The Sun.
London, England, 1846-01-08 00:00:00

PUBLIC EXECUTIONS.
(From the Acker biserof Tuesday.)
Yesterday was a sad and sorrowful day in the me-
tropolis. A double tragedy of the most dreadful kind
was performed early in the morning. The public mind
received a terrible shock by the execution of two indi-
viduals—one at eight o'clock, at the Old Bailey, and the
other two hours afterwards at Horsemonger-lane gaol.
The first victim of our sanguinary criminal code—san-
guinary so far as the crime of murder is concerned—
was a female. What added to the dreadful character of
her death under such circumstances, was the fact of her
extreme youth, being only in her twenty-second year.
There was, too, something in her person and manner
which gave a peculiarly touching interest to her execu-
tion. She was no hardened criminal—in fact, in the
proper acceptation of the word, she had previously
been no criminal at all. It is appalling to think
of such an exit from the world in the case of
any fellow-being, but to think of a young female,
unacquainted with the ways of crime as re-
gards society, dying by the hands of the public execu-
tioner, is a doubly dreadful idea. Eftbrts were made by
humane persons to obtain a commutation of the sentences
of the to a wretched creatures, now in another world.
Apart from the abstract abhorrence, whichich every rightly.-
censtituted mind must feel at the judicial murder—for it
can be called by no other name—of any fellow-creature,
there were peculiar circumstances in the case of each
which would not only have warranted, but which ought
to have insured a departure from the extreme penalty.
We need not recapitulate these mitigating circum-
stances, as we adverted in detail to some of them a few
days ago.
But though the Home Secretary lent a deaf ear to the
reasonings and entreaties of those who sought a com-
mutation of the sentences passed on the unhappy being,
who were yesterday suddenly sent by our laws into the
presence of their Maker, it is some consolation to know
that the public mind is not in this instance faitb.:tilly re-
presented at the Home-office. Among the better and
more intelligent classes of the community, there was, all
Yesterday, but one feeling of horror anti regret at the
tragedies performed at the Old Bailey esnd Horsemonger-
lane goal. Not one solitary appros;ing voice was to be
heard among those whose opinions or feelings are wor-
thy of respect.
The hostility to capital punishments has increased
with wonderful rapidity within the last few years. It
is still extending at s corresponding rapid rate. Its
progress is irresistible ; it must eventually triumph.
Nor can the day ot' its victory be much longer deferred.
Even if the convictions of the public on this subject
should not be shared in Downing-street, it will be impos-
sible for the functionaries in that locality to act in defi-
ance of public opinion. What they will not do from the
sense of right and justice, they must do from considera-
tions of policy. In this reflection there is gronnd for
joy. It would doubtless be more grateful and gratifying,
were Ministers to sympathise with the feelings, and con-
cur with the views, of the better portion of the commu-
nity, on this question ; but since this may not be so, it
is no small satisfaction to know that Ministers will
eventually be forced to prevent the exaction of death
punishments.
We refer our readers to the reports of what took place
at the execution of the two unhappy creatures who
were yesterday hurried by the hangman into the pre-
menet, of their Maker. What was seen and heard on the
occasion was only what are seen and heard on all such
occasions. The most revolting absence of all right
feeling, was displayed by the immense concourse of
persons who assembled to witness the frightful spectacles.
The crowd, we are told, who were drawn together to
witness the execution of the female, extended to Smith-
field-market. Then the number of spectators could
not have been less than ')0,000. We blush while we
write it. Fearfully morbid must be the state of feeling
which could prompt human beings to witness such a
scene. ft need not, therefore, to surprise our readers to
be told, that, instead of conducting themselves with
solemnity and decorum, the most revolting ribaldry were
ever and anon indulged in.
Nor was the improper conduct of the spectators con-
fined to words. It was still more strikingly exhibited
in actions. At the very mement, we are told by the
reporters, when the miserable creature was in the act of
being strangled, and during the violent struggles which
fellowed the falling of the drop, " several transfers were
effected of pocket handkerchiefs, purses, &c." And a
correspondent, it will be seen, records some repulsive
circumstances that marked the manner in which the ex-
ecutioner performed his duty.
And yet we are told that capital punishments and
public executions are necessary as examples to deter
from the commission of murder. This, indeed, is the
only plea now urged le defence of our Draconian pu-
nishments. The answer to the plea is furnished in the
fact of what occurred yesterday at the foot of the
gallows, and what invariably does occur at public exe-
cutions.
No man, we boldly affirm, ever yet learnt, or ever
will learn, humanity or morality by witnessing the legal
butchery of fellow beings. Such revolting spectacles,
on the contrary, have a necessary tendency to debase
and brutalise the mind. Thousands have dated their
initiatory step in crime to their attendance at public
executions. The gallows is the most effective school-
master which could be employed for bringing to the
gallows. Many a young man who was yesterday a
spectator of the horrible tragedies at the Old Bailey and
Iforsemonger-lane gaol, is now much more prepared for
the commission of atrocious crimes than he was when
he arose from his bed in the morning.
There is one fact connected with the executions of yes-
terday, to which we ought not to omit referring. We
allude to the statements of the reporters, that such was
the haste of many who had witnessed the one execution,
to be present at the other, that several accidents occurred
in consequence. Who can read this statement without
being struck with horror ? Not feeling their revolting
curiosity satisfied with one such spectacle, they must
needs hurry away with breathless eagerness to gloat over
another ! But comment on such a fact would only
weaken its effect. The naked statement is enough.
There are volumes of meaning in it. Though we were
to till every column of our paper with proofs of the
hardening and brutalising effects of public executions,
we could not accomplish our object half so effectually, as
it is done by the simple fact we have just recorded.

ANTI-CORN-LAW LEAGUE.
(From the Time..)
_ _

We publish to-day reports of two meetings, at each of
which strongly-worded resolutions against the corn-laws
were unanimously adopted ; the one held at Newcastle
in a splendid building erected for the purpose, and
thronged by all the wealth and intelligence of that
thriving town and port, and graced by the fervent
eloquence of the two best speakers the League has pro-
duced ; the other held by a party of half-starved agri-
cultural labourers on a winters night, in the open air, at
a cross-road, by the light of a clouded moon and a few
Siring candles, in a remote village of North Wilts. It is
to this latter meeting that we wish to call especial atten-
tion. Messrs. Cobden and Bright, and the closely-
packed four thousand whom they addressed, are
well able to plead their own cause, and to en-
lorce their own views upon a reluctant Legisla-
ture. They represent wealth and commercial activity,
and do not fear to embark both as their stake in the
adventure of free trade. But what say the labourers of
Goatacre, the representatives of a class for which we are
told that protection must be maintained ? Do they meet to
protest against a measure which is to involve them and
t';eir masters in one common ruin—to reduce corn fields
to commons, and assimilate their condition to tbat of the
Polish serf ? No. They point to their wan figures and
wretched apparel ; they recount their sad attempts to
support existence upon the pittance that a " protected"
ae,riculture doles out to them ; they compare notes in
their misery; and, confident in the value of their own free
hands, and persuaded that nothing can add to their pre-
sent destitution, they unite with the merchants and
pitmen of Newcastle in a demand that what is called
" protected" shall cease, and that they, the "protected"
shall be freed from " protection," and have the opportu-
nity. of earning a fair day's wage for a fair day's work.
It is no light emergency that has brought together
these poor men to confer upon their grievances, and
to petition for relief. They come of a long-suffering
race, and belong to a class which has always been
content to exchange the labour of their hands for
little more than the means of feeding themselves
and their children. They
have struggled long to ledaorntthhies
difficult task of making six shillings a
for them; they have stinted themselves of clothing and
of food ; they have anxiously practised all the hard
economy of their little households, and weak with in..
anition, and broken-hearted with despair, they proclaim
that they can bear this no longer, and that they, too,
are ready to throw up the ideal benefits of protection,
and to try another system in lieu of that which, for
them at least, has brought only famine or the workhouse.
Their prayer deserves attention. If protection has pro-
duced nothing but mortgaged landlords, bankrupt
tenanti,:i and starving labourers—and we can adduce the
vviuenct of landlords, tenants, and labourers to prove
this fact—then we say, with the poor men of Goatacre,
as welt as with .the merchants of Newcastle, the manu-
facturers of Manchester and the citizens of London—
Let us try free trade.

CLASS LAN's. IT -----
none b:t the ntil within the last few
landed gentry %try were returned to Parliament, so
years
that they had a
.Porkry (and embraced it too) of
legWating for themselves fleece their stubbornness against
the Reform Bill, and their
alarm (for it is evident
e hey are alarmed) on account? of teinti-Vorn-law League
" manufacturing" votes, as the lords
sea, choose to call
it. They have no liking, it lust ident already, ,of the 72,000!.
raised in furtherance of the jPrioeipleread
high time that class law-making watoikeatb, free. bade. It is
laws, totally abolished. e iraquitous corn-
.
FOOT 11, ACE.—Tuesday the running match between
Allen and Ben Caunt's novice was decided. The pedestrians
were matched for 10/. aside, to run 120 yards of road,--an-1
the contest was deed to come off at Jem Burn's, the .Grey-
The novice had an advantage at the
hound. 1'111112;n-fields.
start, hut Allen strenuously exerted himself, and succeeded
in ~.oming up with his opponent. The struggle was then
snails for the goal, and Allen gave evidence of his superiority
13; s?ced by running in the winner by a yard and a half.
lloanis'rlNo OCCURRENCE.---011 Tuesday, a pri-
vate in the GOth Rifles, stationed in Dumbarton Castle, on
l'einz relieved from sentry at five in the morning, attempted
"1 himself, by placing the muzzle of his gun to his head,
under the Vs
c-io, and then- discharging
was so r successful—he it. The poor fellow
kill himself. 1.1;.3 ul—he discharged his gun, but did not
face. hut in place
ofball entered at the lower part of the
tended, it came out 404'g up, through the head as he in-
leaving touched. The victim Oleg': aase, the brain un-
life, but desperately wounded, react was therefore left in
the tongue, the nose, and indeer jaw the greater part of
been destroyed. The poor safferthe,"l,....l4lmface nearly, have
barracks in Paisley, where the 7 been taken to the
stationed.—Glasgow Argus. NA of the depot is
landholders .
F kILMERS' FRIENDS.—At none of the ,
meetings just holden has any one of the
farmers that they would protect them from ers told the
by breaking up their preserves. No ; not one syllable lideaehltreett;
that ! If the landholders really were the " farmers' %fled,:
they would have shown it before now in the deemfr.:tie-IT';
their destructive preserving system.

LAW INTELLIGENCE.
SECONDARIE'S COURT, Jan. 7.

(Before Mr. Secondary PoTTER.)
There were only three causes set down for trial, one
of which was Richards v. Hargraves.
A new jury was sworn for the ensuing six weeks, and
several excuses were made of temporary and occasional
illness. _ _

The SECONDARY said that he did not consider such
excuses sufficient, and the parties would be called on to
attend at the Criminal Court, and make their excuses
there.