Star.
London, England, 1831-05-09 00:00:00

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We have repeatedly bad occasion to offer our remarks,
and shall eve+ consider it to he our hounf!en duty to rise to
the utmost our voice on the punishment of death for offences
not sanctioned by the word of lion, and until the moment
this is abolished. It is a law of man that has entailed die-
grace, and occ sinned the deepest stain on the British cha-1
lacier ; and our " senators," if they are " taught wisdom,"
might to abolish such law expeditiously. We are always
happy to notice in our columns any observations on a sub-
ject of such deep importance, and give the following, by a
distinguished traveller who was present, when a criminal was
broken on the wheel, and who has given an engraving of the
horrid scene, which he took on the spot :
" I am fer from wishing to call in question the expediency
of public executions and capital punishments for murder,
since they are sanctioned by the word of GOD, and also
other most atrocious crimes ; but, then, it is highly desirable
that they should he accompanied by no unnecessary barba-
rities. which, FO far from rendering such spectacles most im-
p essive and awful, rather tend either to excite compassion
for the culprit—to induce us to forget his crime in his Buf-
fet ,ngs, find consider the authority which dooms him to them
in opposition to the principles of our religion—or to create
a depraved taste for witnessing scenes of cruelty, so as
thereby to render men callous, and defeat the very ends for
which such sanguinary exhibitions are made. It may be
doubted whether society is, upon the whole, benefitted by
such rigour on the part of the law : the offending individual
may be removed, but unless others are deterred from pur-
suing similar courses, the ranks of crime and desperate
hardihood are soon filled up by fresh recruits. Solitary con-
finement, not of a month or two—for such a term is insuf-
ti cient to produce any amendment—seems to be the moat
efficacious mode of checking crime, for desperate and de-
praved, indeed, must be the wretch who, left to the monition
of his most solitary thoughts, isolated from all communion
with his kind, with nothing to embolden, nothing to counte-
nance his wickedness; but, on the contrary, feeling every
instant the misery in which he has plunged himself, would
not be warned for the future from wickedness and vice. It
is hardly possible to conceive that such a being exists. At
present the desperate ruffian, so far from being intimidated
at beholding his fellows in crime suffer on the scaffold, not
only calculates on the chances of escape—knowing what a
comparatively small proportion of those tried for heinous
(-times really undergo the last sentence of the law—but
hardens hia:self by the reflection that, should it be his ill
luck to be at length condemned, the interval between the
sentence being passed and its being put into execution is
short. But the midnight assassin, who might brave death
by the executioner, seeing the briefness of the actual suffer-
ing attending it, might pause with horror ere he would com-
mit a crime, which he knew would cut him off from life ere
itality was extinct, and consign him to that solitary silent
cell, where his only associates for years—perhaps for the
rest of his existence in this world—would be his own re-
flections. A man may brave the terrors of the gallows, be
may be so hardened in iniquity as to feel neither compunc-
tion nor remorse for his guilt; he may die sullenly,
daringly ; but where is the heart that would not quail at
the prospect of a protracted captivity—of a living death ?
No ! nothing but either the consciousness of innocence,
or sincere repentance, could enable a human being to endure
such a fate—a doom, which only the height of madness
would provoke. if it be said that this is mere supposition,
I would reply, Make the experiment:' if it should fail—
if it should prove less efficacious than the present system,
then by all means return to the latter,
" On the whole, let me call on the legislature of Great
Britain to abolish the sanguinary punishment of death for
forgery, theft, or any other crime than that of murder,and
so congenial to the spirit of Christianity, and as the laws in
this respect, which are now so rigidly acted upon, will
ever reflect an eternal disgrace on our country, and are most
diametrically opposite to the laws of the most high GOD—
" Blessed are the merciful, for they shall obtain mercy."
From Rae Wilson's Travels, in Poland, Russia, and
Finland.

• To the honour of the American legislature, a law has passed, abo-
lishing capital punishments, excepting in cases of murder of " the
first degree," &c. on the ground "it bath been found by experience,
that the object of repairing the injury done to society and individuals,
is better attained by modtrate but certain penalties, than by severe and
enctssive punishmer Is ; and it is the duty of every government to u.
FORM, not to EXT ERMI NAT E offenders." I may add that the canton
of Valais, in Switzerland, has also published a decree, abolishing the
punishment, and would to Heaven the English government would go
and do likewise.'

CORONER'S INQUEST ON ADMIRAL SIR JOSEPH
YORKE. K C.B. CAPT. M. B. BR ADDY, R.N. CAPTAIN
THOMAS YOUNG, It.N.
An inquest was held on Friday, at Hamblerice, on view of the bodies
of Admiral Sir Joseph S Yorke, K.C.11. Captain Itlatthew Barton
liradby, R.N Captain Thomas Young, R.N. and John Chandler, sea
man, who were drowned by the upsetting of the Catherine, a yacht of
about 14 tons burthen, near Browndown Point, between Portsmouth
and Ramble, at about four o'clock on Thursday afternoon. The un-
fortunate gentlemen, with poor Chandler, were returning from Spit-
bead, r a rites of canvass, when a sudden: squall took the vessel,
witiai immediately wait down, stem foremost, ten fathoms water.
The accident was seen by a fisherman about half a mile off, and
lie iintredia..ely hastened to their assistance. He first came to Chand-
ler, who not been in the water more than five or six minutes, and
was yet alive and sensible, but speechless and quite exhausted. The
next ten minutes were occupi.d in well.meant, but injudicious and un-
successful attempts to preserve the poor fellow's life. Meantime the
three unfortunate gentlemen floated without attention, being so can-
pietely enveloped in their cloaks and coats, as to cause their bodies to
be mistaken for empty garments. As soon, however, as the fisherman
eliscovered, to his great surprise, that tiny were bodies, he took out
those of Captains Bradby and Young, which had been in. the water
about a quarter of an hour, but life was quite extinct. The body of
Bit Joseph Yorke floated further down, and was picked up about the
same time by another boat with no sign of life. The bodies were con-
veyed to Hamblc to await the inquest, which was held the following
day. Verdict—Accidental Death.
The loss of the deceased gentlemen will be severely felt by their con-
nections and the inhabitants of the village, to whom they had endeared
shemtielvea by conduct that will be long remembered with feelings of
respect and gratitude. Chandler was a man of excellent character, and
toss left one child an orphan. The inquest was attended by Sir Arthur
Paget at d 1 naval officers, who took a melancholy interest in the
proceedings.
The men who picked up the bodies were liberally rewarded, but it is
to be lamented that they were not better informed as to the means of
attempting to restore animation ; a point which the jury particularly
The late Sir Joseph Yorke, whose melancholy death we have previ.
analy announced, was brother to the present Earl of Hardwicke. Sir
Joseph, at an early age, went to sea, and was actively engaged in the
bervice of his country. At the celebrated victory off Cape St. Vincent,
Sir Joseph, then Capt. Yorke. highly distinguished himself, and also
in the victory of Sir Hugh Palliser over the French, when Sir Joseph
was second in command. After the destruction of the combined fleets
by Admiral Lord Nelson, Sir Joseph Yorke retired from the service,
and in April, 1805, was raised to the rank of Admiral of the Blue, free;
which period to his death he was connected with the political history of
his country, Sir Joseph was born on the Bth of June, 1768, and fee
his services was made a Knight Companion of the Bath. On the Ist
March, 1798, he married the daughter of Charles Raltray, Esq. by
wt out he had issue Charles Phillip, born 1799, and heir apparent to
the Latidom of Hardwicke, by the death of the son of the present Earl,
who was drowned in a storm off Lubec, near Memel, in April, 1808.—
The other sons of Sir Joseph were Henry Reginald, and Horatio Nelson,
who was named after Lord Nelson, but died in 1814. Sir Joseph
Yorke married a second time, in 1812, Urania, Dowager the Marchio.
eras of Clanriearde ; by whom he had no issue. Of late years Sir
Joseph Yorke distinguished himself in the House of Commons by his
facetious speeches in favour of the Tory party, under whose influence
he had been returned, up to the period of his death, for Reigate.

According to letters from Newcastle-upon-Tyne, there
ha% e been again large arrivals of foreign grain at that port,
during the last ten days ; say, from 18,000 to 20,000 qrs.
o.e gloater part of which bus been bonded.