The south-western. [volume] (Shreveport, La.) 1852-1870, 1856-11-19

: Ne A.
interest and destructive to the ends Of justice.
Whatever may have been the motives of the ju-
ry, they have by their verdict dealt out to you
the least drop of mercy, and you have none to
expect from the court. 1t is to this strange in
diligence of the jury you are indebted for the
fact that you are not now subject to the extreme
penalty of the law. instead Of mere confne~
ment in the penentiary of the State
This sickly senlimentalism which revolts at
the taking away of the life of man by the
hands of the law, is working immense mischief
and evil. Wherever it has been tried, it has
increased crime, and rendered life and proper
ty more insecure, And it yet remains to be
seen whether the good of society will not de-
mand that a step shall be taken backwards to-
wards the severity of punishment from which
humane considerations led our law givers to
depart. . -~." .5
The law which hung men for stealing, was no
hardship upon honest men. The relaxation OF
the law which tempts thieves to indulge the!r
propensiies, is. The law which inevitably sa
crihces the life Of the murderer, does not i'm
peril the peaceful citizen. The relaxation of
the law which gives immunity to the turbulent
| and the murderously inclined. does. The po-
pular sentiment needs correction in this regard.
and we applaud Judge Scruggs for the stand he
has taken. Memphis Bulletin.
Else AND DECLINE OF GREAT QuEsT1oS.--
The London Times thus pleasantly comments
ON the settlement Of the great Central American
question:
Political and national events are apt to be
small in their beginnings and their endings.--
In shape they are pointed at both ends, and
bulge out in the centre. They make very lit
tie noise at first; then they get to be understood,
excite attention, create discussion, and form tho
subject of debates in parliament; then they
gradually withdraw and disappear from the
public eye, an occasional allusion in the press
just keeping up faint shadow of existence,
till at last every trace is gone. They are en-
blematic in short of human life, which is brought
up in the quiet of the nursery, is next found
making great show in parliament or at the
bar, or in the field of battle and finally with
draws into the retirement which precedes the
grave. The great Central American question
has gone through the first, and is now IN the
last of these stages; having widened out from
avery small point, it is now arrived at point
again; and, having started in the retirement Of
the nursery, in which it was training for tho
noise and publicity which it subsequently at
tanned, it has now entered on the retirement
which precedes a total demise.
Our readers may or may not have observed
in the column of American intelligence in our
Mondays impressien. document with the
names of Clarendon and Herlan appended tCo
1t. This was the copy OF a convention between
this country and the State of Honduras, in Cen
tra America, and the purport of it is that the
Bay islands, neay the coast of Honduras, are
constituted a free territory under the sovereg gn-
ty of Honduras, this country Withdrawing from
it all claim Of possession. This document with
an English and an Honduras name to it, finish
es the great Central American question; Alex
anders dust fills up bunghoe; the charges
and recriminations of governments the rEeto-
RIG Of congress and the house of commons, and
the task of the political world repose in this lit
. tie territorial arrangement with a SMALL OBJ
, scure and remote republic. We must observe
that due attention seems to be given in this
document to the importance of securing a neu-
trail and independent ghborhood to the i'm
portant isthmus which divides the two great
oceans, and to the canal which will probably
before long cut it. The interests of the whole
commercial world requires an independent
neiyhborhood there as a security for free and
uninterrupted commerce. The republic of Hon
duras engages mot to erect, or to permit to be
erected, any Notifications on the said islands, OF
any other islands, in the Bay of Honduras"
and the 'contractng parties agree to commu-
nicate the present convention to all other mari
time powers, and invites them to accede to it,"
I
The Pavlolski or the gmen of Paul, pre-
sents an appearance which would be grotesq que
if it were not imposing. All the men-pray
do not laugh--have cooked noses. Every SOL
der with "nez retrouzee,' who is of proper
height, is sent to this regiment which was form
ed by Paul in one of his excentric Freaks and
a very determined pug is eligible it be accom-
panied by sun ken eyes and high cheek bones,
, But more than this. The men, clean shaycn.
like all Russian soldiers, except on the lip, wear
their moustacLes brushed upwards towards the
ears, which glT'es them strange and savage
aspect. This bizarre and ferocious appearance
, is increased by the shape Of their head dress.
which is like a sugar loaf with one side cut
! away--an angular section of cone, with tho
round side to the front. On this side the sha-
ko, or whatever it is, consists of brass plate;
From the top there is curious tuft, or pom
pom. sticking out horizontally, so as to be par
allel with the lower part Of the wearer's nose.
The brass front is reIigiously preserved, should
e it have been pierced by a ball, and is worn on
! ly by deserving soldiers. Some of them have
T. been perforated in two, tree, or four places in
u the days of katherine H., and in Suwarof's
II II campaign, where the regiment greatly distin-
guslicd itself, and on the under part Of each
>. plate is engraved the name of the soldier who
" wore it when the ball came in such unpleasant;
:, proximity to him. Should one of those plates
u be worn out with age, its form is scrupulously
= initiated, and the holes renewed with the great
d u est care. The regiment when at the march
q always carries bayonets at charge. Altogeth-
), er the look of these four thousand and odd men
d all Of whom are over six feet, is very novel and
striking and if they are half as ugly in the figh
t. AS they On parade, they must prove mos
formidable antagonists They are dressed like