THE FRIEND OF CHINA AND HONGKONG GAZETTE.
For nationa defence
A sma
tres ole
Frach, a comparative EMTEC
DOB: Fanassailable would be Bus
by an ener
leriais
not operate
embarking But breaks of thuge
upon act of dis
a con-
in-
siderable extent neutralize this advantage, if they hccurred near the coast, the defensive army would are the paced the same nasa labie póstion as a dis- embarking The horses of cavalry conveyed rests railway are fresh and fit for action, as if just
by vimi, walked out of their stibles but the others at the o derived | break on the Bristol and Birmingham Railway can erence given to tell you that it is impossible to makea horse re-enter
regard to railway carriage until he has been allowed an
terval at reposs. The time that would be wasted in transforting artillery and ammunition from nar. row gauge to broad gange carriages, may be esti mated by the time required to transfer goods at Gloucester or to unload railway vans at any station To say nothing of additional expense, the time lost would be sufficiently great to allow an enemy an unassailed debarkation: the two most powerful arins that can be brought to hear upon him in that disadvantageous situation would be prevente i from coming up in time.
solely for reveque, the necessaries of ments of production, of such dours, rest of the neral he made contingent Corresponding degree of ills country by the nation commodities are imported.”
int this passinge can have escaped white Skimming Mr Mill's The preceding exning? Wilful
put out of the question;
but be the obtuseness that could read we have just quoted, yet tike Mr Mill, m ad focale of the reciprocity system !-bid.
THE RAILWAY GAUGES.
The evidence collected by the Gauge Commis-
Waute
ondrive on two points, that a wiform adit peosable, and that of the only two phugensespecting which there can be any question e is entitled to the pre- In this country, the narrow one is Jerence. To the experiments little importance can be attached they were imperfectly made; and even had they been more complete, they could have prov. ed nothing. The only trustworthy experiment is be continuous experiment of the actual working of Lines day after day.
Of all the devices propounded with a view to ob vinte the disadvantages of a break of gauge, not one is satisfactory. They leave a sense of insecurity, as they add to the complexity of management All engineers are agreed on the necessity of making ratlay carriages solid and strong: who could feel at ease in carriges whose budies were only attach- ed by pins to their supports? In the case of goods, the delay occasioned by the removal of hoxes from one set of trucks or cases to another might be less; bat still there would bu delay, and with it risk of missending. In military operations, where celerity is all in all, the appreciable disadvantage of the least possibe delay is more sensibly felt. All these de- vices are mere palliatives; at best they diminish merely, they do not remove, the mischievous effects of dietsity of Bange. The question is raised, why suifject ourselves even to this diminished inron venience ? what is gained to compensate for it by a diversity of gange?
Uniformity of gauge is indispensable. On this
The only plausible reason offered for constructing point the evidence of Mr Wyndham Hurding is the
the railways of Great Britain upon different ganges most important. He more than any person has bed opportunities of noting the consequences of a is, that in the infancy of the system, with our limit break of gauge. From his connexion with a rail- ed experience, it would be unwise to assume that way composed of two originally independent lines, any one particular gange is that which should be ope on the broad and one on the nur-finally adopted It is said that free play ought to you cange principle, his attention was constantly be given to inventive ingenuity to multiple experi called to the inconvenience and annoyance occa. ments, with a ring to discover the best gauge stoned at their junction. His testimony is corro- This argument proves too much if it is valid, there borated by Mr Horne, one of the greatest carriers ought to be not two but an infinite variety of gauges. in Europe, and by Mr Hayward, manager for On every line there ought to be two or three Messrs Pickford and Co. General Sir Willough.changes of gange, in order that the respective merits by Gordon is of their opinion. The practical man.
of each may have a fair trial under the same man- ager of a ral way
law the carrier of goods, the officer
agement. But railways are not mere objects of whose though are turned on military consblutions carious experiment; they are something to be used and movements, all are agreed that the break of -something with the full and beneficial use of which a break of gauge materially terferes. Erety gauge occasions enormous wrate of property and loss of tine alike fatal to mercantile speculations break of gauge is as great a nuisance as a frontier customhoner, England parcelled out among many and movenients for national Jefences.
The personal inconvenience to which a break of gauges would be as ill off as Germany with the
Individual gaugo gives rise might be overlooked
frontier customhouses of its hundred four mile travellers, with whom celerity is of great moment, square states, which the Zollverein has destroyed Aravel impedimenti relictis, and make their calcula-
or is destroying Uniformity of gauge is an indis tions and combinations in advance. With other peusable condition to the full development of the Travellers occasional delay is of less moment: they utility of railroads: it is that which even the ad fret st and enggerate stoppages, which after all vocates of a diversity of gauge profess to aim at at. emble journies to be accomplished at an avenge taining ultimately. There is no need to deny the greed wireh pot many years ago would have been
desirableness of a wider experience than can pessi- accounted belons. Still, personal inconvenience bly be attained if we adopt one uniform gauge at as do tem that cannot altogether he left wat of the prevent But the price paid for this merely possi- Recount When families move from place, the se.
ble advantage-the waste of property, the paralyz paration of their members, which often occaer at a ing of legitimate speculation, and the weakening of break of gadge and the loss of luggage, temporary defensive arrangements-would be far too high. Or permanent —when invalids are moved, the pains One uniform gange, therefore, is required; and and increase of ailment which may be caused by a of the only two which have any claim to be raade transfer from one vehicle to another-these are se.
the national gauge, the balance of recommendations rious things for the sufferers; and when multiplied is in favour of the narrow gauge. It may be at by the nurabers in each class (numerous in this once conceded that in some respects the road gauge Country in proportion to the numbers of our popu- has the advantage. It does appear conductive to lation) who are compelled by circumstances to tra the combination of higher speed with equal securi- el constitute a grave evil, which ought not to be ty and comfort. But even in this respect its su
be avoided. The ones of prov-periority is not great enough to warrant a change ing that au adequate cause exists for entailing such from narrow to broad, on the supposition that all erils on the public, lies upon those who advocate existing lines were at present narrow. Besides, e niversity of gopges,"
doubt still remains, how much of the additional ce- The great and uncontrovertible reasons, how-lerity of the Great Western ia owing to its gauge, aver, for enforcing uniformity of gauge, are--the and how much to favourable gradients and curves, filapidation and waste of property arising from the and the admirable and energetic management of cbstructions offered by a break of goure to the car the Company's officers Bat additional smooth rying of mercandise, and the impediments it places celerity is at the grand essential of a railway, Ad- ple way of an improved system of national de mit that uniformly of gauge is indispensable, that fence. Every mercantile mau koows the dumage gauge ought to be selected which antisfies the great. done to goods from breaking bulk" several times est number of national wants, Mr Brudel thinks that, under certain circumstances, a broader still than his broad gange might be employed with ad- wasinge; he e
adicits that, under certain circumstan
en ounteredal it can
Le course
reased
de gauge imperative in railway bills; yet, except in the case of the Great Western itself, (a sealerian railway) or its branches and minor lines courting its patronage, all the new railways have either at ince adopted the morrow gange, or after a trial sub stituted it for that which they had originally pre- ferred. Common consent, based on ample expe- rience, bas stamped the narrow gauge with the character of national.
A false step was taken by the Legislature when diversity of gauge was first tolerated. That step must be retracted. Every year allowed to clapse without this being done will add to the difficulty, by extending the mileage of railway to be changed, and the value of the property which must be in part sacrificed in the alteration. The Legislature, the accredited abent of the nation, was a party to the original fault; the nation-the general community -is the party to be benefited by enforcing unifor- mity. The brosd gauge railways are entitled to compensation for any loss they may sustain by their compulsory change; but change they must-bid
PUNISHMENT OF DEATH.
ple, the invader brota abroad may be equally ente iled to plead it, and we may next be told-fa have de right to destroy those who afferit subjugation. Lord Nugent seems to curly ha principle to this extant.—
The Almighty formed man after his own im. ge-he breathed into his nostrills the breath of and he gave him an immortal soul, ansverabic pi no tribunal but that of its Maker alone; and we wy that man has no right to dissolve the mysterait union between the fleshy image and the im soul, or to become the arbiter of the issues of and death, or to abet the offence by slaying the offender.
This doctrine must be as applicable to foreign enemies as to those who make war upon soca y
at home.
But what would be Ms. Fox's remedy ? "lony be asited, um 1 to let such murderers pa Inose upon society? It does not at all follow bet may be as dangerate as wild beasts; but it there w a wild beast let loose in the streets, you wonbi put him to death if you could cage him. (there j Extract the venom from the serpent, pare the claws of the tiger, and make the murderer, if you can, by wise, and judicious, and prolonged discipline, bet urn again to a sympathy with his fellow.crentices. That is the way to deal with him, and not to make him the object, because he has been the agent, of murder." They say
The advocates of the abolition of the punishment of death commit the mistake described by lawyets as that of "proving too much." Their reasoning, carried fully out, would come to the conclusion that there should be no punishinens at ull. murders are perpetrated notwithstanding your bar- barous executions; therefore, your punishment is useless, and do away with it. Robberies and rapes are committed notwithstanding the penalties of im prisonment and trea-portation and should we, the refore, abolish imprisonment and transportation? The terrors of law do not prevent a vast deal of crime, and ought we therefore to have done with faw, to hold it answerable for the crime it has not prevented, and to allow impunity to rapius and violence of every kind?
The Rev. W, J. Fox asks --
Waht kind of murders can you put down by taking away the life of the criminal? Can you put down murders of passion or of calculation? As for passion, it scorns your forms of law, your jud. gea, and your executioners. (Cheers.) The tegis. Întors who dream of such un achievement as stopping murders of passion by the punishment of death must have paid but little attention to the power of passion in Jassen IUTE. The man in whose heart reven ee has erected its throne will pursue his victim through the world, and accomplish his end at any price (Hear, hear.) The efforts of such a man in parsuit of a laudable object would wake him one of our gramiest heroes. To accomplish his pur- pose, he makes the boldest struggles, sacrifices ever. ything, laughs at the police, sets judges and execution. ers at defiance, and gloats over his victim. (Cheers Lord Bacon truly ways there is no passion in the mind of man so weak as not to make us master the fear of death?"
We regret to find so really superior a man as Fax falling into this Jack Sheppard strain; for the eloquence, such as it is, does not excuse the glowing picture af revenge, carmined and char- Coaled for the Cobourg stage.
There is a great fallacy in the illustration. We should not put the wild beast to death, because its death would not deter other wild beasts from cam ing about the streets if they should have the lack to escape from their deas. La is passing easy to solve problems such as that in question figuratively: extract the venom from the serpent, pare the clows of the tiger, but you are "to make the man re turn again to a sympathy with his fellow creatures, by wise, judicious, and prolonged discipline if you can." The whole question lies in the "If you can
The abolitionists are falling into the fallany of vituperation with regrad to those who are not pre. pared to come to their conclusions, and Led Nugent, tells people who do not think it safe to abolish capital punishment in the
15 case of murder. that they may shed blood like water, and proposed the most extensive application of the punishment of death, instead of the narrowest.
We have been amongst the oldest, and not the least forward or active advocates of the mitigation of the criminal law, but we have always deemed the care for the safety of soemy the first duty of humanity; and the kindness to the criminal ihat breaks down the protection of the annocent seem15 16 us to deserve no better name than that of thoughtless cruelty. — Examiner, May 2
FRENCH
EGICIDE
A forest keeper, Il conditioned and discontent- ed man, who had. better days and who had been an officer in Greece (though bu a game-keeps at Fontainebleau,) fired to shots from his double bar- relled gun into the carriage of the royal family of France. Be was one of the best shots in the forest, How the eight or ten persous in the char á bran an completely escaped this fire is a miracle. Thre is a salute for grandpapa said the little Prince of Wurtemberg, in the sumplicity of his heart All efforts to trace the crime to party or political feeling have failed,
But if death will not put down murders of pas- sion and calculation, will any other penalty be shore successful? And does Mr Fox mean to ar que that we should abrogate punishments for mur. der altogether as useless? He tells us that it is a It is the worst of centralised systems of adminis. ion can be stopped by the fear of death, and that dream of ignorance to suppose that murders of pastration, that all ill or wrong can be attributed to the
e will not control the passions. It is idle, then, to maintain the law for the punishment of rape.
head of the state, more especially when that head is active and dictatorial; so that in France, where so large a portion of the population are employed by But no one has ever fancied that the fear of death, government, there are perhaps a million of maleon- or of any other-finishoient, would put a stop to tents, who by a little exaggeration of each personal crime; the complete prevention is not to be hoped importance may come to consider the King as their for; but we may reckon on this, that for one who personalnemy. This seems to have been the mad. dares the penalty many are deterred by it from the ness of Lecointe; fortune jilted him, and he avenged commission of the offence. We know the number it on Louis Phillippe. A real despotism delegates of those who yield to the criminal temptations, but authority. A Tackish pacha, or a Russian gover. we have not the same view of those who are deter-nor, does pretty much what he isis, and without red from grime by the fear of punishment. There appeal, on his personal responsibility. In him con- are men such as Mr Fox describes who give them-centrated and with an end, all the hopes and fears selves up to the impulses of the passions, but how many more are there whose apprehension of conse quences controls their passions ?
Mr Fox quotes the remark of Bacon, that there is no passion in the mind of man so weak as not to make us master the fear of death. But there is no passion so weak as not to make men master also smaller fears than the fear of death. The argument good against the fear of death is equally good ag ainst all other fears, and would go to the abolition
of imprisonment and the fear of exile are mot of a of all punishments wahtever as useless. The fear
force to prevent a great amorüt of crime, but they would have chistence without them; and so we of a force to prevent a gread deal more that believe it to be with the punishment of death; it
its deterring influence and effects. cannot completely prevent acts of blood, but it has
are
example of the law's taking it, and the chance of error in an irrevocable punishment
voyage. The evil is immeasur en the breaking balk occurs
There are two arguments against capital punish- mparatively short railway jour.
roent, the strength of which we fully acknowledge: perishabld wares are manapori cos, a narrower than the narrow gauge has its re-the effect of weakening the repect for life by the
buld not bear a long voyage; commendations. The powerful engines of the of packing and unpacking broad gauge would be wasted upon short lines with ehicle to another is far more inconsiderable traffic; they would be far more cost-1 delicate sorts of fruit and ly than is required. Again, small light engines rallway, and to and Barrow gauges are inus handy and economical stock is large on short lines, in difficult countries, intended for deteriorated the use of few clones or mites, or it may be one.
foundIn choosing sunt: jooya!
coust be set of stick between the
issinger
Wa Teel all the force of these objections, and luve only to weigh against them the state of things established by custom good or bad. If we were beginning the world, we should deem the two ar guments instanced as valid against the adoption of capital punishment but having to do with the minds of millions of men, na Homer has it such as men ppehension that the abolition
bull let loose many
gment
and grudges of a province. But your regular, centralised system of administration delegates no- thing, and absorbs everything - power, responsiblley, odium, and profit, and consequently augments, in an alarining degree, the personal risk of the head of that administration. In every country there must be a certain proportion of fools and madmen ready to commit the rushest act of vengeance. If the craw be stuck up, like the knob of an electric red, to at tract all those flashes of individual frenzy, the king must have a score of lives under his bonnet, as is somewhere told of a prince in a fairy tale. And Proyidance seems to have provided Louis Phillippe with a similar privilege.
The failure of two such determined inen as Fies chi and Lecomte might deter the most inveterate from an attempt which fate seems to have decreed shall fail
And at the age of seventy-three Louis Phil lippe might flutter himself with being exempt from criminal efforts to shorten such an advanced fe. There was a time, when the life of Louis Phillippe might have been imagined to stand in the way of the republic, or of war, or of anarchy, or in fine of eny or of all these states to be desired by the reckless. But none of these things now depends upon his life or death. There is strong majority both in Cham bere and in the country for all the main points of his policy, and his demise would, in all probability, not effect the slightest change, except in rendering the French Conservatives for a time more energetic in the maintenance of peace and of that interval system of government winch they express by the word
order
One result of the present crime, or attempt at it must prove highly flattering to Louis Phillippe. On ince the former occasions, congratulations poured froma senates and corporations and official bodies On this occa- sion, ille expressions of condolence have been more being general, more populás, more spontaneous, and more
It is usually considered a melancholy at noun. tribute of old age to cutite its friends But when the not olity to outlive fors. but to recon- ubers of there to feelings at ooce znore es- težu juola age may be considered a
zumuner, April 25,
Todd Published by Jons CAUF,
Chian and Hongkong fire, Cough STERET,
TUTORIA HUNGEONU, 1846,