The Sun.
London, England, 1864-01-07 00:00:00

pleto a manner as criminal trials are conducted.—We have
the honour to be, sir, your most obedient servants."
(Signed by upwards of 40 magistrates.)
Mr. 3,luNpv said that he was glad that Mr.
Crompton had given him an opportunity of explain-
ing the part he had taken in this matter. The

visiting justices felt aggrieved, and much surprised
that they were not informed by the surgeon of
the gaol when he changed his mind upon the
subject of the prisoner Townley's sanity or insanity,
he having given evidence that he considered the
prisoner to be insane, although he had previously
given opinion that he was perfectly sane. The jus-
tices had caused a minute to be entered to that
effect. As chairman of the visiting justices, he had
been applied to by Townley'ssfriends to allew them
to see him, and he could not refuse so natural a re-

quest. On the day after Christmas-day he received
a request from the prisoner's solicitor to allow cer-
tain persons to examine him, with a view to induce

he Home-office to send down a Commission in

Lunacy. Upon returning, after a short absence, he
was surprised to find that that commission had
already arrived, so that Mr. Sims very properly re-
fused to allow any other interview until those
investigations were concluded. They Lad every
opportunity of making those investigations afforded
to them, and of satisfying themselves as to his con-
dition. After this it would seem that tho visit of

the other justices was uncalled for and unnecessary,
but nevertheless they did see him. On Tuesday the
prisoner's solicitor came to the gaol to ask permis-

sion for the other commission to see the prisoner,
and Mr. Sims referred him to the chairman (Mr.
Evans), and leave was granted. It seemed to him
(Mr. Mundy) that his visit was entirely a work of

supererogation, and, after the report of the other
commission, it appeared perfectly unnecessary for
any local gentlemen to have any interviews with
the prisoner, the regularly formed commission
having superior authority. (Hear, hear.)
The CHAIRMAN said there was a doubt whether
the power of giving a certificate was in the county
or the borough justices, and, therefore, both had
been represented.
Dr. HE/GATE, M.D., F.R.S., said as this painful
case had been brought before the Court, he felt
it his duty to say that never during the whole
course of his life had he known a case in which
the plea of insanity had been set up or main-
tained on such flimsy pretexts. There was no doubt
that the power of giving a certificate lay with the
visiting justices, and not the borough justices. A
more monstrous thing he never knew in his life than
the way in which justice had been caused to mis-
carry throughout the whole case.
Mr. CROMPTON said of course the solicitor of the
prisoner was justified in taking such steps in the
interest of his client as seemed good to him, and no
blame attached to him; but it seemed that the
borough justices had been made use of in order to
violate the spirit of the Act the 3d and 4th of Vic-
toria, cap. 54, an Act which had been carried out in
Derby before by responsible persons. In this case
the solicitor for the defence had introduced into the
gaol a commission composed of persons who had
every one committed themselves to an opinion by
signing a document in which that opinion was ex-
pressed. He considered that such a procedure was
unfair, not only to the public but to Sir G. Grey,
who formed his conclusions from it. Let the public
be satisfied that the man was insane, for at present
he was considered to be sane. (Hear, hear.)
Mr. T. 0. BATEMAN wished to know whether the
gaol was in the county or the borough. Ho thought
that the borough justices were right in interfering
if the gaol was in the borough.
Mr. R. B. BARROW thought Mr. Crompton's re-
marks were much too strong. He could not believe
that money could weigh at all in such a case. As
to the Home Secretary's power, if a certificate of
insanity went to him, signed by two justices, he
was bound to respite the prisoner.
Mr. CROMPTON said that the prisoner was repro•
sented by an active and able solicitor, but who re-
presented the public ? A pressure had been put
upon the j nry, which was, to say the least, unfair to
the interests of society. They were worked upon by
being told that they had satisfied justice by their
verdict, but that the prerogative of mercy was
theirs, and it was hard to refuse to sign a memorial
when put to them in such a manner. Ho did not
hesitate to say that the public was injured by these
secret tribune s. The case had been must amply
investigated in open court, with the advantage of
counsel on both sides, but the after evidence had
been given without any person being present to re-
present the prosecution and to cross-examine those
witnesses. If the Home Seceetary was to be influ-
enced by a tribunal, let it at least he a proper one.
(Hear, hear,)
Mr. BATEMAN—It wag stated in the papers that
the magistrates who signed the certificate were Mr.
Roe, the Mayor of Derby, Mr. Cox, and Mr. Fur-
man.

Mr. CROMPTON—I name no names; I merely
say that as for Townley, money has saved him, and
I move that the remonstrance be adopted. (Hear.)
Mr. R. W. M. NESFIELD —I second that, al-
though it might have been made a little stronger,
showing from the evidence that the murderer had
duly exercised his reason. Mr. Nesfiold pointed out
the facts to which he alluded, and concluded—My
own opinion is, that if Townley is let off, then Thor-
ley was judicially murdered. (Hear, hear,)
Tne CHAIRMAN put the question whether the
remonstrance he adopted, and it was aar:ied

mously,

THE BRIGHTON BOATMAN.

The Brighton boatman whose type 1 would pre.
sent has generally served 17 months, neither more
nor lees, in the Royal Navy. How and why he
entered, under what circumstances quitted, and
what exploits he performed in that service are, to-
gether with the precise name of his ship, points en-
veloped in mystery. He has a wife and nine small
children, who never grow any bigger, possibly be-
cause of the insufficient nutriment obtained from
skate, winkles, and starfish, on which, if the family
father is to be believed, they principally subsist. He
has neither baptismal nor family name, in proof of
which rather startling fact I may mention that my
five most intimate friends were known respectively
as " Tim," " Jarsper," "The Shepherd," " Streaky,"
and "Bubs," all titles conferred on them by their
fraternity. I had entertained some doubts on the
subject of Bubs, till reassured by that gentleman's
emphatic declaration that it " warn't his name least-
ways, not as he know'd on," though he never an-
swered to any other. I took some pains to discover
the secret principle which governed beach nomen-
clature. All, however, that I could ascertain
was, that Tim was so called because he had
espoused a Mrs. Juniper; the Shepherd, for so
much as, many years ago, a gentleman had pre-
sented him with an aged vest of the plaid,
bearing that pastoral name; and Streaky, seeing
that he had beguiled a part of his 17 months' naval
service by tattooing himself, like a savage, from
head to foot. " Jarsper" and " Bubs," being pure
fancy names, defied investigation. The Brighton
boatman has two especial forms of invitation. The
fair weather : " Take a retch (reach) off, sir ? Fine
breeze." An unconscious warning, which must
have recurred with painful distinctness to many a
pallid citizen, receding from the steadfa,st shore.
The foul weather : " Seen that 'ere curious fish what
our boats brought in o' '1 sir ? Tuppence."
Boats—in the plural—to suggest the idea of one
having proved inadequate to the towage of the
strugg:ing monster ashore. The animal—need I
add?—tutus out to be a dogfish, some 24 in. in
length, and about as interesting to coast frequenters
as a whiting. The Brighton boatman is never known
to beg ; for, although mendicancy is with him a con-
firmed habit, it is simply argumentative, based, as
it wore, completely on hypothesis. " Sposen any
gel'man will give the two sullen towards a new
mainsle, I'd do a good job among they mackerel
boats next year, sir." " Happen some gel'man'ood
rise 'alf-a-crown, &c., It is difficult to
resist a perpetual suggestion. Hence, it was only
when I discovered that "rising" half-a-crown
meant, in reality, sinking that amount in the hope-
less slough of Mr. Bub's pocket that I finally har-
dened into etone.—All the Year Round.

THE SUN. LONDON, THURSDAY EVENING, JANUARY 7, 1864.

Amidst a throng of nobles, and beauties, and men of
fashion, were Carlyle, and Macaulay—Hallam, with his
venerable, head—and Charlotte Bronte, whose own fame
was just at its height, and who saw in the lec-
turer her ideal of an elevated and high-minded
master of literary art. The lectures were tho•
roughly appreciated. Everybody was delighted to see the
great masters of English of a past age brought to life
again in their habits as they lived, and endowed with the
warm human reality of the lecturer's Dobbinses, and War-
ringtons, and Pend ennises.
It is a pity that Thackeray did not write expresssly on
America, for we think that he would have written the most
impartial English book to which that country has yet given
rise. When he returned from his first visit he was a good
deal away from town. " Since my return from America,"
he writes in August, 1854, "I have hardly been in London
at all, and when here, in such a skurry of business and
pleasure as never to call a day my own scarcely." The
passage is significant. Few lives were more engrossed
than his, discharging, as he did, at once the duties of a
man of letters and a man of fashion. He dined out a great
deal during the season. He went to the theatres. He be-
longed to three clubs—the Athenroum, Reform, and Gar-
rick, to say nothing of minor associations for the promotion
of good fellowship. With less of this wear and tear we
should have had more work from him—should have had,
perhaps, the history which long dwelt in his imagination
as one of the creations of the future. As it is, he achieved
a great deal during the last eight or ten years of his life.
Two such elaborate novels as the " Newcomes" and the
" Virginians," a second trip to America, and a ramble
over Great Britain—with a new set of lectures on the
" Four Georges"—not to mention a contested election, and
what he did for the Cornhill, established on the strength of
his name, and for a long time directly conducted by him—
these were great doings for a man who, though naturally
robust, was plagued and menaced by more than one disor-
der of long continuance. And he did them greatly—
going into the world gaily and busily to the last; and
always finding time for such holy little offices of personal
kindness and charity as gave him, we believe and know,
more reel pleasure than all his large share of the world's
applause.
Latterly, he had built himself a handsome house in
Kensington, to which he moved from Onslow•square,
Brompton—his residence after leaving the Young-street in
which he wrote " Vanity Fair." It was a dwelling worthy
of one who really represented literature in the great world,
and who, planting himself on his books, yet sustained the
character of his profession with all the dignity of a gentle-
man. A friend who called on him there from Edinburgh, in
the summer of 1862, playfully reminded hint what Horace
says of those who, regardless of their sepulchre, employ
themselves in building houses—
_ " Sepnlchri
Immemor, struis domos."
"Nay," said he, " I am memor sepulehri, for this house
will always let for so many hundreds (mentirning the sum)
a year." How distant, then, seemed the event which has
just happened, and with which the mind obstinately refuses
to familiarise itself though it stares at one from a thousand
broadsheets. Well, indeed, might his passing bell make
itself heard through all the myriad joy bells of the English
Christmas. It is long since England has lost such a son; it
will be long before she has such another to lose.

JOURNALS, the means of achieving their own independe ace. He
invited them to help thenWelves, and he indicated the
means they had of doing sc.`• Nor did he bet ;itate to
el,lirce his anzument by a comparison. which would
only a few years ago have bazi very ut,fav,3 urably
received in the rural districts. In Scotland and in
F.-ance tae labouring classes were, he said, more
thrifty and provident than they w ere in this coun-
try, although, as regarded the Frealch, their wages
were '2O to 30 per cent. cent less Limn here. Mr.
Gladstone minutely exphiined the character and
the object of the Post-office savings banks, dwelling
forcibly on the advantages they prosented to the
working man who was disposed to be economical ,
and emphatically replying to the object'.ion that hay
been made to them, and which we in iticed at aie
time, that the depositors were not protected .by
secretly. The Chancellor now states tb .at this i.s a
binding obligation on the part of the nosttne,ster,
and that any violation of it will be visited with
censure, and, if repeated, with dismiss... He added,
and our own information confirms his ( opinion , that
he did not believe the old saving banks were over
particular about the secrety the depositors naturally
desired. Three thousand of the Post-Qffice banks
have been opened, and nearly five otillions of money
have been already deposited in them. This,, there-
fore, is at all events a good beg inn ing, and one on
which Mr. Gladstone is particula r► y en itled to
speak in terms of congratulation. As he truly said,
Parliament cannot supply a frugal dist wsition ; the
Government is not able to compel people to be pro-
vident; but in opening the way to that end, which
has been done in the establishment of these banks,
the State has recognised its duty in the matte‘r. The
rest must come, as come it will, through education
—through the agency of reading-rooms such as
that in which the Chancellor of the Exchequer
appropriately introduced the subject of bat ilr ing for
the people—and the more working men ar a taught
to rely on themselves, on their own energies, and on
their resources, the better it will be for the m. They
may not see this immediately, though many of them
do; but in the long run they will all, more or less,
be brought to acknowledge that it is not in poli'ical
reforms, nor in philanthropic associations,bu t wit hut
themselves—in their own honest hearts and strong
arms—that their real ability to rise in the social
scale is to he found.

COITNTEN MAILTUTS.

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LYNN-TUESDAY.