The Sun.
London, England, 1863-10-28 00:00:00

SPIRIT OP THE PUBLIC JOURNALS

TIMES.—In the course of last year's Session Sir
M. Peto protested,with just indignation, against the
lenient punishments inflicted upon the perpetrators
of savage assaults in our Police-courts. Sir G.
Grey, in his reply, admitted the fact, and we might
have hoped that the attention since given to the
treatment of criminals would have secured us
against a relapse into this all bat direct encourage-
ment of street outrages. We cannot say that any
such expectation has been justified. Every day
the same class of crimes fills the reports of our
Police-courts, and every month a long list of them,
representing only the very worst, appears in the
calendar of the Middlesex Sessions or the Central
Criminal Court. Yet the apparent partiality of
magistrates and judges for ruffians who have re •
venged themselves for a taunt with the knife, or
beaten unoffending persons within an inch of their
lives, continues unabated. While fraud, embezzle-
ment, and other offences against property, are
visited with relentless severity, acts which indicate
the highest degree of wickedness, which occasion
the highest degree of suffering to the victims, and
which naturaly inspire the highest degree of ter-
ror among others, are treated as if they were the
most venial of misdemeanours. It is high time
that this perverse and mischievous inconsistency
should be traced to its true cause, if it has any
other cause than judicial caprice, and that those
who are guilty of it should be made to feel their

responsibility towards the public. A tew specimens
of the sentences passed at Clerkenwell during the
past fortnight were lately furnished by one of our
correspondents. A person convicted of receiving
certain medals belonging to an officer, knowing
them to have been stolen, was sentenced to four
years' imprisonment; a man who had, smashed
both his wife's eyes at different times, thereby
depriving her of sight, and had so brutally
maltreated her for years as to make it a won-
der that she had lived through ir, was
imprisoned for two years. For stealing a watch,
atter former convictions, another prisoner got four
years' imprisonment. For a vile assault upon a child
twelve months were considered an adequate penalty,
Another correspondent, in a letter welch we pub-
lished yesterday, proves that the same standard of
guilt is recognised in Cornwall. " William James,
convicted of stealing a pair of boots, was sentenced
to nine months' hard labour; John Green, only 16
years of age, found guilty of stealing a shirt, was
sentenced to three years' penal servitude." Oa the
other hand, "John Willcocks, aged 34, a labourer,
was charged with 'violently assaulting' a child two
years and a half old with a leather strap and
buckle,' after which he threw it, face foremost, into
its cradle. The surgeon found its arms, thighs, and
back "covered with seep bruises," and the mother
believed it at the time to have been killed, as it well
might have been. "The prisoner was sentenced to
three months' imprisonment." We have only to
turn to the police reports in our next column to find
parallel instances. One man gets a month's impri-
sonment at Marlborough-street for knocking down
a constable in the execution of his duty; another
gets two months at the same court for striking a
policeman on the back of the head with a stone,
while he called on his associates to " knife him,"
and vowed he would do so himself " when it was
dark." At the same time and place, " William Payne
and Samuel Webb were fined £3 each for being
drunk and exciting the mob to assault the police."
A pork butcher, convicted of making a disturbance,
together with other rowdies, in the course of which

indecent assaults were committed on young women,

was fined 20s. by Mr. D'Eyncourt, when he was
liable to a penalty of £7. Another young man, to
whom an assault of this kind was brought home, was
•fined lOs by Mr. Combe. Lastly, Thomas Hammell,
who had struck one gentleman a furious blow in
the face, had made the most violent resistance to
being arrested, had sprung from the dock while the
charge was being taken at the police office, and
knocked another gentleman down, and had been
three times convicted of felony, was condemned by
Mr. Partridge to one mouth's imprisonment with
hard labour. We are willing to suppose that in one
or two of these cases there may have been extenu-
ating circumstances which were not published. We
are further willing to make allowances for the
variety of theories held by experienced magistrates
on such questions as the policy of punishing first
offences severely. Still, after all the deductions and
concessions that can be made, we are struck by the
monstrous iniquity or these sentences. No weaker
word will fitly express the wrong done to
society by an administration of the law which
jealously vindicates the rights of property, whilst it
give us no tolerable protection against personal
violence. It is the characteristic of barbarous codes
that they are more indulgent to the murderer than
to the thief. Civilized Government ought to adopt
the very contrary principle, and to place the security
of life and limb above the security of property,
however vc,lnc.b:e. There is no tzst of criminality
which can be applied to these two kinds of guilt
which will not establish the greater atrocity of
personal violence. Cruelty is the most detestable
of vices, and the nearest approach to pure and per-
fect wickedness of which human nature is capable.
It is possible that a starving man may be tempted
to pick a pocket to pass a bad shilling, or to obtain
money by false pretences, out of sheer misery and
despair. It is impossible—nay, it is inconceivable
—r hat any man can deliberately inflict horrible suf

fering one fellow-creature, still more on a wife or
a child, without having a heart so bad as to deprive
him of all claim to mercy. Such cases are by no
means rare, and yet how seldom is a proper sense of
their enormity shown by those who try them, or
the utmost rigour of the law employed to prevent
their recurrence! But it is not only the depth of
depravity evidenced by the deed that should be the
measure of retribution ; we are bound also to con-
sider the feelings of the victims. Now, there is
really no comparison between violent assaults
and common larcenies in respect of the pain
and loss which they respectively produce. It
makes one's blood boil to read of a man receiving
but half the punishment for nearly killing a
poor girl that was inflicted on another for
breaking a pane of glass. Who would not rather
have his purse stolen than get a black eye ? And if
this would be the estimate of an ablebodied man,
what would be that of weaker members of the com-
munity ? We have a right to demand that the com-
mission of the more grievous outrage shall not be
rendered the less hazardous, and, therefore the
more common by the decisions of our magistrates.
It argues a strange insensibility on their part to
the moral aspects of criminal justice that any such
tendency should have manifested itself. It would
argue a still stranger indifference on ours to the
safety and comfort of ourselves and our fellow citi-
zens if we failed to point out its inevitable effect in
multiplying crimes of violence and defeating the
efforts of the Legislature to check them.
POST.—At a time when German ambition
threatens the peace of Northern Europe it may not
be out of place to inquire whether every possible
step has been taken by those specially interested in
the maintenance of tranquillity to avoid hostilities.
The power of Germany preponderates so vastly over
that of Denmark that it might seem superfluous to
say that the Danish Government have done every-
thing in their power to appease their angry neigh-
beurs, and to prevent a war in which, singlehanded,
they would be obliged to succumb. But although
this is undoubtedly so, still the strong claims whichethe
Denmark can advance to the protection
o
principal European Powers might just asprobablyeonecious-
prompt her to resist just demands
ness of inherent strength. If
In
to her as-
that in the day of trial she can
"min:lW probably
sistance Sweden and Great Britain,
about the em-
France, she may feel as indifferent about
as if she were
Denmasarthke's confident
em-
ployment of measures of conciliation
finally pledged to
herself a first-class Power. At the
and before any of these St.astetsh
areerefore necessary to
present j uncture,
take up her quarrel, it
trkj evinced a readiness
of arbitrament than
itnoqaucirceepwtbBentmheer Denrmamodheas
nil execution be csrri€el into
h re,atened
that of the sword. dire do not think that the long
affdet, but such Fee all event is not impossible. Toe
is the time for deliberation, for no soonerl-w7ll.se,t thej advanced guard of the German army crash,
or attempt to cross, the Eider, than Den tnark'n allies
must determine on the course they will adopt. Howe
ever interested the maritime Powers of Europe may
be in obtaining the integrity of the Danish monar-
chy, they have a right to demand that they will not,
be compelled to take part in a quarrel which, by
the exhibition of a little forbearance, might have
been avoided. Let us then inquire 'whether, it this
Federal execution, and the veer which it will un.
doubtediy occasion, are inevitable. Denmark, and
who have counselled Denmark, have done their
utmost to avert the catastrophe.
been critialy acid ably dis•Jua6edlihnistqnueest, eioantlil}nags

Danish journal, the Dagbladet; and in the extract
which we published yesterday the subject may be'
said to be exhausted, The Diet have, as is well
'known, based their present comulaint against the
Danish Sovereign on the publication by him of a,
royal ordinance in the month of March last, which
gave to the population of Holstein a constitution to
which, in respect to comprehensiveness, it would be
impossible to find a counterpart in Germany. But
why, it may be asked, if the boon is rejected by the
Federation, does the Danish Government endeavour
to force it on theiracceptance; why not rather with-
draw the despised gift, and remove the pretext for
Federal intervention ? if the threatened aggres-
sion could be averted by cancelling the royal ordi-
nance of March, the refusal of the Danish Govern-
ment to do so would certainly be inexcusable. But;
such a result would not follow, because on the re--
peal of the royal ordinance the Danish Sovereign
would of course resume his absolute and unrestric-
ted authority in the duchy, and the status quo would
be restored which led to the Federal resolutions of
March, 1860, and February, 1861, with the demands
incorporated in which the constitution given to.
Holstein in M
March last was intended to be an act of
compliance. If, three years since. a Federal execu-
tion was threatened because the Danish Sovereign
would do nothing, the ground for intervention
would exist unaffected if he were now to repeal
what he has since done. The question at issue
does not, as stated in the Danish journal, affect the
autonomy of Holstein, but that of the Danish
kingdom and provinces ; and whether the Federa-
tion are satisfied or not with the constitution given
to Holstein, they have no right to dictate a form
of government to be adopted in territories entirely
independent of their control. In truth, however,
there can be no question that Denmark would
willingly adopt any measures consistent with the
preservation of her sovereign rights to retain
friendly relations with the German Federation.
Proposals without number have emanated from
the Danish Government, with a view of obtaining
a satisfactory solution of the long-pending dispute;
but they have invariably been met with counter
proposals, which were alone made because they
were known to be untenable. In the second de-
spatch transmitted by the British Foreign Secre-
tary to the Federal Diet the latter are reminded
that the Danish Government are willing to modify
the ordinance of the 30th March to the sense of the
resolution passed by the Diet in March, 1860, and
to make that ordinance provisional until the
definite position of Holstein with regard to Ger-
many has been settled. To such a proposal as
this it is difficult to understand what objections
could be offered by the German powers, seeing that
by this arrangement the Holstein Estates would
retain their constitutional privileges penning the
settlement of their final status. The fact, how-
ever, that even this arrangement finds no favour
with the D.et affords an additional proof that
Holstein and its government are not the objects
of the threatened execution. If the German
Powers are inclined to overlook the immediate
consequences of attempting to occupy Holstein
in leaguing against themselves the chief mari-
time Powers of Europe, they ought not to
disregard the inevitable complications with
which in any event the Holstein question will be
thereby invested. Even assuming, as Earl Russell
points out, that the execution was confined to the
latter duchy, the Danish Government would make
reprisals by instituting a blockade, which could not
but prove, highly injurious to German commerce.
" The war," writes the Foreign Secretary, " would
thus become embittered, claims for damages would
arise on both sides, and new difficulties stand in the
way of a peaceful settlement." In the event of the
war extending to the Danish territories, then, in
accordance with the treaty of 1852, not alone Great
Britain, but Austria and Prussia, would be bound
to interpose to preserve the integrity of Denmark,
and, as Earl Russell pithily remarks, " this obliga-
tion would of course be fulfilled, but might bring
about fresh complications at Frankfort." However
the proposed policy of the German Powers is re-
garded, the difficulties which it must occasion are
so great that it is scarcely possible to believe any
rational or responsible Government advocating its
adoption. None other than the German Diet would
ever counsel an aggression of Denmark at the pre-
sentCtime, and no other people but the Germans
would hail their decision with satisfaction. As to
Denmark, both the Sovereign and his subjects are
of one accord as to the course to be pursued. The
King has recently made a very remarkable speech,
in which he has evinced his determination, if aided
by his people, to resist the whole power of Germany
—and finally, when worsted in the unequal contest,
to descend from his throne and proclaim a republic.
" History shall not tell that the last of the Olden-
burgs parcelled out Denmark. If, however, in the
course of time we must succumb as being the
weakest, and France and Sweden permit the most
southern province of Scandinavia—the old Jutland
of the south—to share the fate of Galicia, of Poland,
and of Northern Italy, by being overpowered and
suppressed by German Governments, then I will
descend from the throne and proclaim the re-
public." The King of Denmark need be under no
apprehensions—neither France nor Sweden, nor,
for that matter, Great Britain, will permit Den-
mark to be expunged from the map of Europe,
simply to gratify the insensate ambition of Ger-
many.

COUNTRY MARKETS.

1,

LEEDS—TUESDAY.
The market was rather slow for wheat to-day, and in
the little business done last Tuesday's rates we"e main-
tained. Fine barley at fully last week's prices, but other
sorts rather easier to purchase. Oats, beans, and other
articles unaltered.