Swansea and Glamorgan Herald, and South Wales Free Press. — 1865-08-02 (Swansea, West Glamorgan, Wales)

DEATH RECORDED.  Mr Eorros.—Will yoti—oblige me by allowing the following question to appear in your impression on Saturday? And if any of your readers will kindly answer it, I shall be grateful. The question I desire to put is this :—lf the expression, " Let death be recorded," is made by a Judge of AbiliZ upon a prisoner on trial for murder, after the indictment is read and the usual questions put to him by the Clerk of Arraigns, should answer "guilty," what effect haa it upon him? , Take as an example the case of poor Constance Kent, the only difference, however, being that, instead of the words. "Let death be recorded," the words, "Let the plea (of guilty) be recorded," was stated. I wish to know—and for the sake of conviction and information I am sure some others would too—whether both expressions are synonymous, taken in a legal and general sense. Do they both, or does not the latter expression merely mean that the prisoner is in the awful position of a murderer, and that Her Majesty through her Secretary of State is the only quarter to go to to ask for her prerogative of mercy before the sentence ean be commuted to transportation for hie, or any other punishmint. If this is so, what possible effect can there be in the former expression, so far as the sentence is concerned ? If any difference exists, perhaps some of your readers will explain, but more particularly what is really meant, if ever used in a legal sense, by "Let death be recorded," and what effect, as I have previously asked, would such expression have on a prisoner indicted on a capital offence, and under what circumstances does a judge make use of it? • • If you can Sad space, sir, and if you see no objection to this appearing in your valuable paper, prey do so, and oblige your most obedient servant, Vtarra#. 30th July, 1865.  Ton COILL SUPPLY or THE Marnorous.—TA set of 4of Tuesday obaerves:—The South Wales and London Direct Railway, passing M • straight line from Chepstow to Didcot, will cross the Severn with a headway of 100 ft. above the highest spring tides, and with a waterway at the widest opening of the bridge of 600 ft. The saving in distance between the Glamorganshire coal-field and London will be upwards of twenty miles, and a more important advantage will consist in the substitution of a maximum gradient of! in 200 for! in 60. It is expected that an outlay of £2,000.000 on the bridge and railway , will be rendered profitable by the creation of a coal traffic trim the great basin of South Wales. As nearly all the mineral railways in the district are on the narrow guage, it will be necessary for the Great Western to adopt the same system from Didcot on the east and from Cardiff on the west to the extremities of the South Wales Direct Railway. If coal is conveyed along the whole distsnce at 5-Bths of a penny per ton per mile. South Wales will be enabled to compete with Yorkshire, Derbyshire, and Durham in the London market. The Lancashire and Yorkshire and Great Eastern Junction Railway was thrown out early in the Session on the almond reading, notwithstanding the promise of the promoters to effect • considerable reduction in the freight of coals from the North. The accuracy of their calculations will fortunately be Mated by experience, as an arrangement has since been effected for the withdrawal of the Great Northern opposition. It is undoubtedly desirable that the carriage of coals should be facilitated as far as possible, for London has not only to satisfy the wants of a growing population, but to supply the whole of the South-Eastern counties, or rather to witness the transit of coal trains from the North along the lines which now connect the railways on both banks of the river. At present, coal arrives in London only by the crowded lines of the London and NorthWestern and Great Northern, for the quantity which reaches Paddington is too small to require consideration. In two years a line from Bedford to London will bring in the vast traffic of the Midland system. and the Great Eastern and Great Western will drain South Yorkshire on one side and Glamorganshire on the other. The present generation of consumers has no cause for uneasiness, but constant improvements in the art of pumping suggest the fear that at some remote time the reservoir will necessarily run dry.