The Sun. — 1856-09-01 (London, England)

CALCRA FT.  (From Punch.)  Hanging, with which, not long ago, the public appeared to have got nearly disgusted, seems of late to have in some measure recovered its popularity, or rather its place in the affections of the educated and governing classe,. It is true that Celestina‘Somner escaped the gallows, but did not the Home Secretary hang Martha Brown ? and if the former's crime was one of the most cruel murders on record, was not the offence of the latter mere man• slaughter committed under the extenuating circumstances of extreme provocation Fro,n one extreme the Government will of course run into the other, and the executioner, in that his office is no sinecure, will differ even more widely than he now does from the Cathedral Cano:7.  The increasing employment of no gallows will probably prove a stimulus to the attainment of excellence in the executioner's department of high art : and then, as a necessary consequence, we shall have foreign ability invited to compete with British talent. Application will naturally be made to Germany ; but, we would suggest, chiefly to that particular portion of Father. land called Austria:  A letter has been written to a Genoese paper by General Garibaldi, stating that poor Ciceruacchio, the popu!ar orator of the modern Romans, and his two soca. boys ui.der age, together with four other persons, one of them a chaplain, have been barbarously shot, in cold blood, at Contarina, near the mouth of the Po, by Aus trian soldiers commanded by an officer of the imperia family. Since, even if Ciceruacchio bad rendered him self liable to be shot, his Holiness the Pope was the only person legally qualified to shoot Min, this abominable act on the part of the Austrians, was an officious exercise of the office of the finisher of the Papal law. It shows them to be born with a natural turn for that officer's vocation.  Besides, was not the reign of the present Emperor of Austria inaugurated by hangings? It is remarkable, in connection with this circumstance, that the officer in command of the Austrian soldiers who put to death Ciceruacchb, his children, and the other persons whom they had no right to,meddle with, was a member of the Imperial family. 'No doubt they all hacg together. If, therefore, foreign professors of the halter are to be encouraged, like so many other foreign artists, to afford this country the advantage of their ingenuity in their own peculiar line, let application bo made, in the first instance, to the Austrian Government for the required assistance. The status of the hangman will be improved by the importation of Austiian competitors ; for the office is evidently one of honour in the dominions of Francis Joseph, and any other dominions occupied by his gallant troops, who volunteer its performance, and are, doubtless, as handy with the rope as they are with the rifle. Perhaps his Majesty will send us that distinguished member of his family who commanded the gallant party, all volunteers perhaps, that executed those above-mentioned subjects of the Pope on account of Isis Holiness. We shall doubtless receive with all the honours due to his exalted rank and elevating pursuit that amateur Imperial assistant of Under-Sheriff4, and shall unanimously agree in nominating him ArchJack-Ketch.