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ghan gaol. Being of the Roman Catholic persuasion, the Bishop appears to have bestowed peculiar pains upon their case; for three clergymen were appointed, one for each, who ministered to them during the whole interval between their trial and their execution. They protested their innocence while in prison; being asked if they intended to address the multitude from the scaffold, they said that much depended on the advice their priests should give them: they, however, said nothing except as to their hopes of salvation; from whence it is to be inferred that their ghostly advisers did not counsel them to renew in public their protestations of innocence. As absolution had been given to them, we may conjecture that confession had preceded it; and it does not appear that any efforts were made to obtain a commutation of the sentence. The probability therefore is, that the clergymen were aware of the deep guilt under the load of which the consciences of these vile convicts lay; and they must have witnessed their going to the scaffold with all the pride of conscious. innocence and the exultation of martyrs, as well as the confident expectation of eternal happiness, more lively and more undoubting than the most virtuous of frail human beings is justified in cherishing.

These men and their relations are represented as having been in a state of mind the very reverse of sad and sorrowful on the approach of their execution. Not only were no tears shed at their last interview with their families, but whoever expressed any sympathy and feeling for their condition was chid, and informed that there was ground for joy and not for grief. A visitor of the prison having said he was sorry to see three men in their position, was answered with "Sorry! why, it is glad you should be, sir." Another, being asked if he had any statement to make, replied, "No. Our Saviour said nothing when he was executed." The last rites of the church were administered to them in the chapel, and the procession immediately began to the scaffold, the convicts in their grave-clothes. One of them, seeing his priest pass a little way before, "ran after him, skipping like a school-girl, threw his arms round the priest's neck, and drew him on in a lightsome, hurried pace for a short distance." Some prayers

were read.

man.

"Hell cannot now scare us," said the wretched The executioner pinioned his arms. "He's doing the best job ever was done for us," was the remark made. Both the priests then gave their blessing; and one of the reverend gentlemen then added: "Remember the penitent thief on the cross. In one minute you'll be in heaven. You have eternal happiness within your reach." "Mary, Mother of God! receive us; prepare heaven for us!" was the response. It is not necessary here to discuss the nice and delicate question, how far spiritual advisers ought to go in giving assurance of pardon for sin. But one thing seems clear enough; if the most positive affirmation of pardon as absolutely certain, is publicly made, in connection with a grievous offence known to have been committed, the effect on the minds of the spectators must be somewhat like that of a general impunity declared for all crimes of the like nature, as far as regards the religious sanction. But when to this is added the spectacle of the condemned criminal, not merely comforted, but happy, revelling in joy, showing the same flow of high spirits as if he had obtained, or was on the point of obtaining, the greatest conceivable happiness—it is not to be doubted that many a person who has witnessed the scene will feel his reluctance to perpetrate crimes greatly diminished, and will be disposed to yield, if led into temptation, when he sees that the scaffold, far from being a place of horror, is strewed with flowers, and eternal felicity the lot of the most atrocious criminals, who pass to heaven through the gallows, the gate to Paradise.

It is far from our wish to prefer any complaint of the course pursued by the priests upon such occasions. Theirs is a position of peculiar delicacy; but however necessary they may deem it to afford the consolations of their faith in private, surely they have no vocation to make the exhibition of capital punishment the scene of their own triumph over the fear of death, and to hold cut each culprit who pays the forfeit of his crimes as a proof how safe from future sufferings are the flock committed to their care. It is impossible that they can gain respect and influence except at the expense of the law and its terrors.

There seem but two ways of meeting this mischief. Some have proposed private executions, which the American laws sanction. To this many grave objections present themselves. But certainly care might be taken by the magistrates and the keepers of gaols to prevent all access of the public, and render such scenes as have been adverted to impossible to be witnessed, except by the officers of the prison, confining the presence of the public to the moment of execution. The abolition of capital punishment is the only other remedy, and how great soever might be the evil of adopting that course, the repetition of such outrages as we have been contemplating may well occasion a serious consideration of it.

THE JUDGES AND THE CRIMINAL CODE.

WE should add to the remarks elsewhere made on "The Judges and the Criminal Code" one word on the remarkable concurrence of sentiment everywhere felt respecting the indiscreet reference to the Judges, and their manner of meeting it. The two Great Reviews-the Edinburgh Review and the Quarterly Review-the organs of views generally so opposite, are in accord upon this important matter, and the particular observations they make upon the subject matters of the reference, and the special mistakes which the Judges have fallen into, are every way worthy of perusal, and the serious consideration of all parties concerned.

LEGAL CHANGES.

THE seat on the Bench, created by the lamentable death of Mr. Justice Talfourd, has been filled by the promotion of Mr. Crowder; and the vacancy thus created in the post of

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Recorder of Bristol by the appointment of the AttorneyGeneral, Sir Alexander Cockburn.

INNS OF COURTS COMMISSION.

WE understand that this Commission is on the eve of completion, and may shortly be expected to issue.

THE

LAW REVIEW.

ART. I. THE MONTALEMBERT CASE.

SINCE the affair of the Orleans property, perhaps no act of the present Government in France has produced a greater sensation, or united more persons of various opinions in one feeling whether of disapproval or of regret, than the demand addressed to the Legislative Chamber to sanction legal proceedings against one of its members, M. de Montalembert. A private letter written by one individual to another, sent through the post, uncommunicated to any third party (at least, no proof can be adduced of any such communication) by the writer, is the corpus delicti. The opinions contained in this letter form the alleged ground for arraigning a French gentleman and Member of Parliament before a Court of Justice as guilty of "an offence against the person of the Emperor, of exciting hatred and contempt in men's minds against the Government, and thereby disturbing the public peace." Upon this statement it is demanded of a body of Legislators, one of whose most precious privileges is averred to be their power of defending their component parts against all aggression, that they shall give up to the jurisdiction of the ordinary tribunals one of their colleagues, and by so much diminish their own right of resistance to encroachment. The matter was speedily judged in public opinion, and," who among us then is safe?" was the question rising

1 Annexe au proces verbal de la séance du 1er Avril, 1854. N°. 84. Rapport de M. Perret à la Commission.

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