The Sun.
London, England, 1849-11-15 00:00:00

port towns, on which are stated, in large letters, the
name of the ship, the name of her captain, and very
often the station to which she is bound. It is added,
that 'good petty officers,' and ' smart, able seamen,' are
wanted, and that none need apply who cannot produce

certificates of good character.
" Officers, in this stage of the commission, and often,
in fact, until their vessel leaves the port, are obliged to
employ their time ii visiting the usual haunts of unem-
ployed seamen, in exploring pot-houses, and seeking out
the wretched abodes of that abandoned class who form
one of the greatest curses of a sea-port town, for the
purpose of enlisting men in the public service. With all
these engines at work, the desired end is not accom-
plished. Men are not forthcoming, although
in all the ports of Great Britain full cry
is made after able-bodied subjects. A week
—and soon a month passes away, but, still, few
have entered.—The work of the ship is delayed; large
expenses are incurred ; time is precious ; and but little
has been done towards the attainment even of that early
stage in a ship's equipment, which a proper number of
men, under those officers appointed at the beginning,
might have easily accomplished in a tenth part of the
time. Under these circumstances is it at all surprising
that the work is improperly done? What can a few
men do where so much is required of them? It is more
than probable that even these few are not sailors! Can
they, then, have much interest in the proceedings—and
do they, for one moment, consider the value, or heed
the loss of the stores under their charge? Articles that
have cost the Government time and labour,—to say no-
thing of money,—in their making, are destroyed with-
out the slightest compunction, or, at any rate, their value
is never the subject of consideration, for the sailor, fitting
out his ship in this manner, has no qualms of conscience
about his master's property; he has no consideration for
any Government claims upon his economy and prudence,
but imagines that all is fair play in the disposal of the
means placed in his hands, and rather takes a pleasure
than otherwise in acts of abuse, destruction, and waste.
He knows that his services are only for a time, and has,
therefore, no inducement to act with honesty to his
employers."
Imagine any such disgraceful duty being forced upon
military officers invariably when appointed to any
regiment ! Fancy the army lieutenant like the navy
lieutenant having to go touting through the towns
and villages in person, diving into the lowest dens in
the most squalid rookeries, having to penetrate into
pot-houses and brothels to coax their abandoned
frequenters to subject themselves to his jurisdiction,
and, after much toil and anxiety, to return to his
commanding officer with the satisfactory reflection
that he had got together the riffraff of the vilest
localities, the offscourings of the most notorious
neighbourhoods ! Nor is this all with the unfortu-
nate officers in the Royal Navy of England. Captain
EARDLEY WILMOT continues—

" By dint of great exertion, and after months of delay,
the ship is reported ready for sea. But the crew is pro-
bably not even yet complete, and this obliges the Port-
Admiral, after having communicated with the Admiralty
upon the subject, to order a draught of men from his
flag ship, or from wherever they can be spared. A
motley herd is thus assembled, composed of all sorts and
descriptions of men. Labourers, mechanics, sweeps,
grooms, and stable-boys, form a large proportion of the
whole number, many, perhaps, having the germs of a
disease which tells a fearful tale in alter times, but which
present necessity is glad enough to look over.
" Orders are now sent down for this gallant ship to
proceed to sea, which, after various delays, arising out of
a corrupt system, she manages to do. In some cases it
has occurred that a certain number of really good sea-
men have, on application of the captain of the ship to
the commander-in-chief, been actually sent on board
to lend their assistance in working her safely out of
harbour."
This latter disgraceful fact is vouched for as a fact
by the writer, and is, surely, of itself sufficient to
demonstrate the necessity for some sweeping in-
novation. Well may the indignant pamphleteer
exclaim—" Fancy these ships in a gale of wind, or in
the presence of the enemy ! Where would be Eng-
land's pride and England's glory.? Where should
we find her boasted tars ? We will not—dare not—
think that our foes would triumph ! But the shock
would indeed be fearful, and big with the fate of
Europe and the world." While a captain in the
British navy can talk, and justly talk, in this despon.
dent manner, of the inefficiency of the average class
of sailors manning her squadrons, there cannot most
certainly remain a doubt in any mind that there is
room for immediate extensive improvement. But
how to remedy this ? The answer is obvious and
simple. After educating and testing your mariners
during the average number of years in which a
vessel remains on a foreign station, namely, three or
four, do not, in the name of all that is just, of all that
is rational, and of all that is economic and provident,
dismiss the whole crew without any care for their future
destinies I Do not in the name of humanity abandon
the expert and honest to the chances of a precarious
existence and grievous temptation. Give JACK lei-
sure to enjoy the proceeds of his bard labour; let
him have breathing space and rest on land for a
while; enable him to enjoy a vacation from toil,
to toast his " lovely Nan " to her face, and to drink
his glass of grog in good fellowship with some old
shipmate laid up in ordinary, after the dangers and
hardships of long service. But do not squander so
much strength, aptitude, and honesty upon the cala-
mities and: miseries incident to the discharged sea-
man. Give the noble fellow time to recruit his
limbs, his head, and his heart with a few holidays,
and then let him have another chance of earning his
bread as 'foremastman a-board some vessel in the
Royal Navy of England.

The disgusting scenes of vice and profligacy which
take place on the occasion of public executions,
though not exhibiting anything unusually odious at the
awful spectacle on Tuesday at Horsemonger-lane
prison, were' yet sufficiently marked with levity, in-
decency, and brutality, to lead us to examine the
utility, nay, even the propriety of public executions.
We do not, however, on this occasion feel called
upon to enter into the consideration of the abstract
question of capital punishment further than to say,
that its most strenuous opponents are not more
anxious than we are to see the period arrive when it
can be safely obliterated from our criminal code with a
due regard to the inviolability of human life and the
public safety. But we greatly fear we have not as yet
arrived at that degree of civilization and high moral
culture when we could hope that the animal
passions and propensities will be so regulated by the
intellectual faculties as to enable us to strip our
laws altogether of this dread and fearful sanction.
We fear our social state still requires that the delibe-
rate and cold-blooded murderer should pay the forfeit
of his life as the most awful lesson of retributive
justice which human laws can teach.
And we believe the most fastidious will admit that
the sword of justice never fell with more merited
severity than upon the revolting criminals who on
Tuesday expiated their crime upon the scaffold. The
most morbid could scarcely award any other punish-
ment to their fearful guilt. They committed a foul
murder, unparalleled in the annals of crime, planned
with the most hellish ingenuity and executed with
the most fiendish ferocity, aggravated by the base and
atrocious motives of lust, avarice, and jealousy.
Ancient or modern times scarcely could supply us
with an instance of such accumulated wickedness.
Criminals such as these are almost beyond the pale of
human sympathy, and we are not surprised to find
the spectators of their fatal doom but little impressed
with that solemnity which should mark the departure
of two human souls to the Judgment-seat of an offended
GOD.
These remarks lead us to the consideration of the
question of the utility or propriety of public execu-
tions. Those who argue in favour of public execu-
tions do not pretend to base their opinions
upon their moral influence in deterring from
crime, which is the chief end and aim
of human punishment. An able contemporary argues
that it ,appears " a matter of necessity that so tre-
mendous an act as a national homicide should be
publicly as well as solemnly done. That popular
jealousy demands it, and that the mass of the people
would never be satisfied that great offenders were
really executed, or that the humbler class of criminals
were not executed in greater numbers than the State
chose to confess." This manner of reasoning appears
to be based on the presumption that the infliction
of capital punishment within the prison walls, or in
any way concealed from the public gaze, cannot be
surrounded with such guarantees for its sure and
proper fulfilment as would satisfy the jealousy and
ci
ta nmni cot st ee
justt h a
se cogency
bol
yf
the curiosity of the public. We will confess we
bt he i sa
g d treasoning.hat
eea
l thinkou s y
of the public would
theWj
induce them to be present
in our courts of justice, whenever a great criminal
was to be tried, to assure themselves
judge, and jury bad properly discharged their several
duties.
Those who advocate the infliction of capital punish..
ment in private argue that familiarity with scenes of
death and horror, like familiarity with vice, tends to
degrade and demoralize the human mind; that we by