The Sun.
London, England, 1840-07-09 00:00:00

AN TIQUITIES IN DUNDEE.

For some time past workmen have been busily en-
g.tged demolishing the old house, of three stories, ad-
joining the east end of the Calendering Works of
Messrs. Shaw and Company, on the north side of the
Cowgate, without the Port, to make way, as we under-
stand, for the erection of a place of worship in con-
ncxion with the United Secession Church. It will.
he remembered that the ground floor of this tene-
ment was considerably higher than the level of the
street ; and, in digging away the earth, in the course
of this week, a large quantity of human bones, with
several skulls, were turned up by the labourers. Num-
bers of these were greatly decayed, and others were in
a ,:;.I::rable state of preservation—one skull in particular,
apparently that of a young woman, had the greater
part of the teetn
remaining, beautifully white, • and
.
firmly fixed in the upper The bones were found
lying without regard to any part;;:nlar direction, as it'
they had been hastily huddled together, pnd generally
from twelve to eighteen inches only below the level of
the floor. The site of a large house, as well as a large
surrounding space, in former times bore tit' name if
the " S?ikmcnis Zeardis " (Sickmen's Yards), from
having been the place where the booths were erented
for the accommodation of such as were infected with
the plague, when that dreadful scourge depopulated the
town between the years 1540 and 1545 ; and thus
the faCt of such a quantity of bones ben
found at present is easily accounted for. 'Wino
Monk stormed. the. ..town in .the year 1651,
the assault was made at the east -end adjoining the
Cowgate Port, and at that point the carnage would
doubtless be considerable. But these relics of morta-
lity cannot be the . remains of any of those who had
fallen in defence of the town ; for this reason, that the
house was erected long anterior to that period, as the
evidents of the property bear dates so far back as about
the year 1600—hence the bones must be referred to
the era of the pestilenco.—Dundee Advertiser.

INFLUENCE OF THE MOON ON

FvFNING EDITIO2N.

PUNISHMENT OF DEATH.

PETITION.
To the Honourable the Commons of the United King-
dom of Great Britain and Ireland, in Parliament as
sernbled ;
The Petition of the undersigned Inhebitant of
Great Yarmouth, and Freeholder of the County
of Norfolk,
Most humbly sheweth,
That the peculiar circumstrn.e:s of your petitioner in
two several instances hereafter referred to, conjointly with
a feeling in the country, now very generally expressed, on
the severity of legal punishment for criminal offences, ren-
ders it an incumbent duty to state, with all due deference,
That, in the humble opinion of your petitioner, the first
and legitimate end of punishment is the reformation of the
offender.
That the punishment inflicted for the commission of
crime in civil society should, in all cases, be of such a na-
ture, end in such proportion, as would most effectually
tend to eradicate from the mind of the offender the pro-
pensity to the crime committed :
That it is u unreasonable is itself as it is unjust to the
criminal to inflict upen him a greater degree of punish-
ment than would otherwise be awarded in order to prevent
the perpetration of crime in others:
"'hat, in the humble but decided opinion of your peti-
tioner, punishment in itself just and adequate being alone
consonant to the Divine will, would also be the most pow-
erfully efficacious as an example, and, therefore, perfectly
coincident with the doctrine of utility, to deter and prevent
the commission of crime by others :
That your petitioner, from his own experience, knees
that excessive punishment defeats its own end:
That, in the opinion of your petitioner, the infliction of
death as a punishment is not only unjust, but vindictive and
excessive ; and, under any merely human legislature, inde-
fensible : _ _

That your petitioner, having been stopped on the King's
highway, his property demanded, and, with a sword sus-
pended ever his heal in the hand of a ruffian, his life
deeply threateaad ; and having also a few years since de-
tected a forgery committed on himself, which he brought
the unhappy culprit to confess ' • was absolutely and entirely
precluded instituting any legal proceedings against either
culprit, both by his insurmountable abhorrence of vindic-
tive punishment, and by his decided conviction that the in-
fliction of death is in all cases unwarrantable :
That your petitioner having learned religious and moral,
as well as civil obligation, from the New Testament, hap-
pily finds himself not only instructed to honour the King,
but likewise to revere God ; and while taught to "render
unto Caesar the things which are Cmsar's," is, at the same
time, enjoined by the great Legislator, to " render unto
God the things which are God's :"
That your petitioner is, therefore, constrained, by a pa-
ramount allegiance to the supreme moral Governor, and an
irresistible feeling of duty, never, under any circumstance.,
to become an agent in depriving a human brother of the
invaluable boon of life, and therchy violating and wantonly
destroying the most sacred relation between man and his
Maker :

And, being fully and firmly convinced that the Creator
has the sole proprietary right in that life which none but
Himself could give, your petitioner feels himself em
boldened most earnestly, but most humbly, to implore your
Hon. House deliberately and nt-tt urely to weigh and consider
whether it bo not fearful and daring presumption in any
human Government to wrest that right from the Creator's
hand, and, unauthorised by Him, destroy the only part of
his glorious creation which He himself declared was made
" in his own image :"
That for these reasons your petitioner (an aged man)
presumes, with all due respect, to entreat and supplicate
the attention of your honourable House to the grave sub•
joct of his petition.
And your petitioner will ever pray, &c.
(Signed) WILLIANI ALEXANDER.