The Sun.
London, England, 1825-07-27 00:00:00

[THE PUBLIC LEDGER.]

We have received advices from Lima to the
end of March, and an Extraordinau Gazette,
published in that city on the 25th of that month.
The Gazette contains copies of dispatches from
General Sucre, the Hero of Ayacucho, dated Paz,
the 2d and 4th of March, at which place he had
his head-quarters. In the former, the General
announces the junction of Olaneta's troops with
his own, and the adhesion of the provinces of
Santa Cruz, dojos, and Cliiquitos, to the Cause
of Independence. On the Ist of March Gen.
Aguilera, who had held a command in the
itoya list Army, entered Paz, and made his sub-
mission. At this time the few adherents of
of Spain are stated to have exhibited symptoms
of absolute imbecility ; and the inglorious man.
ner in which Olaneta subsequently fell, as we
learned a short time since, from the Buenos
Ayres Papers, has fully verified this statement.
In the second dispatch it is announced, that
the district of Chuquisaca, which is empha-
tically termed the cradle of Peruvian liber-
ty, has adhered to the Independent Cause ; and
the order and enthusiasm which the inhabitants
displayed on this occasion, were well worthy of
the efforts they made fifteen years before for
their deliverance from a benumbing tyranny. To
complete the whole, Colonel Lopez, who com-
manded the Royalist cavalry, is stated to have
gone over with the whole to General Sucre, by
which the last hopes of Spain were extinguished.
At this time there was not a single Spanish sol-
dier in arms in all Peru, with the exception of
Callao ; and it would appear by our ad vices
that this exception would not continue long, as
the regular siege of the place had actually com-
menced. The troops who formed the siege
were both numerous and well appointed ; and
General Bolivar, who had joined them a few days
previously, took immediate as well as efficacious
measures for conducting the operations with
the greatest vigour. The bombardment had ac-
tually commenced, and as the place was strictly
blockaded by sea, its speedy surrender was con-
fidently anticipated. Of all her former posses-
sions in America this alone remained to Spain,
and with it she would lose her last hope of re-
establishing her iniquitous domination. How the
Spanish Government will act under those circum-
stances it is difficult to say ; but this we know,
that by persevering in its present infatuated
policy, it can injure itself alone. Its former
Colonies are placed for ever beyond the
reach of its intrigues and open hostility ; and
the tables are so completely turned, that Spain,
from being the aggressor, sees her own shores
insulted and menaced by the South American
flag. If she does not hasten to deprecate this
danger, it will assame at last a character the
most alarming, and produce results the most im-
portant. When Bolivar returns, crowned with
glory, from Peru to his own country, he will di-
rect the energies of Colombia, with his peculiar
ardour and activity against. Spain ; and if it
should have no other result but the total extinc-
tion of her commerce, it would be a frightful re-
taliation in the impoverished state of that coon-
try. Further poverty would increase the general
discontent, till at last the Government having no
means of purchasing the support of it mercenary
adherents, would fall a victim to the first popular
commotion. Should Spain not deprecate the con-
tinuance of the storm, which she has already
raised by her preposterous pretensions. One of
the first objects of the general Congress that is
to be held at Panama, would be the formation of
a naval and military force, to which all the
new States would contribute, for the purpose
of waging war upon her on a large scale, in
het own waters, and on her own territory.
We would advise her Government therefore to
diviest Itself 'of its absurd pride, and 'make ad.
aatices towards a reconciliation, which, by th#ir
siuterity,,ahould obliterate the effects of !ter pre-.
Iv* infatuation. A. single arm will not he raised
in 'bar defence if she will persevere in. coUrttng

the hostility of her former colonies. England
will see that she must fight her battle alone; and
neither France nor any other power will venture
to brave the menace thrown out by this country
with respect to the interference of a third party
in the dispute.

[MORNING HERALD.]
The Lord Chief Justice, in passing sentence
of death upon a number of persons convicted of
horse stealing at Chelmsford, is represented to
have said, that " the crime had now become so
common in every part of the kingdom, that it be-
came absolutely necessary, for the protection of
such property, that the dreadful sentence of the
law should take its course ; that the lenity which
had induced the Crown to spare the lives of per-
sons convicted of this offence, when it was not
so frequent, had, he feared, produced the enor-
mous increase which was now so much to be de-
plored; and that the only mode of checking it
was to stop the fountain of mercy." With every
respect for the high authority from which this'rea-
soiling falls, we must be permitted to doubt
whether it is either philosophical or just. One
great object of punishment certainly is to deter
men from the commission of similar offences; but
there are those (and we profess ourselves among
the number) who doubt how far capital punish-
ments have had that effect, and how far therefore
the Legislature can be justified in continuing
death as the forfeit for many of the crimes to
which it is still assigned by our criminal code.
Those who look into the annals of crime will
find that it has generally been most rife when
capital punishments were most frequent.—
Forty years ago the recklessness of human life
which our Courts exhibited was, we may ven-
ture to say, in the proportion of ten to one to
what we now witness ; yet at that time capital
crimes of nearly every description were more fre-
quent, and in their consequences more terrific,
than any we now, with here and there a solitary
exception, ever hear of. Even more recently,
when the crime of forgery has been visited with
death to an extent which has struck with horror
every humane mind, that crime went on with un-
diminished frequency, though since a disposition
to relax our legal severity on this head, the
crime seems evidently to have diminished.
Though there may be particular instances
to justify an exception, yet, generally speaking,
we should say that the crime of horse stealing is
one which ought not to be punished with death.
And it is here that we are compelled to differ
from the Lord Chief Justice, who states that the
crime has increased owing to the lenity which has
been shown towards it. Now for the last seven
years the number of persons ho have received
sentence of death for horse stealing, and of those
who have been executed, were as follow : ,

Convicted. Executed.
1818 - . 130 - - 1
1819 . . 142 - - 2
1820 - - 111 . 2
1821 - 129 - . 3
1822 - - 102 . 1
1823 - 124 • . 4
1824 - - 127 - 1
Here it will be seen that the facts are quite at
variance with the Chief Justice's reasoning; for
notwithstanding the marked lenity which has
hee❑ shown towards this crime as a capital of-
fence, the number of criminals appears to have
been nearly stationary--or, at all events, not
apparently acted upon, by the unfrequency of
executions. During the present year, we IP-
lieve, as many, if not more executions have
already taken place for this crime, than during
the whole of the above period ; and now, there-
fore, is the precise time, when according to
the Learned Judge's reasoning, the crime
ought to be diminishing. The contrary, how-
ever, is the fact. And why is it so Why
is this crime on the increase ? Simply, as we
apprehend, because there are .more than usual in-
ducements to commit it, owing to the demand
for horses, both at home and abroad, and the
increased facilities which are opened for the
disposal of them. We do not at all undervalue
the nature or extent of the crime, but when
it is talked of as one demanding capital punish.
ment, we cannot but wonder and lament that the
obvious means which exist of preventing it are
not yet resorted to. We mean the formation of a
Register for the Sale of Horses in every town,
without going through the forms of which, and
producing the necessary proofs and certificates ac-
companying it no horse should be sold ; the posses-
sion, of a purchased horse, without such certificate,
being made a misdemeanour, and the forgery of
such documents carrying with it all the conse-
quences of other forgeries. Some such plan as
this, accompanied by a vigilant look out at the
different ports from which horses can be shipped
to foreign countries, would, we apprehend, do
more to diminish the crime of horse-stealing, than
will ever be effected by the severity of our
Penal Laws.

COURSE OF E.XCII:INGE, July 26.
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