“No more disgraceful or demoralising spectacle can possibly be exhibited before the eyes of a people than the accommodation of the laws, or the submission of their administrators, to the popular crimes of the higher classes. Let the Attorney-General say what he will, a crime is not divested of its inherent moral turpitude by the frequency or the impunity with which it is committed; nor does felony cease to be a crime when the felon is countenanced, or even stimulated to the act, by the class-opinion of the circle which forms ‘his world.’ Every class has in it an aggressive self-centring principle, which aspires to ride rough-shod over society, and chafes under the restraint of law. It is the very object of law to bind together all these discordant interests, by restraining the eccentricities of each, and compelling each to submit its own opinion to the central intelligence, which consults for the common good. “What the effect upon society in general must be, of letting it be understood, that there is a crime which must not, or cannot, be restrained or punished, because peers and ‘gentlemen’ think proper to commit it, while the law declares it to be felony, we leave those to judge who know the power of example, and the aptness of the lower orders to learn evil from their betters. We are firmly convinced, that no more pernicious or anarchical principle than that of the defenders of duelling was ever broached by Chartism or even Socialism itself. ‘Strict legal formality,’ says a contemporary, ‘brought Lord Cardigan to the bar of the House of Peers under an accusation of felony; and strict legal formality has given him an unanimous, and, in our opinion, honourable acquittal.’ All felons, we have no doubt, think the laws under which they are brought to justice are ‘strict legal formalities;’ and we doubt not that they will cheerfully accept the doctrine, which renders the law ‘Thou shalt do no murder,’ to be as mere a ‘formality,’ as that which requires every one of three Christian names to be proved, in order to sustain an indictment. Lord Cardigan’s acquittal is ‘honourable,’ no doubt, in the eyes of those who would have thought it equally honourable to be convicted, and of those alone. “We beg to direct the attention of our readers to the important conversation which took place upon this subject yesterday evening in the House of Lords. Something, we trust, will be done to remedy the evil consequences of the late trial, ere it be yet too late.” February 23. Lord WHARNCLIFFE stated, in the House of Lords, that it was his intention, if no Law-Lord took up the subject, to bring in a bill to settle the point with reference to the right of a peer to plead privilege in case of a felony; as he happened to know that, in the case of the recent trial, if a conviction had taken place, that point would have been raised. March 3. TRIAL OF CAPTAIN DOUGLAS.