The Press. — London, England, 1858-11-27 00:00:00

THE PRESS, pied than in giving currency to puerile personalities of col- Jen about " our new Librarian." Who does not remember a such jokes in his own college days, which, aided by the buttery to wash down our tepid haunch of mutton in Hall, but were worthy of publication in a London newspaper ? There were or more items in our " battels" that were supposed to minister Ivate self-indulgence of the Dons. Now it was the Rector's , was the bindings of the ,junior tutors' books—now it was dinners wherewith the Don of the world entertained his friends currently believed to be defrayed out of the mysterious were terminally called upon to meet. So we can fancy, in our " new Librarian," some college prig has resolved to make great man by withstanding the little tyrant of his grassplat, ifying a trumpery schoolboy scandal into a great public abuse. gentleman, probably a near connection of \Viscount IV! WAN'S, his end. Ile has become a great public character, and will reach the summit of his ambition by being likened to a Gracchus Debating Club. tumorous little poem entitled " Nothing to 'Wear " would admit good parody to be called " Nothing to Spend," founded on a took place in the Court of Common Council on Wednesday subject of the debate was the erection of a lunatic asylum fir pers, which had been ordered by Sir CrEoltuir: Giu under legal proceedings. The impoverished Corporation to whom id was addressed humbly pleaded their poverty, and then that didn't want an asylum. Neither plea, however, went down Secretary of State, and accordingly the City has at last begun If, and, after vainly trying to house their lunatics in Essex or resolved to buy a piece of ground and begin forthwith as have determined, poor men, how to raise the cash. There funds, they declare, available for the purpose, and, accordingly, must be met by a rate. A rate, however, seems to be ;hly objectionable by the more public-spirited members of the who pride themselves on having always been exempt from In the meantime the other party continue to cry out that got no money—an assertion, we fear, they will find no one to less it is a few experienced landladies who have discovered that e expeditions to the City in search of that commodity invari disappointment. dark days of November seem to be stimulating Englishmen, not own throats, as they are commonly said to do, at this time of tt other people's. What with new murders, and the discovery scarcely a day has passed during the last few weeks without _ cases of homicide appearing in the columns of the papers. one is the murder near Queen's-square, principally remarkable at . Mr. WAKLEv's address to the Jury on the occasion of the his complaint is, that the coroner's inquiry takes place in the 'the accused person, and that, consequently, the jury are obliged their decision without the advantage that is afforded by a view prisoner. The justice of this complaint depends on the real nature .ler's office. Attempts have lately been made to unduly mag \portance and extent. But we think it would be quite as well if Secretary of State, on being appealed to, were to take some steps to proper limits of the coroner's authority and that, if the busi jury is to determine the guilt or innocence of any person, they afforded all the facilities for arriving at a just conclusion. complaints of an American divorce lawyer present a strange inaccuracy and good sense. It is hardly possible to conceive I who has attended for months in the Court can state that there is idicial exposition nor forensic argument. The latter, at all (ere is in excess; old the former is perhaps scanty, because it is the caution orriglish judges when dealing with an untried ite subject. The complaint as to the insufficiency of the proceed fact, an attack upon the whole system of pleading in our judica - principle our Courts adopt is, to receive from the parties in deadings a mere skeleton of their legal claims, and not a detailed 'all the circumstances of the case. And few persons conversant subject would desire that a complainant should be allowed to . his complaint by all the extraneous matter which he thinks tend den and inflame his wrongs. The objection as to the summary of the Court in cases of dissolution of marriage might seem to foundation, but it is in some measure obviated by the resolution . ed at by the judge, to require the trial to be in the first in le by the jury, and the application Ihr a decree, in the second ,to the full Court itself. But if the American's view of the facts distorted, his letter contains a suggestion which is certainly deserving ^onsideration. In cases where a petition for dissolution of mar unopposed, there is undoubtedly some danger of a judgment being and hastily obtained, for the judges seem either unable or unwilling • such cases the searching and rigorous investigation which ought so momentous a step. And in this state of things it would seem advisable to follow the practice of the American Courts, so direct that wherever a dissolution of marriage is sought, and not counsel should be appointed by the Court to oppose 'cation, or, at all events, to si ft the evidence , and the Court whether there is any cause for further opposition, in better occupp lege freshmen score of such beer, served I scarcely wort always one or to some Priv cub—now it the little din _that were charges we 11 the case of of himself a gre and magnifYil The young g( has attained 1 probably reac in the Union The hun of a very goo( debate which last. The su the City paup the threat of this command the lunatics d with the Seel to bestir itself Surrey, have soon as they I are no City ft the expense thought high Corporation, county rates. the City has believe, unles their lodgers ably end in d The dar to cut their o the year, but of old ones, one or more The last one present for inquest. lli absence of th to come to tl of the prison of the coronc nifv its impo the Secretar mettle the pis noss of his it should be afl The coi mixture of it that a man neither judi events, then regulated b% and delicate ings is, in fa ture. The written plea account of a with the su variegate hi, to heighten lodgment of have some just arrived stance made instance, to is distorted, of great con mane is limn unduly and to apply to s to precede certainly sec 14 as to di opposed, e the applic report to tit, NOVEMBER 27, 1858. 1157 the same manner in which claims to the Peerage are watched and scru tinized by the Attorney-General on behalf of the Crown. This suggestion our American cousin may certainly claim some merit in having elicited, although we we re no t p repare d f or t h e a l most F renc h misappreciation of English affairs which characterize the greater part of his reflections. Another London tradesman has this week been tried, convicted, and punished for the very same offence which was committed by a well-known house in Oxford-street some eighteen months ago. In that case the sufferer was a young lady of some personal attractions, if we recollect right, and the damages awarded her were such as to make the culprit howl. In this case it happened that the complainant was only the wife of a warehouseman, and though the indignities to which she was subjected were at least equal to, and the substantial injury she sus tained much greater than, those undergone by the lady to whom we have alluded, yet the Jury, with a just estimate of her inferio r position, awarded only 201. The facts are briefly these. In the month of June last a Mrs. TRUSS, a highly respectable woman, went into a shop in Deptford, and asked for a bottle of ginger beer, tending half a sovereign in payment. The girl in the shop said it was a bad one, and broke it in two, upon which her customer took it back again, and at first refused to give it up, when the master of the shop demanded it. After some altercation the man declared he should give her into custody. In vain she tendered her name and address ; in vain she referred the infuriate greengrocer to a brother tradesnian only a few doors off, who knew both herself and her husband. The retailer of cabbages was inexorable. Two policemen were summoned, and the unfortunate woman dragged through the streets to the police-station, where she was stripped stark naked, and saw every garment subjected to the closest scrutiny, at the conclusion of which process a person came to inform her that the half-sovereign was a good one! When we add that the prosecutrix was within a week of her confinement, we have said all that is necessary to describe this most atrocious outrage. The justice of the damages depends to some extent on the position of the defendant. But they ought to be such as he would feel severely : and we are apprehensive that twenty pounds was too little. We most cordially concur in the observation of the Learned Judge, Baron MARTIN, on this occasion, who, while he expressed just indignation at the brutal conduct of the tradesman, took the opportunity of pointing out to the police that they were exceeding their duty in arresting people charged under such circumstances without making all the inquiries in their power concerning their alleged respectability. It is not so very long ago since we felt it our duty to protest against the introduction of superfluous indecency into the columns of our daily journals; and latterly, and more especially during the past week, we have noticed more than one flagrant violation of the rule which public delicacy, to say nothing of public morality, would require to be observed. We cannot understand what benefit is expected to accrue to society from the publica tion of those filthy details of which a certain class of cases necessitate the investigation. Is it pretended that unless every revolting circumstance be given in full either the accuser or the accused might not meet with justice ? But obviously no such conclusion could be maintained in the face of so many cases never reported at all, and others of which nothing but the merest outline is afforded. We arc entitled to ask, then, What is the rule upon which journals act in this matter ? Why do they publish this case, and withhold that ? Why do they say of one offence that the details are unfit for publication, and perhaps in the very next impression come out with descriptions which, if not absolutely so disgusting as some that arc withheld, are more immoral, because they leave something to the imagination. A case, for instance, was given at the latter part of the present week, in which every detail might have been copied from the warmest scene in " Pamela." The relationship which the parties concerned bore to one another, while it in creased the horror of the offence to an older class of readers, did not diminish its prurience to a younger class, though for both alike it tended to familiarize the picture of vice, and deaden the sense of modesty. Of course, it is easy to say that there arc some cases in which every detail is necessary, and sonic in which it is not so. That is credible enough. But it is no answer to our coniplaint, which is of cases in which these details are unnecessarily given. To prove our point more com pletely we should have to show the same disregard for decency with which we tax our contemporaries. But can any of our readers show us what there was in the case of the girl RUMEN:F., or anything that made it necessary to state the exact coercion practised by her step mother, and to indicate with unerring preciseness the nature of the defence set up ? It a case of aiding and abetting was made out on the one hand, or of previous vice on the other, surely that was sufficient for the public to know, without setting the heated fancies of a certain class of readers to gloat over highly-coloured details, or disgusting another class by the coarse exhibition of grossness. The Army Clothing Commissioners terminated their inquiries at Wool wich last Tuesday. The two principal abuses which they have brought to light at present arc the brokerage system, a characterestic invention of Lord l'Axmunii's, and the payment of money by the clothiers to the Quartermasters of regiments. Of course a good deal of general mismanar merit in the shape of unneeesary dilatoriness has been from time to time exposed. But that was no novelty. The Commissioners are expected to resume their inquiries on the second of December at the Tower. I I 11