The Sun.
London, England, 1863-08-25 00:00:00

THAMES.

ABUSIVE LAxnuAGE.—Mr, Woolrych and Mr. Partridge
have both resolved, with a view to the diminution of the
increased and increasing business of the court, to abstain
from issuing " abusive language summonses," except in
cases of persecution, or where breaches of the peace are
likely to be occasioned. The surathonses for abusive lan-
guage have taken up a good deal of time, and been produc-
tive of scenes of confusion and disorder both inside and out-•
side the court, and in nine cases out of ten have ended in
the defendant being fined 25., while the complainant has
been ordered to pay the costs of the summons, amounting
to a like sum, or the absurd and empty form has been gone
through of binding over one or both parties to the suit in their
own recognisances to keep the peace towards each other for
one or two years. The recognisances have been in most
cases broken, directly they have been entered, by mutual
threats, ievilings, and fights in the passage of the court or
the street opposite. In fact, the abusive language sum-
monses have given rise to more obscene and filthy language,
blasphemy, threats, and violence, than the clause in the
Police Act giving magistrates jurisdiction was ever des-
tined to care. The time of the magistrates has been wasted
in ascertaining whether one woman threatened to wash her
hands in another's blood,knock her head off, make garters of
her intestines, or a fiddlestick of her back bone. These and
many more ridiculous threats may be found in the
peace-warrant and abusive language books. The late
Mr. Ballantine, an astute man of the world, and one of
the best magistrates that ever presided in this court, said
that much as bad language and roughness was to be de-
plored, it was useless to take notice of it, for half the popu-
lation had a tenantcy in common in it,
and that the same
dialogues of oaths and scurrility complained of by the im-
mortal Henry Fielding, in his " Voyage to Lisbon," were
still prevalent on the Thames and its banks ; and that
sailors, as in Fielding's time, gloried in the language and
behaviour of savages. Little improvement has taken place
since Mr. Ballantine made these remarks, but the evil will
be vastly decreased by the magistrates refusing to issue
abusive language summonses. Among many applications
a woman asked the magistrate this morning for a summons
against another woman for threatening to pull her liver out.
Mr. Woolrych—Mere idle talk; take no notice of it.
The applicant—She has told mo five or six times that she
would pull my liver out.
Mr. Woolrych—Go to her and tell her that I would re•
commend her not to pull your liver out. (A laugh.)
The applicant—Can't I have a summons ?
Mr. Woolrych—No, I think not. Lay out the 25., the
price of a summons, to better advantage.
Another woman applied for a summons. Mrs. Wilson,
my next door neighbour, has threatened to make mince
meat of me, said the applicant.

Mr. Woolrych—She will not make mince meat of you,
You should laugh at such foolish threats.
A burly fellow, about six feet high, complained that
another man had threatened to knock his head off.

Mr. Woolrych said that threat had been made use of very
often, but he had never heard of one man knocking off the
head of another, because the thing was impossible. He
would not grant a summons. If the applicant was assaulted
he would issue process.
Others applied for summonses, because such throats as
" I'll do for you," and similar expressions, had been made
use of. Their applications were refused.
Mr. Partridge, who has only been a magistrate of this
court four months,has repeatedly said it was a waste of the
public time, and productive of great mischief, to grant
abusive language summonses.