The Sun.
London, England, 1849-08-28 00:00:00

Cf1;111illa 7111 t

LONDON, TUESDAY, AUGUST 28, 1849.

The Peace Congress have concluded their sittings
at Paris—at Paris, where, as the Journal des Debuts
happily observes, " the constantly shaking pavements
are seeking to regain their places and do not even yet
feel themselves very firm." If the place chosen for
the friends of peace be somewhat incongruous, the
time is yet more inauspicious. The advisability of
peace is proclaimed not only at a moment when the
thunders of war are resounding in many parts, but,
moreover, at a moment when iniquitous war is tri-
umphant, and when (if ever) it is become a sacred
duty for patriots to stand firm and grasp the sword
as with a death-grasp. Go to Russia, go to Austria,
bearers of the olive-branch, preach to those ruthless
spoilers the gentle doctrines " Love one another," and
"Do as you would be done by." War may be anti-
Christian, but: assuredly tyranny is yet more so.
Therefore, we say, it is at a most inopportune
moment that the great Peace Congress has been
held. It is not our custom to deride the
supporters of any Utopian scheme, however mistaken
we may consider their proceedings. We have said
repeatedly, and we say it again, we consider the
Peace Society, however excellent their intentions,
unreasonable in their actions ; their proceedings are
premature, and their propositions impracticable.
Nevertheless, differing from them so completely in a
practical point of view, we entirely coincide with
them in principle. Like Mr. VINCENT, one of the
speakers at the Congress, we would gladly substitute
mind for matter, and we desire, quite es anxiously as
himself, the advent of the time " Shen an ounce of
intellect shall be better than a pound of shot." We
believe, moreover, that good time is " coming;" its
progress is visible, and is one of the hap-
piest characteristics of our times. It is
visible in the wide-spread ramifications of
commerce, whereby foreigners are become friends
and mutual benefactors. It is visible in the social in-
tercourse of members of different nations, and more
especially in the warm sympathy felt by the people of
different countries in the popular struggles and
triumphs of their neighbours. A. patriotic statesman
or a literary benefactor is greater in the enlightened
estimation of the nineteenth century than any martial
hero. " Captain Pen" is displacing " Captain
Sword." All these things are certain indications of
the progress of civilization, and pltdges of the con-
tinuance of that progress. We trust more to the
efficacy of that slow but infallible advance than to
the eloquence of any of the speakers of the Congress.
Conspicuous among those speakers were Mr. COBDEN
and M. EMILE Ere, GIRARDIN. The latter is reported
to have made the extraordinary assertion (for a
Frenchman) that the cause of liberty would be assisted
by the disarmament of all nations except two—Eng-
land and the United States, the armies of those coun-
tries not being so great as to endanger liberty. True
enough was another declaration of the same speaker's,
that " the army is not a means of preventing revolu-
tion, the means are to be found in a moral govern-
ment ;" and true enough was an observation of Mr.
COBDEN'S, when he said no men were so difficult to
teach as professional statesmen. " They are so
devoted to routine, and so fortified in self-sufficiency,
that they do not easily believe that any wisdom exists
in the world excepting that which radiates from their
bureaus." But the most truthful sentiment uttered at
this Congress was that of M. COQUEREL, who, alluding
to the plea of impossibility urged against the object
of the society, put it aside at once, declaring
nothing was impossible but what was false. In this
sentiment we entirely concur; we believe, as we
have repeatedly said, that nothing is impossible ex-
cept the ultimate triumph of an unrighteous cause.
This belief is the true stimulant to exertion, and the
infallible antidote to despair. The Peace Society may
take all the comfort which that assurance can give
them. " Patience," says the proverb, " and the mul
berry leaf will become satin ;" and this is a proverb
which the Congress will do well to eonsider. They
are looking for results where first principles are yet
immatured. Let them endeavour rather to strengthen
the growth and assist the development of those prin-
ciples, and they need not fear but the fruit will come
forth in due time. Let the enjoyment of popular rights
be assured to each individual people, and let the
principles of brotherly love be enforced by the prac-
tical teaching of mutual benefits, and then, but not
till then,

" Useless lances into scythes shall br nd,
And the broad lalchion in a ploughshare end."

The case of Joust GLERSON WILSON, who was con-
victed at Liverpool, on Wednesday, of the murder of
MARY PARR, exhibits a degree of desperate and
reckless atrocity that renders it almost unparalleled
in the annals of crime. In the middle of the noon-
day, in the heart of a populous city, without arms
or associates, he coolly and deliberately butchered
an entire Lmily, consummating his guilt by cutting
the throat of an unfortunate infant three years &d, the
only witness of his fearful crime. He had entertained
nJ previous animosity against his victims—he had no
wrong or fbncied wrong to avenge. Plunder was
his only motive, but to obtain a trifling booty l.e de•
liberately shad the blood of four of his fellow-crea-
tures, of two helpless women and of two innocent
children, under circumstances that rendered detection
almost inevitable. There was no attempt at conceal-
ment. The victims were suffered to remain where
vi seiyb
ehatdofallenthe
weltering
by-passers
through t heir blood,the par-
lour lour window.
The di.covery of the murders
could not long be delayed ; speedy pursuit was cer-
tain; and yet the avassin, believing that every human
eyf, that had witnessed his guilt was sealed in death,
walked openly through the town, exhibitedo Lheermloanned.
money
he had obtained by the robbery to his f

lady, and even attempted to dispose of the watch that I
he had snatched from the neck of Mrs. HINRICESON,
on the following day, while the town was ringing
with the particulars of the horrible outrage. A case
of similar atrocity and recklessness could not, we
believe, be adduced ; that of JAMES BLoaIFIELD
RUSH was trifling in comparison.
The sanguinary affair must have been decided on on
the day preceding its perpetration. On Tuesday, the
27th of March, between four and five o'clock in the
afternoon, the prisoner took lodgings, a back parlour
and upper bedroom, in the house of Mrs. HINRICH-
SON, explaining the absence of luggage by stating that
he was anxiously expecting some from the country. He
slept there that night, and went out early the next
morning; he subsequently went to a tavern where he
requested the daughter of the landlady to direct and
seal a letter to himself at the house that was so shortly
to be the scene of bloodshed. A boy, whom he met,
was induced by the prisoner to deliver this letter at
the house five minutes after he entered it, and a few
halfpence were borrowed from the unfortunate Mrs.
HINRICEISON to pay the lad who was to be one of the
chief witnesses in bringing home the crime to the
murderer of herself and children. About eleven
o'clock Mrs. HINRICIISON, according to her usual
custom, went out to purchase necessary articles for
her household, and during her absence the work of
blood commenced. He went into the parlour, and
having driven out the children, spoke to MARY PARR'
the servant maid, who was blackleading the grate'
He took up the tongs, making some casual inquiries
as to the price of a set of fireirons, and, without the
slightest notice, struck the unhappy girl a violent
blow on the head that rendered her insensible and
unable to give any alarm ; several other blows must
then have been given, causing very severe fractures of
the skull, of which the unfortunate girl died, after lin-
gering a few days. The eldest boy, a child of five
years of age, was then disposed of ; the same, or even
increased brutality was exhibited towards him, for
when discovered, he was found to have no less than
thirty distinct wounds on the head, and even his little
finger was completely struck off by the blow of some
jagged instrument. The younger child was then fol -
lowed to the kitchen cellar, where it had probably fled
for refuge, and its throat was cut from ear to ear, its head
being almost severed from the body. These several
outrages had manifestly been committed during the
absence of Mrs. HINRICLISON, and must have been
deliberately planned previously. About this time a
lad, named KEAMEY, brought a basket of potatoes to.
the door, which had been purchased by the unfortu-
nate lady. WILSON partially opened the door, and
having thrown the potatoes into the parlour, where
they were subsequently found, retuned the basket to
KEAMEY, who had thus a full opportunity of identi
fying him. Mrs. HINRICIISON soon afterwards returned,
and then the tragedy was completed. She had
scarcely entered her house when she was also stricken
down ; her bonnet, which had not been removed,
was broken, and her skull fractured in several
places. The robbery—the motive of the qua-
druple murder--was then committed. Drawers
and boxes were broken open and ransacked,
and money and trinkets, and a gold watch and chain,
taken away. The murderer then went into his own
bedroom to wash away the traces of his enormous
guilt ; water, mingled with blood, was found in
his basin, and bloody marks on the towel where he
had wiped his hands. He then left the house, with-
out his departure being noticed. Fortunately for
the ends of justice, Mrs. HINRICIISON had purchased
two jugs during her absence, which were sent to the
house in about twenty minutes. The messenger,
having knocked in vain at the door for some time,
looked through the window and discovered the bodies
of the servant and of the eldest child lying on the
floor. An alarm was given, the house was entered,
when the sanguinary scene was fully discovered, and
the search for the murderer almost immediately

instituted.
One of the most remarkable features of this
extraordinary outrage was the extraordinary
rapidity with which it was executed. Mrs.
HINRICHSON did not leave her house until
eleven o'clock. She purchased the jugs shortly
after ; these jugs were sent home within twenty
minutes, but in the interval four murders were com-
mitted, drawers and boxes broken open and plun-
dered, the hands of the assassin washed, his clothes
arranged, and escape effected. About twelve o'cicck
he was seen by three carmen walking rapidly from
the spot, much flushed and in a great perspiration, the
ends of his trousers, which were of white cord, being
turned up. Shortly afterwards he was seen at a pool
called " The Figure of Eight Pit," washing his boots.
and trousers, and the envelope of the letter that had
been directed to him that morning was found on the
spot. We need not further minutely trace the pro-
ceedings of the murderer. lle purchased a pair of
dark trousers in the course of the day, taking off
the light ones that he had worn during
the commission of the crime, and giving them
to a labourer whom he met in the town.
lle sold the wet Wellington boots he had on for 25.,
and in their place bought a pair of short boots. Ile
obtained a clean shirt at his former lodgings, which
he had never stated his intention of leaving, exhibiting
a considerable sum of money to the landlady, through
whom he changed gold for silver; and there he gave
his hat, which had a crape on it, to a fellow-lodger,
putting on a cap which he had just bought. He then
went to a barber to be shaved, although not at all
requiring it, where he made inquiries about the price
of a wig, and also the cost of a passage to America.
By these various proceedings, and the changes of his
attire, he vainly hoped to evade discovery; but he
was really multiplying the evidence against him, so
as to render it perfectly conclusive. The following
morning he was arrested, while endeavouring to dis-
pose of the watch which he had taken from Mrs.
HINRICHSON, and was clearly identified by several
witnesses, and, amongst others, by the dying girl
MARY PARR, whose deposition was taken in presence
of the accused.

A curious legal point arose on this part of the case.
It was proposed to give this deposition, which would
have rendered any doubt impossible, in evidence ; it
was, however, objected by the able counsel who
defended the prisoner, that it could not be received,
the prisoner not having been charged with any
violence against MARY PARR at the time the deposi-
tion was taken. After a learned argument, the pre-
siding Judge, having consulted his learned coadjutor,
allowed the objection, and the depositions were not
allowed to be read. There was, however, ample
testimony against the prisoner. The letter he sent in
the morning without any apparent motive, the
identification by the lad who delivered the potatoes,
and his entire conduct after the perpetration of the
various outrages, left no vestige of doubt in the mind
of any person who heard the evidence, and the jury
without retiring from their box, and without a mo-
ment's hesitation, returned a verdict, by which the
majesty of the law has been vindicated, and by which
the blood-stained assassin will expiate his enormous
guilt by an ignominious death upon the scaffold.
The ruling of the Learned Judge (PATTESON) in
excluding the deposition of MARY PARR, although it
might have been regretted at the moment as affording
a chance of escape to the miscreant, was very fortu-
nate. Had it been otherwise justice might have been
defeated, and his execution would necessarily have
been postponed until after the meeting of the judges.
As it is no such difficulty is interposed. There was
ample evidence without the deposition to insure a
conviction ; and the nature of the very ingenious ob-
jection that might procure impunity for another
murderer on a future occasion is explained, so that
all magistrates may avoid a similar mistake in future.
The case has now terminated, JOHN GLEESON
WIL-
soR has been fairly convicted by a jury of his coun-
try men, and his name will henceforward occupy a
leading p sition in the black catalogue of crime as the
perpetrator of the most brutal, the most audacious,
and the most inexplicable series of murders that ever
disgraced human na►ure.

THE UNITED STATES AND MEXICO.—The accounts
by the Cambria, from the United States, report that Mr.
Clifford, late United States Minister to Mexico, had been
recalled in consequence of having entered into an un-
authorised corresp, nderce with the Mexican Govern-
ment on the subject of the protocol. The Hun. H. P.
Letcher, of Kentucky, has been afpointed to succeed
him.
The harvest has been carried on under the most
fay.,uranle circumstances. Lovely weather has prevail. d
to such an extent as to enable the farmer to house the
"golden grain" without loss or discomfort to himself;
anti the yield, though not quite so plentiful as has bten
predicted, is above a 4 average crop. Cheltenham Journal,