The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1869-01-23 00:00:00

THE HOME SECRETARY'S EXPLANATION.

On Monday last, the Right lion. H. A. Bruce,
Secretary of :itate for the Home Department, who in
at present soliciting the suffrages of the electors of the
county of Renfrew, in consequence of the death of the
late representative, addressed a meeting in the Court
Hall, Loehwiunoch. In the course of his address he

One of the most difficult duties which the Secretary of
State for the Home Depanment hail to perform was ti revise
and reconsid,r sentences imposed upon criminals by the
j..dges after the verdict of the Jury. Of com se, the gravest
0101 00)8t difficult of all were cases where sentence of death
had been Imposed. Sentence of death was recently passed
upon a criminal for the greatest of all crimes, that of
murder. De was a young man of the name of Insgrove.
-•-• • • -

The right bon. gentleman then detailed the result of
the official investigation which had been made into the
facts of the case, and said—
Under these circumstances he was of opinion that it
was utterly iinpmsible for hint to hold this man morally
responsible to tlie same degree as it he hail been in the
full pnasesaioo or his seliSti. lie (Mr. Bruce) did not
say lie would have commuted this man's sentence be-
cause he had any doubt of his guilt—he hail confessed
his guilt—he did not say he would have commuted his
punishment because the murder had been unpremedi-
tated, because if a man intelligent enough to he capable of
self-control committed even an unpremeditated murder, in
the opinion of the light hon. gentleman so long as it was the
law 01 the country he sutler for it • but he did no be-
esti. he WAS satisfied from the evidence that Itiszrove really
was nit morally responsible for his actions. Well, since that
decision, he hail been, as he had said, the subject of a very
unmeasured &Use K.
On Sunday he received information that the visiting
Justices of the gaol at Taunton, in the coui.ty of Somerset,
had had a regular medical inquiry into Bhgrove s ease ; that
the result of the iiiiiiiiry in ilint lie hail ,aell pni 1111 l timed to
be a man totally insane, and that an application hail been
finite in the Home Innen to have lust re 1111 l Ved tin a !Waffle
asylum hear, bear lie the right hoe, candidate put it to
the meeting it he could have acteni otherwise than he
did no, no, and cheers . The poser lodged in him, this
great responsible power, was exercised, it seemed to
him, under circumstances exactly those for which it
WAS lodged in him, and he would have been acting
ant unworthy and cowardly pat if, MI account of any
fear of offence to public opinion, he had not exercised
that power hi the manner he had done cheers . lle
hal mentioned this matter partly that the electors might
hi lieve that lie hail not exercised the -wee entrusted to him
imworthily, and partly also to enable hini to ask, if they uhl
him the honour of returning hint to Parliament, to litispeliti
theirjudgment on any future occadons when they might have
his conduet impugned. lie had nut the power, and its as not
the practice ot Secretares of State to answer articles in
newspapers. When parlhunent was sitting an early oppor-
tui ity Woo given to the minister til ilif,et any imputation
which might be made on his conduct, but in the absence of
Parliament, it was only under extraordinary circumstances
like the present that lie was armed with the IllaaaS of de-
fending his reputation and justitying himself from attack.