The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1887-07-30 00:00:00

THE ARREST OF MISS CASS.
END OF THE POLIOE INQUIRY.

The Chief Commissioner's inquiry into the arrest of
Miss Cass was brought to a conclusion on Tuesday.
Sir Charles Warren will, in due coarse, submit his
report to the Home Secretary, and when that is done,
the matter (argues the Standard) will rest very much
where it did -before the investigation commenced.
We shall not attempt to anticipate the report, or
make any comments on the evidence produced on
either side. And this for the best of all reasons.
We hold the inquiry to have been absolutely worth-
less; and as was the inquiry, so must be the report
that is founded on it. The value of the one is the
measure of the value of the other. It matters
nothing in whose favour Sir Charles Warren may
decide. Whether he exonerates the policeman or
Miss Case, or both, is comparatively immaterial. The
whole business throughout has been a sham. If it
was ever intended to be a serious investigation, the
most effectual steps were taken frem the first to
defeat that object. To say that nearly all inquiries
are valueless where the witnesses are not upon their
oath is only pushing the difficulty one step further
back. Why, in this casts,. were they not upon their
oath? Surely, in an investigation of this peculiar
character, where the temptation to falsehood was so
great, and where many of the persons whom it might
be found necessary to examine would presumably
belong to a class not proverbial for veracity, it was
pre-etninently desirable that evidence should have
been taken on oath, and that witnesses who chose to
commit perjury should know at least that they did
it at their peril. Nor is this all. The scenes that
have taken place in Court have been of a very scan-
dalous character, and should make it impossible for
such a case ever again to be entrusted to a tribunal of
the same descrirdon. We have no doubt that Sir
Charles Warren is an excellent head of the police;
but he may not be equally well qualified to preside over a
judicial inquiry. Moreover, we regret to be compelled
to say that neither he nor his assessor acted with the
dignity and moderation which the public had a right
to expect. It is certainly in part their own fault that
proceedings which were doomed from the very outset
to be ineffectual should have ended in being actually
discreditable to almost everyone concerned.
In only one sense can the inquiry be held to have
served any useful purpose. It has enabled the public,
upon the evidence submitted, to form their own
opinion. What that opinion is there can be no
manner of doubt. But, from a legal or judicial
point of view, nothing whatever has been done for
either the accuser or the accused. The policeman is
neither acquitted nor convicted. Miss Cass, though
not a tittle of fresh evidence has been brought
against her, is still unrelieved from the imputations
which have been cast upon her character, and has
still to bear the weight of any misconstruction that
malicious or interested persons may place upon
her conduct. Surely, if such an examination took
place at all, it should have taken place under
conditions which would secure some practical
conclusion. As matters have been managed, it has
only stirred up the mud, without getting to the
bottom of the mystery. Miss Cass, in particular, has
every reason to complain of the lame and impotent
character of the whole proceeding. From a legal
aspect, her position is in no way improved from what
it was when she was dismissed from the police-court
by Mr. Newton. As we have already said, we care
nothing at all what Sir Charles Warren's report may
be. It is quite impossible that what has taken place
before himself and Mr. Smith can furnish ground for
any decisive judgment either one way or the other.
TDO Home Secretary may act upon it if he pleases,
but he could have acted much more effectually
without it. The whole inquiry seems to have been
vitiated by two distinct mistakes, the one being
the fact that no. oath was administered to the wit-
aesses, the other that the presiding official was of
necessity an interested person. We have no intention
of breathing a single
:syllable against Sir Charles
Warren's impartiality. We believe him to have
acted throughout in a perfectly honourable manner.
But it was only natural that he should be jealous for
the character of the Force which he commands, and
that the public should suspect him of some uncon-
scious bias, even if there was no indication of it. It
appears to us, therefore, that an investigation before
the Chief Commissioner, if it were deemed desirable
at all, should have been merely preliminary to one
before some other triCunal of absolute and
acknowledged independence. In that case
all would have been well. Sir Charles
Warren might fairly have been permitted
to inquire into a charge brought against one of his
own officers. But as soon as it was seen that the
case was one of perplexity and delicacy, in which
great difficulty would probably be experienced in
arriving at the tru,h, it should have been placed at
once ia other hands, that both parties might have the
benefit of a searching and impartial trial before some
experienced judge, capable of ensuring to both
counsel and witnesses the consideration due to them.
It is greatly to be feared that what has now occurred
will have a bad effect upon the public, and shake their
confidence not only in the integrity of the police, but
in the adequacy of any inquiry into cases of alleged
misconduct undertaken by the authorities of licotland-
yard.
If we say that the matter cannot end here, what we
mean, of course, is that it ought not to end here; and
that there will be a very general feeling of dissatisfac-
ion if it does. This is not a case of sentimentalism
versus cynicism. We are not saying a word a priori
as to the claims which Miss Cass may possess on our
sympathy or our chivalry. We merely assert that
anybody charged with the offence of which Endacott
accuses the young woman should have some better
means at hand of clearing her character than has been
afforded in this particular instance. We are bound
to presume her to be innocent till she has been proved
to be guilty, and that a policeman's impressions
are not by themselves conclusive or irrefragable
evidence of guilt has now been admitted by Sir
Charles Warren himself. The Chief Commissioner,
in his latest circular, allows that the police are not
entitled to write down a woman as a "common
prostitute" till they have better authority for saying
so than Endacott possessed in this instance. Let us
consider what follows upon this admission. Let us
assume, as we are bound ,o do, that Miss Cass is a
perfectly innocent girl, wrongfully accused of an odious
and shameful act. And then let us suppose that all
the redress she can get is what is afforded by the
inquiry which has just taken place. Does not the
utter mockery of the whole thing become apparent
in a moment? Whether any further steps are
to be taken, we are not, of course, aware. We
take it for granted that something will have to be
done. But one thing may be said, that to bring an
action against a policeman for defamation of cha-
racter, or perjury, or whatever charge might most
easily be brought home to him, is only a very
doubtful remedy for a young person in Miss Cuss's
station of life. Though perfectly in the right, her
case might fail in that legal completeness .which
was necessary to success, in which event she
would be worse off than before. The failure to
convict her accuser would be received as evidence
of her own guilt, and, besides having damaged,
instead of improving, her position, she would
have heavy . costs to pay- into the barsain.
Some more satisfactory method of obtaining justice
should be open to persons so situated than, if we may
judge from the so-called "inquiry '' which closed on
Tuerday, seems at present to exist. If it is necessary
to entrust an ordinary policeman with the discharge
of duties requiring an unusual combination of tact,
honesty, and discrimination, some special means
should be devised for protecting the public against
the possible abuse of such authority. Down to
the present moment there has in the case of Miss
Cass been a lamentable failure of justice. It
signifies nothing which is the guilty party. The
policeman may have been wrongfully accused,
instead of Miss Cass; and on that hypothesis he, too,
is an illused person. The examination of the circum-
stances so far has served only to make everybody dis-
satisfied. There is no need to conceal the truth. The
Home Secretary blundered grievously in the first
instance; that blunder has been followed by another,
which has simply made confusion worse confounded.
The public are disgusted with the management of the
affair from first to last, and the sooner the Govern-
ment take up the subject as one of real and pressing
importance the better it will be for them and for the
interests of justice.

The Privy Council on Monday proclaimed County
Antrim, under B and 0 &Notions of the Crimes Act.
An extensive fire broke out in Leicester about a
quarter to 12 on Sunday night, on the premises of
Messrs. T. Forsell and Sons, lambs wool spinners. The
buildings occupy the land at the rear of Littleton-street
Rod Bradgate•street, and were for the most part two
storeys high, embracing six rooms, all of which were
filled with machinery and stock. A new three-storey
building was sav,l, but the rest, with their contents,
were destroyed. The damage is estimated at £ll,O 0.
On Monday morning Mr. Robert Verdin, the Unionist
member of th 3 Northwich Division of Cheshire, died at
his residence near Northwieh. For some months past
Mr. Verdin had been suffering from spasms of the
heart, agitravated, it id stated, by late hours in the
Howe of nommons Complete rest had been prescribed
for him, and he had contemplated resigning his seat.
Early on Monday alarming symptoms manifested
themselves, and before his medical attendant, who was
telegraphed for could arrive Mr. Verdin had expired
His death has created profound sorrow throughout the
district.

OUR TORPEDO ORA.YTi