The Sun.
London, England, 1841-11-17 00:00:00

SPIRIT of the PUBLIC JOURNALS.
FROM THE DAILY PATERS OP YESTERDAY.
GLOBE.—We are quite aware that the question of
capital punishments cannot be tranchee on either side ;
and in the few observations we made yesterday on a
murderer's execution, we did not of course imagine that
we had exhausted or settled that question. Some of
our Contemporaries appear more confident of their
power to demolish conclusively the views which aro
opposite to their own. We shall be very happy to.
be dr nalished, as soon as our friends can do the bus:-
nee. We are far from having any predilection for
capital punishments, any more than for amputations,
or whatever may be most painful to feel or witness.
Let it be shown tv, we repeat, that they do not strike
the highest terrors of the law, and impress upon coarser
minds the highest sense of the abhorrence of society
against those crimes of violence which are most hostile
to its peace and existence, and our disposition to regard
death punishments as appropriate even to those crimes
will cease. Our Contemporaries are exceedingly confident
that a very short process does show this. They must permit
us, however, to tell them that their 'seasoning is more cu:t
than close, and that though we arc exceedingly willing
to be convinced that the doom of death is unnecessary,and
that the social power and determination can be made
as sensible by unseen punishments, we era not yet con-
vinced of it by any arguments they have put forward.
Still we admit tsat it is not a question to be pe-
rernotorily dismissed and disposed of ; and it is not so
much any desire cn our part to force conviction upon
others, as a strong repugns nee to submit to that opera-
tion ourselves, on such very loose grounds as those for
the most part alleged by the opponents of all death
punishment, that induces us to state the views which
appear so obnoxious to their sentiments. And in the
first place, sentiment is an excellent thing ; but it
ought to carry some equity with it. "It is fashionable
lately," observes a New York Contemporary, " to affect
great tenderness for the lives of individuals,' and it is,
we acknowledge, a very proper feeling, and one that
should not fail of being cherished ; but how does it re.
eqncile its acts in the modern mode of its exercise ? If
it lie so praiseworthy to watch with such vigilance over
the file of him who murders, shy should it forget its
sympathy for the friends of the murdered ? How comes
it to overlook the right of the community ?"
STANDARD.—We copy the following curious no-
tie() to correspondent; from the Limerick Reporter, a
very ably conducted Romanist Radical paper :--" Ap-
plications for places under Government cannot succeed
without some Member of Parliament taken the matter
up in earnest, or there happens to be strong private in-
fluence with ono of the Lards of the Treasury." We
should be pleased could we treat this notice, which is a
grace and bona fide advice, as an intimation of the spirit
in which the late Irish Government was administered, and
notes iilustrating a national characteristic. I'Ve are however
bound to confess in candour, that the appetite for " a
place under Government " is not confined to any party in
Ireland. We have lately had disgusting testimony to the
prevalence of that appetite among men and parties who
ought to be ashamed of it. If we were to cenelude from
whet we have seen in even some of the most respectable
of the Dublin papers of the lest week, the only object of
political exertion in Ireland is to provide places for leaders
and friends. The greatest offence that can be committed
against a party, is the neglect of its favourites in the
d stribution o• patronage. And what makes the matter
worse is, that they who profess most indignation at such
neglect, are the very same who justified, upon grounds
of party convenience, the 'surrender of political power,
and the spoliation of political rights. They who,
against his will, vindicate anzrily the suppose]
claims of the representative of Dublin city to a place,
and threaten the dissolution of the Conservative
party 83 the effect of overlooking his claims, are the
very same parfes who denounced as " impracticable
ultras," and " sordid jobbers," the defenders of the
vested rights of the Protestant corporation—so much
morn precious in their eyes are places than
principle. We confess that we cannot compare the
conduct pursued on the two occasions—the coldness,
and eves hostility, with which the rights of the hum-
ble Conserveteves were abandoned, with the eager fury
displayed in urging the mere expectation of a Consera-
Live of rather high rank, without a sense of pain and a
feeling far removed from respect ; the importance at-
tached to p!ace is further disgraced, if possible, by the
bas: disposition to tuft-bunting. The Irish Conservatives
must chv at the inseives of both these unworthy attributes,
if they would be worthy of their English brethren,
or F. old the station they ought to hold in their
own country. With us principles are everything,
pl ice nothing. Nobody thinks that Mr. niaci:can
ought to be Chancellor of the Exchequer because
he coatested the capital of the empire success.
fully upon the Conservative interest, though we are
all fully convinced of Mr. Masterman'e qualifica-
tions for any high financial office. Captain Rous,
who drove the Radical candidate from Westminster
so gloriously, is still Captain Rous, not Admiral of
the fleet, and we are not aware that be has even got
a ship to reward his achievements upon the hustings.
We might add fifty proofs that in England we think
the honour of representing a great constituency
quite sufficient reward in itself—aye, even the
honour of making, though unsuccessfully, a good
fight in a great constituency, a distinction. suffi-
ciently enviable to preclude any other remunerae
tion. Our Irish brethren must come to this
same conviction if they would be honestly served
by their representatives. If they send men to Par-
liament as the portal of place, they may be sure that
be majority of their representatives will forget them
in the eagerness of bargain making, ac .l they will be
represented as they have been. We can say nothing
worse of their prospects ; for it is our conviction that if
an Irish place bill, excluding all Irish representative;
from office, at the time and for the future, had been in
operation during the lest twenty years, not one of the
measures which Irish Conservatives most regret would
ever have pasted through Parliament.
COURIER.—We adverted lately to the opposition
given in the Presbytery of Irvine to the presentee of the
Duke of Portland to the benefice of Kilmarnock. The
attempt to veto this gentleman having failed, an objec-
tion to his induction, under his Grace's nomination, was
offered, on the ground that he had officiated for one of
the ministers of Strathbogie since the deposition of that '
minister by the General Assembly; and time was taken
by the Presbytery to consider this objection. It was
found, we suppose, a rather hazadous step to refuse in-
duction to a benefice, because the person legally pre-
sented bad countenanced those who had obeyed the law,
and whose deposition for this offence by the Assembly
had been suspended by the Court of Session ; and
accordingly, this objection, it appears, was departed
from, and the nominee of the Duke has been re.
fused induction to the benefice, because, in the opi-
nion of a majority of the Presbytery of Irvine " it is
not for edification" that he should be inducted !
Why or wherefore it is not for edification " the
deponents," as we understand, " say not !" Now,
our readers must know, that in what the Kirk has here
done in regard to the Duke of Portland's nominee,
she is exercising what Dr. Chalmers, in his letter to
Lord Aberdeen, calls her " liberum arbitriuni"—a
power, which, if she really possesses under the law of
Scotland, transfers every living to herself, and utterly
annihilates the rights of patrons. We only wonder that,
with such a power in her hands, she should have ever
thought of a veto law. But we marvel still more at her
rapacity, inasmuch
she a
hass,inthisparticular case, (and she
may in any case)
annihilated the privileges of
male
the people! the majority ofheads of families
e
under the veto, being in favour of the Dukes presen-
tee, and all special objections to him by other parties
having been withdrawn ! In the meantime,
Presbytery in the south of Scotland is:he popular
ewitheiriceisninoge
of
this liberung arbitriunt to " keep out"
minister, another Presbytery in the north—that
Garioch—has employed it to" put in" the unpopular!
In this last Me, to which we referred in our paper of
the sth instant, we are told scenes of the most disorderly
and disgraceful nature took place—the members of they
Presbytery requiring the protection of the Procurator-
Fiscal in the discharge of their duty ; and even with
his assistance unable to conduct the usual divine service
in the Church. We imagine Lord Aberdeen himself
has by this time become satisfied that nothing but a re..
petition of " The Rabbling Acts," as they were called
in 1693, can put things to rights in the Kirk.

SINGULAR DISCOV ,The inhabitants of
the little village of CarnfiEßJ
were on Monday last
thrown into a state of considerablee(uaenxtciitt; of excitement in
hucztalr;
sequence of a report that a quantity
bones had been discovered, while digging some
ground for the foundation of a barn on themliarhnodo,(it.'
Mr. Wallgrove, a farmer residing in tshheonrtelifhb
Numbers flocked to the spot, and afterwards
the remains of what appeared to have been a saddle
was dug out, and a pair of old-fashioned pistols, the
locks and barrels of which were completely
oi.ncr
ustei
bullets
t
with rust. On examining the pistols a coi
were with considerable difficulty drawn from the
Thebar-
rels. A pair of stirrup-irons were likewise found.
attendance of a medical gentleman fir the purpose. 0!
examining the bones, was obtained, and he. pronounced
them to be those of a horse, but under what circumstances
the animal could possibly have been buried in the place
where they were found, it being evident that that the hon,e
had been equipped for some sort of warfare, the pistols hay-
ing,doubtless, originally been in holsters, attached to the
saddle, remains a mystery, there being no record of any
battle or skirmish having taken place, or any other signs
of bones, discovered in excavating the
ground in the
neighboarhood. The owner of the ground where the
remains were found is upwards of eighty years Old, and
the farm has been in the posiession of his family for cen-
turies, yet he never heard of any circumstance that can
throw a light on the subject The pistols have been an
extremely handsome pair, being silver mounted, but the
locks and barrels are so thickly corroded with rust, that
no mark or name can be discovered engraved on them.—
Reading Mercury.
AWFUL VISITATION.--On Sunday morning
the congregation of St. Luke's Church,' Chelsea, was
thrown into great consternation by the sudden death of
one of its members, which occurred just as the service
iwas about to commence. Every assistance was rendered
mmediate) the Churchwardens, and the unfortunate lady was
y attended by Dr. Willisford and Mr. Gardner,
but their most assiduous efforts were unavailing.