The Sun.
London, England, 1863-12-29 00:00:00

Government doubtless will accept, and others which
they will reject. But that ready seems to be all.
And it was to prevent this that every instrument of
calumny, coercion, and corruption was lavishly em-
ployed, and that the Minister of the Interior did all
in his power to persuade the world that on the elec-
tion or non-election of M. Thiers depended the future
destiny of France. Few people in England have
been persuaded to view the matter in this very
serious light. For ourselves, we are inclined to
think that the election of M. Thiers and his active
participation in the business of the Chamber is a
solid advantage for the Imperial Government, and
that instead of putting forth their whole power
to oppose him, the Goverument would have
done not unwisely had they tendered him
their support. One of the greatest difficulties in
way of a return to something like a Parliamen-
tary system has ever be en that the celebrities
of the old Chambers of France have resolutely
held aloof from any share in the Government, and
forced the discussion of public affairs into hands
greatly inferior to their own, and have thus lowered
the character and weakened the influence of the Im-
perial Chambers. The absence of well-known names
and voices perpetually reminded France that the
Government under which she lived was not pos-
sessed of the confidence of a class of statesmen who
had been trained under a freer system, and the fact
that her Parliaments had been elected under uni-
versal suffrage could not, except in the eyes of very
enthusiastic democrats, compensate for the dearth
of talent and the absence of statesmanlike experi-
ence. That a man like M. Thiers, an oratorical and
literary celebrity of the very highest order, should
come forward to join an Assembly to which he
could only be admitted upon taking the oath of alle-
giance to the Emperor's Government, was a sub-
stantial triumph and advantage which nothing but
the most extraoreinary perverseness and short-
sightedness could turn into a defeat or a disgrace.
But while we think that the appearance of M.
Thiers in public life cannot be otherwise than a gain
to the Imperial Government, we are by no means
so sure that it is fraught with the same amount of
benefit to M. Thiers himself. Far advanced in life,
possessed of an ample fortune and of an established
reputation, we are unable to see what object M.
Thiers will gain to compensate him for the very
considerable sacrifice of sitting in a Chamber so con-
stituted as that in which he has just made his debut.
Had he wished for office under the present dynasty,
it has doubtless often been within his reach • but he
bee chosen—he who has been the Prime Minister
and the leader of the Opposition in a Parliament to
which the Administration was responsible—to fill a
seat iu a Chamber which is never entered by those
who have the real management of affairs, and which
cannot aspire to anything more than the transac-
tion of ordinary business, the adoption of Estimates
which it cannot refuse, and the tendering of advice
to the Government which it may take or may reject
with the like impunity. If this be a duty it is a
melancholy one, and we wait with some curiosity to
hear the reasons which have induced M. Thiers to
undertake it.
POST.—The Home Secretary has ordered a medi-
cal inquiry in Townley's case, and there can be no
doubt that it is desirable to obtain further evidence
as to the mental capacity of this unfortunate young
man. If he be now insane, that will be a ground
for staying the execution f the sentence passed
upon him ; if it can be proved by conclusive scien-
tific eestimony that when Townley murdered Miss
Goodwin he was not in a condition of mind to be
legally responsible for a criminal action, that may
be a ground for reviewing the verdict of the jury.
But these are questions that must be approached
with the utmost caution, and considered with ex-
ceeding care. The law is clear. If a man knows
that he is committing a criminal act, the knowledge
makes him responsible for it. But it is contended
that the legal definir:on of insanity is at variance
with the true definition Of the disease. Tha law
requires that a delusion, or hallucination, should be
proved ; but medical opinion fecognises a form of
insanity which developer itself in a momentary irre-
sistible impulse. A criminal act which is a phe-
nomenon is said to be evidence of the suspension of
intelligence. If a husband kills a wife he loves, or
a mother the babe she is nursing, that, we are told,
is necessarily an act of insanity. The will is led
captive by a sudden disordered impulse which is
uncontrollable, and this is called " instinctive mad-
ness." Now, if this be true—if the principle be a
r ght principle—we are bound, we suppose, to adopt
it without regard to consequences. But looking at
it, as we own we prefer to do, as a psychological
theory simply, we may be suffered to test it by re-
ference to the case in which it was sought to be
established. That case is by no means an uncom-
mon one. Townley was engaged to Miss Goodwin,
and he appears to have been deeply in love with
her. When, therefore, she broke the engagement
he was very much grieved, and, as it seems, more
grieved than surprised. He admitted he was not
a good match for her; he .11EO reason to think she
had seen some one she likes better ; and he only
asked to hear her decision frord her own lips.
Foolishly, and fondly, perhaps—for iliss Goodwin
evidently desired to part in kindness with her
lover—this request was granted, and he vent to
Wigwell Grange, and, after spending some time in
her company, committed the murder for which he
now lies under sentence 'f death. Such, in few
words, are the facts of Townley's case, and we can
find nothing in them to take it out of ordinary
category of crime, except it be the position in so-
ciety which the parties occupied. The soldier who
was tried and condemned last week for being acces-
sory to the murder of his sweetheart acted, no doubt,
under a like " irresistible impulse," only that, in-
stead of defending and reasoning on his act, as
Townley did, he attempted self••murder. But then
it is said Townley's grandmother's sister was a
lunatic, and that in the interval between the receipt
of Miss Goodwin's letter, asking to be relieved from
her engagement, and the murder, he gave way to
his feelings of regret, refused food, and took brandy
and morphia. This again is not, we believe, ex-
ceptional conduct, only it does not usually culminate
in murder. The incidents of the tragedy are indeed
commonplace, and the denouement is not out of the
order of an ill-regulated and passionate nature.
Taking this case, therefore, to be a leading case of
" instinctive madness," one may well ask where a
legal line is to be drawn between insanity and crime ?
The medical theory is that Townley did not medi-
tate murder, but that he was suddenly, mysteri-
ously, impulsively, and uncontrollably moved to its
commission. They throw in the lunacy of the
grandmother's sister as a makeweight; but the gist
of their argument, as we understand it, is, that in
the course of his conversation with Miss Goodwin
this young man's reason forsook him, and that he
acted on an insane impulse. Carried out, this means
that any man who commits an emotional crime is
not legally responsible for his act. It admits,
we conceive,of no other construction, and looking at
it in that light we must demur to a proposition which
would in effect break up the framework of society.
We are, we confess, more concerned about this
general, sweeping, and, as we think, dangerous
and destructive proposition, than we are about the
fate of Townley. It would not be a bard matter
to show that the murder of Miss Goodwin was, as
far as we have the means of forming an opinion on
it, not an act of sudden uncontrollable impulse,
and we might even go so far as to say that, if it
was committed under the influence of insanity, the
insanity was of the character known to and defined
by the law, for Townley said at the time, and he
says still, that he acted upon a theory or a delusion
of his own—that Miss Goodwin having engaged
herself to him was his property, and that he had a
right to deal with her as such. He maintained this
when her blood was still warm on his hands, and
he maintains it to this day. But while, as regards
Townley, we may think it is desirable to obtain
further evidence as to his state of mind, we are, we
repeat, far more impressed with the importance of
the general question that has been raised in his be-
half. That question is one that ought, we submit,
to be considered apart from any particular ease, and
to be decided as justice and the security of society
require, without respect to any sympathy or senti-
ment which have been interpolated in the interest
of Townley. If there be any doubt in his case, let
him have the full benefit of it, but let there be no
mistake about the principle on which his sentence is
varied. It has been suggested that there may be
grounds on which the clemency of the Crown can
be exercised irrespective of the plea of insanity, but
for our own part we must say that we have not been
able to discover in what they consist. If the a°!:
was the act of a sane man it was murder without
extenuating circumstances. All the sensaotui
t of
writing on the subject must be swept
dcelernanPed cell,
the discussion. The horrors of the
topics. There
agony of the convict, are all irrelevant
the waiting for an ignominious death,
agony the last
is no text in this case for
have been mooted affect
ishment. The questions thatthe root of hi'
a sermon on capital pun.
safety.
public morality and g
They touch the very.
coreh es t
human ern.They
otof our social system.
comprehend the obligations, and
1.. w the principles laid down
Fasting in our ten-
derest Are we i
relations.to the administration of
they embrace the Are
Stlb •
85uirol ?
je not to be accounted for b Are we to accept the
generally influence me
tion that a crime which •
violates nature, and
insanity or the irresponsibilityiisi
hop criminal ion Ai; iornsi
tai
h ard justice,n d_
y any of the motives that
n itselfo f evidence
the
criminal of t h the
Are acts
Nhich are supposed to be the result of
vehement passions, whether of love or hate, or of
both combined,
to be treated as features of mental
disease
• These are momentous questions ; and, in
80 far as they will have to be answered in the in-
Quiry which has been ordered in Townley's case, it
is to be hoped that scientific ingenuity may be tem-
pered with judicial common sense. In dissecting