its obligation upon you."
3. The magistrates are informed by competent medical
men that Mr. Harwood, who signed both certificates, was
not a member of the Royal College of Surgeons, and was
therefore not a surgeon, and not authorized to sign the cer-
tificate as such. If this be so, it has not been "duly certi-
fied" to you by two physicians or aurgeons that Townley is
insane, and the foundation of your order for his removal
fails, and ho should be remitted to the custody whence he
has been removed.
Independently of this objection, you now have the state-
ment of two of the four gentlemen who signed the certificate
under which you felt obliged to remove Townley to Beth-
lehem, that they did not intend the certificate to have that
effect. At present, therefore, Townley is withdrawn from
justice by your order, founded upon a certificate which was
not intended by Townley's solicitor when he asked per-
mission to obtain it, nor by Mr. Mundy, who granted that
permission, nor by two of the four gentlemen who signed
it, to have that effect. The magistrates submitted to you
that the certificate ought not to have an effect contrary to
the avowed intention of these who signed it, but they have
not been favoured with an answer. It only remains, there-
fore, for the magistrates to point out to you that the latter part
of the clause inthe act of Parliament the instrumen-
tality of which the evil has arisen, also contains the remedy.
To that clause wo therefore call your most serious attention,
as the only means left (under the existing law) of averting
the evils arising out of this unfortunate affair, and of
restoring the confidence of the public in the faithful and
impartia administration of the letter and spirit of the
law. They therefore submit that this course rests wtth
yourself, and on your own solo and undivided respon-
sibility.
They will, therefore, only add that it will be very eatiefeee

tory to them, and also tend to allay public anxiety here, if
you will favour them with, or publish in the newspapers,
copies of the reports or communications made to you by the
authorities of Bethlehem of the state of Townley's mind
since he arrived there.
I have the honour to be, Sir, your most obedient servant,
H. SEYMOUR BLANE,
Chairman pro tem. of the Visiting Justices of
Derby County Gaol.
The Right Hon. Sir George Grey, Bart., M.P.,
Her Majesty's Principal Secretary of State for
the Home Departmelat.