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    preserve . Thus the Conservatives changed into innovators , and the innovators into Conservatives . Some sharp skirmishing took place between the Axf okney-Generai , and Mr . Gladstone on this point ; the former accusing the latter of changing his views , and Mr . Gladstone retorting that Sir Richaud Bethexl only acted in accordance with the directions of his superiors . Finally ,, JLord Palmeksw ® gave way , and the aasendmenfc was added . Jtfewas also resolved , after much legal fencing and raising of difficulties , to make bigamy a ground of divorce ; but the House would not admit Mr . Drummowd ' s

    proposition to add cruelty to the catalogue of sins which may break the marriage tie . Take comfort , therefore , oh wife-beaters I The debate concluded with a passage of arms between Mr . Gladstone and Lord Paxmerston . The Premier had agreed to a motion for reporting progress , out of consideration to the Attokney-General , who had to be up early the next day in connexion with the Shrewsbury peerage case , " and not , " added the lively Lord , " out of any consideration for the Opposition . " For this gross insolence , Mr . Gladstone severely reproved his Lordship , who was obliged to make a clumsy retractation .

    The National Gallery is becoming a conspicuous public question . The decision of Parliament again is suspended until next session . We reserve our own for next week , for the case is one for careful exposition . Birmingham has honoured itself , and put Manchester to shame , by restoring John Bright to Parliament . Parliament , Birmingham , and Mr .

    Bright may be congratulated together . He , at all events * is no Old Man of the Mountain , no sham , no dme damnee . It may be said of him as of Fox , . that corruption never had a niore dauntless enemy . He has set himself right with the nation on Indian matters , and since lie is one of the few English , statesmen who have devoted a serious and consistent attention to Eastern affairs , his return

    to the House of Commons at this moment is particularly fortunate . JNTo doubt a place will soon be found for Mr . Cobden—if he be willing to quit his Achilles tent and fight once more among the myrmidons . The criminal and legal calendar of the week lias been fruitful in cases illustrative of that condition of society which , we call ' civilization . ' Spollen , after four days' trial at Dublin , has been acquitted of that mysterious murder of Mr . Little , which seems destined to take its stand by the side of the

    Eliza G-jughwoou tragedy , and some others , as a crime beyond the scrutiny of human eyes . The case against the Dublin prisoner was not satisfactorily made out , and perhaps , also , the jury may have been , in some degree ) , influenced by the natural feeling of horror at hanging a man on the information of bis wife and the evidence of his children . But , however this may be ,, the verdict of Not Guilty , as in , thq case of Miss SatiXJi , was received with applause ; though hero the parallel ends . The

    woman maintained her composure to the last ; tho man , sobbed convulsively , and fainted . His apeeoh , on , again coming to himself , was not the least strange , parts of this strange atory . It was not wanting iix natural emotion 5 yet the deliberate acknowledgment of thanks to the jury , tho counsel for tho defence , ' tho gentlemen of the press , ' and the Judges , had too much tho appearance of a , set oration . Thoro are not wanting those who think that Up aotod a part ; but this is cortainly questionable .

    Spowlen , then , js free to go ,, if ho pleases , to what he described as ' somesilout oolony , ' wherever that may exist . But Justice , wliioh acquits him , has kept tho balance oven in tho sistor country by a cpnviotiou for murder . Justice , indeed , ia capricious , and jurios aot on no known or understood laws . While Madeline Smith and James Spollen aro acquitted—and rightly acquitted—of tho charges brought against thorn , because tho cvidonoo ,

    though damaging in many respects , is incomplete , John Blags is consigned to the hangman on next to no evidence at all . Blagg is a shoemaker , who had whata called a' grudge' against John Bebbincton , agameleeper ; an * L foe had been haad to utter threats against him . € Xle morning , Bebbi » 6 ton was found dead in a field . He had been shotj and certam footorints on the ground were answered by

    the Kmo ^ sne , and sails o £ B&agg ' s boot *? fcut the footprints were not traced up to the body . Blagg was also found in possession of some wadding which corresponded with what was found in the body ; and he bad been seen near the spot on the morning of the murder , That was the whole , case for the prosecution ; " and it is scarcely conceivable that even Sir George Grey , notwithstanding his love of capital

    punishment , will allow the execution to ensue on grounds so incomplete and questionable . In the case of Miss Smith , it was universally agreed that conviction could not take place because there was no proof of the accused having met with the murdered man on the day when the murder was alleged to have been committed . Here is a similar want of proof , combined with an extremely vague case in other respects ; yet the jury convict , and the Judge sentences .

    The public appetite for hanging , however , ought , one would think , to have received a check last Saturday at Stafford , where George Jackson was executed for the murder of Mr . Chari / esworth on the highway . His accomplice has been respited , with a view to a commutation of the sentence ; and it maybe doubted whether both ought not rather to have been convicted of manslaughter , the attack

    being comparatively sudden , committed in the heat of drunkenness , and not continued with that long elaboration of brutality -which indicates a wish to kill . But Jackson was left to his fate , with which lie struggled frantically , sobbed , shrieked , and fought , and was finally dragged to his death through all the added torture of fear and horror . It is difficult to understand how respect for human life can be taught or strengthened by such scenes .

    Our national morality has exhibited its usual strange distortions in the law and assize courts , The action for adultery , having pretty nearly reached the term of its existence , seems resolved to go out in a blaze and with a roar . A strange tale was accordingly unfolded on , Tuesday at the Croydon Assizes . Mr . Lyle , a London upholsterer , has a ypung wife and a middle-aged , partner—a Mr . Herbert—who , ostensibly in order to attend to the business , hut in fact for a quite other purpose , leaves his residence at Groydon and takes a room in Mr . Lvle ' s house . It is not long before the

    husband has suspicions ; so he gets his friends to form a sort of watch committee , and takes a room in the next door house . A hole is bored through the wall , and one of the friends—a mechanical genhis-T-passes a string from the bed in Mr . Herbert ' s room into the room of the adjoining house ; , where , acting on a weight , it indicates whether the bed is occupied by one or more persons . Then the husband and tho mechanical genius ( comforting thomselves with ginand-vvatcr ) watch , the one with his eye to the hole , tho other with his glance on the ' indicator '—

    and in due time the latter tells the anticipated talo ; the watchers rush in with a , policeman ' s bull ' s -oye , and tho catastrophe 13 reached , Noxt , ' the injured husband' and his friends sup jovially off pickled salmon , with grog and cigara afterwards ; and finally outraged virtue and ruined dotnestic happiness appear in court , demanding damages , wlnoh aro awarded—to the extent of Ono Farthing . Mr . Serjeant Paury , who pleaded in opposition to outraged virtue , desoribed the ingenious indicator as a ' orimoonomcter ; ' but tho ¦¦ 1 «¦

    ** . ¦ * « ^ ¦ ¦ - . I inventor said ho had not taken out a patent . Tho Morning Post ( which reported tho case ) and the Morning Star ( which did not ) express their pain and horror at tho shocking nature of this story . And truly it is shooking , although tho grotosquo chnraotor of tho details drew inoxtinguishablo laughter from counsel , jury , Judge , and gallery auditors ; but , as we have , oltcn before had occasion to remark , it is useless to blind our oyos to thoao disease-spots in our system . The oaso presents a strange aspeot of our boasted conjugal lifc < - ^ -of that

    domestic bliss which is vindicated by actions for damages , and watched over by ' crimconometers . ' But this is ; not the only specimen of the Traviata side of nature we have had this week . The same Croydon Assizes have brought out another story . Sir Fredekick . Pottinger took a house some time ago for a ^ Miss Kate Perry —a sort of Ninon de j / ENCXOflV though less cultivated , for she could not write . JBy and Dy , he is asked to pay some bills for woBe done-and furniture supplied , and h 6 consents , ^ Banking that the amount is only 44 / . ; but it turns

    out to be S 4 Z ., and then he reluses to pay a farthing , for he looks on the demand as an attempt to extort money . Indeed , all along , ' though on pleasure he was bent , he had a frugal mind . ' " You must not be extravagant , darling , was his constant advice to Ninon . But Ninon was extravagant , and the upholsterer , perhaps , was extortionate , and Sir Frebekick was first arrested , and then brought into court , where lie was declared not liable . The story is singular , as showing an unusual combination of ' fast , ' or at any rate free , life with prudential

    instincts . In the midst of these discreditable cases , it is pleasant to turn to the west coast of Ireland , and to see the vast electric serpent uncoiling himself thence through the Atlantic waters on his voyage to the great New World ; disappointing , however , at the same time , to find that an accident has arrested the good work .. But the success is only delayed . Let iis rest assured that it will not be long before the hearts of England and America heat audibly to one another , through that wonderful nerve which science and human energy have created for the happiness of all .

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    Lola Montes . —The renowned Lola Montes is now spending a few days at Niagara falls . She has appeared at the Buffalo Theatre as a sort of Interlude to her season

    of pleasure . Lola took the train for Buffalo , and , without advice from any source , seated herself in the baggagecar to puff her cigarette quietly . While thus cosily throwing off from her lips the curling smote , she was discovered by the conductor and informed that the passengers were not permitted to ride in the baggage-cars . She paid no attention to the intimation , but continued to smoke as if no one had addressed her . Assistant Superintendent Collamer -was at the station , and was informed what iiola was doing . He said she must do as other passengers did , and that she could not be permitted to ride in the baggage-car . The conductor called upon her , and politelv told her that she must take a seat in

    one of the cars designed for passengers . Lola drew herself up into an attitude of defiance , and told the conductor that she had travelled all over the world , and had always ridden where she had a mind to , and proposed to do so in this case . The conductor further expostulated with her , and assured her that he was hut executing the orders of the superintendent and the rules of the company . Lola replied that she had ' horsewhipped bigger men than he . ' This settled the matter . The conductor withdrew , and Lola was not again disturbed . She rode to Buffalo in the baggage-car , and had no occasion to use the whip . The railroad men did not care further to disturb the tigress . —Rochester Union , July 20 .

    The West Coast op Africa . — The steam-vessel Antelope , Commander J . W . Pike , took a prize on the 15 th of June at Aghwoy , in the Bight of Benin . She was called the Jupiter , and was under American colours . When tho hatches were burst open , seventy slaves were discovered , and the master then threw his papers overboard . One hundred and fifty slaves were waiting on the beach for embarkation the next day . The Jupiter is a fore-and-aft schooner , and has been condemned . The steam-vessel Trident , Commander F . A . Close , wns at Clarence on the 1 st of July , waiting to return to

    Cameroons with Consul Hutchinson , to investigate a charge against some of the ; Cameroon chiefs of having murdered one man and conveyed three into tho interior . Theso men were part of the crow of the brig Spartan . Several of the native servants of tho English consul at Sherborn have been massacred , and the Consul ' s life was threatened . Commander E . Aplin has left in the paddlcwheel steam-sloop Hecla to fluppreaa the disturbance . Captain Pearson , 1 st West India Regiment , who shot Lieutenant Watson dead in his bod , and who was sentenced to bo hanged , died in prison of a liver complaint a fortnight before , tho period fixed for the exeoution .

    Thd Cou-ubry Explosion at Asuton-undkr-Lvne . —Tho adjournod inquiry on the deaths of tlio thirtynine persons -who lost their lives at the colliery explosion at Ashton-undor-Lyno , -was concluded last Saturday after a long investigation , and tho examination of witnesses , who deposed that they conaidorod tho ftU' in tho pit was good . Tho jury returned tho following verdict : - — "That tho deceased came to their deaths by an explosion of gas in the now mine on the 01 st of July , but how such explosion was caused it did not appear . ' Riot in SiiRorsniiuo . —A dosporato and bloodthirsty struggle has taken place in Shrewsbury botw oon so English and Irish labouroro . The latter began tho disturbance , and got tho worst of it .

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    . ¦ .: ¦ . ¦ ¦ ¦ ¦ - ¦ ¦ ' ' ' . ¦ ¦ ¦ - ¦ ¦ .-; ' ¦ . ¦ ¦ ¦ . . ¦ ¦ ¦ . " ¦ ¦ » . -: ¦ ¦ ¦ \ ' :. ' ¦ 770 THE JL- E- A'PJEjk [ No , 386 , August 15 , 1857 .

• Citation
  • Leader (1850-1860), Aug. 15, 1857, page 770, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2205/page/2/