crimes. Shah of course said-"An enemy has done as they crammed the box into their own gothis;" and as dead men tell no tales, much of down, I strongly suspect they mean to keep it the obloquy was allowed to rest on Moollah themselves. My chest of drawers they took posShekoor, who had paid the penalty of other state session of with great glee-I left some rubbish in them, and some small bottles, that were useIn Afghanistan, the English act as they do in less to me. I hope the Affghans will try their all other countries, they visit-keep to them-contents as medicine, and find them efficacious; selves, and even (generally) employ only ser- one bottle contained nitric acid, another a strong vants brought with them. The envoy kept but solution of lunar caustic? few Affghans in his employ. He had a news-reporter, at 150 rupees a month, who had the credit of concocting splendid untruths; an old moollah, picked up at Kandahar, who, I believe, re-tion of trade, and would probably side with us ceives 200-a man greatly in Sir William's confidence; there is also an old cossid. These people adhere to the Envoy, and flatter him into the belief that the tumult is bash (nothing), and will shortly subside. A word too late It is more than shocking, it is shameful, to hear the way that officers go on croaking before the men; it is sufficient to dispirit them, and prevent their fighting for us. And There is much reprehensible croaking going on; talk of retreat, and consequent desertion of our Mussulman troops, and the confusion likely to take place consequent thereon. All this makes a bad impression on the men. Our soldiery like to see the officers bear their part in privation; it makes them more cheerful; but in going the rounds at night, officers are seldom found with the men. There are those that always stay at their posts on the ramparts, and the men appreciate them as they deserve. To particularize them would be too openly marking the rest; but their names will, I trust, be remembered to their honor and advantage hereafter. The great carnage And, better still The citizens are ruined by the perfect stagna were we to show in force. Now is the time to strike the blow, but I much dread dilly-dallying just because a handful of us are in Akbar's power. What are our lives when compared with the honour of our country? Not that I am at all inclined to have my throat cut; on the contrary, I hope that I shall live to see the British flag once more triumphant in Affghanistan; and then I have no objection to the Ameer Dost Mahomed Khan being reinstated: only let us first show them that we can conquer them, and humble their treacherous chiefs in the dust. This is the last for which we can find room: The late newspapers have not a little amused me. They show that the editors catch at every expression used in any letters they have read, or on any comments they hear on news from Affghanistan. A regular controversy has arisen between one, who asserts that Lady Sale in her letters evinces a strong prepossession in favor of Mahommed Akbar Khan, and another, who thinks Lady Sale wrote, as she did, because she was a prisoner: to which the first rejoins, that he does not think Lady S. would, under any circumstances, write that which was false. There he is right: but I would not have written on the subject at all, unless I wrote as I thought: if people misunderstand, it is their fault and not The troops continued their fearful march; the remnant of the camp followers, with several mine. Again, they say it were better I had wounded officers, went ahead: for five miles never written at all. Perhaps so: but it seems that details were wanting; my letters to Sale they saw no enemy; all who could not walk were necessarily left behind. They descended a long gave those; and he thought them of sufficient steep descent to the bed of the Tezeen Nullah. consequence to send them to the Governor-GeneAt this dip, the scene was horrible; the ground afterwards sent to England by the former; and, ral and the Commander-in-Chief. They were was covered with dead and dying, amongst if the papers tell truth, excited some attention in whom were several officers; they had been sudthe highest circles. As to my "great prepos denly attacked and overpowered. The enemy here crowded from the tops of the hills in all di- session" in favor of Akbar, my greatest wish is, rections down the bed of the Nullah, through that Gen. Nott's force should march up to Ghuzwhich the route lay for three miles; and our nee; release the prisoners there; and then that men continued their progress through an inces-a simultaneous movement should take place of sant fire from the heights on both sides, until Nott's and Pollock's forces upon Cabul. Once their arrival in the Tézeen valley, at about half-again in power, here, I would place Akbar Mapast four p. m. The descent from the Huft Kohtul was about 2000 feet; and here they lost the snow. About 12,000 persons have perished. homed Shah, and Sultan Jan hors de combat ; befriend those who befriended us, and let the Affghans have the Ameer Dost Mahommed Khan back, if they like. He and his family are only an expense to us in India; we can restore Her Ladyship shows that she has good them, and make friends with him. Let us first soldierly feeling : The Mirza has returned; he and the Nazir promise to send a box, which I have no means of carrying, as also our servants, who are unable to go with us, to Jellallabad, to Sale; however, show the Affghans that we can both conquer them and revenge the foul murder of our troops; but do not let us dishonor the British name by sneaking out of the country like whipped Pariah dogs. Affghanistan will become la byword amongst the nations. Had we retreated, as unsullied breath, And the love whose passionate excess might conquer all-save death. "I summon all-all these are mine!"-thus the dark phantom cried, While peals like thunder growling round in sullen echoes died. poor Sturt proposed, without baggage, with ce- I claim the old man's snow-white hairs-the babe's ferity, (forced marches to get through the snow,) and had the men stood by us, (a doubtful point, they were so worn out and dispirited,) we might have figured in history, and have cut out Xenophon's account of the retreat of the ten thousand. As to the justice of dethroning the Ameer Dost Mahommed, and setting up Shah Shoojah, I have nothing to say regarding it, nor regarding our policy in attempting to keep possession of a country of uncivilized people, so far from our own, whence all supplies of ammunition, money, &c., must be obtained. Let our Governors-" I your polluted streets and halls will cleanse with General and Commanders-in-Chief look to that, I will scorch your temples into dust, I will strike whilst I knit socks for my grandchildren. your stately spires; We shall endeavor to give a second notice of this journal; in the meantime, we think we have earned the thanks of our readers. THE PLAGUE AND THE FIRE. SUGGESTED BY THE ROMANCE OF "OLD ST. PAUL'S." BY MISS SKELTON. From Ainsworth's Magazine. A MIGHTY city lay in sleep, 'neath the dusk of a moonless night, But the starlight touch'd its thousand spires each with a gleaming light; The starlight show'd its countless homes, its halls of pomp and pride, And its marble, peopled terraces, and its river rolling wide. And I saw, betwixt the heavens and earth, two ghastly shapes arise, Shadowing the city's silent depths, clouding the starry skies Angels of death, denouncing doom-visions of wrath, they came; One, formless in its utter gloom-one, bright with blinding flame. The Spirits of the Plague and Fire!-I knew them as they rose, And I listen'd for the awful words that would tell of coming woes. No eye save mine that sight might see, no ear save mine might hear, As o'er the guilty city pass'd that sound of grief and fear. First, from the darker phantom broke a loud and wailing cry, "I summon ye,-oh! fated ones,-I summon ye to die! Long have your crimes for vengeance call'd-the word is given on high, And vengeance comes-to-night is yours, to-morrow ye shall die! "Death is already at your gates, his dart is raised to strike, And young and old, and rich and poor, I summon ye alike; And fair, and proud, and great, and brave, as autumn leaves ye fall The grave is dug, the pit is deep-I summon one and all. "Nought shall avail; virtue and truth shall die, with lust and pride; I claim the parent from the child, the bridegroom from the bride; Then spoke the Angel, bright with flame—“Oh, living fires lie low Thy mighty ones shall bite the earth, thy lofty shall wrath and wo!" I saw the signs-I heard the words then day was slowly born, And the bright Angel, girt with flame, fled from the light of morn; But in thick mist the dark shape sank, o'er streets and river down, And with the morrow came the Plague to that devoted town. POLAND AND SERVIA.-We have to record another Northern Condor." We act of insulting oppression perpetrated upon un- "No Russian cannon's heavy hail, In vengeance smiting the Serail. This perpetual interference on the part of Russia in the affairs of other nations must, ere long, bring on an indignant rebuke from one or other of the powers whose threats are not a mere brutum fuimen. France forgets much, but forgives nothing; and England must, by this time, have learned the folly of her practice of forgetting nothing and forgiving every thing.-Court Journal. THE BRITISH AMERICAN ASSOCIATION. | farthing. I have lost the ship and every thing From the London Examiner. else.-The Lord Mayor: I find in this printed Mr. H. Fretwell, the captain of the Barbadoes of which was calculated to induce people to bepaper a number of great names, the appearance brig, which some months ago left the port of lieve that the association was a bona fide one. London with emigrants for Prince Edward's There are attached the names of a duke, 15 Island, and Mr. D. Campbell, the owner of the lords, and nearly 40 baronets.-Mr. Campbell: vessel, were summoned before the lord Mayor The association is completely broken up. There to answer the complaints of several of the un- have been several executions put into the house fortunate persons who had broken up their es- in Bridge street. There are actions at this motablishments in this country and engaged to go ment going on against the Duke of Argyll, the to that remote region in the Barbadoes, under Marquis of Downshire, and Sir James Colborne. the sanction of the British North American As---The Lord Mayor: This paper contains a list sociation. Captain Fretwell said that he had of first-rate names. Are all these shareholders? been engaged at Gravesend to take the com--No: they are only the vice-president and conmand of the vessel to Prince Edward's Island, sulting council.-How much of the million capand he sailed from the Downs on the 1st of No-ital has been paid up?-None at all. Nobody vember, 1842, with 50 passengers (men, women, paid up at all.-Let me know what the plan was and children). When the vessel reached 42° with respect to those emigrants if you had got west longitude she encountered heavy winds them out to Prince Edward's Island? and seas, and was so dreadfully battered as to were they to be subsisted?-There was a month's How be obliged to put back to the nearest eligible extra provision going out, so that they would port, which was Cork, a distance of about 1,300 be provided for a month after landing-And miles. On the 22nd of December she reached then take their chance of starvation.-Mr. George Cork, where she remained until the 9th of April, Henley and Mr. Taylor, two of the emigrants, when she sailed for London, leaving behind her and very intelligent men, here stood forward.→ in Cork some of the emigrants, but bringing to Mr. Taylor said that he had paid £50 for himLondon about 30 of them, who were at the pres- self and his family of eight children to Mr. ent moment boarding and lodging in her in the Buckenfield, the secretary of the association.London Docks. He had not received a farthing Mr. Henley stated that he was introduced by the from any passenger, nor had he received a farth- British Association to Mr. Halden, whom they ing of pay since he had joined the vessel. He acknowledged as their agent, and he engaged had caused all the repairs to be done to her in to pay 30 guineas for his passage, &c., by inCork. No reasonable complaint could be made stalments in the island.-The Lord Mayor: as to the provisions, which were abundant and What dreadful mischief arises from the use of unexceptionable. The repairs, however, went high names in cases of this kind!-It was here on very slowly, for the agents in Cork began to stated that the duke of Argyll took the lead at suspect that they would not easily procure remu- all the public meetings, and made no secret of neration for their outlay. The British Ameri- attaching his high name to the acts of the assocan Association, in the mean time, sent to him ciation, and that his Grace's correspondence to state that the vessel must sail on the 20th of with the late Lord Mayor clearly proved that March, and he made every preparation in his fact. The Duke of Argyll and Sir James Colpower, when he received an intimation that she borne were the only two out of the whole list was not to proceed. The emigrants felt and who signed their names for shares. expressed bitter disappointment at the manner signed for shares to the amount of £500 each. They in which they had been treated by the associa--The Lord Mayor: And with this £1,000 you tion and those who acted for that body.-Mr.start the association. Mr. Henley requested that Campbell stated, in answer to his Lordship, that the Lord Mayor would postpone the case for a he was sole owner of the Barbadoes, subject to few days.-The Lord Mayor: I shall postpone a mortgage.-The Lord Mayor: Who were the the case certainly, and I hope that some satis persons who engaged to take out the emigrants? faction may be obtained. I am decidedly of -Mr. Campbell: The principal managers of opinion that you have a claim upon the ship, and the British American Association, Sir R. Brown, that she is bound to leave you at the place of Sir W. Ogilvie, and Dr. Rolfe. The ship was your original destination. I suppose you would chartered by me to these three commissioners still go to Prince Edward's Island, Mr. Taylor? to take out emigrants to Prince Edward's Island-Mr. Taylor: I should not wish to go without -all most respectable men, but not very rich, of coming to a more clear understanding as to the course. (A laugh.) They engaged him to pro-power of the association. I understand they vide the emigrants at £3 per man, and half. have not an acre of land in Prince Edward's price for children, with food and passage out. Island.-The Lord Mayor: What, no land He provided the ship by a contract with Messrs. Leslie and Smith, the extensive provision merchants, with meat, bread, flour, &c., at £2. 103. per head. Every thing that was requisite for the voyage was, accordingly to the act of Parliament, most abundantly supplied. The cargo, which was very valuable, was bought upon credit; but now the association is broken up altogether, and I have never received a there?-Mr. Campbell: Not a single acre, my Lord. (Laughter.)—Mr. Henley: They bargained to sell me 150 acres.-The Lord Mayor: It is a most decided and heartless fraud. I would send the concoctors of it to Prince Edward's Island with a month's provisions. I consider the emigrants the dupes of a double conspiracy.-He then directed that all the parties should appear in a few days. THE PLEA OF INSANITY IN CRIMINAL From the British and Foreign Review. 1. The Plea of Insanity in Criminal Cases. By Forbes Winslow, Esq., Member of the Royal College of Surgeons, London: 1843. 2. On the different forms of Insanity in relation to Jurisprudence, designed for the use of persons concerned in legal questions regarding unsoundness of mind. By Jas. Cowles Prichard, M. D. Baillière: London, 1842. Yet Mr. Winslow's evidence did go to that length. If Mr. Winslow's evidence was to be received, the Solicitor-general ought at least to have been allowed to call one or more reviewers (the humblest of the craft might have sufficed) to prove what the authority of such a witness was worth. Those reviewers might have shown that great confidence was not to be placed in the accuracy of a writer who supposes that Lord Mansfield tried Bellingham, whereas it was Sir James Mansfield who at that time filled the office of Chief-justice of the Common Pleas, and delivered the very excellent charge which led to the conviction of Bellingham. Nor would they attribute any great knowledge of medical jurisprudence draws a most absurd distinction between civil and criminal insanity. A person who exhibits the slightest aberration of mind is considered to be incapable of discharg ing his duties as a citizen, is not allowed to have the management of his affairs, cannot make a will, and is safely shut up in a mad-house; but should the same individual, pronounced by the Commissioners of Lunacy to be of unsound mind, commit in a moment of frenzy a criminal act, he is considered amenable to the law. THE author of the first of these little books was examined as a medical witness on M'Naughten's trial, and if his evidence had any weight at all with the Jury, it could only derive that influence froin the circum- to a man who asserts (p. 74) that "the law stance of his being the man who had written a book on the subject. It is to be regretted that the jury had not some opportunity of forming an opinion of the inaccuracies and fallacies with which this very book abounds, in common with most of the leading works on medical jurisprudence, especially those written by medical men, though Dr. Prichard's Essay forms a very honorable exception to this remark. Of all the imperfections which the late trial disclosed in the mode of treating in our courts the intricate questions of insane It is quite true that the law does draw a criminality, none strike us as more gross, distinction between civil and criminal inor more contrary to the cautious spirit of sanity, which we shall shortly examine; English procedure, than the wholesale and but the effect of that distinction is preciseindiscriminating admission of medical evi-ly the opposite of the result pointed out by dence; and in the case of the author before us, this was particularly remarkable. We quote from the report of the trial: "Mr. Forbes Winslow, examined by Mr. Clarkson : I am a surgeon, residing in Guildford street. I am the author of a work called "The Plea of Insanity in Criminal Cases considered.' I have heard all the evidence in this case; but I have not been summoned on either side. My opinion is, that the prisoner is laboring under a morbid delusion, and was incapable, at the time of committing the act in question, of controlling his actions.'' It is undoubtedly true, that in cases where medical men have not seen the patient, but have heard the symptoms and particulars of his state detailed by other witnesses at the trial, their opinion on the nature of such symptoms is admissible.* But although they may be admitted to give their opinion whether ce tain symptoms are symptoms of insanity, it seems they are not competent to give an opinion whether an act for which a prisoner is tried was an act of insanity.t Amos and Phillips on Evidence, p. 899. + Wright's case. Russ. and Ry. Cr. Ca. 456. Mr. Winslow. A slight aberration of mind is not unfrequently admitted as a plea in criminal proceedings, when it is duly commented upon by mad doctors and crude psychologists; but we defy Mr. Winslow or his authority to produce a single instance of an individual, pronounced by the Commissioners of Lunacy to be of unsound mind, and safely shut up in a mad-house, who was ever made amenable to the law, or even put upon his trial for a criminal act committed in a moment of frenzy under such circumstances. The question of insanity may be raised in three different forms of proceeding under the laws of this country: I. Upon an inquisition under a commission out of Chancery as to the alleged idiocy or lunacy of the party. The ques tion is always tried by a jury, and the effect of their verdict is to pronounce the lunatic generally incompetent to manage his affairs. II. Questions arising as to the validity of any particular instrument, and especially of testamentary instruments, which are tried by the Ecclesiastical Courts, according to the rules and principles of their own jurisdiction. III. Upon criminal charges, in which the plea of insanity is submitted to the appreciation of a jury. It is notorious that the difficulty of proving insanity is very great in the first of these cases; less by the second; and least of all under the third. Many are the lunatics whose state has long been a cause of painful apprehension to those about them whose habits are irregular-whose delusions are intense-whose will is infirm, but on whose state no jury would return a general verdict of unsound mind or incompetency; yet if the same party terminate his own life by his own hand, the same jury will forthwith adopt the least scintilla of evidence which can be construed into a suggestion of insanity. Or if he leave behind him a will so absurd and unjust in its provisions, that it furnishes indisputable evidence of the hold which his morbid aversions or insane predilections had gained upon his mind, in such a case the Court of Probate will take into its consideration the character of the testator at various periods of his life, and will set aside such a will, although the state of mind of the testator was not such as to enable his relations to pray for a commission of lunacy. Almost all the wills which are set aside upon this ground are exemplifications of this fact. If it were as easy to make a person a lunatic during his life as it is to set aside wills after death, it is clear that heirsat-law and next of kin would be inclined to interpose at an earlier period to place their expectations under the protection of the Court of Chancery. Lastly, when a crime has been committed, and insanity is pleaded on behalf of the prisoner, the proofs of insanity are submitted to a jury, who decide upon them, or ought to decide upon them, not as affect ing the general sanity of the person, (as in the case of an inquisition of lunacy,) but in relation to the particular act with which he is charged. always have most weight with a jury are those connected with the act for which he is tried. A man who had given unequivocal symptoms of lunacy on various occasions might commit a murder under such circumstances of provocation and deliberation, that no jury would hesitate to decide that he was perfectly conscious of the nature and consequences of the act he was committing, and therefore responsible for them. Again, another man who had given no previous indications of insanity might commit a crime, accompanied by such evident marks of frenzy and unconsciousness, that no jury would convict him of a heinous moral offence. Hence the jury are drawn into a position of extreme difficulty. The more monstrous the offence, the less probability is there that it will be punished. If M'Naughten had received from his amiable and unfortunate victim the most cruel injuries and affronts, he would infallibly have been hung, for no man would then have doubted that in committing the murder he was obeying the dictates of an atrocious but not insane or incoherent revenge; but the circumstance of his having murdered a man whom he had never seen or heard of, and who was known only by his virtues, furnished in itself a strong ground of presumption that he was insane. That is to say, it furnished in itself conclusive evidence of the delusion of the motive and in our view of this case, and of the delicate shades of legal and psychological analysis connected with it, the main error is in confounding this delusion as to the MOTIVE, with delusion as to the ACT. We find this confusion running through all the medical evidence on the subject; we trace it in the observations of counsel on either side; and even in the luminous observations which the late deplorable occurrence has elicited from the highest legal authorities in the House of Lords, we do not find that this distinction has been taken. Dr. Prichard differs from the majority of writers on insane criminality by admitting and exemplifying in a very striking manner The most obvious reason which renders the distinction between hallucinations of it less easy to obtain a verdict of lunacy in the mental faculties and unsoundness of the the first of these cases than to set aside a active powers. Georget, one of the most will or to obtain the acquittal of a murderer, able French writers on disorders of the is that the absurdity of the will or the enor- brain, had already observed, "Il est des mity of the murder act very powerfully on malades qui ne déraisonnent point du tout, the minds of the court or the jury in sup- et chez lezquels on n'observe qu'une perport of the alleged insanity. It cannot be version plus ou moins, profonde des senotherwise. A presumption of insanity may timens et des affections, sans agitation of course be drawn from the previous ec- marquée ni fureur, ou bien un êtat habituel centricities, abberrations or delusions of d'agitation, de colère, d'emportement et the criminal's life. But the facts which will quelquefois même de fureur mais sans |