The Sun.
London, England, 1864-01-14 00:00:00

TO THE EDTTOR OF THE SUN.

Sir,—" Who is to blame ?" and " 'Whom shall we
hang ?" are questions which just now are being very gene-
rally asked.

Answer to the first question—" Nobody, of course. It is
that great impersonality, The System, that is to blame."
Answer to the second question-Ist., In its literal sense,
"The poor murderer, to be sure, not the rich one;" 2dly, In
its figurative sense, "The inferior who has been guilty of
the crime, for which there is no forgiveness, at least not in
this world, of having been persecuted and illused by his
superiors." Some short time ago I called attention,
through your columns, in commenting upon the "Craw-
ling Court-martial," as Punch calls it—to the un-
happy effect it would have on the rank and
file of the army, and the classes whence it is
recruited, and not recruited by conscription, but by volun-
tary enlistment,—if an impression were produced in the
mind that there is "one law for the rich and another for
the poor;" one sort efjustice for the officer, another for the
privates. Now, rightly or wrongly, this impression has ac-
tually and extensively got abroad, and it may prove most
fatal in its consequences. We have no pressgangs now;
no proscription like that which Russia put in force a year
ago in Warsaw; no conscription, as there is in France. We
depend for our army upon the people volunteering into its
ranks of their own free will. Will the people volunteer
with such an impression abroad? It is to be feared they
will rather emigrate and volunteer into the American
army, where flogging is unknown. What:the "Crawling
Court Martial" has done among soldiers and the enlisting
classes, the reprieve of Townley has done among the
people generally. Townley's escape is a flagrant illustra-
tion of the invidious charge that there is " one law for the
rich and another for the poor." Of course nothing so ridi-
culous is meant as that Townley bribed the authorities.
Nobody would dream of such insane nonsense as this. But
everybody is convinced that it is the fact of Townley's
family being rich, and therefore able to bring forces to bear
upon the Home-office, which a poor man could not do, that
alone has excempted the wilful, cold-blooded, deliberate
murderer Townley from the punishment he so richly de •
serves. The effect, therefore—namely, escape from pun-
ishment through being rich—is in itself, and as regards the
encouragement it holds out to murderers, just as bad,
though effected in this indirect way, as if it
had been brought about as they bring such
things about in some foreign countries, where
the culprit who can afford to bribe the authorities can always
get off, and the culprit who can't must die. Sir Geo. Grey,
or rather his legal advisers, have acted with the strictest
legality in what has been dune. That does not alter the
case that had Townley been a poor man like the Fording-
bridge and Whittlesey murderers, everybody believes it is
a moral certainty that what has been done would not have
been done, but that the law would have taken its course,
and there would have been no failure of justice. And so
with regard to the late court-martial. Supposing the
decision to be perfectly right and legal, and just
(which I only suppose for argument, and that at
the present moment its being my purpose to
express any opinion one way or the other) still it could
only be so by accident, as the whole mode of procedure
seems specially and admirably contrived to defeat justice,
and prevent the real truth from being got at. An impres-
sion is abroad, both with regard to the army end to the
administration of the criminal law among civilians, that
there is "one law for the rich and another for the poor."
Of course it is absurd to say that Townley, having been
wrongfully snatched from the penalty he richly deserves,
therefore Wright also ought to have escaped. It is the
prevalent belief which I am dealing with, and which is so
pernicious ; and that belief, right or wrong, well or ill-
founded, is a sinister fact in itself. It bodes no good to
society, or to its individual members, or to the respect with
which it is desirable that the administration of justice should
be regarded, when there is a general belief in " one law
for the rich and another for the poor."

COMMON SENSE.

Liverpool Cotton Market—This Day.

Market very quiet. Sales, 2,000 or 3,000 bales,
at id. to id. below Friday. Import, 6,472. Pre-
viously, 2,466.

The last week's railway receipts, ascertained up
:o this day, are, in round figures, as under :

1864. 1863.
Great Western £53,041 £49,415
North-Western
South- Western
Brighton
Midland
South-Eastern 17,410 17,206
Great Northern . .
Lancashire and Yorkshire.. 35,410 31,367
Bristol and Exeter
North-Eastern'

,
Manchester, Sheffield, and Lincoln.. 15,100 14,214
Glasgow and South- Western
Great Southern and Western of Ireland 6,497 6,870

These returns, compared with those of the same
period of the previous year, in most instances are of
a very satisfactory character. On the Great
Western there is an increase of £3,626 ; on the
North Western, of £7,180 ; on the South Western,
of 1,9t11 ; on the Midland, of £2,296 ; on the South
Eastern, of £204; on the Great Northern, of
£4,069; on the Lancashire and Yorkshire, of
£4,043 ; on the North Eastern, of £3,459 ; on the
Manchester, Sheffield and Lincoln, of £886; and
on the Glasgow and South Western, of £1,300.
The London and B►ighton, however exhibits a de-
crease of £973, and the Great Southern and
Western of Ireland, of £373.

The report of the Peel River Land and Mineral
Company has been issued, in anticipation of the
general meeting of proprietors. It states that the
sales of live stock effected in the six months to the
30th June last realised £1,184. The desirability of
acquiring at a cheap rate or fee•simple of the Elian-
gaan station induced the directors to propose, as a
means for raising the necessary capital, the issue of
debentures to the amount of £25,000. A change in
the date of holding the company's annual meeting
is proposed, and in order to facilitate this object
they will recommend, in June or July next, a divi-
dend on account out of the proceeds of such portion
of the wool clip of 1863 as shall have been realised.

EXPLOSIVE METEORS.—It would seem that the
Creator of the universe has provided a shield for the
protection of his creatures from evils which are not inevitable
results of their own wickedness or folly. We do not remem-
ber any instance on record in which an explosion did not
take place before the aerolite reached the earth, by which it
was blown harmless to pieces ; some of the fragments
reaching the earth at different points ; others, and these pro-
bably the larger portions, continuing their revolutions
through space. An extraordinary instance of a series of such
explosions was observed in France, which was subsequently
made the subject of an inquiry by a commission under the di -
section of M. Biot. The explosions were preceded by the ap-
pearance of a huge ball of fire seen over nearly the whole of
Normandy. Then, for sor 6 minutes, they followed each
other with great rapidity, and such loudness that they were
heard all over a circle about 60 leagues in diameter. They ap-
peared to come from a brilliant cloud. An emission of a va-
pour resembling smoke followed each explosion. This was
at mid-day, in an almost cloudless sky, and immediately
after the first explosion, and during the whole time they
lasted, an immense number of aerolites fell to the ground
with a hissing noise. Nearly 3,000 of these were afterwards
picked up, the largest of which weighed over 17 pounds. It
is not possible to give a positive answer to the question—
Why is the fall of an aerolite always preceded by an explo-
sion ? Generally there is a single explosion, but this is not
invariably the case, as we have just mentioned one instance
in which there was a succession. Almost simultaneously
with the report, the aerolite strikes the earth. Whenever
this has occurred in the presence of a spectator, it has
always been found that the stone was exceedingly hot. The
mass of meteoric iron which was dug out of the ground at a
village in the Punjaub, was almost too hot to be touched,
though it had penetrated to a considerable depth in the
earth, and some time must have elapsed between its fall
and the arrival of the officer of the district on the spot.
This mass was sent to the emperor, who directed it to be
made into a sabre, knife, and dagger. Heat was likewise
very sensible in the case of the stone which fell at Ensis-
heim on the 7th of November, 1492, though it had to be
dug out of the earth from a depth of between five awl
six feet. This stone was placed in the church at
that place by order of the Emperor Maximilian,
where it may still be seen; the French, who carried it off
to Paris during the Revolution, having subsequently re
turned it to the place whence they had taken it, minus a
fragment retained for the museum of tho Jarilin des Plantes.
One tremendous explosion was said to have accompanied
the fall of this meteoric stone, and the same was the case
with that, weighing 561b5., which fell near Captain Top-
ham's house in Yorkshire, descending perpendicularly to
the earth, and burying itself in the chalk beneath the sur-
face soil. I can myself vouch for one instance where, at
the conclusion of the most terrific thunder-storm I ever
witnessed, a tremendous explosion was accompanied by the
fall of a number of fragments of an aerolite within a few
yards of the house in which I was sitting. Some of these
I kept is xny possession.—Dickens' " All the Year Round."

The Murder and Piracy on the High Seas.

The following is the concluding portion of the evidence
against the prisoners yesterday afternoon. The previous
portion appeared in our impression of yesterday :
At the termination of the reading of the depositions,
The bey Early was recalled, and, in addition to his evi-
dence on a former occasion, said—l recollect the morning
the captain was murdered, being ordered from the wheel to
his cabin. I saw a silver -watch and some money
lying on the table. Almost all the ship's comp any
was there, Taffer was there, and Lyons was telling him nto
share out the money. He (Taffer) said he did not want to
have anything to do with it. They forced him, and he did
it. Marco Varto said it ought only to be shared amongst
eight, but Lyons said it Wh£3 to be divided amongst all. I
got a share—l got £4. There was some over. There was,
in fact, only £1 10s. in good money; the reef was made up
of medals. I never saw the captain's brother or the
mate after that morning. Francisco and he were singing
out when they threw him overboard. Atter that every
one took what they wanted from the cargo, such as clothes,
wine, and knives. When we sighted land I helped to get
the boats ready. I recollect seeing the steward get into
one of the boats. The cook, steward, and secmd mate, Marco
Varto and I were in one of the boats. I know that while
we got away, the other men were below scuttling the ship.
After we had got a short distance, Lyons called out to
Taffer, the second mate, to come back, and he then told all
to go on deck. We did so, with the exception of the cook,
who refused, and then Lyons and Durano threw bottles at
him which struck him. I saw him go overboard, but I
should think he jumped into the water. He sang out for
help, but Lyons said he would help him if he Game on deck,
but that he had now too easy a death. No assistance was
given, and the man went down. I was ordered by Lyons
to clear the bottles out of the boat. I saw the ship go
down. The cook and the lamp trimmer were not in either
of the boats, and as I never saw them after I suppose they
went down in the vessel.

Mr. Welsby said that was as far as he intended proceed-
ing to-day.
The prisoners were then remanded till Saturday next.
During the whole of the examination most of the pri-
soners treated the charges against them with the utmost
indifference. The Spaniards and the Austrian amused
themselves frequently during the proceedings by spinning
their caps round on the tips of their fingers, and making
jocular observations to each other relative to the questions
asked of the witnesses by the prosecuting counsel.