The Express.
London, England, 1861-01-05 00:00:00

LONDON', $.l TURDA I', IA N. L.

rra persons in this country can read the
piclorecnts delivered by Chief Justice Rom ssoN
and his colleagues in the Court of Queen's
Douala of Canada in the case of JOHN A.oea-
/nn, a fugitive slave from 3liseoun, without
•dsef. emotion. Since the memorable day when
Point :Witoirietii, as Chief Justiciary of the
! se•lte, declared that by the law of England nu man
•could, directly or indirectly, be recognised as holding
property in man, it has never been attempted (or
at least never successfully) to torture the terms of
treaties or pervert the forms of law into a covert
r constructive sanction of slavery. The criminal
laws of Canada are confessedly in all essential
teatures identical with those of the mother
country ; and the forms of procedure, from the
commitment by a magistrate to the highest appeal
in error, have been carefuUy adopted, with every
modern amendment and revision, from the model
system which prevails amongst us. When, there-
fore, we are told that two Supreme Judges out of
three sitting io &i.e. have decided that, under
certain circuuu'tancee, an escaped bondman from an
American State can be followed into British ter-
ritory and reclaimed therein, in order to be
brought back to the place whence ho came, we are
moved to inquire narrowly and jealously what
the exceptional circumstances can have been to
warrant so startling • departure from what we
have been used to regard as • fundamental prin-
ciple of our national polity. If the decision come
to by the Court of Queen's Bench at Toronto be
good in law, there is no reason why 'refugees from
the Southern States of the Union should not,
wider certain circumstances, be seized and impri-
soned in the County of Middlesex as well as in the
County of Brant ; and if, on the contrary, the
judgment of Mr. Justice WLEsx be finally up-
held, there is no more reason why men of the
coloured race should tremble for their safety on
the shores of Lake Superior, than they need do
on the beaks of the Thames. The Ashburton
Treaty, under which the rendition of persons ac-
cused of certain violations of law were agreed to
be reciprocally given up, was an international
compact ; and, even though it could be shown
that some of its provisions had special refer-
ence to the contiguity of the British Colonies
of North America with the territories of the
great Confederation which possess so large
a portion of that Continent, the public spirit of this
country would never descend to special pleading
concerning its imperial obligations, to evade the
moral responsibility that must attach in the face
of the world to any wavering or backsliding on the
subject of personal freedom, no matter what the
locality ivay be. The days of geographical
distinctions of morality are passed and gone
for us ; and we dare not trifle with our
national reputation by tolerating • suggestion of
their revival.

which

What, then, are the special
have induced two of the Ql' /Wen Judges in Canada
to refuse under a writ of habau corp.,. to liberate
a man who for seven years has lived peaceably
and loyally on the fruits of his own industry in the
province of Canada! JOIIN ANDES:WM stauds
charged with having, in the year 1153, stabbed
with intent to kill, StYL&A Drone% a planter of
Missouri, in consequence of which the latter came
by his death. It is not averred or insinuated that
there had been any previous ill-will between the
two ; on the contrary, it is admitted that Dikait.
was a stranger to the unhappy prisoner ; and his
son, then a boy of eight years old, who wee present
on the occasion, having never seen ANDERSON be-
fore, is unable now to identify him. Diuovt,
having casually encountered Ae utaane, who asked
him his way to a neighbouring farm, was led to
suspect that he meant to run away. Acting on
that suspicion, he sought, with the help of four
negro servants, to seize him, in order to send him
back to his so called owner. ANDERAOR Bed ; but,
being hotly pursued, he drew a knife, and in de-
fence of the freedom he was resolved to assert he
so wounded his world-be captor that he died.
Why had be sought to sty / It is the old fearful
story of cruelty and wrong, and of the violation
of every law human and divine, for the sake of
slave owning gain. dime ANoss....m was born on
the property of a planter named Scirroy, and
brought up by him. He is described as having
but little trace of negro descent in appearance,
and we are led to infer that he was a useful if
not valued dependent. At the age of thirty he
was sold to a person named M 'Doealn, who lived
thirty miles distant, while his wife remained the
slave of a neighbour of his former master. In
obedience to the laws of Goo, but regardless of
the laws of man, the husband end wife loved
each other, and wished, were it only occasionally,
to be allowed to meet ; but it could not be.
Amu: Leer after soiiie time made up his mind to
dy, and his devoted wife prepared, not to accom-
pany him, for that would have been impossible,
but to do likewise, trusting that Heaven in its
merry would enable them to meet again in a land
where their taakmastons, they were told, could
separate them no more. The courageous woman
with her only child effected her escape in safety,
and was eventually joined by her husband, who,

unluckily, on his way had encountered SEM',
Duman, and in righteous self-defence had slain
him. After • lapse of seven years, British
authorities were called upon to deliver up this man,
to be burnt alive or 'otherwise tortured to death
for doing what the weakest and meanest of them
would be ashamed not to say that be would do
under similar circumstances. Can this be right
"in this be law' I:an any treaty, statute, or
terPretatiou justify the riders of an English pro-
visos in becoming accessories in the horrible death
of this innocent and true-hearted man ? We can-
not believe it. The thing is too loathsome and
revolting to be credited ; and, come what may, so
greet • crime and outrage mnst not be.
The stipulation which is pleaded by the pursuers
of ANDIERS.PN as entitling them to have him
delivered up to them, is one which, verbiage
omitted, provides that persons charged with the
perpetration of certain universally acknowledged
crimes, such as murder, deadly assault, piracy, arson,
forgery, ke., shall be mutually surrendered, if
the evidence produceable against them be such as
would Calla: then' to be put upon their trial in the
country whither they have escaped. No evidence
has been set up against the prisoner in question of
malice afeeethought, or of his having struck at his
pursuer mare at the lad resort and when ho stood
at bay. Mr. Justice M`LeAx conclusively applies
this test of the justifiability of what he then did—
Suppose Diann had been pursued on British
territory, and that he had there met with his
death from the heed of the refugee, would the
latter have been indicted for any offence known to
our law ? And if not, how can we deliver up a
men as a niurderer for doing that in one place
which we should honour him for doh% in another!
The common-sense interpretation of the Ashburton
Treaty e., that we should do by .tniericruis when
aggrieved all, but no more, than they may be
called upon to do for us. For fear of acci-
dent or misconstruction, the crimes contem-
plated by the framers of the Treaty are eminse-
rated, all of them crimes against public morality
and individual well - being, as recognised
by every civilized country in the world. There is
not a word about special offences or about matters
regarded indifferent lights by different communities.
It is simply and strictly a reciprocity treaty as far
as the ends of criminal justice are concerned; and
no speciality in the municipal laws of either coun-
try can fitly or fairly be made a pretence by either
for exacting services from the other which in the
nature of things could never be repaid in kind.
When Austria called upon our Government in
1853 to give up M. KIMLII:TH and others, or to
prosecute them here, she did not do so on the
ground that they were political refugees, but upon
the pleathat, placed in peculiar circu nistanees to which
there was no parallel amongst us, they had com-
mitted acts which brought then, withinthe category
of offenders against the laws of life and property.
Why did our Government refuse her demand, and
upon what ground ? Specifically because no evi-
dence was produceable which would incri-
minate the accused in the eyes of a British
Judge or a British Jury. We should give up a
murderer who had taken life for private plunder or
personal revenge, as we should expect the Govern-
ment of Austria to do on our demand ; but we
would not be entrapped by the mere misuse of a
phrase into complicity with her vengeance upon
those who had harmed none save in the effort to
break loose from her oppression. The same vital
principle lies at the core of both cases ; and we
hardly know whether the name and fame of
England would be most dishonoured by our
becoming participators in American or in Austrian
injustice.

As arrangement which has been for some time
talked of appears to be ripe for execution. Mr.
SIDNEY HERBERT, in an address to the electors of
the county of Wilts, announces his approaching
elevation to the peerage, and resigns his seat in
the House of Commons. The right hon. gentle-
man assigns a sufficient reason for withdrawing
from a scene in which he has acquired distinction,
when he states that his strength is not equal to
the heavy duties of the lower house, and we need
not inquire further. We are happy, however,
to know that the right hon. member re-
tires in excellent health. Through the favour of
tho electors of South Wilts, Mr. SIDNEY HLRBERT
is kind enough to say, he has represented that
constituency for twenty-eight years, and through
the favour of the Crown be is about to become a
Peer. There is some reality in the right hon. gen-
tleman's obligation to the Crown : by the act of
the QUERN he is called to the House of Lords •
little before the time when he would in the
course of nature succeed his half-brother the
Earl of Pnesanxt, now seventy years of age.
But his acknowledgments to the electors of
Wilts are of pure grace. He owes them
nothing. It is true, as he says, that
they returned him young, and that although
he has often not truly represented them
his seat has never been in danger. That he
should now be willing to give the electors the
credit of the freedom he has enjoyed is most con-
descending. It is to the infinite credit of Mr.
SIDNEY IiZILBERT that in a position secured to him
by our aristocratic constitution—for his seat for
South Wilts was as much his by birth as the rever-
sion of the peerage—he
.should have devoted
himself with unmeasured zeal to the public service.
The public will went heartily to the claim he
makes when he says :—" I have never made •
" toy or • pastime of my position, but have la-
" boured constantly, assiduously, and to the utmost
" of my ability so to discharge its duties as best to
" ensure what appeared to me to be the public
" good." The system which gives men like Lord
ROBERT MONTAOI7 to DOT House of Commons
owes us a great many SIDNEY Hstaseses as com-
pensation, and it will be interesting to watch the
measures taken in South Wilts for providing •
successor to the retiring saamber.