The Sun.
London, England, 1842-03-02 00:00:00

THE SECOND VOLUME OF

MADARED"ARBL AY'S DIARY
ANL) LETTERS,
IS NOW READY AT ALL THE BOOKSELLERS',
Price 10s. 6d. bound. with Portrait of Mrs. Piozzs.
Henry Colburn, Publisher, 13, Great Marlborough-street.

LIEUT.-COLONEL NAPIER'S NEW WORK.
Now ready, in 2 vols. small Bvo., with Illustrations,
EXCURSIONS ALONG THE SHORES
OF THE MEDITERRANEAN.
By Lieutenant-Colonel E. NAPIER,
Author of " Scenes and Sports in Foreign Lands," &c.
Henry Colburn, Publisher, 13, Great Marlborough-street.

NEW NOVEL EDITED BY MRS. GORE.
Now ready at all the Libraries, in 3 vols. post Eivo.,
F A SCIN A T I 0 N.
EDI Mrs. GORE
Authoress of " Mothers TED
andby
Ddughters," " The Man of For-
tune," &c.
Henry Colburn, Publisher, 13, Great Marlborough-street.

THE NEW NOVEL.
Now ready at all the Libraries, in 3 vols.,
THE SCHOOL FOR WIVES.
By the Authoress of " Temptation."
" A novel of superior merit, possessing the excellence of ex -
citing great interest, by the admirable manner in which the
characters are drawn, and its natural and lively style of con•
versation and description. "—Courier.
Henry Colburn, Publisher, 13, Great Marlborough-street.

THEATRE ROYAL, DRURY-LANE.
THIS EVENING, MARCH 2,

Will be performed a Play in Five Aets, called GISIPPUS.—Titus
Quintius Fulvius, Mr. Anderson; Gisippus, Mr. Macready ; Medon,
Mr. Graham; Pheax, Mr Elton; Cheremes, Mr. Hudson; Lycias,
Mr. G. Bennett; Norban, Miss E. Phillips; Sophronia, Miss Helen
Faucit ; Hero, Miss "I urpia.
To conclude with THE POOR SOLDlER.—Captain Fitzroy, Mr,
H. Philips ; Patrick, Miss P. Horton ; Norah, Miss Poole.
Doors °per at half past Six, and the Performances begin at Seven.
Boxes Ss., Second Price 2s. Sd. ; Pit 35., Second Price 2s. ; Lower
Gallery Is. td., Second Price Is. ; Upper Gallery Is., Second Price fd.

THEATRE ROYAL, COVENT-LiARDEP+.
UNDER the MANAGEMENT of MADAME VESTRIS.
THIS EVENING, MARCH 2,
Will be repeated the New Comedy, called BUBBLES OF THE
DAY.- Lord Skindeep, Mr. W. Farren ; Sir Phenix Clearcake, Mt.
Harley; Captain Smoke, Mr. Charles Mathews ; Spreadweasel, Mr.
Bartley ; Pamela Spreadweasel, Mrs. Nisbett ; Flurentia, Mrs. W.
Lacy; Mrs. Quarto, Mrs. W. West; Guinea, Mrs. Orger.
After which will be revived, with additions, Milton's Masque of
COMUS.—Comus, Mr. W. Harrison; First Bacchante, Madame
Vestris; the Lady. Mrs. Walter Lacy; Elder Brother, Mr. J. Vin-
ing ; Syrens, Madame Vestris and Miss Rainforth ; Genius of the
Frozen Clime, Mr. Stretton ; Euprosyne, Madame Vestris; Sabrina,
Miss Rainforth.

Doors open at half-past Six, and the Performances begin at Seven.
Dress Boxes 75., Second Price 3s. 6d ; First and Second Circles 55..
Second Price 2s. 6d.; Pit 35., Seeond Price 2s. ; Gallery Is. Tickets
and Places for the Boxes to be taken of Mr. Grogan, at the Box-or_
rice, from Ten till Four, where Season Tickets may be had upon ap-
plication. Private Boxes to be had solely of Mr. Andrews, Book
se ler, 167, New Bond-street.

ROYAL SURREY THEATRE.
THIS EVENING, MARCH 2,

Will be acted Lord Byron's Tragedy of WERNER ; or, the IN.
HERITANCE.—Werner, Mr. H. Hughes; Josephine, Mrs. Vining.
Alter which, THE WATER MAN.—Tom Tug, Mr. Collins.
Added to which, the New Romantic Drama, by E. Fitzball, Esq.,
with extraordinary effects, entitled OMBRA ; or, the SPIRIT of the
ROCKING STONE.

To conclude with TEDDY ThE TlLER.—Teddy (with Songs)
Mr. Collins, the Vocalist and Irish Comedian.

FRENCH PLAYS, ST. JAMES'S THEATRE..
THIS EVENING, MARCH 2
The Performances will commence at half.past Seven with UN
DUEL SOUS LE CARDINAL DE RICHELIEU.
To conclude with Mohere's Comedy, LE BOURGEOIS GEN.
LILHOMME.—M. Jourdain, M. Perlet.
Private Boxes and Stalls at Mr. Mitchell's Library, 33, Old Bond.
street; Mr. Seguin's, 12, Regent.street; Mr. Sams's, St. James's.
street ; and at the Box—offiee of the Theatre, which is open daily
from Eleven till Five. Admission to the Boxes, 6s. ; Pit, 3s. 6d. ;
Gallery Stalls, 3s. ; Gallery, 2s.

THE WEATHER.—NOON, MARCH 1.
ROYAL GALLERY OF SCIENCE, ADELAIDE-STREET.
Thermometer... 44 ) Highest 49) Lowest . 4l
Barometer 29.79.—Wind S.W.—Freezing Point 22 Deg.

HIGH WATER AT LONDON BRIDGE THIS DAY.
Morning 9 minutes after 5 I Evening ..... 30 minutes after 5.

LONDON
WEDNESDAY MORNING, MARCH 2, 1842.

Mr. T. DITNCOMBE performed a great public service
last night, by bringing under the notice of the House of

Commons, and the country, the great annual increase of
commitments and of crimes. For the sad, but interest-
ing, particulars we must, for brevity sake, refer to the
Hon. Member's speech, adding, that it is most melan-
choly to see such a result of the great and increasing
attention which has of late years been paid to the sub-
ject of criminal jurisdiction.
Since BECCARIA first published his celebrated work,
now we believe about seventy years since, the means of
repressing and preventing crimes by penal laws, has
much occupied the attention of philosophers and state s-
men. Prisons and prison discipline have been completely
reformed and remodelled several times, the sanguinary
severity of the law has been in general abated, but it
has been much more nicely adapted and proportioned, as
is supposed, to offences. New contrivances, such as the
silent system, and the solitary system, have been brought
into use; and a new preventive plan, in the shape of a

police, has been almost everywhere established or ex-
tended. The result of the investigations of philosophers,
and of the reforms of statesmen, is that great and grow-
ing increase of criminals which Mr. BUNCOMBE brought
under notice.

Such an increase of criminality, though greater in
England than in 'other countries, is common we believe
to Europe. It is not as Mr. DUNCOMBE said, the con-
sequence of " want of education," for though education
is, as yet, but little diffused, it is more diffused than it
was 20, 30, or 50 years ago. From this general view of
the subject, we regard Mr. DUNCOMBE'S motion for a
Committee " to inquire into the rules, regulations, and
discipline of the several gaols and houses of correction in
England and Wales," &c., though well meant, as a very
" lame and impotent conclusion," from the startling facts
he has collected. No improvement in prison discipline,
no uniformity in gaol regulations, no abolition, nor reten-
tion, of corporal punishments, can arrest the great 'and
spreading plague.

Before new laws and new regulations be devised, it is
incumbent on the Legislature to institute a searching in-
vestigation, with all the helps which modern science can
supply, into the nature of crime, the motives for commit-

Ling criminal actions, and the means by which the mo-
tives can be altered or extinguished. In this branch of
Government, as in others, men were compelled to act be-
fore they had acquired knowledge; and the principles em-
bodied in the first passion-born actions of our progenitors
we still continue to make the guides and precedents of
our conduct. THEY took vengeance for injuries, and on
their anti-Christian and immoral proceeding WE have
established and now maintain along, dark array of criminal
enactments. The present results should make us Pause,
and diligently overhaul the whole system of criminal
law, sparing not but closely examining its original and
deepest foundations. It is a terrible disgrace that le-
gislators should go on bungling in a wrong direction,
year after year, always inflicting great and certain evil
do society, in anticipation of good, and always learning,
at the end of a few years, that their anticipations have
been completely falsified. If 'prentice lads were to
spoil one-tenth of the work (and that work the fine
fabric of human society, with all the complex and inter-
woven hopes and fears of man) which legislation annu-
ally mutilates and destroys, they would be whipped as
incurable blunderers, unsafe to be trusted with the
meanest tasks. Mr. DUNCOMBE'S motion was with-
drawn, for which, considering its inadequacy to the
object which ought to be aimed at, we profess no regret.
The debate, though it developed no large views, brought
many important subjects connected with prison disci-
pline, particularly the corporal punishment still employed
in prisons, under public notice. Government, according
to Sir JAMES GRAHAM, WhO opposed the motion, is dili-
gently watching over the whole subject ; but if it con-
fine its attention to the details, merely with a view of
making prison discipline uniform, it will go on like igno-
rant and unimproveable apprentices, merely spoiling
good materials.

At a meeting of the agriculturists of Essex, at Col-
chester, on Saturday, resolutions were adopted, declaring►
that the present Corn-laws have not given the agricul-
turists an undue protection, and that they are apprehen-
sive of great injury likely to result frum the change.
A Mr. BAWTREE, who moved the resolution, said—

We must snake up our minds to endure a heavy sacrifice of
our interest, and be content to derive less profits than we have
hitherto done in our occupations. lam ono of those who think
that the protection to the farmers by the existing law has not
been greater than was due and proper—(Cheers)—that we
have not, considering the state of agriculture, the improve-
ments which are daily making, and the expensive system on
which farming is now conducted, received more then a remune-
rating price.--(Cheers.) You are to have but 545. or s►B'.
under the new measure, I should like to know what the state of
the farmers is likely to be ?-,-( Hear.) We cannot expect t,)
have that profit that will enable us to uphold that character
and to support that station which farmers for many years have
been privileged to hold.
That is the echo of the farmers' language through.
out England ; but they acquiesce in the injury,
and make a sacrifice to keep in office an Ad-
ministration which has dubbed itself the farmers'
friend. The poor agriculturists, instead of being fear-
less in the consciousness of rectitude, live in dread
of the manufacturers and the Whig-Radicals. To
escape from them they consent, though with much
grumbling, to Sir R. PEEL's demands. Now it becomes
a question of importance to all the talkers about vested
interests, what compensation is to be given to the farmers
and owners of that land which, now barely paying the

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