The Sun.
London, England, 1847-10-05 00:00:00

True SUN, 1401400141 TUESDAY FY

excellence of simplicity. It chiefly aims at the equa-
lization of the per centage upon the official value,
of articles of commerce, either agricultural or
manufacturing products, carried from Spain to
England, or vice versa from England
thatto Spain.there
It is intended through its operation
should in effect be a perfect reciprocity in regard
to the duties of their several importations--that
except upon the products of the wine spiritor
Eg..vnats
of the Peninsula and upon the cotton goods of
land, the average duty levied should be from 25 to
28 per cent. on all articles—that the latter descrip-
tion of exports should be severally received at a reci-
procal impost of from 28 to 32 per cent.—and
that commissioners should be delegated by each
country to settle all the minor points in
the proposed arrangement. Such is the skeleton
of the new commercial treaty as imagined
and propounded by Senor SALAMANCA. As a legis-
lative movement it is admirable, for it is a movement
in the right direction ; but it is far from being suffi-
ciently in advance, and would tend in no manner to
ensure to Spain those commercial advantages which
the Minister is manifestly solicitous to ensure to his
fellow-countrymen. As a preventive against smug-
gling it will prove altogether ineffectual, for the
cupidity of contraband traders will still be excited by
the continued costliness and the abbreviated petti-
coats of the dark-eyed damsels of the Peninsula.
English cottons have long become a positive essential
to the toilets of Castile and Estramadura, and so long
as the Catalan continues to minister to the wants of
the Spanish ladies, so long will the national revenues
be defrauded, and the intended benefits of the com-
pact between
,Spain and Great Britain escape from
the possession of the former. So notorious, indeed, is
the system of smuggling as conducted along the fron-
' tiers of Spain, that it is estimated that the Government
lost. ...Dually a portion of its revenues amounting
to between 4,UUU,VOOZ. and 5,000,0001. sterling ; and
it is, therefore, against the contraband traders that
the Administration should first of all direct its inge-
nuity. What so instantaneous in the destruction of
the ayatem of 3rnuAtolo6
establishment of Free Trade ? In comparison with
that most rational measure of amelioration, the Pre-
y entive Force is as a wicker hurdle in comparison with
a petard. The one is to the fraadulent system an in-
effectual and insecure obstruction, while the other
is a plan which annihilates and scatters it
to the winds of heaven. However much
we may and do deprecate the commercial project of
SALAMANCA as insufficient when contrasted with
the exigencies of his position, we are still ready to
award to him that commendation to which he is justly
entitled ; we are still compelled to acknowledge that
SALAMANCA bas avoided the retrogressive
policy of
his predecessors—that he has, in fact, advanced and
advances in the right direction.

The day for the execution of the unfortunate
woman, MARY Anna HUNT, convicted at the August
sessions of the Central Criminal Court for the murder
of MARY STOWELL, has been appointed. If no fur-
ther interference should take place, unless her MA-
JESTY should exercise her prerogative in favour of the
wretched criminal, on Monday next her grievous
offence will be expiated by an ignominious death
upon the scaffold. We do not, in any degree, at-
tempt to impugn the verdict returned by the jury,
nor the punishment assigned to an offence so grievous
as that of which she was undoubtedly guilty. Neither
shall we at present enter into the evidence brought
forward on the trial for the purpose of showing
that at the time of the murder she was not
in such a state of mind as to be legally responsible
for her actions, nor to the explanation which she
afterwards gave as to the causes which led to the
unfortunate transaction, and the manner in which
the unhappy victim was deprived of life, which cer-
tainly bore every appearance of truth. Many per-
sons, even of those who conscientiously believe that
capital punishment is absolutely necessary, and that
the wilful shedding of human blood can only be
adequately atoned for by the public execution of the
delinquent, still conceive that in consequence of the
weakened state of her mind from the fits by which
she was frequently affected, and which left her for
half or three-quarters of an hour- after her recovery
in a state of delirium, and also from the apparent ab-
sence of anything like premeditation, that she would be
a fitting object for the royal clemency, and that the
extreme sentence of the law might, in her case, be
very properly commuted to perpetual banishment.
There are other peculiar circumstances, howevs r, that
would, in our opinion, render it most inexpedient and
unwarrantable—indeed little better than a judicial
murder—to permit the original sentence of death
to be inflicted.

In another part of our columns we publish a letter
from an esteemed correspondent, on the absolute
inefficiency, the utter futility of the present mode of
testing the truth of a prisoner's assertion, or rather
plea of pregnancy, in bar of immediate execution.
In that letter the subject is most fully and ably
treated. It is the just, the humane policy of the
law, that the innocent are not to be punished for
or with the guilty, that the hapless child whose rights
are protected from the earliest moment of its existence,
who may succeed to honours and property, who is
defended from any violence (an attempt to procure
abortion in any manner being punishable with trans-
portation for life), cannot legally be cut off, by the
tit xecution of a justly merited judgment on its mother.
The law declares that if the prisoner be pregnant
with a living child—or, to use its own quaint
phraseology, be quick with child—her execution
must be postponed until the birth of that child, or
until the lapse of time has sufficiently proved that
she could not possibly have been in such a state. This
question, which has been shown to be one of extreme
difficulty, frequently baffling the closest investigation,
of competent and skilful practitioners, who have
particularly devoted themselves to feminine diseases,
is left to the decision of a jury of twelve matrons,
who are not even bound to call in the assistance of a'
qualified medical man ; who do not understand the
use of the stethoscope, or other instruments by which
the accoucheurs can detect the presence of the child,
even when the mother herself is ignorant of its exist-
ence ; who may possibly be imbued with prejudices,
and ignorant of the real meaning of the words " quick
with child." These persons return a hasty verdict,
without having adopted any of the means necessary
to insure its accuracy, and an innocent and helpless
being way, ILI be sacrificed as a vic-
tim io cu w, by which it vshoultl nave uer,i
protected. If the woman is at all pregnant, who can
dare to say at what period the child was not a
living creature ? It is the policy of the law that the
benefit of any reasonable doubt should be given to
those charged with the most atrocious crimes : why
should it not also be extended to one incapable of
crime ?

The inadequacy, the worthlessness of the mode of
trial, i 3 proved beyond any manner of doubt
by the number of instances in which juries of
matrons have returned erroneous verdicts. Indeed,
we believe their opinions were positively proved to
nave been erroneous in the great majority of doubtful
cases which have of late years been submitted to their
judgment,
and, strange to say, the error has never
been on the side of mercy. In addition to the compa-
ratively recent and well- known cases of MARY WRIGHT
and CATHERINE BYRNE, cited by our correspondent,
we shall add that of a woman named BRIDGET BuT-
TERLYI who was convicted of murder at Dublin in
the year 1823. She pleaded pregnancy; the jury of
matrons were duly empanelled, and, as usual,
it eedily returned a verdict that the convict was not
quick with child. In her case, unfortunately, no
medical man interposed between the law and its
victim, the wretched woman was, in accordance
with the then state of the law, executed within forty-
eight hours, and on dissection it was found that the
matron' had been mistaken, and that she was between
four and five months pregnant of a male child.

We hope and trust that a similar legal murder may
not be suffered to take place in the present case. On
the trial of the miserable offender Mr. M'Mußpo,
the surgeon of Newgate, a gentleman whose effi-
ciency and zealous attention to the duties of his
station have merited the highest approbation, and
whose opinion is entitled to the greatest respect, de-
clared on oath that he believed the woman to be
enciente, and to have been in that condition for more
than three months. We confess that such evidence ap-
pears to us of much greater weight than that of the
matrons who flippantly, and without consulting a

medical practitioner, returned a verdict that was to
consign a human being to the scaffold.
We are about to return our hearty thanks to
the ALmiGnry for his great mercies manifested
to us in the bountiful harvest he has been
pleased to send. It would be a fitting period
to show our sense of those mercies by extending
mercy to our erring and suffering fellow-creatures.
Prisons have frequently been thrown open, the sword
of justice has been blunted at periods of national
thanksgiving and national rejoicings, and as there are
some mitigating circumstances in the present
case, we would gladly see the example followed,
and that mercy should at once be extended to MARY
ANNE HUNT, so that she should not be exposed to the
protracted agony of awaiting her punishment for many
months, and finding that the deliverance, which is so
anxiously looked forward to by other women, is only
to be the signal for the shameful termination of her
miserable existence.

The Emperor of RUSSIA and the Imperial Family
have fled from Petersburgh to Moscow, to avoid the
cholera The EMPEROR has ordered a new levy of
80,000 conscripts, partly with a view to exterminate
the lower order of the nobility of Poland, wha are
compelled to furnish one man for every ten inha-
bitants, and partly to make up for the ravages which
cholera has committed in the army.

Letters from Berne of the 29th ult. state that an
affray took place on the 18th instant in consequence
of the outrageous conduct of the national militia of
Friburg. These partizans of the Jesuits, who were
returning in a large body from the capital of the
canton, crossed the frontier and fired a volley of ball
cartridge against the village t f Abligen, in Berne.
This brutal and unprovoked act has created an im-
mense sensation throughout the country, and the
Vorort had in consequence written to the authorities
of Friburg that if a prompt satisfaction was not
afforded, measures would be adopted to enforce it.

Letters from Rome of the 25th ult. contradict the
rt'Pnr* nrthA r..;Tnattnn of Cardinal FrutchrTt. Rome
and the Legations continued tranquil. The follow-
ing is the latest intelligence from the duchies of
Modena and Parma :

" The occupation of Brescelle by Austria is not
yet effected, but it appears to be only postponed.
Every day the troops expect orders to march. The
Austrian General Radetski is consulted by the autho-
rities every two days. The strictest watch is kept
on Fanano, and two hundred men are preparing to
march to the frontiers of Lucca. There are at this
moment at Cologno, eight miles from Placentia, on
the left bank of the Po, a great number of troops."

Madrid journals of the 28th ult. have arrived.
ESPARTERO has refused the offer of the post of
Spanish Minister in London.
The Government having called upon NARVAEz
either to return to his post in Paris, or to permit them
to appoint a Minister Plenipotentiary to act during
his absence, had tendered his resignation, and the
Ministry, instead of accepting it at once, commenced
negotiating with him to induce him to withdraw it.
This temporising on the part of the Ministry is worse
than a fault, it is a mistake.
The Carlist chieftain, MARTIAL, has been defeated
in the neighbourhood of Saragossa. He himself was
taken prisoner, and his band dispersed.
It is announced in Madrid that a company is to be
established to work the copper mines of Cuba.

Several persons of distinction were, it is said, ar-
rested on the night of the 27th ult.
MADRID BOLSA, SEPT. 28.—The Three per Cents.
were at 25k cash. 26 paper ; the Five per Cents., 17,-1 ;
Passives, 5i ; Coupons, 14.
Exchange on London, 48d. 80c.

We have received the Paris papers of Sunday.
The Constitutionnel, in announcing the arrival of
Count WALEWSKI at Toulon, states, that after Lord
HOWDEN had raised the blockade of the Rio de la
Plata by the English squadron, the French Plenipo-
tentiary, who all along refused to acknowledge the
authority of ORIBE, considering the Monte Videans
justified in refusing to accept the armistice proposed,
had ordered the blockade by the French to be conti-
nued. Previous to his departure he had obtained
from ORME the liberation of M. BALLESTEE and M.
ROLID.AN, French merchants of Monte Video, who
had been taken prisoners at Colonia and Mercedes.
The French naval forces in the Plata consist of two
frigates, a corvette, six brigs, four steamers, and two
ketches. The armistice was broken on the 2d of
August, and ORME commenced firing on the city.
It is said that RoSAs is preparing to invade the pro-
vince of Corrientes.

The Courrier Francais says—
" M. Guisot on Friday handed to the Marquis of
Nonnanby a note in reply to that in which Lord
Palmersto❑ demanded explanations relative to the
nomination of the Duke d'Aumale. if the rumours
which are in circulation relative to the contents of
the note are to be believed, the Minister has therein
declared, in substance, that the appointment of the
Prince did not imply any change of principle in the
state of things adopted since 1830 by the French Go-
vernment relative to England. This reply allows the
famous question of secret engagements to subsist in
all its plenitude."
We find in the same journal the following intelli-
gence from the Black Sea:—

" The Emperor of Russia has lately published a
ukase which involves one of the gravest questions of
international law. This ukase has for its object to
suspend the exercise of the right of fishing along the
coasts of the Black Sea, from Anapa as far as Batoumi,
in order to prevent assistance from being afforded to
the populations of the Caucasus. This interdiction,
according to the circular addressed to the foreign
consuls and agents, is to apply to all nations. Toe
Czar, by this measure, appears to arrogate to himself
the exclusive property of the Black Sea; for other-
wise he would have the right of surveillance only
over the coasts of Mingrelia, Abasia, and the other
provinces of that part of his states, but he would not
possess any right to interdict all nations from an in-
dustry which they have exercised from time imme-
morial. The ukase in question, therefore, moots a
point that demands to be seriously examined."

The Journal des Daats, in the course of a long
article on the commercial crisis in England, which it
attributes to the deficient harvest of 1846 and the
failure of the potato crop, takes occasion to recom-
mend the establishment of free trade in France as
the most effectual method of preventing the occur-
rence of a similar crisis in that country, as the stock
of old corn at present on hand is very small, and
there is a failure in the crops of beans and potatoes,
while the'wheat harvest is not above the average.
The following is the conclusion of this well-argued
article ;
" When the Uhainber of Deputies voted the law
which extended the provisional permission to import
corn until the month of January next nobody could
foresee the result of the last hx, mod , we-persons
who are systematically opposed to every measure
which appears to be an encouragement to free trade,
combined so effectively that the extension of time
was limited to the month of January, 1848. We
shall have time, said they, to procure supplies during
the summer and autumn, as if it were prudent to
haggle about a period of time when *the question
regarded the food of a nation. We now see that
those persons were mistaken. A commercial acci-
dent has caused a suspension in the arrival of grain.
Nobody is now purchasing corn either at Odessa,
New York, or New Orleans. How should we act
were the present fall in the price of grain in France,
which must be partly ascribed to the commercial
crisis in England, to be followed by a considerable
rise in two or three months ? Does one imagine
that it would be sufficient to extend the period for
importing corn free of duty to January or February?
The example of last year has demonstrated the danger
of waiting for those tardy laws. The year through
which Western Europe has passed has demonstrated
how chimerical were the assertions that Russia and
America were capable of inundating Europe with
wheat. It was asserted that it was only necessary
to strike one's foot on the earth to see millions upon
millions of sacks of corn produced at a low price.
With regard to the low price, the returns of the prices
in the different markets have shown us the truth of
the assertion. If after a consideration of those facts
any party should coolly maintain that agriculture
would be endangered should the restrictive laws of
1819 and 1832 be relaxed, we should begin to despair
of the public common sense."
The Constitutionnel has alsoan article on the crisis in
France, which it attributes to the shameful and whole-
sale corruption practised by Government, in making
places, and granting concessions of railroads. " The
financial world in France," says the Constilulionnel,
" is particularly anxious to know if the Minister of
Finances will decide upon negotiating the loan at
once, or if he will postpone it to another period. It
is said that M. DumoN is in the greatest perplexity,
that he flies from one opinion to another, and that the
resolution which he takes one day is no longer his
Position
resolution on the day after. It is eel that his

is very embarrassing, that en the one hand the loan
in present circumstances would be contracted on
deplorable conditions, and that on the other hand it
appears difficult and even dangerous to postpone it.
But whose fault is this ? Have the Ministry any
one to blame but themselves ? They commenced by
increasing beyond measure the salaries of all public
functionaries, and creating forty thousand new places.
This retail traffic in consciences did not appear suffi-
cient when the elections arrived. The wish was to
purchase the country wholesale by means of the
railways. The budget of public works was over-
charged to an enormous extent, the savings of the
country were expended without heeding the reaction
which was inevitable. Hardly had the last session
commenced when the financial crisis showed itself•
The rise in the price of food came afterwards to
double its intensity. It was in vain that a hope was
entertained that the evil might be stopped by aban-
doning a portion of the works voted with such an ab-
sence of foresight. Private industry renounced the
execution of the railways from Bordeaux to Cette,
and from Lyons to Avignon ; the railways from Dijon
to Mulhausen, and from Gray to St. Dizier remain
without adjudication, and the Chambers reduced from
ninety-three millions: the extraordinary budget of
public works. It was too late, and besides the mass
of the works voted was such, that even after some of
them had been abandoned, there still remained more
than the strength of the country could bear."
The Constitutionnel thus sums up the financial con-
dition of France at the present moment :
" The total amount of the advances and debts
of the Treasury, at the end of 1847, will amount to
700,000,000, without reckoning the sixty or seventy
millions required fur current expenses. It was esti-
mated at the end of last session that the ordinary
budget for 1848 would show a deficiency of forty
millions, and that the extraordinary works would ex-
ceed the reserves of the Sinking fund by sixty millions.
This, then, is 100 millions to be added to the previous
deficiency of 800 millions. how is this to be met ?
\Vill a new issue of boos de tresor he tried ? This
was formerly the economical mode of borrowing, but
it is so no longer, for the interest is now 4f per
cent., and must be raised to 5 per cent. Let us add,
that the floating debt has limits which cannot be
exceeded without danger to the public credit. There
is a moment when the most vulgar prudence coun-
sels the wisdom of consolidating it. It is impos-
sible not to be frightened at the situation of
France if any grave event happened in Europe,
with a floating debt to so exaggerated a❑ amount as
it is at the present. But if recourse be not had to
an augmentation of the floating debt, it will be
necessary to have recourse to the negotiation of a
loan in the midst of a crisis. At what rate must it
be contracted ? Probably at 72 or 74, and it will be
recollected that M. Lacave Laplagne, that insufficient
Minister, concluded this loan at 84! Let Id. Dumon
choose; but whatever be the resolution at which he
may arrive after so many tergiversations, it is neces-
sary that he should make a public declaration of it.
Affairs must not be left any longer in a position that
paralyzes commerce and industry."
We copy the following on the progress of the in-
surrection in Naples from the Presse, and on this
subject the Presse may be considered a high autho-
rity :

"It is positively stated that grave intelligence has
arrived from Naples. The insurrection which had
declared itself in Sicily has, it is said, gained the
continental part of the kingdom, and even the capital
itself. The situation of thfs Government is said to be
seriously menaced, to such a point, indeed, that its
friends manifest very lively apprehensions as to its
existence. The pitiless character of the repression,
far from having put down the movement, appears to
have only aggravated it."
The Three per Cents. were done on the Passage
de l'Opera on Sunday at 75E 22ic.
MARSEILLES, SEPT. 29.—Marseilles and Avignon,
535 f.; Northern, 5251.

BUSINESS DONE IN FOREIGN RAILWAYS AT THE

LONDON STOCK EXCHANGE, OCTOBER 4.
Boulogne and Amiens, IVA—Central of France (Orleans
and Vierzon), 14%—Dutch Rhenish, 214—Northern of
Frazee, 10—Orleans and Bordeaux, 31/2—Paris and Orleans,
44—Sambre and Meuse, 6—Tours and Nantes, VA...West
Flanders, 2%.