The Sun.
London, England, 1868-04-22 00:00:00

BILL.

Oa the motion for going into committee upon this bill,
Mr. G:LPIN moved as an amendment that, in the opin-
ion of this house, it is expcidient, iasteal of carrying out
the punishment of death within prisons, that capital
punishment should be abolish° '.

Mr. GlililiOß Y argued, against the resolution, that tho
extreme punishment Iris necessary to restrain the violent
and dangerous classes from desperate crimes, and, above
all, for the preservation of convict discipline.
The resolution was supported by Mr. NEATE, and
opposed by

Mr. MILL, who was of opinion that in cases of aggra-
vated murder, where the circumstances admitted of no pal-
liation, and where the act was not an exception, but the
natural result of a man's course of life, solemnly to blot
him out of the category of human beings, was the most
impressive punishment to which society could resort. It
was the least cruel mode of deterring from murder, and
was far more merciful than imprisonment for life. To tLe
argument that the punishment had been a practical failure
he replied that no one could tell how many people it had
prevented from becoming murderers, and it was by its
effect on the beginnings of crime, and not on the crimi-
nal classes, that its deterrent power should be tested.
When it was inflicted for a number of minor offences
it naturally became a brutuag fulmen, and if judges,
juries, and Homo Secretaries grew averse from inflict-
ing it in cases of murder, then it should be abolished
But this result could only be accomplished by an ener-
vation of the public mind for effeminacy, he urged
it would be to be more shocked at taking away a man's life
than at depriving him of all that rendered life worth liv-
ing for. In an elaborate and weighty argument he insisted
that loss of life was not the greatest ill that could befall a
man, and that capital punishment combined the greatest
deterrent effect with the least amount of human suffering.
The irretrievable character of the punishuaetft, he lointed
out, was an additional security for the careful discharge
of their duties by judges and juries.

On a division the resolution was negatived by 127 to
23.

The bill was then discussed in committee, and the
clauses were agreed to without any substantial alteration.
The Religious Buildings (Sites) and the Artisans' and
Labourers' D wellings Bills passed through committee.
Several other bills were for warded a stage, and the
house adjourned at 25 minutes to 12 o'clock.

LuNDON GAZETTE-LAST EVENING.

ADMIRALTY, APRIL 18.
Royal Marine Light Infantry —Lieutenant Henry Cowley
Bowker to be Second Captain, vice Masters, to half-pay.
Sub-Lieutenant William Martin Aunesley to be Lieu-
tenant in her Majesty's Fleet.
Mr. William Hair has this day been promoted to the
rank of Engineer in her Majesty's Fleet with seniority of
7th April, 1868. _

APRIL 20.

Sub-Lieutenant Edmund Frederic Jeffreys has been
promoted to be Lieutenant in her Majesty's Fleet, with
seniority of 29th April, 1867.
__

Alum, 17.

Lieutenant William John Royle Card has been promoted
to the rank of Retired Commander, under the provisions
of her Majesty's Orders in Council of Ist August, 1860, 9th
July, 1864, and 24th March, 1866.

On Tuesday a " tall, handsome, and fashionably-
dressed lady" was brought before the Southwark magis-
trates charged with having four husbands. From the evi-
dence it seems that she was married at Cardiff, in June,
1863 ; at Carlisle, in January, 1866 ; and in October, 1867,
at Perth ; and that all this time her first husband was and
is now alive. She was remanded, and not finding the bail,
which Mr. Burchani offered to take, she was sent to Horse-
monger-lane Gaol.
WILLIAM OF NORMANDY.—WiIIiatn, although so
young, was devoted to the duties of his station. A child
of eight, when he succeeded to his father, he never-
theless, Guillaume de Poitiers tolls us, grew fast in "
Gaul had not another
cavalier
in-
telligenceand personal prowess.
sorenowned as he. As ho excelled in beauty when
clad in princely habiliments, so also in his warlike equip-
ment ho appeared to singular advantage. He zealously sot
to work to protect God's church, to defend the cause of
the weak, to establish equitable laws, to pronounce jud,r-
mute in accordance with justice and mocleraticn, and,
above all, to stop murders, fires, and pillage ; for unlawful
things then enjoyed the extreme of license. Finally, ho
withdrew his countenance from those whom he foundtr in-
capable or perverse ; he followed Sae counsel, r
foreign foes, and enacted from his own people all due obe-
dience."--Dickens's "All the Year Round."

THE CIVIL SERVlCE.—Appointments : Messrs.
D. Daly, T. Dalton, A. M. Hare, W. R. New, A. W.
Stroud, and J. Wood to be assistants of Excise; Mr.
Henry Darden, to bo clerk in the Post-office, Salisbury;
Messrs. Duncan Robertson Irvine and William Acheson
Traill to be assistant geologists, Science and Art Depart-
=lnt.