The Sun.
London, England, 1853-01-01 00:00:00

LONDON, SATURDAY, JANUARY 1, 1853.

New-Years-Day opens the round of 1853 under
auspices of a peculiarly propitious character.
Tranquillity abroad and prosperity at home encou-
rage the journalist to the most happy anticipa-
tions. It matters little that the peace of Europe
is the result of only a very recent settlement. It
matters less that the affairs of England have re-
cently been thrown into momentary confusion by
a sudden change in the Administration. The
dissipation of political evil on the Continent leaves
but srnall room for anxiety, because it has been
—thorough. The displacement of the DERBY
Cabinet by the ABERDEEN Cabinet allows, more-
over, of no fear being reasonably entertained—
aware, as the people of these islands happily are,
by this time, that the stability of the empire is in
no way affected by the rise or the downfall of
parties in the various offices of the Government.
Out of these two considerations comes the convic-
tion already expressed, that the year of grace
which this day commences, dawns upon the com-
munity under the most flattering aspect, and the
most exhilarating circumstances.
Internally, the population of the United
Kingdom has drawn from the chequered events of
1852 lessons of very healthful experience. It
has witnessed the final close of the prolonged
and pernicious controversy in behalf of Protec-
tion. It has seen the Chieftains of the Country
Party in both Houses not only accepting the Free
Trade system under the new-fangled name of un-
restricted competition, but explicitly and man-
fully setting aside for ever the mere thought of
compensation to the agriculturists. Beyond this,
we have during the past twelve months beheld our
old foes, the Tories, foregoing for once and for all
the dream of maintaining intact the obsolete
policy of ultra-Conservatism. We. have found
them valiantly devising every means for the car-
rying on of a grand and comprehensive effort at
improvement. Insomuch that we ourselves have
been tempted to rechristen them—if only in true,
and simple, and honest gratitude—speaking of
them as we must henceforth continue to speak of
them not as Tories, but as Tony Reformers ! Their
endeavours in the way of social and political de-
velopment have, indeed, been as bold as they have
been diversified. They have swept away many of
the cobwebs out of the Court of Chancery. They
have imparted a new and appreciable impulse to
the almost forgotten and nearly dormant scheme
of sanitary innovation 9. They have cared for
the national interests in regard to our North
American Fisheries. They have broken down the hitherto impassable barriers which had closed
the fruitful and auriferous regions of, South
American Republicanism acminsttheforce of our
commercial enterprise. They have proclaimed
the necessity of distinguishing henceforth in
the renewal of the so-called Property Tax
the difference between h permanent and pre-
carious incomes, and the
Wahviehprhoelaimed this,
too, in sonorous accentsy
fromc
theave been re-
echoed through the pr which
yet
morwalls of the
Imperial Legislature.
gratifying fact
in reference to the course laterlvyeepursued. by the
Tory Reformers is entitled
hpeadrticular re-
membrance. They have accompl7s
forms, but they have actually promised. yet more
ore-
than they have accomplished. They promil%rde,
for example, the total revision of the machine of
Administration ! They promised the Clearing
away of many of the abuses of the Ecclesiastical
Courts, as they had done before, and not vainly I
in regard to the abuses of the Court of Chancery
They promised the careful investigation, and, if
possible, the speedy re-organisation of the whole
system of criminal punishments ! Surely grand
deeds and grand promises for the Tories—deeds
and promises that justify us in designating them
the Tory Reformers ! Then, again, their antago-
nists—late her MAJESTY'S Opposition, now her
MAJESTY'S Government—have they not been im-
pelled, by these and other influences, rather far on
the road of improvement ? Assuredly. For have
not even our old friends the Whigs been wakened
from their torpor ? Has not Lord JOHN RUSSELL

himself declared the imperative need of recognising
the rights of the democracy ? Has not Sir JAMES
GRAHAM returned, heart and soul, to his first
love—Reform, asserting as much, in very unmis-
takeable words, when addressing his early consti-
tuents the electors of Carlisle ? Has not the
Earl of ABERDIMN—on ce the double of NESSELRODE,
the shadow of METTERNICH, the Under-Secretary
of GIIIZOT, the " dear" ABERDEEN of Louis PHI-
LIPPE, the " excellent" ABERDEEN of the Spanish
Marriages—has not even he so far abandoned
his once most obdurate policy that he has
gathered together under his Ministerial ban-
ners such Leaders as Lord Joim and Sir
JAMES, and Lord PALMERSTON, associating with
them with truly liberal and independent
Representatives such as Mr. BERNAL OSBORNE,
and Mr. CHARLES VILLIERS, and Sir WILLIAM
Mor.vswoßTH ? Yes, the days of true-blue Tory-
ism have gone by ; the days of ultra-Conservatism
have vanished. The struggle is henceforth a
struggle of emulation for improvement, of com-
petition for beneficial changes—between Liberal-
Conservatives and Tory-Reformers. And 1852
has accomplished this magnificent transformation.
It has done more. It has opened up a prospect of
future prosperity even for poor, abused, neg-
lected, despairing, hunger-stricken, pestilence-
thinned, depopulated Ireland. it has show that
good, of an almost incalculable amount, may even
come from the throng of an apparently sinister im-
migration. It has imparted fresh vitality to our
monetary system, through the medium of our
enormous importations of gold from Australia.
It has benefited even the dejected classes devoted
to the labours of agriculture. It has materially
increased the profitable industry of our manufac-
tures. It has raised the public funds—improved
credit—elevated the rate of wages—decreased
pauperism—diminished crime: and, by so doing,
has necessarily enhanced the amount of popular
comfort and of national happiness. These are
among the beneficial changes wrought by 1852
the grand old year that last night expired !

Externally, the people of Great Britain have,
moreover, during the twelve months just elapsed,
witnessed the commencement of a new epoch of
Continental calm, or international tranquillity.
So that, on the rising of the sun on this New-
Year's-Day, the mind of the humane observer
could dwell contentedly upon the peace now per-
vading the whole of the glorious countries of
Christendom. True, we can, upon this initial
day of the Three-Hundred-and-Sixty-five, look
forward to the progress of events in 1853 with
calm and recollected satisfaction, encouraged yet
more earnestly, if possible, than ever, to a reli-
ance upon the benignity of DivirrE PROVIDENCE,
by the happy influences of this internal prosperity
and external tranquillity.

The very extraordinary trial for murder which
has just taken place at Paris, and which termi-
nated in the acquittal of the accused, Mr. ELLIOT
BOWER, affords the strongest illustration of the
distinction between the administration of the
Criminal Law in England, and that of our conti-
nental neighbours not merely in France, but in
every European nation, and, with few exceptions
among countries inhabited by the Angle-Saxon
race, whose laws and institutions are based on
our own, but by almost every community on the face
of the earth. That distinction proceeds from the
comparative freedom enjoyed by our people. Un-
der a despotism, everything is strained in favour
of the supreme authority. Suspicion is regarded
as proof, because it is for the benefit of the
Monarch to get rid of every dangerous character ;
and the injury to private individuals is totally
disregarded when thrown into the scale against
state policy or State convenience. A person
accused on any charge is considered " guilty" until
his innocence is clearly and unequivocally esta-
blished, and the benefit of any doubt is given (not
to the prisoner, but) to the prosecutor. This simple
rule certainly prevents the escape of any guilty
person ; but it ensures the conviction and punish-
ment of many innocent persons, the victims of
suspicious circumstances. Believing, with Sir
SAMUEL ROMILLY, that the sole object of penal
laws is " the protection and security of the inno-
cent, and that the punishment of the guilty is
resorted to only as the means of attaining that ob-
ject," we have no hesitation in comparing our own
system with that of our Continental brethren, and
claiming the superiority for the British practice.
The first point of discrepancy is that depending
on the preliminary examination of the prisoner.
The great, the fundamental principle of the Eng-
lish law is contained in a brief but comprehensive
maxim—" Nemc tenetur prodere teipsum." No
person is bound to criminate himself; and to such
an extent has this salutary rule been carried, that
voluntary confessions have been excluded when
any threat or inducement had been held out to
the party. The practice, indeed, goes even
further, and Magistrates, and others, when an-
nouncing that the accused may make any state-
ment they think proper, are accustomed to warn
them that it may be subsequently made use of
against them—and, unless such a caution be
given, the statement may be rejected, and the
party receiving it will certainly be subjected to
judicial censure at the trial.
On the other hand, we find the invariable
practice in Continental nations is, before a par-
ticle of evidence has been given, in some instances
before the accused knows the nature or particu-
lars of the crime with which he is charged, to subject
him to a stringent and searching cross-examina-
tion, in which the object of the skillful and expe-
rienced advocate is to betray the party into some
admission or inconsistency which may be prejudi-
cial to his interests, and in which he is sometimes
subjected to physical, always to mental, torture.
In France, where the practice is most favour-
able to the accused, the Procureur du Rai de la
Republique, or de r Imperewr, Advocate-General,
or by whatsover title the prosecuting counsel may
be designated, thinks it incumbent to subject the
alleged criminal to a severe ordeal, in which he
has all the advantages on his own side. It is
' not merely that the prisoner may be a man of
dull and saturnine temperament, utterly incapa-
ble of giving expression to his own thoughts,
or of putting forward the strong points in his fa-
vour, who musttherefore be placed at an immense
disadvantage, when opposed in this display of
forensic gladiatorship to a person selected for his
power of making the worse appear the better rea-
son, it is not that the one is cool and unconcerned,
while, to the other, everything that makes life
dear, aye, even life itself, depends on the re-
sult, but the one is privileged to attack without
fear of retaliation, while the other is exposed to
the most heartless and cutting insinuations. Any
mistake, whether he errs on the side of excite-
ment or apathy, is turned against him. The re-
sult of the system too, is that the accused is pitted
against the wily advocate, whose object is not
merely to elicit the truth, but who, consci-
ous that his professional reputation depends on
obtaining a conviction, strains every nerve to
secure that result. The only antidote to
this poison, and one that per se is almost as ex-
ceptionable, is the theatrical coups of the prison-
er's advocate, who conceives himself; as he un-
doubtedly is, entitled to resort to every trick or
artifice to exonerate his client, whom he must
necessarily feel to have been unfairly treated.
Thus, in the case under notice, we find, the
moment that the act of accusation was read, that
Mr. Bowan was for two hours exposed to the
peine forte et dure of a searching cross-examina-
tion. He was asked to explain apparent incon-
sistencies--to account not merely for his own
actions, but for the expressions and writings of
Mrs. BOWER, and also of the deceased. All the
secrets' of his life, which could. have nothing to
swaeyretroaktehdeuqpuaesntdioenxptehsed
thenunder investigation,
pubdilicdcomment.
tnehne eerdeceasedtaonafidn
teohdl
on
The issues to be tried were Ist
fall by the hand of the prisoner ';
wasw
and,h i hO2pdneionyl,difficultyywhatand candidly
bt
ehe acknowledged,rc ie
rf :ur n
se matter that
btaAe
catastrophe, and were they such
melancholy
moved the gravamen of the charge, byexten extenuating
or or possibly justifying the act?
These circumstances are so generally known,
that we may be excused from detailed account's
thereof. Mr. BOWER heard his wife declare that the
infant of which she had so recently been confined

was not his child, but that of the dear andintimate
friend who had betrayed his confidence, disho-
noured his house, and sacrificed his domestic hap-
piness for ever. It senified little that Mr. BOWER
, himself had not always been a faithful husband.
Any backsliding on his part had been fully con-
doned, and could not properly be taken into con-
sideration in the case. At first, he treated the
matter as the ravings of a lunatic—not-
withstanding the suspicions, which the clearly
expressed, and decisive preference exhibited, by
his wife for the friend who was at that very
moment resting under his roof, must have ex-
cited, be endeavoured to soothe the sufferer—
he would not lend any credence to the statement;
and it was not until matters were referred to,
and corroborating testimony adduced, that the
unfortunate gentleman listened to the harrowing
tale. It was not until the days were counted up
—from the 2d of December, until the 2d of
September—that his own too fatally acknowledged
absence at the former date was explained, and
the substitution of his false friend in his place,
that his presence of mind totally
va-
nished, that he rushed to his betrayer,
taxed him. with his guilt, and almost uncon-
sciously snatched up the knife by which the
serious injury was too deeply avenged. If allow-
ance is justly and properly made in this country
for homicide, committed where a party has been
taken in adultery, the same mdst be extended to
Mr. BOWER, who, for the first time, was made
acquainted with the harrowing story. There was
palpably nothing of premeditation or deliberation
connected with the act. In this country it
would be a case of manslaughter, of by no
means an aggravated character. In France
there was an acquittal—with which we are not in-
clined to quarrel—although a strict application of
the law might have produced a conviction for a
comparatively venial offence. But that result
does not in any degree diminish the force of our
observations against the system, which wrung
tears from the accused, and which was intmnded to
prejudice him in the eyes of those on whose deci-
sion his fate in this world finally depended.