The Sun.
London, England, 1863-07-23 00:00:00

SPIRIT OF THE PUBLIC JOURNALS,

TIMES.—The case of Mr. Bewicke is one of those
in which the honesty and compassion of the public
have a deeper wisdom than the caution of official
persons. It is not wonderful, it is not even blam•
able, that gentlemen in the position of Sir G. Grey
and the Salicitor-General should look at a matter
of this kind in its relation to the general adminis
tration of justice, that they should fear to establish
a troublesome precedent, to excite hopes in others
which they would have afterwards to disappoint,
and, in fact, by giving compensation for one glaring
wrong, to break down the principle that no person
has a claim to compensation for anything be suffers
through the process of criminal justice. In their
eyes Mr. Bewicke's is merely a hard case, and
they are unwilling that it should bring forth bad
law. But though opposing Mr. Berkeley's motion
through a sense of official responsibility, they are
unable to deny the greatness of the victim's injury,
and the scandal which such a wrong, if unremedied,
brings upon the administration of English criminal
law. We think that their reasoning and their con•
elusion were unsound, and that Mr. Bewicke might
be compensated for his extraordinary misfortune
without any breach of sound jurisprudence, or any
chance of the Treasury being besieged by a legion
of claimants. Although the outline of the case will
dwell in the remembrance of our readers, we may
once more mention the principal circumstances :
Mr. Bewicke, of Threepwood-hall, in Northumber-
land, was defeated in an action at law, and the
sheriff proceeded to levy on his property. How this
functionary brought together his assistants does not
appear, but they are alleged to have been men of
the most villainous character. Felons, perjurers,
ife-beaters, drunkards, were, according to Mr.
Berkeley, the executors of the law in that distant
county. The sheriff's officers went to Air.
Bewicke's, but he refused, as he had a perfect
right to do, to admit them to the house, and told
them that there was sufficient for the levy outside.
One of them then produced a pair of pistols,
and Mr. Bewicke, seeing this, went for a revol-
ver. He barricaded himself in the house
while the bailiffs remained in possession outside.
The next day he wanted to fire the pistol out of the
window that it might be clean. He told them what
he was about to do. They answered, "All right,
Sir," and he fired it, doing no harm, and, oceourse,
thought n D
o more about it. But this a. gave o fthe
ruffians the idea of bringing an accusation
at-
tempted murder against him, probarvvi.' ikto w
h the
i s
intention of extorting money.
held to bail, but thought too ligntii ofthe matter
It The sheriff's
to take proper steps to defend ims
he vacs convicted, and
officers swoie up to the mark,
sented to four years' penal eervituNtde. The Trustees
theand
scs a
sthosemanor, seoiztetal
omfrG. rßeeenwai-oiikAoi,sHofusprnitiatul, aros
good
convicted felon. Property to the value of £1,600
or £l.BOO was sold for I:430. At last, after remain.
Mr. housekeeper
Sergeant
ing more than a year in prison, and beingdeplorably
weakened both in body and mind, Mr. Bewicke's
innocence was made
tahpepnaarseen
before
t. His
camewho
, to
London,recommended laid
mended her to an active attorney,
and the result was the issuicg of warrants against
the whole gang, and the conviction of three of them
forconspiracy or perjury, one having turned Queen's
evidence We cannot but think that, according to
the dictates of natural law, a man has a right to be