The New York herald. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1840-1920, 1853-06-05
permitted Madame Grisi and signor Mario to form

an engagement for America of five months. Mr.
Beale is disinclined to enter into any American spe
culation until N" i~el p,ooeeuiuys nave term mated
uelween him, Miss Catharine Hays and Mr.. Ward
well Grisi and Mario are to open your New York
Concert Hail. Towardsthe conclusion Of my letter
give some more details on this head.
We are very glad to have il in our power to an
nounce that meeting Of merchants and other in
uential city men, has been held for the purpose Of
promoting the establishment OF Mercantile and
Maritime College. The necessity of such an nstitu-
ton has long been felt and it is only matter Of
prise that such project Las not been carried olt
long ago. Neither is the idea a new one, tor, AZ re-
CARDS the city OF London very similar plan occurred
to the comprehensive mind OF Sir Thomas Gresham,
the undetermined founder OF the Royal Exchange.
In fact, he gave practical exposition of his views,
by founding and endowing the college which still
goes by his name and for upwards OF century and
a half Gresham College fulfilled to great extent the
enlightened purposes contemplated by its founder. In
the lapse of time, however that originally excellent
institution has SO degenerated that for many years
past 1T has answered no other purpose than providing
sinecure situations for scientific and learned men,
the plea of their delivering lectures which per-
son ever thinks of attending. Its funds, however,
which amount to about f40 900, might easily be
made available to aid in really useful purpose, and
it is to be hoped that the MERGERS Company of
London, who are the trustees, will see no objec-
ton to allowing them to become the nucleus
of much larger fund for endowing the proposed
new college. Our mercantile men have hitherto had
no really professional education and undergone no
Of instruction specially suited to their require
ments; and the same remark applies to our mercan-
tile seamen, who, with all their sterling qualities,
are vastly inferior in point of professional knowledge
and experience to the seamen of other lands Nearly
200 900 persons are now employed in our maritime
service and il is high time that measures adopt
ed to make them efficient sailors. We feel quite de-
lighted, therefore, to think that some plan is in
nj N w
look upon the unanimity OF feeling that pervaded
Tuesdays meeting as happy augury for the sue
cess OF the movement When the plans are matured,
and the project has been fully launched, we shall be
while cannot but hail with pleasure the philan-
thropic exertions of body OF merchants who have
come forward noby to assist large class of their
fellow -countrymen, who, notwithstanding the inn
mense services they render, have been all but wholly
neglected by those on whom they confer wealth and
importance.
It has not been our lot for many years to record
SO awful chapter in the history Of national crime
as the apprehension Of mere boy-one Hacker
only ten years Of age for wlfnly drowning another
boy, some three years his junior in the river Avon,
not far from Bath. Children are not in general ca
pable of conceiying, planning and executing great
crimes and for this reason the civil law has always
been reluctant to pronounce persons under the age
of puberty to be tit objects of legal punishment.
With the English law however, it is widely differ
ent, for our criminal legislators have taken more
therefore, paid but little regard to the age of the pr
soners, supposing that malice occasionally supplies
the deficiency of years. This maxim has been ap-
piled to practice several times already; and children
have often been hanged who ought at most only to
have been 1ogged or consigned to medical care for
mental malformation. Children of ten years of age
cannot thoroughly comprehend the immortality
of acts SO as to take them for warning;
poor child, who had got mingled with mob of
Misunderstanding rioters, hanged at Lancaster,
calling on his mother to save him. Such an eXecu-
ton, we assert did no good whatever in the way Of
strongly expressed feeling Of the public was that
it was nothing more nor less than cold-booded
murder. Children may be charged with felony
our lawyers say-even at eight years of age but no
will believe that at such an age they are capable
of understanding the nature Of felony. They may
know perhaps, that 1t is wrong and sinful to steal
but they have no capacity for really understanding
the amount of criminality. and among the lower
orders few, very few indeed, of our criminal delin
quents can really tell what crime is. Yet such
unhappy children have often been put to death on
the false plea that malice ssupples the want of age.
girl OF thirteen was once burned to death for killing
years Of age-were sentenced to death for killing
q playmate, one OF whom was actually hung;
the other reprieved, though IT would have puzzled
all the lawyers in the world to ascertain the differ
ence in criminaty between the one and the other.
Many cases Of similar kind are quoted by Black
stone in defence Of the above proposition but never
theless-difficult as such cases are-we protest
against the notion that any public good whatever
can be effected by hanging juvenile murderers In
nine cases out Of ten, the original mental defects
have been exaggerated by bad training; but never
heless children of 80 tender age with characters
and principles yet uniformed, cannot in any fairness
be considered capable of comprehen-ing legal crime
and its consequences-nor ought they to be submit
ted to the extreme penalties Of the law. What may
be done with the boy Hacker it is difficult to say, or
whether the nineteenth century is to be enlightened
by the example OF hanging child; but we are per-
fecty convinced that the inlic lion of such punish
ment will excite more adherence in the public mind
than the crime which is punished and therefore, that
any beneficial example will be wholly out of the ques-
ton.
last December, you will observe that predicted,
seriatin theatrical events precisely as they have
occurred This season has proved as barren as was
certain it would prove. it is reported that the
Princess wi remain open during the summer, and it
is certain that Mr. Kean is progressing rapidly In his
preparations for Byrons tragedy OF "Sardanapalus,
(Anthony and Cleopatra,) which is to be produced
with all the scenic effects that Layards recent disco
veries in Ninevah can afford. Although Mr. kean
is not the beau ideal of what Sardanapaus' may be
imagined and Mrs. Kean is somewhat portly for the
lthesome, classic girl, Myrrha still the gliding will
excuse the gingerbread. The Queen will go TO see
it: So prognosticate a sensation from this revival
In the pursuit of archaeological authorities for this
piece, the mummes of the British Museum have
been copied for the wigs 1t is sincerely TO
be hoped that the New York theatres will
not have the bad taste to follow this
stupid lead, which is turning the, drama
into an archaeological museum, scientific raree
show-not holding the mirror up to nature, but
to misunderstanding, indeed, very morbid ex-
hibition in which the characters are subservient to
their costumes, the picture transferred from the
front to the back Of the stage, and the poet is
quested to stand aside that he may not hide the
scenery All this is not picture OF life, but trac-
ing of DEATH Such management in theatre is a
confession or histrionic penury.
Buckstone's next novelty at the Haymarket will
be drama from the pen Of Mrs. Grove, the author.
ess Of Susan Hopley," "The Night-side OF Nature"
&C. This will be, say, another failure; it Is a
medieval piece of villany and clever little Buck
stone il cobbng it up with his ready PEN but fear
it will follow in the wake of "Coombes Birthday
and return to that obscurity from which it never
should have emerged. The Haymarket closes on
July 3D. to be ceansed and that certainly not before
it wanted it, seeing that those enterpriSng
managers, Messrs. Webster and Mandy, never had it
once cleaned out during their sixteen years lessee
ship. Blackstone has already done much; let him
progress and prosper. 1t will re open in Octeber.
To the Adelphi was invited on Wednesday eve
ming to see Shakespeare. We all waited very patient