The Sun.
London, England, 1828-04-16 00:00:00

SPIRIT OF TUE PUBLIC JOURNALS.

Lord Lansdowne last night, on the third read-
ing of his Bill for the consolidation of offences,
omitted from its contents the clause which gave
up the bodies of that most horrible class of cri-
minals, murderers, for dissection, on the prin-
ciple that it threw a stigma on the act of dissect.
ing, which rendered it more difficult to obtain
bodies. This was, we think, a somewhat fantas-
tical notion ; and the restoration of the clause
was therefore very properly moved and carried
by the interference of the more Masculine un-
derstanding of Earl Grey. To the bodies of
those who murder others, we should wish to
add those of persons, whatever be their motive,
their rank, or their age, who murder themselves.
it is said that such is the dread of dissection in
this country, that our hospitals would not ob-
tain patientsif those who died therein were not
religiously restored to their friends. Let us
avail ourselves of this salutary fear, not to keep
our suffering or distracted fellow-creatures out of
hospitals, but out of suicide. Let the law run,
that whoever died propriii manu, should be I
transmitted by the Coroner's warrant to the
county or some metropolitan hospital ; and we
are certain, Ist, that suicides would be less fre-
quent ; 2dly, that the proportion of femalei
would be particularly diminished ; and 3dly,
sl,at surgical science would be benefitted by the
acquisition of the bodies of the few who should
still destroy themselves, for of all subjects for
dissection, none are so useful as those who die
in bodily health. And the cause of insanity,
which is generally ascribed to suicides, is, of all
indisposing causes, least known, and might be
most fully investigated. in the persons of those
on whom a jury decides that they destroyed
themselves in a fit of derangement. But more
particularly we have a strong conviction that a
law to the effect we have mentioned' vould have
a powerful moral effect on that inJ- :;?py class of
beings who are almost placed 'beyond the reach
of moral control. Suicides would diminished.

Persecution, like every thing else, must suit
itself to the times ; and it requires some tact to
be able to know the precise point at which to
stop. Lord Eldon is not without this tact, as
hafs been shown on many occasions. In the pre-
sent day, for instance, the liberties which used
to be taken with the soles of the feet, or with
other parts of the bodies of persons entertaining
schismatical opinions, would not be tolerated.
Nay, we question whether Mr. Cobbett, who
;tells us it used to be an amusement of his youth
to pelt Dissenting 'Ministers with addled eggs,
would, if he were privileged with a second youth,
find it altogether safe to occupy himself in so
edifying a way. All this Lord Eldon knows
fle knows that by straining at too much
all may be lost. In the time of Queen Mary
his Lordship would, perhaps, have presided over
an auto cia
,fe in Smithfield, with the good
;amour and amenity which seldom abandon him.
But in the reign of George the Fourth his
Lordship is aware that persecution is confined
to a very limited range, and that for the sake of
the very existence of persecution, great care is
-,.iecessary that the annoyance of the objects of it
should never exceed the measure of their patience.
His Lordship, with his usual sagacity and consi-
deration, discovered that the Unitarians and other
Dissenters,who dislike the marriage service of the
Church of England, as it makes them participa-
tor-1 in what they deem• blasphemy, will submit
to the persecution nevertheless, as the conscience
most be very tender whidi would stick at a piece
cf impiety when the desire of i:Aying a wife was
in ,atlestion•—" In my opinion," said his Lord-
Air; ja..st night, ." by the Unitarian Marriage
Bill a relief Ls ;3'sked, which it is not necessary,
proTer objection to the mar-
as there can be
riage ceremony, for t ornament to grant. his
Lordship males his creeaz and his religious feel-
ings the test of propriety, win',(4l he applies to
the Unitarians. And he knows thii.* the Uni-
tarians (as most other persons would) w. 191.
in
sdch a case, sacrifice their scruples of. conscience
to their inclinations. He has, therefore, all the
satisfaction—and a great satisfaction it must he
to all persecutors—of knowing, that he can dis-
turb the conscience of the man who presumes to
differ from hint in religious matters with perfect
.afetv—that lie can compel him to do violence
to Ins principles. The art of ingeniously tor-
menting is a valuable art ; and his Lordship
cannot better employ his leisure than in devising
means for preserving, for the gratification and
enjoyment of himself and those who share his
views, the fragments of the power which perse-
eution has been suffered to retain. It were a
Pity that rancoiarous and uncharitable feelings
should ever become extinct. Annoy, therefore,
?. he Trinitarians, because they will allow you to
annoy them. To abandon voluntarily any means
of persecution which will be siiUtnitted, would
he bad policy. We trust his Lordship will,
therefore, be consistent to the last, that he may
yield hit latest breath with the satisfaction, that
if illiberality and the disposition to persecute are
fast disappearing, he had no band in bringing
about such a result.—Morning eio•cmide.
Earl Grey
last night moved, as an Aizend-
ment to the Bill for consolidating the Law
re-
lative to offences against the person, that the
Clause ordering the bodies of murderers to he
given up for dissection should be teatored. His
ng in favour of the Amend ment was o
reasoning
4' He believed that if ait not
very consistent.
dividual had tirade tip his mind to complete so
horriblc crime as
eurder, that no additional
-aaald deter him from carrying
fear or disgrace a- - • his opinion,
•
his design into execution ;
.aerated
the giving the body to be dissecteu,
effectually by spreading a salutary terror throup
the community, and kept up that horror at com-
mitting the crime of murder, for which the
people of England had always been distinguished
in the opinion of those who had paid most atten-
tion to the subject." At the same tune he
doubted if the theory, " that the stigma thus
east on dissect-
ion, by condemning the murderer
to be dissected, prevented others from allowing
their bodies to he dissected after death, and pre-
vented the relations and friend: of the dead from
giving them up for this purpose, were founded in
truth.- But if the addition of dissecting is ef-
fectual to the spreading a salutary terror through
the community, aud to keeping up a horror of
eommitting the crime of murder, it must be
effectual in preventing. persons from allowing
their bodies to be dissected after death, and in
preventing relations and friends of the dead
from giving them up to ht dissected. But there
as a vagueness in the whole argument Of his
Lordship. Dissection must either be an aw-
ful thing in itself or it is not. If it be not
awful in itself, then it is the horror of murder
which communicates the horror at dissection,
from its being reserved for the murderer. In
that case the dissection is superfluous, al. it has
no horror but what it borrows from the murder.
The horror of murder is, on this supposition,
cciramunicated gratuitously to dissection, as, it.