The Queen's Bench Division delivered on Tuesday their judgment in
the ' Mignonette' case. It was that by law the killing of the boy Parker was murder, and inexcusable by any plea of self-defence. The judges, therefore, passed sentence of death ; but the two men were at once respited, and it seems to be expected that they will at once be par- doned. If they are, the case will have great interest for the mining population, a few of whom are every year exposed to the most frightful hunger and thirst, and indeed constantly die of them. It has hitherto been their habit to die quietly, and, as much evidence shows, in deep submission to the will of the Almighty ; but henceforward they will have an alternative. They have only to kill the weakest among them, and eat him, and they will be sure of the heartiest sympathy of two-thirds of the community. They will be legally liable to death, but that is only a form.
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