The Sun.
London, England, 1854-08-10 00:00:00

LONDON, THURSDAY, AUGUST 10, 1854.

The Parliamentary Session now on the eve of
its close can only be compared to the twofold
military and maritime Campaign now necessarily
fast drawing towards a conclusion. They are
both—Session and Campaign—distinguished by
failure and fruitlessness. The Session is remark-
able for its abandoned measures. The Campaign
for its postponement of warlike operations. In
regard to each, there are glaring defalcations. In
reference to the Campaign, no attack on Cronstadt
and. St. Petersburg, none upon the Crimea and
Sebastopol. In reference to the Session, no New
Reform Bill, no Oaths Bill, no Education Bill, no
diminution, but instead of that an increase, and
an enormous increase too, in the gross annual

amount of national expenditure. Instead of being
unable to continue its economic retrenchments, in-
deed, the country has been required to be more
than ever lavish in disbursing its superfluous cash
to the tune every year, while the war lasts, of
at least 10,000,0001. additional. Its exchequer
is fairly in the rut of extravagance—" spinning
- down the groove," not of change, but of perpetually
increasing liability, leading down lower and lower
into the depths of a thriftless squandering. England
would appear, moreover, to have entered upon this
path per fas et nefas. Its continuance in it yet
awhile is no longer optional, but a need simply
compulsory. Nowhere are discoverable tokens of
any chance of the popular extrication from this
abyss of involvement--except by a yet more un-
stinted and open-handed expenditure. Otherwise
—vestigia nulla retrorsum. The annual increase
of taxation to the amount of 10,000,0001. stern
ling can only be removed, as a supplementary
burthen upon the country, by a generous appliesr
tion of it to the purposes of the great war upon
the promotion of which the empire has adventured
—and by a readiness on the part of its citizens to
- submit to any sacrifices that may yet further be
required for the purpose of foiwarding those in-
terests and of vindicating those principles of
honour which, in every such crisis of a nation,

are known to be absolutely identical. At critical
junctures like the present, indeed—reason tells
us plainly enough that the true economy is alone
discoverable in a timely display of munificence.
It is not, consequently, because 10,000,000/.

• have been added to the annual taxation of the
United Kingdom within the past few months,
that, therefore, we aro disposed to look with
chagrin upon the session of 1854, regarding the
record of its proceedings with mingled sentiments
of pain and disappointment. Neither is it simply
~ because one of the most unjust taxes every 411
Posed upon a nation—the notorious and unpopu ar
- , Income Tax—has been blunderingly doubled, with-
out
-
out any effort being made to bring about the id-
vantage of its more equitable distribution. Itl is
rather because, with the doubled Income Tax and
the increase of annual taxation by the sum of no
. . less than 10,000,000/. sterling, we have had—in-
ternally, in Peake, no reforms—externally, in war,
no events conducive to the restoration of the
ay-Oriels tranquillity. Abandoned measures, ne-
glected schemes of improvement, postponed plans
of change for the
better--such are the par-
ticulars furnished this session for
the future
historian of the British Legislature. While
as to the war itself—the war which is the
. excuse for all these shortcomings—what have
we
to record but reviews, and balls, and banquets—
the courtly incidents inaugurative nowadays of
campaigns frittered away in reconnoitring% and
blockades, anti councils leading only to procrasti-
nation. So that the Droll of the Press of Eng-
land can say with truth, in the August of 1854,
that the allied forces have no doubt " taken the
field," but that that is all they have taken ! As
the session closes in we, must console ourselves as
- best we may, for the abandonment of Reform, by
• the doubling of the Income Tax, and solace our-
selves over the unusually wholesale Massacre of the
Innocents, by remembering that the Guilty also
have fallen in the general butchery. As the cam-
paign-lengthens out, we may soften our regrets
over the waning autumn and the approaching
: . winter, by the thought that the harvest in Eng-
' land and France gives promise of unexpected
r•
:alnindance—forgetting, if we can, the loss of the
Tiger, and the disaster at,Sinope, and the exploit
of the Russian Vladimir.
Excepting in reference to the cordiality of

glorious alliance between France and England, we
: know not where from the events, warlike or legis-
lative, of 1854, her most gracious MAJESTY can
select for her Speech from the Throne any fitting
theme of congratulation.

Yesterday, MARY ANNE BROUGH was tried at
Guildford for the murder of her children, at
Esher, on the 9th or 10th June last. One in-
dictment out of the six on which " true bills" had
been returned was only proceeded with ; but the
verdict thereon was decisive as to all the other
charges, the evidence in each case being identical.
The result has been "an acquittal on the ground
of insanity"—the effect whereof will be that the
miserable woman will be detained in custody,
during her MAJESTY'S pleasure, as what is termed
" a criminal lunatic." No matter how complete
may be the restoration of her faculties, no matter
though she maybe to all intents and purposes of sound
mind, memory, and understanding, she must still
linger out her existence among the insane, with
scarcely a hope of future liberation. It is true
that the Royal prerogative may be exerted in her
favour ; but so might it be had she been con-
victed of the fearful offence laid to her charge.
And the prospect of release, if it can be at all
entertained, must be very remote—indeed, so
much so as to reduce any hope that can be in-
dulged in to the very faintest character.
We have referred to this to show that, although
acquitted of the murders, the wretched offender
will not escape with impunity from the conse-
quences of her fearful crime—that a bitter ex-
piation still awaits her, than which many persons
may consider even an ignominious death on the scaf-
fold less horrible. The pangs of conscience must
perpetually haunt " the modern MEDEA in her
melancholy seclusion, where she can find nothing
to divert• her mind from the awful reminiscence of
her atrocious guilt.
The circumstances attracted so much attention
at the time, no less from the heart-rending nature
of the transaction, than from the important sta-
tion formerly occupied by the culprit in reference
to the heir apparent of the British Crown, that
they must be fresh in the recollection of our
readers. It is therefore only necessary to make
brief allusion thereto in reference to the defence '
set up by her accomplished and able advocate--
the only one possible under the circumstances—
viz., that at the time when the awful out-
rage against the law of nature was com-
mitted—when the mother with her own hand
deprived no less than six of her own children
for whom she had previously manifested the most
affectionate solicitude of their lives, she was not a
responsible being capable of distinguishing right
from wrong, or aware that she was perpetrating
an act, alike forbidden by the Divine and human
law. Nothing less would be sufficient to justify
the verdict under the existing law. And it cer-
tainly seems as if the jury strained a point, in
order to avoid the exercise of a very painful
duty.

It is neither our wish nor our habit to criticise
very severely the finding of a jury of twelve re-
spectable gentlemen ; more espcially when the
error, if any, has been on the side of mercy, " in
favoreni vitce." We have frequently observed that
juries have interposed themselves between the
undue severity of the law and persons whose
cases exhibited some mitigating circumstances—
that their departure from the strict letter of the
law has almost invariably been to temper jus-
tice with mercy, and alleviate the strict rules of
the law. It is also such occasional derelictions of
strict duty that lead to the revision and modifica-
tion of the existing code, to the ameliorations in
the law, which have been brought about chiefly
through such decisions, proving that there is
something defective, something that requires
alteration, in the law.
The state of the law respecting the criminal re-
sponsibility of persons labouring under insanity at
the time of their offence has been very clearly
settled by the almost unanimous opinions of the
Judges, delivered in answer to queries submitted
by the House of Lords in 1843. There was one
dissentient only—Mr. Justice MAULS--an im-
portant exception by the way ; but the large ma-
jority of his judicial brethren confirmed
and approved of it, viz., Lords BROUGHAM,
LYNDHURST, CAMPBELL, GOTTESMAN, and WYN-
FORD, must be deemed conclusive as to the state
of the law. We shall only refer to the
answer to the second question, where the
Judges stated that " the jury ought in all cases
to be told that every man should be considered
of sane mind unless it was clearly proved in evi-
dence to the contrary ; that before a plea of in-
sanity should be allowed, undoubted evidence
ought to be adduced that the accused was of
diseased mind, and that at the time he committed

the act he was not conscious of right or wrong."
Now, it can scarcely be said that MARY Arum
BRouGH came within this category. She had been
detected in a serious offence against morality. She
had lost her husband, and was about to lose her
children, whom she had every reason to suppose
would be taken away from her. She was con-
templating self-murder to escape from the painful
consequences of her own guilt. And she added
the murder of her innocent children, in order that
her husband, whom she had previously so deeply
injured, should not enjoy the blessings of which
she was about to be deprived. There was some
evidence that her brain was and still is disordered,
but certainly not sufficient to show that she was
at the time ignorant of " the distinction between
right and wrong." If the doctrine, that a party
committing a crime under some " uncontrollable

influence " is irresponsible, it will be difficult to
convict of any murder the motives whereof
were not clearly apparent. Indeed, in the
present case, there was a motive, an evil mo-
tive, but too perceptible—a motive distinctly
alluded to by the eminent Judge who presided, who
said that " if they should be of opinion that owing
to the unfortunate relation she stood with her
husband at the time she was induced to meditate
the commission of some act of violence, either
towards herself or others, and that this created an
excited condition, which, operating on her brain
iu its diseased condition, drove her to a state of

temporary insanity, during which she committed
the act with which she was charged, he was bound
to tell them, that this would not excuse her from
the consequences, and it would be their duty to
find her guilty of wilful murder! " They did
not do so, however. They undoubtedly found in
opposition to the law so distinctly explained by
the learned Judge ; and it is for legal reformers
to say whether there are not sufficient grounds for
the ModiflOation of that law, and the establish-
went of less stringent rules in cases of alleged
insanity.

The Duke and Duchess of Wellington, after the pro-
rogation, will leave Belgravo-square on a visit to the
Marquis and Marchioness of. Tweeddale, at Yester-
house, near Haddington, en route .to the'Highlands.
The Marquis of Lansdowne entertained the Cabinet
Ministers at dinner last evening at Lansdowne-house.
The Earl of Mansfield has left the Dowager Countess
at Mansfield's, at Langham-house, for Scone Palace,
N.B. •

Earl Jermyn has left England for the Continent.
Mr. and Mrs. Oliveira have left town for North Wales.
MARRIAGE IN thou LlFE.—Yesterday were solem-
nised the nuptials of Frederick Spencer, fourth Earl of
Spencer, and Miss Adelaide Seymour, the only daughter
of the late Sir Horace Seymour. The imposing cere-
mony was performed at St. James's Church, Piccadilly,
in the presence of a numerous and brilliant circle of the
aristocracy and fashionable world.
-UNIVERSITY COLLEGE, LONDON. The prizes and cer-
tificates of honour for the summer term of the faculty of
medicine, and the result of the competition for the
Williamson prize for chemical research in the Laboratory
of Analytical Chemistry were announced yesterday, as
follows :—Botany : gold medal, Henry Maudsley ; sil-
ver, William Pile. Pathological anatomy : gold medal,
Frederick G. Clarkson •, silver, John D. Scurrah ; 2d
silver, Thomas V. Jackson. Medical jurisprudence :
gold medal, J. D. Scurrab. Materia medica : gold
medal, Henry Maudsley ; silver (equal), Edwyn Andrew
and James Gibbs Blake. Analytical chemistry : Wil-
liamson prize of 501. for chemical research, Robert Ren-
ton ; honourable mention, George Kay and Henry
Scrugham. Mr. D. Boswell Reid, jun., stood next to
the prizemendinthencdlasosbestaoifnePd a fourthatholo certificate
Pathological Anatomy and
M me
ateria ica and
honour in botany.
years, On
d tlast,he chairMr .
EdG:l'lnßClNanGtCong°, Bwsholl, fOsrPinTlAanrjy.—
eocuttu
or eprp oo
sni
tAi nna, ttoomtyh e aotffitchei s hoospital, oasspsiitsatla,
nwt -assu regleeccotnetdo,
two} ifietLhiustitution.

LATEST NEWS.

THE WAR.

ORDER OF THE CZAR FOR THE EVACUA-

--- - -
TION OF THE PRINCIPALITIES.

The Moniteur of this (Thursday) morning pub-
lishes the following :

'• The Russian envoy has announced to the Cabi-
net of Vienna that the Emperor Nicholas has
ordered the complete evacuation of Wallachia and
Moldavia. Notwithstanding this declaration, Count
Buol exchanged -notes on the Bth with Baron de
Bourqueney and Lord Westmoreland, from which
it results that Austria, like France and England,
is of opinion that guarantees must be exacted from
Russia to prevent a return of complications which
disturb the quiet of Europe ; and engages itself,
until the re-establishment of general peace, not to
enter into any treaty with the Cabinet of St.
Petersburg, unless those guarantees are obtained.
The subjoined was received at Vienna on Tues-

day :
BUCHAREST, Aug. 7.—The Turkish vanguard,
under Skender Bey, is just entering the town
amidst the rejoicings of the inhabitants.
Omer Pacha remains temporarily at Rustchuk.
Ismael Pacha is at Salogareni.
The Russian head-quarters are removed to

Basco.
Four Russian regiments are crossing the Pruth.
Prince Gortschakoff has officially announced to
Austria the retreat of the Russian army of occu-
pation beyond the Pruth, but declines to say from
what motives.
The following despatch, dated Vienna, Aug. 9,
and published in the Mmniteur this morning, con-
firms a portion of the above :
" The Turkish avant-garde entered Bucharest
on the sth.
" The retreat of the Russians continues in Wal-
lachia, and has commenced in Moldavia.
" Various regiments have re-crossed the Pruth."

" ODESSA TO BE TAKEN" BY THE ALLIED

ARMIES.

" CONSTANTINOPLE, Aug. 3.—The Turkish squa-
dron, with flat-bottomed boats for landing cavalry
and artillery, has entered the Black Sea.
" Odessa is to be taken ; that port has been
chosen to establish quarters.

" Twenty allied steamers are reconnoitring the
coast of the Crimea.

"SmvILNA, Aug. 2.—The cholera is disappear-
ing. The cruisers have taken. eight pirates at
Samos.

" All the Anglo-French ships have been ordered
,o Varna.

" Four divisions of troops have been shipped

there.
" The Spitfire and Vesuvius have destroyed the
village of Sulina, sparing only the church and
lighthouse.
" The commanders at Kars are to be tried by
court-martial."
EXPEDITIONrT THE CRIMEA.

We read in a Constantinople letter, of July 30,
that Sir George Brown, General Canrobert, and
Sir Edmund Lyons returned to Yarna on Thurs-
day, on board the Agamemnon. It is now gene-
rally believed that the expedition to the Crimea
will leave Varna within the next fortnight. Though
the point fixed upon for effecting a landing is
naturally not known, it is generally believed that
the peninsula of Taman will be chosen for that pur-
pose. You will already have learnt that the little
town of Sulina, at the mouth of the Danube, has
been burnt. The inhabitants, who are all Greeks,
were continually firing upon the boats of the
squadron. When the late Captain Hyde Parker
stormed the stockade held by the Russians, these
people repeatedly fired upon his men. They have all
fled to Tultseha; before doing so, however, they
plundered an unfortunate Dutch merchantman,
carrying off everything they could lay their hands on.
The Inflexible, Captain Heath, has brought in
seven prizes from the Black Sea. Mohammed
Emin Pacha, lieutenant of Schamyl, arrived here
from Circassia, the day before yesterday, on board
the Ottoman frigate, Feizi Bahri. He is accom-
panied by sixty followers. The same ship has also
brought forty Russian prisoners, and a good deal
of booty. Mohammed Emin Pacha had an inter-
view yesterday with the Grand Vizir and the
Minister of Foreign Affairs. He went there in
full Circassian dress, together with his countrymen,
all armed to the teeth. They have a very pic-
turesque appearance. The provinces of Thessaly
and Epirus are quiet, and the accountsfrom Greece
are in general satisfactory.
BUYUKDERE (on the Bosphorus), July 29.—The
fleet of transports lying here under the com-
mand of Captain Franklin, R.N., has just received
orders to start for Varna, and several of them are
weighing anchor ; the remainder will start as soon
as the steamers return for them from the Black
Sea. The whole of this afternoon the British and
French steamers were occupied in towing the Turk-
ish fleet out of the Bosphorous. It consists of four
three-deckers and several frigates, which are all
laden with the apparatus that has been constructed
in the Constantinople arsenal, and is intended for
landing the troops of the expedition for the Crimea.
The pontoons are lashed to the sides of the Turkish
men-of-war. The inhabitants of Buyukdere are
anxiously watching these manoeuvres. Numerous
telescopes protrude from .every window, and a great
many persons are gathered on the beach, spite of
the broiling July sun. Buyukdere is certainly the
most lively summer residence on the Bosphorus,
and as little like a Turkish village as the most or-
thodox Greek could desire. Wealthy Armenians
and Perottes here have their villas, amongst which
the summer residences of the Austrian and Rus-
sian envoys may be remarked—the former gay, and
every evening well illuminated—the latter hid
amongst a group of dark trees, with no sign of life.
Yesterday evening an excellent German band per-
formed on the quay, and drew out all the fashion-
ables and fair of the place—a perfectly European
scene of out-of-door parade, hats and bonnets being
worn in lieu of the fez and the elegant head-dress
of the Greek women. It is very curious to observe
how the non-Mussulman population ape European
dress and habits, whilst the strangers from the
West love to wear the turban, and otherwise to
adorn themselves with the dress of the land they
have come to visit. In the few public gardens and
coffee-houses of the Christian suburbs of Constanti-
nople, there is an anxious endeavour to get up
things a /a Franca, to please European customers,
little knowing that the more Turkish the entertain-
ments, and the more Eastern the look of things,
the more pleasing to the eye of the stranger.