The Sun.
London, England, 1853-07-14 00:00:00

THE WEATHER.-Sum OFFICE, JULY 14.

THERMOMETER, IN THE SHADE.
71—highest since noon yesterday.
58—lowest this morning and during the night.
62—this day at noon.
BAROMETER, 29.33.
The barometer has fallen 60 points since yesterday, and
is still falling.
WIND, S.E.—Continuous rain all last night and this
morning.

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at so wanton an outrage, so pernicious a prece-
dent, which might speedily be followed in their
own cases. The American Consul speedily heard
of the untoward transaction, and lost no time in
adopting energetic measures. He applied to the
Austrian Consul, who denied all knowledge of the
atrocious transaction ; but inasmuch as if really
ignorant he took no means to ascertain the
truth, the American Consul went to the
vessel and demanded an interview with the
prisoner. His application was then rejected.
Fortunately, however, an American corvette
sailed into the harbour at the moment when the
Hussar was about to sail with its captive. The
American Consul had then power to enforce his
demand, and he lost no time in doing so. He
returned to the brig with Captain STRINOHAM.
Circumstances were then altered. Prevarication
or insolence would no longer answer ; KOSSTA
was produced. Had he relied on his American
citizenship or his American passport, he would
forthwith have been rescued ; but with a strict
regard for veracity, which might have put his
Austrian captors to the blush, he declared that
"he was born a Hungarian, and would die a
Hungarian." This complicated matters, which
were referred to the American Charge
d'Affaires at Constantinople. That gentleman
applied to the Austrian Minister, with whom some
negotiations were entered into on the subject.
Meanwhile, the Austrian captain endeavoured to
transmit his prisoner privately to Trieste. The
American officers were, however, wide awake, and
coolly informed their astonished opponent, who
had probably taken his cue from the insolence ex-
hibited with impunity in the Austrian territories
to British subjects, that he could display equal
hauteur to others speaking the same language. He
was, however, speedily undeceived. The corvette
was placed alongside the brig, and the discomfited
captain informed that he would be held responsible
for the safety of the prisoner, and that if anything
happened to him, or that the brig attempted to sail,
while he was on board, it would at once be fired
into. Thus the matter stands for the present.
But what a contrast does it afford to the vacillating
and temporising policy of Great Britain during an
emergency of much greater importance ? We ven-
ture to assert, that if America had been engaged
in place of Great Britain, the Russian troops would
never have crossed the Pruth, and the Russo-
Turkish difficulty would, ere this, have been satis-
factorily and honourably arranged. When will
our statesmen be taught by just experience, that
the best way to preserve peace is to be always
ready for war, and to make no mean or dishonour-
able concession in the hope of averting it ?

The records of Worship-street Police Court for
the last few weeks show that Mr. HAMMILL is
resolved that the new law for the protection of
women and children shall be fully and fairly car-
ried out, and that the surly brutes, who, during
their drunken fits, maltreat their wives and
children, shall no longer escape with comparative
impunity, owing to the reluctance of the sufferers
to see a husband or father severely punished, and
their undue confidence in the promises of amend-
ment, made while the offenders are before the
court, but forgotten or disregarded the moment
they are once more enabled to indulge their
cowardly and brutal passions. Before Mr.
FITZROY'S Bill received the Legislative sanc-
tion, the Magistrates were unable to inflict
adequate penalties on the unmanly scoun-
drels brought before them for sentence, their
summary jurisdiction only extended to inflicting
a maximum fine of 51., or, in default of payment,
to two months' imprisonment, with hard labour.
Incarceration was, however, seldom endured for

any prolonged period. The aggrieved, but for-
giving wife forgot her own sufferings when she saw
her once-loved husband, the father of her children,
I led off to the House of Correction, and the fine
was generally speaking procured by the sale or
pledging of the clothes and furniture of the in-
jured party, who was thus doubly victimised—
first, by being ferociously assaulted, and then by
having to pay the penalty of the offence. The ill-
conditioned ruffians who thus escaped in place of
exhibiting any degree of gratitude, became even
more violent and outrageous in their conduct, be-
lieving that the wife, who had herself expiated
the offence by being compelled to find the means
of liquidating the fine, would endure any insult or
cruelty rather than again deprive herself and her
children of the little comforts which her own care
and prudence had gathered around them.
But it may be asked why did not the presiding
Magistrate invariably send such cases to the ses-
sions, where, in case of a conviction, a sen-
tence suitable to the occasion might be pro-
nounced ? There a prolonged term of imprison-
ment might have been awarded without the
party being allowed the option of escaping by a
pecuniary payment. Such would unquestionably
have been the most judicious course, if the attend-
ance of the victim could have been insured. But
in the great majority of cases, the husband was
enabled to avail himself of the interval between
his committal and his trial, during which he was,
generally speaking, out on bail, to cajole or bully
his unfortunate wife into forgiveness of his bru-
tality, and inducing her to absent herself from
court at the appointed time, so that an acquittal
for want of a prosecutor was the almost certain con-
sequence of sending the case to the sessions. Even
the very inadequate punishment of a small pecu-
niary fine was better than the total impunity that
Attended the attempt to obtain an adequate sen-
tence at Sessions, and Magistrates, therefore,
found that it was more judicious to exercise their
summary jurisdiction, however aggravated might
be the case, than to transmit it to a jury. We
have witnessed the result of this unfortunate state
of the law—these brutal and unmanly assaults
became almost of every-day occurrence, and the
shame and reproach of the people.

Such was the condition of affairs when Mr. FITZ-
ROY, who had previously acquired high character as a
legal reformer, took up the subject, and the Aggra-
vated Assaults Act, which came into operation the
latter end of last month, was passed through its
various stages under the care, and by reason of
the indefatigable exertions, of a private member.
I The magnitude of the evil was universally admitted,
but there were some doubts as to the efficiency or
suitableness of the contemplated remedy. Some
Hon. Gentlemen, whose indignation was excited
at the atrocity of the offence, thought that nothing
would operate as a sufficient check, unless the per-
petrator was subjected to corporal punishment, as
the only penalty suitable to his brutality ; while,
on the other side, many persons were unwilling to
extend the summary jurisdiction of Magistrates,
or to sanction further inroads on the great prin-
ciple of " trial by Jury." Mr. FITZROY, however,
persevered. Through his zeal and energy the
measure passed through all its stages, and a few
weeks since came into practical operation. We
venture to assert, that if every Metropolitan Ma-
gistrate administer its provisions in the same
spirit as Mr. HAMMILL, the offence will become
of comparatively rare occurrence, when men find
that habitual brutality to a wife is rather a dan-
gerous luxury, involving very unpleasant results
to themselves personally.
A brief notice of some of the cases which have
been adjudicated on by the worthy Magistrate
since the act came into operation, will afford the
strongest illustration of the fearful extent of the
evil, and the necessity that existed of arming the
Magistrates with additional powers for dealing
with such outrages. In one case, a journeyman
carpenter named HENRY DAVISON, described as a
tall powerful fellow about six feet in height, "was
brought up on a warrant for assaulting his wife.
The miserable victim, a care-worn looking woman,
whose right eye was shockingly swollen, and face