The Sun.
London, England, 1841-11-16 00:00:00

SPIRIT of the PUBLIC JOURNALS.

• FROM TUE DAILY PAPERS OP YESTERDAY.
GLOBE.---While the wretched man who suffered
this morning was yet living, we forbore from stating the
. opinion we hold in favour of the execution of the ex-
treme sentence of the law. We have even admitted
arguments on the opposite side into our columns:-But
there is no reason for further reserve of our own opi.
nioo, or of the grounds of it. Let it be shown
to us that there is no terror in canital
punishment for brutal nateres, and none will be
more anxioue than ourselves for its abolition. If
there. is.any such. terror excited—any such sense of. the
force of law, and the certainty of its execution., asmake those pause -whons no moral abhorrence would
withhold from the deed of murder
.er violation—capital
executions are justified. They are justified in the eyes
of all except. of that respected society in whose eyes war
.. is not justified, even in national self-defence. Why the
possibility, or even the certainty, of a murderer, a
ravisher, a traitor or two, suffering on the scaffold, at
considerable intervals, should excite such a vast deal of
• sympathy as to drown ad sympathy for theitvictims, and.
absorb all care or concern for the millions of lane-
cent citizens whom the rare severities of the law secure*.
in some measure, from crimes of violence during those
intervals—we ate unable to explain, except from similar
pervers;ons of leeline to those which make sympathisers
with Jed: Sheppard. or hero-worshippers of Guy
.Fawkes. We soy, without hesitation, that except in
the case of " Friends,- who are consistent in this doe-
trine—and of a few speculative and phrenological phi-
lanthropists (whom we -way notice some other time).
we believe that what really is at the root of
most of the outcry reainst all death punishment, is a
hirking hostility to the social system as it exists. We
do not mean. to ihinute this as criminal, or to stigma-
:the any of the Opponents of capital punishments, but
- we do mean to say that snelieftelings operate and are
'highly dengerous. Hew else r does it happen that
sects' extrrene 'tenderness. of huttan fife in the case of
criminal-, is in often accompanied with such utter in-
' -iliiferince-to ie when destroyed in the way of " wild
justice," as it lids sometimes been termed, or of
Whole-sale massacres, when those have been made on
pretexts'?popular We distrest some of this popular
philintheopy we' believe it to be one-sided. It be-
longs to the age of " bowie-knives," and dastard dag-
egers " for. se I f defenrc." We distrust it ;we do indeed
—we have seen its " uprising," and are " acquainted
with its w lys." We should expect to meet it at a
minor theatee;, gloating on scenes of mixed outrage and
licenliousoesi;; and enjoying the mimic murders which it
gen'tbear to see punished in eernest. We should ex-
Tent to meet it in scenes more serious were the terrors
of lay, end. the bonds of order, relaxed in the degree
which philanthropists of this sanguine complexion call for.
'S-TA NDA II I).—Tee appointment of a Bishop of
the United Cliaireleof England anti Ireland to exercise
epißeopal Inactions within certain limits of the Les ant
is an -event too important to pass unheeded or un-
lamented by the enemies of our venerable Establish-
ment. We find the Sprelator and the Morning
Clar6itier'r already drawing from it the darkest pre-.
sages and the worst consequences. As fat as Englisha•
men are concerned, we apprehend little evil from all
that our Contemporaries can say ; but as some of-their
remarks are ca;culet el to excite the jealousy of foreigners
by surmising it, a few words of explanation may be
useful. - The Church of England, though happily
•established iii these islands, is, in the belief of con-
seientous Churelenen, something more and some-
thing infinitely higher than a mere temporal establish-
meet. It is a body of Christians spiritually united by
the adoption of a common faith and a common form of
discipline. In this view, if the Church diielaims all
elsil authority on the one side, as all its sober members
•tio, it can acknowledge no local limits on the other.
What is true, and decent, and orderly in England
and Ireland. must preserve the same charac-
teristics every where ; and we are not to withhold the
benefit of the blessing from others who may seek it,
though separated from us by the accident of place or
the accident of different civil hest' tutions. " Show me," said
the late Mr. Howells, of Long-acre Chapel," a man who
would be contented to go to Heaven alone, and I will
show you a man who will never go there.' Plato
had said the same thing before, though in a less
homely stele. If we believe the system of the
Church of England—understanding by the word
eyetent the compound of creed and ecclesiastical
discipline—the beet ealcu!ated for the religious
improvement of man—and that we do is proved by
cur adooi6'n'- of this system—we are surely bound
to let all 'mankind participate in it if they please ;
more especially bound to secure its advantages to
ail who are entitled to them, as Englishmen are by right
of birth. Tne title of Bishop Alexander, as a Bishop
of the United Church in Jernsaletn, ought, one would
think, to have rendered unnecessary any caveat
against they a girestion of any of those objections that
are offered--=-ought to have obvieted the parallel of the
Isiah. Roman Catholic Prelates' claim to be Bishops
of`certain' riiheeies• in Ireland. The King of Bei-
giurri'avie a lessf;'inontlis ago. king ha England, and no
doubt° during- hiC visit to his Royal Niece lie may
have - exercised sortie acts of Royalty in this country—
though - • certainly not in relation to the Eng-
lish-- ettiatiledn'tlrelation to his own subjects. The
;tallejjeadence of England was surely not invaded
by either his Majesty's presence or his acts. On
' the other. hand •we are all gratified by the pre-
sence of a niece who in other times had taught us
to rrspect and love him, and who, by his visit,
added t ) ti:e enjoyments of our bchved Queen.
There is, too, another and sin important differ-
ence in the cases of the new Bishop in Je-
rusalem, and the Irish Romanist Bishops. Bishop
Alexander hie sworn no obedience, civil or.
,ecclesiastical, to any authority in England. and by
• The lite Act he is exonerated from the necessity of
' taking even the oath of allegiance. It is mere accident
that he is a British subject. Tile Roman Catholic Bi-
ihons elthe several dioceses in Ireland, are, on the
either hand, strictly sworn to a civiland ecclesiastical
tobedience to the See of Rome, and must be taken from
alien trained in the most submissive service to that See.