The Sun.
London, England, 1849-11-08 00:00:00

41111*
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LONDON, THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 8, 1849,

The point raised on behalf of MARIA MANNING
at the recent trial at the Central Criminal Court, as
to her right to be tried by a jury de medietate linguae,
was, as we had anticipated, unhesitatingly and unani-
mously overruled by the Judges of the Court of
Criminal Appeal. No doubt could indeed have
existed in the mind of any person at all acquainted
with the prim ipl -s of law as to the ultimate result.
The fate of the wretched criminal might possibly
have been postponed, but it could not have been
averted. if the objection had been placed
on the record, and carried on to the house of
Lords, the execution might have been delayed for
eev r months, and that couli: be the only advantage
gained by the culprit. But would that have been
really beneficial to the miserable woman ? Would
it not rather have kept alive a wild and unreasonable
fop! that could never have been realised ? Would it
not have multiplied her agonies a hundredfold,
while enduring the ' hope deferred that maketh sick
the heart," and which hope must have eventually been
disappointed ? It has been truly said that the actual
execution of the sentence forms but a small part of the
punishment of a person capitally convicted. The bodily
sufferings are of brief duration, but the fearful antici-
pations of the vast and incomprehensible change that
must be undergone occasion bitter and heartrending
p trigs, on the intensity of which it is impossible to
speculate. If, then, the inevitable termination of the
proceedings could not be doubted for a single mo-
ment, it is a mercy to the criminal that it should be
speedily decided, and that the unreasonable expecta-
tions in which she s 9 confidently indulged since her
condemnation, and by which her spirits were unduly
buoyed up, should be set at rest at once and
fur ever. It is also of the highest importance
that the majesty of the law should be promptly vin-
dicated in a case of such magnitude and importance,
and that the public should not be led to suppose that
the salutary penalties affixed to crime could be
evaded or: indefinitely postponed on such frivolous
pretexts. The "certainty" of punishment has even
a greater effect than its severity, and a greater delay in
the execution would be fraught with the most injurious
consequences, while the public mind remained highly
excited and in doubt as to the fate of the criminal.
The Attorney-General, therefore, acted judiciously in
refusing his sanction to the writ of error, while the
fullest justice was accorded to the convict in permit-
ting the case to be brought under the consideration of
six of the Learned Judges of England.
The question itself, as we long since stated, lay in
a nutshell. It was simply this—what was the
status or condition of MARIA MANNING at the time of
her trial ? Was the issue to be taken, and which the
jury was iinpannelled to try, one between the QUEEN
and an alien ? If the prisoner was at that time a
naturalized subject, entitled to the rights and pri-
vileges, and subject to the responsibility of
an Englishwoman, she could not only
claim a trial by a jury de medietate
lingw, but it would have been a mis-
trial, if it had been granted. In our impression of
the 30th ultimo we pointed out this fact, and showed
that among the privileges so acquired was that of
being tried by twelve of her peers, who must be of
" the king's liege people, returned by sheriffs or
bailiffs of franchises, and of whom none shall be out-
lawed, or fled to sanctuary for treason or felony."
The Attorney-General in his argument fully explained
this point, which was indeed so plain, that the
Learned Gentleman declared that "he made the
observation, not for the purpose of the argument,
but because several learned persons, or persons wh©
were considered learned by courtesy, had made observa-
tions, and written opinions, that the right ought
to have been conceded as a matter of fairness ;" in-
deed, as the Lord Chief Justice of the Common Pleas
remarked, "it would have appeared by the record,
not simply tbat she was admitted to be an alien, but
the matter of fact would have shown that she could
not have been an alien." It would have appeared
that FILEDERICK. GEORGE MANNING was a natural born
subject ; that she was his wife, and,
consequently'
that she was by the operation of the statute
7 and 8 Victoria, chap. 66, sec. If, a naturalized
subject of Great Britain, as fully as if a Bill of na-
turalization had been passed.
The effect of such a Bill had not been questioned;
all our eminent jurists, Hour, HALE, BACON,
BLACKSTONE, and numerous legal commentators,
have laid it down as settled, on indisputable autho-

----Wthat a person naturalized became, to all intents
pl.l,v9ses, the same as a British born subject.
f.? Here, 'then, was a person naturalized by Act of
~Xarliaineut, which as fully related to her
'_— • as 'if she had been mentioned by name
- therein. It gave her " all that belonged
to the chuacter of s British subject ; it took

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