The Sun.
London, England, 1846-03-12 00:00:00

ebtning

LONDON, THURSDAY, MARCH 12, 1846.

The Lords did not set yesterday.
The Commons met at Twelve o'clock.
On the motion of Mr. T. DUNCOMBE, the House resolved
itself into Committee on the Friendly Societies Bill.
After a few observations from Sir J. GRAHAM, Mr.
WARLEY, and Mr. HAIVhs, the Bill passed through Com-
mittee.

The Salmon Fisheries Bill was read a second time.
Mr. BICiCII.I.3t Escorr moved the second reading of the
Roman Catholic Relief Bill.

Sir R. INGLIS oppomd the motion.

Lord Aionrimi supported the Bill, as getting rid of
the last remnant of the bigoted institutions of the dark
ages.

Mr. FINCH deprecated the spirit at present so prevalent
among all sections of Protestants, to look favourably on Ro-
man Catholics, and to rnahe unjust concessions to them, and
would oppose the Bill.

Sir 3. URAir4m supported the motion for the second read-
ing of the Bill, because he was favourable to its spirit, which
was the spirit of toleration. He, however, reserved to him-
self the power of proposing certain alterations in Committee.
lie denied that the Bill would repeal the Act of Supremacy,
the rcpeal of which he would certainly oppose.
Mr. WYSE denied that the temporal supremacy of the
Port. wa3 acknowledged anywhere beyond the Papal domi-
nion, and he would deprecate any extension of the POPE'S
temporal viwer beyond those dominions.
Mr. C(ii.Quiroux considered the Bill contrary to the spirit
of the Constitution, and would vote against the second read-
ing. He thought every effort should be made to counteract
the machinations of the Jesuits, and to prevent the eccle-
siastical power from superseding the civil authority. He
thought the present movement in the Church of England
was a dangerous one, and, when the proper time arrived, he
should not shrink from grappling with it, and asking the
Legislature to arrest its progress.
Mr. O'CONNELL considered that, in ecclesiastical matters
ecclesiastical authority should be supreme, and in temporal
matters civil authorities should be supreme. The Hon. and
Learned Gentteman then passed a high eulogium upon the
order of the Jesuits, and designated Pascal, Blithelet, and
Eugene Sue, as persons of no authority, and the two latter
'as authors-of atrocious books.
Att=r a feNI-Vsords- from. Mt. PAliatmton. Mr. J. °Vox-
ani Mr. YLWDECiATE,

Lord JOHN MaxwEßs expressed his admiration of the
Jesuits and their principles, and thought that the House
would do better to imitate their example than to asperse
their characters.

Mr. ESTCOURT opposed the Bill, which was supported by
Mr. P. BowrimicK and Mr. M. Mu.N.Es.

Colonel SIRTHORPE considered the measure would under-
mine the Protestant religion, and would give it his strenu-
ous opposition.
After a few words from Captain HA EMS, Lord J. Russitu.,
and Mr. P. HOWARD, and a reply from Mr. Escorr, the
House divided ; when there appeared—For the second read-
ing, 66—Against it, 23—Majority in favour of the Bill, 43.
The Out-Pensioners Payment Bill was read a second time.
In Committee of Supply 8,000,0001. was voted for the pub-
lic service.
The Metropolitan Buildings Bill was read a third time
and passed.
Mr. T. DUNCOMBE moved for leave to bring in a Bill for
limiting the hours of night labour in lace factories.
Sir J. GRAHAM objected to interference with the hours of
labour. Ile would not, however, oppose the motion, but
wait to see the Bill before he gave an opinion on it.
Mr. TOASTER objected to the Bill.
Colonel ROLLESTON supported it, as did Mr. ITRATHCOTE,
who found it beneficial in bis own factories to reduce the
hours of labour. _ _ _

After a few words from Mr. FIELDEN, leave was given to
bring in the Bill.
Certain returns were then ordered to be made, and the
House adjourned at Half-past Five.

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 he was an upright and amiable man, dis-
charging efficiently all the duties of life as husband,
parent, or friend, be hadrefused to render satisfaction, as
it was termed, when demanded of him, andhe 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 !blished
character, but thought it necessary to demand such a
satisfaction for what he conceived to be 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 en the
occasion? It is quite unnecessary 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 en behalf of the 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
on 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 entire transaction
will bear the strictest investigation—if he 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 pessible
way. How, 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
eenvicted ? 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 on 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 case, or :at tho 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.
Serox wounded in _that duel ?—and was Mr. PYM a
seconi 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. PYM 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
wai 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 ft;et, that they were not bound to take the law from
she judge, but might themselves become the arbiters
both of low 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, inoffi.nsive 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 maddened
by the continued and public attentions of the would-be
seducer, finds it necessary to tell him that ho is ac-

cinainted with everything, and applies to him epithets
which no husband of a young and virtuous woman could
consider as sufficiently strong, under the circumstances.
The answer given is (if possible) an aggravation of the
original offence, an addition of insult to the attempted
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 insulted 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 felt his friend, and the body to which he
belonged, had been grievously and wantonly insulted. He
was no practised and veteran 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 might 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 tie 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.
PY3I was not the sort of person to be made a first victim
to 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 licnour— quick to take offence, and anxious to make
themselves notorious as principles or seconds have
exercised themselves for one or two years in some of
our houses 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 sAnossledged abuses in our laws let him ,

turn his attention to this subject, and we fearlessly say
that he can add no brighter laurel to the wreaths which
he has won and hereafter may win during his useful
career, or one which will confer a greater benefit on his
country.

Scarcely ever have we entertained sentiments of such.'
peculiar satisfaction at the general bearing of the Lower
House in the discussion of a religious question, as those
with which we yesterday 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
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
from 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 an 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 established religion of this country would
be a tacit acknowledgment of the rottenness and mundane
insecurity of,that creed. It would be an inference moat 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 yesterday introduced for a second
reading by Mr. ESCOTT 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 ROBILRT HARRY G LIS 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
Moaricru, 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 Bill were goaded on with more consummate delicacy or
more painful sarcasm. Hisallusions to the Hon. Member for
Oxford were thoroughly merited and conveyed that gentle-
manly, but :emphatic reprobation of his conduct with which
, he should be unceasingly visited until:the close of his semi-
clerical 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 society, and for
its aggregation of natural and cultivated talent—should suc-
cumb to the Mawwonst 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 Nous the " live
and let live" of theology is a non-existence; he declaims
against the code of Jesuit ism as over-rigid, and
establishes in his own mind a moral inquisition, 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
SHIT HORP, or his scanty compeers, the diatribes of
Sir R. 11. IN G LIS are virtually and actually innocuous.
Yesterday'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 GOD 05' THE
CHRISTIANS. Before very long we shall have the
grateful consciousness that in England the most
divine attribute of our common nature—FAlTll—is no
longer tramelled by human edicts; that each man may
worship his CREATOR in the manner most 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
mass 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 retiaire instruction
in that country. Of these merely 70,000 axe 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 ether 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 ieo,ooo 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 iasanity ; it would be expecting 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 possibl
—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 snore deter-
minately prosperous tither materially or intel!ectually. So
manifest were all these deductions, so impossible to gainsay,
so incapable were they of being Blurred over, thrt the Home
Secretary acknowledged the urgency of the case, and merely
requested Mr. WILLIAMS to withdraw his motion on the
following engagement :—" He (Sir JAMES Gnmrass) pro-
posed that the Educational Committee of the Privy Council
should send down into Wales two of its inspectors to inquire
into the extent of the ignorance of the English language
among the population of Wales, and into the best means of
removing it. lie 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 favour
of the Government, to the amount of 65,156,372 reale,
(651,5631.); the total expenditure being 1,215,495,957 reels,
(12,254,9591.) ; and the receipts 1,290,652,329 reale,
(12,906,5231.). 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
Herald() says, the negotiations at Rome had taken a more
favourable turn, and bulls from the Pops had been re-
ceived in Madrid-, approving of the bishops lately ap-
pointed, in which his IlousEss expressly and solemnly
acknowledges ISABELLI 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 the 30th of April.

In the French Chamber of Deputies, the motion of M.
DE ST. PRIEST, relative to the reduction of the Five per Cent.
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 inopportune and
even dangerous under present circumstances. In the course
of the discussion M. GARNIER 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 aelcKl that a strong reason against
it was one universally known, though no person liked to
mention it,—namely, the "systems, the "pen du regne"—
in ether words 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. GARNIER
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 have 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 procaution_ against any public displays
which may give cffsnce to the three PoTere. A grand