The Sun.
London, England, 1864-01-12 00:00:00

(fora itular.

HER MAJESTY.

WINDSOR CASTLE, JAN. 11.

Her Majesty and her Royal Highness Princess
Helena went to Frogmore House this furenooc, and
remained during the day.
The Alaharajah Duleep Singh visited her Majesty.

The Accouchement of the Princess of Wales,

The bulletin exhibited yesterday at Marlborough
House was framed in these words of good as-

surance: --

" Frogmore, Jan, 11, 1864, 10.15 a.m.
" Her Royal Highness the Princess of Wales has
passed an excellent night, and is going on perfectly
well ; the infant Prince is also well.
(Signed) " ARTHUR FARRE, M.D.
" E. H. SIEVEKING, M.D.°
The Lodge was thronged with inquirers through-
out the day.

WINDSOR, Jan. 11.

To-day her Majesty the Queen again visited her
Royal Highness the Princess of Wales and the in-
fant Prince at Frogmore House. Both passed an
excellent night, and are going on perfectly well.
Her Majesty lunched at Frogmore, and remained
till the evening with the Princess, when the Queen
returned to the Castle.
Her Majesty is now expected to leave Windsor
on Wednesday. This is the arrangement at pre-
sent, but, of course, under the circumstances, it is
impossible to say whether her Majesty will actually
return to Osborne on that day. _

Her Royal Highness and the young Prince have
progressed favourably during the day, and at a late
hour were ascertained to be going on extremely
well. Dr. E. H. Sieveking, physician in ordinary
to the Prince and Princess, and Dr. Farre, are i❑
attendance.

we understand that it is the intention of the
mayor to call a meeting of the common councilmen
of the borough at an early day, in order to draw up
an address of congratulation to the Queen and the
Prince and Princess of Wales on this happy occa-
sion.

(From the London Correspondent of Mancitester Guardian.)
I am happy to be able to reassure the loyal minds
of your readers on the maturity of the royal babe
whose birth is just now a cause of rejoicing among
her Majesty's lieges. Though the " little stranger"
is small, I have most satisfactory authority for say-
ing that he is perfect in all those points in which
seven months' children are defective at birth—as,
for instance, the formation of the nails. Though Dr.
Farre, I believe, was at first under the impression
that the Princess's confinement was premature,Mr.
drown, the well-known surgeon, of Windsor—
whose distinction it has hitherto been to physic the
rising generation of the aristocracy in their stage
of Eton schoolboy hood, but who may now add that
of having ushered into the world the eldest-born of
the Heir. Presumptive—all along maintained the
maturity of the baby ; and I am assured that all the
Princess's medical attendants are now satisfied on
the point.

The Earl and Countess of Yarborough will leave
town to-morrow on a visit to Lord and Lady Proby at Elton
Hall, Oundle.
The Earl and Countess of Malmesbury are enter-
taining a select circle at Heron Court, Christchurch.
The Earl and Countess of Hardwicke and Lady
Agneta Yorke have arrived at Wimpole Hall, Cambridge-
shire, from visiting the Earl and Countess of Derby, at
Knowsley Park, Lancashire.
The Earl and Lady Constance Grosvenor have
left town on a visit to the Dowager Duchess of Sutherland,
at Cliefden, Bucks.
Viscount Wanton arrived in town yesterday
from Ashdown° Park, Berks.
Lord and Lady Bateman are expected in town
to-day from their seat, Shobden Court, Herefordshire.
Lord and Lady Charles Bruce have left town in
a few days on a visit to the Marquis and Marchioness of
Ailesbury, at Savernake Lodge, Wilts.

HUMAN LIFE IN DANGER,

TO THE EDITOR. OF THE SUN.

SIR,—The exemption of Townley from the punishment
due by law for the atrocious cold-blooded murder he com-
mitted when perfectly sane is norhing less than a premium
and a bounty held out for the shedding of human hlood and
destroying of human life. If the wilful murderer is to
escape on the same terms as Townley, the life of every
man, woman, and child in the country is imperilled. There
is not a tittle of evidence pretended to be adduced that
Townley was not in his right senses when he committed
the crime. Whatever evidence there might have been
that he was much given to wild and extravagant conduct,
such as collecting a number of white hats, was, apparently,
held back at the trial, because it was known to be utterly
worthless, and would turn out, upon cross•examination, to
prove nothing more than a mere larkish" disposition, and
a tendency to freaks and practical jokes. Townley is no
descendant of his great aunt, who was said to be insane,
and who, for anything that appears, may have been made
insane by artificial means, without any hereditary taint. If
Townley had been a poor man, without any rich influential
friends, he would have been hung, and most justly and
righteously, for the safety of society—for the protection of
human life. As it is, any man who meditates murder has
only to perpetrate it in a sufficiently melodramatic way to
excite the morbid maudlin sentimentalism of the abnormal
minds who sympathise with the murderer instead of the
murdered, and he is safe. It may be safely said that those
who have got Townley off, and shown such an unnatural
sympathy with him, are much madder than he. The Act
under which Townley was respited says "it shall he law-
ful" for the authorities to place a convicted and sentenced'
murderer in a lunatic asylum; but this is merely permissive
and the law ought in Townley's case to have been suffered
to take its course, because, as he was confessedly sane when
he murdered Miss Goodwin in cold blood, he was well
aware of the punishment to which hs rendered himself
liable, and therefore the infliction of such punishment would
necessarily have the effect it is intended to have—namely,
to deter would-be murderers from committing the crime
they contemplate. What will be the effect of Townley's
escape on the minds of those who may be meditating mur-
der ? Evidently that there is a good chance of escape by
shamming madness after they have taken the victim's life.
It is said that a murderer who becomes mad after he has
committed the murder, and is sentenced to death, ought
not to be hung, because he cannot make his peace with
Heaven. Answer—let. When he hurried his victim out
of life without a moment's notice, did he think of this ?
and what right has ho (the murderer) to ask that mercy
which he did not show to his innocent victim ? 2d.
Will two or three days, or even weeks, of that
sort of dubious repentance produced by fear of
being hung, bring forth anything profitable ? 3d.
Is it not for society to do its duty, and leave the rest to
God, who, surely, is capable of making any allowancae that
ought to be made ? 4th. Considering that hanging man
mad when hung, but sane when he committed the murder,
must be less cruel to him, though equally efficient as a
preventive for deterring others—upon what rational grounds
should a murderer be exempted from death merely because
his coolly planned and deliberately executed crime may have
been of so monstrous and terrible a character as to drive
him mad from the very thoughts of having done it? To
exempt a convicted murderer from the death which is his
due, is nothing less than to hold out the grant of life as a
reward and encouragement for murder. What society has
to do is to protect the lives of its members. It says, in the
well-known words of Scripture. "Whose sheddeth man's
blood, by man shall his blood be shed.' Let it once get to
be believed among the criminal classes that death on the
scaffold will not be the sure, speedy, inevitable consequence
of destroying human life, and human life will be at every
ruffian's mercy, It was but last year that Sir Geo. Grey's
ill-advised leniency to garroters and robbers with violence,
made it unsafe to walk the streets after daylight. Nay, such
crimes were done in broad day. This year he seems going
a step farther, and taking the most efficacious means to
render human life unsafe. In England we do not try cri •
minals by a judge alone—we have a judge and a jury. But
a tribunal is now set up consisting neither of judge nor
jury, but of a couple of magistrates, and a couple of doctors,
who have in their power to set aside the verdict of a jury
and the sentence of the judge, and that without hearing
evidence on both sides,but sitting in secret, like the Spanish
Inquisition. It is an exaggerated version of the Jessy
M‘Lachlan case over again. Nothing can well be more
ridiculous, as well as more contrary to public policy. The
notion of a few inferior doctors and magistrates with no-
thing but ex parte evidence before them,and that not tested
by cross•examination, setting aside the decision of a judge
and jury, arrived at after hearing counsel and witnesses on
both sides, is perfectly outrageous. Nobody, at least no
sensible person who understands the true theory of crime
and punishment, wants to make criminals suffer unnecessa-
rily and vindictively, but what every person of common
sense demands is that human life shall be protected by mur-
derers being hung with all convenient speed after the mur-
der is proved against them. It is in the certainty of punish-
ment and the speed with which it follows crime that great
part of its real terror consists.
COMMON