The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1875-01-02 00:00:00

THE TICHBORNE CASE-

The following letter which appeared in the EngliAntan
of Saturday last, has been sent to us for publication
G. sass Low, Esq.,
DBAR SIR,—I send you a copy of one of our local papers
containing a letter on the subject of Dr. Kenealy's charges
against the Judges. You will see I simply ask for en-
quiry, and pronounce no opinion. I keep clear, too, of
the question of the Claimant's identity. Is not this the
proper ground to go upon in our eff,rt to release Sir
Hager? There are a good many supporters of him who
call loudly for his release, for the dismissal of the Judges,
tec., &c. lam convinced that this is an extreme course,
which is playing into the hands of his enemies. There
are hundreds of thousands of people who, not being con-
vinced that the Claimant is Sir Roger, are still of opinion
that he is not Orton. There is also a vast number of
people who have no opinion at all, who have not read the
case, and who are content to accept, without cavil, the
decisions of our law courts. Both these classes of persons
would join in an agitation for injuiry merely; whereas,
they would stand aloof from one for the objects I have
enumerated above. For these reasons I am convinced
that the wisest policy is to call f3r injuiry. It is the only
way to support Sir:Roger's cause. if, upon inquiry, the
charges should be substantiated, or if even the Judges
should come out of the inquiry with only half a victory,
discredited but not disgraced, public opinion, on behalf
oi Sir Roger, would receive a powerful accession of
strength, and his release would follow' not because he
' would be believed to be Sir Roger, batbecanoe he would
be tithe position of a man before his trial. If a power-
ful "Inquiry Committee" were formed, a central one for
London, with local ones all over the country, an inquiry
would soon be forced. Dr. 'tensely seems to desire,
inquiry, and the Judges hitherto have seemed very shy
of it. This gives me hope that the D ctor must win ;
but if the inquiry takes the form of a Government prose-
cution, it is greatly to be feared that another miscarriage
of justice may happen. -There are three things which I
shall never forget—the conviction of Tichborne, the es-
cape of Mrs. Jury in the first indictment against her, and
the case of Moy Thomas. It is impossible for any re-
asonable man to look at these three cases and still retain
his confidence in the pure administration of the law.
The impression produced upon the mind of every thinking
man must be most painful when he contemplates these
three cases. We have no reason to believe that the farce
is concluded, and the result of a Government prosecution
of Dr. ICenealy is not difficult to foresee. Whenever did
Government cases fail ? It is well known that the last
Emperor of the French always succeeded in his appeals
to the law—a fact of which our Press has often made
merry. Not three weeks ago, Daily .Ness spoke of an
eminent French Judge as the " Scroggs of the Second
Empire." Oh, if we could only look at home and pull the
beam out of our own eye ! Two or three months ago the
Daily News, writing in reference to the Tichborne case,
said that, •'No Englishmen in his senses would dream of
imputing partiality to the Judges." What a monstrous
claim was here setup! This is the new doctrina. People
who sneer at the claim of Papal Infallibility tamely sub-
mit to the doctrine of Judicial Impeceability ! A Judge's
cignity is a fence behind which he may sereen himael
from whatever charges are made against him, no matter
how grave they may be, they are made, or how high
the authority is upon which they rest. This new doctrine
of Judicial Dignity and Impeceability:completely hedges
in a Judge. He is secure from public opinion; it cannot
reach him. No despotism could be more complete. To
scatter such a doctrine as this to the winds, to teach our
Newspaper " Eunuchs" that both history and common
sense condemn their "decrees " as completely as it does
those of the Vatican—this is a task worthy of the efforts
of Englishmen. It is a work in which thousands would
join whose occupations or inclinations have not allowed
them to study the Tichborne case and who therefore would
be unwilling to join an agitation which would involve the
expression of an opinion upon a subject they do not
understand. Take all those who are apathetic upon the
subject, or who take little interest ist it, and it would be
found that they had not read the case. Such persons, as
a matter of course, accept the verdict. lithe case could
be condensed into a half-hour's reading, or, if the time
and inclination of Englishmen would enable them to
grapple with it, the hollowness of the Prosecution would
have been exposed, and the Claimant released before this.
—Your obedient servant, W. Lewis, Jan.
I wish this, or something to the same effect, could be
pet in the Englishman _ .

Wollaston, near Stourbridge, December 19th, 1874.

BIRTH.
tht nth sitirao, tha xiisci Mc. W. Gam,
painter, iNgs.street, el 0 0004