The Express.
London, England, 1847-09-07 00:00:00

who may offend them, perhaps, by too strict an ad-
herence to the letter of the law. The singular notions
of justice which in the absence of control from home,
occasionally prevail in the proconsular mind, are
further illustrated by the recent suspension of Mr.
REDDIE from the office of chief justice of St. Lucia by
Colonel REID, governor of the Windward Islands.
Fortunately, the individual injury in this case has
been trifling, compared with that inflicted under Lord
STANLEY'S administration, on Mr. Lstronow. Lord
GREY, without hesitation, disallowed the suspension
of Mr. REDDIE, and restored him to his office ; but it
seems that it would be a much more satisfactory ar-
rangement if the Colonial-office were appealed to before
a judge was suspended from office than after. If a
ag, became suddenly insane, or if he was proved to
have taken a Lae, a ~.error would, no doubt, be
supported and indemnified if he suspended him from
office by his own authority ; but, in all minor cases of
perversity or error of judgment, there does not appear
to be such necessity for immediate interference as to
render a reference to the cooler civilians of Downing-
street an insupportable grievance to offended gover-
nors. If a judge, for instance, were to conduct a judi-
cial inquiry in the same logical and candid manner in
which Colonel REID investigated the charge against
Mr. REDDIE, he would undoubtedly be altogether
unfit for his situation ; but, on the question whether
he bid so conducted it, we should to have a more

competent opinion than that of the gallant commen-
tator on the " law of storms," who appears to have
carried into hie lucubration on the law of evidence
something of the " circular system" which prevails in
hurricanes, aid sometimes in reasoning.
It seems that Mr. REDDIE having been, up to the
30th of June, 1846, on friendly terms with Colonel
TOERENS, lieutenant-governor of St. Lucia, had at
that time the misfortune to engage in a quarrel with
him, which, whatever its merits may have been, was
no doubt pursued with the vehemence and energy
which appears to lend an agreeable zest to colonial
life. On the 4th of February, 1847, it occurred for
the first time to Colonel Toerteres, in a communica-
tion to his superior, Colonel REID, on some other
grievance, to inform him that Mr. Rennie had in the
February and March previous published in the Inde-
pendent Press two libels on the Bishop of Barbadoes.
The chief-justice, he curiously adds, had made
no secret of the authorship of the libels ;
and, as to the second, had even resisted
the attempts of himself, Col. TORRENS, to persuade
him to suppress it. What the libels were, or how
far the authorship of them bore upon the judicial
character, does not appear, and as our readers will
see, it is quite immaterial to inquire. We are now
discussing Col. Reiff s mode of proceeding.
It seems to us that the first answer which would
have occurred to a lawyer, or even to a civilian, on
receiving such a charge, would have assumed the
form of an argument= ad hominon to Col. TORRENS.
If you knew in March, 1846, that Mr. REDDIE had
published these letters, and if you are also of opinion
that they disqualify him from performing his duty as
judge, why were you, his local superior, on friendly
terms with him three months later, and why do you
communicate the charge to me a year after you
became acquainted with it? Perhaps, however, such
preliminary considerations would to the military
mind savour of that refinement or sophistry which,
by an allowable metaphrase it calls " special plead-
ing." Passing over any little inconsistency in Colonel
TORRENS, the governor proceeds at once to the main
pestion, the substantial justice of the charge against
Mr. REDDIE.
To his first step we are not disposed at present to
object so strongly as we might. Ile writes to Mr.
REDDIE to demand either a confession that he wrote
the letters in the newspaper, or a clear and distinct
denial " of your having been the author, or haring been
connected with the newspaper in which they appeared"
—the latter part of the implied charge referring to
a matter which may perhaps be criminal in procon-
sular eyes, bat which seems to us utterly irrelevant
toColonel TORRENS' complaint. Not to dwell, however,
on this point, the Chief Justice answered in the most
explicit manner, that he did not write the libels, and
was not connected with the newspaper. Col. REID'S
reply to this unexpected denial is a wonderful illus-
tration of the insufficiency of honourable feelings and
upright intentions to secure justice in the absence of
habits of reasoning and of judicial impartiality.
Having first called upon Mr. Rennie to deny a
charge, he next forwards to him what he supposes to
be proofs of the truth of it, collected behind his back,
and consisting of such evidence as this:" The Hon.
R. G. Mincer has stated in writing, that you, by
the style of your conversation, led him to inter that
you were the author of the letters," a statement which
very satisfactorily showed the state of the Hon. Mr.
M'Huun's opinions on the subject, but which must
have appeared to the accused, as a lawyer, rather an
inconclusive proof against himself. Mr. REDDIE,
who had first been asked to deny the charge, is now
called upoa to disprove it, under pain of being sus-
pended from office.
For this challenge, also, Mr. REDDIE was prepared.
He requested the governor to allow him to examine
in his presence the gentleman who had given the so-
called evidence, and to bring evidence on his own
behalf. Strange to say, the proposal was declined,
and he was only allowed to send in a written state-
meat, which he accompanied with a declaration by
the editor of the Independent Press that " the
authorship is most falsely attributed to you (Mr.
REDDIE)." The answer to this communication was
the suspension of the Chief Justice from office. He
immediately proceeded to England, forwarded to Lord
GREY a statement of the circumstances, accompanied
by affidavits from the editor and sub-editor of the
paper that he had not written the letters in question,
and was, as we have said, immediately restored to the
office from which he had been so perversely and
oppressively suspended.
We need not comment on the absurdity and injus-
tice of the proceedings which we have recounted ;
and yet it is very probable that COI. REID may be
both an honourable and an able man. Old soldiers
may be very good officers and not inefficient governors,
and yet be wholly unable to assume either the logic
or the impartiality of judges. Unfortunately, a
semi-latent consciousness of their weak point
too often gives them a prejudice against the forms
and also against the administrators of law. In
the old times of naval discipline a " sea-lawyer,"
who had :some notions about the articles of war
and the rights of sailors, always got a doable
share of the floggings of the crew. Colonels and
generals, we fear, aro not indisposed to look upon
land-lawyers with similar feelings. The judges
form the principal check on the absolute power of
governors in the smaller colonies : sometimes, as in
those West India islands which depend on the astral
government of Barbadoes or Antigua, they are
nor in standing, salary, and social importance to ea
local head of the government—a relation which shout
necessarily leads to misunderstandings such as those
which took place between Col. TORRENS and Mr.
REDDIE, and consequently to appeals to the governor-
in-chief, whose esprit de corps is naturally excited to
support his own immediate representative against the
contumacy of a judge. As the dispute proceeds,
there is a great probability that the military
functionaries will put themselves in the wrong,
even if the provocation came originally from the other
side. In the present case, as far as it appears even on
Col. REID'S own showing, he and Col. fORRENS were
wholly in the wrong; but it is possible that they may
have originally had cause of complaint. In nine
cases out of ten, persons who are persecuted have been
in fault, though they may not have deserved the par-
ticular grievance which they complain of. We know
nothing rust Mr. REDDIE ; but it is difficult to
suppose that COL REID'S intemperate attack upon
him was induced solely by the cause which appears on
the surface. Lawyers sometimes, in the pride of
superior acuteness, look down upon laymen with a con-
tsept quite as unjustifiable as any which soldiers dis-
play to pekMs. C;;!. I.IEID may have known that if
Mr. Itennte had not written the libels, be had never-
theless spoken evil of dignities, and he may have
thought that he was facilitating the good government
of Bt. Lucia by getting rid of en insubordinate chief
justice.
The beat security against similar collisions would
probably be found in the reciprocal independence of
the bench and the local government. If the judges
were excluded from the provincial councils, and at the
same time made to hold their offices immediately
under the Colonial-office, a prolific source of diseensioa
would be dried up. At present it must often happen
that a chief justice brings to the council board the
feelings of independence, and contempt for foreign
influence and control which become him on the bench,
and so leads the governor to resent, even in judicial
matters, the impracticability, of which, in his admi-
nistrative inferior, he may justly complain. The in-