The Sun.
London, England, 1847-01-09 00:00:00

THE ONLY AUTHORISED ENGLISH EDITION.
Now ready, in Bvo., price only ss.
Vol,. VI. of THIEKS' HISTORY
OF THE CONSULATE AID EMPIRE.
A Sequel to his " History of the French Bevo!ution."
Translated by D. FORBES CAMPBELL, Esq.
With the sanction and approval of the Anther.
CONTENTS :—Ulm and Trafalgar—Austerlitz- The Confederation
of the Rhine.
Henry Colburn, Publisher, 13, Great Marlborough-street.

THE NEW HISTORICAL NOVEL.
Now ready at all the Libraries, In 3 vols.
STRAWBERRY HILL
By the Author of

" Shakspeare and his Friends," " Maids of Honour"' &c.
- " Here are no assassins, no poisoners, no zeros, Borgias, Cata-
limes, Richards of York. Here are the foibles of an age—no Tory
bad one."—Horace Walpole.
Henry Colburn, Publisher, 13, Creat Marlborough-street.

Now ready, in 3 vols post Bvo., price 1/. Ils. 6d.
MEMOIRS OF GENERAL PEPE.
Comprising
THE PRINCIPAL MILITARY AND POLITICAL EVENTS OF

MODERN ITALY.
WRITTEN BY HIMSELF.

" Rarely have we seen a more interesting piece of autobiography
than these Memoirs of the veteran patriot. They unite the excite-
ment of romance with the dignity of history. The adventures of
the writer have all that variety of peril, toil, and suffering which,
in Othello's narrative, won the heart of Desdemona."—Athenmum.
" Patriotism, valour, and honesty are impressed on every page of
thes, volumes. The author could not have failed to produce an in-
teresting work."—Dally News.
Richard Bentley, New Burlington street.
Publisher in Ordinary to her Majesty.

THE EDINBURGH REVIEW, No.
Will be published on Thursday nest.

CONTENTS

1. DAVID HUME.
2. THE STREETS OF PARIS.
3. LOCAL TAXES OF THE UNITED KINGDOM.
4. BANCROFT'S HISTORY OF TIIE UNITED STATES.
5. THE CHEY. BUNSEN ON THE BASILICAS OF ROME,
6. THORNTON ON OVER-POPULATION.
7. GENIUS AND WRITINGS OF PASCAL.
8. ON CENTRALIZATION.
London : Longman and Co. Edinburgh :A. and C. Black.

LONDON COFFEE and EATING-HOUSE-
KEEPERS' ASSOCIATION.
The subscribers and friends to the above are respectfully in-
formed that a BALL, in aid of the funds, will take place at the
Freemasons' Tavern, Great Queen-street, on TUESDAY next, the 12th
instant. Tickets to be had of the Committee and Stewards ; also at
the Tavern.
The Half-yearly Meeting will be held at Anderton's Hotel, Fleet-
street, on MONDAY, the 18th of January, at Seven o'clock precisely,
to receive the report of the Committee and Auditors for the past half-
year, with a statement of the accounts, &c.
SAMUEL ABBOT, Secretary.
8, Bath-street, sTewgate-street:

opulence
possible in an empire as remarkable fo4Q4
as for its industry, it is quite certain that
they: must
be a necessity for some extraordinary alters
Lion in the
relations existing between the proprietors of
the soil
and the workers of the soil. In the shires of 5..121 "
-
land, Ross, Inverness, and Argyle, throughout .the
entire Hebrides, and in the insular group of Zetlanc:"
there is a frightful want of provisions, a general
cessation of employment, and a complete
deprivation of the most ordinary means of obtaining
sustenance. Both the cottars and the crofters are in-
volved in the most serious difficulties. Many have
been compelled to dispose of their scanty live stock,
of their superfluous apparel, of their more moveable
articles of furniture, to buy meal for themselves and
their children. Some have reduced themselves to po-
sitive beggary by selling their one cow or their one
sheep, to satisfy the cravings of hunger. An eye-
witness writes from the Island of Mull that
several of its inhabitants might have been
observed " wandering over the blackened
patches of land, and pulling up here and
there a shrivelled root." Another writes from North
'and South Uist in these affecting terms :—The cot-
tars "are suffering already, and some of them, I
fear, seriously, though their cry is not heard!" A
third correspondent describes the privations endured
by the people at Benbecula, at Uist, and at Barra, in
more emphatic words. " Were Ito detail all the
scenes of wretchedness and actual famine in the fa-
milies we saw," he exclaims, "it would melt the
hearts and open the hands of every man and woman
in the country." Such is the lamentable position of
affairs in a considerable portion of the mainland of
Scotland, and in the Scottish islands containing a
population of 125,326 individuals.

We are rejoiced to think that strenuous efforts are
at length being made to alleviate the miseries of our
afflicted countrymen. Labour still continues to be
almost inaccessible, but the lack of employment by
the local landowners is being in some measure compen-
sated through the earnest endeavours of benevolent
men in the Scotch capital and elsewhere. In
accordance with the recommendations of these honest
and unpretending philanthropists, provisions of
various descriptions have been purchased and dis-
tributed among some of the more necessitous districts.
Meal has already, through their instrumentality, been
forwarded to Barra, to Uist, to Harris, to the coasts
of Ross-shire, Inverness-shire, and Argyleshire, to
Skye, to Mull, to Tyree, to Coll, and to " the lumi-
nary of the Caledonian regions," lona. Through
these active and spontaneous measures on the part
of the more generous-hearted there has been
an appreciable, though scarcely perceptible,
diminution of the sufferings of those hitherto
neglected multitudes. The example of munificence
afforded by our Gracious SOVEREIGN and by the
PRINCE CONSORT, must likewise act beneficially as an
incitement to the philanthropic disposition of the
nation. Private beneficence, however, will only be the
lopping off of the branches ; it rests with the Legis-
lature, and the Legislature alone, to tear up these
monster evils by the roots.

SECOND EDITION.

Since we adverted to the subject of capital punish-
ment, objecting to the views, and particularly to the
arguments, of those who advocate its immediate abo-
lition, another meeting has been held to discuss the
question in the Lecture Hall of the Literary Institu-
tion, Greenwich. When we call to mind the mode
in which this grave subject has been treated, and
the shallowness of the reasons advanced for re-
moving the extreme penalty of the law from the
statute-book, we feel inclined to regret that any one
of the recent public assemblies should ever have been
congregated. In the hands of Messrs. ROW TON,
VINCENT, STEVENS, &c., who have chiefly figured at
the meetings alluded to, the question has certainly
not prospered—on the contrary, it has retrograded.
This failure arises not only from the unseasonableness
of pressing for a momentous change in the law before
the public mind and the state of society are duly prepared
for it, but also from the most infelicitous blunders,
as respects both facts and reasons, which have of late
been committed throughout by the enemies of expia-
tion by the 'gallows. Moreover, we observe that
every one of the speakers at Greenwich repeated the
same fault which we have previously deprecated—
that of giving a purely theological turn to the entire
controversy, of introducing passages of Scripture
wholesale, for the double purpose of undermining the
interpretation of such as are relied upon by their
opponents, and of producing others which seem to
warrant their own conclusions. It may be urged
that they are driven to scriptural argument in con.
sequence of the confidence with which their adver.
saries appeal to the Bible in support of capital
punishment. In the first place, if the Abolitionists
think they cannot succeed in their cause without en-
tering the arena of theology, they should be at some
ordinary pains to come out of the conflict with ad-
vantage; but we must say that all their
polemical efforts have been utterly ineffective. Vv'e
gave instances of this during the present week, and,
in reference to what transpired at Greenwich, we
could go on multiplying them ad infinitum. Let one
suffice. Mr. ALFRED STEVENS, struggling with the
text, " the magistrate beareth not the sword in vain,"
argues that the sword was only an emblem of autho-
rity under the Roman Emperors, and that therefore
the above passage affords no argument for the power of
punishment by death. Few people, we think, will be
convinced by such flimsy reasoning. The word
" sceptre" is purely emblematical in its signification,
which " sword" is not. Had the former been found
in the text instead of the latter, there might have
been much in Mr. STEVENS'S observation ; but, as
the text stands, its sense may be taken (rather than
the reverse) to be in favour of capital punishment ;
and, therefore, we consider, Mr. A. STEVENS had
better not have meddled with it at all. In the next
place, we must insist upon what we have written on
previous occasions, that references to Holy Writ are
best avoided, the question being one of human ex-
pediency. Does the fear of the gallows prevent
people from committing murder and equally heinous
offences ? The whole matter lies in the compass o:
this question.

It is very easy to assert that fear does not
deter people from perpetrating the heaviest
offences ; but fear, we know, is one of the predomi-
nant feelings of the human mind. Mr. FREDERICK
ROWTON observed at the meeting in Hol-
born, that " the fear of death never re-
strained from the commission of murder, because
in every case of murder the spirit of the ruffian had
risen superior to fear." This is singular logic to
wish people to infer that, inasmuch as Lorne have
overcome the feeling of fear when the gallows
stared them in the distance, others have not yielded
to the terrible apprehension, and been deterred from
depriving of life their unoffending fellow-beings.
It has never been surmised that, imperfectly consti-
tuted as society now is, compared with what we
believe it may be brought to by the advances
of civilisation, a violent and disgraceful death would
infallibly repress the crime of murder. But if the
present law has had the effect, by working upon the
fears of mankind, of saving innocent men from the

assassin's blow, then is it humane and beneficial.
How far it has had this effect, it has been, and so

long as the law lasts, will ever be problematical, for
it is obvious, that men who have meditated murder,
and from which they have alone been deterred by the
apprehebsion of forfeiting their lives upon the
gallows, would not run about bruiting to their
neighbours the devilish purpose they had fostered
and that cowardice alone had thwarted its gratification.
Too much stress appears to be laid upon the fact
that many who have been hanged had previously
been present at executions. This only shows how
fearfully debased, in all probability, their minds were
when they first looked upon the apparatus of death,
and by no means militates against what
is also very probable, viz., that many
have quitted the scene of an execution im-
pressed with the awfulness of the spec-
tacle, and with the resolution never to subject
themselves to so ignominious an end. Again, the
effect of example is not limited to the immediate pre-
cincts of the gallows. By reading and hearsay, it is

extended throughout the land, and the knowledge is

universal that if one man raises his arm to cut short

,he days of another, his life shall pay the penalty of

his fearful transgression. The best way of getting

rid of capital punishment is to ameliorate the social
condition of the people, and, above all, to educate
them. By these means, incentives to crime would
be removed, and the public mind become gradually

elevated to embrace the conviction, and to
it, that individual and national prosperity
consulted when the law is best observed.

J. .*
e„t SA
EV E -INO3 JANUARY gst 1847
_
THE U L- r-t) ,
•

( in g of the session, is published in the Journal des
i Debuts

" The Chamber of Deputies will hold its preparatory
sitting on Sunday next, in the Salle des Conferences. The
Bureau was constituted in August last, M. Sauzet being
eh
President; Messrs. Bignon, Lepelletier d'Aulnay, Hebert,
and Delessert, Vice-p.residents; and Messrs. Saglio, de
r,
°cosi:
n d2O Lb
y lua
Membersg
oint .
ais , t
00 nT
m Secretaries.eeut
estdhe K
a y
itnh Theeg
willl3sns thenrdeputatione3: Ob
day after the royal sitting, the Chamber will
hold a public sitting to appoint its Bureaux,
and will afterwards proceed to the examination
of the elections not yet verified. On Wednesday the
Committee on the Address will be appointed. All the
l3ills and propositions of the last Legislature being nul-
lified, the Chamber will devote its first sitting to the
verification of the returns of ten Deputies not yet ad-
mitted. Six of them have been named since the
proro-
gation of the session, viz.-Geeeral de Lamoriciere,
eilarquis de Retire!, and Messrs. Henriscart, Bethmont,
Guerrin, and Portalis, jun. The two last have replaced
Messrs. Genoux and Portalis, son., deceased since the
last elections. The election of M. Portal's, jun., will be
necessarily annulled, as, when elected, he had not at-
tained the required age, though he has :ince reached it.
Three Deputies, Messrs. Couvers, Drault, and Hallez
Claparede, whose election the Chamber had annulled,
have been since re-elected. The tenth, M. Teste, was sub-
ject to re-election, on being promoted to public functions.
The Chamber will also have to pronounce on the election
of M. Drouillard, whose admission has been adjourned.
Three electoral colleges will be shortly convoked in con-
sequence of the double returns of MM. Salvandy, Berger,
anti Count Thiard, who will have to make their option
known in one of their first sittings. It is said that M.
Salvandy decides for Evreux. Count de la Ferronays,
a Conservative, conies forward at Lectoure to replace
him. M. Berger decides for Paris, and Count de Thiard
for Chalons ; Viscount de Cormenin presents himself at
Lannion to replace him. The Ministry intends present-
ing to the Chamber at an early sitting the Budget for
1848, and the Bills for regulating the credits of 1844 and
1845. The Committee on the Address can scarcely pre-
sent its reply to the Speech from the Throne before Jan.
23, and the public discussion would in that case come
mence on the 25th, supposing that the Chamber of Peers
had already, at that period, voted its Address. The
Committee en the Address in the Chamber of Peers will
be appointed on the day after the roe al sitting."
The Constitutionnel replies to an article in the
Debats of the day before, and denies the truth of the
rumour alluded to in the Ministerial journal, to the
effect that thi re was a schism in the Opposition ranks,
and that MM. DUFAURE and BILLAULT would ex-
press their approval of M. GUIZOT'S conduct in the
affair of the Spanish marriages. It is not of
much consequence what line of conduct MM.
DUFAURE and BILLAULT may deem it expedient to
pursue. They are both crotchetty, second-rate men,
absolutely without followers. They may join in a
gig, but they could not manage a dilly. M. BIL-
LAULT is only celebrated for his unreasonable and
unreasoning hatred of England and the English.
There is a long article in the Revue des deux
aTfondes which may be considered as M. GuizoT's
official statement of his own case, as regards
the Spanish marriages. In this article, it
is admitted that an engagement was entered into at
Eu, and the English Minister is charged with at-
tempting to violate it. With the exception of this
admission of the existence of the engagement of Eu,
which it will be remembered was denied by the
Presse and some of the other organs of the dynasty,
there is nothing new on the subject in this long
article. In reply to the accusation of a violation of
the engagement on the part of Lord PALMERSTON by
the alleged presentation of a Coburg candidate, the
National observes :-
"If M. Guizot had merely opposed a Coburg candidate
for the hand of Queen Isabella, we should have applauded
him without reserve. To marry the Queen to Bourbon
was well. To prevent a new scion of the Coburg from
spoiling a younger branch was to be permitted. But this
conquest could have been accomplished by the union of
Isabella with Don Francisco. The blood of PhilipV., would
have been satisfied. The crown of Spain would have re-
mained on the head of his descendants. The Coburg
would have been set aside, and England would have met
with a check. What necessity, therefore, was there for
concluding the second marriage so precipitately?"
After going through the history of the various pre-
tenders to the hand of the QUEEN, TRAPPANI, MON-
TEMOLIN, Don ENRIQUE, and Don FRANCISCO, to all
of whom it was offered on one condition, viz., that the
Duke DE MONTPENSIER should marry the Infanta,
the National thus concludes :-
" Why then this condition, if your only object was to
preserve the blood of Philip V.? Come, be candid; you
possessed easy and honourable means to exclude the
Coburg, and to give satisfaction to the Spanish nation, to
maintain at the same time the policy announced by you
in full Parliament; and we shall be candid likewise-you
would have done so had the Infanta been poor-you
would have done so if you were not impelled by your ava-
rice. It was for the interest of the country, for a national
question, for the honour of our flag, or for the grandeur of
France, that you risked the displeasure of England. It
was not through love of adventure that you deranged
your general policy, and induced the northern Powers
to offer you an insolent challenge. Cease, therefore, to
speak to us eternally of your blood of Philip V.,' and
of the secular interests of the country.' Yeu might
have maintained your right; you were a thousandfold
right not to suffer England to impose a Coburg on
Spain; you had the power of resolving the question of
the marriages without injury to your royal pretensions,
or without incurring the displeasure of the immense
msjority of Spaniards; but you preferred to incur risks
and to provoke the most serious consequences. You
have gained a handsome marriage portion ; but look
round you, and tell us what portion of it France his
received."
The Reforme announces that the general rise in the
price of grain in the different markets round Paris
had been felt in that capital on 'Wednesday. Wheat
And barley had augmented by if. the hectolitre on
that day, and flour in a similar proportion. Wheat
sold at. from 49f. 50e. per hectolitre and a half. The
price of 50f. was the highest reached in Paris since
harvest. Flour of the first quality was offered by the
millers at 89f. the 157 kilogrammes.
The receipts of the Northern Railroad for the week
ending the 31st ult. were 213,500 f.
Four steamers, laden with corn, had foundered in
the Rhone, on their way to Lyons. One of them
contained 2,000 sacks of wheat, and sunk under the
enormous weight of that cargo.
The Three per Cents. closed on the Paris Bourse on
Thursday at 79f. 75c. ; the Five per Cents., 118 f. 20c.;
the Orleans Railroad Shares, 1,237 f. 50c. ; Rouen, 906 f. 25c. ;
Havre, GBOl. ; Great Northern, 6351. ; Avignon, 855. f. ;
Vierzon, 600 f. ; Bordeaux, 562 f. 50c. ; Boulogne, 442 f. 50c. ;
Basle, 2181. 75c.; Dieppe, 355 f.; l'aris and Strasburg, 4831.
75c. ; Paris and Lyons, 507 f. 50c. ; Lyons and Avignon,
485 f. ; Bordeaux and Cette, 452 f. 50c. ; Spanish Three per
Cents., 31; Ditto Domestic Debt, gotA,
BUSINESS DONE IN FOREIGN RAILWAYS AT THE
LONDON STOCK EXCHANGE, JANUARY 8.
Boulogne anti Amiens, 153/-Dutch Rhenish, 41h-Great
Western Bengal, %-Jamaica South elidland Junction, 11,e
-Luxembourg, ja-Namur and Liege, 3%-Northern of
France, 10%-Orleans and Bordeaux, See-Paris and Lyons,
81/5-Paris and Strasburg, 4%-Sambre and Meuse, 4%.

BIRTH.—At 49, King-street, on Friday the Bth
inst., the Lady of James Clayton, Esq , of her Majesty's
Customs of a son.
HER MAJESTY'S THEATRE.—So much has been
said respecting a new Italian opera that any informa-
tion relating to the arrangements for the season at her
Majesty's Theatre cannot fail to be interesting. From
authentic sources we have learnt that Mr. Lumley, in
providing for the ensuing campaign, has succeeded be-
yond his usual success. Three of the greatest lyrical
composers of the age will contribute new works for the
season. Lablache, a host in himself, will be supported
by Gardini Fraschini Superchi (Verdi's favourite hero),
Colletti, and Staudigl, The orchestra is composed of
artistes of tried abilities, at the head of whom are Tol-
becque and Nadaud, and a chorus of extraordinary
power has been selected with great care. The ballet will
be under the direction of Paul Taglioni and Perrot. The
pus de quatre, and the pas de deesses, will be revived,
with the aid of Taglioni, Lucille Gratin, Cerito, Car-
lotta Grisi, and Rosati, a young Italian dancer of distin-
guished ability. W. e believe we might add, that the
vocal department will be enriched by other talent of no
ordinary power.

ILLNESS OF MISS PAUCIT.—We regret to say that
the sudden illness of Miss Faucit disappointed a large
audience last evening. The house was full, including
the boxes, when it was announced that Miss Faucit, who
was to play Mrs. Haller, was too ill to appear. Of
course, the audience immediately rose, and departed.
We understand that Miss Faucit would have played at
any risk, but her physician told her that if she did she
would certainly rupture a blood-vessel, and that the con-
sequences might be fatal ; and, with the judicious im-
perativeness of the faculty, he would not allow her to
quit her ehamber.---Cork Examiner.
-The Adelphi Theatre is about to be rebuilt on a
larger scale; adjoining properties have been purchased
for that purpose.—The Builder.

. .
The will of the late Right Hon. Lord George 1111-
m Russell, G.C.8., was executed iu March, 1844,
whereby he has directed that a sum of 10,0001., vested in
him and his Lordship's brother, Lord John Russell,
should be given one moiety to his son Arthur John Ed-
ward, and the other moiety to his son William Oslo
Leopold, and that his house in Grosvenor-place, and the
furniture, plate, boDks, &c., to be enjoyed by his relict,
and then to his three sons, to whom he leaves the residue.
The personalty was estimated for duty at 7,0001.
A NEW ENTRANCE TO ST. JAMES'S PARK.—For
the accommodation of the public a very handsome
portico and flight of stone steps are now being con-
structed at the north end of the private gardens of
Buckingham Palace, as an entrance for foot passengers
from Grosvenor-place on to Constitution-hill.
ADVANCE INLTHE PRICE OE SPlRlTS.—Yesterday
morning nearly all the licensed victuallers, according to
previous agreement, advanced the price of " corn spirits"
20 per cent. for all over-proof, and 10 per cent. for under-
proof, spirits.