The Sun.
London, England, 1849-11-30 00:00:00

THE SUN, LONDON,

declared, that " putting a man in solitary confine-
ment wculd be likely to make lunacy return," and
that " it would be more likely to return under soli-
tary confinement, if it was an hereditary taint of
insanity."
Dr. SUTHERLAND, and Mr. M'MuRDo, the able
surgeon of Newgate, agreed that, "if they had
heard that a man had gone mad in 1846, from a
terror of transportation, and had recovered, that a
similar fear, three years later, would, very
probably, induce a return of the complaint."
On this evidence the presiding Judge (Baron
ALDERSON) stepped the case, and as we have already
stated, the jury returned a verdict of " Not Guilty,
on the ground of insanity."
The chief question that arises on this exceedingly
painful case is, whether the system that has been
proved on the most unimpeachable testimony as
likely to produce such untoward results, shall be
continued in its present form, or whether any and
what modifications shall be introduced therein.
It is unquestionably right that criminals should
be severely and rigorously punished, for
the double purpose of effecting their own
reformation and of deterring others from the
commission of similar offences. But have we a right
to carry that punishment to such an extent as to
drive the wretched victims into a state of madness, to
degrade them beneath the level of humanity ? Would
it not be more merciful to restore capital punish-
ment to the fullest extent, to re enact the sanguinary
code that WES once the shame and disgrace of Great
Britain, the deepest blot on the national escutcheon,
than to subject the miserable offenders to a lingering
death, or to turn them loose on society at the expi-
ration of the specified terms with shattered and
broken intellects, no longer capable of being con-
sidered responsible for their acts ? Not only the
criminals, but even innocent persons, are interested in
the answer. Poor IiALL lost his life, his widow and
children were deprived of a father and protector,
through the effects of the " gaol discipline," acting
on a nervous temperament. Sir PETER
LAURIE in a pamphlet published some years
since, pointed out the numerous cases pro-
duced thereby, and showed that all the prisoners
were listless and stupid, had lost their " gregarious"
habits, and were almost incapable of understanding
what was addressed to them. It is not often that
"the secrets of the prison house" are brought to light,
but when so melancholy an illustration has been
afforded, it is essential that the most searching in-
quiry should be instituted. The murder in the
Milbank Prison cannot be suffered to fall into
oblivion without being productive of some
valuable results. The subject is especially
worthy of the Legislative attention, and the
investigation should be conducted by impartial
men, who are not prejudiced in favour of any peculiar
system, and who are not officially connected with the
management or inspection of gaols. From such an
Inquiry we may hope for the introduction of a disci-
pline that will prove just to the prisoners as well as to
the public, that will have a salutary effect in the
repression of crime, and that will be calculated to
make criminals better members of society on the ter-
mination of their punishments.

In our recent endeavours to enumerate some of the
more prominent evils requiring dissipation in the ma-
nagement of the Royal Navy of England, we found no
opportunity for reference to one of a very grievous,
though of a somewhat less conspicuous character.
The disrelish for the establishment of colonial dock.
yards is the fact to which we would now direct very
particular attention. We would descant upon this
circumstance, moreover, not simply because it tends
to enervate the maritime vigour of the country, but
also, and in an especial manner, in this age of financial
reduction, because it entails upon the service very
great and unnecessary expenses, being altogether a
most uneconomical and even extravagant course of
proceeding.
Now-a-dayr, and for some considerable time past,
it has been manifest to the more vigilact, observant,
and reflective, that according to the prevailing system,
the necessity for cobbling our vessels of war is re-
markable for its continual increase—that necessity,
indeed, being only in some degree commensurate with
another of a yet greater imminence, the necessity for
perpetual and extending disbursements. Supposing
a frigate, or a three-decker, for example, is found
at the present time to require extensive alterations
and improvements, while on some remote foreign
station, those alterations and improvements render it
absolutely essential for her to return homewards as
speedily as possible for the purpose of undergoing the
projected operations. In consequence of this, the
evil whatever it may be, whether it exists in her keel,
her masts, her deck, or her furniture, is constantly
on the increase throughout the whole interval occu-
pied by the time, together with the wear and tear, of
the voyage. Sometimes, indeed, considerable perils
are incurred through the necessity of carrying a crazy
vessel across the ocean before her wounds can be
healed or her rottenness rectified. Instances of
this kind have come within the limits of our own
knowledge; as where a surveying ship off the coast of
Southern Australia was conveyed by her captain, at
extraordinary risk to the lives of all entrusted to his
charge, right across the Pacific, round the cape of
storms, and on to England, with a sail passed under
her bottom to prevent her from sinking ! Such
examples of course we do not mean to imply are of
continual recurrence. But happen they do, happen
they hare done, and happen they will do
occasionally ; and it is to preclude the pos-
sibility of any such foolhardy exploits being
required again from the officers of the Royal Navy—
it is to enable those officers to repair the damages of
our ships of war at once, in places more conveniently
and accessibly situated—it is to diminish the labours
of alterations and improvements to our shipwrights—
it is to decrease, in a very appreciable degree, the dis-
bursements required for these exertions in doctoring
—that we are now demanding the interposition of
the proper authorities, the authorities entrusted with
the management, but in lieu of that, assuming to
themselves the mismanagement of the British Navy
together, with all its enormous responsibilities.
Now, in illustration of the shortsightedness with
which this department of the Marine Administration
of England is conducted, we need only refer to the
rash project set on foot for the abandonment of the
dockyard at Bombay. From that establishment has
proceeded the Meeanee 80-gun ship, besides other ves-
sels of various and, in some instances, such as the
one just mentioned, of considerable dimensions.
Proved consequently to be capable of materially as-
sisting in the enhancement of our maritime
strength, and in the consolidation of our
naval supremacy, the dockyard at Bombay is
regarded thus slightingly, forsooth, because of its
remoteness, and because also of its supposed onerous
demand upon the Exchequer. Why, the very fact of
its remoteness from the mother country ought to be
a sufficient reason for its continuance, for the con-
siderations already specified; while its preservation
in full capacity should be a matter of national soli-
citude even in a point of view strictly and exclusively
economical. Surely the subject under consideration
is only another and a deplorably flagrant
testimony of that most rash of all monetary
rules of conduct, the penny wise and the
pound foolish principle. If for nothing else, the
scheme of colonial dockyards should most certainly
be adopted by the Admiralty out of regard for the
wisdom of the homely old adage, " A stitch in time
saves nine." How far the proverb is applicable in
the case of colonial dockyards we leave it to the
common sense of the public to decide. The relation
between the two is obvious ; and being thus obvious,
the retention of old and the construction of new dock-
yards in our more distant possessions is absolutely
incumbent upon the Government.
Those who opposo this project because,
according to their argument, it is idle
to anticipate any beneficial result from establishments
erected on spots so far removed from this country,
must have but a feeble remembrance of all that was
accomplished in the way of ship-buildieg during the
American warfare, when vessels of large size and
admirable capacity
were constructed on the inland
seasborn
borne
or i
ng
imgainudtictbleaticbeys hoafyigCnanada. Besides, it should be ,
these dockyards variously
situated, many of the commodities required by the naval '
architect—timber, tar, flax, iron, coals, and copper
would be found here and there in both hemispheres
in the immediate vicinity of the stocks, without as at
present having to convey them across enormous dis-
arc's of Great Britain,
Num to the central bay

Every consideration indeed assures us that the increase
and extension of these colonial establishments would
be eminently calculated to enhance the strength, to
improve the character, and to economize the resources
of the Royal Navy of England. The improvement is
one deserving the adoption of the authorities of the
Admiralty together with those others previously par-
ticularized, such for example as the more general
application of the screw-propeller to vessels of a large
size, or the more rational regulation of rank and pro-
motion in the maritime service of Great Britain.

THE FRENCH REPUBLIC.

We have received the Paris journals of yesterday.
The following are the reasons adduced by the
Committee for rejecting the proposition of M. CRAB-
RAs for the sale of the diamonds of the Crown :

" The value attributed to this national property, by
estimates which go back as far as 1816, could not
be realised under the pressure of existing circum-
stances without an enormous loss, particularly. t hen
it is considered that one alone of these jewels,
the Regent, is worth more than all the rest of the
collection, and that the greater part of the others,
evidently deprived of the extra value t hich the merit
of the composition gives them, only preserve an intrinsic
value already materially d( preciated. The mere en-
nour cement of a sale of the kind would spread conster-
nation in a branch of commerce which is already
suffering, and it is very doubtful whether it would be
considered by public opinion as a very favourable sign
of the credit of the state. It is, moreover, difficult to
hreisftuosreictal the character of o
a f collection a
work
which
jacrht
caonmdmoefnaceks with
the the sceptre of Charlemagne and finishes with the sword
of Austerlitz. Mutilated by the pillage which took
place at the Garde-Meuble after the massacre of Sep-
tember, this collection was respected by the decrees of
the Convention, which collected the remains of it ; it
was reconstituted and increased by the personal care of
Napoleon. We can scarcely believe that such a legiti-
mate fet ling of national susceptibility woul l not be ex
cited, if this part of our public riches was to be exposed
for sale. The French people has more than once changed
its form of Government, but it has never varied in its
worship for the arts and for the glorious reminiscences
of its history."
The National and the Reforme denounce M.
CHARLES HENZEN, the German Socialist, to whose
ultra-Marat doctrines of cutting off heads by whole-
sale public attention has been recently drawn. They
declare that, if not a raving madman, he trust be an
aunt in the pay of the Absolutists of Europe.
It is said to be in the contemplation of the French
Government to greatly modify, if not to totally
abolish, the absurd passport system.
The Journal du Loiret, of the 27th, publishes the
following letter from AL DE LAMARTINE
I see in reading your journal, and I understand,
the reproaches, apparently well founded, of the electors
of the Loiret, on my prolonged absence from the Na-
tional Assembly. The disease with which I was at-
tacked at the very moment, even when they did me the
honour to think of me, has not left me since that period
one day without sufferings incessantly redoubled. Do-
mestic necessities, imperative on a private man, have
been united to these sufferings to retain me, in spi'e
of m 3 self, for four months from the post to which
they deputed me. I feel that it would be to abuse their
confidence, and the mandate of your fellow-cit'zens, if I
were any longer to leave their representation incomplete.
Be kind, enough, therefore, to make known to them that
if in three weeks, at the latest, from this time, my health
is not improved, I shall fed it my duty to tender my re.
signation of functions which I now hold without fulfill-
ing them, and to carry from the Loiret only the eternal
gratitude fc r its mandate, and the painful regret of being
co:npelled to resign it. Accept, Sir, the assurance of
my high consideration. " LAMA/in:IE."

The Evenement says—
" We are assured that the Government has received
accounts from Rome of serious importance. The Pope,
who had determined to leave Portici on the 25th
instant, and to enter Rome on the 28th,
and who bad requested M. de Corcelles to ac-
company him, changed his determination on
learning the recall of M. de Corcelles, and the arrival of
General Baraguay &Millers. The Pope is said to have
announced, in writing, his firm determination not to re-
turn to Rome as long as France shall not be represented
near his person except by the General commanding the
corps of occupation. He further intimated in his letter
that he was determined, on his return to Rome, to break
completely with the policy of the three Cardinals."
The Three per Cents. closed on the Paris Bourse on
Thursday at 56f. 95c.; the Five per Cents. at 89f. 80e.;
Orleans Railroad Shares, 735 f.; Rouen, 525 f.; Havre,
228 f. 75c.; Great Northern, 441 f. 52c.; Vierzon, 302 f.
50c.; Bals©, 1021. 50c.; Bordeaux, 397 f. 50c.; Paris and
Strasburgh, 357 f. 50c.

BUSINk SS DONE IN FOREIGN RAILWAYS AT THE
LONDON STOCK EXCHANGE, Nov. 29.
Boulogne and Amiens, s%—Namur and Liege, 6%
Northern of France, 2% dis.—Orleans and Bordeaux, 3
West Flanders, 1%.