Punch (29.1855)

185

MOST DISTRESSING.

Poor Stubbs !—Jdst as he meets thosk sice Girls he admired so at M's

party, an enormous black settles on his nose. He loses all presence Off mind.

A TOUCHING SCENE AT THE OLD BAILEY.

In the case of the fraudulent Bankers, Paul, Strahan,
and Bates, we should be rejoiced to say that the Prosecutor
and the Judge had "done their duty like meD," if unfortu-
nately they had not laid themselves open to the charge of
having done their duty like women. Baron Alderson
was "deeply affected" while passing sentence, and Dr.
Griffith, the prosecutor, "shed tears" on the occasion.
We really cannot see the necessity for all this sentimental
snivelling over one of the clearest matters of duty that any
persons could have to perform ; and we say, without hesi-
tation, that there is a great deal moie to cry about, more
matter for sympathy and commiseration in nine cases out of
'en, at the Old Bailey, than in the case of these dishonest
Bankers.

We seldom or never hear of either prosecutors or judges
crying over the trial and sentencing of the friendless and
uneducated criminal, nor can we excuse the weakness that
weeps over the richly-merited punishment of three of the
most, offensive culprits that ever added to the enormity of
crime by the basest hypocrisy. Delinquency is always a fit
subject for pity, but we scarcely remember a case in which
the guilty deserved less commiseration than did Messrs.
Strahan, Paul, and Bates, who were beset by none of
the temptations of want, and had none of the excuses
usually claimed for ignorance. The punishment of such
persons is a subject of general congratulation to all who
are interested in the purity and impartiality of justice ; and
so far from there being any legitimate cause for the shed-
ding of tears on the Bench, we ai e satisfied that the Crier of
the Court might have been very properly left to do all the
crying that was suitable to the occasion.

Diplomatic.

The Emperor Souiouque has just instituted a new
Order, the Order of Uncle Tom. His negro ambassador,
black as the nighr, Baron Damier, has arrived at St.
James's, and the American Ambassador has not yet given
notice to quit. It is said that the Earl of Westmoreland
happily relieved from his duties at Vienna, will represent
England at the Court of Haiti. He may be hourly expected
in London en route ; for his fiddle-case arrived yesterday.

CHASTISEMENT FOR CROWNED CRIMINALS.

HE Earl of Ellesmere,
in a lecture on the War,
delivered the other night,
at Worsley, near Man-
chester, estimated' the
total llusaian loss, since
the commencement of hos-
tilities, at not less than
300,000 men at the least.
Suppose we divide these
victims between the late
and the present Moloch,
between Nicholas and
Alexander, 'his com-
putation gives 150,000 vic-
tims a-piece to each of the
Moloch s.

Now that symbol of
Russian dominion and
instrument of Russian rule,
the knout, is, as adminis-
tered by Czars, an inven-
tion of the same kind and
quality as the wheel, the
stake, and the impaling
iron. Nothing so diabolical exists anywhere out of llussia in the
present world, except in the Southern States of civilised America.
Yet for a murder, for one human life deliberately sacrificed to pride
and ambition, it would hardly be too severe a sentence to award
one cut, of the knout. Three or four strokes delivered by a practised
hand—by that of an accomplished Muscovite artist—are sufficient
to supersede the final operation of Jack Ketch. Even of such
stripes one would scarcely be one too many for the wilful, determined,
cruel author of a single murder. Few people will consider that one
stripe of that sort per murder would be an excessive measure of
punishment.

After a torture of as many as three hundred lashes, inflicted at the
ordinary rate, recovery sometimes happens. One of these lashes would
probably be borne with some fortitude by an average rascal, and even
be preferred by him to a common whipping. Now, suppose there were
European sessions or assizes, with European judges to preside at them,
and European juries to sit, and try, convict, and sentence European
criminals; suppose Nicholas to have been arraigned before such a
tribunal, and to have been condemned to one knout-stroke of customary
smartness on account of each of the 150,000 murders for which he
ought to have suffered. The death of the culprit under the knout does
not arrest the hand of the executioner; the sentence is carried out on
the corpse. Into how many shreds would the anointed body of
Nicholas have been flogged?

Had such an example been made of Nicholas, would the successor
to his seven-league-boots of ambition have dared to walk in them,
and be, at this moment, meritorious of the whipping which, if every,
body had their deserts, his father, at any rate, would certainly j ot
have escaped ?

Of course, we are aware what stuff and nonsense it is to say that
aggressive war for territorial aggrandisement is equivalent to murder,
with a view to robbery ; because we know that there is all the
difference between them that exists between a wholesale and a retail
transaction. Moreover, the former is sanctified by religious invoca-
tions, and attended with a tremendous deal of pomp and circumstance ;
whilst the latter is committed either with oaths and curses, or in
silence and in the dark. Still, there will be no end of war, and con-
sequent taxation, in this world, till it becomes fashionable to hoot and
hiss national aggressors, however extensive, as assassins and thieves ;
to raise a hue and cry after them living; and to name them with
execration when dead. What is the use, Jones, of such execration,
hooting, and hissing, considered as the solo of you, Jones ? Hiss,
hoot, and execrate away, friend Jones, with all your might, heedless
of wet blankets—your solo in good time will become a chorus.

WANTED A MUZZLE for an Irish Wolf-hound, suspected from some
' ' hideous noises that have lately escaped the animal, to be in the first stage of
1 hydrophobia.—Apply to Dr. Cahill.