The Express.
London, England, 1848-12-15 00:00:00

rag%STLWORD prows a somewhat wider
bat still within• the circle of the
We differ on principle Z from both. We aa.
the atacent parishes, or relectoral
Iks% will, generally speaking, be found to bs
sot able to oontribute. Poverty does notation-
alate in stationary masses within the arbitrary
iht.
~..:Lii.a..,......=iftothhl.rma:...t=
mind with red ink on the map of Libel.
at a distance its level swiss 'may, asi
1 there are peculiar muss. seam the existenes of
towns is the mitre of a griming or meadow
like Ihnoriek and Ccek. it is no doubt ones
. wow compass there are to be scam
dawn and centrists in the proration of
MI/V Still,
it,mllloymainiet,Pasirer Islet:
not caly absorbs t poverty within its
leash, but gradually raises the price of labour in the
districts that lie seer it. And want of employment,
in like manner, tends to lower wages in
the regions soteisinoss with its own 1 and
spreads the con of its indolence, its sick.
am% end its all around. Nor need we
te en the subject. Take the union of Clifden or
and see low the principle of a maximum
Inti=og to be worked oat there. To ask meal those
eisetseal divisions to make rates in aid et arialble
wesid be simply nonsensical. They would all have
=the maximum long ago but fur the voluntary
es given them by the British Association,
end the Society of Friends ; and seminally
they will have reached that limit me many weeks
elapse. To talk of rates in aid in such a state of
things would be as idle as to bid two &king swbm
we, when strength was well nigh szlimened, to
ear seeiseuses to each other. The mar elseorvatisa
=
oto adjacent unions as well u to neighbouriag
within a union. Bailie is bankrupt sad
asks a rate in aid from Castlebar ; bat °Weber is
Insolvent and wants help from Westport: Westport
is, however, no better off itself, and its neighing, ea
the other aide, poor Chides, is still worse.
Plainly, then, a rats in aid must be @ought frees
the whole kingdom; rich and poor, for this auxiliary
purpose, being taxed aoserding to their intrinsic saw
and by no other rule. Bat, then, the wen
'wee, is this rate in aid to be expended after the
Isere eleemosynary rule of the poor law in better 1
provided districts? Decideily, we think not. Much
more
isisachtlearehoblede donef with
the it;2oauvettahheed land!:
biota losing relieved leaseholder,
the maximum from the
greatpreemie which threatened to overwhelm theta,
and which many think but just, ought in turn to do.
vise for themselves or to yield to a commissioner
powers and facilities for sAtling the poor on the land
on some system of colonisation and productive labour.
The legislature may ask the wealthier Onkel Si
Ireland to contribute for a year, or he a
time, rates in aid to the poorer unions of
their country. But some prospect or (guaran-
tee should be given, or some plan devised, to
prevent such a burden from becoming perpetual,
which it may become if the produce of ratee in aid
be indiscriminately distributed to those forced from
the land and thrown upon them. Each district should
be compelled to provide for its own poor at least It
future ; and rates in aid should merely supply the
funds to lay a permanent foundation for this, whilst
,vernmest should provide the service and the seines.

Tux Norfolk magistrates have done their utmost to
keep secret the prelim;nary investigations respecting
the Wymondham murders. Toe expediency of such
a policy may be questioned for more reasons than one.
In the first place, it does not prevent publicity being
given to the facts of the case, but it tends greatly to
promote the diffusion of inaccurate and distorted ac-
counts of them. In the second place, it does not pro-
mote the ends of justice ; it ie impossible to bring ,
twelve men together in ajury box utterly ignorant of
the country talk about such a startling event ; we must
under any. circumstances rely upon their intelligence
and commend numess for enabling them to separate
what they hearinoonet from what they may have heard
out of it; and if they Sr. liable to be influenced by
what they have heard elsewhere, it is desirable that
they should have had access rather to correct is-
demotion than to gossiping guesses. Again, secrecy
pedtively defeats the ends of justice; the publication
of the preliminary investigations often bring, for-
ward parties able to disprove assertions made in the
course of the inquiry, and thus either facilitate the
conviction of the guilty or the exculpation of the
innocent. Lastly, secresy naturally inspires distrust
of the tribunal which shuns publicity.
The jealousy of publicity which has animated the
justices, led, at the outset of enquiry, to a
collision between them and the Coroner. Similar
collisions have repeatedly taken place in the
metropolis between °Droners and the polio, ma-
gistrates. It is anything but edifying to see two
classes of judicial authorities wrangling about their
respective rights to the body of a'prisoner, like birds
of prey, screaming and buffeting each other for the
disputed possession of the dead ; but this is not the
worst of such exhibitions.

The office of coroner is a very. venerable one. It
was the first attempt tooqanime something like a
detective police, under a head, in every min. At
considerable intervals justices of the peace antipolice
magistrates were introduced, for the purpose of die
charging somewhat similar functions. It is charac-
teristic of the make-shift, fragmentary character of
English legislation, that all the three dams of func-
tionaries have been allowed to 00-ezist without any
attempt to blend their functions and devolve them
upon an adequate staff of officials.
The peculiar duties of the coroner are part of the
duties of an effective police magistrate. The
is magistrate a civil officer, paid for the d*
of the ditties which in a ruder and simpler state of
society were devolved upon the great unpaid. A
police magistrate elected by the rate-payers of each
district, and adequately salaried for devoting the
whole of his time to the duties of his office, would

constitute a much more efficient, a much less garter-
ing and oppressive tribunal for deciding police and
minor criminal cases, and would in the end prove
much more economical than the worshipful quorum of
the great unpaid, whether acting single-handed, ,
hunting in couples, or taking the field en mane at
quarter sessions. And the duties of coroner might
with great advantage to the community at large be
devolved upon the police magistrate of the district.
Every institution in a weary requires for its well-
working that it should be adapted to the other in-
stitutions, and to the customs and habits of thought
prevailing in the community. We should hesitate,
therefore, to recommend transplanting any institution
which has been developed under different social cir-
cumstances, even from a country so closely akin to,
so identified with, our own u that of Scotland. And
yet some hints might be taken with advantage from
the police organisation of the sister kingdom.
The shariff-depute, or his substitute, in every Scotch
county combines with his judicial functions the officio
of head of the district police. As police judge he has
concurrent jurisdiction with justices of the pesos in
counties, and with burgh magistrates in towns. As
the heed of the county executive he has the command
of the police force. And, in the case of any death
under suspicious circumstances, it is his duty to insti-
tute inquiries after the fashion of the coroner in
England.
We are quite aware that grave, and sometimes
well-founded, complaints have been urged against the
manner in which inquests, either into oases of enspi-
ciouti death, or any other suspected crime, are conducted
in Scotland. But the abuses which have given rise
to these complaint' have originated, and the extent of
the abuses has been not a little exaggerated in oonse-
queues of the eecresy with which the inquests are con-
ducted. Make the Sheriff' s Court in Scotland an
open court when pesoognitions are being taken in
criminal charges as in all other cues, and toe pres-
sure of public opinion would effectually prevent ex-
cesses of authority, while publicity would preclude
eugoicion that such excesses were committed.
The appointment of a paid magistrate in each
of our English counties--or in such smaller districts
se utility would recommend—would enable us to com-
mand the services of a man who had studied the law
and who, making it his profession, would keep up his
knowledge and acquire tact, discrimination, and ex-
pertness in applying it. He would be more trust-
worthy than justices of the peace, inasmuch as he
would- be responsible for the honest aced intelligent
discharge of his duties, and would not be exposed to
the same temptations that those worthies are to con-
vert his power into an instrument of private oppres-
sion. The sole advantage of the institution of justices
of the peace is, that it encourages habits of trainees
application in our gentry, and keeps the law a living