The Sun.
London, England, 1851-04-16 00:00:00

" That we must lay certain duties on certain foreign
articles of general consumption, and cramp the home
producer by the iron hand of the exciseman, are facts
enforced upon our attention every time the miserable
man doomed to hold the office of Chancellor of the
Exchequer goes through the yearly agonies of his
financial statement." True, enough, in the abstract
is it, as our author says further on, that " Free .trade,
too, in the proper acceptation of the term, by all the
laws of grammar and common sense, requires two
parties to the compact—the native and the foreigner ;"
but it appears to us rather a flippant way of settling
the difficulties of the question by saying, as he does
immediately thereupon, " Between you and me,
JOHN, I see no hope of the foreigner." Con-
trast an argument carried on in this helter-skelter
fashion, with a chapter from Mr. MILL, and the
difference we would intimate becomes at once suffi-
ciently perceptible. Therefore it is that, everything
considered, we regret the present venturing of Sir
EDWARD BULWER LYTTON into the political arena—
regarding him rather as qualified to sing the glories
of King ARTHUR, or to paint the pleasant landscape
of Haziedean, than to run a muck at Free Trade, or
break a lance in the cause of Protection.

It was yesterday cur painful duty to comment upon
the case of the two unfortunate men who had just
expiated the atrocious outrage of which they had
been found guilty, by suffering an ignominious death
in the presence of a scoffing and unsympatbising
multitude, who made their last agonies the subject of
heartless jests and brutal mirth. We felt, however,
that Sir GEORGE GREY could not have arrived at any
other conclusion than that which led to their execu-
tion, and that the Right Hon. Gentleman deserved
the greatest credit for the firmness and consistency
with which he withstood the many urgent soli•
citations that had been addressed to him im-
ploring a commutation of the extreme penalty
of the law. We would now direct the
public attention, and more particularly that
of the Home Secretary, on whom the awful
responsibility of deciding on the fate of the unfortu-
nate young woman now rests, to the case of MARIA
CLARKE, who was convicted at the Suffolk Lent
Assizes of the crime of infanticide, and who, if the
Royal prerogative be not exercised in her favour, will
on this day week be executed at Ipswich.
We do not in the slightest degree desire to impeach
the verdict at which the jury who tried the case
conscientiously arrived, and which received
the full concurrence of the Learned Lord
Chief Justice of the Common Pleas. It
is a matter of great importance that
the wise and salutary presumption of law, which says
that " every person shall be considered responsible
for their actions until clear and distinct evidence of
their mental incapacity be brought forward" should
not lightly be dispensed with. The mere absence of
motive—the deduction of unsoundness of mind from
the circumstances of the act itself—cannot be ad-
mitted as an adequate excuse. If that doctrine were
recognised it would be impossible to distinguish ac-
curately between cases of actual insanity and of
merely moral depravity, where the naturally evil
disposition led the party into the crime, and the ma-
jesty of the law would remain unvindicated, and prac-
tical impunity would be accorded in many instances,
where the exemplary punishment of the criminal was
loudly demanded by every consideration of justice
and policy. It is essential, then, that in all such
cases the jury should not unduly yield to any feel.
ings of sympathy for the prisoner, but that they
should give their decision in accordance with the
well-known principles of law, as explained by the all
but unanimous answer of the judges to the Commit-
tee of the House of Lords. There is, however, ano-
ther tribunal before which the matter will be
thoroughly and impartially investigated, where
the actual state of mind of the convict will
be strictly inquired into, and full allowance
made for any temporary aberration or weakness
of intellect which may approximate, although not
amount, to a full excuse. The Secretary of State
for the Home Department will carefully consider the
report of the presiding judge, and consult the best
medical authorities before he will permit the law to
take its course, and its extreme penalty to be fully
carried out. The benefit of any doubt will be there
given to the prisoner, and we believe that at any
time, more particularly while Sir GEORGE GREY is
head of the Home Department, the lustre of the
" brightest jewel of her MAJESTY'S crown" will never
be stained or clouded, or the interests of humanity
disregarded.

Convinced, therefore, that the case will receive the
earnest and calm consideration which it so eminently
merits, and that the Right Honourable Baronet will
not inflict so great a discouragement to juries who
faithfully discharge their painful duties, as to per-
mit the execution of a person who was not clearly a
responsible agent at the time of the offence, we would
still notice the plain and undisputed facts of the case,
and the nature of the disease under which it is said
that the unfortunate young woman was labouring at
the time she committed the fatal deed.

She had, it appeared, been confined of the de-
ceased (an illegitimate child) in the Deep-
wood union workhouse. For some time she
was going on uncommonly well, but unfor-
tunately, when nearly convalescent, a young
woman who had been confined on the same
day with herself and who had been her most intimate
companion during the interval, died in the adjacent
bed. The prisoner was greatly shocked at this me-
lancholy event, and almost immediately afterwards
was severely attacked by puerperal fever, which en-
dangered her life for some time. She, however, ulti-
mately recovered, and on the 17th of March she was
discharged as cured. How the wretched creature
passed that night has never been discovered, and as it
is almost impossible that, if she had obtained shelter,
it could have escaped the scrutiny of the police, who
instituted the closest inquiry into every part of the case,
we may assume that she wandered about during the
whole of that inclement night and the following day,
without repose or nourishment. It is almost unne-
cessary to say that such a proceeding might probably
have occasioned a relapse of the attack from which
she had scarcely recovered, for the work-house au-
thorities are not celebrated for allowing an undue
time for the recovery of patients, who are charges on
the rates. Nothing, however, was known until the
following evening, when she was seen carrying her
baby on one arm, and a scuppet or shovel
in her hand. She was then seen nursing
the child, and shortly afterwards went to a
cottage in the vicinity, where she begged permission
to warm herself. Her application was, of course,
granted ; and she shortly afterwards left the cottage,
and was not again seen until she ♦isited her step-
mother's house, a few hours later. On being
asked for her child, she first said that
she had "sent him to Norwich to be made a gentleman
of," and afterwards that " he had gone to his aunt's."
She then ate her supper, and was seen endeavouring
to milk her breasts, On the following day her step-
mother, whose suspicions were excited by the
contradictory accounts respecting the child, said,
" I doubt, Mama, you have murdered your babe !"
to which the prisoner calmly replied, " No, I have not
murdered him ; 1 have only buried him alive." A
constable was then sent for, to whom she
mentioned the exact place in which she had
buried the unfortunate infant, and said " tbat
she had dug a grave, kissed him, and laid him
sleeping in it, and then replaced the turf, without
hurting him." She also added, that "when it was
done she had sat down by the grave fur half
an hour, and all of a sudden she felt
as if some one had lifted her into the air and she
could fly ; so she got up and went home, more light-
hearted than ever she was."

Now what would be the course a person suffering
under
ea; v
ale shall extract ttack of puerperal
frommaniaralte h vei-knwouldlhoawvne
a
work of one of the highest authorities on medical
jurisprudence, ALFRED S. TAYLOR, Lq., lecturer at
Guy's Hospital. Mr. TAYLOR says :---
" A homicidal propensity towards their offspring
sometimes manifests itself in women, soon after
parturition. It seldom appears before the third
day, often not for a fortnight; and in some instances
not until several weeks after delivery. According to
Esquirol, it is generally attended by a suppression of
the lochia and milk. Its symptoms do not differ from
those of mania generally. It may last a few hours, or
for some days or weeks. The murder of the shill is
generally the result of delirium, or of an uncontrollable
impulse, with a full knowledge of the wickedness and
illegality of the act—so that the legal test of roopowi.