The Sun.
London, England, 1864-03-29 00:00:00

SPIRIT OF THE PUBLIC JOURNALS,

PosT.—Amoug tne many aura various measures of
law reform which have been carried into effect dur-
ing the Chancellorship of Lord Westbury none hold
a higher place than those which effected the con-
solidation of the criminal law. The amalgamation
of the statutes which constitute our criminal code
has long been the dream of law reformers, and
various have been the attempts made to realise it.
Committees have been appointed to inquire into
its practicability, and their reports have been pub-
lished and duly canvassed; but some obstacle has
continually opposed itself to the legislation for
which they were intended to serve as a basis.
At length, however, some few years since, the
Legislature passed a series of bills which were de-
signed to incorporate the various statutes and sec
tions of statutes relating respectively to offences
against the person, malicious injuries to property,
larceny, forgery, coining, and the law affecting
accessories and abettors. The statute book from
the time of Charles I. was thoroughly weeded, and
upwards of one hundred acts were either wholly or
in part repealed. Many of their provisions which
which had become obsolete, and served no other
purpose than to mislead, found no, place in the new
acts, and the latter consequently were, at the time
when they received the assent of the Legislature,
considered as forming a concise code of the existing
criminal law. Now that the consolidating statutes
have been submitted to the test of experience, it is
satisfactory to find that the expectations to which
they gave rise have bee❑ fully realised. It would be
impossible for any one unacquainted with the intri-
cacies of our criminal jurisprudence to estimate at
its proper value the effect of this measure of legal
reform. The obstacles which heretofore op-
posed themselves to the easy specification of
the offence with which a prisoner was charged,
the doubts continually raised respecting the
statute under which he should be indicted,
ani the many loopholes left for the escape of the
most notorious malefactors, on grounds of a purely
technical nature, were entirely swept away by the
recent statutes. In so far as regards offences akin
to those prohibited by the acts to which we now
refer, all difficulty has entirely ceased to exist
respecting the simplest and most efficacious means
of putting the law in operation against wrong-
doers. But, after all the most that can be said in
praise of the measures which in part consolidated
our criminal law is that they constitute a step in a
direction in which many advances remain yet to be
made. Since those acts became law the present Lord
Chancellor has urged upon the Legislature the expe-
diency of attempting to do for the entire statute law
that which was in this instance effected with re-
spect to a certain class of Acts of Parliament. Let
us begin, said Lord Westbury, with Magna Charts,
and, turning over the statutes at large, folio by
folio, eliminate from the mass all that have been re-
pealed, or which the lapse of time and change of
customs have rendered obsolete and useless.
Although, however, the assent of Parliament was
given to the Lord Chancellor's scheme, the time, we
fear, is still far distant when we will see it realised.
Meanwhile, however, the work of consolidating the
criminal law might be advantageously proceeded
with. Thera are many statutes which, to the sur-
prise of both bench and bar, are from time to time
raked out of obscurity, and put in operation not un-
frequently to accomplish private and not public
ends. When it is recoitected that the fundamental
maxim of criminal jurisprudence is that ignorance
of the law affords no excuse for the commission of
an offence, it must be admitted that those acts
which constitute offences which they prohibit under
severe penalties should be unusually clear and
easy of reference. Whatever objections may be raised
to a new scheme of general codification, they ought
not to apply to any project for the consolidation of
those portions of the statute-book creating the
criminal law. In ancient Rome it was ordained that
the laws should be transcribed and posted on the
walls of the city, so that all might have an oppor-
tunity of making themselves acquainted with the
nature of the acts prohibited by the State, and thus
avoid, either wilfully or unconsciously, committing
them ; and a most serious charge advanced against
one of the Users (Caligula, if we mistake not) was
that he had the laws written in small characters and
posted so high that it was impossible for the passers
by to read them. But difficult tho Igh it may have
been for the Romans, under such circumstances, to
make themselves acquainted with the laws, such
difficulty was as nothing compared with that expe-
rienced, not merely by the British public, but by
legal practitioners themselves in extricating from a
vast mass of heterogeneous statutes those precepts
intended for the guidance of all, and with which
every one is conclusively presumed to be acquainted.
So few persons take the trouble of studying the law,
that, as regards the public, it might not perhaps
make much difference whether the criminal law
were condensed into a few simple statutes or left in
its present state ; but, as respects the administra-
tion of jestice, the alteration would assuredly lead
to the most important results. Apart, however,
from the question of consolidation, there is abun-
dant room for reformation in the present system
of administering the criminal law. It may well
be doubted whether it is conducive to justice
that the mouth of the accused should be closed.
and that the mere circumstance of being charged
with the commission of a crime should preclude
an individual from tendering his personal testi-
mony in refutation of the accusation. It may
also be questioned whether it is consistent with im•
pattiality or humanity to secure, at the public ex-
pense, professional advocates to prosecute prisoners,
and leave the latter,even on capital charges, totally
undefended when without the means of securing
professional assistance. It is absurd to suppose that
uneducated men or women can be acquainted with
the legal definition of offences, and yet on arraign-
ment they are invariably presumed to be so. The
convict Wright may have been, and probably was,
justly executed; but no one will deny that when
called upon to plead he may have confounded
the offences of murder and manslaughter. The
State has an interest no less great in demonstrating
the innocence of those who are unjustly accused
than in convicting those who have infringed its
laws. Under the existing system of criminal law
administration this is to all appearance lost sight
of. -We presume the accused to be innocent until
their guilt is proved, but we place too much reliance
upon the supposed invincibility of the armour with
which innocence is conceived to invest those who
are wrongfully accused. Our criminal laws have
of late, both in their essence and in their mode of
administration, been considerably modified for the
better, but they still furnish a wide field for the
labours of the law reformer.

HERALD.—The Canada brings us but little news,
but what there is is satisfactory, as confirming pre-
vious reports of the utter failure of the combined
movement of the Federal armies and fleets. Gen.
Sherman has reached Vicksburg after suffering
immense loss in men, arms, and artillery. From
Demopolis, in Alabama, the Confederate General
Polk has issued an address of congratulation to his
men, in which he remarks of Sherman's abortive
campaign, that never did so grand an enterprise
fail so ingloriously. It appears that it was Sher-
man's intention to have captured Selma, in Ala-
bama, but on account of the defeat of Smith's expe-
dition from Memphis, by which he expected to be
reinforced, he was not able to get further than
Meridian. As a reward for his good intentions,
rather than for his success, General Sherman has
been appointed to the chief command in the western
district, which includes Ohio, Kentucky, Tennessee,
Arkansas, and the Cumberland River. if we may
measure hie future by the gauge of his past career,
this appointment is of happy augury to the Confe-
derate armies in those regions. Sherman is now on
a visit to Banks in New Orleans, and is concocting
with him another grand combined expedition. The
Red River, which waters the vast region of Western
Louisiana, empties itself into the Mississippi about
half way between Vicksburg and New Orleans.
At the mouth of the Red River a fleet of Federal
transports is being collected. They are des-
tinued to carry an imposing force from Vicksburg
and New Orleans into a country which lately has
been almost given up to the Confederates. The
army, when started on its mission, is to be joined
from the North by another contingent, from Little
Rock, in Arkansas. In undertaking this campaign
the Federals are but anticipating a great danger,
which has long been gathering over them in the
South-West. Preparations have been long in pro-
gress on the right bank of the Mississippi, the
avowed object of which is nothing leas than the re-
capture of New Orleans. At the very time that the
Federal army, the Federal officials, and a handful
of cringing renegades have been inaugurating the
mockery of a State Government in that very
Southern city, the real governor—the one to whom
an oppressed people give all the allegiance of the
heart, if not of the lips—is addressing them from
beyond the river, and comforting them with hopes
of speedy deliverance. " Ladies of New Orleans,"
writes Governor Allen, "may Heaven guard you
and protect you.
,When the spring time comes you
shall see the grey-coats again, and welcome back to
New Orleans the sons and daughters of Louisiana."
It is to nip this danger in the bud, if possible, that
Banks and Sherman are about to attack the Confe-
derates in Western Louisiana. No help meanwhile
can be expected from General Thomas, at Chxtta-
❑ooga, whose position is now threatened in flank by
the advance of General Johnstone, to Ringold. No
help is to be had from Burnside, still beleagured at
Knoxville. The Confederate army under Polk is
set free by Sherman's retirement and the departure
of the Federal fleet from before Mobile. If, while
the armies of Baoks and Sherman are being slowly
pioneered through a difficult and hostile country
from the banks of the Red River, Governor Allen,

from Opelousas, should m"rch upon New Orleans
from the west, weile Polk moves rqpidly from
the east upon the same point, the most important
of Federal oonquests may slip from their grasp,
and with its loss the evacuation of the whole
south-west would become a necessity. in their
movement towards the city the Confederates
ought not to be deterred by the infamoas
threat that if New Orleans has to be evacuated the
Federl gunboats will first shell and destroy the city.
Such a crime, calamitous as it would be in its re-
sults to the South, would eventually recoil on the
heads of those who had perpetrated it. We do not
for a moment doubt that the Northern commanders
are eatable of it, Though the destruction of a de-
fenceless city would be even more unjustifiable than
the attempt to burn Charleston behind its triple
circle of forts, we cannot affect surprise at any
cowardice or any atrocity on the part of the men
who planned the surprise and destruction of Rich-
man by a cavalry raid, including in the programme
the murder of the Southern President and every
member of his Government. No further attempt
has been made to question the authenticity of the
vile documents on the body of Dahlgren. It is
true that Kilpatrick endeavours to make out that
Dahlgren exceeded his instructions. This is no
more then is to be expected of him. A man who
could place assassination would not stick at a false-
hood ; and it is easy to gloss over the matter when
his wretched tool has died by the sword. The cha-
racter of this chivalrous cavalry officer is shown by
the brutal manner in which he has sought to
avenge his failure, Among the fertile pastures which
skirt the York River in Virginia is one particularly
beautiful tract of country, called King and Queen
County. The industrious farmers of this district
have meddled as little as possible with the war
that has desolated the rest of the Old Dominion. In
this quiet corner they hoped that the rush of battle
would pass them by unharmed, and leave them in
peace to cultivate their corn and tobacco. It was
not to be so, Kilpatrick has failed in his desperate
ride against Richmond. Many of his officers and
men have been taken prisoners, and will be fortu-
nate if they are allowed to share, on equal terms,
the fare of the Bellesle prisoners whom they
wished to liberate. Smarting with rage at the
thought, the gallant Kilpatrick bethought him-
self of the women and children and unarmed
men, on whom he could wreak his vengeance
with impunity. The horde of avengers
swept over King and Queen County. A garden of
Eden in the morning, ere night it was howling
wilderness. Villages were destroyed, dwelling-
houses sacked, homesteads given to the flames, the
inhabitants flying ruined to the fields, punned and
slaughtered. The horsemen of Kilpatrick left their
track in blood and ashes. And so the manes of
Dahlgren were pacified. Can we wonder that
people in Europe she ald turn sickened and disgusted
from the oft recurring news cf a war which is
illustrated by such deeds, and in such profusion
that it has become monotonous in horror ? What
does surprise us is, that there should still be any
left among us, any truehearted Christian men, any
delicate, merciful women, to sympathise still with
a nation the tale of whose deeds reads so much like
the " Newgate Calendar." Revolted by these
histories, it cannot be expected of as that we should
pretend to take much interest in the political
intrigues, the continual changes of command, which
argue the weakness and imbecility of the Washing-
ton misrule. What particular concern of ours is it
whether Mr. Lincoln is to be re-elected, or whether
General Grant is to succeed General Halleck in the
chief command of the armies of the Federal Union ?

TIMES.—A case was tried last week at Cambridge
which may certainly be termed a remarkable one,
though for very unusual reasons. It was a case
admitting of no doubt, of very little defence, and of
as little uncertainty in the verdict. It involved no
heavy damages, affected no commercial interests,
resolved no intricate question of law. In all these
points it was absolntely without importance; but it
possessed, nevertheless, an aspect notable enough
to excite much comment and invite special reflec-
tion. In its actual form it was an action for tres-
pass. The Stewards of the Jockey Club had warned
Mr. Irwin Lewis Willes off Newmarket-heath, and
as that gentleman had appeared there in despite
of their notice, they indicted him accordingly. No
doubt the Jockey Club owns the Heath and can
regulate the admission to the ground. In this
sense Newmarket Racecourse is private property.
but, exactly in the same sense, theatres are private
property too, and we can hardly illustrate the case
better than by supposing that the proprietors of
Drury-lane or Covent-garden should, by their com-
mittee or stewards, warn off the premises any thea-
trical critic who had given an unfavourable opinion
of any piece or actor. This they have certainly the
right—that is to say, the power—to do ; but what
would be thought if it were exercised ? What
would be said if the managers of our operas, who,
like the Stewards of theJockeyClub, do enforce their
rights against objectionable characters, should ex•
tend his punishment, as the Stewards have done,
to a writer who had offended them by a report
in a public journal ? Would it not be evident
that such a measure, besides being arbitrary in its
character, was detrimental in its effects to the inte-
rests of the public ? What results from the proceed-
ings at Newmarket is this—that a report from that
place on the doings there may now be regarded as
conveying not what the reporter would wish to say,
but what the authorities of the Jockey Club per-
mit to be said. There is no limit to the " warnings"
which may thus be given. If the system were car-
ried out and applied to other public entertainments
or transactions, an honest, independent report would
be thought an impossibility, and one of the best
securities for public morality would soon disappear.
It is surprising to us that these consequences were
not foreseen by the committee of the Jockey Club.
They are peculiarly interested in the maintenance
of all these safeguards. The morality of the turf,
which they charge themselves with protecting, is
not so solidly established that they can afford to
dispense with any of its supports, and nothing could
aid them more than free criticism and perfect pub-
licity in upholding those principles which, as is ad-
mitted on all sides, they are sincerely anxious to
maintain. It would have been better to put up
with even unmerited or unjustifiable criticism than
to interfere by the exercise of a private right with
the freedom of the Press. That right undoubtedly
existed, but it was a great mistake to extend its
application from cases obviously within its score to
one in which the only offence was the expression
of an opinion.

Legislature of British Columbia,

Oa the 21st of January the first session of the
first Legislative Council of British Columbia, as-
sembled by authority of her Majesty's Order in
Council of the 11th of June, 1863, was opened with
a speech by the Governor, Sir James Douglas. His
Excellency congratulated the colony on this first
step towards a perfect form of representative
government. In the course of his speech he recom-
mended to the favourable attention of the Council
proposals, on the part of the Atlantic and Pacific
Transit and Telegraph Companies, for establishing
telegraphic and postal communication between
British Columbia and the head of Lake Superior,
Vancouver Island and British Columbia joining in
a 4 per cent. guarantee of profit, but their united
annual liability in no case to exceed £12,500. The
public revenue for 1863 amounted to £llO,OOO, and
£65,805 was raised on loan ; the expenditure was
£192,860, and there is also a debt of L 10,700 due
to the Imperial Government. The budget for
1864 shews a surplus of £12,000 at the end of that
year, after paying off the deficiency of 1863 and
the debt of £10,700; but £12,000 will not be
sufficient to meet the extraordinary expenses re-
quired for objects of public utility, the considera-
tion of which will occupy the attention of the
Council. The speech contained the following para-
graph relating to the aboriginal population :—" The
native Indian tribes are quiet and well disposed;
the plan of forming reserves of land, embracing
the village sites, cultivated fields, and favourite
paces of resort of the several tribes, and thus
securing them against the encroachments of settlers,
and for ever removing the fertile cause of agrarian
disturbance, has been productive of the happiest
effects on the minds of the natives. The areas thus
partially defined and set apart in no case exceed the
proportion of ten acres for each family concerned,
and are to be held As the joint and common pro-
perty of the several tribes, being intended for their
exclusive use and benefit, and especially as a pro-
vision for the aged, the helpless, and the infirm.
The Indians themselves have no power to sell or
alienate these lands, as the title will continue in
the Crown, and be hereafter conveyed to trustees,
and by that means secured to the several tribes as a
perpetual possession. That measure is not, how-
ever, intended to interfere with the private rights
of individuals of the native tribes, or to incapaci-
tate them as such from holding land. On the con-
trary, they have precisely the same rights of ac-
quiring and possessing land, in their individual
capacity, either by purchase or by occupation under
the Pre-emption Law, ua other classes of her Ma-
jesty's subjects, provided they in all respects com-
ply with the legal conditions of tenure by which
land is held in this colony." It is stated that re-
porters wil, not be admitted during the debates in
the Legislative Council.