The Sun.
London, England, 1868-06-10 00:00:00

SPIRIT OP THE PUBLIC JOURNALS, DEATH OF A WIFE FROM NEGLECT.

The Times declares that there is no doubt that the new
Press Law marks an epoch of considerable progress in
France. As M. Pinard puts it, the French press is now
of age. Every citizen may print his journal as he may
carry his pocket-knife. He is only responsible for the use
to which he puts either weapon. There is an end of pre-
vious " authorisation," of all the discretionary powers of
the Government. The equality before the law is fully
established, and the only disability which can arise is in
the -case of persons too poor to afford the rather heavy
caution money. The use of the press is allowed ; its
abuse is punished ; and the proper limits between
use and abuse are to be fixed by the ordinary tribunals in
every case that the public prosecutor may see fit to bring
before them. The Minister of Justice inveighs with some
warmth against those who have expressed any doubt as to
the fitness of the French magistrates to deal with offences
against the Press Law. There is no innovation whatever,
he asserts, in their jurisdiction. For the last fifty
years they have taken cognisance of written as well
as of spoken libels, and their impartiality has been
at all times above suspicion. We, indeed, always
thought the integrity of the French magistrates so
well established that the Minister's apology seems a work
of supererogation. But it is not emancipation from the
courts that the French Liberals were clamouring for. All
they wanted was that prosecutions of the press might be
tried by jury. In all differences arising bbtween public
writers and the authorities they wished for the opinion of
plain citizens rather than of lawyers. They were afraid
of that letter of the law which kills ; they longed for that
spirit which saves ; they dreaded that inexorable technica-
lity of interpretation which is apt to numb the lawyer's brain.
The control of the Government being thus strongly esta-
blished, the Ministers seem sufficiently willing that it should
be fairly and even temperately exercised. "The Govern-
ment," says M. Baroche, "will ask of the magistrates, as
it has invariably done hitherto, only well-grounded,
logical, and impartial sentences. Nothing is further from
its intentions than a jealous and restless surveillance of
the slightest slips of the 1- -ss. The criticism and discus-
sion of political and administrative acts should suffer
no hindrance." The Times does not think these words
have been spoken without earnest and deliberate meaning.
Nay, it is convinced they convey the Emperor's mind, and
his whole mind. Compatibly with the exigencies of what
he calls " order," the Emperor is bent upon countenancing
freedom of opinion. The criticism which a Frenchman
could hitherto freely allow himself in the pages of a fort-
nightly chronicle may now be reproduced in the columns
of a daily paper. The principles to which he could give
a wholesale utterance in an octavo sheet may now be
retailed in so many paragraphs of a few lines. The
French will have a fight for it, no doubt. What the
Emperor intended for the benefit of his subjects was not
a ready-made liberty ; it was a liberty to be earned
inoh by inch. Had even the bent of his own mind
inclined him to the acknowledgment of unlimited popular
rights, he was well aware of the strong and stubborn
array of illiberalism he had to deal with on his own side.
We know the trouble he had in dragging the so-called
"Arcadians" after him even so far as he has gone;
we are not sure how much further they would have
followed him. The bane of his whole existence—his
own irresolution more than anything else—has stood
in the way of his generous impulses. Between his
desire to come to terms with the men of progress
and his anxiety to compound with the men of
"order," the Emperor was as embarrassed as he has
so long been and still is between a policy of peace and-the
partisans of war, as he has been at all times, and will, perhaps,
for ever be, between the champions of clerical ultramon-
tanism and the advocates of a national and independent
Gallican Church. With all his hesitation, however, the
new law on the Press is one step, and a very significant
one, that he has made. " So much won from the enemy,"
the French Liberals may say. It is not by the amount of
the gain, but by its solidity and permanence, that its im-
portance should be valued.
The Herald maintains that the debate on the Telegraphs
Bill was one-sided. The arguments of the Opposition
were, with one exception, confined to the time when and
the manner in which the object should be accomplished.
From the leaders of the adverse section we heard nothing

On Monday evening Mr. Richards resumed and con-
cluded an inquest, at the Windsor Castle Tavern,Victoria
Park, respecting the death of Ann Arnold, aged 61
years, who died from the effects of neglect.
From the evidence it appeared that the unfortunate
deceased was left a widow by her first husband seven
years ago, and she then had a competency of £7OO in money
and a beershop. In a year after, George Arnold, a shoe
finisher, with a family of several children, came across
her, and she married him. Her money was soon squan-
dered in drink, and for some time past she was reduced
to a state of the most abject misery. Latterly she
became bedridden, and her husband and his grown sons
used to go out at five in the morning, and leave her
alone all day with her daughter-in-law, who was
an idiot and a cripple. She was short of food and another
necessaries. On the 17th of May the husband left the
house altogether, On the 20th the neighbours caused the
deceased to be taken to the workhouse, and she was ad-
mitted in a dying state, dressed only in one garment, and
covered with filth and vermin. There was a wound in her
head, which was at first supposed to have been caused
by a blow, but Which was in reality the result of
neglected abscess. Worms crept in and out of it. Death
eventuated in two days from the effect of pleurisy, accele-
rated by want of food, of medical attendance, and of
ordinary comforts. The coroner's officer stated that every
effort had been made by the police to trace the husband,
but hitherto without success. The coroner having summed
up the case, the jury returned a verdict of manslaughter
against George Arnold for killing and slaying Ann Arnold,
his wife. The coroner issued his warrant for the appre-
hension of the accused. - .

THE EXTRAORDINARY IRISH WILL CASE.

This extraordinary case is still proceeding. His lord-
ship, on taking his seat, referred to a statement of
counsel for the defendant, to the effect that either the
whole will or none of it should be established, and said
that on going into the evidence he thought it right
to observe that there were features in the case in which
it might become possible to sustain or set aside a
portion of the will. Evidence for the defence was then
given, and the first witness examined was Susan
McGuinness, who had been housemaid in Johnstown
Castle, and was now in the service of Lord Granard. She
deposed to the state of health of the testatrix at the time
of signing the will, and that after she bad heard it was
signed Lady Esmonde said, "They made me sign that,
but lam sorry, as I bad some alteration to make." On
cross-examination, she stated that the will was not men-
tioned, but she understood that was what was referred
to. Sally Fitzpatrick deposed that she entered
the late Lady Esmonde's service forty-one years ago,
and continued in it until her ladyship died. She
said : When I heard of Lady Esmonde's illness I went up
and saw her. She was in a most exhausted state. She
did not take a " bit of notice of me." That was on Fri-
day, and witness remained at the Castle till the death of
Lady Esmonde. Witness added that the deceased was
very weak in her mind. Early on the Monday morning
she saw Mrs. Deane Morgan in the room, who said to
witness that the deceased was going to sign a
paper, and witness left the room. On her return Mr.
Meredith, the Rev. Mr. Hughes, and Mr. Browne were
there. When the deceased was dying she said to witness,
" I am ashamed to say I signed the paper, though I did
not know what was in it." After the will was signed,
witness was told by Lady Esmonde that it was her desire
to build a hospital for invalids in Wexford. Deceased
always expressed great affection for Sir Thomas, and
wished him to be by her bedside. That gentleman was
frequently impeded going into her bedroom by Mr.
Hughes, Mrs. Deane Morgan, and Mrs. Dunne.
Mary Morgan, a housemaid, heard the deceased
say " They made me sign that paper, and I
am sorry for it."—Dr. Boxwell said that he asked the de-
ceased if she wished to have her will signed, and she said,
"It would be a great comfort and relief to my mind if it
was." The evidence for the defence being closed, the court
adjourned till yesterday morning. On the reassembling of
the court Mr. Sullivan proceeded to address the jury in
support of the defendant's case, after which the court
again adjourned.

711 E "ThilES" AND THE CE CUMENICAL

COUNCIL.

The Times, of Tuesday, contains a won-
derful article concerning General Councils,
wonderful for the rare ignorance it displays
of the chronological facts of Church history.
We are not unaccustomed to see in the pages
' even of the leading journal blunders of the
most extraordinary character concerning
Catholic doctrines, or even aboit contem-
porary events, in which the Catholic Church,
the Pope, or Catholic Archbishops are con-
cerned ; but when a writer in the Times
ventures to lecture the Pope, and to remind
him warningly of events in Church history,
he ought at least to be correct in his historical
facts, or, to borrow the words which he applies
to the Pope, "he ought to know what he is
about." "He (the Pope)," says the Times,
"should consider that more than three centuries
have elapsed since the last General Council was
closed at Trent ; he cannot forget that one
must go back three years further for the date
of that fifth Lateran Synod, after which no
other reunion of the same nature held in Rome
was deemed to be of undisputed authority
throughout the States of Catholic Christendom.
Why is it that Councils have been so long out
of date ?" According to the chronology of the
Times, then, no General Councils were held
for three hundred years prior to the Council
of Trent, at which date it puts the fifth Lateran
Council, but in reality, as every one except
this heedless writer knows, the Lateran Council
was held not three hundred years, but only fifty
years, before the Council of Trent. Moreover,
in the three hundred years preceding the
Council of Trent, there were, besides the fifth
Lateran Council in 1512, various other General
Councils, -such as, for instance, the Council of
Lyons, under Pope Innocent IV., in 1245,
when the Emperor Frederick 11. was deposed
—as that of Lyons under Gregory X. in
1274, of Vienne under Clement V., in 1312,
and of Florence in 1439. The Pope, therefore,
has not, as the Times asserts, to go back three
hundred years further than the Council of
Trent for the date of another Council enjoying
undisputed authority throughout the States
of Catholic Christendom. If we cannot depend
even on the historiCal accuracy of the Times,
we are not likely to feel in any way compelled
to place reliance on its guesses as to the Pope's
purpose in convoking a General Council, or in
its predictions as to the results likely to be
attained.