The Express.
London, England, 1847-02-04 00:00:00

%Mu inttlltance.

SPRING CIRCIIFIM, 1047. •
Bovril WALES Cir.corr.-31r. Justice WittiltrltalL—Swaiwes, Wed-
nesday, March 3. Haverfordwest and town, Thursday, klarch 11.
Cardigan Turalay, March IG. Carmarthen, saturday, March 20.
Bream, leaturday, March 27. Presteign, Wednesday, March 31.
Cheater, Thursday, April 3.
North WALES Ci wen, —Mr. Justice Coltman.—Wekhpool, Mon.
day, Starch 15. Bala, 1 hursdav, March 18. Carnarron, Saturday, •
Marchflosaironle, wedneZday, March 24. Ruthh, saturdaY.
March 27. Mold, Wednesday. Mach 31. Cheater, Saturday, April 3.
NOTICE OF TRIAL.
The following are the West times for which the umal full notice of
trial must be given for the ensuing teethe, : Frb. 5, Frillay, LAncsater.
B, Monday, Apple 1. 10, Wedoesday, Carlisle. 13, Saturdiy, New-
castle and town. 17, Wednrsil iv, Reading and Winchester. 19,
Friday, Northampton and Durbin°. 10, Saturday, Hertford ard
Swans 33, Tuesday, Wham. ft, Wednesday, Lincoln Toth.
Oxford, and Salisbury. 26, Friday, Chertheord and Aylesbury,
March I, Monday, Ilaverfo Ithaca and town, Worcester and city.
Dorchester. 2, Tuesday, Nottingham. 3, Wedne-day, Bedford. 3
Friday. Maidstone. 6, Saturday. Derby, Carnieth, Stafford, Hunting:
don, and Hader. 8, Monday, Bala. 9, Tuesday, Cambridge. 10,
Wednesday, ledeester, Liverpool, Camas-eon, and Carmarthen. 11,
Friday. lanes It, Saturday, Coventry, tehrewthury, can St.
Fallnund'a, Warwick, Beaumaris, and Itodmin. 17, Wednesday,
Muthia, Brecon. 19, Friday, Kingann. 20, Saturday, Norwich.
Hereford, Mold, Prelacies% 0101 Taunton. 23, Monlav, Moornouth.
21, Wednealay, Cheater. .0. Pricrn•. eilimemter and city.

COURT OF ESN'S BENCH.
SCADDING V. LOHANT.—MODE OF MAXING A POOD.-
RATE TINDER THI ST. PANCRAS LOCAL ACT.—Lord
Denman gave judgment in this case, which seas an action of
replevin for goods taken under a distrtss for the poor-rate of
the parish of St. Pancras. The court had directed the
counsel to confine their arguments to the solution of the
question whether the rate relied on had been properly made.
It appeared that it had been made chher on the 12th of
August or the 14th of September, or by the combined effect
of the proceedings of the vestry on the two days. but that
the meeting 4f the 14th of September had not been sum-
mooed for the purpose of making a rate. The court was of
opinion that under the Local Act, 59 Geo. 111., c. 39, the
proceedings of tho 14th of September were necessary to the
completeness of the rate. and that as the summons :sued for
that day did not authorise the making a rate, they were irre-
gu'ar. Judgment for the plaintiff.
THE QUEST V. COON. —CRIMINAL INFORMATION FOR A
LIBEL ON THE CORONER FOX MIDDLESEX REFCSED.—
Lord Denman delivered judgment in this case. which was an
application for a criminal information against the proprietor
and the publisher of the Medical Times, for two libels on
Mr. Wakley, the coroner for Middlesex, which had appeared
in that periodical. The court was of opinion that, without
adverting to the very voluminous nffidaeits, the case might
properly be determined by reference to the topics
treated in the speeches of counsel. The libels
were coarse and violent; they were circulated while
Mr. Wakley was conducting a most important and
delicate inquiry and they charged him with a very grave
offence in the discharge of his duties. The coronet was,
perhaps. of all public officers, the rare that most required the
protection of the court, both from the nature of his functions
w.d the circumstances under which they were discharged.
lathe present case the coroner was entitled to commenda-
tion for having instituted the inquiry, and woald have
deserved censure if he had net instituted it; and
it had been properly admitted by the counsel fur
the defendants that there were statements in them?
libels which could not be supported, and that Mr.
Wakley's charge to the jury had been fair and tem-
perate. Still there were some charges contained in the libels
in which the defendants persisted. The inquest wee one in-
stituted for inquiring into the cause of the death of Frederick
White, a private soldier in the 7th Hussar,, a young man
who for a military offence had been subjected to corporal
punishment, and died shortly afterwards. An opinion arose
that ho had died from the effects of that punishment. Thus
there was a tendency to • belief that there had been
some misconduct in the officers of the regiment
The inquiry, therefore, might involve a charge of
murder if the sentence bad been unlawful, or of man
slaug.uter if there had been wontnence and cruelty in car-
rying into effect • lawful sentence, not only against the
officers who had directed the punishment, but against the
medical officers who were present and witnessed it. To the
latter, therefore, the inquiry was very important, as a ques-
tion might also have arisen whether the death was in any
way to be ascribed to unskilful medical treatment. Mr.
Wikley declared that at the time he summoned the inquest he
did not know the opinions which had been expressed by them.
But he did not call for the official report of their opinions,
but ordered a jury to be summoned, and nominated a sur-
geon to examine into the cause of the de-th. His right to
nominate a surgeon for such a purpose depended on a
statute, by which the consent of a majority of the jury, as
well as the fact that the death was not accounted for by •
surgeon present at the death, or in attendance on the de-
ceased, were made conditions precedent of that right. Mr.
Day, the surgeon so nominated, reported that the
cause of death was wholly unconnected with the flogging.
The coroner was not satisfied, and he, therefore, directed
that the body should be exhumed, and a further examina-
tion take place. He states, that the jurors wished him to
name another medical man to make it, and that he nomi-
nated Mr. Wilson, an intimate friend and former associate
of his own. The court could not hesitate to condemn this ap-
pointment ; for as the coroner had placed himself in opposi-
tion to the view which the other medical men had taken, he
ought to have been careful to nominate • medical man of
known skill and ecknee, and altogether free from any bias
or supposed bias arising from intio acy or similarity of opi-
nion with the eoroT er himself. From this second
examination the coroner directed the exclusion of the
medical men of the regiment, and all other persons
whatsoever. Mr. Wakley stated that the jury recommended
this proceeding; but the court was of opinion that he ought
to have resisted such a recommendation. Mr. Day persisted
in bis first opinion, and said that he had understood that Mr.
Wilson agreed with him in that opinion, and that he was
much surprised to hear Mr. Wilson state before the jury that
the death might have resulted from the flogging. The re-
marks which the coroner made upon Dr. Warren, the sur-
geon of the regiment, invo:ved the inference that
that gentleman might appear in the situation of
a culprit; and the verdict of the jury stated the
death to have been the result of the flogging, con-
demned the system of flogging, end invoked the public
to press for the alteration of that system. It appeared to the
court that it was foreign to the duty of jurors to introduce
such topics into their verdicts ; and that the introducing
them was scarcely compatible with the sober discharge of
their duties. The court found also that Mr. Wakley had
taken the chair at a public meeting called to promote the
object of abolishing flogging in the army and navy, and bad
introduced caustic remarks on the case which had been be-
fore him at this inquest, repelling censures which had been
thrown upon him, and alluding to the very libels of which he
now complained. He had done the same thing in the House
of Commons, and though the court could not properly allude
to what had there taken place, yet nobody could be ignorant
that the proceedings of that house had found their way,
however irregularly, into the public newspapers, and so to
the world at large. There was, therefore, some ground for
the argument that this rule ought to be discharged because
the corplainant had taken into his own hands the redress
of the injury of which be now complained. The defendant,
howeeer,went further,and showed advertisements in M r.Wak-
ley's own paper, the Lancet, of a proposition to present him
with a piece of plate for his conduct in this inquest. This, it
was contended, justified the imputation that his zeal had af-
fected his conduct in the inquiry, and gave rise to the reflection
that he had been ever to find proors end pretexts for cen-
suring conduct which he himself condemned. The court
was bound to say that it had not been unreasonable to put
this construction on his conduct. The court gave Mr.
Wakley fall credit for the sincerity of his opinions on mili-
tary (lugging, the justice of which was proved by the feet
that they bad been adopted by. the state since that time;
but if those opinions had influenced his conduct as coroner,
and induced him to exclude evidence, to utter censures and
to do those things which had been done by him in this case,
he was not in a situation to ask the court to sanction pro-
ceedings which, unfortunately, had been erroneous. In the
exercise of its duty, therefore, the court was compelled to
say that this rule must be disci, urged.—Rule discharged.