The Sun. — 1844-01-04 (London, England)

THE POACHERS UNDER SENTENCE OF DEATH.  Although we are not of the number of those who consider the infliction of the last penalty of the law to be either unjust or inexpedient in cases of murder, yet we cannot refrain from expressing a hope that the awful punishment of death will not he inflicted on all the wretched men convicted of the murder of Lord Derby's gamekeeper. They are all, it is true, equally guilty in the eye of the law, and those of them who did not fire the fatal shot are only a shade less guilty, even viewing the subject morally, than he who did ; but there is a shade of difference in their cases, and we trust that whilst none of them are allowed to escape without severe punishment, the lart penalty of the law will only be inflicted on him who was the murderer in act as well as in intention.  It is net merely on the ground of humanity, but also on that of policy, that we consider that it would not be desirable to indict the punishment of :death on the whole of these five men. The difficulty of inducing juries to convict in such cases is already very great, and if they should all be punished with death, their execution will produce a feeling of horror in the public mind which will give impunity to succeeding gangs of poachers .for a considerable time, whatever crimes they may commit. We well remember attending the trial of twelve or fourteen poachers at the York assizes, several years ago, when hanging was much more in fashion than it is now. They were all charged with having murdered one of the gamekeepers of Sir George Armytage, of Kirklees.hall, near Huddersfield, and all of whom were by the clearest evidence shown to have been present at the affray in which he was killed. After the case had been brought home to every one of the prisoners, and after the Judge had laid down the law declaring that all present at the affray and resisting the gamekeepers, were equally guilty with the man who beat out his brains with the butt end of his gun, the Jury retired, and after remaining out of Court the greater part of the night, came back and declared the whole of the prisoners Not Guilty. This verdict was given in direct defiance of the evidence, and it was the general opinion in Court that it would never have been returned if it had not been known that the Judge was a stern and inflexible man, quite capable of leaving every one of the prisoners to be hung if they were convicted. The more humane spirit in which the law has been administered for the last dozen years has greatly diminished this unwillingness to convict, but anything like a wholesale hanging will revive it with a greater force than ever, and render it, if not impossible, at least most difficult to convict in future.—Liverpool Times.  A. B. C.--,ANECDOTE OF TIIE PRINCESS V ICTORIA —Whilst under the process of learning her A B C, the Princess evinced no usual degree of curiosity to ascertain the utility- of being so tormented. " What good this—what good this ?" was her frequent inquiry ; and when satisfied " that mamma could know all that was contained in the great book on the table because she knew her letters, whilst the little daughter could not ;" the little lady replied, " I learn, too—l learn, tco—very quick 1" and, it is added, she so quickened her pace in learning and articulation, as soon to become mistress of the alphabet.—Front Frazer's Magazine.