The Express.
London, England, 1867-01-24 00:00:00

MARTIAL LAW.

The letters of Mr. Frederick Harrison on Mar- I
tial Law in November and December last have
been published in a pamphlet by the Jamaica
Committee. In the preface to this collection the
author says :

The following letters were written without concert with
any members of the Jamaica Committee, and without
even a knowledge of the course of procedure recommended
by their legal advisers. Both the committee and those
whom they have consulted professionally are thus entirely
without any responsibility, either for the fact of their
appearance or for any statement contained in them. After
the publication of these letters the committee, without
binding themselves to everything contained in them,
considered it worth while to collect them, and they are
now reprinted accordingly, with some slight alterations
and additions. For everything in them the writer is
exclusively answerable.
It would have been inexcusable, both in the committee
and in tho writer, had they not anxiously weighed the ob-
vious criticism that these letters are written with refe-
rence to a case which is about to be tried in a court of
justice. That criticism has, indeed, been made in no
measured language. lam perfectly prepared to meet it.
It is a fundamental principle that a rule which is
framed in the interest of justice shall not be stretched
so as to work injustice. low, in the first place it can
hardly now be felt certain that this cause even yet
will be fairly tried out. The efforts of • powerful party
and of an organised body of personal supporters may even
yet defeat all the vigilance of the committee and their still
inadequate resources. Until a ease has been actually
brought before a court, men who are interested in vindi-
cating the law have every technical, as well as every moral
right to take every honourable step which may ensure a
satisfactory appeal to justice.
But were it not so, this case is no ordinary
trial for a crime. It is loudly asserted that
no crime whatever has been committed. The most
powerful sections of society, and a considerable portion of
the press, are insisting that a certain line of conduct in a
given state of facts is worthy of all honour, and not at all
of reprobation. Powerful ministers, powerful journals,
and that part of the public which follows their lead,
assert strange and portentous doctrines of constitutional
law. The public mind has been industriously saturated
with ideas, as I bold, most dangerous both in politics and
in law. And we are now told that it is indecorous to ex-
pose them.
. _ _ _

A man accused of an ordinary crime, beyond a few per.
sonal friends who are anxious to establish that he was not
the author of the acts with which he is charged, can look
for 'mall support. Here an accused man has a great
force of adherents, strong in social and political influence,
who are straining every nerve to show that the acts with
which he is charged form in themselves a matter for
high honour and precious example. An ordinary prisoner,
with no political cause at his back, may fairly claim im-
munity from any increase to the load of prejudice which
lies on a man accused of a recognised crime. But one
whose cause has been made a political principle, for whose
defence the public mind has been studiously imbued with
the notion that certain acts are not criminal, but
glorious, can complain of no legitimate effort to clear the
air of the maw of prejudice with which it has been
laden. It is little short of hypocritical to suppress this
inquiry under colour of a rule which has reference to a
private criminal and undisputed crime.
Such a rule has never been respected in any of the
great public causes in our history. Doubtless the
courtiers objected to any allusion to the law relat-
ing to ship.money the moment it was rumoured Mr.
Hampden would bring the case into court. But as
a general rule those who plead in a disputed case a purely
political defence must take the consequence of its being I
made a political question. That this has been the case
here no one can deny. Public writers and speakers, jour-
nals of every shades have never ceased, and do not
cease to discuss this question in all its bearings,•
and certainly the side of the defence has not been the
least active or the least plain-spoken. To pretend that
that which is legitimate in all the world is not legitimate
in a member of the Jamaica Committee, is to say that the
thousand persons in this country who have the greatest
interest and knowledge in the matter shall be silent, inas-
much as they are technically parties, whilst all the rest
are free to speak. Truly, men who make light of great
principles of law, strain hardly at the forms of legal
etiquette.

It will be seen that there is in these letters hardly any
reference to the facts of this case. Certain facts necessary
for the argument are assumed to be true upon the autho-
rity of the report of the government commission. That of
itself abundantly justifies the assertion that gross outrages
upon law and upon humanity have been committed. So far
as the case of Gordon is concerned, the report, in finding
that there exists no sufficient evidence to convict him of the
crime with which he was charged, is tantamount to a finding
that he was unjustly put to death. By whom, under what
state of facts, with what legal justification, is a matter for
a jury. The principles with which these letters deal are
these— that certain acts alleged to have been committed
constitute crimes ; that certain crimes cannot safely be
left uncondemned.

Nor is any inquiry here made into the operation of any
indemnity. I am content that this technical question be
entirely left to the ruling of a judge. If, as some persons
have suspected, there be any official immunity created,
which is yet undisclosed to the public, it would cause a
greater shock to the credit of governments than anything
which has happened in our time. If, again, as some con-
jecture, a new inderanPy were specially passed by the
imperial legislature, for my part I should rest contented,
provided we might draw the preamble in such a way as to
place on recent far ever the true nature of the offences
which had made the indemnity necessary. Public safety
demands that crimes, even more than criminals, should
he ascertained and condemned.

There seems to be a prevalent impression that the ends
of justice may be abruptly checked by the grand jury
ignoring a bill of indictment ; whilst, should the case go
to trial, a successful prosecution is expected. The very
existence of such a belief is proof how deeply the public
mind, in certain sections of society, is believed to have
been biassed by the efforts which have been made. But I
never will believe so ill of any portion of our fellow-
countrymen. They must and they will act according to
their oaths and their duty. Nor will I believe a grand
jury will prove less scrupulous than a petty jury. They will
never, following a monstrous example in that un-
happy island, act in the teeth of their conscience,
and of a judge charging them with all the
noble impartiality and sense of duty which is
the glory of the English bench. The law will be
ruled as the law is ; the facts will be found as the facts
are. lam quite content to abide the issue. I desire only
to know what are the facts—what is the law.

It has been said that the prosecution is absolutely bound
to succeed. Failure, we are warned, would prove the at-
tempt culpable. Timorous and distrustful counsels
themselves insure Ware; and whilst those who are
favourable to the object hold aloof under such counsels,
they are themselves creating the result they apprehend.
It is enough if men, deeply impressed with the solemnity
and burden of the task they have undertaken, do nothing
but what they are advised by the best advice they can
obtain is the only means, and promises to be the success-
ful means, of reaching an end of vast importance. If they
omit nothing that care and foresight can suggest, and uo
nothing except what offers every reasonable prospect of
success, they will have done all that can be asked from
them of the public for the public end in which they are
working. To the public they confidently leave the rest.
Lincoln's-inn, Dee. 20, 1866. FREDERIC HARRISON.

• See gaturdae Reriear,Sperkanr, Pall Mall Gazette, Cle4e,
Standarn/, passim. See she an article bearing chiefly
on the facto of the we in the Late Maga:line and Law
&ricer for November,lB4G, the authorship of which la un-
known to me.

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