The Sun.
London, England, 1853-03-16 00:00:00

LONDON, WEDNESDAY, MARCH 16, 1853.

An interesting discussion took place in the
House of Lords on Monday evening, respecting
one of the most important, as it is confessedly one
of the most arduous, of the duties connected with
the measures of Legal Reform now under con-
sideration. It arose on a question asked of the
Lord Chancellor by the veteran Lord LYNDHURST
respecting the contemplated consolidation of the
Statutes. The Noble and Learned Lord alluded
to a subject which had long been painfully noto-
rious, and which had but too frequently elicited
such grave censures from the most eminent mem-
bers of the Bench and the Bar, and something still
stronger from unfortunate litigants, who had been
subjected to heavy and almost ruinous costs through
the obscurities and contradictions contained in
enactments sanctioned by the collective wisdom.
The evils arising from this crude and hasty legis-
lation have, indeed, attained such a height as to
render it essential that something should be done,
and that without a moment's unnecessary delay.
There may yet be found ridiculous absurdities
reflecting disgrace and odium on those by whom
such follies were perpetrated or sanctioned. The
case alluded to by Lord LYNDHURST, of the statute
which provided that one moiety of the penalty
incurred for a certain offence (viz., 14 years' tran-
sportation), should go to the informer, and the
other moiety to the parish, is by no means
a solitary instance cf such oversights and
anomalies. Many similar absurdities were
pointed out by Lord BROUGHAM, in his
admirable speech in the House of Peers in 1848,
and subsequently in his letter to Sir JAMES
GRAHAM, he cited many other acts that ex-
hibited gross negligence on the part of those by
whom they had been carried through both branches
of the Legislature, and at the same time explained
some of the causes to which the acknowledged
evils were ascribable. But glaring as were these
errors, ridiculous as they appeared even to the
most superficial observer, they occasioned far less
mischief than the adoption of words of doubtful
construction, which arrayed Judge against Judge,
and even one of the Superior Courts against
another, to the perplexity and confusion of the
unfortunate suitor, who felt the hardship of being
compelled to pay for settling the law, and de-
ciding by the judgment of the highest appellate
tribunal the serious differpnce between the Courts
of Common Pleas and Exchequer as to whether
the word
." may" in the County Courts Act had
been used in a discretionary or imperative sense.
Simple as the matter may now be regarded, the
law has been, we believe, in an unsettled state
for many years ; and it is not yet, we believe,
definitively disposed of as to whether words
of permission, as " may," or "it shall be
lawful," tC:c., are to be so construed as affording,
any option to the Judge, or allowing him to de-
termine as lie thought most in accordance with

the justice and equity of the case. The difficulty
could, with a very little care, be most easily
avoided ; but, as it was, it led to the greatest an-
noyance and vexation, inducing " sharp practi-
tioners" to bring actions in the Superior Courts,
on the chance of receiving costs far exceeding the
amount of the original debt, through the obscurity
occasioned by the wording of the statute.

While, then, it is most desirable that adequate
means should be adopted to prevent a repetition
of such ludicrous and injurious mistakes, it must
be obvious that the intended digest or consolida-
tion of the statutes
.would be of comparatively
little utility, unless the existing contradictions
and obscurities were removed, and the law
stated in a more intelligible manner. We
must at all times receive any observation
of Lord ST. LEONARDS with respect ; but
with great deference to the Learned Lord,
we submit that a mere alteration of the
language, so as to remove existing doubt, could
not be considered as so far altering the nature
and character of the work as to render it a new
code, rather than a consolidation of previous enact-
ments; but even were it the case, it could scarcely
afford a sufficient reason for
avoiding the oppor-
tunities for amendment, and
permitting such gross
blots much longer to deface the national statute-
book.

Extraordinary credit, we cannot
help er,
er
is due, we conceive, to the Honourable. jjea,, "ng,
the Member for the borough of Lewes, inn"ree
aern
lre-
ene,e to that bill, which he has now obtained
v
to introduce, for the better prevention and punish_
ment of aggravated assaults upon women and
children. It was time, indeed, for some such in-
terference on the part of the Legislature. The
columns of the public journals had been too fre-
quently polluted, especially of late years, by the
record of these lamentable acts of brutality, for
the expiation of which the law hitherto allowed
but very inadequate and restricted power to the
provincial or metropolitan magistracy. According
to the existing system, as explained in the House
of Commons on'Thursday evening by Mr. FITZROY,
all the punishment that can be inflicted upon the
offenders here especially referred to, is limited to
a fine of 51., or, in default of payment, two
months' imprisonment. It must be remembered,
moreover, that this imprisonment must be without
hard la.bur,. evenn though the cruelty complained
of
be
of
th
most inhuman description,
e
and heightened -
eta
14ces. somethl.Zth.e most revolting circum-
;therefore, in the way of im-
mediate alteration., aa imperatively demanded

from the humanity and justice of Parliament. It
is gratifying to reflect that measures have at length
been taken by the Hon. Representative of Lewes
for the improvement of the law in this particular,
and the course adopted by him has already re-
ceived the approval of the popular branch of the
Legislature.
It was scarcely necessary that the details of so
many acts of appalling ferocity as were brought
forward by Mr. FITZROY in evidence of the need
of the proposed alteration, should have been re-
counted to the national representatives. Unhappily,
the existence of the evil was already sufficiently
notorious. Scarcely any one can find it difficult
to recal a variety of similar atrocities to remem-
brance, for unfortunately there is scarcely any one
but must have read accounts like these again
and again in our own columns, and in those
of our contemporaries. Nevertheless, it was,
perhaps, after all, quite as well, everything
considered, that the Member for Lewes should
at once make out the strongest case that was
possible, in order that there might not remain
among our legislators the slightest chance of mis-
apprehension. After the speech delivered by Mr.
FITZROY upon this subject, we cannot imagine for
a single instant, that any of those who listened to
his statements, could hesitate to acknowledge that
the bill proposed by him was otherwise than abso-
lutely requisite. Enough was said on Thursday
to show in the clearest light, that there has long
been a very grievous want of some such resolute
effort to suppress the continuance of those execra-
ble abominations. Outrages of the most inhuman
nature are repeatedly occurring, the people know
but too well by this time, committed on members
of the weaker sex by persons whom, as Mr. FITZ-
ROY justly remarked, we must all blush to regard
as Englishmen. Outrages, moreover, very many
of them, not confined to members of the weaker
sex, but perpetrated, we might almost say, in
the majority of instances upon helpless chil-
dren. All that is now asked from Parliament, in
this matter, by the originator of the suggested
measure, is, as he himself observed, the same pro-
tection for unfortunate females and children, al-
ready afforded to dogs, and cats, and donkeys.
At least, it is reasonable to hope that the preven-
tion of cruelty may at length not be witnessed
only in regard to animals, but in regard likewise
to our hitherto almost wholly undefended fellow-
creatures. We may then perchance hear some-
what less frequently of women being left insen-
sible on the floor of their home, their " clothes
saturated with blood," and the rings on their
fingers " beaten into the flesh to the very bone"—
according to those painful descriptions which Mr.
FITZROY conceived it to be his duty to submit to
the consideration of his brother representatives.
Agreeing though we do very cordially with the
Hon. Member for Bath, in regretting that the
bill introduced by the Member for Lewes
could not go farther than is actually
intended, we cannot coincide with him or
with the Hon. Gentleman the Member for
Leominster, in aspiring to witness the application
to these ruffianly offenders of the degrading pen-
alty of corporal punishment. In reference to that
punishment, we conceive that the Hon. Gentle-
man the Representative of Berwick-upon-Tweed,
was fully justified in questioning its efficacy. Sup-
posing its efficacy to be demonstrable, we should
exult in its application to the assailants of women
and children, for none could more richly deserve
to fall under the weight of that punishment. But
experience has proved plainly enough before now,
in a countless variety of instances, that evil, in-
stead of good, is invariably the result of corporal
chastisement. It was the recognition of this fact
that called forth the clamour several years since
against its continuance in the army and in our
public schools. It was seen that the ill-
disposed who fell Under the lash, were only
rendered thereby more stubborn and incor-
rigible. Instead of correcting offences, it only
multiplied them ; and, in the case of the military,
no soldier who ever bared his back to the thongs
of the cat was ever known afterwards to reflect
credit on his profession. His position among his
comrades became altered, and he was never known
fully to recover from the degradation. Ho either
fell into worse habits, and was ultimately drunnned
out of his regiment for some more flagrant repeti-
tion of his offences, or, falling into a state of des-
pondency, quietly left the service at the earliest
available opportunity. Equally ineffectual, we
doubt not, would prove the application of this
punishment to the unmanly assailants of unfortu-
nate females and helpless children. The fear of
it would not be enough, in the first instance, to
frighten them from the luxury of giving way to
their ferocious bursts of passion, and application of
the lash afterwards would only reader them, if pos-
sible, still more lamentably brutalised. We cannot
but think, therefore, that the bill introduced by the
Member for Lewes goes quite as far as was advis-
able under the circumstances ; and we say this
advisedly, even while coinciding most cordially
with Mr. PHINN and Mr. PHILLIMORE, that the
class of offenders about to be dealt with by the
new measure should be brought under the pressure
of the heaviest penalties and the most degrading
punishments.

It is lamentable to reflect, that as matters have
hitherto stood in reference to acts of cruelty to
our fellow-creatures, a man might brutally as-
sault a woman or a child, with only the danger of
having to pay W. penalty or be imprisoned for
two months, whereas, for stealing a lady's lap-
dog he is liable to be mulcted of 201., or be re-
quired to undergo six months' imprisonment.
Hitherto, indeed, there has in all this been a dis-
graceful disproportion in the distribution of pe-
nalties and punishments. Fortunately there is
now fair prospect, as we have shown, of at least
one great error in this disproportion being very
speedily rectified—namely, by means of the hu-
mane bill introduced by the member for Lewes
for the prevention of aggravated assaults upon
women and children.

THE COIIRT.—It is now determined that the Court
will prolong its stay at Buckingham Palace until Satur-
day next, when it will take its departure for Windsor
Castle. Preparations are making at Frogmore Lodge
for the reception of her Royal Highness the Duchess of
Kent, who is expected to arrive there on Friday next.
PRICE OF GoLo.---The quotation of gold at Paris is
about at par (according to the last tariff), which, at the
English Mint price of 31. 17s. 100. per ounce for
standard gold, gives an exchange of 25.17 ; and, the
exchange at Paris on London at short being 25.071, it
follows that gold is about 0.38 per cent. dearer in Paris
than in English. By advices from Hamburgh the price
of gold is 429 per mark, which, at the English Mint
price of 3/. 17s. lOid. per ounce for standard gold, gives
an exchange of 13.7 ; and, the exchange at Hamburgh '
on London at short being 13.6, it follows that gold is
0.47 per cent. dearer in Hamburgh than in London.

BURFORD'S PANORAMA ROYAL, LEICESTTR-SQUARR.—
The public will be glad to find that on Saturday next
Mr. Burford opens a View of Granada and the Alham-
bra---that ancient city of the Moors. This has been
long a desideratum, not only on account of its un-
rivalled beauty, but of its historical interest, and as a
spot pronounced by the late Lord Dudley and Sir David
Wilkie to be the finest they had ever met with during
their extended travels.

THE REFORMATION.—At St. Matthew's, Great Peter-
street, Westminster, the Rev. R. Malone, incumbent,
received into the Protestant Church six males and two
females, who publicly and formally renounced the errors
of the Church of Rome. This solemn and impressive
ceremony took place during Sunday evening service.
The six male converts were the inmates of the London
Colonial Training Institution for the Reformation of
Adult Male Criminals, but the females were from the
district in which the ohurch is situated. The rev. gen-
tleman also, during the evening, baptised an adult Jew.
from the boolt ofei If
Altogether, the
2 evening service was of the most impres-
sive .-.1,
- -..aracter The text the occasion .b -Erie text was not selected expressly for
beenthe text in his course of lectures
giving
forsomaniel, which the rev. gentleman has
—Again we have to KILLED BY A COLLIERY Ex
PLOSION.
titne—Daniel iii., 16, 17, 18.
SEVEN PERSONS K .2
near rep V a frightful colliery explosion
in the Risca Vale,
mouth, by which seveete Young PLOSION.
men and boys were Bud-
d thirteen more or less
Newport, in the county of Mon-
denly hurried into
injured, so that four of they'unfortunate men are not ex-
s from which they
pected to survive the frightful hourt
which this ex-
are now suffering. The seam ofrncolnaf ill
known
sßussell,up)Blitd is
shs the
westthe
plosion took place on Saturday evenin
that
as the Black Vein, from which John
proprietor, has for some time past
India mail-boats. It was in this same seam that
ago, a great explosion took place, when
about
seven years
ce, when be-
tween 30 and 40 persons were
akmillemdor; and since
or two lives each
period, occasional explosions character have
taken place, by which one time bay,
been sacrificed. It is to the negligence of a collier, who
fortunately survives to admit the truth, that the present
frightful catastrophe is to be attributed.