The Sun.
London, England, 1868-12-09 00:00:00

Tin SUN, LONDON, WEDNESDAY EVENING, DECEMBER 9, 1868.

BANKS,

CORRESPONDENCE FROM PARIS.

',nom OUR OWN CORRESPONDENT.)

PARIS, TUESDAY, December 8.

4%. very large concourse, which completely swamped the
accommodation of the Lyons Railway Company, assembled
at Angerville to pay the last tribute of respect to M.
Berryer. 2,500 people left Paris alone, and deputations
arrived from all parts of France. MM. Gravy, Thiers,
De Noailles, and others were the pall-bearers, and a
great number of the notables of France was present.
In accordance with the usual custom, a funeral
oration was made in the_ village church by the Bishop of
Orleans. When the service was over, the body was raised
and carried to the cemetery, in which is situated the
entrance to the family vault. As the general burial-
place is exceedingly confined in space, only a very
limited number of those present could hear the final
prayers. After those had been brought to a close, the
clergy issued from the vault of the Bcrryer family, and the
ceremony having then terminated, the public slowly took
their departure.
The trial of the poisoners of Marsci::es has terminated,
as a matter of course, in a conviction. But the guillotine,
that obsolete instrument of punishment, is not to be
brought into rerpthaion, even in this extreme case. The
woman Salvajo, she whose husband was drunken and
idle, is supposed to have suffered :;one provncation,
and has therefore received sentence of only
twenty years' imprisonment. All the other crimi-
nals have been condemned to hard labour for life—a
terrible doom, sufficient, one would think, to expiate even
the crime of these poisoners. But if the French will not
have capital punishment, why do they nut formally abolish
it? Why should justice be in a measure discredited by-con-
tinual resort to the plea of "extenuating circumstances"
in order to avoid the necessity of inflicting a sentence of
death? The guillotine should be finally transferred to the
lumber-room, and the punishment, which is virtually a
dead letter, ought to be erased from the statute-book.
The one or two cases in which capital punish-
ment has been inflicted in France during the last two
or three months are certainly not such as to inspire
the French people with any notion of the impressive
effect of an execution. One man who was recently
executed seemed utterly insensible to the terrors of the
fate which awaited him. He refused clerical aid,
on the ground that he did not want to be
" bothered ;" and he walked to the scaffold
smoking his pipe after a hearty breakfast. Another
fellow who now awaits the last penalty of the law is a
notorious glutton, and the prospect of cutting
short his chance of consuming earthly edibles has
but increased his appetite for them during the
short space that - remains. He is preparing
himself for another world by consuming enormous quan-
tities
of food, and spending the majority of his time in
sleep. Apart from the question whether capital punish-
ment is or is not good, it is decidedly bad in a country
where it has ceased to be the recognised sentence for
murder. _ _

The Lille magistrates have nobly sustained the credit
of the Imperial Government by a sentence which they
have just delivered. A young woman was charged with
secreting a batch of Lanternes beneath her crinoline. She
was found guilty of this enormous offence, and sen-
tenced to—two months' imprisonment and £4 fine. The
" Great Unpaid " is nothing to the " Great Subservient
and Servile."

The Government still held trophies of the famous
victory gained over popular turbulence last Thursday.
Seventeen of the wretches then arrested are still in
custody.

It had been reported that the Duke of Frias—who
married Lady Crampton, née Isabella Balfe—would be
sent as Spanish Ambassador to England. The Pro-
visional Government has, however, discovered that the
divorce case of the Duchess would be an obstacle to diplo-
matic business in England. The happy pair will therefore
go to St. Petersburg.
There is a report current that many of the jewels, &c.,
disposedof at the sale of the Duchess de Morny's diamonds
belonged to Queen Isabella.

THE WEATITEB TABLE.-THIS DAY.