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

SPIRIT OF THE PUBLIC JOURNALS.

TIMES.—In the spring of the present year it was
announced, on the very highest authority, that a
terrible calamity had befallen the French Govern-
ment. The Government had not, indeed, to re-
proach itself that this calamity had overtaken it
through its own remissness and supineness; the evil
had been long foreseen and manfully struggled
against. This,in fact, was the only consolation that
an evil fortune had left them. All was lost except
their honour, the honour of maintaining to the last
a stern though unavailing struggle. If Troy could
!Ave been saved it would have been by the hand of
Hector, and if M. Thiers could have been kept out
of the Legislative Chamber it would have been by
the superhuman efforts of M. Persigny. He fore-
saw, and he proclaimed the danger. If he fought
like Hector he prophesied like Cassandra ; but, like
Cassandra, no one regarded him. We are now in a
position to ask, was the election of M. Thiers a real,
substantial misfortune, or was it one of the Govern-
ment's own creating ? Were their dreadful appre-
hensions the result of reason and good sense, or were
they the frightful phantoms of a distempered ima-
gination? We have had one sample of the reality,
and we confess that the aspect which it wears to our
eyes is not extremely formidable. Perfectly calm
and collected, with unruffled temper and irreproach-
able taste M.lThiers moved his amendment for reduc-
ing the amount of Treasury Bonds which the Mi-
nister of Finance is allowed to issue from 300,000,000 f.
to 150,000,000 f. Since he last addressed a popular
assembly twelve years have elapsed, years eventful
and interesting alike for France and for himself.
There has been no demand in France for that clear
and persuasive eloquence which shone so brightly
in the times of Louis Philippe, and swayed with
so much advantage to the best interests of France
the deliberations of the Constituent Assembly.
Some things have happened in the interval the
remembrance of which would not be very favour-
able to a calm and orderly discussion—things
which no one ever forgets, and very few
sincerely forgive. During those twelve years M.
Thiers, instead of indemnifying himself for the
absence of all opportunities of political distinction
and the interruption of a brilliant career by the
enjoyment of wealth and ease, has undertaken and
brought to a conclusion a gigantic enterprise, the
" History of the Consulate and the Empire," a noble
contribution to the literature of France, and an im-
perishable monument of his own genius. Many
men would have availed themselves of the first
opportunity of speaking in public which had pre-
sented itself for so many years to make some passing
allusion to what they had done and suffered, and to
define the position which they intended to occupy
with regard to the Government and the Assembly.
With excellent taste and judgment M. Thiers has
risen superior to this temptation. He has felt appa-
rently that his antecedents are too well known and
his position too thoroughly recognised to render
such remarks necessary, and that there would be
little dignity in complaint or oxplanation where it
is quite clear that he could not, without planing
himself in an attitude hostile to his audience and
incurring frequent interruption and reprehension
from the President, do justice to the whole subject.
He promises to give us on a future occasion the
reasons which have induced him to return to public
life. In the meanwhile he has contented himself
with getting up a very pleasant little debate on a
rather abstruse financial subject, explaining the
whole question with incomparable clearness, con-
ciliating the assent of his audience, and winning the
admission from the Government themselves that his
views and theirs are almost entirely identical. There
was an opportunity, doubtless, for any amount of
sarcasm and invective which M. Thiers might have
thought fit to employ. He who speaks of the expendi-
ture of public money may easily be drawn in to
consider the objects for which that expenditure is
made, and thus to discuss almost any part of the
policy of the Government which he pleases. This
temptation also M. Thiers resisted. He refused
to be drawn aside, and M. Picard would have done
wisely to follow his example, into the consideration
of the policy of the Mexican Expedition, to pay for
which 210,000,000 f. out of the 300,000,000 f. were
spent. He started from the plain and sensible pro-
position that the money having been spent under a
lawful authority must, at all events, be made good,
and that the whole question was one similar to that
of a reserve in the case of a private banker, how
much of floating debt was it expedient for the
country to have. He proposed, now that measures
had been taken for reducing that debt, to take at the
same time steps which would prevent its being
legally increased by the Government up to the
amount at which it now stands. There was nothing
very alarming in all this; it was a practical ques-
tion, treated by an experienced statesman in a
thoroughly business-like way. Everybody seemed
satisfied, and so the debate ended. There is, to our
eyes at least, nothing very alarming in all this. We
observe in this debate nothing which leads us to
believe that chaos has come again, or that the Em-
peror is likely once more to require furnished
apartments in the neighbourhood of St. Jaineil
square. The man who was able to accommodate
snd
himself to the Chamber the Orleans shownthat
to the Assembly of the Republic has
with the same tact he can adapt hiniself to the
cauglatthe tone
Assembly of the Empire. He has
of the place, and will probably improve it before he
leaves it. He will state opinion's, some of which the

Government doubtless will accept, and others which
they will reject. But that realy 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-eiection 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 been 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 of into hands

greatly inferior to their own, and have thus lowered
the character and weakened the influence of the Im-
perial Chambors. 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 arid
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 extraordinary 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 cariosity to
hear the reasons which have induced M. Thiers to
undertake it.

POST.—The Home Secretary has ordered a med
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 of 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 fora 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. Tha law
requires that a delusion, or hallucination, should be
proved ; but medical opinion recognises a form of
insanity which developer itself in a momentary irre-
sistible impulse. A criminal act which is a phe-
nomenon is said to he 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 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
Wig well Grange, and, after spending some time in
her company, committed the murder for which he
now lies under sentence of 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, bat 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 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
uhmavaen
obligations, and
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 sensatii.o.noafl
writing on the subject must be swept clean
ed
the discussion. The horrors of the condemnnd the last
the waiting for an ignominious death,t
taopics. There
been mooted affect
agony of the convict, are all irrelevan
in
the roo.t
.of public safety.
e d cell,
is no text in this case for a sermon on capital pun.
ishment. The questions that
h
public morality and go to
our social system• They
our ten-
They touch the very core otf
comprehend the
highest
efiesdence subsisting
tdheeryestemrberiaa
principles laid down
Are we, in the • •
auministration of
criminal justice, to follow the
by Pritchard and Esquirol ? Are
accounted we to accept the
that
a crime Which violates nature, and
is not
generally influence men,• • any
ge is in itself evidence of the
insanity or the irresponsibility
aropositioie"tsh.e
of the criminal ?
Are acts which
are supposed to be the result of
vehement passion
s, whether of love or hate, or of
both combined,
to be treated as features of mental
disease ?
These are momentous questions ; and. '-
so far as they will have to be answered .the
in-
quiry which has been ordered in
is to be hoped that scientifl- ~wnley'® case, it
pered with jadicio' ingenuity may be tem-
-, common sense. Ia dissecting

the human mind we must be careful not to loosen
or sever the sacred ties that bind together familie3
and nations.

Disgraceful Scene in a Catholic Chapel.

On the morning of Christmas. day a disgraceful proceed-
ing took place in St. Anne's Catholic chapel, Lord-street,
Edge-hill, Liverpool. As is usual at this festive season of
the year a midnight service was performed in the chapel,
the Rev. Father Sullivan and two other resident priests
assisting at the altar. '['he doors of the sacred edifice were
opened about five minutes before 12 o'clock on Thursday
night, but some time before that hour a large number of
people had congregated together in front of the chapel, and
it was noticed that several of the crowd were in a state of
intoxication. Money wan expected at the doors on entering
the chapel, and the majority of those who went in contri-
buted; but about a quarter past 12 o'clock, in a few moments
after the service had commenced, the Rev. Father Sullivan
and the other two officiating priests being at the altar, two
men entered the chapel, but refused to pay anything at the
door. They were observed to be intoxicated, and it was also
noticed that they were acting in concert with a group of
men outside, who also appeared to be more or less drunk.
The two men above named had not been in the chapel many
minutes before their conduct became very unbecoming and
disorderly. In a loud tone they made use of very offensive
epithets in reference to the Catholic religion, and ultimately
the officers belonging to the chapel made an effort to eject
them. This was the signal for the commencement of
scene of indescribable confusion and disorder. Some 40 or
50 men, apparently labouring under the influence of liquor,
and in a state of wild excitement, rushed in the chapel and
jumped on to the benches during the time service was being
performed. They shouted and bawled as they stood on the
benches, making use of foul language. The chapel vim
nearly filled with the regular congregation, and on the dis-
turbance commencing, and the remarks above named being
male, several of the members present endeavoured to
turn the disorderly persons out, on which a general
row took place, attended with fighting between the parties
inside the chapel. The service was of course stopped,f,and,
as may be imagined, the greatest consternation was caused.
The Rev. Father Sullivan, who is said to be in very indif.
ferent health, was so much affected by the scene of disorder
and riot before him, that he fainted, and was carried away
from the altar robed in his full vestments, into an adjoining
apartment, and the two other priests also retired until order
could be restored. Information of what was going forward
in the chapel having been conveyed to the police authori-
ties, Inspector Wilson and a number of officers entered the
chapel, and in a short time succeeded in turning out the dis-
turbing parties ; many of them, however, endeavoured to
go in again but they were prevented from doing so. The
doors of the chapel were locked, and in a short time the ser-
vices were resumed, and concluded about half-past 2 o'clock
in the morning.
Although the malcontents could not again obtain adrais •
sion to the chapel, large groups remained in front of it out'
side, and for several hours the immediate neighbourhood
of the edifice was a scene of the greatest excitement and die'
order.
We learn that there are large number of Orangemen re-
siding in the neighbourhood, and it is believed that the die'
graceful outrage in question was instituted by some of the
members of that body,—Liverpool Daily Post.