The Sun.
London, England, 1865-08-21 00:00:00

rim SUN, LONDON, MONDAY EVENING, AUGUST 21, 1865.

had more capital. Every day they were obliged to
turn away private wire business. They 6,d to hire a
number of instruments, which if purchased would
save 20 per cent. on the purchase. Interest at the
rate of 5 per cent. was paid on the borrowed money;
if this were replaced by capital the interest would be
saved to the company. There were 1,260 unissued
shares.

Mr. SHEWARD seconded the motion for the adop-
tion of the report, and it was carried.
The proceedings closed with a vote of thanks to
the chairman.

life, and duty which his inferior predecessors in the
art and science of slaughter only showed us in im-
perfect glimpses and single aspects. Stephen Forward
would be called by the penny papers a psychological
curiosity, and we shall be told, or perhaps have been
told, that his views of duty exhibit " a tangled and
intricate problem invimorals." What we have to say
about him is this—that in one, and that a very seri-
ous, sense his horrid crimes may become a great
benefit to society. There is not the least occasion
for us to summarise or epitoniise his disgusting life
and character. It may suffice to say that he is
clearly a person of very considerable powers ; and
that he has made such use of his education that,
had he turned his mind to sensational fiction, he
might have earned a very much better living than
by wasting his talents on billiard-marking and beg-
ging letters. Even now he writes quite as well as
many of the guides of public opinion, and offers as
good a vindication for himself as some of our daily
instructors have offered for his predecessors in
crime. This is the real moral of Forward's cha-
racter. If, as Dr. Forbes Winslow assured us,
Townley was mad, not because he could not dis-
tinguish between right and wrong, but because
his whole moral nature was inverted, so that he
made wrong right and right wrong, this is
precisely Forward's case. Forward only brings
out, enlarges, insists upon, and with scientific
breadth and precision expounds, the philosophy of
his new moral world, and he often argues logicallyenough upon it. He admits that he and society are
at issue upon first principles ; but he is right, and
society is wrong. This is intelligible. He is only
a blackleg, and an adulterer, and an extortioner,
and a thief, and a murderer ; but this is his
morality. Evil is, as it was to Milton's Satan, his
good. He has a high and noble soul, a sublime
vocation ; he worships duty, and recognises its
claims ; he is governed by high principles and aims.
His quarrel with society is, that it is not disposed to
give its confidence unreservedly to a man who
deserts his wife and child, and endeavours to extort
money by threats and menacing letters. So, to
show society that it is wrong, and that its whole
moral system is disjointed, he murders his wife and
child and three other children—probably also his
own—almost at a single blow. In " his desperate
extremity"—that is, after he had violated almost
every law, human and divine—he feels himself to
be justified in teaching us all a great moral lesson.
He " obeyed the dictates of his conscience in sharing
his destiny" with another victim of our social laws
—that is, he committed adultery upon the highest
principle and from the purest motives ; and now,
consistently enough, he perpetrates a whole crop of
murders under the inspiration of a high and para-
mount sense of duty to himself and others. " The
imperfect letter of what is right, as represented by
social laws," he has learned to live above. Being
in the spirit, he can dispense with the lettter of such
cold and pedantic formulas as " Thou shalt not
steal," " Thou shalt not commit adultery," "Thou
shalt do no murder ;" and his emancipated nature
revolts against the artificial and cramping restraints
of the barbarous criminal law of England. Now
what we have reason to be grateful for to Forward
is that he is a living fact. We have heard a good
deal of this sort of talk before. Shelley, in his
worst days, had the same kind of quarrel with the
world and social Taws. So had Rousseau. So had
the whole crowd of Byron heroes. So have the con-
ventional heroes and heroines of romance, French
and English, of the sensational school. In Forward,
however,
we have the advantage of seeing the thing
at work. He is, as the modern phrase has it, the
outcome of these fine fictional theories. What this
person's studies may have been we do not know, but
when we find him observing that " it is not external
circumstances which measure human consciousness
of. pain, but individual sensitiveness thereto," we
almost recognise the fine Italian hand of
i George,
Sand, or M. Sue, or the daily preacher who nformeu
us that Constance Kent was a psychological pheno-
menon. Not only is Mr. Forward not a worse apostle
of a new moral world than some of his literary con-
temporaries, but he is rather better. Anyhow he is
more practical. He applies his philosophy—and it
is really not muth worse metaphysics than one meets
with in the Daily Telegraph—to practice. Very
ugly practice it is, to be sure. He murders his wife
and child, who were not only no incumbrance. to
him, but were simply respectable, decent, and in-
offensive ; and he does this, so far as we can see,
only because they were respectable, decent, and in-
offensive. And he murders the three other children,
who were neither trouble, expense, nor discredit to
him, but whom he " claimed as his by the strongest
ties"—such strong 'ties giving the right to murder
them. Townley, too, avowed the same right to do
what he pleased with his own. It is perhaps just as
well that it should at last come to this. Forward,
with his five murders at once, will perhaps bring people
to their senses, for after all, an excellent case might,
on certain familiar grounds of argument, be made
out for this precious villain. There is, in the first
place, that perfect and complete absence of intelli-
gible motive in all his murders which, as we all
know, divests crime of its criminality, and converts
every form of wickedness into mere cerebral malady.
There is, again, what has been laid down to be the
great scientific test of irresponsibility—the wicked
and blasphemous substitution of wrong for right,
which the experts held to be conclusive of Townley's
insanity. There is, in short, an irresistible homi-
cidal mania in its strongest form. Five innocent
persons murdered, and without the slightest reason
for it. If Townley was mad, if the Queen's nurse
was mad, if Constance Kent was morally insane, if
Celestina Sumner was not be hung because nobody
could assign a sufficient cause for her crime, how
can anybody pretend that Forward is not mad ?
Whatever arguments could be used—and they have
been successfully used—in favour of each one of
these notorious and atrocious criminals, why are
they not produced in behalf of this poor irrespon-
sible victim of a disordered intelligence and a dis-
torted ethical system—the lunatic Stephen For-
ward ? Why not ? Only because the penny news-
papers and the public opinion of the Peckham
omnibus begin to suspect that this is going rather
too far. But we must hint to the penny newspapers
and to the Peckham omnibus that they must either
make up their minds to give 'Forward a good word,
and to accept what we have no doubt will be offered
in his defence on the homicidal mania dodge, or else
they must swallow a good deal of the fine talk that
has been talked about that interesting young mur-
deress Constance Kent. We could, upon scientific
grounds, construct an apology for Forward immea-
surably stronger than that which succeeded
in Townley's case. For if Townley was mad be-
cause he was outrageously wicked, and avowed his
wickedness with shameless audacity, then Forward
is ten times more mad, because he is ten times more
wicked, and ten times more outspoken in his impu-
dent assertion of wickedness on principle. Only, as
the Peckham omnibus will probably think this
is really rather. too much of a good thing, Forward
is just a trifle too conclusive, too argumentative,
too consistent, and too practical. And so, possibly,
the Peckham omnibus may agree with us that, if
we cannot refute Forward and his superfine talk, it
is perhaps as well that we can hang him ; and per-
haps the Peckham omnibus will go a step further
with us, and will begin to have its doubts whether,
if we had hung some of our recent heroes and
heroines, our Celestinas and Constances and Victors,
we might not have been spared our Stephen For-
ward. It comes to this at the last. Severity in
the first instance is mercy in the long run. Peck-
ham cannot sleep in security if homicidal mania is
to talk with impunity as loudly and as long as
Stephen Forward talks, and, which is even more
important, to act as well as talk. The last, and
perhaps the only conclusive, argument with mur-
derers of high religious and moral sentiments is
the latter. It is, we admit, vulgar, barbarous,
coarse, and altogether a painful specimen of what
Mr. Forward so indignantly denounces as " our
present iniquitously defective social justice." The
gallows does not make a discriminating allowance
for those fine natures which, touched by fine issues,
elevate adultery into a duty, robbery into a virtue,
and murder into an act of piety. The Swedish
clergyman and Mr. Forward have a view that,
generally speaking, people are better off dead than
alive. It is a theory which has, perhaps, some-
thing to say for itself. At any rate, the Peckham
omnibus does not quite know how to answer it.
But when this theory is worked out by a revolver,
and a little nicotine, and a poisoned Eucharist, the
matter begins to be serious. It may be all very
well to say that the dead are better off than the
living, and that it was our duty to help them on
their journey to the better land, but we somehow
feel that this won't do. We must draw the line
somewhere. Stephen Forward has rather overdone
the thing—has put too fine a point upon it. We
are almost afraid—and it is a serious consideration
for the future interests of the homicidal maniacs
—that he will hardly get even the boldest of ex-
perts to argue that he is so excessively wicked
that he must be mad, and therefore that we have no
right to hang him.

THE " LONDON REVIEW" ON THE MILITARY Our-
RAGE AT CHATHAM.--The amiable Queen of the
savage islanders of the Pacific, now a visitor to this
highly-civilised and much-favoured island, will have
a strange story -to tell her subjects when she returns.
How will the Sandwich Islanders shriek their dis-
gust at the Pritchard poisonings of wife and mother,
the Winsor sinotherings of innocents, the revolting
butcheries of the man Forward, and the• dastardly
assassination of an officer by one of his own men !
How can we venture to explain away any of these
hideous crimes to the good Queen Emma, so that we
may not be placed at the bottom of the scale of civi-
lization in the estimation of the savages we are al-
ways calling from the error of their ways ! Truly
one begins to question whether what we call

zation does tend to make man only a little lower
than the angels, and to doubt whether the good in-
tentions of humanitarians, in relaxing the severity
of all punishments, are mistaken in their kindness.
In this case of the officer—Major de Vere—shot, but
happily not killed, we have to notice a crime which,
strange to say, is by no means so uncommon in the
army as would be imagined. This instance is the
third within the last four years of officers shot by
their own men in barracks, and there are many
others that would be found if we were to search the
records of the service for them. The soldier, it must
be remembered, lies under the temptation to use the
weapon in his hand if he meets with provocation,
and he is but too often, according to our system of
recruiting, a man chosen from the ranks of crime, or
at least from that class of society whose moral per-
ceptions are not very clear. We do not, of course,
think of excusing a man for so dastardly an act,
as this at Chatham ; the point is, that we take
men for soldiers from the scum of society, arm
them, and insist upon their keeping their arms
in effective use by having so many rounds of
powder and ball in their pouch, and then expect
them to submit like lambs to a discipline of the
severest kind, which often requires to be enforced
by the most galling and depressing punishments. Is
the re no means of obviating a state of things that
evidently conduces so much to these outrages ? It
is notorious that our army is constantly weakened
by the large number of men under punishment.
Surely,instead of seeking for recruits in the slums
and alleys of the large towns, and taking all that
come, it would be better to make some selection
upon the test of character. By this means, although
the number of recruits would be lessened, the num-
ber of men in prison would be decreased also, and
the improved status of the army would be a source
of incalculable advantages. But we leave this rather
large question to speak of the more direct source of
these crimes, m the regulation of the service which
' orders every man to retain the ball-cartridges he
takes with him when on guard. The military autho-
rities have always resisted all efforts to interfere with
the soldiers' arms. It took many years to convince
them that the bayonet was a highly dangerous orna-
ment for a soldier to wear, and many lives were sac-
rificed to this absurd military prejudice. We are
afraid to say how long it will take to convince the
Horse Guards that the soldiers forming the guard
might, with perfect ease and regularity, take their
ammunition from the magazine, and leave it there on
coming off guard. If this plan were adopted, it
would be difficult for any ammunition to find its
way into the barrack-room, as an officer would be
held responsible for every man's ammunition being
returned. But the real opposition to this very evi-
dent remedy, we believe, comes from the officers
themselves, who positively prefer the chance of be-
ing shot by some ruffian who owes them a grudge
to making themselves safe from such cowardly at-
I tacks. It seems to be a point of military feeling,
which the authorities—themselves soldiers—are not
disposed to touch. But we must say that it is for the
Minister of the War Department to deal with this
as a matter of common sense. Considering, how-
ever, the facilities for these crimes which exist, it is
especially incumbent upon all who are in the posi-
tion of officers, and hold the power of punishment
in their hands, to have a full and fair regard for the
men under them. Not that any sort of flinching
from the strictest rules of discipline should be main-
tained with temper and firmness without exceeding
the just limits of reproof and punishment. In this
case the man Currie appears to have had no greater
grievance than being ordered to continue at his drill
longer than others, because of his incompetence.
The hard and malicious way in which he continues
to speak of his crime without the least sign of regret
is a feature that may perhaps receive some explana-
tion at the trial; in the meantime, the circumstances,
as at present known, seem to offer very little in the
shape of provocation to so base and murderous an
attack. The most important evidence in the case
will come from Major De Vere himself, whose re-
covery is now, we are happy to see, predicted with
some confidence.

THE:44 READER" ON THE ATLANTIC TELEGRAPH.
The Great Eastern has returned for a rope. But this
is not all ; she has brought with her the most san-
guine hopes of our ultimate success in girdling-the
earth, and a record of facts which demolish we know
not how many adverse opinions expressed during
her absence. From the telegraphic report received
while we are going to press, we learn that the Great
'Eastern had arrived in lat. 57 deg. 25 min., long.
39 deg. 6 min., on the 3d July, and had paid out
1,212 miles when the cable parted in 3,900 yards
soundings. It will be recollected that when the tele-
graphic communication ceased, the electricians at
Valentia fixed the position of the fault at about 1,230
miles from land. We learn, therefore, that the
difference between the calculated and the real
length paid out is only some 20 miles, so exact has
modern science becomein its practical details. Even
this difference would have disappeared, and elec-
tricians on land could have foretold within a mile
the position of the fault, had the copper conducting-
wire been equally resisting throughout; but here,
as elsewhere, nature refuses to furnish us with a
perfectly homogeneous body; such a wire is, there-
fore, well-nigh an impossibility. The account goes
on to say that " a partial loss of insulation having
been discovered, the Great Eastern was stopped to
recover that portion of the cable in which the fault
lay, electrical tests placing it probably within six
miles. The cable was passed from the stern to the
bow of'the ship for this purpose, and after getting
in two miles of cable, the fault being still overboard,
the cable broke about ten yards in board of the
wheel at the bow, having been injured by chafing
on the stern of the ship. Two previous faults had
been discovered—the first in soundings of about
1,000 yards, and the second in about 4,100 yards,
and had been successfully recovered and made good
—in the first case ten miles, and in the second two
and a half miles, of cable were hauled in. After the
cable parted, a grapnel with two and a half nautical
miles of rope was lowered, the ship being placed so
as to drift over the line of cable. The cable was
hooked on the 3d, and when 2,200 yards of the rope
had been hauled in, a swivel in the latter gave
way, and 2,800 yards of rope were lost, the cable
having been lifted 1,200 yards from the bottom.
On the 4th, a buoy, with a flag and ball, was
moored with 500 yards of rope to
.mark the place.
It is in lat.: 51 deg. 35 min., long. 38 deg. 42
min. 30 sec. From the 4th, fogs and adverse
winds prevented a further attempt until the 7th,
which was then made nearer the end of the cable,
and was unsuccessful from the same cause, when the
cable had been lifted about 1,000 yards. Another
buoy was here placed in lat. 51 deg. 28 min. 30 sec.,
long. 38 deg. 56 sec. 9 Min. A third attempt was
made on the 10th, which failed on account of the
grapnel chain having fouled the flukes of the grap-
nel. The grapnel and last 800 yards of rope came
up covered with ooze. A fourth attempt was made
on the 11th at 3 p.m., which also failed through the
breaking of the grapnel rope when the cable had been
raised 600 yards from the bottom. The stock of
rope having now become exhausted, it became ab-
solutely necessary to proceed to England for more
and stronger tackle." Thus the biggest ship in the
world has come back to us for a bit of rope. That
the attempt to raise the end of the sunken cable will
prove successful, seeing what has already been done,
is almost certain ; still the task will be a most diffi-
cult one, even should the cable itself be easily found.
If the main object of the expedition this time prove
a failure, invaluable lessons have yet been learnt,
both as regards the cable itself and the means of
paying it out. The way to the grandest discoveries
has often been paved by the bitterest failures, until
determination and
.energy, guided by accumulated
experience, have at last brought success. The Great
Eastern has been proved to be fit for her work, her
size gives her a steadiness which no other ship can
emulate. The paying-out machinery is thoroughly
reliable, and the insulation of the gutta percha has
been found to be admirable, greatly improving, in-
deed, when submerged. The fault of the first At-
lantic cable was itsbad insulation, but this has proved
itself to be " the best insulated cable ever manufac-
tured." The primary cause of the failure of the cable is
an apparently insignificant oversight, which was re-
vealed before many miles had been paid out. The fault
then discovered, and now so disastrous, was caused
by one of the cuttings of the iron wire covering
sticking in the cable and perforating the gutta
percha through to the copper conductor. The cable
was thus tapped, and through the way opened the
current flowed back to Valentia. This serious fault
must be guarded against in the future laying of the
cable

THE " EXAMINER" ON A NUT FOR FUTURE
ANTIQUARIANS. —ln the year 2500 a question
may arise amongst our posterity travelling ex-
press a hundred miles an hour whether their

remote ancestors had not some modes of loco-

motion by sea and land attaining to an in-

comparabfyhigher rate of speed, in support of which
theory antiquarians may produce fragments of the
Times newspaper, in which these advertisements
have appeared :

" THEATRE ROYAL, MELBOURNE.—Under the Manage-
ment of Mr. Barry Sullivan.—Every Evening, ARRAH-NA-

POGUE ; or, the Wicklow Wedding. The scenery painted
after models and sketches by Mr. W. Telbin. The drama
produced under the written directions of the author."

PRINCE'S THEATRE, MANCHESTER.—Sixth Week of
ARRAH-NA-POGUE. Full every night. This beautiful
drama has been produced regardless of expense in every
department.. The scenery by Mr. Grieve and assistants
awl. Mr. Holding has been allowed to equal in perfection
the celebrated wise en scene at the Princess's Theatre,
London.—C. Calvert."

" NIBLO'S GARDEN, NEW Youx.—Fifth Week and un-
precedented success of the great Irish drama, ARRAII-NA-
POGUE ; or, the Wicklow Wedding. The whole of the
scenery has been painted after coloured sketches and mo-
dels by W. Telbin, and the raise en scene is rendered an