The Sun.
London, England, 1853-03-22 00:00:00

LONDON, TUESDAY, MARCH 22, 1853.

The trial which has just taken place at King-
ston, of the parties concerned in the Egharn duel
(a full report whereof will be found in another
part of this day's impression), affords additional
and very powerful corroboration to the assertion,
that too stringent enactments are calculated to
defeat their own objects, and that juries will fre-
quently—nay, habitually—interpose between the
undue severity of the law and the prisoners on
trial, so as to protect the latter from the penal
consequences of comparatively venial violations of
the criminal code. It was in cases of duelling
especially, that the sympathies were so strongly
excited, and that juries invariably disregarded the
charge of the presiding Judge, refusing to find
that parties, engaged in a fair encounter, where
the life of one was set against the other, were
guilty of wilful and deliberate murder if there
should have been a fatal result to the meeting.
The so-called laws of honour and the law of the
land were diametrically opposed to each other,
and the wisest, the best of our statesmen, of our
naval and military celebrities, yielded to the
fashion of the day, and engaged in transac-
tions which might have led to their igno-
minious execution upon the gallows. It is suf-
ficient to say that the late Duke of WELLINGTON--
the Iron Duke—the hero of a hundred fights—a
man of whose personal courage there could have
been no possible doubt, was not satisfied to rest
on his well-established reputation ; but, although
a sexagenarian, deemed it essential to demand
" satisfaction," for what he conceived to be an
imputation on his honour ; and that his distin-
guished successor at the Horse Guards—Viscount
HARDINGE—aided and abetted him in his offence,
by consenting to act as his second on the occasion.
Sir ROBERT PEEL called out Mr. O'CoNNELL, and
the invitation was only refused because the chal-
lenged had, but a few years previously, stained
his hands with the blood of his opponent--Mr.
DESTERRE—a catastrophe which, we have reason
to believe, excited the deepest contrition in the
mind of the Liberator to the last hour of his
existence.

And yet, when these occurrences took place,
the law was precisely the same as it is at present,
and as it was when Lieutenant MUNRO was
convicted of wilful and deliberate murder
at the Old Bailey. What would the people
of England think if the names of WELLING-
TON and HARDINGE-Of PEEL and O'CONNELL-or,
going a little farther back, of CANNrNG and
CASTLEREAGH, CURRAN and GRATTAN, had been
inscribed in the Newgate Calendar as murderers—
wilful and deliberate murderers—who had expi-
ated their offences on the scaffold, or, through
the interposition of the Royal prerogative of
mercy, in perpetual exile from their native land.
There must have been something rotten in the
state of affairs that placed such men in opposition
to the law on one point, of which they were in
all other respects the most strenuous supporters.
There must have been something radically wrong
in the enactments, which juries repeatedly,
almost invariably, refused to lend their aid
in carrying into execution—violating their oaths
rather than become participators in what they
conceived to be the infliction of a still greater
wrong on the parties on trial.

A healthier and a better state of feeling, how-
ever, arose. Public opinion became opposed to
the " monomachia," or single combat. Juries
were found to execute their painful duties faith-
fully and truly ; and the case of Lieutenant
MUNRO, on which we have repeatedly commented,
proved that there might be a capital conviction
although there had been no foul play—nothing
unfair in the management of the duel, and the
survivor had done all in his power to avoid the
painful alternative. This conviction gave a
heavy blow and a great discouragement to the
practice of duelling—none could be found willing
to brave the fearful results of a conviction ; and
even if men allowed their passions so far to pre-
vail over their reason, they could not find friends,
real or nominal, to act as seconds. The conse-
quences were too formidable to be lightly encoun-
tered, duelling became obselete, and the efforts '
that were made to revive the objectionable prac-
tice only entailed ridicule and contempt on those
trying the experiment.
This salutary state of affairs has, however, been
completely altered. A duel, in which foreigners
°mafatal termination
y were engaged—men ignorant alike of English
law and English ignorant
have been feeling on the matter—had a
Noghing could, we believe,
fully and fairercom ;Ilan the entire transaction. We
thin th
completely exonerate the parties con-
cerned from
slightest suspicion - g
are personally at could create the
cooinfeeeulrnie)alay ;
lavned,sroe oi fare
ea s theythat
they have been practically exempted
stringent consequences of the offencefrom
Imvioiirceh they were implicated. The LearnedanJduudgne_
equivocally.
who presided laid down the law
clearly
"
He declared that, if two or more
personswent ou
armedwith deadly
weapons, forcommitting an, uniatv_
ful act, which fighting
pt togetheroseof
a duel undoubtedly was, and
the purpose
the death of one of the parties ensued, it was in
,
the eye of the law in every one of the
parties connected with the transaction, and that

it applied equally to the seconds of the deceased
as well as those of the survivor—that all should
be held responsible for that which might be re-
garded as the natural result of the act they were
about to commit." The only real questions for
their consideration then were—Did a duel take
place? Was the deceased wounded in that duel ?
Was that wound the cause of his death? Aed were
the defendants engaged therein ? There should
then have been either a conviction on the entire
charge or an absolute acquittal. There was no
intermediate course, no compromise, that could
properly be adopted. They might as well have
returned a verdict of petty larceny, or libel, as of
manslaughter. We fear that the effect of the
verdict and the sentence (two months' imprison-
ment) will be to bring duelling again into fashion.
We would, therefore, once more urge the neces-
sity of special legislation on the subject—of an
enactment rendering duelling a grave misde-
meanour, punishable with fine and imprison-
ment, no matter what might be the result, and
making all parties in any degree concerned,
either at the meeting or as acoessaries before the
fact, liable. The power of adding " hard labour "
at the discretion of the presiding Judge would be
exceedingly beneficial, so as to prevent single com-
bats on trivial, or insufficient, or indeed on any
grounds, and to restore matters to the same state
that they had been before these refugees engaged
in the transaction which led to the investigation
at Kingston, to which we have considered it our
imperative duty to direct the public attention.

A NATIONAL GALLERY—worthy of the name—
has, at length, we rejoice to think, come to be re-
garded as a necessity. By the word " gallery"
we mean both the casket and its contents—we
imply under the phrase " national gallery" both
the splendour of the edifice and the completeness
of the collection. As matters stand at present it
is really painful and humiliating to reflect how
England is situated in regard to Art. Although
the wealthiest country in the world, she has—the
fact is notorious—the poorest collection of paint-
ings of all the great Powers of Christendom.
Not mere y the poorest collection of paintings, but
the most miserable edifice that could possibly
(with such a purpose in view) have been con-
structed for their conservation. Look at it.
Look at that architectural masterpiece (!) on " the
finest site in Europe," (H) and then examine its
pictorial treasures. (1 ! 0 The disgrace reflected
upon the nation by all this is known to
every intelligent man to be of the most
flagrant character imaginable. Externally
there are two or three stone pepper-castors
on the top of a tasteless structure, devoid
even of the merit of a moderately good elevation.
Internally there are half-a-dozen apartments, in-
differently furnished with pictures, some of them
of very questionable authenticity, selected obvi-
ously without much regard to intrinsic excellence,
and disposed round the walls apparently without
any eye to symmetry of arrangement. And this
is the National Gallery of the United Kingdom I
Compare it with almost any one of the large
Galleries on the Continent. Compare it with the
Louvre at Paris—with the Royal Museiira at
Berlin—or with that of Munich, the famous
Pinacothek ! Why, the shame of the contrast is
something ignominious. Here scantiness, and there
profusion ; here parsimony, and there munificence ;
here confusion and meanness, there order and
magnificence. Those are the results of even the
most cursory and superficial comparison. Never
let us brag again of our fine taste as a people, so
long as that fine taste continues to be mainly ex-
emplified by those abominations of Trafalgar-
square, by that execrable building, and that me-
lancholy collection. Until we have turned over a
new leaf in this particular, we ought to be a trifle
more circumspect in putting in our claims to the
merits of artistic fastidiousness.

England, too, ought surely by right to assume
a nobler position among the national patrons of
Art—Art having found some of its most illus-
trious cultivators among the ranks of her more
gifted children. Yes : for in the revelation
of original genius in Art, the Anglo-Saxon race
has approved itself scarcely inferior to the most
elevated of its distinguished contemporaries.
Yielding, of course, to Italy, to Spain, and to
Flanders, the glory of their pre-eminent reputa-
tion ! Setting aside, as altogether out of the
category of comparison, the works of some
among the loftier masters, the products of an age
more classic and more ambitious—.

" Whate'er Lorraine light touched with softening hue,
Or savage Rosa dashed, or learned Poussin drew I"

Putting altogether aside the pioneers of the
golden revival of the art of APELLES—setting
apart the whole of that glorious catalogue of ori-
ginators from CIMABUE to GIOTTO, and from MA-
SACCIO to PERUGINO—above all, avoiding any
more direct reference to the designing of DA
VINCI, the colouring of GIORGIONE, the grace of
CORREGIO, the grandeur of MICHAEL ANGELO, and
the divine and matchless excellences combined in
the incomparable RAFFAELLE—we may still ven-
ture to regard some among the higher departments
of modern art as not having been wholly mono-
polised by foreign competitors to the exclusion of
every Englishman. The time has arrived when
we may speak thus without treason to the purer
schools of the Roman Peninsula. The day
has come when we may presume to express
opinions such as these without necessarily being
charged with a sort of poetic leze-majeste to the
Gods of the Brush at Bologna or at Florence.
Happily, we may dare to speak thus nowadays,
without being accused of depreciating the supreme
merit of such men as SARTO or PIOMBO, as TINTO-
RETTO Or DOMENICHINO, as TITIAN Or the CARAC-
CIS, men like PARMEGIANO, and PAUL-VERONESE,
and RUBENS, and VANDYCK, and REMBRANDT,
and SALVATOR, and CLAUDE, and GUIDO, and
VELASQUEZ. Reverencing their fame according to
the respective value of their productions, we may
yet ho permitted to claim a certain degree
of consideration for our fellow-countrymen.
If England has no TENIERs--she has a
HOGARTH. If she has no OseTADE---she has
a WILKIE. If she never possessed a CANALETTO--
she has produced a TURNER. Descending to the
lowlier departments, to the delineation of fruit
and of animals—we have a LANCE if we are with-
out an UNDINA, and a LANDSEER if we are with-

out a SNYDERS. Ascending again to the loftier
schools of art—if France had her DAVID, had not
England her ETTY ? Throughout the whole list
we might advance, name by name, without shrink-
ing in any one instance from the comparison—
alluding to the artistic history of a race illus-
trated by the labours of a CONSTABLE, a RAY-
NOLDS, a WEST, a COLLINS, and a GAINSBOROUGH.

_ - ----
Allusion to the chiefs among our living masters

might be invidious ; yet among their names, too,
we might find abundant corroboration. So has it

been in Art with England—England disgraced by

her National Gallery, while so much might have
been expected from a country numbering a

HOGARTH and a TURNER among her painters, a
FLAXMAN and a GIBSON among her sculptors, a
WREN and a PUGIN among her architects !
Thank Heaven, however, there now appears
some probability of a change for the better in this

particular. Already we have gained the rov cras

for a noble enterprise between Brompton and Ken-
.

MONEY AND COMMERCIAL NEWS.

CITY, TWO O'CLOCK.
The sales of Cotton at Liverpool yesterday were
estimated at 7,000 bales, of which 1,500 American
were taken for export, and 500 on speculation.
The market was tame without alteration in prices.
The sales comprised 6,000 American, 200 Pernam
and Maranham at 61d. to 61d., 100 Bahia at bid.
to 61d., 300 Egyptian at 7d. to 10d., 400 Surat at
30. to 41d., and 30 Sea Island at ls. Bd. to 2s. 6d.
per lb. In Railway Shares only a limited business
was clone at lower prices.

sing,ton. Already, moreover, we have witnessed
the index finger of a living master pointed steadily

The letters by the steamer Parana, from the
West Indies have been delivered, and their general
contents evince more plainly than before the deter-
mination to accomplish that great desideratum, a
reduction of expenditure. At a meeting held in
the parish of Hanover, Jamaica, one of the
speakers made the following curious statement :
" The Hon. Hugh A. Whitelock was called to the
chair, who accordingly addressed the meeting on the
subject of the miserable state of the island and the pre-
sent financial difficulty, and concluded his speech by
stating, that if the House of Assembly could not succeed
in carrying any measures of retrenchment into effect,
that he would positively recommend that the revenues
of the island be handed over to the British Government
for two or three years, who might succeed in conducting
the duties of the Government of the colony commensu-
rate to its prostrate, ruinous, and fallen condition."
It was fully expected that tonnage dues would be
abolished in Jamaica, and the Chairman of the
Committee on the Estimates of Ways and Means
had proposed to do away with the following im-
posts :

All tonnage dues, with the exception of lighthouse
dues, a relief of
Hereditament tax, at 6d. in the
pound ' ~. 16,000 „
Income-tax ..................... 9,000 „
The additional imports
And tax on stock and wheels

£62,500
The mercantile advices from the Continent are
not of special interest.
At the meeting of the Maria Antonia Railway
this day, a dividend of three shillings on the old
shares, and one shilling on the new shares was de-
clared. The accounts showed a balance of 7,0261.
4s. 4d. The chairman regretted the smallness of
the passenger traffic in spite of the line being further
opened, but hoped it would improve as the other
lines were completed.
The Committee of Spanish Bondholders have
received the following :

" Guayaquil, Jan. 26, 1853.
" I avail myself of an opportunity, vid Panama, to
inform you that the Government have received a dispatch
from the Government of the province of Manahi, an-
nouncing that a gold mine had been discovered at a place
called Jama, and that a commission had been dispatched
to ascertain the extent of the same, the results of which
I expect I shall be able to report to you by the steamer
of Ist proximo.
" Private letters differ as to its importance, some
stating it to be inexhaustible, others admitting it is ex-
tensive ; beyond a doubt, the people from that district
are flowing thither, in spite of bad roads and heavy
rains.
" Either by land or sea, it requires about seven days
to reach Jama from this.

in the right—meaning, of course, the onward—di-
rection, one of our gifted Royal Academicians

having in this important matter, and at this criti-

"I have commenced my conferences with the commis-
sioners for regulating the debt, on which I hope to report
by the steamers."

cal juncture, ventured upon the somewhat unin-
viting labours of a censorious pamphleteer.*

" Guayaquil, Ist February, 1853.
"I have the honour to acknowledge the receipt of your
favour of Ist Dec., and beg to enclose duplicates of my
last respects.
- - -

"As yet, nothing further is known about the gold mine.
The public opinion is now not so sanguine as at first, but
we must await the result of the commission sent out by
the Government of Manalie.

" As yet I have not been able to come to any settle-
ment with the commissioners—they made me a proposal
so entirely inadmissible that I considered it my duty to
reject it at once, since which we have not met. His
Excellency General Urbinia assures me that he will urge
on a settlement on an equitable basis. The commis-
sioners insist on even more favourable terms than those
of New Grenada, and also What they will propose as an
ultimatum, must have the sanction of the ensuing Con-
gress, which is to meet in Quito next September."
The English Stock Market has taken an upward
course again, and the much more tranquillising
character of the news from Constantinople has an
excellent effect. The speculators for a fall are not
likely, however, to buy back yet, anticipating many
contingencies before settling day, and asserting that
the French Government is endeavouring to put a
better face on matters than circumstances warrant.
On the other hand, and among disinterested
parties, there is no apprehension of hostilities.
Consols have been quoted 994 and are now
about 991 .for transfer. For account the transac-
tions have been at 99i to I, and at one period there
were buyers at nearly the highest of those .ratcs.
Exchequer Bills have been marked 14s. premium
for those of June, and Bs. for those dated March.
East India Bonds are 40s. premium. South Sea
Stock has been done at 110.

Foreign Stocks have rallied partially, but are yet
unsteady. Spanish Deferred Bonds have been 24g
I, and the Three per Cents. 49. Portuguese Four
per Cents. are 38/ to Mexican Stock is worth
25g- to The Peruvian New 4i per Cents., paid
up, have been done at 88k. Brazilian Five per
Cents. are 1031. Sardinian Bonds have been up
to 95i to N. Austrian Stock is at 99, and Russian
Fire per Cents. have been 118- to 1191 ex div., a
rise of 1 to 2 per cent.

The Railway Share Market has recovered the
fall of yesterday, and, although the dealings are
limited, holders refrain from pressing sales. The
principal transactions have been in Great Western,
North-Western, Midland, and Lancashire, and
Yorkshire. French Shares are up full 11., upon
Northern, Strasburg, and Lyons ; Sambre and
Meuse, are higher.
The Gold Mine Shares are rather looking up,
and the favourable advices received by the Colonial
Gold Company, inspire more confidence in Aus-
tralian undertakings.

The Land Companies Shares are rather higher,
most being done in British American Land, and
South Australian and Van Diemen's Land.
The Australian Bank Shares have advanced, and
also the Oriental.

* " The National Gallery : its Formation and Manage-
merit. Considered in a Letter, addressed, by permission,
to H. R. H. The Prince Albert, K.G., &c., Etc. By Wil-
liam Three, R.A." Bvo. pp. 84. Chapman and Hall.
London, 1853.

BRITISH FUNDS AT ONE O'CLOCK THIS DAY,
(From the Official List.) _

limones, done.
3 per Ceut. Consols Annuities
Long Annuities, Expire sth Jau., 1860 —
Ditto 30 Years, Expire sth Jan., 1860 6 3-16
India Bonds, £lOOO
___
Ditto, under £lOOO 4O
South Sea Stock
Consols for Account 13th April
Exchequer Bills, 10. June. March.
£lOOO
£5OO
Small l4
PRICE OF FOREIGN FUNDS AT ONE O'CLOCK.
Austrian Bonds, 5 per Cent. ..„...
.......
.. 99
Brazilian Bonds, 5 per Cent.
Grenada Bonds, De 'erred,
Mexican 3 per Cent.......
Peruvian 4i per Cent BBl
Portuguese 4 per Cent. 3B
38131
Peruvian Scrip ~ ....
Russian Bonds, 5 per Cent.
Ditto, 4i per cent lO3l 3
Sardinian Bonds, 5 per Cent.
Spanish Bonds, 3 per Cent 49
Spanish New Deferred, 3 per Cent 248 i
HALF-PAST TWO.
111 9994

Consols . .................
Ditto April Account ..

We are requested to state that, on the recommenda-
tion of Lord Palmerston, her Majesty has granted a free
pardon to Paxton and Wynn, who were convicted at the
January sessions of the Central Criminal Court.
SCARCITY OF SERVANTS IN LONDON.—No less than
forty applications for female servants, have recently been
made to the master of the Marylebone Workhouse, who
cannot recommend one from the house, although its in-
mates number 1,820. The master states, that so viciously
inclined are the young females in the workhouse, that
they are no sooner supplied with situations, than they
leave their service and return again to the workhouse.
And that within last week three girls, after enduring
imprisonment for enisconduct while in service, claimed
and obtained admission to the house. Upon examining
the books, he found that the continuance of workhouse
girls in service, did not average more than a week. To
meet this evil the guardians have resolved to erect a re-
fractory ward for such girls.
TDB CHURCH ESTATES COMMISSIONERS.- -The Com-
missioners, app
afforded appointed under the " Episcopal and Capi-
tular Estates Act," have just made their second report.
They state that since the facilities for enfranchisement
by the act have become more generally
understood, they have received numerous applica-
tions for their sanction to agreements conditionally
entered into by ecclesiastical corporations with their
lessees. During the present year, they have ap-
proved the terms agreed on in ninety-seven cases
for the sale of reversions, and in eight cases for the pur-
chase of leasehold interests. The value in fee of the
leasehold estates, enfranchised by these sales and pur-
chases, exceeds the sum of 650,001., and they add, that
they hrve reason to expect that the enfranchisement of
their estates will be shortly proceeded with by several
other ecclesiastical corporations, to a considerable extent,
first thus confirming them in the opinion expressed in their
report, that the operation of the act would be to
promote a satisfactory settlement of the Church lease-
hold question. In conclusion they recommend that
Church eopyholds be put on a similar footing.
PROFESSORSHIPS IN SCOTLAND.
—yesterday, a bill
which is before the House of Commons was printed, to
regulate the admission of professors to the lay chairs in
the universities of Scotland. Professors are not to be
required to subscribe to the Confession of Faith, but to
sign a declaration that they will not exercise the func-
tion of their office to the prejudice or the subversion of
the Church of Scotland, as by law established.

EMIGRATION TO AUSTRALIA.—The departures from
the port of London for the Australian colonies during
the past week have again been more numerous than ever.
They consisted of nine vessels to Port Philip, with an
aggregafe burden of 3,740 tons ; three to Sydney, with
an aggregate burden of 1,160 tons ; two to Hobart-town
with an aggregate burden of 829 tons ; one to Adelaide,
of 680 tons , and one to Launceston, of 213 tons. Their
total capacity was, consequently, 6,622 tons. Consider-
able shipments are still made of manufactured goods and
general; merchandise, but no essential change has occurred
in the- rates of freight.

THE SUN, LONDON, TUESDAY EVENING, MARCH 22, 1 853,