The Sun.
London, England, 1845-05-01 00:00:00

MOTU:in *Mt

LONDON, THURSDAY, MAY 1, 1845.

rather upon their merciless tormentors than on their own
crimes. But in our times there is visited on wretched
capital convicts a "vengeance beyond the law "—after
sentence, but prior to execution—more mentally tor-
tuous, more cruel, more demoralizing in its influence on
the world beyond its victims, than ever the brutalizing
excesses of the old " Press-room " and the " Question
Chamber." This cruel refinement on the demands even
of our criminal code consists in the practice—the per-
mitted, cherished, notorious, heartless practice—of a
direct contravening, on the part of the City of London
authorities, magisterial and official, of the last solemnlin-
junction which the majesty of the law, in the person
of the judge, addresses to the trembling victim,
when it is dismissing, as it were, from its own
person, to appear at the tribunal of Eternal Justice
itself. " Let me beseech you," is the last
human appeal of the ermined dispenser of human
justice to the wretched delinquent who trembles before
him—convicted—doomed—hopeless—" let me beseech
you to employ the few remaining hours allotted to your
existence in this world to the duties of penitence and
prayer, and making your peace with your offended
Gop F' The judge does well—and tenderly—and like
a Christian man. He does not add—" But you shall be
brought out from the dark privacy of your solitary cell,

The House of Lords did not sit.
The Commons met at Four.
Mr. DUNCOMBE gave notice that on the second reading
of the Maynooth Bill he should move to limit the grant
to three years.
Mr. S. CRAWFORD gave notice of an amendment to
Lord JOHN RUSSELL'S resolutions on the state of the
country, calling the attention of the House to the consi-
deration of the propriety of extending the suffrage
The third reading of the Maynooth Bill was fixed for
Monday, May 19, and the debate on Lord J. RUSSELL'S
motion on the state of the country, was fixed for May 26.
Sir R. PEEL promised to state his plan with regard
to Provincial Colleges in Ireland before the Holidays.
Mr. WATSON, at the request of Sir J. GRAHAM, post-
poned the second reading of the Roman Catholic Relief
Bill to the 28th May.
Mr. T. DUNCOMBE consented to the discharge of
the order for the second reading of the Arrestment of
Wages (Scotland) Bill, on the understanding that the
LORD-ADVOCATE would take up the subject, and that
there should be no arrestment of wages except upon ex.:

the Five per Cents. at 25 9-16 at 60 days ; and the
Debt without interest at 81 at 60 days.

ecution.
The Canal Companies Tolls Bill, and the Canal
Companies Carriers Bill, were respectively read a se-
cond time.
The Common Law Process Bill was read a first time,
and the House adjourned at Six o'Clock.

•
The only political. intelligence in the Paris pipers is
the official announcement in the Moniieur of M. Gutzwr's
temporary retirement from office, from indisposition.
The following is the r3yal ordonnance to that effect :--
"Considering that M. Guizot, our Minister Secretary of
State for Foreign Affairs requires, for his health, some repose,
we have ordered, and do order the 'following :—" Count Du-
chatel, Minister Secretary of State for the Interior, is en-
trusted, ad interim, with the department of Foreign Affairs.
" Given at the Palace of the Tuileries on the 27th of April,
1845. "LOUIS PHILIPPE.

—from the solemn communings of your own memory
with your own conscience,—from the holy, though
mournful associations conjured up by the contemplation
of your present desolation and despair in the strong
holds of ir.famy and shame with the brighter visions and
recollections of your happier home, your youth's fair
promise, your once generous and manly purposes ;—but
to no secret, though sincere penitential abasement before
the Throne of Grace ; to no fitting retirement in which
self-examination and humility may mitigate the terrors
of that transition which your spirit is so soon about to
undergo from this condition of being to an unknown, an
awful, an unfathomable hereafter ! No. These self-
communings, these reminiscences, these incentives to a
deep devotion, these stimulants to a faith, full of solace
even to the guilty, these tardy but profound prostrations
of the soul and the passions before the idealised presence
of an offended GOD must be rudely interrupted, broken
in upon, dispersed, set aside, and for what? To gratify
the inane curiosity ,of a civic functionary;—a Lady
Mayoress's cousin, it may be, or her Ladyship's milliner;
a roué nobleman, never heard of but when some case of
revolting criminality, the exposition of which promises to
elicit details calculated to excite his jaded appetite, calls
him to—' his duties,' forsooth on the bench ;—or a City
sheriff, or his sub;' or a fashionable demirep, halting,
in the decline of life between the satiety of luxurious
enjoyment and the keener pleasures of an excited appe-
tite for horrors; or the morbid tastes of that vast section

of the community of fools who are always excusing to
themselves and others their own prurient tendencies by
this trite axiom:--' That it is proper for a man to see
everything, however beautiful or detestable, before he
dies:"

In reference to this circumstance the SiLk says :
"If the restoration of M. GUIZOT to health experiences
any delay, an attempt will be made to save the Cabinet
by intrusting the department of Foreign Affairs, to M.
DuctraTEL, who will be succeeded in the Ministry of the In -
terior by M. MONTALIVET. The return of the Duke DE
BROGLIE to an office which he has twice occupied, and
which he would retain as a sort of trust, has been like-
wise talked of. We cannot believe, however, that M.
DE BROGLIE will carry devotion to his friend so far s.s to
consent to act a temporary and subaltern part. There
would consequently be no other alternative left except
the appointment to that department of M. DUCIIXTEL,
which_ would be a new progress made in the degrada-
tion of our policy, or the dissolution of the Cabinet of

the 29th of October, which has already too lk.ng en-
dured for the interest and honour of the country." The
journal des Debats, on good authority, gives a different
version of the affair:—

" We attach no importance to contradicting beforehand
the commentaries to which the leave of absence granted by
the King to the Minister of Foreign Affairs will no doubt
give birth. We merely warn the public that we shall allow
the Opposition journals to say what they like. M. Guizot's
health has never inspired any serious inquietude. He wants
repose, and this repose will be short. The statesman and
orator has solicited and obtained from the King a leave of
absence, but for the purpose of re-appearing in the tribune
with all his strength, and of continuing the struggle which
he has sustained so brilliantly for the last five years. In the
interim the administration of Foreign Affairs is confided to
M. Duchatel, It is the only reply that it was suitable to
make to the calumnies of certain journals, which, not having
succeeded in overturning the Cabinet, endeavour awkwardly
to divide it. M. Duchatel is the political and personal friend
of M. Guizot. The ling, in selecting that gentleman to
temporarily supply M. Guizot's place, has given an equal
mark of confidence to both. We have not a word more to
add."

M. GUIZOT, it was understood, would leave Paris in a

But what the judge does not say the gaoler or the
governor of the gaol does. The culprit in his custody,
who is doomed " to die on the gallows tree," is a pro-
perty to him. Pretty women—must it be owned—
lovely girls, fresh from the country, join the dowagers,
male and female, who besiege " dear Mr. Come," and
" dear Mr. Sheriff," and " Reverend Sir," the Ordinary,
and all the aristocracy of under-governors, and in-
spectors, to oblige them with tickets that will admit them
to be present at the "condemned sermon." Condemned
sermon, indeed ! Let it be, from this day forth, for
ever, condemned to eternal desuetude. What is the
right—the title—the pretension—that any of these
people have, to parade the wretched violator of human
law, about to be " launched into eternity," (as a vulgar,
but not impartial, nor inexpressive phrase has it—before
the curious, distracting gaze of a hundred people, whose
ill-regulated " curiosity" would contemplate the exqui-
site sufferings of impalement with as much serenity as
they watch the far more terrible pangs of a despairing
criminal, who is made regularly to pass through the
farce of a moribund tableau in the last scene but one of
the last act of a doomed felon ? Well, it is cruel, per-
haps ; but let us consider. Can it be no consolation to
him, who feels the fatal noose already adjusting itself to
his neck, to be spoken to, shaken hands with, confiden-
tially whispered to, recognised, smiled at, s) mpathetically
noticed, by a real, undoubted Sheriff, whose golden
chain attests the fact of his attentions to the unhappy
felon to all who have eyes for the insignia of shrie-
valty ? Seriously speaking, these exhibitions have
become disgusting. As the Marquis of CLANRICARDE
well said on Tuesday evening, they are illegal.
But they are more ; and could we hope to express
ourselves forcibly enough after Lord Bnovonwat, we
would endeavour to follow him in his stern reprobation
of that " detestable" pruriency which battens on the last
moments, aspects, thoughts, convulsions, terrors of the
victims whom Justice has marked for her own. We are
well pleased to find that Lord STANLEY manfully admits
the illegality and the abuse complained of ; we have no
doubt of their speedy removal. They are a disgrace to
our age, to our country, to the progress of civilization.
But the most revolting passage in the last scene of
ROCKER'S recent tragedy is this—that, half an hour
before the period assigned for his extinction, that body ef
persons appear who designate themselves the " repress n-
tatives of the press," but who are probably the "rejected
ones," called "Pt nny-a-liners"—were " admitted into
the chapel-) ard," with sheriffs, under-sheriffs, and gaol
governors. At this time the wretched young man was
with clasped hands listening to the Ordinary, relapsing
ever and anon into fainting fits. In a quarter of an hour
more a sheriff comes to the " gentlemen of the press"
with a sort of intimation that they may enter the con-
vict's cell !—that cell, in which he is offering up his last
supplications (let us hope, at least) to the ALMIGHTY.
In this condemned cell he is informed by the chaplain
of Nevvgate that the "gentlemen of the press" are pre-
sent, anxious to know (and more anxious to record)
whether " he has anything further to say for the infor-
mation of the public." Strange to tell, he takes
very little notice of the intruders. But on
his attention being again (most improperly and
cruelly, as we think,) directed to the fact, that these
" gentlemen of the press" were there, the miserable
man, startled in the very outpourings, we may suppose,
of his overloaded conscience before the minister of that
Gospel which he bad reverentially been listening to, ex-
claimed, " I cannot say anything now, Sir ; I am not
sufficiently composed. If I had known that they had
been coming here, I might, perhaps." No doubt of it-
Arri thus we should have had one more chapter added
to those which record the terrible results of that facti-
tious self-possession, and inordinate vanity, which, being
admini-tered to by the minute and incessant attention of
these intrusive, übiquitous, reckless, unscrupulous, omni-
vorous " gentlemen of the press," make so many present
victims to the violated laws fearfully insensible to their
crimes and to the infamy of their notoriety; and call
into a noxious activity so many future followers in their
flagitious career. Happily for the body of legitimately
occupied " repot ters," (and the sooner they can be per-
suaded to recognise that designation, only, for their im-
portant and invaluable calling, the better for themselves
and for society,)--they run little risk, from their talent,
their character, their pursuits, or their deportment, of
being confounded with this " profanum vulgus," which
at once panders to and perpetuates the dreary succession
of criminal enormities that they live by recording.
Great criminals and bad historiographers have become
a national curse. It is well that the Government means
to abolish so fruitful a hot-bed f)r both as the "con-
demned sermons" of the Newgate Ordinary.

day or tli o for a ♦illa near Passy, and aftervkards pro•

ceed to the Vichy Waters in the Bourbonnais. On
Monday the Chamber of Deputies assembled in large

numbers, in expectation of some personal explanation
between the Marquis DE L'ANGLE and M. LEDRII
ROLLIN. The Marquis had ou Saturday made an angry
speech on duelling, evidently directed against M.
_

ROLLIN, in the belief that this writer had alluded to him

in an article in the Beforme journal. Explanations of a
pacific nature took place, through the influence of M.
I)uPIN and M. °DILLON BARROT, and the matter ended
to the satisfaction of both parties.
The accounts from Switzerland are still unsatisfactory.
The Prase says that the situation of affairs in the
Canton of Berne was becoming more menacing. A
popular assembly hostile to the Government was to
have taken place on the 27th, and great apprehensions
of a revolution following similar to one lately accom-

Taking advantage of " the present state of political
tranquillity, and the revival of trade," Lord JOHN Rus-
SELL is about to propose certain measures which " may
tend permanently to improve the condition of the
labouring classes." Such an all-important subject could
hardly be introduced at a more fitting season; the pre-
sent session has already done much to retrieve the errors
of the last—Conservatives have thrown aside their Con-
servatism, and dared to exchange prejudice for prin-
ciple; while the Opposition has nobly refused to oppose,
preferring integrity to interest. Party spirit being thus
cast to the winds, all may now cordially unite to pro-
mote the interests of their common country. Having,
to a certain extent, vindicated justice to Ireland, the
next act of the House must be one both of justice
and humanity they must legislate for the
people at large. Aware of the necessity for improve-
ment, and feeling the deep importance of the subject,
Lord J. RUSSELL has not brought forward any single
measure, but has proposed for the consideration of the
House a series of resolutions, all having for their object
the improvement of the great body of the people. In
one of the first he declares " that the laws which impose
prohibitory duties impair the efficiency of labour, re-
strict the interchange of commodities, and impose ruin-
ous taxation." They are few who can conscientiously
contradict this assertion—they are yet fewer who dare
act in accordance with their convictions. Year after
year, session after session, the great question of the
corn-laws has been brought forward, argued, de-
bated, and dismissed, but never finally defeated.
It may continue so for years to come ; but
of its ultimate decision no one can doubt. This law can
never be permanent, for it is opposed to the great prin-
ciple:; of the country. It is one of the last remnants of
the feudal times—one of those laws tending to conserve
in the hands of the few the wealth and pow er acquired
by the labour of the many. As such it can never be
tolerated in England. Does she on e her power and great-
ness to her proud aristocracy ? What has made the
little island of the " painted Britons," the leader of na-
tions, and the mistress of the seas—not only the first
of all civilized countries, but greater even than the
mighty empires of antiquity ?

plished in the Canton of Vaud. The inhabitants were
about tO form themselves-into a national guard for the
protection of persons and property. A letter from
Schvqtz, of April 23, says:—" Every one here is in the
greatest anxiety, as it is generally believed that another
expedition of the free corps will take place. Public
prayers are put up every night in all the churches.
THE BOURSE- MoNnAv APRIL 28.

Not one of all the conquerors that are, or ever were,

-
First Hich-,st Lowest Last
Price. Price. Price Price
French 'Five per Cents. .... 119 5 .. 119 35 .. 119 5 .. 119 30
Four-and-a-Half..•• 114 50 .. 114 50 •• 114 50 .• 114 50
Three per Cents...• 85 60 •• 85 70 .. 85 60 .. 85 65
Bank of France ......3260 .•3260 •.3260 .•3260
Gouin Bank. I,ooof Shares-1107 SO ..1107 50 ..1107 50 ..1107 56
Belgian Bank 630 .. 630 .. 630 .. 630
Belgian FiTe5,1840........ 103 .. 103 .• 103 •• 103
1842........ 105.4 .• 105 105 .. 105
Four-and-a-Half... lilll,l •• 101% •• 101% .. 101%
Spanish Active............ 49 .. 40 .. 40 .. 40

In wealth, or fame, or grandeur, with England can compare."
And to what is all this owing? Is it to geographical posi
Lion or natural advantages? Has she the glorious cli-
mate of the south or the boundless riches of the east?
Have her sons more vigorous frames, or higher forms of
thought? The secret of her power is this---the little island
has learned that " union is strength." She has found that
men are all dependent on each other—not like
slaves and tyrants, but by the cordial co-operation of a
free people : by this she has acquired the blessin_s of
liberty—by this she has learned the power of commerce.
What have our Kings and Princes don:, to compare
with the deeds of the people themselves? The con-
quests of our HENRYS and our EDWARDS are forgotten;
but the acts of the people are revealed in the nation's
gory. The name of ELIZABETR is celebrated, but that
of GRESIIAM will be as immortal. It is needless to
pursue the subject--all must admit the source of our
greatness. Then shou'd the people be neglected in the
prosperity they have created ? Should commerce "lie
,in fetters on the soil which gave her birth ?"
Should industry be bound down and restricted by
those whose power she herself has made? Surely the
day is at hand when truth shall be not only felt, but
acted upon. Now, at this time, let us hope, a bet;.er
feeling is diffused through the land. The poor feel
their rights—let the rich perform their duties. The
proud noble could no more exist without the bumble la-
bourer than the lofty summit of an edifice could be sus
tained without the foundation ; but the higher the
building is raised the deeper must that foundation be
depressed, and so it seems with the people. But injus-
tice cannot last—only truth is eternal. Let us t:ust the
motion of the Noble Member for London is but the
commencement of a system of legislation not
supported by factions, or suited to classes,
but based on the broad principle of justice and humanity.
Lord J. RUSSELL, by introducing this measure, will find
himself in a far nobler situation than any he occupied in
the days of power, and the Government, by agreeing
with their opponents, will enjoy the greatest satisfaction
place and power can offer—the approbation of their
country, and the approval of their conscience.

On Monday morning last the convicted murderer,
THOMAS HocKEa, exfiated his crimes by undergoing
the capital penalty of an ignominious death before the
debtors' door at New gate. Many good, and wise, and
conscientious men have entertained very conflicting
opinions on the expediency, or even the lawfulness of
such punishments. Believing, as we do, that a rigorous
necessity—a vicious principle in the constitution of
human society, or an original disparity between the
moral and the physical or material forces of all laws for
the repressionof crime—render this occasional exercise of
this terrible and destroying power indispensable to the
internal peace and welfare of all civilised communities,
we do not pause to discuss the validity of the scruples
and exceptions which are entertained on the subject by
infliction of the capital peu;lty
others.. This much, at least, is certain—that with the
infliction
the vengeance of the
law is satisfied. After the fatal sentence has been
passed, and the criminal is remitted into the hands of
the Executive to await his fate, the law,
OR thepre-
sumption that the infliction of that fate is adequately
guaranteed, demands no supplementary suffering, no
penultimate torments, to embitter and renderstill
more agonising the last closing and fast approachit,
agony of existence forcibly terminated. It is no:
three centuries, wanting ten years, since the legalised
practice of torture, which up to that period had been the
common precursor of the more merciful, extreme
penalty of death, was abolished. And ever since the
lawakened spirit and intelligence of humanity have been
revolted at the notion of dragging to the block, or carry-
ing to the gibbet, the mutilated and mangled victims of
the rack, the wheel, or the iron boot, whose sufferings
appeared to invoke the instant vengeance of heaven

We have accounts from Madrid to the 22d inst. The
Gazette of that date publishes a decree, by which the
Government is authorised to contract a loan of
15,000,000 reels (150,0001.) for roads and canals. No
country is so badly off for roads as Spain, and if the
Government have only credit to raise the money, much
benefit may be produced. "It was only under the
reign of FERDINAND V 1.," according to the preamble of
this decree, " that the Government bestowed its atten •
tion on the opening of roads. Under CHARLES 111. and
CHARLES IV. various works of that kind were under-
taken, but unfortunate events did not admit of their
being finished. At the present day, such as are
finished, and such as are projected, are far from respond.
ing to the wants of commerce and industry ; and,
as public order and tranquillity are more and more con-
solidated, it becomes necessary to adopt means, more
direct and more efficient, to supply those wants. It be-
hoves us to establish a complete system of general roads
with which will be connected the provincial and vicinal
roads, thus covering the whole peninsula with a vast net
of communications." The Chamber of Deputies had
passed all the estimates, but unfortunately, though the
representatives of the people are very lib-ral with their
votes, there is not money to make them good. The ex-
penses far exceed the revenue. The election Committee
appointed to examine the return of Senor CORTENA, for
Salamanca, had declared it invalid.
The Heraldo states that Senor CASTELLO Y AYENZA,
the Spanish Envoy at Rome, had presented his creden-
tials, and been treated in his official character by the POPE
wrreelltaehtsitaoalnbl
relations between
su
he
e honours.a andsp a
thati
Spain
Taahbnoadtu jtt ohtuehr
enccal adds
ooumrmt that
oe cRe the
omme commencement
ta officialorfe ni(wy
T 1 Holiness s willTs h
re.earn nctentuntle.e
werethe edoonneel*u
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39
the POPE will hold a public Consi-tor
s;f: a concordat,
Ho na
tm •6hoi c
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H o;
ognition of Issamu.s bly • S
and the recognition

Tp.l4. SUN, LONDON, THURSDAY MORNING, MAY 1, MI&