The Sun.
London, England, 1835-12-01 00:00:00

VICTORIA THEATP A.

! - This house wa: crowded to excess last Ili, t, to withers
fie performance of a grand historical drag:one spect4lo,
entitled The Jewess, founded on M. Scribe's cekhated
o?era La Juice.. Mr.' Moncrief, by whom the piecelvas
written, and under whose direction it was produced, has, 'w,
think, greatly improved it, by changing the catastrophe
a sceoc of the deepest affliction to one of unexpected de-
liverance and joy. The piece opens with the proelamaftion
of a grand religious feztival in the city of Constance, fol-
lowed by' a splendid procession, headed by Cardinal' de
Broguy (Mr. Gann), and a number of ecclesiastics in tlieir
robes, on their way to the principal church, to assist at the
celebration of high mass. Tv o pages bear the Cardinals
train, and the priests, arrayed in the vestments worn 'on
solemn festivals, are preceded by a number of beautiful
boys, tossing censers. While the people without are. kneel-
ing, .some sounds proceed from the house of Eleazar
lliendizabal, the Jew of Constance (Mr. Archer), when
it is discovered that he has profaned the Christian Sab-
bath. He is immediately dragged forth, together with
his daughter Rachel (Mrs. Selby), and condemned by the
Cardinal to quit Constance, in three days, at the peril of
his life. In the tumult that ensues the father and daughter
are on the brink of destruction, when they are saved by
the interference of Prince Leopold (Mr. Hicks), who is
in love with the Jewess, and by whom he is beloved,
though she then only knows him as one of the Jewish race.
For this important service to himself and his daughter, the
Jew takes the disguised Prince into his friendship, and
forces him to assist at the Jewish feast of the Passover,
where Rachel first discovers that her lover is a Christian.
Her distress is unbounded, as she knows that the laws
have placed an inseparable barrier between their union.
She first entreats him to become a Jew, but on his refusal
she declares herself ready to- renounce her faith rather than
lose him. The Prince rejects her ; and in her despair,
having accidentally discovered his rank, she accuses him
with the crime of holding commerce with her, con-
trary to the laws of Constance. The Prince is seized,
and both are thrown into prison. Immediately before the trial
the Princess Eudocia (Miss H. Palmer) entreats-the
Jewess to spare the Prince's life, to which, after the most
earnest solicitation, she consents. On her trial she with-
draws the charge, whereupon both herself and her father
are condemned to be cast alive into a cauldron of boiling
oil. The sentence is about to be executed, when the Jew
acknowledges that Rachel is not his child, but the
daughter of the Cardinal who condemned her to death,
upon which the lives of both are reprieved, and Rachel
falls into the arms of Prince Leopold, her lover and de-

liverer.
As a spectacle, the Jewess cannot be exceeded in bril-
liancy. The scenery, dresses, and decorations were mag-
nificent. The gardens of the Emperor's palace, looking
over the beautiful bay of Constance, with the deep blue
horizon in the distance, and warm sunny sky above, were
equal to anything of the kind we ever witnessed. The
dancing was in the best taste. Judging from the number
of the corps dranzatique which must have included near two
hundred persons, if not quite so many, we should hardly
conceive that any amount of patronage would cover the
expenditure of the establishment, if conducted on so grand
a scale.

Of the acting we are not disposed to say much. Those
who go to see the Jewess must rather expect to be charmed
with the spectacle, than delighted with any surpassing abi-
lity in the performers. Mr. Archer was well received as
the Jew, and Rachel found an able and efficient repre-
sentativd in Mrs. Selby, who, after the performance, re-
ceived the thanks of the house. Miss H. Palmer, who
made her first appearance on the London boards last
night,, has an agreeable countenance and a good figure,
but her voice is quite broken. There is neither melody
nor softness in it ; and there was a want of dignity, or
rather stateliness, in her walk, which it will require much
care, and a good deal of self-possession to correct. Her
reception by the house was marked by no indication of
censure or applause.
We would recommend the managers to have the Jewess
considerably curtailed. Several of the scenes would be
impioved by a judicious abbreviation of tho more tedious
dialogues. The silly speeches put in the mouth of the
English Esquire might be all erased without the slightest
disfigurement of plot, incidents, or characters.

ADELPHI THEATRE.—The objections made to
the burlesque of The Jewess, which was to have been per-
formed last night, have been removed by the Chamberlain.
We understand there were certain passages which it was

thought might be applied in ridicule of an important City
functionary. The burlesque will be played to-night.
Mr. Brabant opens his new theatre on Thursday,
with a new grand Opera, the music of which is, as before
stated, by Mrs. A'Beckett. Notwithstanding the difficul-
ties attendant on the opening of a new building, this Opera
will be produced on the first night, on a scale of expense
and. splendour not usually attempted in small establish-
ments. The scenery alone, which is by Andrews, Marinari,
Hillyard, and Tomkins, will of itself cost nearly one thou-
sand pounds.
MASQUERADE AT THE LOWTIILIL Rooms.—
The second masquerade for the season was given last night
at the Lowther Rooms. This place is better calculated for
an entertainment of this kind than the English Opera-house,
or the minor theatres. There is but one entrance, and
therefore the services of three or four trusty doorkeepers
can prevent improper characters from getting in ; and as
there are no dark avenues, and no enclosed boxes, it is diffi-
cult for the abominations to be perpetrated here which cad.
so easily be carried into-practice at other places. The mese-
querade itself last night had, however, as an entertainment,
but little to boast. It went off but heavily—dullness was
the order of the night, and if there was not much to offend
there was still less to please. The dancing was tolerably
good, but it was carried on without spirit. Characters,
properly speaking, there were none ; there were certainly
several scores of awkward lads in garbs and masks which
concealed their features, but exposed their incapability of
filling any other character than their destiny had designed
them. The females were last night clothed in female at-
tire, no beings of the doubtful gender offended either the
male or female part of the audience, and a sort of compara-
tive decorum was observed throughout the whole enter-
tainment. Another feature in the affair was, that the wines
were cheaper than they usually are at places of this sort,
and the supper was equally good, at about half the price of •
what is usually charged. It is to be hoped that what mas-
querades are gig en will be given here or at some similar
place, and that the annoyance of drunkenness and profli-
gacy which a week or two back disgraced Catherine-street
and the streets adjacent, on occasions of a similar entertain-
ment, will not be permitted by those whose duty it is to see
the peace preserved, again to annoy and disgust the
respectable householders of the neighbourhood and their
families.
MEETING OF HOTELKEEPERS.—LI consequence
of the frequency of robberies committed at hotels, several
meetings of a private nature have taken place, with the view
of forming an association to prevent future crimes of that
nature. Last night, in consequence of an advertisement, a
number of gentlemen assembled at the Piazza Hotel, in
Covent-garden. There were present Mr. Ibbotson, Mr.
Lovegrove, Mr. Woods, Mr. Payne, Mr. Humbert, Mr.
Markwell, Mr. Chaplin, Mr. Harrison, Mr. Hewett, Mr.
Ball, Mr. Stannard, Mr. Pagliani, Mr. Ashton, Mr. Rock-• .
ley, &c. Mr. Ibbotson was called to the Chair. Some
discussion took place respecting the most proper mode of
proceeding to effect the object which they had iu view. It
was suggested that the association, which was at first pro-
posed to prosecute offenders, was not the best mode. What
was required was an association to protect the entire body
from the frequent losses to which they were subjected by
the numerous depredations which are constantly committing
in the hotels. Several gentlemen delivered their opinions
respecting the present law, which compelled innkeepers to
make good losses, which law, it was contended, ought to be •
revised, as it was an unjust law. It would, therefore, be
necessary to petition Parliament to revise the law in that
respect, which bears so very heavily on all hotslkeepers.
Resolutions were then agreed upon to that effect, and a
committee was appointed to lay a plan before a general
meeting to be held on a future day.
RAILWAY.—The traffic on the Leicester and
Swannington Railway for some time past, has averaged
aLoat three thousand tons per week.
ATROCIOUS CASE OF STABBING.—On Satur-
day night, the 7th of October, Mr. Walker was- passing
along Dawson-street, when he was accosted by a girl, who
bore the name of Bridget Tierney, and who resided with
Mr. Hague, to whose house both ultimately adjourned.
After he had been there some time, Mrs. Hague heard. a
cry of murder proceeding from the front parlour, where Mr.
Walker and the girl were. On her entrance, Mr. Walker
rushed at he malt a knife, and attempted, to stab her.
Upon this Mr. Hague entered the apartment, and placed
himself between Mrs. Hague and the assailant, when the
latter rushed at him and made a thrust at his bowels, which,
however, did not take effect. The defendant then made
several cats at Mr. Walker's face, wit'ch he gashed in a
most severe manner. Mr. Hague then seized him and
threw him down and held hint till a police-officer wee sent
for, to whom he was given in charge. Mr. Crewe then
called Bridget Tierney, who swore to the fact of Mr.
Walker having met her in the street, and gone into..!
Hague's house with her. She stated that when there he
had promised to make her a present of 7s. 6d., which she
afterwards requested him to pay. Instead of complying,: ' •
he drew forth a knife from his pocket and advancedlowerds•-
her. In the course of her cross-examination several glaring,:
cot-actions were elicited. Mr. Hudney, surgeon, was called
to prove the nature of Mr. Hague's wounds, which; it ap-
pears, were pretty deep flesh wounds of the cheek _anal lips. •
—Liverpool Chronicle.

~~

SPIRIT OF THE PUBLIC JOURNALS.

It is the peculiar boast of this United Kingdom,
that the inhabitants are more united than those of any
other Empire or Kingdom in Europe. From the faci-
lities of land and water communication enjoyed by us,
ideas and productions are rapidly circulated through-
out the country ; and with the exception of a few re-
mote districts in Wales, the south and West of Ireland,.
and the Highlands of Scotland, of which the popula-
tion is at most a million and a half, it may be said that
the people of the three kingdoms all speak the Eng-
lish language, and enjoy more or less a familiarity with
English literature. The Union with Scotland now
dates so far back, that were it not for the separate
Church Establishment and laws, it would be almost
as absurd to distinguish between England and
Scotland, as between the Counties Palatine
of Lancaster, Chester, and Durham, and the
rest of England. There is, in short, a much
stronger resemblance in appearance, dialects,
and habits between the English north of the
Trent and the Scotch south of the Frith of Tay,
than there is between the English north of the Trent,
and the English of the southern counties. We be-
lieve that most of the people of the three kingdoms are
fully impressed with a sense of the advantages they de-
ris e from a community of feeling, and that it is no
longer possible to rekindle the jealousies which the na-
tives of the three kingdoms and different parts of the
same kingdom, entertained of each other. Were it
possible to revive these absurd jealousies, we should
speak in terms of severe reprobation of an attempt in
the Times to set the people of different parts of the
empire by the ears. But fortunately, there is so little
danger of any mischief from the attempt, that derision is
the only feeling it will generally excite. The Times
has long been harping on the comparatively greater
immber of Scotch and Irish than of English
Members who support Ministers ; and now it also
discovers that there are a greater number of
Scotch and Irish than of English in the Cabinet
and in secondary offices. "We now feel bound,"
says the honest and candid oracle of Printing-house-
square, "to expose the perfidious, un-English, and
insulting superiority which the Cabinet faction,
while affecting to maintain inviolate the integrity of
the political trig juncta in uno, have yielded to Ire-
land and Scotland, at the expense of England, in
casting the characters of their political entertainment,
and in appointing their subordinate officials. Finding
that no effective support could be reckoned on from
the more intelligent and numerous Sassenachs in Par-
liament, their party instincts, clinging to the Treasury
'with a tenacious gripe, impelled them to purchase sena-
torial aid from the Northern and Hibernian Celts, in
whom alone they live, and move, and have their being.
And on what terms has the purchase been made ?
Why, not only by acting the part of puppets to their
Scotch and Irish string-drawers, and by dancing just
as they chose to pipe, but by dispensing among them
by far the larger proportion of State offices, to the
almost entire exclusion of England from any share ill
the executive of these realms." And then we are
told, in proof of all this, that Englishmen arc ruled
and ridden at home by-
1. An Irish First Lord of the Treasury—Lord Melbourne.
2. An Irish Secretary for Foreign Affairs—Lord Palmerston.
3. An Irish Lord President of the Council—Lord Lansdowne.
4. An _Trish Chief Commissioner of Woods and Forests—
Lord Duncannon.

Moreover, we are told that Lord Glenelg, Mr. Aber-
erombv, Earl Minto, the Hon. Captain Elliott, Ad-
miral Adam, Mr. Fox Maule, Sir John Campbell,
Mr. Cutlar Fergusson, Colonel Leith Hay, Lord Dal-
meny and Mr. Robert Steuart, are Scotchmen. With
respect to the four Lords, said to be Irishmen, it is
notorious that, with the exception of Lord Duncannon,
they are Englishmen by breeding and connections.
Who ever thought of ranking Lord Melbourne as an
Irishman ? It has been well observed by the Courier
that the Times, about this period last year, " was not
filled with any wrath at finding the Government com-
posed of the following Irish and Scotch noblemen and
gentlemen :—the Duke of Wellington, the Earl of
Aberdeen, the Earl of Rosslyn, the Earl of -Had-
dington, Lord Maryborough, Lord Stormont, Mr.
G. Dawson, Colonel Perceval, Admiral Beresford,
Sir George Cockburn, Mr. Maurice Fitzgerald,
Sir A. Craig Grant, Sir George Clerk, and the Earl
of Roden, in all fourteen representatives of the two
other parts of the Empire." The Courier sets the
Times right with respect to several names improperly
included in the list of Scotchmen and Irishmen in
office, and adds several other Scotch and Irish names
to the list of the Peel-Wellington Administration.
But we have no patience to pursue the subject further.
Thc English are too sensible a people to be the dupes
of such a puerile attempt. In forming an Administra-
tion, the consideration is not whether an individual
-belongs to Yorkshire, Cornwall, Scotland, or Ireland,
' but what is his weight with Parliament and the
country ? Of all the absurd ideas, the idea of as-
signing Cabinet Ministers to the three kingdoms
respectively, in any determined proportion, would
be the most absurd. The number of public men
fit for office in any particular division of the ern-
' pire, must vary at different periods. It is no doubt
true that more Scotch and Irish Members support the
Ministry than oppose them. But the cause of this is
sufficiently obvious. The Reform in Scotland was
more effectual than in England ; for Municipal Re-
form followed close on Parliamentary Reform ; and in
Scotland there are no venal freemen and tenancies at
will. It has not 'even been surmised that a single vote
was purchased in Scotland at the elections since the
passing of the Reform Bill. Ministers are supported
by Irish Members, because they look to a Reform Mi-
nistry alone for the salvation of their country, which
has long suffered under Tory misrule. In England
the great majority of the Representatives of the large
and independent constituencies support Ministers ;
and though on some vital questions a bare majority of
English Members opposed them, the Tories were in-
debted for this, not to the Representatives of the
people of England, but to the imperfections of
the system which the Reform Bill did not
eradicate. The people of England repudiate the
advocacy of the Times. They do not identify
themselves with the Tory Members who are
not returned by them, but in spite of them.
They are not such fools as to suppose that the nomi-
nee of a Tory Aristocrat, who owes his entrance to
Parliament to bribery or intimidation, is necessarily a
better and more honourable man than the Representa-
tive of a Scotch or Irish constituency. If Mr. O'Con-
nell was, in his despair of redress for his countrymen,
foolish enough to use the term Sassenach in an invi-
dious sense, this part of his conduct is not admired,
and it certainly will not be imitated by the people of
England. They have no wish to separate themselves
from their Scotch and Irish brethren, and though they
might pity the Scotch, when a small knot of indivi-
duals disgraced their country, by returning men who
abetted every Ministry in its worst and most corrupt
measures, they now rejoice that the Reform Bill has
put an end to this abomination, and only wish that
the Reform Bill could be made as effective in England
as it has been in the Northern part of the island.—
Morning Chronicle.
The case of the marine who was lately flogged at
Woolwich for making away with his knapsack full of
necessaries, has produced a deep.and general sensation
of disgust at the infliction of that species of punish-
ment on British soldiers, to which the Coroners Jury
in their verdict have attributed the culprit's death. It
is no business of ours to defend the crime for which
this man suffered the sentence of a Court-martial, or
to pronounce a peremptory decision upon the question,
whether all manner of corporal chastisement could,
with due regard to the maintenance of discipline, be
under every possible circumstance of peace or war dis-
pensed with. In war, and before an enemy, it might
probably be found unavoidable. But is it not well
worth inquiring into, whether in time of peace, and in
home quarters, some mode of repressing military crime
might not be adopted less odious to the public feeling
of the country than that of the cat-o'nine-tails ? It is a
matter of public notoriety that a Commission has been
appointed within the last six or seven months by
.the Crown, to investigate minutely this important
question. The members composing it have, it is said,
been assisted by some officers of the French army, men
---`6l-"fSieperience and high professional reputation, from
whom a report either has been, or is to be presented,

containing, as is hoped, the rationale of a subject
which demands for its satisfactory elucidation an inter-
mixture of comprehensive views of human nature, and
of the national character of Englishmen ; with a sound
and accurate knowledge of the resources of military
discipline, and of the powers and means by which a
modern army can best be held together. A punish-
ment which by men generally is held to be disgrsceful,
cannot be resorted to in any department of the public
service, without affixing to that branch of the service
some portion of discredit. We are aware that the
small pay of a soldier, which does not equal that of a
day labourer, when regarded in connexion with a
life of hardship, with a frequent exposure to per-
sonal danger, and with a banishment from his na-
tive country to pestilential climates for more than
two-thirds of his military life, do not present the
highest inducements to young men in comfortable cir-
cumstances or of decent education and habits to enlist
as soldiers. In this country, moreover, there can be no
conscription, which furnishes the ranks of the conti-
nental armies with a liberal supply of men qualified
in a great degree for officers. Yet are we convinced
that something might be done by substituting reward
for punishment—such as increased pay to soldiers dis
tinguished by good conduct—honorary decorations—
a prospect of better pensions than are at present be-
stowed—an admission, in some cases, after their dis-
charge, to electoral rights in the places of their birth,
or in those wherefrom they were enlisted—and sundry
other appeals to manly ambition and honourable senti-
ments ;—we are, we repeat, satisfied that by such ex-
pedients as these, a great and salutary influence might
be wrought upon the spirit of British soldiers, and a
degree of self-respect disseminated throughout the
army, which would produce a high level of average
demeanour and morality, and would gradually render
the abomination of lacerating a soldier's person a rare
exception to the ordinary means of confining him with-
in the paths of his duty.—Tinges.
We have repeatedly called for the abolition of the
cruel and unnecessary punishment of military flogging.
Public opinion has echoed our sentiments on the sub-
ject ; but the united efforts of the Press and the public
to relieve the character of the country from the stain
which this barbarous practice fastens upon it, and to
secure the substitution of some mode of rational car-
aection for a punishment which lacerates the body and
brutalises_ the mind, have hitherto been in vain. Hu-
manity is still outraged, and civilisation set at defiance
by the spectacles of military torture which a bigotted
attachment to the nine-tailed cat and the halberds pre-
sents. Why should military power be permitted to
apply that instrument of man-degrading torture, and
sometimes of death, to the back of the British soldier,
which British mercy has indignantly struck from the
hand of the owner of the black slave ? The public
are already informed by the report of a Coroner's in-
quest, which appeared on Saturday in this and other
journals, that an unfortunate man, who had committed
some offences against military subordination, has fallen
a victim to the consequences of his punishment, which
induced tetanus and death—the words of the verdict
returned by the Coroner's Jury being, that " Thomas
Ramsay came to his death in consequence of a
locked-jaw, arising from the punishment received in
pursuance of the sentence of a Court-martial." Thus
the sentence, though not intended to be such, has, by
its fatal result, been in effect one of capital punish-
ment with torture This is not the first time that we
have had to comment upon such a fatal occurrence re-
sulting from the application of the British knout to
the naked backs of British soldiers. In the present in-
stance, it is true, that the unfortunate man did not
receive near so many lasheS as other soldiers have re-
ceived, and yet survived. But we need not say that
one man will endure twice or three times the number
of lashes that will suffice to kill another. It appears
also that in Ramsay's case the punishment actually in-
flicted was short of the quantity allotted by the sen-
tence, the surgeon having ordered him to be taken
from the halberds before the drummers had completed
their legally prescribed task. It appears that the de-
ceased had been sentenced to receive 150 lashes, but
was taken down when he had received 134. It also
appears that four drummers were employed to flog him,
one relievin,, the other at every 25 strokes, which 25
strokes should be multiplied by nine to give the number
of actual stripes. The severity of the flogging thus
administered, fresh and fresh, by vigorous arms, may
be inferred from the condition of the body when
examined by the Jury, which is thus described :
" The Jury went to view the body, which was lying in
the military hospital. It was laid on the back, but the
Jury ordered it to be turned over, when the back pre-
sented an appearance that drew forth a uiversal burst of
horror from the Jurors. It was deeply excoriated, and
was encrusted with matter and blood. The Foreman
measured with a rule the extent of the wound, and found
it 13 inches in length, extending from the tip of one
shoulder to the other. The left arm was also marked
with the lash in five places. On the breast were marks
of blisters, which Mr. Hunter, the military surgeon, con-
sidered to have been applied a few days before death. Mr.
Hunter said the deceased complained of shortness of breath."

Any person who asserts that military subordination
cannot be maintained, in a time of profound peace,
without offending the feelings of the British public in
the nineteenth century by such disgusting spectacles,
uses the strongest argument that can be used against
the existence of a standing army. We believe that mili-
tary subordination can he more effectually preserved
without having recourse to such a mode of punishment
than through its revolting means. Why need we re-
peat the arguments which we have used before upon
this subject, and which have never been answered ?
Why need we quote the authorities again that we have
quoted, and which ought to convince every rational
mind that the barbarous punishment of the blood-
dripping cat is no more necessary to uphold military
discipline than the slow torture of that inhuman inflic-
tion called the peine forte et duce, under which crimi-
nals who stood mute were gradually pressed to death,
was necessary to the effective administration of civil
justice ? But why was the prisoner taken down
from the halberds before he received the whole of the
allotted punishment ? The surgeon who was in at-
tendance ought to be able to answer that question,
and we here give the whole of his evidence, which
we think deserving of the particular attention of the
public :
Mr. Henry Parkins, surgeon to the regiment, saw the
deceased punished, and ordered him to be taken down
when he had received 130 lashes. He had been often in
the hospital, and had refused his medicine, and had behaved
in a very refractory manner, and, as he was to be drummed
out of the regiment, witness thought the sooner his back
would be healed, the sooner he would be got rid of, and
for thatireason alone he ordered him to be taken down. Two
days after his punishment, he wasso well as to wish to be
let out to walk about, which was not allowed. The habi-
tual excesses of the deceased had produced a morbid de-
bility, which made the punishment more dangerous than
it would have been to a healthy man. Never saw lock-
jaw produced by flogging during 40 years' service on sea
and land.

"By the Foreman—The locked-jaw was the consequence
of the flogging, the deceased being so predisposed, but that
could not be foreseen. He cried out during the punish-
ment, which was not more severe than usual. In the second
dressing nitrate of potash was applied to promote suppura-
tion. Blood-letting was necessary to reduce the fever. He
was bled but once, and 16 ounces taken away. If any one
said he was bled three times it was a mistake. He might
have dropped his head, but witness did not observe it. He
did not flinch at all, but stood it like a Briton.—(Laugh-
ter.) If Dr. Billings said the man was bled three times, it
was wrong.

" Dr. Billings—l said no such thing.
" The Foreman and several of the Jury—O, yes, you
did ; we took it down.

Now we should observe that Colonel M'Cleverty,
in his examination, stated that when the deceased was
taken down, at the order of the surgeon, he did not ap-
pear much exhausted or severely punished, and that he
walked away from the triangles. It is generally under-
stood that the surgeon only can order a cessation of the
punishment before the completion of the sentence, upon
seeing reason to apprehend that _further punishment
would put life in danger. Now' one of the drummers
who had to execute the sentence, deposed that the de-
ceased " dropped his head and fainted" while he was
flogging him ; but let his evidence speak for itself
" Sanderson, one of the drummers, a man about 45, stated
that Harryman took the first turn ; himself the second ;
Sutherland the third ; and Purkis the fourth. The deceased
dropped his head and fainted while I was flogging him. We
don't separate the lashes only at first. I have flogged men
hundreds of times. The witness pointed out one of the cats

as that which he had used, and said, I always uses that
when I gets it, because it swings better than some. I know
it by the knot at the handle, and a place where I can fit
my finger well to hold it tight.'
The business-like way in which this witness spoke ex-
cited expressions of disgust amongst the Jury."

We do not wonder that such a mode of punishment
has the effect of indurating the feelings of those who
have to administer, and those who witness it—the
wonder would be if it did not. It also appeared
in evidence that the deceased had been in the hos-
pital three times in the course of the previous twelve
months, and was of a very irritable temperament.
A question may then arise, that, supposing such a
mode of punishment prpper in other cases, was he
in such a state of bodily health as to be a fit sub-
ject for such punishment ? We question not the
legality of the sentence, and we are sure the Court-
martial that sentenced him believed that he could have
borne the punishment without danger to his life. Our
object is to obtain such a reform of the military penal
code as will take from Courts-martial the power of the
lash altogether, and to oblige them to use rational and
reformatory punishments in place of that implement of
bodily torture and mental degradation. We expect
that the oase of Thomas Ramsay will become a sub-
ject of inquiry in Parliament, and that his fate will seal
the doom of a mode of punishment which ought not to
have survived the thumb-screw, the bootikins, and the
rack of the dark ages. During the late Administration
of Sir Robert Peel a Commission was appointed, if we
mistake not, to inquire and report upon the practice of
military flogging, with a view to its abolition. What
has become of that Commission we know not. The
Whig Ministers do not seem to have taken any step in
the matter, yet the Whigs used, in their days of patriotic
aspiration to office, to express no small abhorrence of
this inhuman practice. As to Sir J. C. Hobhouse, it was
part and parcel of the staple of public grievances in
which he used to deal. Sir John is now one of the
Members of the Whig Government, under whose
authority the British knout appears to be applied as
vigorously as ever it was in the time of peace, to the
persons of the brave defenders of their country. This
is'no political question. Whigs and Tories are both
to blame that so barbarous a punishment has so long
continued to disgrace the national character. Napo-
leon subdued the whole continent of Europe with le-
gions that had never heard the sound of the lash. The
absolute King of Prussia has lately abolished the
severe corporal punishment of the lath or cane in his
army. But let the " Liberal" Government of Eng-
land be as attached as it may to sanguinary punish-
ments, it must in this, as in other instances, submit
to that sentence of enlightened public opinion which
has gone forth against them.—Morning Herald.

The acquittal of the captains of the two steam ves-
sels, who were recently' lodged in gaol on Coroners'
warrants, for having wilfully, or negligently run down
certain boats in the river, and thereby caused a serious
and melancholy loss of life, must be extremely gratify-
ing, not only to all the friends of justice and humanity,
but to all those who are desirous of promoting the
cause of improvement or aiding the march of civiliza-
tion. No other decision could have been come to by
any twelve men of the commonest understanding, or
commonest pretensions to common sense ; and how the
Coroners' Juries came to the conclusion that they had
been guilty of manslaughter, and that it was necessary
to send them before a Jury of their countrymen to ac-
quit themselves of the imputed, but groundless guilt,
it is impossible to conceive. There was not a tittle of
evidence to warrant the verdicts returned by them, either
in the one case or in the other. In that of Mr. Fair-
bairn, especially, there was not a shadow of a shade of
it. The vessel which he commanded was steering her
right course—that which fell a sacrifice to her, the
very reverse of that which she ought to have pursued.
Those also on board the Government boat were per-
fectly aware that the steamer could not pursue any
other—she was, furthermore seen by them in suffi-
cient time, and at a sufficient distance, to have enabled
them to pursue their proper course, and to have per-
mitted the: steamer to pursue hers ; but" once wrong
and always wrong"—the error was seen, but could
not be repaired—the helmsman became nervous and
undecisive as to what he should do—and hesitation, as
it generally dOes, produced the very catastrophe which
a fixed resolution . would have avoided. This is a
brief, but substantially true statement of the case ; and
yet, without knowing almost anything against Mr.
Fairbairn except the bare facts of loss of vessel and
lives, a Coroner's Jury .deemed it agreeable to the laws of
evidence to return a verdict of manslaughter, which has
been very properly quashed by one of greater compe-
tence. Just, however; as the ultimate decision in both
cases has proved, there can be little doubt that on
these instances and some others of less recent date,
the enemies of improved communication, and the sel-
fish abettors of rival schemes, now either in progress.
or in prospect, will attempt to found charges of the
incapacity of the river, on the one hand, to afford
room for its navigation by steam-boats of any conside-
rable tonnage ; and, on the _other, of the extreme
danger, in all cases, to the lives of his Majesty's sub-
jects from the latter. 'We hold both to be contemptible
in the highest degree. Every one who has been in the
habit ler proceeding up and down the river must know
them to be unfounded. The number of steam-vessels
navigating the Thames is exceedingly small, and could
not of itself have caused the deficiency of room com-
plained of ; and we know from the official returns of
the sailing vessels frequenting the river, that if they
have not decreased, the increase has been too trifling to
merit the slightest attention, as confining the navi-
gable space on the river. Instead, also, of the com-
manders of the steam-vessels being, if not blood-thirsty
ruffians, at least careless of the loss of life, and neglect-
ful of the means of preventing is--the very reverse, in
the generality of instances, is the case. Their own
safety, as well as that of the crew, vessel, and passen-
gers under their charge, is as much at risk by neglect
of duty, as that of the vessels with whom they may
happen to meet upon the river ; and unless they are '
to be set down at once as either madmen or fools,
there is no greater improbability than that they shoUld,
either by themselves or by others, be guilty of the
charges brought against them. What, then, it will
naturally be asked, is the cause of the numerous and
melancholy accidents which have recently occurred on
the river ? If not from the want of room in the river,
nor from the negligence of those in charge of steam-
boats, what do they proceed from ? We answer un-
hesitatingly, and not without good ground for the ob-
servation, first, from the general hostility borne towards
the steamers by those whose trade they have cut up or de-
stroyed by the greater speed and certainty oftheir naviga-
tion, and the perpetual obstructions thrown in their way by
them ; and, secondly, from the want of due rules and
regulations for the navigation of the river. The former
is too palpable to have escaped the attention of any
one. The barge and other boatmen on the river,
instead of making way for a steam-vessel, or getting
out of her path as soon as possible, will either stand
still, without touching either helm or oar, or will actu-
' ally, on perceiving the approach of a steamer, throw
their vessels across the river, so as, on all occasions,
to delay the progress of the steamer, and on many, to
render it impossible that a collision should not be the
result. Many of them, in fact, appear to court the
latter, instead of avoiding it—the fact being but too
well known, that more is always to be recovered than
the vessel is worth, and that there is no more pro-
fitable market to which a worn-out vessel can
be sent than the steam fair. Again, with regard
to the navigation of the river, we believe that
there is no rule for its regulation, except that
which limits the speed of steam-vessels in a certain
part of it to five miles an hour. This is an
excellent regulation ; but it ought to be followed by
others, such as the carrying of lights at night by all
vessels navigating the river—the keeping of a parti-
cular side of the river, as carriages and other vehicles
of land accommodation are compelled to, do, except
when the former are compelled to alter it on account
of the state of the tide—and finally, by the establish-
ment of a police guard on the river, to compel vessels
to obey the regulations which may be made, and to re-
port for proper piThishment those who may prove re-
fractory or negligent. With the adoption and enforce-
ment of such simple and such self-evident means of safety,
we doubt not that, however the number of steam ves-
sels may increase, the navigation of the river might be
rendered as safe, if not more so, than that of any other
navigable canal of similar extent and proportionate

concourse of vessels in any part of the world. We
throw out these observations for the benefit of the meet-
ing which is advertised to be holden on Thursday
next on the subject. No doubt many others will be
suggested ; but those :which we have thus hastily
thrown out have the recommendation not only of sim-
plicity, but of having met with the appobation of those
whose whose experience entitles their judgment to the
best consideratien.—Morning Advertiser.