The Sun.
London, England, 1853-12-23 00:00:00

LONDON, FRIDAY, DECEMBER 23, 1853.

If this, if that, if the other—England and
France will consent to support Turkey by adopt-
ing active measures against the Russian Govern-
ment. " The allied fleets will enter the Black
Sea if the Russians should land troops on the
Turkish territory." Literally, actually that is
the latest intelligence received from Constan-
tinople. And observe, the intimation is dated
from that capital on the 12th of this present
month of December. It implies a probability
that, under certain contingencies, the combined.
armaments may .at length be induced to pass
through the channel of the Bosphorus. There is
a lamentable significance in. this future tense and
this conditional conjunctive—" The allied fleets
will enter the Black Sea if the Russians should
land troops on the Turkish territory." An inti-
mation, we repeat, dated from Stamboul, the 12th
December. So that, as far at least as concerns
the date of that notable account from Vienna
there was inaccuracy in the statement that the
combined naval forces of France and England,
acting in conjunction with the . Turkish and
Egyptian armaments, had poSitively entered the
iluxine on the 10th, and steered their course in
the direction of Sebastopol. According to the
latest advices from the Golden Horn, this could
not possibly have occurred on the 10th of De-
cember. The announcement, Made by way of
Vienna in reference to the 10th, is contradicted
by the despatches dated up to the 12th inclu-
sively direct from Constantinople.
Whatever the truth may be among these con-
tradictory fragments of information—we believe
in our heart and in our conscience. that it matters
absolutely nothing so long as the destinies of
Great Britain are confided to the ABERDEEN Go-
vernment. It signifies nothing, whether the fleet
of Admiral DurinAs entered the Black Sea on the
10th or the 20th, or whether, instead'of that, he
remained quietly at anchor in the Bosphorus. It
signifies nothing, so long as the "travelled Thane"
continues at the head of the Administration.
Authentic advices prove, as far as dates are con-
cerned, that the combined armaments of France
and .England, now in the vicinity of the waters of
Constantinople, had not entered the Black Sea on
the 10th of December. Nevertheless, they may
have emerged into the Euxine from the en-
trance of ' the Bosphorus at some date later
than the 10th of December. It is just pos-
sible; It is so asserted, in fact, positively
by a " private, despatch (without date)" received
yesterday both in Paris and London, vitt Vienna,
and which declares distinctly and explicitly, that
the combined fleets have entered the Black Sea—
according to this nameless and dateless advice
from Constantinople. Not on the 10th instant.
No—that is settled—but later ! Very well, sup-
posing that later than the 10th instant the com-
bined fleets have entered the Black Sea—what
therd Is not the Earl of. ABERDEEN still Prime
Minister of England ? And has not Lord PAL-
IIIET'3ION already resigned the Home Secretaryship
under that dear and excellent Statesman's Govern-
ment ? 1, not the Coalition of December—in
spirit, or rather in lack of spirit, the Coalition of
November, of October, of September, of August,
of July, of June, of May, of April, of March,
of February .
-4i it. not the Cabinet that
has carried disgrace to the name of England
by its toleration of the passage of the Pruth by
the AUTOCRAT ? Is it not the Ministry that has
pride, and disgraced the
degraded the national
reputation of its members, by not striking one
blow in vindication of the rights of an unoffen d-
ing ally—though those rights have been more
and more flagrantly outraged during the last
eleven months, through the perpetration of an
enormous wrong by the Russian AUTOCRAT—out-
raged by a brutal cannonade all along the banks
of the Danube, from Braila to Kalafat, and last,
and most monstrous of all, by this inhuman mas-
sacre of the Turks in the port of Sinope ? Is
not this Coalition—the Coilition of Lord
ABERDEEN—is not this the Cabinet which has
tolerated, during the principal portion of one de-
plorable year, the continuance of these execrable
crimes on the part of the autocratic power of St.
Petersburgh—is not this the Ministry which has
tarnished.the fame of England by these miserable
evidences of pusillanimity, after that vapouring
review at Spithead, and the blowing of that pre-

posterous fanfaronade of the (Jhobham Encamp-
ment ?

And can energy be really expected from such
an Administration as this—can energy be seri-
ously expected from the Coalition in December,
when we
.remember the disgrace which has been
brought by the eight or ten preceding months to
the fly-blown reputation of that unfortunate Go-
vernment ? Energy, quotha !—the energy of
PAROLLES, of BOBADIL, of BOMBASTES. Why, if
additional evidence be required, look at that re.,
doubtable intimation already reiterated—the in-
timation dated as recently as the 12th instant
from Constantinople. Examine it carefully—
weigh it well in the balance of an impartial
judgment. How does it run ? Why, simply to
this effect, that the combined fleets will enter the
Black Sea if—if what ? "IF the Russians land
troops on the Turkish territory." After the
butchery of Sinope ! After all those numerous
and enormous outrages inflicted by the CZAR upon
the rights of nations and the laws of humanity !
After all this--the allied fleets of France and
England will enter the Black Sea IF the Russians
land troops on the Turkish territory !
It signifies,
we repeat, absolutely nothing—
supposing the dateless despatch received rid
Vienna to be authentic—supposing that later than
that advice up to the 12th from Constantinople,
the combined armaments of France and England
had at length actually passed into the Euxine,
after their long sojourn in the Bosphorus. Sup-
posing this to be the case, it signifies absolutely
nothing—because the Government of England is
still the Government of Lord ABERDEEN. And•so
long as that Minister occupies the post of First
Lord of the Treasury, it would be an utter ab-
surdity to look for the adoption of sa bold and
chivalrous policy against the dogged arrogance
and the lawless ambition of the Russian AUTOCRAT.
Wherefore—supposing the allied fleets to have left
the Bosphorus—supposing them to have entered
the Black Sea—supposing them to have steered
onward in the direction of Sebastopol —we
shall hear of their cruising about those waters
for the next six months, carrying lint and
salves to the wounded, and picking up from time
to time stray morsels of second-hand information.
We shall hear of all this, and shall be doomed to
listen meanwhile to a continuous babble about re-
newed negotiations, unless England rouse her-
self from her lethargy, and shake off this
deplorable incubus of an effete, and spiritless, and
craven Administration. The CZAR has had the
impiety and audacity to cry out In ie Domine
speravi, non confundar in ceternum ! Let Eng-
land and NAPOLEON, relieving themselves of the
weight of weakness by which their energies during
the last ten months have been most lamentably
palsied—respond to that cry by a kindred ejacu-
ilation—Exurge! their watchword.

Another husband has been condemned to suffer
death by the hands of the public executioner fdr
the murder of his innocent and inoffensive wife.
Another " quiet and sober" woman has been sud-
denly cut off in the prime of life by the man whom
she was entitled to look to for protection, but
from whom she received the most brutal ill-treat-
ment. In the case under notice, the prisoner had
not, like NATHANIEL MOBBS Or PHILIP GURNEY,
resorted to a deadly weapon. The sanguinary act
had not been perpetrated with knife or razor, or
other instrument, calculated to take away life.
He had dragged her out of bed, struck, kicked,
and. trampled on her ; his violence was not so
great as that of JAMES HAYES, against whom a
jury, at the Central Criminal Court, returned a
verdict of " manslaughter" only. And yet, at the
High Court of Justiciary, in Edinburgh, on Mon-
day last, WILLIAM CUMMING, was most justly
and properly convicted of murder, and the Lord
Justice-Clerk, for himself and his learned brethren,
Lords COCKBURN and HANDYSIDE, who presided
at the trial, expressed their full assent and unhe-
sitating concurrence in the verdict !
They were well warranted in so doing ; and
we must say that the Scottish jury empanelled
for the trial of WILLIAM CUMMING more firmly and
faithfully discharged their painful and onerous
duty than the English jury who merely convicted
JAMES HAYES of the minor charge. In order to
constitute the crime of wilful and deliberate mur-
der, it is by no means necessary that the offender
should have contemplated or intended the death of
his victim, or that express malice should be proved
against him. If death results from any unlaw-
ful violence on his part, .the law will imply malice,
and he must encounter the consequences, however
serious, of his own misqonduct. Due allowance is
made for the infirmity of human nature, and,
therefore, if great provocation could be shown,
such as would naturally inflame' the passions to
the utmost degree, the offence may be reduced to
manslaughter, but that will mainly depend on the
mode in which the fatal violence was inflicted—
whether it was proportioned to, and a natural
and ordinary manner of, resenting such
provocation as had been given, and whether
it was likely to lead to the untoward ter-
mination of the transaction. It may, however, be
laid down, as a general rule, that "no words or
gestures, however opprobrious or provoking,
would be considered sufficient provocation to
reduce homicide to manslaughter !" It is of the
utmost importance that this principle, which is
laid down in all the standard works on criminal
law, should be fully known by the truculent mis 7
creants who vent their malignant passions on their
unfortunate partners. The most trivial incident
suffices to stimulate the habitual ill-temper into a
pitch- of exasperation that renders the party
uttetly reckless of future consequences, and to
induce him to commit acts of violence that might
easily cause the death of his victim, and his own
appearance pn the scaffold as a convicted mur-
derer. Let not those degraded ruffians lay the
flattering unction to their souls that all might be
as fortunate as JAMES liAvEs, or that other Eng-
lish juries would exhibit such undue leniency as
spared the life of that atrocious wretch—spared
it, however, only that his remaining days maybe
passed in perpetual banishment from his native land,
and in the worst and most hopeless form of slavery.
Many personsmay think that there was not any very
that
JAMES benefit derived from the indulgence,
these
JAMES TT AYES will endure even a more fearful
punishment an NATHANIEL MoB138) but
are not the parties who would commit such acts.
be
The abject and cowardly wretches, who would
likely to come within the operation-. of the law,
would prefer life on any terms—life spent even
in the cells of a " model prison," under the
" energetic and painstaking," or rather pains-
giring, management of a governor like Lieutenant
AUSTIN. Some of this class may be deterred by
the knowledge of the probable termination of their
proceedings if they consider how very similar
was the conduct of WILLIAM CUMMING to that
which they themselves are in the habit of in-
dulging.
The wretched convict, it appears, had been for
several days in a state of partial intoxication.
As one of .The witnesses declared he had been
" going about furious with drink !" That drink
was the cause of the awful position in which he is
now placed. During it he gave vent to all his
evil passions. During Saturday, Sunday, Monday,
and Tuesday, he had been almost unceasingly
beating, or otherwise ill-using her. On Saturday
she had not got out of bed to light a candle on
his arrival home. On Tuesday he started from
his sleep in a state of irritation and, without a
single word, dragged the wretched woman from
her bed, " cursing and swearing that he would do
for her." He next knocked her down, "her head
coming against the floor with the blow." He
next "took her by the ankles and dragged her
across the floor, and trampled and brizzed e.
pressed) on her breast with his knees." "He
also took a stick and struck her twice on the
shoulder and side l" The girl who witnessed these 1