The Sun.
London, England, 1831-01-08 00:00:00

UNION-HALL.

Yesterday Henderson, the Cown at Astley's
Theatre, and his wife, were brought before Mr
MURRAY, charged with I,..,saulting two police con-
stables. _ _ _ .

The defendants were fined 3s. for being drunk
with liberty to settle the assault on the policemen.

(. ON VICTS UNIVER SENTENCE of DEATH

AT WINCHESTER,

(From a Correspondent of the Time-3.)
WINCHESTER, FRAPAT MORNING.
No day has yet been fixed for the execution of
the six unhappy men who were sentenced to die
at the conclusion of the Special Commission which
was recently held at this place. The information,
which reached you in London, that the executiot
was to take place this morning, is incorrect. No
preparations have been made for such an event, and
I have been informed, that in this county, in alt
eases of capital conviction, save murder, three
Sunder. are allowed to elapse after the Judges
leave the place, before the dreadful sentence of the.
law is enforced on the criminal. Hence it is inferred
that to-morrow week will be the earliest day fixed for
the death of these unfortunate malefactors. The
poor creatures who are now sentenced to die, are
aware of the efforts which are tasking to save
them, and thus feed upon hopes which may never
be realized.
I have before stated that Cooper has resigned
himself to the certainty of death, and bear,
his fate as becomes a man in his perilous state. His
family is highly respectable, and I understand that
his brother, who is a bailiff to a gentleman of some
property in this neighbourhood, beam= r. most irre-
proachable character. He is a man of superior in-
telligence to the other prisoners, and during the
Fordingbridge riot exercised extraordinary influence
over the mob. They addressed him bareheaded,
and on all occasions consi4ered prim a person of
superior talents to themselves, Even in the dock,
when upon their trial, his comrades in crime treated
him as their guide and leader; and framed their con-
duct, their questions, aril thew defence upon his
suggestions. There is no doubt that the infidelity
of his wife has exercised a most baneful influence
on this poor man's conduct. Some people will have
it that he has been little better titan a maniac erer
since she has absconded with her paramour.
The scenes of distress in and about the gaol are
most terrible. The number of men who are to be
torn from their homes and connections is so great,
that there is scarcely a hamlet in the county into
which anguish and tribulation have not entered.
Wives, sisters, mothers, children, beset the gates
daily, and the Governor of the gaol informs me
that the scenes which he is obliged to witness at
the time of locking up the prison are truly heart-
breaking.
You will have heard before this of the petitions
which have been presented tc the Home Office from
Gosport, Portsmouth, Rom•ey, \Vhitchurch, and
Basingstoke, praying for an extension of mercy to
all the men who now lie under sentence of death. A
similar petition has been got up in the city. It is
signed by the clergy of the low church, sonic of the
bankers, and every tradesman in the town without
exception. Application was made to the clergy of
the Cathedral for their signatures, but they refused
to give it except conditionally, upon reasons which
I cannot comprehend. They told the petitioners, a,
lam informed, that they would not sign any such
petition unless the Grand Jury and the magistracy
of the county previously affixed their names to it.
iSow sech an answer, as it appears to me, is
an admission on their part that no mischief
would ensue from not carrying into effect the
dreadful sentence of the law, for I cannot con-
ceive that, if they were of opinion that mis-
chief would ensue from it, they would sign
the petition, even though it were recommended
by all the talent and respectability of the Court
of Quarter Sessions. I can understand the princi-
ples on which that man acts, who asserts and laments
the necessity of vindicating the majesty of the law
by the sacrifice of human life ; but I cannot under-
stand the reasons of those, who, admitting that
there is no necessity for the Mold of justice to strike
the offender, decline to call upon the executive Go-
vernment to stay its arm, and make their application
for its mercy dependant on the judgment, or it may
be the caprice, of the influential aristocracy. Surely,
of all classes of society, the clergy is that which
ought not to be backward in the remission of offences.
They are daily preaching mercy to their flocks, and
it wears but an ill grace when they are seen refusing
their consent to a practical application of their own
doctrines.
Whatever my own opinion may be, as a faithful
recorder of the opinions of those around me, I am
bound to inform you, that, except among the Ma-
gistracy of the county, there is a general, I had
almost said an universal, opinion among all ranks of
society, that no good will be effected by sacrificing
human life. It has been remarked by almost every
writer upon criminal law, that when punishments
are so severe as to arm the sympathies of the public
against the law, and in favour of the offender who
perishes by it, they ought not to take place ; and I
repeat it, that if the propriety of these executions
were to be tried by that test in this county, they
ought on no account to take place.

The Court Journal of this day (No. 89)
contains, among a variety of other interesting papers,
Christina-Doings at Belvoir—Drakelow—Wolkliam—Ap.-
thorpe—Passanger—Tbe Two Drawing-rooms—Private
Theatricals of the Nobility—Official Communication from
the Duke of Bay NSWICK—Life of Prince METTERNICH—
The KING and QEMEN in Scotland and Ireland—Origin
of the Dukedoms of BEDFORD, DEVONSHIRE, and LEEDS--
The Court at Brighton—Fashionable Gossip of the
Week—Festivities of the Season—Noble Actors and Ac-
tresses—Lord and Lady IlvitoN—Why did they sepa-
rate?—Extracts from Lord BrlioN's Letters and Dia-
ries—News of Foreign Courts and Capitals—Two Royal
Marriages—Death of Madame de GENLIS—The New
Pope—POLIGNACS Prison.
The present rage for locomotive steam-car-
riages has occasioned, as might well be expected, consi-
derable alarm amongst the canal proprietors throughout
the kingdom, as in those districts where railways have
been introduced, the canal shares continue to decline in
about the same proportion that the others rise in value.
It may, however, be some sati,faction to the canal corn-
- pavies.to !cam, that a discovery has just been made by an
eminent engirter, whereby steam apparatus can Ire made
applicable to .be i:avigation of canals, entirely superseding
the use of horses; so that barges, with a slight alteration
in their form, may be drawn at the rate of at least seven
miles an hour; which, although often before attempted, 1,
has never till now been faand practicable, owing chiefly
to the injury done to the barks of canals, from the viohnt
agitation of the water, arravoidably occasioned by the
wheels with which they were attempted to he propelled.
We understand that paddlea upon a novel construction, and
, ting upon sa entirel:f new principle, have advantageously
"'n substituted.