The Sun.
London, England, 1856-02-26 00:00:00

Death is the last punishment which the justice
of man can award to the greatest criminal. When
the moment of enforced agony is over, and the
guilty spirit is dismissed to the judgment seat
above, there is an end of all vindictiveness and all
animosity. There must, however, be no confusion
of the eternal difference between right and wrong
—no maudlin palliation of great crimes, because
the best among us have often tripped and some-
times sinned,- Let us at least abhor vice if we do
not always avoid it. Let us,. indeed, be sterner
critics upon ourselves than upon our fellow-Crea-
tures ; but no false comtnisseration or complaisance
should bind us to silence when a country is star-
tled with the rumour of a great crime because the
criminal has expatiated his guilt by a violent death.
Our readers must have already perceived that we
are speaking of the suicide of John Sadleir. It is
not for the purpose of denouncing the individual,
nor of giving additional publicity to his disgrace,
that these observations are intended. The fact of
his violent and horrible death, and the history of
his crimes are already so notorious that nothing
we can say could add to his dishonour. If we re-
mark upon the tragical end of his career at all, it is
as a protest against that fearful spirit of speculation,
which is the vice of our times ; it is Out others
may see in his fate something akin to that which
awaits themselves when they are driven to the end
of their shifts and contrivances—when they have
exhausted the suggestions of cunning and the re-
sources of crime. The bankrupt's despairalthe felon's
cell, the cold bed of the suicide on the damp moor,
must be reached at last, the fitting termination to
a life only supported by the plunder and drink
of others. John Sadleir does not stand alone in
his guilt and in his shame. The criminal records of
the last year can show the names of men who stood
as high or higher in the world's eye, but of whom.
we now forbear to speak, from very pity for their
fallen estate. Hundreds, we fear, of persons in this
metropolis, and in the larger mercantile towns of
the kingdom, aro now engaged in the same perilous
traffic. It needs but a reverse and an opportunity,
and why should they hesitate to follow in the foot-
steps of the most keen-witted and unscrupulous of
their predecessors ?
The proceedings of the adjourned coroner's in-
quest, which we publish thle day, do not throw
much additional light upon the nature of the ern-
harassments which drove John Sadleir to despair.
Letters of his, written a few hours before he sallied
out on his fatal expedition, were produced, but they
inform as of little beyond what was already known.
This is their general tenour :—" I cannot live. I
have ruined too many . I could not live and see
their agony. I have committed diabolical crimes
ueknown to any human being. They will now ap-
pear, and bring my family and others to distress,
shame, and grief that they should ever have
known me. I blame no one, but attribute
all to my own infamous Tillany." Such, as
will be seen by our report this day, is the
general tenour of these letters, which are written
in a spirit bordering on distraction. It is, how-
ever, sad to know that the self-accusations are not
the mere suggestions cf a diseased brain. It is
true that the writer was guilty of diabolical crimes;
it is true that Le has swindled and forged to a
fearful ex. ent ;itisto be 'fear el—as he himself
says—that he has been the cause of permanent
misery to thousands of unoffending peoule. Let
us not deceive ourselves, nor, out of false pity for
the wretched author of all this sorrow, endeavour
to palliate the atrocity cf his acts. If the heinous-
ness of crimes be measured by their consequences,
the man who carries disaster, if not absolute ruin,
into a hundred families is stained with deeper guilt
than the mere ruffian who attacks life. The report
is that, when the full extent of his villanies is
known, it will be found that, in one form or
another, he has swindled the public to an amount
little short of half a million. It would seem mar-
vellous to those who have not been under the un-
fortunate necessity of watching the course of mo-
dern speculation how a man who, probably, started
in the world without any fortune at all could in-
volve himself and others to such an extent. In
Sedleir's case, however, it must be considered that,
independently' of the ordinary resources of the spe-
culator, lie was enabled, from his-official position,
to commit many crimes without fear of imme-
diate discovery, which another man could
not have attempted without instant detec-
tion. It would be as yet premature to
suggest any precise estimate as the limit of his de-
falcations. When a man is in a position to forge
title-deeds, railway shares, and mortgages to an
indefinite amount, there need he little limit to his
operations. He is also charged with having frau-
dulently assigned away deeds held in trust by him
to an enormous amount. As a forger he seems to
have been remarkably successful, and it is said that
the gignatures of the Irish Eucumbered Estates'
Commissioners have been so skilfully executed that
no one, however familiar with their handwriting,
could distinguish between the forgeries and the
genuine signatures. At the close of last week it
was added that many forgeries on private indivi-
duals had been already made out, and that the dis-
covery of many more was anticipated. On the
whole, this seems the greatest crash made by any
single individual in recent times.
We purposely avoid dealing with what may be
called the " picturesque" features of this remark-
able case. We have no wish to dwell upon the
despair of the detected forger, and his last ghastly
walk to the heath where he was about to lay down
his life. Burglary and murder have been made
" interesting" ere this, but let nothing of this kind
be attempted now. We would wish to hoar the
crimes of John Sadleir spoken of with whole-
s sine and universal abhorrt nee, but let even indig-
nation spare his unhonoured grave ; let there be
no morbid dwelling upon the last scenes of his life
ner upon his closing agony. He has already ap-
peared at the bar of that Almighty Judge Wore
whom we must all of us one day stand ; to that
tribunal let him be left. If word of ours would
avail, we would deprecate all further and unneces-
sary prying into the secrets of the family even by
the Coroner and his jury. It is surely proved that
John Sadleir died by his own hand, being unable
to boar the shame of exposure and the consequence
of his crimes. What has the public to do with the
distracted letters addressed by the suicide to his
relatives in the last moments of his career ? One
sentence from these contains the whole moral of
his guilty life and tragical death :—" Oh ! that I
had resisted the first attempts to launch me into
speculation !" There are many •of the English
public who would do well to lay seriously to heart
lie dying words of John Sadleir.—Tisnes.

THE WENSLEYDALE PEERAGE.—The following " pair"
was omitted in the division list of the House of Lords
on Friday last :—Earl of Jersey in favour of Lord
Lyndhurst's motion, with Lord Dunfermline against it.
Tile NIGHTINGALE FEND.— On Saturday a very influ-
ential meeting assembled at the Gui'dball, Bath, to pro-
mote the Nightingale Fund. The meeting was convened
by his worship the Mayor (W. Bush, Esq., who presided),
in compliance with a requisition signed by nearly 100 of
the leading residents ; and upon the platform were Lord
Goderich, M.P., Augustus Stafford, Esq , m.p. W.
Miles, Esq., M.P., Captain Scobell, M.P., W. 'Tite,
Esq., M.P., the Right Rev. Bishop Carr, Sir Claude
Wale, Bart., Admiral Duff, &o. Resolutions in accord-
ance with the objects of the meeting were moved by the
Right Rev. Bishop Carr, and Messrs. Augustin; Stafford,
M.P., and W. Miles, M.P., supported by Col. Bath-
wayte, Captain Scobell, Lord Goderich, Mr. Tile, M.P.,
Ike. On the motion of Mr. Alderman Hunt, a committee
was appointed, numbering 40 of the most influential
citizens, with power to add to their number. A. sub-
scription list was opened in the room, anel several hand-
some contributions were entered into.
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