The Sun.
London, England, 1866-01-23 00:00:00

THE SUN, LONDON, TUESDAY EVENING, JANUARY 23, 1860.

LAW INTELLIGENCE.---This Day.

COURT OF QUEEN'S BENCH.
(Before Lord Chief Justice Cockburn and Justices
Blackburn, Mellor, and Lush.)

THE QUEEN V. WINSOR, THE WHOLESALE MURDERESS.

This case came on for argument to-day before
their lordships. It will be recollected that the pri-
soner was put on her trial at the assize held at
Exeter charged with wilfully murdering the illegiti-
mate child of another woman. It was stated at the
trial that the offence with which the prisoner was
charged was not a solitary instance of her wicked-
ness, but that, on the contrary, other cases were
ready to be proved against her. The trial was con-
cluded, and after the learned judge hid summed up
the case, the jury retired to consider ;their verdict.
They remained locked up for a considerable time,
as they were unable to agree, and, after vainly endea-
vouring to arrive at an unanimous opinion, returned
into court and stated thatit was impossible for them
to agree. They were told they must be of one mind
before they could be discharged, and accordingly
they were again locked up, and so remained until
12 o'clock at night. It being just on the verge of
Sunday morning the judge was informed that there
was no likelihood of the jury agreeing, he ordered
them into court and discharged without giving a
verdict. She was again put upon her trial for the
same offence, and the mother of the child, who had
been in the former case indicted with her, was on
this occasion examined as a witness, and a verdict
of guilty was returned, and the prisoner sentenced
to death.

The counsel for the prisoner, Mr. Folkand, con-
tended that it was against the law to place the
prisoner in peril twice for the same offence ; that
therefore the second trial was illegal, and that the
prisoner ought to be acquitted. The motion wail
ordered to be argued before the judges at West-
minster, and this morning the learned counsel ap-
peared before their lordships to argue the case. He
went at great length into the authorities bearing on
the case, and contended that the judge had no
power to dismiss a jury in a trial for murder with-
out returning a verdict, and that having been done,
the prisoner was entitled to her. acquittal.
The Lord Chief Justice asked, supposing the
court-house was on fire, whether a judge would
then have power to dismiss a jury without a verdict,
or whether they were to be burnt to death rather
than be discharged?
Mr. Folkard said he apprehended the sheriff
ought to take charge of them before such an even-
tuality arose.

The Lord Chief Justice asked where that officer
was to put them—where were they to go to?
Mr. Folkard thought the proper course would be
to adjourn the case, or else that the sheriff should
provide for them, as was the case at the Old Bailey.
The arguments in the case seem likely to extend
over the day.
The condemned woman Winsor was in court
in custody of the wardress of the prison in which
she was confined, and sat in a corner of the court
with her eyes cast on the ground, from which she
never during the whole of the morning once raised
them. She appears to be a person of about 50 years
of age, with features of a very ordinary description.

Strauss Searchingly Reviewed.

BY A CRITIC IN " THE ATHEN.,EUM."

During the last three weeks there has been
appearing in the columns of The Athenmunz a re-
markable series of papers, in which the notorious
" Life of Christ," by D. F. Strauss, has been sub-
jected to a singularly calm, a perfectly dispassionate,
and altogether, as we conceive, a very masterly
analysis. An analysis, so clear and searching of its
kind, that we are tempted to give the following ex
tracts as exemplars of the critic's "quality" at once
as a Believer and as a Logician. "Perhaps no book
of a thousand pages ever written," he says, " has so
large an allowance of supposition to so small a mo-
dicum of proof as this Life of Christ' by.
Strauss. It is nearly all postulate and infer-
ence—mist of the fancy, mirage of the
brain. Four pages in five are covered by repe-
titions of an argument wholly divorced from fact."
Further on he remarks—" One of our English wits
used to laugh at a confirmed book-maker for de-
canting one work into another, histories into travels,
memoirs into manuals ; as a trader with a small
stock of wine might decant Nuits into Volnay,
Volnay into St. George. But even this steady old
craftsman would hardly have poured his first volume
into his second, bodily. Working in the figure
known to logicians as a 'vicious circle—a line
of march on which there is movement and no
progress—Strauss not only puts his first volume
into his second, going once again -over his
labours, in the same order of time, almost in the
very phrases used (under pretence of showing by
what tricks and forgeries the Imposture called the
Christian Church was raised) ; but he pours his pre-
face into his introduction, his introduction into his
first book into every subsequent boa. The argu-
ment moves through a chain of propositions, hang-
ing on to three or four Fundamental Ideas :—such
as his assumptions that miracles are impossible, that
Christ is a myth, that man ends with the grave, and
that heaven is but a dreain."

As for the non-existence of Christ, or what is
here spoken of as the mythical existence of the
Redeemer, the late Archbishop Whateley demon-
strated the flimsy and specious notion of that hypo-
thesis by his inimitable logical witticism, as it may
be called, demonstrating (!) that there "never was
such a person" as Napoleon Bonaparte !

" Herr Strauss's main purpose," continues the
Athenmum critic, "is to show that Jesus was not the
Christ. If this could be shown, an end would be
made of many things now held in reverence ; an end
of church ministry, of dogmatic theology, of reli-
gion itself, in some degree of God."

And was it not such a creature even as Maxi-
milian Robespierre who remarked that If God had
not existed it would have been necessary to invent
Him.*

"All that would remain of sacred tradition, and
of the policy which rests upon it, would be swept
away. For it is only a belief in its divine founda-
tion that preserves our faith alive. Strauss says that
if our Lord was a man of simple and pious nature,
clear in vision and pure in life, he had also many
defects of mind, as might be expected from his age
and country, such as unfit Him for the office of being
a permanent pattern to mankind. According to
this German view, He put the life of man in the
family in the background ; held only a passive re-
lation to the State ; set himself visibly against trade,
and left art and elegance out of his view of life.
These grave defects, now found in Jesus, are con-
sidered by Strauss to be of the highest moment ; for
not only, says he, are the details as to a man's con-
duct in such things wanting in our Gospels, but the
guiding laws; so that, in the German School of
Doubt, it is held to be impossible for any man to learn
from the precepts of Jesus how he should behave
as a citizen, and what he should do towards enrich-
ing his life by means of art and trade. In short, it
is clear from what is now advanced, that if Jesus
were not the Christ—if He held no divine commis-
sion—if He stood on the common ground of teacher
only, He would lie open to much damaging assault,
His character would require some rounding, his
preaching would need many supplements, and His
religion might be improved off the face of the
earth. To destroy His sacred character is therefore
the first step towards an abolition of His Church."
" If, therefore," continues the critic in the Athenicunz
(very reasonably), " secular criticism may be em-
ployect on 'Slam
also be alloWed to step in to see how far the work is
being honestly done." He then thereupon writes,
in the manner following, upon a consideration of
the Sources of the Sacred Stories. " Strauss begins,',
he says, " with the Evangelists ; authors who stand
directly in his light. If Matthew and John were
companions of Jesus, as the Church declares ; if
Mark and Luke were companions of the Apostles,
as the Church also teaches ; and if these four men
wrote the books which bear their names, Strauss
would have no case to urge. No jury in the world
would be able to reject their fourfold evidence as to
things which they had seen and heard, even though
the things were in the last degree new and strange.
It was an old maxim of our law that, except in
Crown cases, one good witness was enough to esta-
blish any fact, even though it might involve the
issues of life and death. The Civil Code required
two good witnesses to prove a fact ; but many good
jurists have given the preference to our English
law. With a view to guard against abuse of power,
we also, in cases of treason, required the facts to
be proved by two witnesses ; though the rule was
often disputed by the Crown, and in Raleigh's case
it was wholly set aside. It is hard, as all experience
proves, to resist the evidence of [even] one good
witness."

At any rate he remarks---" Roman law has 'pre-
sumed that in every case the depositions of two
witnesses wild prove a fact, however new and
strange it may seem to be. No jurist has gone be-
yond this point. Blackstone inclined to think one
witness enough. Montesquieu allowed the evidence
of two loyal men to be sufficient, even in matters of
life and death. When the question is about the evi-
dence of FOUR WITNESSES, such as we find in the
Gospel narratives, there is no other legal, no other
logical, way of weakening their testimony, than [by]
showing that they could not have seen and heard the
things to which they depose."
Thereupon the Atheneum takes into consideration
first of all collectively, afterwards one by one, the
credibility as witnesses of the Four Evangelists :
" Strauss's case," he says, " forces him to argue that
the Evangelists were not the Evangelists. So
long,' he (that is, Strauss) writes, ' as the Gospels
are accepted as strictly historical, no historical view
of the Life of Jesus is possible.' In other words, if
the Gospel narratives are true, Strauss's view of the
Life of Jesus must be false. To this conclusion every
one must come at last. The German critic has, in
some way, to get rid of the Evangelists ; to prove that
the First Gospel was not written by St. Matthew the
Apostle, the Fourth by St. John the Apostle ; to
show that the Second Gospel was not composed by
St. Mark, the friend of Peter, nor the Third by St.
Luke, the companion of Paul.. Such men could not
have been mistaken as to what they had seen and
heard. Strauss has to prove, therefore, not a mere
corruption of text, not the substitution of one word
for another, not the insertion of a phrase here and
there, but a complete fabrication of the narrative,
and that, not in one Gospel only, but in each and
all of the Four Gospels. He has to show that the
Evangelical histories are all pious frauds, adopted by
the Church, after the real companions of Jesus were
dead and gone. _

" In arguing against the Gospel narratives in mass,
Strauss cites the Evangelists in a way subversive of
all rules of evidence. To wit : his case is, that our
Gospel of St. Matthew was not written by that
Apostle ; also that our Gospel of St. John was not
written by that Apostle ; yet he cites the facts men-
tioned by John to damage Matthew, the facts men-
tioned by Matthew to damage John No court of
law would suffer such a course. If a witness is
good for one thing he is good for another. [The
cogency of all this, to our mind, is perfectly irre-
sistible.] A liar, a forger, is of no value in the
witness-box. ' If the author of the Fourth Gospel,'
says Strauss, ' is correct in saying that, before his
last journey to Jerusalem, Jesus had already often
sojourned there, had taught and worked there, then
the author of the First, who knows nothing of all
these earlier journeys and sojournings, cannot

r have been a companion of Jesus—not the Apostle
Matthew.' But if John did not write the Gospel
which bears his name,—if that work were the
pious fraud of a Greek in the second century,
—if it were fabricated by one who had never
seen Jesus, who had never spoken to an Apostle,
who had never been in Jerusalem,—why cite it ?
You cannot ask the Court to believe a paper which
you yourself describe as spurious. The rule of law is
clear. Any tyro at the bar can see that if it should
be part of his caseto prove that Alpha is a personator,
au impostor, not to believed on his oath, it is out of
the question to dream of putting the same Alpha into
the witness-box against the good faith of Beta.
tainted witness is out of Court. Strauss proceeds on
the complacent plan of taking all that makes against
him as bad. It is an easy method. One of two
things : the Fourth Gospel is either true or false ; if
true, it is must be admitted, along with all that it
proves ; if false, it is incapable of being used so as to
damage Matthew's claims.—[Q. E. D.]
'• Further, in dealing with the patent fact that some
of the Evangelists record sayings, miracles, journeys,
which others omit,—for example, the case under
notice of Christ's earlier visits to Jerusalem,—
Strauss treats an omission as though it were a contra-
diction. Yet a glance through a shelf of biographies
would show him that omission is not rare. No
writer preserves all the facts. [Now mark, espe-
cially what follows Xenophon gives one side of
Socrates, Plato another. The lives of Alexander,
of Caesar, of Charlemagne, vary as much as the
lives of Christ. Mallet forgot that Bacon was
a philosopher, Campbell that he was a Chris-
tian. One account of Cromwell omits the
battle of Naseby ; another, his journey into
Ireland ; a third, his refusal of the crown. But
the neglect to state a fact is not a contradiction of it.
The purpose of each writer must be taken into ac-
count. A view of Our Lord's Sayings might be
given with very little reference to his journeyings
to and fro. In a collection of his Miraculous Cures
it might not seem necessary to trouble the reader
about dates and the order of events. In Europe
we should think little of such points ; in the East
they would think nothing at all. The truth is, that
such literal prudery as would have precluded an
art of verifying dates, had no existence in the East.
Yet Strauss declares that the Second Gospel could
not have been written by a frierid of St. Peter, on
the ground that if it had been so, the Apostle
could not have failed to draw the attention of his
author to that radical defect in the First Gospel,'
(the omission of Christ's early visits to Jerusalem),
' and to have urged him to the correction of it.'
See what this passage assumes as true. First, that
Peter must have thought the omission a radical de-
fect. Suppose he thought it of no moment whatever ?
St. Matthew's Gospel is a collection of discourses.
When outward facts are mentioned, it is mainly so
far as they illustrate the sayings. When Matthew
has no speech, no parable to record, he is silent.
May not Peter have thought this kind of record
better for the Church than a narrative of journey-
ings to and fro ? Peter's spirit was intensely orien-
tal, and the teaching of oriental races is by word and
not by fact. TheAvestas are sayings. The Vedas are
sayings. The Prophetical Scriptures, the Talmud, the
Koran, are all books of sayings. In Luke and in John
we can trace the more active spirit of a western race.
These Evangelists, writing under Greek and Roman
influence, added more to the narrative than to the
hortative part ; there western readers being excited
no less by what Jesus did than by what he said.
The Hebrews had another genius ; and Peter was a
Hebrew in his heart of hearts. Second, the passage
assumes that if Peter thought it a defect, he must
have communicated this opinion to St. Mark. Third,
that if Mark received such a hint from Peter, he
must have remembered and followed it, whether he
thought it of any moment or not. Do all these
assumptions weigh so much as one little fact ?
Strauss seems to think that when a man takes
pen in hand he is bound to write down everything.
Does any one do it ? The way to bore a man, says
a French proverb, is to tell him all you know. We
are sure that Plato knew more of Socrates than he
wrote. We are equally sure that Tacitus could have
told us more of Seneca than he does. It would be an
odd argument to urge against the genuineness of
Plato, that in his account of Socrates he has omitted
some points, some sayings, some traits, which
Xenophon preserves !"

(inc. after annthor the n.rwirnontA of Strauss, as ap-
plied to the Four Evangelists in succession, are placed,
as it were, under the oxihydrogen microscope —by
being subjected turn by turn to the scrutiny of the
critical acumen of the even-tempered and keen-
witted and eminently logical Believer writing in the
Atheneum.

Had we the space for so doing we would here
gladlyselect from each of these analogies of Strauss's
occasionally specious but always shallow arguments,
as applied in succession to the Four Evangelists,
what appear to us to be the salient or most striking
passages.

A single one of these, however, must suffice. It
is the one in which, with exquisite aid yet irre-
sistible power, the critic sets aside and scatters to
the winds of heaven Strauss's utterly frivolous
argument that the explanatory style noticeable in
the Gospel of St. Mark is indicative of its being a
late production, and therefore a pious fraud !
" Strauss observes," says the critic, " that if Mark
has to mention the Jordan, he explains that it is a
river ; if he speaks of the Pharisees, he explains
their tenets ; if he goes to Olivet, he explains that
if stands over against the Temple Mount. In a
hundred cases, where Matthew takes his reader's
knowledge of places and customs for granted, Mark
does not. What then? It is clear that Mark does
not assume in his readers such familiarity with the
geography of Palestine, with the customs of Jews,
as Matthew. But surely such a fact suggests a
distant audience rather than a distant time. No
Hebrew would at any time and in any place require
to be told that the Jordan is a river, that the Pharisees
fast, and that Olivet stands over against the Temple.
A man writing in Palestine, living among Jews,
would never need to hint at such things ; but one
writing in Rome, as Mark is said to have done, would
naturally explain such points. An Englishman,
writing in London about the late Primate, would
not think of saying that the Thames is a river, that
bishops are peers, that Lambeth Palace stands op-
posite to Westminster Abbey ; but the same man,
writing in Calcutta for Parsees and Hindoos, would
be very likely to give these useful scraps of infor-
mation, and their appearance in his narrative would
suggest the separation of distance, not that of
time."

Enough, however. As cogently as he writes of
Strauss's learned (!) twaddling as applied to one
Evangelist, the reviewer in the Athenxunt will be
found to have written also of the other three
Evangelists. We have too grateful a sense
of the delight with which we have read the
criticism throughout, to remain dumb in regard
to the fact of its appearance. And while
directing attention thus to that fact, we would avail
ourselves of the opportunity thereby afforded us
for expressing a hope that the series of papers we
are here referring to may be at once collected toge-
ther for separate publication in the form of a bro-
chure or livraison.

At the Mansion-house, yesterday, Mr. John
Pernewan, surgeon, of Bedruth, was brought up on a
charge of having forged certain transfers of shares in the
llallenbeagle Mining Company. On a second warrant the
prisoner was charged with forging an endorsement to a
bank cheque for the payment of £llB 10s. Evidence
having been given as to the manner in which tho forgery
had been committed, the Lord Mayor remanded the pri-
soner and refused to accept bail.
MYSTERIOUS AFFAIR IN TIIY, ISLE OF MAN.—A
man named John Kermode, upwards of sixty years of age,
who had been engaged to drive a gig with the mail from
Douglas to Castletown, met his death in a mysterious man-
ner on Monday night. lie arrived safely at Ba'insane, but
when the gig was near Castletown it was stopped, as there
was no driver in it. A search was at once instituted for
the missing man, but it was not until the next afternoon
that his body was found in the river. The mails worn
all
right, but the stop of the gig was broken, and the general
belief is that the deceased was dragged from the vehicle
and drowned by his assailants, as the river was fax out cf
his way. Deceased has left a widow and four children.—
Liverpool Courier.
LOSSES BY FIRE.—The fire insurance companies
of New York sustained losses in the year 1865 amounting
in all to $43,139,000, an unusually heavy amount. They
had to pay on 354 fires. This is stated to include only
fires in which the loos reached as much as $20,000.

The Opening of the French Legislature.

SPEECH OF THE EMPEROR.
The following appeared in a late edition of The Sun of
last evening : - - - -

PARIS, Monday, Jan. 22.

The Session of the French Legislature was
opened at one o'clock to-day by the Emperor, who
delivered the following speech :
Messieurs les Senateurs,
Messieurs les Ddput6s,

The opening of the Legislative Session enables
me periodically to lay before you the condition of
the empire, and to express to you my ideas. As
in preceding years, I shall examine with you the
principal questions which interest our country. At
home peace appears to be everywhere assured, since
in every direction the means are sought of amicably
settling difficulties, instead of deciding them by
arms. The meeting of the English and French
fleets in the same ports has shown that relations
formed upon fields of battle are not weakened.
Time has only, cemented the agreement of the two
countries.

With regard to Germany, my intention is to
observe a policy of neutrality, which, without pre-
venting us at times from sorrowing or rejoicing,
will leave us nevertheless strangers to questions in
which our interests are not directly engaged.
Italy, recognised by nearly all the Powers of
Europe, has affirmed her unity by inaugurating her
capital in the centre of the Peninsula. We have
reason to rely upon the scrupulous execution of the
treaty of the 15th September, and the indispensable
maintenance of the power of the Holy Father. The
bonds which attach us to Spain and Portugal are
still further strengthened by my recent interviews
with the sovereigns of both those kingdoms.
You have shared with me the indignation pro-
duced by the assassination of President Lincoln, and
recently the death of the King of the Belgians has
caused unanimous regret. In Mexico the Govern-
ment, founded by the will of the people, is consoli-
dating itself. The dissidents, vanquished and dis-
persed, no longer have a chief. The national
troops have shown valour, and the country has
found the guarantees of order and security which
have developed its resources and raised its trade
with France alone from 21 to 77 millions francs.
As, therefore, I expressed the hope last year, our
expedition is approaching its close. lam making
arrangements with the Emperor Maximilian to fix
the period of the recall of our troops, in order that
their return may take place without compromising
the French interests which we went to defend in
that distant country.
North America, issuing victorious from a for-
midable contest, has re-established the American
Union, and solemnly proclaimed the abolition of
slavery. France, who forgets no noble page of her
history, sincerely desires the prosperity of the great
American Republic, and for the maintenance of
amicable relations now nearly a century old. The
emotion produced in the United States by the pre-
sence of our army upon Mexican soil will be ap-
peased by the frankness of our declarations. The
American people will understand that our expedi-
tion, in which we invited it to take part, was not
opposed to its interests. Two nations equally
jealous of their independence must avoid every step
which would affect their dignity and their honour.
At home the tranquillity -which has not ceased to
prevail has enabled me to visit Algeria, where my
presence will not, I hope, have been without effect
in securing interests and establishing a more
friendly intercourse between races. My absence
from France has besides proved that I could be re-
, placed by an upright heart and an elevated mind.
It is in the midst of satisfied and confiding popu-
lations that our institutions work. The municipal
elections have been accomplished with the greatest
order and the most entire liberty. The Mayor
being in the commune the representative of the cen-
tral power, the constitution conferred upon me the
right of choosing him from among all the citizens,
but the election of intelligent and devoted men has
almost everywhere allowed me to select the
Mayor from among the members of the Municipal
Councils. The law upon coalitions, which gave rise
to some apprehensions, has been carried out with
great impartiality by the Government, and with
moderation on the part of those interested. The
working class, always intelligent, have understood
that the greater the facilities accorded to them for
the discussion of their interests the more they arc
bound to respect the liberty of individuals and the
security of all. The inquiry into co-operative socie-
ties has shown how just were the basis of the bill
which has been laid before you upon this important
matter.

This bill will permit the establishment of nu-
merous associations for the profit of labour and
of benefit societies. To favour its development I
have decided that the authorisation of meeting
shall be granted to all who wish, apart from po-
litics, to deliberate as men of business upon their
industrial interests. This faculty will only be
limited by the guarantees required by public order.
The state of our finances will show you on one
hand that the revenue continues in its progressive
increase, while on the other the expenditure tends
to decrease. In the new budgets the incidental or
extraordinary sources of revenue have been replaced
by normal and permanent resources. The law upon
the redemption of the debt, which will be submitted
to you, shows the establishment of certain revenues,
and affords fresh guarantees to the creditors of the
State. The equilibrium of the budget is secured by
a surplus of revenue. In order to attain this result
it was necessary to effect economies in the greater
part of the public services, among others in the War
Department.

The army being upon a peace footing, there
was only the alternative of reducing either the
regimental cadres or the effective. The latter
measure was impracticable, since the regiments
hardly mustered their necessary strength of men.
The welfare of the service even counselled an
augmentation of the effective. By suppressing the
cadres of 220 companies,:46 squadrons, and 40 bat-
teries, but at the same time drafting the soldiers
into the remaining companies and squadrons, we
rather strengthened than weakened our regiments.
As the natural guardian of the interests of the
army, I should not have consented to these reduc-
tions if they would have affected our military orga-
nisation or ruin the prospects of men, whose ser-
vices and devotion I can appreciate. All interests
will thus find themselves guaranteed, and the coun-
try will not have shown herself ungrateful to those
who shed their blood for her.

The budget of Public Works and that of
instruction have not suffered any diminution. It
was useful to preserve to the great undertakings of
the State their productive activity, and to maintain
the energetic impulse of public instruction. For
the last few months, thanks to the devotion of the
founder, 13,000 new refuges (tours d'asile) have
been opened in the communes of the Empire.
Agriculture has made great progress since 1852.
If at the present moment it suffers from the depre-
ciation of the price of cereals, that fact is the inevi-
table consequence of the superabundance of har-
vests, and not of the suppression of the sliding
scale.
Economical transformations develope general
prosperity, but they cannot avert partial inconve-
niences. I have thought it would be useful to open
a serious investigation into the condition and ne-
cessities of agriculture. It will confirm, lam con-
vinced, the principles of commercial liberty, will
offer valuable information, and will facilitate the
study of the proper means both to alleviate local
suffering and realise fresh progress. The impulse
of our intercourse has not slackened, and general
commerce, which amounted last year to more than
seven milliards of francs, has increased by 700
millions.

In the midst of this constantly increasing pros-
perity, unquiet minds, under the pretext of quick-
ening liberal measures on the part of the Govern-
ment, desired to prevent it from advancing, by de-
priving it of all force and power of initiative. They
take possession of an expression borrowed by
me from the Emperor Napoleon 1., and con-
found instability with progress. The Emperor
in declaring the necessity of successively perfect-
ing hundin institutions, wished to say that the
only durable changes are those effected with time
by the ameliorations of public morals. These