The Sun.
London, England, 1858-12-20 00:00:00

COMMERCIAL.

- - BOMBAY, Nov. 25.
Tho money market since our ' last Summary has been
*rked by increased and increasing tightness. The Bank
Bombay on the 11th inst. raised its rates of interest on
loans 1 per cent. all round. Their charge is now for loans,
ac or within three months, on security of government paper,
6 per cent.-; on security of goods, or for discount of private
bills, 8 per cent. The rates of the other banks are 1 to 2
par cent. higher than those of the. Bank of Bombay. The
stimulus given to thedemand for money by increased trade
leads us to look for still higher rates shortly. Notwith-
standing the dearness of money,' Government Four per
C' nts. have advanced during the fortnight 2 per pent.,
a d are now 88_per .cent. Five per. Cents. remain, as last
q oted, 941 per cent. Business in bank and railway shares
h been hunted, and prices are rather lower. The
eatest fluctuations have been in mercantiles, which at
mailand
a ec
odTaT7„
teoorfptlhEeoElasGtomons.ail_Wsereinoe9
tpeherlacest the demand,dn
t, preniitun
a now quoted -51 per -cent. premium.
f cotton piece goods has .become very active, under the
iLfluence of which-prices for most kinds have considerably
advanced. '- Large transactions have been entered into for
arrival. •
EXCHANGE:—There is little change to note. A fair
ainount of business has been done at rates varying from
tke closing prices_ of the previous mail. Quotations are
t4-day : Bank bills, 2s. Old. Credit; 2s. 01d. Docu-
nients, 2s. id. .

PENINSULAR AND NORTH AFRICAN
MAIL.

. _
The Peninsular aid North African Navigation.
Company's steamer Amazon, A. .B. Davidson com-
mander, arrived in the river Thames on Saturday,
bringing dates from Lanzarote, Nov. 24 ; Grand
Canary, Nov. 25; Teneriffe, 'Nov. 26; Mogador,
Dec. 5 ; Cadiz; Dec. 7; Lisbon, Dec. 12. Her cargo
consists of 872 bags of cochineal, 85 bags of granilla,
3$ pipes of citron, 133 pipes of wine, 64 casks of
b andy, 1,000 flasks of quicksilver, 182 casks of
o 1
ive oil, 715 serous and "232 casks of almonds, .205
c sks of gum,, 1,264 chests of oranges, 89 chests of,
Thngerines, 305 elephants' teeth, I ease of ostrich
fathers, 98 chests of tea, 47 packages of sundries,
aid 4 cases of bullion.
gfThe Amazon brings a fair complement of passcn- -
rs. She experienced heavy gales on the outward
p ssage between Lisbon and-Mogador. On the 10th
1 st., off St. Vincent, spoke the company's steamer
a aLrirsiboorn, outward bound
company'sbeund ;iviaaldl
eTraellpoanckbeotarvdii.
i
d ltaguia. cone:et
Commercial affairs in Morocco were improving,
a i d the excitement against the Christians was
subsiding.

ASSIZE TATTELLIGRAI.
• • .
NORTHERN CIRCUIT.—Yoni, ec: IS.
- (Before Mr. Baron Watson.)
James Atkinson, charged with the wilful murder
of Mary Ann Scaife, at Hampsthwaite on the Ist
of August last, was again put to the bar this
morning.
His Lordship took his seat on the bench at 9
o'clock this morning, and immediately proceeded to
sum up the evidence, the details of which' have
occupied the Court for the last two days. He said
—there were two issues raised in this trial to be
proved to the satisfaction of the jury : first, that a
murder had been -committed by the prisoner ; and
secondly, that the plea of insanity, as exonerating
the prisoner from responsibility for the commission
of such a crime had been established. The evi-
dence on the part of the prosecution left no doubt
that a murder had been committed, and that that
murder had been committed by the prisoner.
The fact that the prisoner and the deceased were
seen together, near the place where the crime had
been committed, shortly before; statements made
by the prisoner to his brother of what he had done
the morning after the murder ; the admissions the
prisoner had made to the police officer who appre-
hended him; the lengthy and detailed confession
he had made before the magistrates—all clearly
proved that the prisoner had committed this murder.
But the real question for the consideration of the
jury was, whether the plea of, insanity which had
been set up for the prisoner's defence was esta-
blished, and to this matter he begged their care-
ful attention. According to law every man was
presumed to be sane and to possess a sufficient
degree of reason to be responsible for his crimes,
until the contrary was proved to the satisfaction
of the jury. To establish a defence on the ground
of insanity it must be clearly proved that at the
time of committing the act the party accused was
labouring under such a defect of reason, from
disease or imbecility of mind, as not to know the
nature and quality of the act he was doing, or if
he did know it, that he did not know he was
doing what was wrong. Before going into the
facts given in evidence to establish this plea, he
thought it right to observe that this trial had occu-
pied upwards of 20 hours, above five of which-had
been taken up by speeches of counsel. When the
Legislature passed the very wise law which allowed
couna3l to address the jury on behalf of prisoners it
had been predicted that counsel would make the
criminal courts a there arena for the display of ad-
vocacy, and that the desire to obtain a victory, and
to win a verdict would be the great object they
would have in view rather than the investigation of
truth. He, however, called on the jury to cast
from their minds the advocacy of counsel, and
consider fairly and simply the plea set up.
Insanity might exist in the form of raving
madness, but it was not confined to that
form; it might exist in the form of idiotcy
where the person afflicted was born without any
mind whatever ; or it might exist in the form of
imbecility, where the mind, originally weak, could
not be cultivated beyond a given point, and that,
according to the evidence of the medical men called
for the defence, was the condition of the prisoner.
If they were satisfied by this evidepce, and that it
establishedd that the prisoner was insane at the
time he committed the offence, then he was not
responsible for his actions, and they must acquit
him on this ground. He begged to protest against
an opinion expressed by one of the medical men
called, that the commission of murder was of itself
evidence of an unsound state of mind. The com-
mission of murder was of itself no evidence of in-
sanity. They had had examined before them three
medical men of great eminence, and all, after a
careful examination of the prisoner, said they held
the prisoner to be of the class of insane persons
they called "imbeciles." These gentlemen had
given them the reasons on which they held the
prisoner not to be responsible. It was found that
insanity in all its shapes was hereditary. Where
it had been found in a former generation in a family
it might be found in all generations. The effect of
this evidence• was, not that because his grand-
father or other members of the prisoner's family
were insane that therefore he was, but that it cor-
roborated the evidence given on the part of the
prisoner to show that he was of imbecile mind.
The evidence of the doctors who had been so abused
last night was but a link in the chain. Standing
alone their evidence would have been extremely
weak ; it would have only been a mere opinion ;
but their evidence acquired strength when the
early history of the prisoner was known, and •
when the fact of hereditary insanity in his
family was established, a branch of the cas
to- which the learned counsel for the prosecution

had never addressed one observation <
three hours on the subject. The f
fence set up were entirely for the of
the jury. His lordship then procee ;4Vit.,"
evidence. In commenting upon it, tdships
said:he thought it was the duty of th a
to hhve tendered the Wesleyan minister as aitnoref s
who had attended the prisoner in gaol. It was nod
the duty of the prisoner. In inculcating the great
'truths of religion the insight he would thus obtain •
into the state and condition of -the prisoner's mind
ought to have been set before them, that they might
be able to arrive at a just and honest conclusion.
The prosecution had called two witnesses out of the
castle to *rebut the prisoner's evidence,but had
it right to keep back the Wesleyan minister who at-
tended him. It was suggested, and it might be true,
that that minister assisted the prisoner in writing
the letters he had written which were relied on as
proofs of his sanity; and, after the evidence of 1)r.
Winslow, that he could form no opinion as to the
state of the prisoner's mind from the reading of
these letters unless he knew the circumstances
under which they were written, it was, in his
opinion, the duty of the prosecution to have called.
the Wesleyap minister, to ascertain what part (if
any) he took in suggesting the subject matter of
those letters. It might be that this gentleman
could add nothing to the evidence given on the
part of the prosecution ; but the absence of this
evidence left his mind in doubt. The jury must
say, on the whole of the facts, whether the prisoner,
when he committed the crime, which he un-
doubtedly had done, knew what he was doing. If
they believed that he•knew the difference between
right and wrong they must find him guilty ; if not,
they must acquit him on the ground of insanity.
'Le jury then retired, and, after 'an absence of
four hours, returned with a verdict of not guilty,
on the giound of insanity.
The prisoner was ordered to be confined during
her. Majesty's pleasure. •

'WSPAPER

PRINCESS' S THEATRE.

So successful a worshipper of Thalia did Mr. Charles
Kean prove 'Nihon he recently appeared as Benedick in.
" Much Ado about Nothing," a character whielr`he now
repeats twice every week—that ho now takes in hand a
comedy of the more ordinary kind, the " Jealous Wife" of
Coleman the elder, wisely using• the three act version,
which, while it retains all the droll situations of the original,
is free from a vast quantity of ineffective matter. The cha-
racters of Mr. and Mrs. Oakley are comic in the generally
accepted sense of the word ; they do not approach that ideal
region which gives a poetical, and therefore a semi-serious
hue, even to its gayest inhabitants; but they art decidedly
to be laughed at, or laughed with, whenever they appear
on the stage. Both, too, come in for their fair share of
active and passive mirth. At first the cause of hilarity is
the uncontrolled tyranny of the lady and the abject humi-
liation of the gentleman. Afterwards the fun results from
that table-turning which need not be traced to supernatural
causes, but which shows how a petticoat government may
very naturally be overthrown if it becomes too oppressive.
When old comedies • are revived in modern times the
young men of the day are often surprised to find so much
(Wines where their fathers found so much amusement.
Their disappointment arises in a great measure from the
inability of our actors to give the imaginary personages
they represent all that life and colour which rendered them
sq important in the " good old times." Hence, when two
thoroughly genial and thoroughly accomplished artists,
_like Mr. and Mrs. Charles Kean, show their strength in
the lighter department of their art, the opportunity of wit-
nessing their performances ought to be seized with aridity.
Let it not be insszined for a moment that they are less at
home in comedy than in tragedy. -So admirable are they
in, "The Jealous 'Wife," that we are obliged to confess
that, if they had never been seen in a tragic part, the more
hilarious muse would, nevertheless, have rewarded them
with undying laurels. •
'Farcical humour, and the power of representing the
more eccentric diversities of human nature, are by no means
uncommon at the present day.; but these have nothing in
common with such impersonations as the Mr. and Mrs.
Oakley of Mr. and Mrs. Charles Kean. The gentleman is
'no rara axis, that might not be met with in ordinary social
circles. He is simply a rational, courteous, well-bred,
high-principled man, who, in an evil hour, has allowed the
reins of domestic government to slip into the 'hands of his
wife, who has been but too ready to take them up. Neither
is there anything exceptional in the lady. She is sus-
picious, quick to take offence, and to divine evil where
none exists ; physically energetic when her temper is
roused, and, at such a juncture, not strictly regulated by
the laws of social decorum.
'lt is in their wondrous delineation of the extraordinary
emotions that are produced in two ordinary individuals by
a ir,oncatenation of circumstances, that the genius of Mr.
and Mrs. Kean for comedy, in the best and highest, sense of
the word, is diiplayed. The bland submission of Mr.
Kean, the varied rage of Mrs. Kean, shadow forth th
vicissitusles to which many a household is subjected throng
the warring elements of its interior. Caricatures, whil
they awaken a laugh, rarely convey Instruction ; but who
shall say that a lesson of self-control was not inculcated by
suchU delineation of domestic uncomfortableness as was
effected on Saturday last by our two great artists ? Many
a man, who kept his thOughts to himself, doubtless felt that
he had often been in the position. of poor Mr. Oakley, and
concealed beneath a laugh at the mimic griefs, a sigh over
his own. Nerer did the two inimitable artists do them-
selves greater justice than in this most amusing comedy,
their performance in which may be regarded as the graceful
sport of the most exalted tragic genius

___c Jia.A.zz K

3`T'~_ __

.CAMBRIDOE—DEc. 18.

With a fair supply of wheat from the growers, white
samples sold at 44s to 478, and red 40s to 42s per qr. There
was a moderate quantity of barley, and high prices were
given for good samples, malting being disposed of at 44s per
qr. Oats a small show, at late rates. Beans were limited
in supply, at 42s to 44s per qr.

A.!