Star.
London, England, 1831-04-13 00:00:00

PUNISHMENT OF DEATH.

As the amendment of the British Sanguinary Code of
Penal Laws is a point which we consider more than perhaps
any other, involves the good repute of this country, we
shall, on all occasions, as a matter of conscience, insert
whatet er conies under our observation, which may have a
tendency to expose the flagrant, anti-christian, and truly
disgraceful defects of that code ; and which may keep alive
the attention of the public to a subject, which calls so ur-
gently for the united exertions of all, who have the cha-
racter of their country, and the general interests of hu-
manity, at heart. With these views, it affords us peculiar
pleasure to insert the following expression of sentiment,
from a City in Scotland, for the good fame of which, we
have more than usual recrard
A Petition, of w;tieli tellowie:.; is a copy, is now in the course
of signatine in Abetile;ii. It has already received the subs:tap:ions
of many most respectuhl; and influential individuals ; and w trust will
meet with that attention from the legislature which its truly philatithro.
phic and benevolent idijeet doseri-..s
"To the Right Ileetturable tic Lords Spiritual atul Temporal
of the United Kaigilum of Great Britain ~td Ireland, in Par.
!lament assembled, the humble Petition of the un..ervigned
Inhabitanta of Aberdeen and vicinity,
" SIILWETII. _

"That your pc. itioliers. beg leave to call the a:tention of your right
honouraWe house to the numerous crimes of very different degrees of
moral turpitude to which the same punishment of death is affixed by
various statutes. That, although in some crimes, such cs those affecting
property, a capital punishment does not follows capital conviction more
than in the case of one out of 14) or 14, a strong imputation, never-
theless, is thrown on the parity of jnsiee, in the C11:42 of the one who
suffers ; and the efffeiency of the law h at the same time destroyed, by
the statutory penalty being remittal, not as the exception, but as the
general nile.
'• That your Petitioners consida that rite law, as it stands, from its
wientainty, defeats the very end of its being—the prevention of
crime ; and that a less severe, but a tenni.: punishment would be more
beneficial to sock l, whilst it would r.iievc the Judge of a deep and
painful resrai-ibility, and unitive from Jurors. anti IVitnesses the
strong temptation, wind' at pre-env is pui in their way, of doing vio-
lence to their etoncience. totsare rite life of the delinquent.
0. Your petitioners, therefore, respecttully, but most earnestly, pray
your right honoutatt house to revise .be P.nal Laws, by which capital
punishments :tre entxted, with a view to the substituthm, in ruch cases
as may stem advisable, of other per—hits as eirsctual for the purpose,
but less awfully vieiliclve than th.: uninitipted and tinforgiving pe-
nalty of dm:ll—which has often the effect of abridging the period of a
criminal's probadoot m,d ce nog shot t his opportunities for repentance
and improvemeth. .ital )101T petitioners ah.ll ever pray."—Aterdeen
Chronicle oj. 91/s

As we hear no 'lime of the earthquake in China, which
had destrlyed twelve provinces and half a million of people,
we may culiclude the story ma:, one of those inventions,
which those chevaliers diarlastrie, the penny-a-line para.
graphist3, invent before they dim).
The chief part of the Austrian armies are composA of
descendants of the ancient Hans, men who, for 1,500 years,
have been the scourge of Italy. The only successful oppo-
nents of the Huns mere the Gauls, who utterly defeated
' Attila in his invasion of Gnul. It is curious to see the same
races opposed to each other even to the present day.
The Anti-Reformers bow to popular opinion, and are its
votaries ; but they call aloud, and it wont answer. Sugden
may plead, and Weymouth may vote— the Percys, Sey-
moure, Beauforte, and other names of ancient renown, may
beg and pray that they have lost their power of cheering the
people. The Printing Press is the ally of Reform ! " The
age of chivalry is past"—alas, is gone for ever !
It appettrs that the heavy duties on boracic acid and
tincal force the manufacturers of earthenware to use, in
glazing, preparations of lead, which prove destructive of
the workmen. Seventeen medical men in the potteries
have certified this fact, and we hope regulation will follow
the statement.

TIIE KING'S GRAND E‘TERTAINMEN7'
TO THE KNIGHTS GRAND CROSIEs Or sIIC ORDER OP Tut: BATU•

His Meeeetv gave a grand than ‘r last evening, at his
Palace at St. James's, to the Knights Grand Cie, of the
Most Hoeourable Military Order of the Bath. Kell the
enlre and general enlrnnces to the palace trete opened for
the rece"tiou of the company. The serjeant potter and
the gentlemen porters were on duty in their full Court
dresses, and the KING's peges appeared in their state uui
forms. The entertainment was given in the banqueting
room ; the table was laid for 54. The gold and silver SO'.
vices of plate were displayed with great taste; nine plateaux
were avenged in the middle of the tale ; the centre piece,
which was larger than the others, represented in the untie
part the Drapn in the Garden of the Hesperides ; the hie er
division had groups of Bacchauti. The room was lighted
with five splendid onnollt chandeliers, and also by a number
of candelabras with wax candles: the other state routes in
which the company assembled were also brilliantly lighted.
The company began to arrive at half-past six o'clock. At
seven o'clock the KING, accompanied by the Duke ofCu at.
BERLAND and Prince LEOPOLD, entered the State Rooms
from his private apartments, and proceeded to the Ball-
room, where the Members and Officers of the Order were
assembled. At half-past seven o'clock dinner was ROCOCO-
ced. His MAJESTY, preceded by Sir F. WATSON, the
Master of the Household, passed through the Preeene,.
Chamber and the Guard Rolm, which was lined by the Yee
men Guard to the Banquetting Room, followed by the 1)111;0,
of CUM BEILLAN D, Prince LEOPOLD, the Duke of Go It
the Duke of WELLINGTON, Field Marshal Sir A. Cee Kee,
and the other Knights, eccording to their seeierity. A,
the KING enacted the eallery which joins the by.: staircases,
the Band of the Cold:Are:en Regiment of Foot Guards, t+h
' were in attendance in their state uniforms, stiock up " 0
the Roast Beef of Old England." The KING took his seat
in the centre of the table. The band were stetieael in the.
ante-room adjoining the Benquctting Room, and played at.
interval,. during the evening. The party included the Civil
Knight Grand Crosses as well as the Naval and Military
Knights Grand Crosses. The Knights appeared in the
Star, Riband, and Jewel of the Order, but did not wear the
Collar. Tito following were the Knighte Grand Crosse
present :
The Duke of Cumberland, Prince Leopold, Field Marshal Sir
Ainred Clarke, F.arl Donoughmore, Sir J. Sa=intarce, Lord Ilowden,
the Duke of Wllington. Earl Northesk, the Hon. Sir A. F. Ue.hranc,
Sir George H. Barlow, Viscount Strangford, Viscount Beretford, Lord
Lynedoch, Lord Hill, Hoa. Sir &Irani Paget, Sir G. Nugent, Sir J.
Doyle, the .11:=rquis of Lontlorl.ny, Sir Alexaraicr Hope, Sir George
Murray, Sir W. Clinton, l'at Earl of Clancarty, Sir James Kempf,
Sir Robert Lisw. Sir G. Cockburn, Sir Thomas Hislop, Sir John
Malcolm, S=r Throws Fel,y, Sir Charles 11. Knowles, the Earl of
Rossiya, the Detre of G0.d.,11„ Lord F.asiborough, S.r George .lortin,
Sir Edward Thornton, S'f J= hn Oswald, Sir Edward Tbornbrough,
Sir Henry Fane, Sir Archibald Campbell, Sir E. Codrington, Sir
Frederick Limit, Sir Stratton' Canning, Sir T. Malin, Sir Janus
Hawkins Wiiiishcd, Sir PhirpChas. Durham, sod Sir Wm. Houroun.
OFFICERS OF TUC ORDEII.-Tim Dean of the Order; Sir George
Nagler, Garter; Ger.miazi-t of the Order, A. Grevillc, Esq. Path
King of Arms, Captain Michael Seylinior: Registrar and Secretary,
Gcor.te F. Reitz, Esq.; Critical:Al U•her, James Pulman, Esti; W.
Woods„ Esq. Secretary to the KniAlits Commanders and Companions.

NAVAL I‘TELI.II

ENCE.

Maas Amato Tuts Dar—Dublin,l ; Waterford, i ; Sweden, 1.
DIAL, APRIL 12.—Wind N.E.—Arrived the Joven Enrique,
Mayor, from Bilboa, and John Pirie, Wlhon, from Berbice.
PORTSMOUTH, Aram 12.—Wind N.E. to S.E —Arrived the Mount
Stewart Elphinstone, ---, from London, for Madras and Bengal.
Sailed the Vibelia, Thompson, for Van Diemen's Laud.
PLYMOUTH, Aran ft.—Sailed the Sir Wm. Bentinek , for
Bermuda, and Terra Neva, Kelso. for the Cape of Good Hope.
FALMOUTH, APRIL 11.—Wind variable, light airs.
Doves, Aran. 12.—Arrived off the port, the Dorothy Foster, Hen.
dereon, from &. Ander°, and James and Archibald, Gowan, from
Galway.

Cow.m, Armr. 12.—Arrived the Arrow,Prichard, from Rio Janeiro.
ToeLly, Arm. 12.—Arrived the Waterloo, Blackler, from St.
Michael'., with damage.

- The Queen and the Landgrarine of Hesse flomberg-
dined with the Princess Augusta last evening, at her resi-
dence in the King's Palace, St. James's.
The Duchess of Cumberland and the Duchess of Glou-
cester visited her Majesty yesterday.
Her Royal Highness the Duchess of Kent, atteLdeil by
Lady Charlotte St Maur, and Sir J. Conroy, visited Mr.
and Lady Georgiana Agar Ellis yesterday, at their house in
Spring-gardem,, when her Royal Highness sto:Al Godmother
to their youngest son.
.The Marquis of Chandos, and Mr. Burge, agent for Ja-
maica, hail interviews yesterday, with Viscount Goderich,
at the Colonial-ollice.

Lord John Russell had an interview yesterday, with Earl
' Grey, at the Treasury.
' His Royal Highness the Duke of Gloucester is o far
recovered from his recent disposition, as to he able to leave
Gloucester-house yesterday, and take an airing in the neigh-
bourhood of Hampstead and Highpte.
The rain is said to have :mind its way throtigh the roof of
the new Palace, to an extent likely zo be highly iejurious to
some of the costly carved ceilings.
We have somewhere seen it rem,irked that '.laashal
Diebitseies name, when tianslati.d into plain English, mesas
nothing more nor less than Thievish ! Why do not our
translators translate the German names as well as news.
How well it would read at the end of a despatch—" dith
every respect I have the honour to remain, at yew. ser-
vice, Thievish !"

In a reformed parliament we here there will be more prac-
tical knowledge, and less of closet theory, which, in late
parliaments, utterly ruined the public character of those
assemblies. It was the preference of capital to of
the subtle means to a plain and ; of a sublime something un-
definable, over the vulgar objects of human life, which long
rendered parliamentary d seussions Qo hateful. :%leu, in
the estimation of these persons, were made for :za ney,
not money for men—men were made for si.eiety,
not society fur men—min were made for governments, not
governments for men. Such finciea pick& dup from essays
on political economy, utterly destroyed the ancient parlia-
ment, and their flippant adoption proved that a e eq. oration
of such parrots was in its dotage.
Slow but sure is the old maxim, but in the basins s of
the British Parliament it is not varied—fur thoie;h it is so
slow, it is far from sure. Witness :he Truck S)tem Bill,
the Select Vestry Bill, the loud-pending Deter and
Creditor Laws, the Criminal Reform Laws, the
Slave Trade Question, &c. etc. &c. They are
pr,poended in crib generation, discussed in the
next, and forgotten, or frittered away, in the third.
What has become of the thousand and one petitions in re-
gard to public distress,—are they to be considered in the
Anna Domini in which debtor and creditor law is put on a
rational footing? A private bill is pushed on by a Solicitor;
but the people seem to ba without their Parliamentary
Solicitor.

The Rapid steam-boat v, as totally destroyed by fire on the
morning of Friday last. This unfortunate vessel, in the
space of an hour, drifted on shore at Kirkaldy, and has
since gone to pieces.—Scotsman.
THE RECORDER'S REPORT.—The Recorder attended
his Majesty in Council this day to make a report of the
convicts tried at the February Sessions, and now under sen-
tence of death, viz. 25 males and two females. We regret
to state that the Report contains several cases of very se-
rious magnitude. The Council had not broke up when our
first edition went to press.