The Sun.
London, England, 1846-03-13 00:00:00

AifiA,444n,

LONDON, FRIDAY, MARCH 13, 1846.

The LORD CHANCELLOR took his seat upon the
Woolsack at Five o'clock.
Various petitions were presented.
The Earl of ST. GERMANS moved the reconsideration
of Cr,e report on the Irish Pacification Bill.
The LORD CHANCELLOR then formally moved the;
amendments wh:cli had been agreed to on Tuesday.
The Earl of CLANCA an' wished to know whether.
witnesses who were cognizant of crimes would be corn-
riled to give evidence cr not. He put that question to,
if and Learned Lord opposite (CAMPBELL).
L,,rd CAMPBELL, who had only occupied the situation
Chrinedlor cf Ireland for an instant, would recom-
mend that the question should be put to the Noble and
Learacd Lord on the Woolsack, who had been Lord
Chancellor during three reigns.
The Loup CHANCELLOR did not feel bound to answer
the question.
Lord S-rouirroN urged that every person who was
going to fetch a priest should under all circumstances be
exempt from arrest.
The LoEn CHANCELLOR said that no one could doubt
that a person going to fetch a priest to attend a sick man
was out on his lawful, occasion, unless he was a cri-
minal, when under the existing law he was liable to be
apprehended.
The report was then ordered to be received, and the
third reading of the Bill was fixed for this day.
Earl GREY gave notice that be should, on Monday
vveek, move an address to her MAJESTY on the subject
of Ireland generally.
The Earl of DALUOUSIE moved the 611SPeadqn

standing orders requiring the Select Committees on
Railway Bills to take evidence as to the traffic A. the
districts through which they passed.—Agreed to.
Their Lordships then adjourned.

There being only thirty-four Members present at foil
o'clock, the House of Commons adjourned.

There is no part of our criminal code which so loudly
demands a revision and reform as that relating to
duelling. The law is perfectly clear and well-defined.
Every person concerned in a duel in which there has
been a life lost, not only as principal or second, but even
as a mere looker-on (if he be there as an :eider and
abettor), is guilty of murder, and subject to the highest
penalty known to our law. The proof is simple and
easy, and yet,numerous as have been the victims who have
fallen, there can scarcely be pointed out a single in-
stance of a conviction, certainly not a single one, in
which there had not been something unfair in the ma-
nagement of the duel, or in which the survivor had not
been grossly wrong in the matter which led thereto.
Some few years since it required the strongest moral
courage to refuse to fight if challenged, or to omit send-
ing a challenge if an insult had been given. The man
who did so offended against the law of society and re-
ceived a punishment more severe than almost any the
law could inflict. It was useless for him to allege that
the head and front of his offending was, that he had
refused to violate the laws both of GOD and man—no
matter whether wife and children were wholly dependent
on him—that ho was an upright and amiable man, dis-
charging efficiently all the duties of life as husband,
parent, or friend, he had refused to render satisfaction, as
it was termed, when demanded of him, and he was shunned
and deserted, if not by all, at least by the great 'majority.
Who could put forward the plea that he had already given
sufficient proof to displace any imputation on his personal
courage when even the Iron Duke—the hero of a hundred
fights—was not satisfied to rest on his well-est iblished
character, but thought it neces"ary to demand such a
satisfaction for what he conceived to he an im-
putation
on his honour, and when a veteran
of the highest reputation, the present Governor-
General of India, consented to act as his second on the
,-,,,..,tr5... a it is o.ili to tinnoresgarr here to repeat the
names of the highest and best in our land, who have
themselves been involved in similar transactions, and
who certainly suffered no loss of character thereby.
One instance within the last few years will be sufficient
to testify that the leaders of our Government, and the
majority of the Members of the House of Commons,
considered that the practice was still justifiable. We
allude to the debate on the occasion of the Master of
the Rolls, the then Attorny •General, of Ireland, having
sent a hostile message in court, during the progress of
the O'CONNELL trials, to Mr. FIZTGIBBON, a Queen's
Counsel, retained can behalf of tie traversers, for obser-
vations made by him in the discharge of his professional
duty. Latterly, however, we are happy to say a heal-
thier state of feeling has arisen on the subject. The man
who refuses to commit such a crime is no longer looked
en as a person who may be insulted with impunity, and
who must be scouted out of society for so doing. On
the contrary, if his conduct in the entiro transaction
will bear the strictest investigation—if be has not
willfully or wantonly inflicted an injury or insult on his
opponent—his character will stand higher than ever for
his refusal ; and there is a strong feeling of the neces-
sity of a stop being put to the practice in every possible
way. Ifow, then, can this be done ? Is it by prosecut-
ing with the utmost rigour of the law the parties in-
volved in every fatal case, and punishing them when
convicted ? This will not be sufficient. All our expe-
rience shows that the certainty of a minor punishment
is much more effectual for the repressing of crime of
any kind than the possibility of the most severe, when
every sympathy would be enlisted en behalf of the pri-
soner, and every anxiety felt by the jury and audience
for an acquittal, because the punishment would be so far
beyond what the crime demanded.
We are led to these observations in consequence of
the recent trial, at Winchester, of Mr. PYM ; and we
confess that we did not feel surprised at his acquittal,
contrary as it was to the charge of the Learned Judge
who tried the came, or -at the burst of applause and
manifest satisfaction with which that verdict was re-
ceived by the crowded assembly who witnessed the trial.
The simple questions for the jury to decide on, as stated
by the Judge, were—Did a duel take place ?—was Mr.
SE I'ON wounded in that duel ?—and was Mr. Pena a
second in that duel ? It was a matter of public noto-
riety that Mr. SETON received his death-wound in such
a duel, and that Mr. Pyle was a second therein ; and the
evidence was abundantly sufficient to warrant any rea-
sonable man or body of men in finding that such were
the facts. Indeed, we cannot conceive that any body
of men could hesitate in coming to such a conclusion ;
but the jury adopted the argument of the learned and
able counsel for the prisoner, who argued not that such
was not the law, but against its policy, and that juries
might stand between the law and the accused, and
refuse to convict him of such a crime as wilful murder,
in fact, that they were not bound to take the law from
the judge, but might themselves become the arbiters
both of law and fact. And if ever there was a case to
excite the warmest sympathies of a jury, and to induce
them to strain every point in order to prevent the
fearful consequences of a conviction, it was that one.
A young man, under twenty years of age, bearing the
highest character as a mild, inoffensive gentleman, very
unlikely to promote a quarrel, had consented to act for
a friend and brother officer, on whom an injury of the
most serious character had been attempted;—the virtue
of his wife had been assailed. A large pecuniary
recompense had been offered as the price of her honour
and that of her husband. Although repulsed, the
assailant refuses to desist from his persecutions, but
continues his odious attentions; and when at length the
husband wrings from his wife the facts, and maddene'o
by the continued and public attentions of the we.,-„:loi.be
seducer, finds it necessary to tell him the': 'fie is
1-tes to him epithets
ac-
quainted with everything, and a 5
Iwhich no husband of a '‘.":.;ig and virtuous woman could
consider as suflia;nitly strong, under the circumstances.
The anS-wer given is (if possible) an aggravation of the
esaig,inal offence, an addition of insult to the attempted
I injury, "that it was impossible for a light cavalry man
to meet an infantry man;'' forsooth, that an officer and
a gentleman, bearing a commission in an honourable and
gallant corps, was to be injured and iniulted with im-
punity, because the insulter chose to arrogate some
fancied superiority for the branch of the service in which
he himself held his commission. Who could refuse to
come forward in such a cause?—not an ardent and high-
spirited youth, who feltbis friend, and the body to which he
belonged, had been grievously and wantonly insulted. He
was no practised andvetcran duellist,ready to foment quar-
rels, and bring to a mortal arbitrament a triflir g dispute,
which the slightest degree of discretion on the part of
the seconds migkc have arranged, and brought to an
amicable conclusion. On the contrary, it appeared that
!
he did not even know how to load the pistol he was
about to place in the hand of his friend. We cannot,
therefore, regret the result of the trial, although we fear
it will tend to perpetuate the practice, and form a pre-
cedent for other juries to exonerate and discharge persons
appearing under less favourable circumstances. Mr.
Pl-31 was not the sort of person to be made a first victim
tee the unwillingness of the Legislature to grapple with
and put an end to an acknowledged evil, against which the
public voice has been loudly and deservedly raised.
Let the Legislature, if it seriously desire to put a stop to
the offence, declare duelling to be a serious offence ; let
it affix a severe penalty of fine and imprisonment (per-
haps with hard labour) to be inflicted in every case, no
matter what may be the result ; and when one or two
prosecutions have taken place, when some gentlemen of
nice honour—quick to take offence, and anxious to make
themselves notorious as principals or seconds have
exercised themselves for one or two years in some of
our ho ises of correction ; and when it is known that
every similar offence is certain of receiving a similar
punishment, we venture to prophecy that duelling will
no longer be a fashionable amusement, but that its prac-
tice will have received a heavier blow and a greater
discouragement than if a conviction had taken place,
and that public feeling had been outraged by human
life being again taken away by a legal murder. Lord
CAMPBELL has earned for himself a proud title as the
reformer of acknowledged abuses in our laws ; let him
canthat
won add
and
no
hereafterbh ter
maylau win darn
laurel tothenirg hiseath useful
swhich
he has
career, or one which will confer a greater benefit on his
country,

1
Scarcely ever have -;--..."---:--e encertame-d-7entiments of such
peculiar satisfaction at the general bearing ofs
thosethe wLow.itehr
Rouse in the discussion of a religious question,
as
which we on Wednesday observed the manner in which the
second reading of the " Roman Catholic Relief Bill" was
received by the majority of the Members. And it is more
peculiarly a source of gratification to ourselves from the
circumstance of its forming an additional evidence of the
liberality of feeling with which the Ministry are now in-
spired. It is creditable likewise to this age of enlighten-
ment and freedom of opinion that a Bill of this nature should
!
I be introduced to the supervision of Government, Every one
with but a fractional portion of common sense recoils from
any further perpetuation of those miserable and atrocious
penal enactments which are, in fact, the leprous blotches of the
statute-book—enactments by which a body of Christians, and
a very gigantic body be it remembered, is debarred
AVM an exercise of the reasoning faculties, or of conscience ,

itself, under penalties of so violent a description as to excite
the repugnance of all well-constituted minds. That these
opinions are not restricted to any petty band of innovators,
but are those entertained by almost every division of the
community, is fully demonstrated, even if we regard that
effluence of the multitude (the House of Representatives) as
the criterion. Laws so villanously stringent upon the minds
as well as upon the bodies of our fellow- creatures—laws so con-
trary to the more essential elements of our constitution itself
-laws at once so cowardly and so infamously despotic as
these constitute au anomaly but little creditable to a genera-
tion of science or a nation of freemen. And to maintain for
a single instant that such enactments are necessary as pre-
servatives to the es!ablished religion of this country would
be a tacit acknowledgment of the rottenness and' mundane
insecurity of that creed. It would be an inference most per-
nicious to the Protestant Church. All these considerations
have, within this session, operated upon the different depart -
ments of the Legislature, and in consequence the lovers of
freedom and of charity (in which class we would enume-
rate all right-minded Englishmen) are rejoiced to
see a Bill introduced for the abolition of these
statutes by the LORD CHANCELLOR himself, simultaneously
with one of a like nature now passing through the House of
Commons. The fearless, candid, and dispassionate manner
in which the latter was on Wednr s lay introduced for a second
reading by Mr. Escorr was a gratifying testimony that a
really competent party had been selected for that office
But a rather miserable contrast was given to
the Hon. Member's address by the subsequent
speech of Sir ROBLRT IlAnnv Isectes a speech
which reflects as little credit upon his taste as upon his judg-
ment—a speech more adapted to the congregations of Exeter
Hall than to the audience of St. Stephen's—a speech as
wretched in its tact as it was virulent in its sentiments. Lord
MoEPETII, whose remarks were brimming over with noble
truths—truths eminently worthy of his utterance—could
scarcely have insinuated the bigotry by which all antagonists to
this 8.11 were goaded on with more consummate delicacy or
more painful sarcasm. His allusions to the Hon. Member for
Oxford were thoroughly merited and conveyed that gentle-
manly, but :emphatic reprcbaticn of his conduct with which
he should be unceasingly visited until the close of his semi-
clerisal crusade. It is indeed a matter of astonishment, of
indignation, of deep and unaffected regret on our part, that
the University of Oxford—so renowned for its erudition, for
its correspondence with the advancement of eociety, and for
its aggregation of natural and cultivated talent—should suc-
cumb to the MAWWOE3I class of ethics, and, Parliament after
Parliament, set forth as an exponent of its religious and
political views one so impervious to the voice of liberal and
charitable concession. To Sir ROBERT Ixates the "live
and let live" of theology is a non-existence; he declaims
against the code of Jesuitism as over-rigid, and
establishes in his own mind a moral inquisitien, most stern
and uncompromising, to all of a different belief. Filled,
however, as we are with regret at this mal-appropriation of
human reason, it is matter of earnest congratulation to our-
selves, that saving the casual toadyism of Colonel
SIRTHORP, or his scanty compeers, the diatribes of
Sir R. 11. INGLIS are virtually and actually innocuous.
Wednesday's division was proof positive that our legislators
are animated by a true and practical devotion to the prin-
ciples most accordant to our political state, as well as most
accordant to the creed established by the Gon OF THE
CHRISTIANS. Before very long we shall have the
grateful consciousness that in England the most
divine attribute of our common nature—FArrn----is no
longer tramelled by human edicts; that each man may
worship his CREATOR in the manner moat reasonable to him-
self without let or hindrance, but, above all, without a single
glimmer of scorn or obloquy.

The motion of Mr. WILLIAMS, the Member for Coventry,
relative to the want of education in Wales, is one of the very
first importance, and to that gentleman we are indebted for a
macs of useful information, supported by some very sagacious
and benevolent hints as to the manner in which a great national
evil may be eradicated. The facts upon which that Hon.
Member founded his present interposition on the part of his
fellow-countrymen are heart-touching in the extreme, and
are deserving of the most earnest consideration. According
to an estimate formed by the President of a Dissenting College
in Wales, it appears that 250,000 children require instruction
in that country. Of these merely 70,000 are supplied with the
necessary education, and a very considerable portion of that
70,000 are abandoned to schoolmasters of such indifferent
capacity, that the education is actually little more than
nominal. A calculation more startling than this could
scarcely be made in any other civilised country ; it proves
more: than a social malady, it proves a legislative over-
sight. What moral excellence, what political sobriety, what
subordination, what improvements, can possibly be ex-
pected from a population, when 150,000 children are per-
mitted to grow up in an ignorance as leaden, as unhoping,
and as dismal in its density, as creatures with the faculties
of man are capable of doing? What hopes can be enter-
tained of a people with excellent wages, who have no
other alternative to while away their leisure hours
but the vapours of the tap-room ; no other solace
in their lack of occupation but alcohol ; no other notion of
supreme enjoyment but a gossip round the hearth-stone of a
public-house? What tranquillity can be looked for among a
race without the power to balance with accuracy the problem
of right and wrong? None. No, not one. It would be the
murkiest insanity ; it would be expe sting a fruitful harvest
where no single grain is sown, and where the wholesome
moisture of the earth is expelled by an unnatural drought.
An - enumeration of all those baneful consequences which
must necessitate from such a condition of mind among a
body of men like our 'Welsh countrymen is scarcely possible
—they are almost numberless. But that political and social
grievances must result from the mere circumstance alone of
their not knowing the language in which the laws that rule
them are expressed, must be evident to any rational indi-
vidual. Their isolation by this fact also precludes them
from all capacity to rise above the original level of their
condition : they are shut out from the most humanizing
influences : they are prevented from becoming more deter-
minately prosperous either materially or intei!eetually. So
manifest were all these deductions, so impossible to gainsay,
so incapable were they of being slurred over, that the Home
Secretary acknowledged the urgency of the me,
requested Mr. WILLIAMS to withdraw 1-' ar, merely
-.5 motion on the
f wing engagement :
He (c:.:a. JAMES GRAHAM) pro-
posed that the Educat;--
ComMittee of the Privy Council
should send de.-.. - _ a into i \Vales two of its inspectors to inquire
into `liie
extent of the ignorance of the English language
among the population of Wales, and into the best means of
removing it. He thought that the necessary information
might be speedily obtained, and that the intervention of
Parliament might be procured, perhaps, during the present
session."

We shall look vigilantly for the report of these two pro-
posed inspectors, and we shall look hopefully for that same
intervention of Parliament, sustained by the aspiration that
houses of correction may give place to parish seminaries,
and tuition ultimately supersede the treadmill,

We have intelligence from Madrid to the 4th instant. The
Gazette of that date publishes a return of the receipts& and
expenditure for the year 1845, showing a balance in fairour
of the Government, to the amount of 65,156,372 reals,
(651,5601.); the total expenditure being 1,225,495,957 reals,
(12,254,9591.); and the receipts 1,290,652,329 reals,
(12,906,5230. It was said that the Government bad re-
fused to accept the resignation of Don HENRIQUE, as they
wish to keep him at a distance from the capital. The
lleraklo says, the negotiations at Rome had taken a more
favourable turn, and bulls from the Mors had been re-
ceived in Madrid, approving of the bishops lately ap-
pointed, in which his HOLINESS expressly and solemnly
acknowledges ISABELLA 11., as Queen of Spain.
The Funds have again fallen. On the 4th the Three per
Cents. closed at 28% for cash, and at 30 days; and the
Five per Cents. at 21% for :he 30th of April.

In the French Chamber of Deputies, the motion of M.
DE ST. PmEsT, relative to the reduction of the Five per Ceet.
Stock has been carried by a majority of 56—the numbers
being fur authorising the consideration of the subject, 201,
and against it, 145. The Minister of Finance strongly
opposed the adoption of such a course as inepportune and
even dangerous under present circumstances. In the course
of the discussion M. GARMER PAGES inveighed strongly
against. the Government for its want of courage in this in-
stance, insisted on the necessity of
.effecting the conversion
at the present time, and added that a strong reason against
it was one universally known, though no person liked to
mention it,—namely, the "systanze, the "pensex du regne"—
in other w ords the KING. He was loudly called to
order by the Centre, and he dropped the topic.
There is no chance, however, of the measure
being carried this session, for the House of Peers are also
opposed to it, and will not yield but to what M. GARNIE&
PAGES calls an " imperious reason." The late insurrection
in Poland, for we believe all hopes of success are now
abandoned, continues to form the principal topic in the
papers, as well as in private societies. All lament the fall of

the Poles, and regret that a rising should hive taken place,
when, neither the Poles themselves nor the rest of Europe
were prepared for it. The Government, as a matter of course,
have taken every precaution against any public displays
which may give cffence to the three Powers. A grand
manifestation was expected at the Opera, on Monday night
and the police, in consequence, assembled there in great
force, to repress anything of the kind. The following ac-
count of the affair appears in the National:—
" Tho pit of the Opera presented a most
extraordinary aspect, from its containing 150 if not 200 polieo
agent., filling one-half of the seats. The Government, having
received information that it was intended to call for the
perforn tsnce of the Marseillake or the Craconienne, had given
instructions to the Prefect of Police to take every possible
means for preventing this manifestation of opinion. After
the first; act of Lucie was over, a portion of the audience cried
out for the Margeillaise, but the agents drowned the cry
by shoe sting La Piece! La Piece! and the orchestra com-
menced' the introduction of the second act. At this time a
detachn tont• of Sergens de Ville collected near the entrai ice,
and a squadron of Muaicipal Guards took up their stations in
the cour t-yard next the Rue Grange Batiliere. After the
second act was over, the cries for the Marseillaise were re-
newed, a nd received with the same opposition as before
by the .olice agents. Upon this a party of Sergens de
Ville erlt red the pit, and took out three of the most voci-
ferous c ,f the young men, and conducted them to the Corps
de Gas .de in the vestibule.' On Tuesday a meeting of
Depoti belonginc chiefly to the Left and the Left Cure,

and amounting to about 'eighty, was held in one of the
committee-rooms, to consider what steps might be best
under present circumstances, to assist the unfortunate Poles.
M. DUPONT ma L'EurtE was called to the chair, when M.
GAmetErt PAGES proposed that the assembly should con-
titute itself into a permanent committee to watch over the
interests of Poland. M. OMAN BARROT, however, and
many other members objected to the proposition, and
thought that, in the present positien of the Poles,
when it was not likely that they could consolidate their
forces, and effectually resist the three great Powers, it would
be better to wait events, and that in the meantime the meet-
ing should merely appoint a committee, charged with drawing
up an appeal to the people, and calling upon them to sub-
scribe in favour of the insurgents. Such a course would be
more consistent with the dignity of the French Chamber of
Deputies than to give formal expression to wishes and feel-
ings, which had little chance at the present moment of being
accomplished. This plan, therefore, was adopted, and a
committee was appointed, merely to collect subscriptions.
The committee consists of M. DuroN r DE L'EuaE, chairman,
MM. ARAGO, LAMARTINE, OD/I.ON BARROT, REMILLY, MAL-
LEVILLE, LAFAYETTE, and DE LARCY. The Prussian and
Austrian Ministers at Paris received on Tuesday accounts
that the insurrection virtually was at au end. According to
the National, the subjoined petition, copies of which are to
be sent for signature to all parts of France, was to be pre-
sented to the Chamber of Deputies:—

" Gentlemen,—For fifteen years past, and in every year, you have
opened all your sessions by expressing a wish for the resurrection of
Poland as a nation, and on all occasions all France has joined in that
wish. Poland is now rising against her oppressors ; she is display-
ing the utmost energy in order to break her fetters and re-conquer
her independence and liberty. We come to claim of you, as a sanc-
tion of your own votes, a solemn declaration of sympathy for her
generous efforts. The Poles are the French of the North; their
blood has been shed for France in sill our battles ; let leer, then, cover
them with her exalted protection: It fa the act of justice and
humanity we expect from you."

The French Funds, from various causes, still continue to fall. On
Tuesday the Three per Cents. closed at 83f. 70c. ; the Five per
Cents., 119 f. 25c. ; the Orleans Railroad shares, 1,210 f. ; Rouen,
1,030 f. ; llavre, 745 f.; Great Northern, 775 f. ; Avignon, 975 f.; Vier-
MI, 745 f.; Bordeaux, 6621. 50c. ; Boulogne, 520 f. ; Troyes and Mon-
tereau, 440 f. ; Basle. 240 f. ; Fampoux, 460 f. ; Dieppe, 475 f.; Paris
and Strasburg, 540 f.; Tours and Nantes, b72f. 50c.; Paris and
Lyons, definitive, 6251.

The following are the quotatims for other lines :

Lyons and Avignon Railroad (TAJabot) 512 f. ; ditto (Leeointe),
505 f. ; ditto (Cornragnie Mei Idienalc), 503 f. ; Bordeaux and Cettc:
(Mackenzie), 503 f. ; ditto (Espeleta), 509 f. ; Charleroi, 490 f.
Measzuzzs, Martor 7. Marseilles and Avignon, 500 f. ;
Northern, 785 f.

BESINESS DONE IN FOREIGN RAILWAYS AT THE
LONDON STOCK K Meilen 11.
Boulogne and Amiens, 104—Bordeaux, Toulouse, and Cette
(Esoelet a). 21h- -Dutch Rhenish, 434 —East Indian. I,'.—f4reat h
ern of France Constituted, 15%—Great Indian Peninsular,
Great 'Western Canada, 34—Louvain and Jeniappe, 14 —Lyons and
Avignon, 2—Luxembourg, I!d—Namur and Liege, 2%—Orleans
and Vierson, 194 —Over Yssol, 2 dis.—Sambre and Meuse, 44
West Flanders, .