The Sun.
London, England, 1853-11-25 00:00:00

LONDON, FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 25, 1853.

It is satisfactory, of course, to receive, again
and yet again, official re-assurance that the most
perfect accord continues to be maintained between
the French and British Governments. A division
between these Governments just now could not
fail to be singularly calamitous, not merely to
their own interests, but to those also of entire
Christendom. Therefore, we cannot but accept
every indication of cordiality reciprocated across
the Channel with very peculiar and profound satis-
faction. It is manifest that so long as this
friendly alliance is preserved, Europe Possesses the
most substantial of all guarantees that Turkey
shall not be dismewbered, that the ambition of the
CZAR shall not be realised, that the Russian ban-
ners shall not flutter from the domes and mina-
rets of Constantinople.

Nevertheless--gratifying though it must neces-
sarily be to learn that the Cabinets of VICTORIA
and NAPOLEON are most amicably disposed
towards each other, it is essential so far as the
hopes of any happy consequence from that
good understanding are concerned, that active
measures should be adopted in furtherance of
the generous designs and chivalrous policy attri-
buted to the combined Administrations. Other-
wise we are only felicitating ourselves upon an
empty phrase when we are exulting in the friend-
ship existing between the French and British Go-
vernments. Briefly, let us add, that it is due
to the dignity of both nations, to the honour of
France and of England, that something like deci-
sion should be displayed, at least an opposition to
the lawless and flagitious proceedings of the Auro-
CRAT. Everybody admits that the time has
long since gone by for negotiation. That fact
being universally established, it follows, in conse-
quence, that the period has arrived for direct
instead of indirect (meaning thereby diplomatic)
interference..

Everything
Prompts us to this interference—
every consideration.
magnanimity. 1-4.. whether of prudence or of
-. Would
be unwise to refrain
from aiding the Turf at
such
extremity—
conscious as we must be that the
an extremity_
of the Ottoman Empire by the dismemberment
the CZAR would be
most perilous to the independence
nations of the Continent, and . Le of the other
most pernicious
its influence upon the destinies of • • • s
civilisation. in
It
would he ungenerous not to yield assistance to the
Government of the SULTAN, because that assist.
ance has long since been promised by the repre-
sentatives. of the Court of St. James's, and by
those also of the Court of the Tuileries. The in_
terests of Turkey, in fact, are those of France and
of England—they are those, indeed, of the whole
of the European populations. Let them be
guarded, therefore, in the name of Truth and of
Justice. Common sense urges this course upon
us, and it is urged upon us also by all the nobler
instincts of magnanimity.
Besides—the Turkish soldiers ha re already ap-

proved themselves in open combat worthy of the
aid of Frenchmen and Englishmen. They have
displayed qualities such as should never be
allowed by generous lookers-on to be beaten down
by brute force, by the lawless might of a foe
greater in bulk, and therefore (and only therefore)
superior as an antagonist. After the glorious
victory won by the Turks over the Russians
at Oltenitza a battle minutely described
elsewhere in our impression of this evening—
and one which will be memorable in the annals of
the present generation—it would be an indelible
blot upon the escutcheon both of France and of
England if the Porte were left to compete sin-
gle-handed with the legions of the daring and in-
furiated AUTOCRAT. It is only necessary to peruse
observantly and thinkingly the annals of the cam-
paign which may be said to have commenced in
earnest, with the firing of the first shot at
Oltenitza, to perceive that the troops of
the SULTAN-CALIPH are by no means the in-
capable and ill-disciplined recruits they were
said to be by the depreciators of the Osmanli
power at Constantinople, and as the followers of
OMER PACHA have shown themselves valiant in
the hour of danger, that eminent captain has
already revealed his really distinguished merits
as a tactician and a strategist. Reviewing every
bygone occurrence connected with this Eastern
Question, we cannot but cry out with our whole
heart, " GOD defend the Right !" giving voice in
the end in so many words to what has been from
the very beginning our cherished aspiration.
Nevertheless, while we would wish the Turkish
armaments success in the struggle against the
Muscovites, we would fain see that success at
once assured by resolute and energetic measures
of co-operation, simultaneously on the part of the
French and of the British Governments.

It is indeed time that something should be done
for the protection of females. Day after day,
week after week, we hear of new cases varying in
detail, but also presenting features of unmitigated
atrocity and brutality. At one time we are hor-
rified at reading in the police reports sundry in-
stances of burly miscreants knocking clown their
ill-fated wives without the slightest provocation,
kicking them with heavy iron shod shoes, or
trampling on their prostrate bodies so as to inflict
permanent and serious injuries. Terrible as they
are, these appear to be the mildest forms of the
offence. In a subsequent case we find them modi-
fied by the use of the " bludgeon," which is readily
resorted to. The sulky ruffian who has been
caught in the act, thinking that he was quite
justified, himself, when called on to answer for
the unseemly outrage of which he had been guilty,
declared that she (his wretched victim) " had
aggravated him beyond endurance, and he punished
her accordingly," but without condescending to
inform the presiding Magistrate of the nature or
extent of the alleged "aggravation" that merited
such stringent treatment. The sentence has
scarcely been passed on the cowardly miscreant--
scarcely has the police van conveyed him to the
place where he is to endure his well-merited,
though very inadequate punishment, and while
our indignation and disgust are still at the highest
—when another case is called on, and a wretch is
placed at the bar, who, with down-cast look and
ferocious aspect, hears himself accused of having
cut or stabbed his miserable and ill-fated partner
—of having placed her life, and, by a neces-
sary consequence, his own, in imminent danger—.
he is probably remanded until the result of his
sanguinary offence be ascertained, so that the
charge to be preferred against him may be clearly
defined. If we visit the City we behold a crowd
dispersing after having witnessed the execution
of one who had, in the indulgence of his malevo-
lent passions, completed the sacrifice of his wife,
and paid the fearful penalty attached to his atro-
cious crime, by the Divine as well as by the human
law.

Surely, then, when in a single day we behold
so many terrible illustrations of the unfortunate
prevalence of the offence—when, too, we perceive
the total inadequacy of the existing law to check
the crime, or to deal with the ruffians, who
nearly reduce their victims to "death's door,"
without sending them beyond the gloomy thres-
hold—it becomes an imperative' duty to see that
the terrible example that has been made be not
lost sight of either by those who, by their own
infamous conduct, degrade themselves beneath the
level of humanity, or by the Legislature, which
is bound to provide an efficient and adequate re-
medy for the wide-spread evil—to adopt any suit-
able means for the abatement of the great social
nuisance of the nineteenth century.
That the cases above referred to are not in any
degree exaggerated, we may briefly refer to a few
recent cases. We need scarcely point out to our
readers the case of JAMES HAYES, who, by a
very great extension of the principle of giving a
prisoner " the benefit of a doubt," was only con-
victed of manslaughter, and sentenced to perpe-
tual banishment, although no man had more richly
merited the gallows for his horrible and unfeeling,
brutality. We need not recal the case of a scoun-
drel named QUENNELL, convicted, during the same
session, of an aggravated- assault on his wife,
from which her life was greatly endangered,
and for which he received a sentence of only six
months' imprisonment, with hard labour, the
same which the magistrate who committed him
for trial, and who thought his power totally ina-
dequate to deal with so atrocious a case, might
have ordered. We need not look beyond the
present week. We find PHILIP GRINNEY
committed for trial for a most sanguinary
attack on his wife, whose throat he had cut in
three places, having used three different knives
during his attack, a third being procured when
the resistance of his victim had deprived him of
the former weapons. The parties by whom the ,
unfortunate woman was rescued declared that,
when
way
tfheat witha a
they interfered, the "prisoner was stabbing
his wife,
o in
kith
ae throat, just in the same
knifebutcheru y
But this was not all.
None were certainly so
bad as this rival to MOEBS. We find, however,
that even within a few hours after the execution,
and before the quickii
'
me had quite congtuned the
body, which, in accordance with
the sentence,
had been buried within the precincts of the gaol,
no less than four persons sentenced at different
police courts, to terms of six months' imprison-
ment (with hard labour) each. Three of them
were for assaults on wives. •.-In one case, a man
named W - 'LUCK CURTIS, -a- tailor, had, on the
Sunday morning, coolly and deliberately stripped
his wife stark naked (having ripped up her stays with
a penknife), and beaten her severely, threatening at
the same time to " dance her guts out if she

halloed." The policeman, who was compelled to
break open the door to rescue the unfortunate
complainant, " heard the noise of tremendous
blows, and saw wheals upon her arms and neck as
broad as his two fingers, corresponding with the
stick with which she said she had been beaten."

It appeared that he • terrified his victim, so as to
check her screams, by declaring that he would
meet a similar doom to that which had fallen 011
MOBBS. A similar threat was also made by
JAm-Es WRIOTIT, another tailor, who cut open his
wife's head with a sleeve-board—a threat which lie
repeated in the presence of a policeman, declaring
that as soon as lie got over that transaction, "lie

would smash his wife's brains out." In another

case, EAMES CROPLEY, a Lancashire collier, .cas
re-
ceived a like sentence for having struck his wife a
severe blow with a stick on the nose, wounding her
seriously, merely because, being burdened with a
child in her arms, she was unable to walk as
rapidly as the miscreant who assailed her.
Who can say that any of these cases would
not have been appropriately dealt with by a strin-
gent flagellation, publicly inflicted, so that the
wretches might have been brought to open shame
before their neighbours. We feel all the objee-
tions to the nature of the
Punishment—but it is
necessary. It is only for the one species of crime
that it is suitable, and if properly and Micioubly