3 NOVEMBER 1877, Page 3

The Home Secretary has advised the Queen to give Alice

Rhodes a free pardon, and to commute the sentence of death on the other Penge prisoners to penal servitude for life,—treating it, that is, as a manslaughter marked by very cruel and cul- pable negligence indeed. Of course, Alice Rhodes, if she were not party to an intention to murder, did not participate in the crime at all, as she had uo share in the duty of looking after tho deceased woman, and could not therefore have been concerned in. the culpable negligence. The decision seems a just one, but the country will hardly be satisfied without a Court which can give reasons for its reversion of criminal sentences in future.