The Sun.
London, England, 1841-03-30 00:00:00

SPIRIT of the PUBLIC JOURNALS

FROM THE EVENING PAPERS OF YESTERDAY.
(From the Globe.)
The recent debate on Lord Mahon's motion respect-
ing the employment of convicts under sentence of
transportation, at the hulks, is useful as directing pub-
lic attention once more to a subject of such immense
social importance as the administration of secondary
punishments. Like all questions which ins, Ave a
variety of subordinate considerations, that of t:ans-
portation, and secondary punishments in general, never
fails to elicit a curious medley of individual opinions.
Each man has his penance to propose : Archbishop
Whatalv, for instance, would retain all convicts in
penitentiaries at home ; Lord Mahon, on the con-
trary, would entirely abolish this mode of punishment.
The Noble Lord, as far as we understand his meaning,
would return to the old system of convict assignment in
the colonies, and send abroad as many as possible of
those sentenced to short terms of punishment. He
sets off the evils, sanatory and moral, of the hulks,
against the colonial enormhics of transported con-
victs. The. Committee on secondary punishments of
1835 is pitted against that on transportation in 1838-9.
We think Lord Mahon's motion was premature, yet we
cannot say that we are sanguine as to the working of
the Hulks and Penitent;ary in distinction from the
transportation system. Still less did we coincide with
the Report of the Transportation Committee, whose
main argument was a deduction from the crimes com-
mitted in the convict colonies, of the vicious system
under which they had arisen. Overlooking the
dreadful difficulties to be encountered when you
have felons for the staple of your community, the
Report dwelt on their depravity as conclusive
against the maintenance of a system which had
at least a flourishing colony to show in its favour.
But the evidence collected by the Transportation
Committee is most valuable ; it is a Oark page from the
book of human nature, but one most useful for legis-
lators to study, and, A 3 containing the history of a co-
lony unique in the annals of mankind, it be'ongs to the
dom .in of general history. Our own conviction, sup-
ported by the opinions of many who are practically
acquainted with the working of the present system, is
in favour of the transportation of convicted criminals ;
we think it favourable to the morals of the mother
country to remove from it those who have disgraced it
by their crimes ; we think also, that it would, under
proper regulation, afford at least an equal chance, nay,
a greater one, of individual reformation.
(From the Courier.)

Whilst on all hands the New Poor law officials of So-
merset House are challenged with harsh and heartless
administration of a law essentially harsh and heartless
in its principles as in its provisions, it is not a little
strange to find the accusers who bring the proof, and the
Judges who pass the sentence, with fussy fl;urish and
contradictory compliment labouring to bleach their own
black-made Eth:op white again, with sundry lip salve
parole evidence to individual character, which, if
admissible at all, establishes the fact et once that
they are all, " ell honourable men," whose hu-
manity, theoretically may not be impeached, how-
ever in practical working the " hardness of heart "
done is transparent. We, however, arc unequal to the
apprehension of that humanity which interprets and
administers a cruel law with a rigour beyond the law,
except, indeed, upon the Draconian principle of hu-
manity which impels the executioner coolly to shorten
the agony of his victims by an extra twist of the noose,
or a supplementary tug at the legs. The Commis-
sioners may be, and are, doubtless, very respectable gen-
tlemen and kind hearted in the relations of private life
within their own circle ; but of their humanity in
the larger tense towards kind, towards the
poor, we may be pardoned for incredulity, seeing that
the overt demonst,ations lie all the otter way. The
party really chargeable with new Poor-law barbarism
and new Poor-law official bluster may be, as the 211 ur-
ning Post would seem to say, none other than the offici-
ous Secretary, once well known as one of that penny-a•
lining class whom a Rev. Mr. Spencer, somewhere
about Bath, iu a furious pa nphlet just published in
assertion of the Christian tendencies of new Poor-
law oppression, energetically stigmat;sea as the peas of
the Press and society. In behllf of that ze dous func-
tionary we must, however, repudiate the apologetic
plea ; for in logic as law the axiom holds equally good,
qui facit per alios, facit per se, awl, so long as the agent
is nether rebuked nor removed, his acts, vicariously per-
formed though they be, are but the emanation, and must
be charged to the responsibility, of a suFerior will.
(From the Standard.)
We have observed with great r egret that some difficul-
ties have occurred in the opulent borough of Marylebone,
which are likely to interfere at t.:le next general election
with the return of its present upright and excellent re-
presentative, Lord Teignmouth. We perceive tho,l
these difficulties are entirely of a pecuniary kind, wis-
ing from the indisposition on the part of the Con-
servatives to raise an adequate fund for the
contest. We are quite sure that the Con-
servatives of Marylebone are actuated by too
liberal a spirit, and are too anxious to pre-
serve the position in Parliament which they have so
nobly won, to allow themselves to lose the ser-
vices of a Member who does them so much credit as
the Noble Lord who now represents them, and we can-
not help feeling satisfied that when they consihr tie
sacrifices Oat Noble Lord has made, and the inde-
pendent spirit and ability with which he has repres3nted
them in Parliament, they will yet combine with an ac-
tive and vigorous exertion to secure his services in Vie
next Parliament.

MARIE ANTONIETTE.-1. ventured a few
words of consolation, hinting that times were now im-
prosing, and that her popularity and happiness would be
restored. She shook her herd. We were alone. I know
not how I was worked up to it, or had courage to make
the proposal ; but I dii so—that if she thought herself
in danger, my services were at her command, and tt at
she could come with me to England in the disguise of my
maid, ahrm I could easily dispute of by sending her
under some pretext to her friends at St. Germain. She
thanked me, and smiled faintly, but sad nothing would
incluc.-• her to leave h. r family. She added that she had
refused other offers of the same sort. " Besiles"—and
she looked round—" si je voulais, cela no se pourrail pas ;
it y a trop d'cspions." I took leave of her with rcgret and
affretion.—Su•inburne's Courts of Europe.
MA RYLEBONE VESTRY.—On Saturday, at the
ordinary weekly meeting, Mr. Daniell in the chair, on a
motion being made and seconded that fit ss. should be
paid to the Bishop of London for a faculty to authoriz a
marri•ges, &c , in the chapel during the repairs at the
rectory church, Mr. Kensett objected to the payment of the,
money. He said that persons could as cati'y be married
in the chu.ch during the repairs a: at any other time, and
instanced the couple who were marrie I on the ruins of
Old Camberwell church ; he opposed the payment cf the
money. Mr. Gomm and other vestrymen said that the
bishop could enforce the demand against the churchwar-
den, and recommended its liquidation. On a division the
original motion was earr:ed by a large majority, and the
vestry broke up.
The Rev. Hosea Guinness, LL.D., expired
last week' at his house in Dublin, at an advanced age.
He was appointed Chaplain to the late Royal Dublin Ra.
giment on the 3d December, 1704, and placed on the re-
tired ful!-pay, en the reduction of that corps in 1795, since
which time, therefore, he wan In the receipt of the full-
pay of his rank. He was, consequently, one of what has
been quaintly termed " King George's hard bargains."—
United Service Gazette.
COLOGNE, MARCH 16.—Our Government has
taken care in silence to be able to resist with energy the
storm, which we hepe is now dispelled. The Imiliffs in
the province of the Rhine and Westphalia have been so
FC'l,', that preparations for calling out the first body of
tint Landwehr are complete. All the horses for
cavalry are tegiatt.rcd, and a t.w days stance to
have this numerous and well trained portion of the army
under arms.