Star.
London, England, 1830-07-20 00:00:00

here judicially, they should not disfranchise this borough without
having such evidence as would be required to establish the charge of
corruption before a jury. He maintained that the proceedings were
justified by no precedent : in the cases of Aylesbury and Shoreham,
a great number of electors had been previously convicted on a charge
of bribery. The noble lord then reterred to the parliamentary de-
bates respecting the charge against the borough of Aylesbury, and
quoted a passage from Sergeant Best's speech (now Lord Wynfotd)
which was at direct variance with what Lord Wynford had now ad-
vanced. His lordship then referred to the observations made by the
Lord Chancellor, which manifested more partiality in a judge than
he had ever heard before. If such doctrines were to be acted upon
in a court of law, it would unhinge the security of private property.
He submitted that their lordships were not justified in passing this
bill on such evidence as that produced at the bar. There should be
direct and clear evidence of corruption, for their lordships were not
warranted by any precedent in making up the deficiency in evidence
by presumption and deductions. For these reasons he should op-
pose the bill.
Lord WYNFORD explained.
The Duke of WELLINGTON lamented exceedingly that this
bill had ever been brought before the consideration of Parliament ;
but having been brought to this, he was of opinion that their Iced-
ships should dispose of it. He considered this a bill of pains and
penalties, and before the house could justly pus the bill, the pre-
amble should be satisfactorily proved. Now, in his opinion, the
preamble (which set forth that a system of corruption had been
practised for several years in that borough,) had been satisfactorily
proved. The noble duke then read extracts from the evidence,
showing the number of persons to whom money had been paid, and
the amount of money lodged in the bank for the voters by the can-
didates at the various elections. It was perfectly true that there
was no evidence that the majority of the voters had received com-
pensation for their votes at the last election, but there was proof that
the money had been lodged in the bank, and there was no doubt
but that they would have received it, were it not for the petition
against the election. Then, if their lordships should come to the
conclusion that corruption had been practised in that borough, the
next subject for their consideration was, bow they should correct the
evil. The customary mode in such cases was to extend the franchise
to the freeholders of the adjacent hundred; that was what the bills
proposed to do. He would repeat that the preamble of the bill had
been clearly proved, and his Grace therefore should support the bill.
fiord GREY explained,
The Marquis of SALISBURY replied.
The Earl of ELDON and the LORD CHANCELLOR mutually
explained, after which strangers were ordered to withdraw, and a di-
vision took place.
For the original motion 27
For the amendment
Majority —22
The House then adjourned at a quarter to ten till to-morrow, after
it had been settled that the Administration of Justice Bill was to be
disposed of to-morrow.
HOUSE OF COMMONS, JULY 19.
At four o'clock, there being only thirty-three Members present,
the SPEAKER declared the House adjourned to this day.

THB MARCH OF CRIME.

Whatever may be thought of " the march of intellect," concern-
ing which we hear so much at the present day in the shape either
of cant or burlesque, there can be no doubt, unhappily, that " the
march of crime" has of late been fearfully accelerated amongst us.
Wickedness has assumed new and unheard-of forms ; guilt has put
on a darker and more hideous aspect ; while enormities unparal-
leled in the past history of human depravity, and which even beg.
gar all that the genius of fiction ever Imagined in its wildest mood,
have been perpetrated either in the " intellectual" city of Edin.
burgh, and in the midst of a population previously supposed to be
remarkable for its high state of moral and religious cultivation. It
is little more than eighteen months since it was discovered that a
couple of monsters had established a den of murder in one of the
most crowded and populous districts of the Northern Athens, and
were carrying on a regular traffic in the produce of their human
shambles. It is not eight months since the cold-blooded, fiend-like
butcheries of Emond, perpetrated under circumstances of peculiar
and unprecedented atrocity, froze the very blood in our veins, and
made every man tremble for the safety of his own home. It was
only last week that two incarnate demons were convicted, at the bar
of the Justiciary Court, of a crime still more unnatural and in-
human than any of those to which we have just alluded—a crime,
the very thought of which must sicken the heart of every man
who has one particle of human feeling in his nature, and which,
in all its circumstances, is universally admitted to be without
example or parallel in the criminal records of this or of any
other country. To what cause or condition of society, then,
are we to ascribe such appalling manifestations of human depravity ?
and how are we to account for the commission of such inconceivable
atrocities in the bosom of a metropolis which plumes itself on ac-
count of itz fancied superiority to the capitals of other nations, and
considers itself, perhaps, as the most civilised portion of this civi-
lised country ? Poverty and misery are usually regarded as the main
causes and chief stimulants of crime ; and, in point of fact, offences
arc found to multiply in proportion as the Inhabitants of a country
arc reduced below that point in the scale at which they are enabled
to earn a comfortable livelihood, and as they gradually sink down
to the condition of those who are content if they can procure the
means of prolonging life and sustaining a mere physical existence.
But the offences which arise out of such a state of things are, for
the most part, offences against property merely : and as the causes
which produce them are often but temporary In their operation, their
deteriorating and demoralizing effects are checked and counter-
acted before the mind of the lower classes becomes thoroughly
corrupted by familiarity with guilt, and prepared for the com-
mission of great enormities. None of the diabolical atrocities to
which we have alluded, however, appear to have been the
progeny of poverty and misery. Burke and Hare organised
a system of murder tint they might sell the bodies of their
victims ; not to supply their physical wants, but that they might
procure ample means for indulging their depraved appetites, and
rioting in the most brutal debauchery. Emond beat out the brains
of his sister-in-law and his niece, that he might satiates deep, des.
Aerate, and determined revenge. Thomson and Dobie,'" in the mere
diabolical wantonness of wickedness, and with circumstances of bru-
tality unequalled on earth, and altogether worthy of Pandemonium
itself, destroyed the poor unhappy creature who had confided in
them, and put herself under their protection, in a manner and with
a brutal barbarity which astounded and appalled even those whose
profession necessarily renders them familiar with examples of al-
most every form of iniquity. All these crimes, therefore, have
clearly been the immediate offspring of sheer wickedness and de-
pravity alone ; and they are consequently to be regarded as mani.
festations and evidences of tLe depth of that moral degradation into
which a certain class of our people have fallen, and of the facility
with which many of them may be induced to commit any wicked-
ness, however great, to perpetrate any crime, however horrible. In
fact some malignant principle appear, to have generated and become
endemic among the class to which we have referred; and to have
banished from their minds all fear of GoD, and all regard for the
laws and institutions of society. They have grown reckless, aban-
doned, and desperate ; devoid of all self-respect or regard to charac-
ter or opinion ; shamelessly and outrageously profligate; utter
strangers to all religion ; and ready to obey the impulse of every
corrupt and disorderly passion. This is a fearful state of things ;
but truth compels us to paint the picture in its true colours. Mat-
ters have gone too far to admit of palliation or extenuation. A
dreadful evil has suddenly displayed itself, and the only consi.
deration that ought to actuate every ingenuous and upright
mind, is how to devise a suitable and adequate remedy. It is
clear, indeed, that unless society uses means to destroy this alarm-
ing tendency to crime, it will ultimately end by destroying society.
The law has been vigorously and wisely administered, but its ter.
tors appear to have lost their power. Examples are multiplied in
vols. Moral and religious discipline alone remains to be ens.
ployed : but this powerful instrument, if properly applied, will in
the end work out a cure. Let us then abandon all our present
Quixotism about the conversion of the heathen, and begin out reli.
gime and moral charity at home. There is an ample field fat our
enterprise at our very doors. We have heathens greater than any
in India, Africa, or America, around us, near us, in the very beam
of the community of which we are members. Let us then Can.
llMlllte our labours by trying first of all to convert the barbarians
vises:all themselves eivili dinburgh Paper.
e The crime for which Thomson and Dais were tried and con-
demned, as already reported in the STAR. was—violating, robbing,
sad murdering Margaret Patterson, daughtez of Wm. Patterson,
ar Dalkeith , on the 17th of April last, between Cellarbank or eel-
hawk, em the Dalkeith road, and the village of Oilmerton ; as
with circumstances of peculiar atrocity. From the na-
ture of the Mines charged against the prisoners, and the shocking
details into which it was indispensably necessary to enter, the case
was tried with closed doors, and the public were excluded, until the
moment the jury retired, when, by order of the Lord*Justice Clerk,
the doors mere thrown open, and the public admittett On this oc.
casion the Lord Justice Clerk addressed the criminals, saying—no
words which I can use are capable of describing the unparalleled
brutality, cruelty, and wickedness, of which you have been con-
victed ; and I shall content myself with observing, that the exhibi-
tion in this case is enough to make every man blush to think that
in this land such wickedness and brutal conduct should have been
perpetrated; enormities which could never have been supposed or
imagined, had they not been actually committed. Followint
example of my brethren who have preceded me, and considering
the proceedings have been conducted with closed doors till this part
of the case, I shall refrain from saying anything of the crimes of
which you stand convicted on the clearest evidence ever brought ber
fore a jury. My duty i to warn you to prepare for the inevitable
fate which awaits you in this world, and for appearing before th,
judgment seat of Czars?, to answer for all the sins and crimes of
which you have ever been guilty. Rest assured that if ever then
was • case in which the law will take its full course it is yeses.