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NEWSPAPER

TIMES.—FrOin a meeting
Council which we reported tl
observed, with great satisfactiori-rwe
that the Corporation are at length itliarnt, in _sr
proposals for regulating the traffic of the City.
The effort has, indeed, been far too long delayed.
The obstruction and insecurity of the streets of
London have furnished for years the most urgent
occasions for remonstrance, and it is a reproach to
our powers of organization that the evil has been
allowed to grow to such a height. The streets were
always too narrow, even in the comparatively quiet
days of former generations ; but the introduction
of railways has multiplied their insufficiency in even
a greater proportion than it has multiplied their
traffic. The conveyance of passengers and goods
to a City terminus is now almost as great a feat
as the conjuror's performance of putting a full-
grown pigeon down the neck of a wine bottle.
There is plenty of space for it when it reaches
the broad part of the bottle, but how it passes
through the neck is a mystery. The Strand,
Fleet-street, the Poultry, and even some streets
at the West-end are just like so many necks of
bottles, through which, by some means or other, their
solid contents have to be forced ; and as a number
of persons are all trying to introduce these at
once, without the least regard to order,`it is in-
evitable that there should be an almost con-
stant deadlock. Meanwhile it is hard if some means
cannot be found of modifying the evil by regulating
the order of transit, and, in fact, if the public can-
not enforce upon its own members rules which would
be for the common advantage of all. Something
has been done by the mere interference of the police,
and the ease with which a few constables are able
to distribute the traffic on a crowded place like Lon-
don-bridge might have led, before this, to a more
constant employment of similar means. The City,
it must be allowed, have displayed good intentions
in the matter, though they cannot as yet be
credited with anything more effectual. An, act,
indeed, was passed in 1863 with the same general
object as the bill upon which we commented the
other day, but, from some unexplained reason, it
has remained practically a dead letter. Some by-
laws have—been authorise,d in pursuance of its pro-
visions, but omnibuses, unhired cabs, laundresses'
carts, draymen, loads of timber, coals, and beer,
are just as obstructive and omnipotent as ever.
The Corporation have, therefore, rightly thought it
necessary to obtain some more effectual powers, and
it is to be hoped that the bill they have now proposed
will prove sufficiently compulsory in its character.
POST.—The Report of the Commission on Capi-
tal Punishment is now before us. It recommends
that the punishment of death be retained for all
murders deliberately committed with express malice
aforethought—such malice to be found as a fact by
the jury—and also in cases of treason as distin-
guished from treason-felony. In the case of murder
being committed in perpetrating, or in the attempt
to perpetrate, or to escape after having perpetrated,
arson, rape, burglary, robbery, piracy, or murder,
the punishment of death is also recommended to be
retained. In other cases of murder, such as those
in which, although not committed after posi-
tive and evident premeditation, the law infers
or assumes general malice, through the absence of
legal provocation, the punishment suggested is
speevnea ln s
ye r ve
airtsu7d
ae
efeoor life,
d ng otro fot rh
ea tdei
sr me r
entoi
ot
nl e sosf thanthe
court. With reference to the particular species of
murder known as infanticide, which the present
law does not distinguish from murder generally,
thereby apparently causing repeated failures of
justice, the commissioners recommend that to inflict
grievous bodily harm or serious injury upon an in-
fant, either during its birth or within seven days
afterwards, shall be constituted an offence at law
punishable with penal servitude or imprisonment at
the discretion of the court. In such case no proof
of the child having been born alive should be re-
quired. Persons should not be convicted of con-
cealment of birth upon an indictment for child-
murder, but the offence should be tried upon a se-
parate indictment of its own. In neither of these
cases should the accused be acquitted if, instead of
the crime charged, the facts should be found to
amount to murder or manslaughter. The power of
ordering sentence of death to be recorded should be
restored to the judges. The report recommends
that executions should not be public, but private—
within the precincts of the prison—such regulations
being made as would prevent abuse and satisfy the
public that the law had been carried out. With re-
ference to the expediency of allowing an' appeal on
matters of fact to a court of law in criminal cases ;

PRICE 4d.,
STAMPED sd.

Naval and Military Intelligence.

-6.- -

A telegram has been received from India an-
nouncing that the Hydaspes arrived on the 10th of
December, and that all were well on board She
took out the A, B, and C batteries, A Brigade,
Royal Horse Artillery.

An order received at Chatham garrison from the
Horse-Guards directs 60 non-commissioned officers
and men of the 2d Battalion of the 4th King's Own
Regiment, and 58 men of all ranks of the 20th
Regiment, to be held in readiness to embark for
Malta to augment the service companies of those
regiment& 85 non-commissioned officers and men
of the 2d Battalion of the 15th Regiment are also
placed under orders to hold themselves in readiness to
join the head-quarters of that regiment at Gibraltar.
The screw corvette Charybdis, 21, 400-horse
power, attached to the third division of the Steam
Reserve in the Medway, has been removed into the
steam basin, where she will undergo a survey at the
hands of the master shipwright's staff, previously to
undergoing a thorough repair to both hull and ma-
chinery. She is to be brought for the first-class
Steam Reserve, in readiness for commission.

The paddlewheel steamer Virago, d,300 horse-
power, belonging to the third division of the Chat-
ham Steam Reserve, has been placed in No. 1 dock
at Sheerness, for the purpose of being repaired and
brought forward for commission. The estimated
cost of the repairs required to be effected in her hull
and machinery is £12,000.
The Admiralty have directed the 121 ton broad-
side gun-carriage of the Admiralty wooden pattern,
but fitted with improvements suggested by Captain
Astley C. Key, C. 13., now on board the iron frigate
Minotaur, to be fitted with Mr. Cunningham's run-
ning in and out gear. The carriage is already fitted
with Cunningham's single chain training gear. The
weather continues much too fine for the contem-
plated cruise of the frigate on her trials of the three
competitive carriages fitted on her main deck.
We have to reeord the death of Lieut.-Col. Alex-
ander Murray, commanding the Bth (Royal Irish
Fusileers) Regiment, quartered at Portsmouth, on
the 24th inst., after a short illness. Col. Murray
served in the 18th on the China Expedition (medal)
and was present at Canton, Amoy, Chusan, Chin-
hae, Ningpo, Segoan, Chapoo (wounded), Shang-
hai, Woosung, and Chin-Kiang-Foo. The deceased
officer will be buried at Portsmouth, and the fune-
ral, it is anticipated, will be conducted with mill-
tart' honours.

to the mode in which the Crown is advised to exer-
cise the prerogative of mercy by the Home Secre-
tary ; and the present state of the law as to the
nature and degree of insanity which is held to re-
lieve the accused from penal servitude in criminal
cases, the commissioners observe that these difficult
questions aro not confined to capital offences only,
but pervade the whole administration of the crimi-
nal law, and therefore require a more general and
comprehensive treatment than the terms of the
commission under which they act will admit. They
confine themselves therefore to the suggestion that
these important points aro deserving of further in-
vestigation. Such, in substance, are the recom-
mendations of the report. The commissioners for-
bear to enter upon a discussion as to the expediency
of the abolition of capital punishment, considered in
the abstract. On this point differences of opinion
exist among them; but they are unanimous in
thinking that the alterations stated above should be
made in the present law.

MR. THACKERAY AT THE SECOND FUNERAL OF
NAPOLEON.—NOW the company began to arrive thicker
and thicker. A whole company of Conseillers d'Etat came
in, in blue coats, embroidered with blue silk; then came
a crowd of lawyers in toques and caps, among whom were
sundry venerable judges in scarlet, purple velvet, and
ermine—a kind of Bajazet costume. Look there ! there is
the Turkish Ambassador in his red cap, turning his
solemn brown face about and looking preternaturally
wise. The deputies walk in in a body. Guizot is not
there ; ho passed by just now in full ministerial costume.
Presently little Thiers saunters back ; what a clear, broad,
sharp-eyed face the fellow has, with his grey hair cut
down so demure ! . . . Bang, bang ! At about half-
past two a dull sound of cannonading was heard with-
out the church, and signals took place between the
commandant of the Invalids, of the National Guards,
and the big drum major. Looking to these troops (the
fat Nationals were shuffling into line again) the two
commandants uttered, as nearly as I could catch them,
the following words :—" Harrum Hump !" At once all the
National bayonets were on the present, and the sabres of
the old invalids up. The big drum major looked round
at the children, who began very slowly and solemnly on
their drums, Bub-dub-dub—rub-dub-dub—(count two be-
tween each)—rub-dub-dub, and a great procession of
priests came down from the altar. First, there was a tal
handsome cross bearer, bearing a long gold cross, of which
the front was turned towards his grace the Archbishop.
Then came a double row of about 16 incense boys, dressed
in white surplices ; the first boy, about six years old, the
lltst with whiskers, and of the height of man. Then fol-
lowed a regiment of priests with black tippet; and of
white gowns ; they had black hoods, like the moon when
she is at her third quarter, wherewith those who were bald
(many were, and fat too) covered themselves. All the
reverend men held their heads meekly down, and affected
to be reading in their breviaries. After the priests came
some bishops of the neighbouring districts, in purple, with
crosses sparkling on their episcopal bosoms. Then came,
after more priests, a sot of men whom I have never seen
before—a kind of ghostly heralds, young and handsome
men, some of them in stiff tabards of black and silver, their
eyes to the ground, their hands placed at right angles with
their chests. Then came two gentlemen bearing remark-
able tall candlesticks, with candles of corresponding size-.
One was burning brightly, but the wind (that chattered
libertine) had blown out the other, which nevertheless•
kept its place in the procession—l wondered to myself
whether the rev. gentleman who carried the extinguished
candle felt disgusted, humiliated, mortified—perfectly con-
scious that the eyes of many thousands of people were bent
upon that bit of refractory wax. We all 'of us looked at it
with intense interest. . . . At last the real procession came.
Then the drums began to beat as formerly, the Nationals
to get under arms, the clergymen were sent for and went,
and presently—ye; there was the tall crossbearer at the
head of the procession, and they came back ! They chanted
something in a weak, snuffling, lugubrious manner, to the
melancholy bray of a serpent. Crash ! however. Mr.
Ilabeneck and the fiddlers in the organ-loft pealed out a
wild shrill march, which stopped the rev, gentlemen, and
in the midst of his music—and of a great trampling of fact
and clattering, and of a great crowd of generals and officers
in fine clothes, with the Prince de .7 oinville marching at
at the head of the procession, and while everybody's heart
was thumping as hard as possible—Napoleon's coffin
passed ! It was done in an instant. A box covered with a
groat red cross—a dingly-looking
crown lying on the top
of it—seamen on ono side and invalids on the other. They
had passed in an instant, and were up the aisle.—Cornhill
Magazine.

TAE PRESIDENT'S MESSAGE.—No document, says
the New York Tribune, discussing so many diverse questions
of grave moment, seriously affecting so many vital inte-
rests as the first Annual Message of President Johnson,
could reasonably be expected to accord in every respect
with the convictions or prepossessions of a majority of its
readers ; yet wo doubt whether any former Message has,
on the whole, contained so much that will be generally and
justly approved, with so little that will or should provoke
dissent. It is a State paper of signal ability and of un-
usual frankness, dealing unreservedly with every great
question of internal or international policy, and calculated
to increase the hold of the author on the regard and confi-
dence of the American people.