The Sun.
London, England, 1869-05-20 00:00:00

THE LAW OF ASSAULT.

The judges and the magistrates have been very
much censured of late—and justly so—for punishing
offences against the person with fines. If a man
-steals a chain he has feveral months' imprisonment.
If he is prevented from committing the crime of
theft, and nearly kills a man, deprives him of an
eye, or •reduces considerably the number of his
den tals, he has a very good chance of escaping with
a fine. If he assail a policeman in the execution of
duty, he seems to have license to commit any
offence upon him short of murder, provided he
conies down promptly with money the next day.
This, if we may believe the chief constable of Staf-
ford, is not the fault of the administrators of the
law, but of the law itself. A bench of
magistrates in petty sessions has summary power
to award an imprisonment without the option of a
fine for a period of two months for a common assault
on a civilian. For an assault on a policeman in a
borough the imprisonment is limited to one month;
in the case of a county policeman it is the same as
for a civiliantwo mouths. In either case, however,
of a policeman being the victim, the bench cannot
award the imprison/neat wallow, giving the ruffian
the option of paying a fine. The imprisonment is
only in default of payment. Surely some alteration
is required.

FOREIGN NOTES.
THE FRENCH ELECTIONS.

The period assigned by the law of Franco for the hold-
ing of public election meetings terminated on Monday
'evening without any further disturbances. The authori-
ties, however, seem to have been apprehensive. The
guard at the Tuileries, says the correspondent of the
Daily .11'ar, was increased by 500 men, who slept in their
accoutrements, with loaded Chassepots at hand. But
they have not been required. The political effervescence
caused by M. Emile 011ivier's meeting last Wednesday
lasted only forty-eight hours. The polling commences on
Sunday.
DEFE7T OF THE PRUSSIAN GOVERNMENT IN HANOVER.
~A very exciting election has just taken place in
Hanover.. The capital city of that Prussian province has
hitherto been represented in the Parliament of the North
German Confederation by Herr von Munchbo.usen,
formerly one of King George's Ministers. This
deputy resigned, and a fierce contest for his
vacant seat has just terminated. The national
Liberals, or Prussian party, put up a lawyer,
Herr Braude ; the Socialists supported a workman named
York; and the old Hanoverian party had as their can-
didate no other than Heir Ewald, the Gottingen Pro-
fessor, who was recently acquitted on a charge. . of high
treason, hrovat against him by the Prussian government
on account of a pamphlet, in which this eminent
scholar vigorously - denounced the annexation of
Hanover. . As might have been expected, a stirring
agitation preceded the polling. Many of the Hanoverian
Party, afraid to oppose the Prussian candidate, and not
liking to support him, did not vote at all. Nevertheless
the Professor was returned by a large majority. Of 21,000
electors only 15,000 voted. Professor Ewald was elected
by 8,832 votes; Herr Braude obtained only 3,900, of whom
3,000 were Prussian employ 6 ; and 2,400 electors polled
for the Socialist. The result, in face of King William's
.a• • _ •