The Sun.
London, England, 1830-06-23 00:00:00

BATTLE OF DRESDEN.

No troops could have signalised themselves
more than those of the allies engaged in this
day's combat ; and if it had been physically pos-
sible to have carried the place under the circum-
stances, they would have accomplished it. Un-
fortunately there were no breaches practicable
for the troops to enter; and the artillery, al-
though brought up at the close of the evening
to within one hundred paces of the wall, was
unable to batter it, or make any material impres-
sion. From the best calculation, the loss of the
allies was under 5,000 men ; and in this at-
tack the Austrians chiefly suffered. The sortie
of the enemy was a prelude to a more general
engagement, which took place on the following
morning, on the 27th. Bonaparte having a
strong force in Dresden, at least 130,000
men, determined on attacking the allies, who
occupied a very extended position on the sur-
rounding heights. The enemy had great ad-
vantages in their disposition for attack. Dresden
bristled with guns, was in their rear ; while their
communications were not intersected. If they
made an impression, they could follow it up ;
and in case of failure could withdraw in security.
The allied troops, if-victorious, could not pursue
under the guns of the fortress. One of the
worst days ever seen added materially to the em-
barrassment of the allies, who had arrived at their
positions by rapid marches, through bad roads
and defiles ; and their supplies of every kind it
was difficult, if not impossible, to bring up.
Availing himself of the advantages above
stated, Napoleon displayed an immense number
of field-pieces on the morning of the 27th ; and
heavy cannonading on both sides formed the '
chief feature of the battle. Charges in various
parts were made, as well with Russian and
Prussian, as Austrian cavalry, and they distin-
guished themselves highly ; but the main bodies
of the infantry in both armies did not come into
contact. The weather was hazy ; the rain in-
cessant. The action was sustained at all points
under the heaviest disadvantages ; and towards
the middle of the day a catastrophe occurred,
‘vhich awakened more than ordinary sensibility
and regret throughout the allied army.
General Moreau, while in earnest conversa-
tion with the Emperor of Russia on the pro-
gress of operations, had both his legs carried off
by a cannon-shot (the ball piercing the body of
his horse). Thus the good cause and the pro-
fession of arms sustained a heavy loss. It was
impossible not deeply to lament the hard fate of
an amiable man and gallant soldier, whose ta-
lents, patriotism, and courage were doubted and
decried, and his life cut short by his own coun-
trymen.' The enemy continued his efforts on
the position of the allies till the evening, when
finding he could make no impression, the action
ceased.

The battle cost the allies 6 or 7,000 men
the enemy must. have suffered more. In one
charge of Russian cavalry against infantry and a
battery, a great number of prisoners were taken,
though the guns were not brought off.—Lord
Londonderry's Narrative of the War in Ger-
many and France.

A fatal instance of the dreadful disease of hy-
drophobia occurred last week at Taunton, in the ca,e of
Capt iin GILLAM, an officer in the half-pay of an infautry
regiment; and so rapid was the progress of the malady,
that, from the first seizure till the fatal result, only about
30 hours elapsed, the symptoms having first appeared at
s'x o clock in the morning of Tuesday the 15th, and
death, in this its most shocking form, having ensued on
Wednesday the 16th, about noon. It has not been pre•
cisely ascertained when and under what circumstances the
unfortunate gentleman received any injury from a dog,
though it is said that one of his friends has some alight re-
collection of his having made a complaint to that effect on
returning a few months since to Taunton, after an ab-
sence of some duration in London, &e. The disease,
however, was most clearly developed, so as to leave no
doubt of its character on the minds of the very emi-
nent medical and surgical gentlemen, who atteinded the
case with unremitting diligence from its commencement
to its close. The patient was calm and intelligent,
it is said, in the intervals of his paroxysms, but was
wholly unconscious of the nature of his disorder. In
one of the seizures of the malady, on Wednesday morning,
the poor sufferer inflicted a bite on the hand of a hair•
dresser, who was employed in shaving hie head, but an,
injured part was promptly cut and cauterised by the ex-
perienced surgeon in attendance, and no danger is ap-
prehended from the wound. Capt. GILLAM was a
widower, and has left a son.— Western Flying Post.

Petitions were presented by Lord CLIFDIN from
the parish of St. Mary Axe, against the punishment
of death for forgery; also from the Roman Catholic
inhabitants of a parish in Carlow, against the Vestry
Act. By Lord LORTON, from Croydon, against the
punishment of death for forgery. By Lord CHOI,
MONDELEY, from Bridgewater, to the same effect. By
Lord KING, from two parishes in Northampton, to

the same effect.
The Duke of RICHMOND moved for a return
of the woollen rags imported into this country
from the year 1828 to the present time. Also an
account of the sheep and lambs' wool imported
and exported during the same period.—Ordered.
Petitions were presented by Lord Melbourne,
from the parish of St. Bartholomew, Exeter, against
ibe punishment of Death for Forgery; by Lord
Goderich, from Norwich, to the same effect, and alArt
om Stockport, to the same effect; by Lord Calthorpe,
from Colchester, to the same effect; by the Marquis
of Lendonderry,from the Members of the Established
Church at I-lelridge, to the same effect; by the
Marquis of Lansdowne, front upn,rards of 800 bankers
residing at Edinburgh, Sheffield, Glasgow, and se-
veral other places.
FORGERY BILL.
The Marquis of LANSDOWNE—My Lords, in
moving the second reading of this Bill, I am anxious
to call your attention to the circumstances under
which it comes to your notice. As your Lordships
are probably aware, it is little more than a hundred
and twenty years ago since the crime of forgery was
made punishable with death; for it was shortly after
the Revolution that the first statute to that effect
was enacted. The punishment was at first confined
to a forgery of the paper of the Bank of England. In
1728, however, a large addition was made to the
amount of capital-punishment; by extending the pro-
visions of that law to all securities, and transferable

money papers whatever. From that period many
years have never elapsed without adding to what I

must call a most sanguinary code. Each year, as the
revenue progressively advanced, every department
of the public service teemed with annual legislation
on the subject. Each department, or the head clerk
of each department, had his suggestions to make ;
and the consequence of this has been that there are
►:ow about 120 statutes aglinst forgery on the books,.
and out of these, upwards of 60 inflict the penalty of
death. To give your Lordships some idea (though
it is not my intention to enumerate all these statutes)
of tiie extent to which this has been carried, and

o which a wiliing or rather a careless legisla-
ure has lent its assistance, I might state as a

curious instance, that even the forging of what
they call at the Admiralty Mediterranean Papers,
by which persons seek to protect themselves

against the plunder and piracy of barbarous powers,
was made subject to the penalty of death. This being
the state of the queztion, it is impossible that any in-
dividual, having his mind turned to the state of the
criminal law in this country, should not feel anxiotn!to
ffect a reformation in respect to a subject so im-
poitant at onca to the interests of the country, and
the administration of justice; and I can have no

doubt that the Right Hon. Baronet who now pre-
sides over the Home Department (and who has at-
tended to those subjects in a manner so honourable
to himself, and so beneficial to the public for a length
of time) had his attention very early directed to the
state of these laws. For myself, I can say, that
during the short time I presided over the Home
Department, I called on all the public departments
to digest the state of the law connected with forgery,
with a view to effect a consolidation of those laws,

reserving for subsequent consideration that still more
important alteration which is now presented to your
Lordships in this Bill. The Right Hon. Baronet to
whom I have already alluded was the originator of
the measure which is now brought forward before
your Lordships, and it presents, as moulded by him,
a most important and beneficial change in the law of
the country, by the simplicity which it will be the
means of introducing into that law—or, in other
words, by adopting the principle of consolidating
under one head every thing which has regard to this
peculiar subject, by which means every one will be
etribled to see to what species of offence the penalty
of death is attached. But it is my duty to state to
your Lordships, that this Bill comes now recom-
mended to your attention with material alterations,
extending far beyond anything that was contem-
plated by those who were its original authors. Of
course very tittle is necessary to induce your Lord-
ships to adopt that general principle of the measure
which goes to simplify the law on the subject, and
bring it back from that mass of enactments which
has hitherto disfigured the question, so as to
define the principle on which the law has awarded
the last and severest punishment which it is
in its power to inflict. But while lam aware that
there is a great difference of opinion with regard to
the degree to which this mitigation should extend,
and that it has been carried in this to an extent
which will, perhaps, meet with considerable opposi-
tion, I cannot help feeling that it imposes on me
the duty of stating at this stage of the Bill, that
after the best consideration I have been able to give
to the subject, I think it right to propose to your
Lordships the adoption of the Bill in its present
shape, and to the extent to which I have already
alluded. I will, however, beg leave here to say,
that in urging your Lordships to adopt this exten-
sive abolition of the punishment of death, I do not
do it from entertaining any of that feeling which I
know is prevalent among many respectable persons
in this country, that it ought not to be in the power
of any Legislature to annex that punishment to any
crime short of murder. For myself, I entertain no
such opinion, for I am convinced that it is within
' the scope and right of society to inflict that punish-
ment in defence of itself and its property. But at
the same time before this last punishment is inflicted
a necessity for it should be thoroughly made out ;
and it ought to be a matter of grave consideration
with the Legislature, which is the most effectual
mode of reducing any particular crime; and whether
they do not, by severity, outstrip the crime so far as
to defeat themselves; remembering always, that
there is a point in the race between the protection
of property and crime, when the severity of their
penalty becomes the protection of the criminal. I
have, then, to ask your Lordships, whether we
ought not to consider the infliction of penalties, under
these circumstances only; and whether, by making
the punishment more than commensurate to the
crime, we are not withdrawing all opportunity for
the reduction of the crime. The uncertainty of execu-
tions is another point worthy of our consideration ;
for, without pretending to lay bare the bosom of the
criminal, and to analyze what his motives may have
been, I think that if there is any one circumstance
which, without reasoning too hypothetically, we may
be certain of, it is that the first thing v%hich a man
who is meditating the commission of a crime does,
is to consider whether it is possible for him to escape
altogether. That, certainly, is the first consideration
which weighs with him; it is the point which will
influence him mo,t in what he does. How far this
penalty of death is commensurate with the crime, I
will not detain your Lordships to consider. I am
willing to Orbit that, in the artificial state of society
in which we live, crime becomes of an enormous
weight in the community ; but, for this very reason,
it ought to weigh with your Lordships, whether so
heavy a penalty is the most efficacious mode of re-
ducing crime in general,
ofral theor present Bill. B
this one in particular,ate
n
which is the
this occasion we have not to reason theoretically;
for we are able to do it practically, from facts fur-
nished by experience, and that experience within
the range of our own recent legislation. I have,
with a view not only to influence your Lordships,
but to make up my own mind, looked into the re-
turns which have been presented at different times
to this House, and to the House of Commons, with
regard to the state of the Criminal Law. With re-
spect to the clime of forging, it does happen that
there is a different mode of administering the law in