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

THE SUN, LONDON, TOESDAY ITENING, DECEMBER 20, 1863.

which had apparently been used for the purpose of
disguise, under a straw rick near the Union work-
house, and within a short distance of Mr. Piper's

residence,

Mr. Capron having summed up the evidence and
addressed the bench at some length, their worships
consulted together for a few minutes in private.
When the court was reopened,

The Mayor intimated that the bench had no hesi-
tation in deciding upon this application. It was a
perfectly clear case, and they were unanimous in
determining that the claim should be allowed.
Mr. Capron then applied for costs, which were
also allowed, and the proceedings terminated.
We understand that Mr. Weale, who sustained
much more severe damage on the night in question,
and whose loss is eßtimated at upwards of £lOO has
entered into the necessary undertaking to bring an
action for the amount to which he has been damni-
fied,

THE CRAWLEY COURT-MARTIAL,

(Army and Navy Gazette.)
The great Aldershot court-martial has terminated in the
full and honourable acquittal of Colonel Crawley upon
both the issues which formed the groundwork of his trial.
The court has said that Colonel Crawley did not cause the
orders for the close arrest to be carried out with undue and
unnecessary severity, thereby inflicting great and grievous
hardships on Lilley and his wife, and it says that he did not
make a false statement in attributing the inconvenience
that might have been suffered to Adjutant Fitzsimon, We
are not disposed to quarrel with this decision. The great
and grievous hardships alleged against him had become
much diminished from the proportions they assumed when
the first communications from India reached England.
Because Colonel Ciawley's offence was not so enormous, it
is held not to exist at all by the public.

Colonel Crawley, in his vigorous and very bold defence,
made some remarks upon the share of the press in the
transaction. He designated certain writers as self-consti-
tuted social hangmen, going about, rope in hand, with a
morbid desire to practice their dreadful calling upon per-
sons in authority. But, unless a reflection of public
opinion, the dictum of this or that writer has no influence
upon the conduct of affairs. The instrument of the social
hangman is of no more value than packthread, unless he
can weave round it the strengthening support of the pub •
lic, and gain this by truthful statements and fair and
unprejudiced reasoning. In this particular instance,
the press has undoubtedly had to do with the hold-
ing of an investigation, but that Colonel Crawley
in the main has good reason for complaints against it
may well be doubted. What is the state of the case ? In
July or August, 1862, accounts reached England of a very
unfortunate state of things in a dragoon regiment at Mhow
—a tyrannical colonel carrying everything before him with
a high hand, and in a cruel manner, trying his paymaster,
and depriving him of the privilege of communicating with
his witnesses, accusing one-fourth of his officers of perjury
illegally confining the principal non-commissioned officers,
and inflicting cruel hardships, resulting in one case in
death and another in madness. This is the picture that
reached us from India. No doubt it was falsely coloured
by those on the spat, and the statements about "another
black-hole of Calcutta," and baking sergeants alive, were
quite unjustifiable. No one will for a moment dispute
that if the story were substantially true, it was a case
for prompt and vigorous action on the part of the
authorities, and as tthat action was only shown in the
shape of a memorandum condemnatory of the military autho-
rities in India by those at home, the press demanded some-
thing more, namely, the trial and punishment of the person
guilty of these enormities, whoever he might be. No one can
fairly say that the circumstancesdid not constitute a case it
which further investigation was not only justified, but
urgently demanded. After a perusal of the evidence it is
beyond all question that illegal proceedings took place in
the Inniskilling Dragoons, and that these proceedings
tended to cause the death in confinement of a non-commis-
sioned officer who had always borne a blameless character,
' and who was pronounced legally innocent of any crime.
Colonel Crawley's trial was not the act of the press,
The press asked that, whoever was responsible should
be arraigned and punished, The authorities selected
Colonel Crawley, and their failure against itim is
not to be cast in the teeth of the press ; nor can
Colonel Crawley fairly turn round upon his journalistic
enemies. For, though he is protected to a great extent by
superior orders, and is thus legally exonerated from the
more serious part of the accusations, it cannot be denied that
his representations had much to do with the illegal
punishment to which these men were subjected. As
Colonel Crawley stated in his defence, neither General
Mansfield nor General Farrell had any animosity
against Lilley, Wakefield, and Duval. But he does
not follow up his remark and lead us to its natural
conclusion, which is, that the exercise of authority by
these generals was brought about by representations
made by Col. Crawley, who might have animosity against
the men, for he knew they were to be damaging witnesses
against him in a case in which he was vitally interested. A
piece of illegality was harshly carried out, and it. was done
at Col. Crawley's instance, and with Col. Crawley's know-
ledge, although not upon his legal responsibility.
This appears to be the state of the case as established by
the evidence. We are not aware whether it is proposed to
punish Sir Wm. Mansfield for his share in the business. Sir
William says that he did not intend that his orders ehould
be literally card(' out for the detention of ' the sergeant
majors in arrest, that he had reason to suppose the Mhon
court-martial would be over several days before it was over,
and that it was in this belief he had allowed the arrest to
continue till Captain Smales's defence had closed. Upon
this view his offence seems to have been one only of negli-
gence, arising from confidence in those by whom the arrest
was carried out, and to whom he might perhaps not un-
reasonably look for a compliance with the spirit, and not
the letter, of his order, The case is that of a man
brought before a magistrate, regarding whom the magis-
trate says there is no case to warrant his committal for trial.
but who is nevertheless kept for weeks in close confinement,
We know how public feeling would resent such an outrage
upon the liberty of the subject, but we are stating no more
than the bare fact, when we say that in a legal sense Lilley,
Wakefield, and Duval were each in the position of such a
man. Colonel Crawley is not legally responsib!e for this,
but surely somebody is ; and, unless the somebody is
brought forward and punished, we are forced to arrive at
the conclusion that the law may sometimes be violated
against a soldier, provided the responsibility can be dis •
tributed between two or three officers of high rank,

write to my friend, J. H-, in Brisbane, who promised to
send my letters to me if 1 sent him my address. I sent it to
post by Mr. D-- when he again went for the drays. Be-
tore the drays came we went short of flour and sugar, so that
we were living on nothing but meat and tea. I would rather
be without meat than flour; but the want of water is worse
than anything. I have felt the want of it (water) often.
When at last the drays got up I was glad to see some men
with them, one of whom took my place, and I left the next
day to look for shearing. You may remember that I told
you in my last letter that I had bought two horses, one of
which I left on the Downs with Mr. F-; the other (the
one through which I lost myself in finding) I brought with
me, and sold him when I got employment for £l5, making
£5 on him. I bought another from Mr. D-, when
I was leaving, frr £3O. She is nearly a full-blood mare,
but too spirited for me. She threw me three times, and
went back to Me. D--'s; the third time she threw both
me and the saddle off. I walked back to Mr. D-'s, but
she was not there, and I have not heard anything of her
since, and I am here (at Mr. S--'s) about three weeks. I
bought another horse here, a young one, for £l2, intending
to look for the mare with it, and as also a man requires two,
one for himself and another to carry his swag,' having to
travel so much ; but hs has got such a bad cold he is not fit
to travel, so that I cannot go shearing yet. I did not shear
much here, as my fingers got sore, but I cooked for the
shearers, for which they gave me 4s. a week each. There
were eight shearers. They also allowed me to shear what
I could.

"Mr. S— has offered to send a black fellow (a native) for
my mare if I will stop and lamb down' for him, which will
be about six weeks ; so I think it is the best thing I could
do, as it will give me time to get both my horses right, and
I will be able to get another shed before theshearing is done.
You ask me if Igo to church. My dear mother, there is
not a single one nearer than Rockhampton, so it would be
hard for me to go—and as to keeping Sunday, I have not
had six Sundays to myself since I left Brisbane. Sheep
have to be fed on Sundays as well as week days. As to the
land order, I found that the smallest allotment you could
get was 40 acres, of which the order woutd buy but 18.
Well, as I did not want the land, I sold the order for £l2
10s., which I spent in Brisbane and on my way up the
country, when I first landed."

IRELAND.

DUBLIN, Dec. 28.

Several soldiers belonging to the 86th Regiment,
at present stationed in Beggar's bush barracks, were
in a house of ill fame, in Fulham's-court, off Brown-
street, on Christmas night, when two of them Henry
Edwards and John M'Namara, had a quarrel. The
latter drew a knife, which the other and a woman
endeavoured in vain to wrest from him. Edwards
soon after left the house, but he was followed by
M'Namara, when the quarrel was resumed. Ed-
wards ran away into Brown- street; the other pur-
sued him, drew his knife, and stabbed him through
the heart. He then tried to escape, but he was
arrested by the police with the aid of some civilians.
It was Saturday morning when this occurred. The
deceased was in coloured clothes. He was a waiter
at the mess, and is said to have been much respected
in the regiment. A coroner's jury, which did not
conclude the inquiry till late on Saturday afternoon,
brought in the following verdict :

"That Henry Edwards, a private in the 86th Regiment
of Foot, died on the morning of Saturday, the 26th of Decem-
ber, 1863, from the effects of a certain wound inflicted on
him the same morning by John M'Namara, a private
Foldier in said regiment, now in custody."

The prisoner was then committed on a coroner's
warrant for trial at the next Commission.

On the 15th of this month a pieco of silver plate
was presented to Mr. MlMahon on behalf of the
fisheries of Galway and Mayo, in the form of a
silver salver, 19 inches in length, and weighing
90 ounces, with the following inscription in liish
and English :
" Presented to Patrick M'Mahon, Esq., M.P., by 172
fishermen and others in Connemara, and in other portions
of the counti, a of Galway and Mayo, Ireland, in acknow-
ledgment of his invaluabla services in obtaining the Act of
Parliament to amend the Fishery Laws (Ireland), 1863,"

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, '11;0 that the Minister of the Interior did all
in his power to pt;rsuade the world that on the elec-
tion or non-election of M. niers 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
oppose him, the Government 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 bLen 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
has 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 in 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 testimony that when Townley murdered Miss
Goodwin he was not in a condition of mind to be
legally responsible for Is 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 definition of insanity is at variance
with the true definition of the disease. The law
requires that a delusion, or hallucination, should be
proved ; but medical opinion recognises a form of
insanity which developes itself in a momentary irre-
sistible impulse. A criminal act which is a phe-
nomenon is said to Le evidence of the suspension of
intelligence. If a husband kills a wife be loves, or
a mother the baba 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 be 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 had reason to think she
had seen some one she liked better; and he only
asked to hear her decision from her own lips.
Foolishly, and fondly, perhaps—for Miss Goodwin
evidently desired to part in kindness with her
lover--this request was granted, and he went to
Wigwell Grange, and, after spending some time in
her company, committed the murder for which he
now lies under sentence if death. Such, in few
words, are the facts of Townley's case, and we can
find nothing in them to take it out of the 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 s weetheart 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.
'raking 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 hard matter
to show that the murder of Miss Goodwin was, as
far as we have the means of forming an opinion on
it, not as act of sudden uncontrollable impulse,
and we might oven 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 act
was the act of a sane man it was murder without,
extenuating circumstances. All the sensatiotaoa
writing on the subject must be swept cleaneo.uceuf,
the discussion. The horrors of the condeee.
theclean
QI
last
the waiting for an ignominious death,
tar
ics. There
agony of the convict, are all irrelevant
is no text in this case far a sermon on capital pun.
have been mooted affect
ishment. The questions that
root
.of public safety.
in the adintnistra'ion of
public morality and go to the
They
comprehend the
highest,,fiaence subsisting ns, and
They touch the very
_core of ohuurmsaoneutoibslyigstaetTo.
the c in our tee-
they embrace
derest relations.
- • to fo:o the principles •
criminal justice,
,Are.vve,,, laid down
Are we to accept the
proposition that a crime which propos].Violates nature, and
not to be accounted for by
by Pritchard and Es.qutrol
is
infltuheence men, any of the motives that
generally
is in itself evidence of the
insanity or
irresponsibility of the criminal ?
Are acts which are supposed to be the result of
vehement passions, whether of love or hate, or of
both combine', to be seated as features of mental
disease The .
so far as they are
momentous questions ; and, in
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-
Pared with judicial common sense. In dissecting