The Sun. — 1850-12-10 (London, England)

TAR SUN, LONDON, TEJESDA EVENINC-3, DECEMBER 10, 185  and against, favourable and unfavourable , and giving the accused the benefit of any reasonal doubt, he is made to act the pert of the me et strenuous and enthusiastic advocate for the prose cutkn. His words and opinions, therefore, do not possess that weight and influence that would otherwise attach to them. Unseemly theatrical tableaux, are got up for the purpose of interesting the juries in favour of the accused, and counteractin g the judge's charge : whole families accompany the prisoner to the tribunal, as if the innocent were on tr ial along with the guilty, that the sympathy excite, d in favour of the one may be extended to the other, while advocates, forgetting their true characte r and position, fling themselves into the arms of their clients, embracing and caressing the in ost atrocious criminals, and address them in terms of the most ridiculous and almost blasphemous adulation. We shall not now allude to the fact, s and circumstances of this most atrocious case. They have already appeared in extensa in cur col: emns, and the duty was sufficiently painful ani 'I disgusting, without unnecessarily recalling the horrible particulars. But we must express our este )nisinnent how any body of men could discover " ztenuating cir' cumstances" in the conduct of the Abl )6 GOTHLAND• lie was either innocent or guilt, le If innocent he should have been dismiss ed free and scatheless, without censure or pu•aishment ; but if guilty the majesty of the law s.la mild have been fully vindicated, and its extreme penal ty carried into execution upon one of the m, est atrocious miscreants ever called upon to answer for his crimes before an earthly tribunal. His offence was the highest known to the law, and effected by the most infamous means. It was wil ful, deliberate, and cold-blooded murder, secretly plan ned, while his victim was living under his own roof; with his own hands he drugged the poi meneci chalice, and with words of kindness and char ity on his lips, and a sympathising and benevolent smile on his countenance, delivered the fatal cup that was to consign the aged woman to a lingering and painful death. And what w: as the " extenuating circumstance" that she, teld mitigate the penalty justly attached to his outr: ige against the laws divine and human ? That he,,, an ordained minister of the Gospel, bad violated 1 he solemn oath of chastity which he had taken—tl net be was an adulterer as well as a murderer a base and treacherous poisoner. As to the alleged companion in his guilt, we shall not interfere with the verdie t, the merciful verdict, of the jury. She has be en exonerated from all participation in the crii ne. Let her receive the full benefit of the a fecision. Her feelings cannot, even under the in ost favourable circumstances, be very enviable. To s person of any degree of sensibility the exposure t hat has taken place—the ripping up of the most sec! !et transactions of her life, and the position in whiei the has been placed—must have entailed sufferings of no ordinary magnitude. We must, however, prot: !st against the assumption that the double crime et' suicide and murder, from which she was barely stescued, should be regarded as a demonstration of her innocence, and as arising from the natural ebullitions, of a sensitive and honourable mind when suffering i under the pressure of unmerited suspicion and false 'accusation. It is scarcely necessary to allude to the admission of necessary evidence, and the bringing up the fellow-prisoners of the miserable man on trial to detail the gossip of the :gaol, and the trifling conversations and demeanour of the accused during his detention. They must be condemned by 'all right-minded men, who, .so far :is the criminal code of England is concerned, will join us in exclaiming with the Barons of Runnymede, "/Volumes leges Anglia mutari."  THE FRENCH REPUBLIC  We have received the Paris journalsof yesterday.  The Journal des Debats, which on all 'natters relating to the funds may be considered as a high authority, has the following on the decree authorizing the sale of two millions additional of :Rentes "The announcement of this adjudication appears to have caused some surprise in the financial world ; it appears to us, however, that it was a thing which they rather ought to have expected. On opening the general discussion of the Beget, can the 18th July last, the Minister of Finance positively declared that he should not wait for the end of the year to make use of the power of selling granted to him by the law of 18th May. The funds in question, moreover, stood foremost in the number of r4.....-cos of which, in spit • •••• forth the t,inancial plan of 1850, ho reeknoned on ay.iin; himself, in order to. beep the floating debt :list limits. The different Bills for supplewithin ite recently voted, particularly that relamen tary c reditb' tive to the levy of 40,000 men, must have warned e these limits would be reached, if not exceeded. The min.:ster declares that it is the opening of these several credits which has decided him to proceed to the adjudication, and his motive is evidently just. There are two other caus:.4 which might naturally influence him—the price of rente the ; security of offers of stock. He was right to avail himself of so many opportune circumstances." It would seem from the tenor of the following, which appears in the Constitutionnel, as if the Bonapartist: were becoming aware that their .only chance of retaining power was by maintaining a republic, and that they now aimed, not so much at destroying as at corrupting republican institutions, so as to bend them to their own purposes. To parody the words of LAFAYETTE " they would fain make of the Republic the best of Empires." The article is curious, as showing the present tactics of the Bonapartists. It purports to be a criticism on M. GUIZOT'S recently published works on MONK and