The Sun.
London, England, 1848-03-15 00:00:00

PARLIAMENTARY DIVISIONS.

From the Votes and Proceedings of the Haase of Cooone.;a.)

TUESDAY, MARCH 14.
PUNISHMENT OF DliATi-f.
Motion made, and Question put, " That leave be given
to bring in a Bill for the total repeal of the Punishment
of Death." The House divided:—
MINORITY—AYES, 66.
Adair, Hugh E. Hall, Sir B. Pilkington, James
Aglionby, H. Headlam, Thomas Power, Dr.
Alcoa, Thomas Henry, Alexander Power, Nicholas
Barnard, E. G. Heywood, James Raphael, Alexander
Birch, Sir 'Thomas Hindley, C. Robartes, T. J.
BORrillf, Dr. Hodges, T. Twisclei Roche, E'. B.
Bright, John. Hutne, Joseph Salvrey, Colonel
Brotherton, Joseph Hutt, William Scholefleld, William
Callaghan, D. Jackson, William Sidney, Thomas
Clay, James , Keating, Robert Smith, J. Benjamin
Cobbold, John C. Kershaw, James Strickland, Sir G.
Cobden, Richard King, Peter John Tennent, .J.
Cowan, Charles Lennard, I'. B. Thompson, Colonel
Crawford, W. S. Lushington, Charles Thompson, George
D'Eyncourt, C. T. Meagher, Thomas Thornely, Thomas
Divett, Edward Masterman, John Telmer, K.
Duff, George S. 31ilnes, R. M. Walinsley, Sir J
Duncan, George Mowatt, Francis Wawa, J T.
Fagan, William Muni*, G. F. Williams, John
Fagan, James O'Brien, Timothy
Fox, W. J. O'Connor, Feargtts
Greene, John Pattisou, J.
Grosvenor, Lord E. I'echell, Captain

TELLERS.
Ewart, William
Nuiumit, Lord

MAJORITY-NOES, 122.
Alxiy, T. N. Forbes, William Morris, David
Adair, R. Shafto Fordyce, A. 1). Napier, Joseph
Adderley, C. B. Gladstone, W. E. s.rreys, Lord
Anson, Colonel Goring, Charles O'Brien, Jobs
Ansley, Thomas C. Greene, Thomas O'Connell, M. J.
Armstrong, R. B. Greufel , Charles W. Paget, Lord A.
Arundel, Earl of Grey, Sir G. Paget, Lord C.
Baggu, W. Haggitt, F. it. Palmer, Robert
Barrington, Lord Hamilton, G. A. Parker, John
Bellew, K. M. Ileathenat, John Patten, J. W.
Berkeley, Captain Heathcote, G. J. Mot, Sir R.
Blackall, S. W. Ideathcote, Sir W. Pinney; W.
Blackstone, W. Ileneage, G. 11. W. Rice, E. It.
Blakomore, it. Henley, J. W. liomilly, John
Itouverle, E. P. llildyard, R. C. Bushout, Captain
Boyle, Colonel Hildyard, T. E. T. Sandal's, Georo
Brockman, E. D. Hodges, T. L. Seymour, Lord
hlunbury, Edward Hope, Sir J. Shell, It. L.
Burrell, Sir C. Hope, Alexander Sibthorp, Colonel
Burrinighe., H. N. Howard, C W.Q. Somerville. Sir W.
Busfeild, W. Howard, E. G. Stafford, Augustus
Campbell, W. F. Humphery, Ald. Stanley, B. J.
CarovrAW. P. Inglis, Sir.lt. Stanton, `Y ;H.
Chichester, Lord J. Jermyn,"Earl Strutt, Edward
Clive, H. B. Jervis, Sir John Stuart, Henry
Coke, Edward K. Johnstone, Sir J. Sullivan, Michael
Colebrook., Sir T. Keogh, Willltun Thcsiger, Sir F.
Coles, Henry B. Keppel, G. T. Tollemache, John
Compton, H. C. Labonchere, llenry Verney Sir H.
Conolly, CoL Langston, J. H. Vivian, J. E.
Craig, W. G. Lascelles, W. 8. Vyse, R. H.
Deering, John P. Lewis, G. C.l Walter, Joha
Drummond, Henry Mackenzie, W. F. Ward, H. G.
Duacuft, Johnll M`Naghteis, Sir B. We.ethead, J. I*.
Dundas, Admiral Megan, W. B. Whitmore, T. C.
Dundas, George Maitland, Thomas Wilson, Matthew
Du Pre, C. G. Marshall, William Wood, Sir Charles
East, Sir J. B. Matheson, Colonel W•od,.W. P.
Elsrington, Viseoant Melgund, Tlscoant
Edwards, Henry Meux, Sir Henry MUMS.
Evans,'Wllliam Mitchell, T. A. Tufnell, Hoary
Farrer, James M•rpeth, Viscount Hill, Lord M.

TO THE SECRETARY OF THE
BRADFORD REFORM ASSOCIATION.
Sir,—On Monday, at midnight, the three per cent.
income-tax for three years was passed by 363
against 138.
And now I will go over some of the ground again ;
because I seem to have gotten a clearness on one
point I never possessed before.
I think by the favour of Lord George Bentinck I
see to the bottom of the fallacy so often presented to
us, in the shape of the assertion that duties on foreign
produce are paid by the foreigxer. Suppose the case
of corn. A duty of Bs. is proposed on foreign corn.
The effect of this is to raise the price to the English
consumers, by Bs. above what the corn can be brought
for into a British port, and consequently diminish
their demand for foreign corn. But at the same time
the price of corn in the foreign markets will fall in
consequence of this diminished demand, by pos-
sibly 2s. So that the argument is, "Go with-
out foreign corn, and you will be asto-
nished to see how cheap it will be in
foreign ports. Pay 6s. more for your corn, and
never believe us again, if the price does not fall by 2s.
abroad." And so in the opposite case, where the
proposal should be for taking off a duty. The argu
went to us then is, " Never think of taking off 83.;
for do not you see you would get so much corn as
would make it rise 21. in the foreign markets, and
what IN ill become of you then ?"
But this is not the whole. All duties on foreign
produce, whether avowedly so designed or not, have
the effect, directly or indirectly, of raising the price
of some commodities of home growth, and so far giving
them an artificial price. And the great secret of
free trade,—which Leagues and lecturers have not
attained to making familiar to the public, because the
adversary gave way before they were brought to the
necessity,—is that all that is over-paid under the
operation of an artificial price, is so much clear loss
to the community when all men's gains and losses are
thrown into botch-pot.
If laying duties for the sake of enjoying the fall of
price arising out of not buying, was insufficiently
proved absurd before, this seems to finish with it.
And it is of the more importance, because even in
the present debate the Minister could not help letting
out, that he had a lingering affection towards a fixed
duty, founded on: the cheapness of foreign corn
which would arise from not getting it from the
foreigner.
On Tuesday the principal subject was th© motion
of Mr. Ewart, to bring in a Bill for the Total Abolition
of the Punishment of Death. The question has evi-
dently made a stride. There appeared a universal
understanding that the dispute was confined to the
application of the punishment of death to murder. A
east variety of arguments were advanced on both
sides; among which sufficient prominence was not
given to the single question on which the decision
will ultimately be made, which is whether the fre-
quency of murder will be greater or less under the ap-
plication of some other punishment than death. If it can
be shown from experiment to be less, the statesman or
man of any kind, must in a
,Noble Duke's expres-
sion " be mad," who would dream of resisting the
alteration. One argument which I am surprised
none of the speakers urged upon the House, is in
the feet that the period has arrived when the Govern-
ment is virtually unable to inflict the capital punish-
ment. Two notorious cases occurring within a
few days, wi▪ ll immediately present themselves.
Both were the cases of women, who acting
under the furi▪
ous excitement which seems to be
connected with the abandonment of the decencies of
their sex, executed assassinations of the foulest kind,
in gratification of their rage against men with whom
they were living in dishonourable commerce. One
of them murdered two children, by way of avenging
herself on the man who had forsaken his own wife
for her society ; and so strong was the sympathy of
what calls itself the public, for this peculiar
complication of murder and adultery, that it
was not without difficulty the Government was
able to carry the existing law into effect.
The other case was also of a woman, of the class of
female servants, who having formed a coarse and
profligate connexion with a private soldier, or if the
e rs,found
evidencem"' be trusted, with several
herself coarsely and profli-
gatelyrprpivoarttes
treated, and thereupon made herself a heroine
of low romance, by in the public street blowing out
the brains of the silly and reckless lad with whom
she had connected herself. There was no touch of
virtue about the whole
; no seduction, no breach of
promise of marriage, nothing which could distinguish
it, except in degree, from any of the freaks of un-
happy women in the streets with which the police
have hourly to contend. But there was enough to
attract the sympathisers ; and it is probable that by
this time a feather of the bed the murderess slept
on is selling at 110 inconsiderable price. The
Government was obliged to give way ; the tide of
public dislike to capital punishment, added to the in-
terest taken by those who delight in seeing a
woman jump through a hoop or shoot a guards-
man, was too strong for it. Nobody can, after
this, be put to death for murder. Is it not, therefore,
high time that the Government should disembarrass
itself of a punishment, which it can only inflict by
permission of the frequenters of the minor theatres ?
And if the usual crop of imitation crimes shall
follow, will not the Government have itself to blame,
for having refused attention to the subject till the
power was wrested from it by a stronger than
itself ?
On the present experiment, the motion was nega-
tived by 132 against 66.
I am, Sir, your obedient servant,
T. PERRONE. THOMPSON.
Blackheath, London, March 15, lilac

lIBMINIICINCES OF PRINCE TALLEYRAND, BY HIS
PRIVATE SECILLTARY.—The new Revolution in lirance
has increased the interest which had already been ex-
,
cited by the appearance of this work. It has been justly
observed that " Talleyrand Siw so shut up in diplo-
ma, that
maeies, had acted so many parts in his day, had shared
foreigners
triumphsandrewieerreeeL eager for revelations and was so conspi-
cuousinso an
in all,
about his private history and his state-craft as his own
countrymen. He lived to so great an age, too, and had
seen such changes, dynastic and complete, pass over the
face of France, that he acquired during his lifetime an
historical reputation. He was a man of the past as well
as the present; had literally passed through the ordeal
of two or three posterities—(for what else were the suc-
cessive epochs of the Revolution, the Convention, the
Consulate, the Empire, and the Monarchy of July?)—
and lived to find his actions in each of the great phases
of the age discussed with as much gravity of freedom as
if a century had already removed him from the scene.'
—Atlas. The extracts from Prince Talleyraud's manu-
scripts, c‘pinions, and political writings, appended to
these reminiscences, will be found not the least curious
part of this work.
PROPERTY ANT, INCOMII TAI.—We observe, by
the votes of the House of Commons, on the motion of
Dr. Bowring, a return has been ordered for a copy of
the charges preferred to the Board of Stamps and Taxes
by the late clerk to the Commissioners of the City of
London, acting ruder the Property and Income Tax
Acts, against the Surveyor of Taxes for the City of Lon-
don ; also, for a copy of the Minute of the Board of
Stamps and Taxes in reference thereto.
The Prussian Government has forbidden the
export of horses from the territory of the German
Customs League.