The Sun.
London, England, 1832-08-11 00:00:00

ILLUMINATIONS.

Colonel SIBTIIORPE said there were papers circulated
about the town, stating there were to be illuminations in
honour of the passing of the Reform Bill, and that these
were to take place under the auspices of the Hon. Bsrt.,
the Member for Westminster. He called the attention of
the Government to this fact, and trusted they would think
it worth their peculiar attention ; the more so, as it ap-
peared that for his vote on the Reform Bill the Most
Reverend the Archbishop of Canterbury had been most
shamefully attacked.

Lord ALTHORP said he was not aware such a ❑otice
had been given.

Mr. C. COURTENAY observed there had been a
meeting on tile subject some time ago, but he rather be-
lieved the Honourable Rironet bad since disclaimed any
connection with it.

Lord PALMERSTON presented certain Papers relative
to Poland and the Manifesto of Russia.

Colonel SIBTHORPE gave notice, that nest Session
he should bring the subject of the attack on the Arch-
bishop of Canterbury under the attention of the House.
The House Adjourned at half-past Eleven to to-morrow
(this day).

So backward are those entitled to qualify as
electors, that only about 250 schedules have yet been taken
out, and of these not one-half are returned. When votes
to 1,700/. purchasers were found,
ranged from 1,000/,
but purchasers now hang back
.when the price is only
half•a-crown. Of the early quihfiers, there was a pretty
fair proportion of movement and conservative parties, but
the initiated say that latterly the former have preponder-
ated.—Paisley Advertiser.
The Madrid Gazette does not call the forces
of Donna MARIA either an army, or even troops, but de-
ingnates them merely as the men of Don Pisinio.

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EXECUTION of COOK the MURDERER.

(From the second edition of the Leicester Journal of
Friday.)
From an early hour this morning the population of the
surrounding districts cable pouring into Leicester; and the
whole of the labouring classes of the town struck work
for the day, in order that they might have an opportunity
of witnessing the execution of this wretched criminal,
which was appointed to take place at ten o'clock. As
early as five o'clock a great crowd began to assemble round
the County Gaol, and their number kept increasing until
ten o'clock, when they amounted to nearly 40,000. Since
his coodemnation on Wednesday he has appeared quite
prepared for his fate, as, after retiring to rest in the even-
ing, he slept soundly from nine till six o'clock the next
morning. He was visited the same day by Mr. Denton,
attorney for the late Mr. Paas, and earnestly requested, that
as his doom was now sealed in this world, to tell the truth
with regard to the remains, and if any were yet concealed,
to make the only atonement he possibly could, by inform-
ing them of the. fact. Cook replied that he had told them
all that he knew, and requested that he might not be in-
terrupted in his religious devotions. The time appointed
for his execution was half-past nine o'clock ; about a
quarter of an hour previous to which time the Under
Sheriff (Mr. l3erridge) and retinue arrived at the gaol.
We were then admitted, and found Cook,lin a condemn d
cell, devoutly praying, to the Almighty to give him
strength and fortitude to bear him up under his execution.
The Rev. Dr. Fancourt and the Rev. Robert Burnaby
were in the cell with him ; after a few minutes longer in
prayer, he said, " I am quite ready," and the room being
cleared, he was pinioned. At about half past nine, the
culprit, preceded by the Under Sheriff and Clergyman, fol-
lowed by the town and county gaoler, walked with a
firm step to the drop. On coming out on the scaffold,
the unhappy culprit gazed intently round, and waived his
hand on recognising several of his former acquaintances.
He appeared t.tally engaged in prayer, and uttered the
following pious ejsculaion, " Lord remember me when
thou comest to judge the world." The rope was then
placed round his neck, and he immediately threw away a
white cambric pocket-handkerchief. Everything bing
ready, the drop fell, after considerable difficulty, and
James Cook, the murderer, was very soon no more. He
struggled violently for the space of about two minutes, du-
ring which he gave some terrible convulsive heaves, and
from the experience of an old officer who stood by, we
are authorised in saying that he never witnessed a criad-
nil die so bard. The crowd continued very orderly du-
ring the whole of the ceremony ; several persons fainted
away. After hanging the usual time the body was taken
down and put into chains, pursuant to the sentence. The
gibbet, we understand, will be erected in Saffron-lane,
leading from the Aylestone Toll-gate to Countesthorpe,
and within a quarter of a mile of the former place.

He was dressed in a blue coat, black waistcoat, white
gloves and trowsers ; holding in his left hand the handker-
chief, which Richards and Jeffrey (the two constables who
attended him during his confinement in the Borough Gaol)
picked up, according to an understanding they had while
in prison. He shook hands very heartily with the town
and county gaolers.
It appears the light fingered gentry were on the alert,
a gentleman having his pocket picked of his pocket-
book, containing a variety of memorandums, &c., while
standing very near the drop.

EXECUTION AT CHELMSFORD.-AT-

TEMPT TO BREAK PRISON.

Yesterday (Friday) John Hills, who was sentenced to
death at the late Assizes for the county, was executed in
front of the new gaol. The crime for which the culprit
suffered was that of rape, under the most aggravated cir-
cumstances, on Mrs. Leslie, the wife of a highly respec-
table spirit-merchant, residing in the parish of Springfield,
which adjoins Chelmsford. Previously to trial, the pri-
soner conducted himself in a most hardened manner, but
when sentence of death was passed upon him, he some-
what relented. Since then he had been very sullen, but
paid some attention to the exhortations of the chaplain of
the prison. He several times declared to the yardsman
and the persons who eat with him, that he was certain
he should not be executed. This confidence evidently
arose from his knowledge of a plan which had been formed
amongst the prisoners, to murder the turnkeys and escape.
A miraculoua circumstance occurred to prevent this being
carried into execution, or the moat murderous consequence
would have ensued. A person who is under sentence of
transportation for sheep-stealing, and who, since his im-
prisonment, has had a fortune left him by a relation, was
the founder of the plot, and the turnkey was to have been
seized when he went to lock up, the keys taken from him,
and the gates of the yard thrown open. This would have
liberated between thirty and forty prisoners, which it was
supposed would have been enough to overpower the turn-
keys. The other yards were then to have been thrown
open, and Hills liberated from his cell.
A free pardon had been sent for a man, under sentence
of death, recorded, for cutting and maiming, which ar-
rived at the gaol at the moment the conspirators were im-
parting the plan to him. Being called out of the yard he
confessed the whole, and the party were seized and ironed.
After this Hills became more sullen, as all hope was gone,
and he laid fur hours at a time upon his bed, with his face
hid in the bed-clothes. To the Chaplain be, in substance,
acknowledged his guilt, and said he hoped God would for-
give his. He had taken leave of his relations a day or
two previous, and on Thursday evening he appeared rather
calmer. He passed the night in the usual manner ; but
between three and four o'clock he seemed to he awakened
to a sense of his dreadful situation. From that time he
continued deeply agitated. When brought to the pinioning
room, about a quarter before nine, he trembled violently;
he seemed emaciated, and his in•ernal struggles had evi-
dently reduced him to a very weak state. About nine he
was taken to the scaffold. He ascended the ladder, and
was placed under the beam without appearing hardly sen-
sible of what was passing. He was evidently •scarcely
able to speak, much less to give the " cock-crowing" he
had promised. Whilst the preparations were going on,
the culprit continued to waver backwards and forwards,
and ejaculate faint prayers for mercy. When the drop fell
he struggled very hard for neatly ten minutes. The
culprit was about twenty-one years of age. He was the
illegitimate son of a highly-respectable farmer in the parish
of Springfield, who, however, took but little notice of him,
and he has, though young, run a long career of crime.
His mother resides in the parish, and could, we were in-
formed, stand at the door of her cottage, and see the exe-
cution of her son. Mrs. Leslie, the prosecutrix, also
lives near the gaol. The number of spectators was rather
large, and amongst them were several females.

REVIVAL OF THE GIBBET IN LIEU OF

DISSECTION.

(From the London Medical Gazette.)
The fact of a murderer having within the last week
been actually hung in chains—that is to say, the man's
dead bxly having been gibbeted after execution—has ex-
cited a mingled feeling of surprise and disgust in the public
mind. It was a thing that people were not prepared for—
a recurrence to the practices of the olden time anything but
favourable to the wisdom of our progenitors : it is felt that
we have suddenly retrograded to those famous times when
it was deemed expedient to inflict all sorts of barbarous
indignities on the corpses of malefactors, not merely in
terrorem for the living, but for retribution sake—that the
evil-doer should have his full measure of punishment even
to overflowing.
But there is a small mistake in this view of the matter:
we have not retrograded—we have not only advanced : we
are still in the same savage condition in this country, with
regard to penal arrangements, that we were in a hundred
or two hundred years ago. The system has never changed
—the mode has a little.

It was in the middle of the last century that the act was
passed for changing the murderers' sentence from gibbeting
to dissection. We can very well fancy how things then
stood. People had grown familiar with the sight of the
gibbet ; and condemned criminals could hear themselves
sentenced to that ignominy without a single additional
pang. But when, under the Act, the murderer was or-
dered to be " dissected and anatomized," as a port of his
punishment, it was like the application of a new and inge-
nious torture, and probably for a time it was attended with
effects as salutary as the impressions it proauced were hor-
rible and revolting. The fowls of the air were to be ex-
changed for the ruffian anatomist—swinging in the open
sky for the private and clandestine mysteries of the dis-
secting table—and exposure to the gaze of pitying
multitudes for the daring scrutiny of the unfeeling
dissector. " Anatomizing" was, accordingly, for a
time looked upon as a capital mode of punishing
with terror ; and as if to secure it expressly for that
noble end, our wise legislators persisted as long as possible
in prohibiting the practice of anatomy with any other
view : the ends of science they would by no means put in
competition with the ends of "justice," as they were
pleased to ca I it. They generously overlooked the in-
terests of the medical art, though so intimately connected
with the preservation of their own bodily welfare, and
that of their families and the community, in order that
the provisions of the penal law should be the more effi-
ciently executed.
Unfortunately, however, for our legislators, anatomy
toe was at length found to have " no terror in its threats;"

t '\ !

and the increasing intelligence of the age insisted that it
should be applied to another purpose. It was loudly de-
manded that the practice of dissection should be permitted
—recognized—legalized, for other uses than the noble one
of finishing the law. The demand was reluctantly com-
plied with ; but to mark the sense which our modern So-
lons entertained of the real uses of anatomy, they insisted
that as it was no longer to be employed as a punishment,
that some equivalent degrading process should be adopted
instead. As murderers, therefore, can no longer he con-
signed to the knife of the anatomist, they must be hung
in chains :
For buried surely they must not be ;
They are to be left on the triple tree :
That those who pass along may spy
Where the murderers' bodies are hanging on high."
If their hones cannot be kept for inspection i❑ a glass
case, they may be arrayed at least in a suit of irons, and
conspicuously posted.

" It will be a comfortable sight,
To see them there by day and by night."

DUBLIN, AUGUST 9.

COMMISSION COURT.

Messrs. Sheehan and Ilrown appeared this day, ac-
cording to the order of the Court, pronounced on Tuesday
last, that the proprietors of the Comet (a weekly news-
piper) do attend the Court to show cause why they had
acted in contempt of the Court, by publishing in their
paper of Sunday last an article calculated to bias the minds
of the Jurors in the tria!s pending against certain persons
accused of conspiring to prevent the payment of tithes.
The public papers will have already informed you that the
Attorney-General, with the three King's serjeants,
(Penefeather, O'Loghlen, and Perrin) were in attendance
on behalf of the Crown.
Messrs. HoLMEs and BouLvit showed cause this day
against the order, at considerable length and with great
ability, after which, Serjeant PENEFEATHER replied on
the side of the Attorney-General.

The Court deliberated a few moments, and
Judge BURTON pronounced judgment (in which Judge
Vandeleur concurred) to the effect that the publication
in question was unequivocally and unquestionably a con-
tempt of Court so manifest that it was unneccessary to
cite authorities to show how similar publications have
been always regarded as such. His Lordship said that
the Court would not decide the punishment to be inflicted
till the end of the Commission, but intimated that it would
be a pecuniary fine, in measuring which the Court would
take into consideratiou all circumstances connected with
the case.

It was then signified to the offenders that they would
get notice of the termination of the Commission. In the
meantime they were permitted to be at large, as they have
been since the Attorney-General's first application on the
subject.

FROM LAST NIGHT'S GAZETTE.

FOREIGN OFFICE, JULY 19.

The King has been graciously pleased to nominate and appoint
George Jackson, Esq. in the room of Alexander Cunningham,
Esq deceased, to be his Majesty's Commissary Judge to the
mixed British and Brazilian Commission established at Rio de
Janeiro, under the Convention for the abolition of the African
slave trade of Brazil, concluded at Rio de Janeiro, between his
Majesty and the Emperor of Brazil, on the 23d November, 1826.