The Sun.
London, England, 1850-03-25 00:00:00

tion, to receive the spontaneous homage of a grateful
I nation. It has so happened, that in very spite of the
recollections of Chillianwallab, the brave old General
has extorted the cheers, not of adulation but of pride and
gratitude--pride in his prowess and gratitude for his
achievements—from a community whose congratula-
tions are only heightened in emphasis by the re-
'me mbrance of their momentary, ungenerous,
and unmerited abandonment of confidence. Never
having ourselves participated in the panic
which unhappily at one period spread so
widely throughout the population, but having
been actuated in our opinion of Lord Gomm by
that implicit reliance on his prowess and capacity
which induced Sir ROBERT PEEL to declare " at no
period of his career did I ever despair of his ultimate
success "—we can look with threefold satisfaction
upon those tokens of respect and admiration which
are just now pouring down plentifully upon the head
of the aged conqueror. As if for the unalloyed gra-
tification of his ambition, he is now, immediately after
his return homewards, receiving from all classes and
sections of the community the welcome due to his
many distinguished services and his many illustrious
achievements. From the hand of his SOVEREIGN he
has obtained the guerdon of his bravery, and the re-
ward of his long and glorious career in arms. From
the Parliament, from the Government, from the Com-
pany, from his brother officers, from the leaders of
fashion and the leaders of trade, as well as from the
great mass of the population, Lord. GOUGH has ob-
tained the assurance that his merits have been appre-
ciated and his numerous and splendid victories duly
recognised. The knowledge of all this cannot
fail to console the victorious veteran for
his prolonged absence from his native land, and will
doubtless enable him with larger satisfaction to him-
self to sink into the brilliant obscurity of the peerage,
and exchanging the duties of the senator fur those of
the commander-in-chief, to crown his services as a
soldier with his patriotic conduct as a member of the
Imperial Legislature.
Incidentally during the entertainment given to the
Noble Lord in the London Tavern, on Saturday
evening, we were gratified to observe the cordiality
with which two names of distinguished officers in the
sister service, the Royal 'Navy of England,
were mentioned and received—the names, we
mean, of Sir WILLIA➢i PARKER and Sir JOHN
FRANKLIN. It was due to the merits of those
gallant sailors, that though spoken of as it

were merely in parenthesis, their names should be
greeted with IQud and earnest acclamations. One of
them, by his daring and self-sacrificing devotion to the
cause of science, and to the credit of his country and
of his profession, has expatriated himself during many
past winters in the frozen deserts of the Arctic Circle,
carried thither in his great voyage of discovery. The
other—than whom there is not a nobler or braver
sea captain now living in the Royal Navy of
England—has, for a considerable time past, in the
Indian Ocean, and since then in the Mediterranean
Sea, watched over the interest of Great Britain with
unwinking vigilance, during days of war, of conspi-
racy, of intrigue, and of revolution. The first, it is
true, has exposed himself to the peril of perishing by
the horrible death of starvation, while the other, by his
bold and brilliant proceedings, not only on
the coasts of China, but on those of Italy,
Turkey, and Greece, has rendered himself
the object of partizan vituperation. Yet the
names of both we are certain are enshrined in the
hearts of the people of England, and the achievements
of both, we are satisfied, will be inscribed in golden
characters in the annals of our maritime greatness.
It was as appropriate that the merits of Sir Jour/
FRANKLIN and of Sir WILLIAM PARKER should have
been incidentally acknowledged during the entertain-
ment given by the East India Company in honour of
Lord GOUGH, as it was but just for that great Com-
pany to welcome thus early and thus earnestly back
to his native land the veteran soldier, whose sword
has illustrated anew the glories of their empire, and
whose victories have so largely extended the limits of
their dominion.

THE FRENCH REPUBLIC.

We have received the Paris journals of Saturday
and yesterday.
The Constitutionnel and the Patrie, both Ministe-
rial journals, have declared against the proposed law
on the press, which is now opposed by every journal
of the metropolis.
At a meeting of the club of the Conseil d'Etat,
held on Thursday, M. DB LAROCREJAQUELIN loudly
condemned the Ministerial repressive measures, which
were supported by MM. THIERS' MOLE, PISCATORY,
and the other Orleanists. The Legitimatists (at least
the LAROCHEJAQUELIN section of them) ostentatiously
abstain from mixing themselves up with these most
unpopular measures. These measures were dis-
cussed in the bureaux of the Assembly on
Saturday, and a committee, with a majority fa-
vourable to the measure for the suppression of electoral
meetings was returned ; for although in five bureaux
no return was made, yet as ten bureaux have nomi-
nated members favourable to the Ministerial project,
there can be no doubt as to the report. With regard
to the Press Bill, there are nine members of the Com-
mittee in favour of it, and five who are either for its
rejection or its modification. In the course of the
discussion in the bureaux, M. DE LAMARTINE said
that he looked on Socialism as a passing malady,
having its source in ignorance, so that instead of
restricting discussion he would allow it full play.
General CAVAIGNAC said that he never had refused to
Government the means of putting down evils threat-
ening the security of society, but he thought there
was a wide difference between transitory weapons for
transient dangers and the establishment of general
principles of legislation. Seeing that the late
elections had passed off peaceably, he thought
it unwise to pronounce censure on the con-
stitutional exercise of universal suffrage, by
having recourse to repressive laws when there was
no sedition to repress. M. NAPOLEON BONAPARTE
protested that he saw no midway between repression
and liberty. A coalition of the Monarchist parties
had caused a coalition of all shades of Republicanism,
and he thought that to meet the elections for Paris
by such measures was to throw down defiance to
public opinion. M. DE LA ROCLIEJAQUELIN, M. DE
BEAUMONT, M. COQUEREL, M. VICTOR HUGO, all
spoke against the law affecting the press ; even M.
TRIERS declared that Governments never were saved,
and never could be saved, by such expedients.
There will be a new election of the Soane et Loire.
It appears that at the last election 6,000 persons
voted above the registered number of the whole con-
stituted, and it was likewise stated that 60,000 were
kept from voting by intimidation, an accusation ab-
surd on the face of it, while it appears that 6,000
more than the whole constituency voted. The Com-
mittee recommended that the election should be
confirmed, inasmuch as the majority in favour
of the sitting Members was much more than 6,000.
The Assembly, however, decided that the election
should be null, a decision which might have been
foreseen, inasmuch as the returned Members are all
Socialists. There can be very little doubt of their
re-election.

Among the remarkable trials for murder tha
have taken place within the last half-century few
present more extraordinary features than that of
MARY CATHERINE NEWTON, who was arraigned at
Shrewsbury last week, on a charge of matricide. It
was the third time that the unfortunate woman had
appeared before a jury of her countrymen to answer
the most serious accusation that could be preferred
against anyindividual—an accusation whicb, if substan-
tiated, would inevitably have subjected the wretched
prisoner to an ignominious and painful death upon
the scaffold. There was a legal question of no
ordinary importance connected with this part of the
case affecting the trial by jury, which has been justly
termed the palladium of national liberty. And there
was also that pleasing diversity of opinion among the
medical witnesses, for which " the profession" has
been distinguished from the earliest times, and which
has led to the aphorism that " doctors differ." The
case was, therefore, one of deep interest to the mem-
bers of the legal and medical professions, and the re-
sult of the trial was awaited with the greatest anxiety.
It has terminated in an " acquittal," although we be-
lieve some of our contemporaries took a former jury
to task for the difference of opinion that prevented the
execution of the party accused.
The deceased ANNE NEWTON, whose death formed
the subject-matter of investigation, was a person of
advanced years, who had survived the ordinary age
of mankind, being seventy-two years of age. She
was described as " very quick and acute for that time
of life, but rather flighty; not insane, but at times
much excited, and would say unreasonable things."
She was entitled to a life-interest of 500/. sterling,
2001. of which, on her death, would become the
property of her only child, the prisoner, who would
also be entitled to a life -interest in the
remaining
.300/. It was established beyond the
possibility of doubt that the daughter had on several
occasions behaved in the most cruel and unnatural
manner towards her aged parent, having frequently
beaten her severely, and expressed an anxious desire
for her death, in order that she (the prisoner) might
come into possession of " her fortune." Repeated re-
monstrances were made to MARY NEWTON on the
gross impropriety of her conduct, but without any
great effect, although she occasionally promised
amendment. Her continued misbehaviour in this
respect gave additional weight to the grave
suspicions excited by the death of he r
mother, and the serious inconvenience to
which she has been subjected, her protracted im-
prisonment, and numerous trials, may in a great
degree be ascribed to her own heartless and unfeeling
conduct towards the author of her existence.
On the evening of the 4th December, 1848, the
old woman went to the house of a Mr. DYER, with
whom the prisoner lived as housekeeper, where she
remained for the night, sleeping on a sofa in the
kitchen. About two o'clock the next morning the
sofa was found to be on fire, but it was easily extine
guished. On search being made, the deceased Arms
NEWTON was found in the brewhouse, lying on her
face, apparently burned to death. The prisoner,
who at the time was in a state of intoxication, used
several remarkable expressions, and behaved very
strangely in other respects, so as to give some sanction
to the opinion that she was in some degree implicated
in the transaction. These, however, might in some
degree be, accounted for by the maudlin condition to
which she had reduced herself, having consumed the
greater portion of a quart of rum during the evening.
An inquest was held on the body, at which several
medical practitioners were examined, three of
whom, who conducted the post-mortem
exami-
nation, declared that in their opinion the death
had been caused by suffocation, and that the injuries
from fire had taken place after death, while two other
gentlemen expressed opinions more favourable to the
prisoner, and thought that there were no certain data
whereon to decide whether they took place before or
after death. It was conceded that there had been no
examination of the " larynx, trachea, bladder, or rec-
turz," so that the investigation could not be consi-
dered as by any means satisfactory. The coroner's
jury, who met on ten different occasions, were unable
b) agree as to the cause of death, but the prisoner
was fully coma fitted on a charge of wilful murder by
the borough ma ..gistrates.
The first trig I took place at the Spring Assizes, GREECE.
1849 ; thelnquis .y was continued during two succes- The Austrian papers state, from telegraphic ad-
siTe days. Tb jury, however, could not arrive at an vices from ^:rlieAstneca 12 The affairs of Greece are
:
unanimous dec iision, and the commission day in the
still Pirstirt::q. o. The British fit-et has not sailed fir
adjoining count, 7 having arrived, and it being declared
the Dardabellet r. The Hellenic Government persists in
that there was
rao prospect of their agreement, they its refusal to a egctiute previous to the recal of the

The Gobemouches of Paris, among the most gullible
of whom are to be reckoned the correspondents of
certain of our reactionary contemporaries, have
lately been regaled by a story of a pretended plot for
the assassination of the Emperor of RUSSIA, the
Emperor of AUSTRIA, the PRESIDENT of the French
Republic, and various other illustrious personages, all in
one day. This notable plan was, it is stated, communi-
cated to the democratic leaders, and disapproved of
by them ; but the concoctors determined to carry it
into execution, and accordingly one of them set out
on foot, with only a few franca in his pocket, to walk
from Switzerland, through France and Germany, to
Vienna, to assassinate the Emperor of AUSTRIA, but
was arrested, it is said, in France. Such is the
absurd story got up by the police, in order to distract
public attention from the trial about to com-
mence at Geneva of the Austrian police
spy, charged with endeavouring to suborn persons
to assassinate Mazzo'. The inventive genius of the
employes of M. CARMEN is dull in comparison with
that of the ci-devant employes of M. DELESSERT.
The llioniteur publishes a decree of the PRESIDENT
of the Republic, reducing the registry and stamp-
duty in Algeria to one-half of their amount in
France.

The Prevoyante frigate is about to proceed from
Cherbourg to the west coast of Africa, to farm part
of the French naval station there.

The French funds are heavy, Five per Cents., 901.
4.5 c. ; Three per Cents. 55f. a.lc.

BUSINESS DONE IN FOREIGN RAILWAYS AT THE
LONDON STOCK-EXCHANGE, MARCII 23.
Boulogne and Amiens, VA—Namur and Liege, VA—
Northern of France, 12%.

SPAIN.
Madrid journals of the 19th have arrived. .
The rumours of an impending ministerial crisis bad
been renewed.
The Bolsa was closed.

were discharged without a verdict. At the Summer
Assizes she was again arraigned, when it was
objected to, on her part, that the jury had not
been discharged by her consent, or by inevitable
necessity, and that, therefore, having been once placed
" in jeopardy," she could not again be tried. The point
was reserved, and a new jury sworn, who again dis-
agreed, and were discharged after a long confinement,
in consequence of the serious illness of one of their
number. On the present occasion she was again in-
dicted, and, as we have already stated, at length
acquitted.

It is most desirable that the important point of
practice raised by the prisoner's counsel should be set
at rest. It is the unquestionable privilege of every
British subject that he shall not be kept in durance
with a serious charge hanging over his head. If
once tried, and, as it is termed, placed " in jeopardy," he
cannot be a second time arraigned on the same charge,
but may put in a plea of autrefois acquit or autrefois
convict to the indictment. There is allowance made
for a disagreement by the jury, in which case a
second inquiry may take place, but every effort must
be made to obtain a conclusive verdict, one way or
the other, before their discharge. In the present
case, however, no such effort was made. It was not
alleged that the health of any of the jury rendered
necessary their dismissal. It was done solely for the
convenience] of the Learned Judge, who wished to
leave the town without further delay, and who
occasioned the detention of the prisoner and her fur-
ther trials, that he might be enabled to do so. We
believe that similar decisions have on several occa-
sions been made on circuit, but that the " point" has
never been satisfactorily and conclusively settled by a
full court. This vexata guestio would have been
finally determined had the result been unfavourable
to the prisoner. As the humane principle of the
British law declares that "it is better that ninety-
nine - guilty persons should escape with impunity
than that one innocent man should be un-
justly convicted," it certainly seems that if
there was so much doubt in a case that a jury of
twelve men could not agree in judgment), and that
their deliberations were not cut short by the act of
GOD, the prisoner should receive the benefit of that
doubt, and be discharged from further proceedings in
reference to the alleged offence. Such a course
would, we are convinced, be in accordance with the
true spirit of the British law, and, although a criminal
might occasionally evade the punishment due to his
crimes, if such a rule were established many innocent
persons would be protected from the greatest incon-
venience and annoyance, and an additional guarantee
would be given for the full security of the liberty of
the subject.