The Sun.
London, England, 1847-07-01 00:00:00

THE ROMAN-DUTCH LAW.

The Zuid- Afrikaan, of the 19th of April, publishes
reports of proceedings instituted against Lieutenant-
Colonel Lindsay, for flogging the boy Smith, a youth
who refused to obey some direction given by the
Lieutenant-Colonel, and prefaced the reports, which
we also subjoin, with the following remarks :—Th•
session of the Circuit Court at Graham's Town, held
on the sth instant, has been exceedingly important.
The criminal calendar was unusually heavy, and con-
tained a variety of offences, but the interest of a par-
ticular case appears to have surpassed that of all the
rest. The unfortunate Albany youth, Smith, so
shamefully ill-treated duringthe first act of the Kafir
war, by order of Lieutenant-Colonel Lindsay, had—
assisted by the sympathy of the community—insti-
tuted an action at his own instance, criminal as well

as civil, in order by that process to obtain that re.
dress to which, as a British subject, he had such an
indubitable right. The result of those actions is set
forth in the subjoined report, and we regret to say,
that it is all but calculated to allay the public anxiety
on the subject. The public—that is, in this instance,
the whole colony from one extremity to the other—
had, since the occurrence of the painful event, been
seized by the greatest indignation, and naturally
watched with more than ordinary vigilance the pro-
ceedings connected therewith. Those present in the
immediate vicinity of the place where the heartrend-
ing scene occurred, immediately came forward laud.
ably to support the poor injured person—the son of
a needy widow—sensible that, separated even from
that consideration, the limitation even of such wilful
excess of authority was a matter affecting the entire
community. They have, by adopting that course,
made WI case their own ; and nothing can nor ought
to crew less surprise than the great interest displayed
on every hand with respect to this prosecution ; an
interest not a little augmented by the fact that this is
the first casein which, if we mistake not, an indivi-
dual has been compelled to secure the protection of
the law at his own instance and expense.
It is not our intention at present to enter into
any detailed discussion of the refusal on the part
of the public prosecutor to afford redress to the
injured party in the usual course of law. He is
not bound, we believe, to give any explanation
on that head; nor is it, we presume, of any im-
portance, to be made acquainted with it just
now. The public have nobly taken the case into
their own hands, and we are satisfied that nothing is
or can be calculated to divert them from this honour-
able task. They have the greatest interest in the
decision of the matter, involving a guarantee against
such wanton abuse of power, as is said to have been
committed in the case at issue. It is a known fact
that the most respectable classes of our burghers
have been in the Zeld during the present war, and as
no one is able to penetrate the dark veil of futurity,
and to give an assurance that such service will never
again be required, it is naturally of importance that

the point respecting the exercise of military authority
in such times be for ever properly decided, Any
doubt in that respect cannot fail to have a highly pre-
judicial effect upon the dispositions of the most able
defenders the colony ever had.
The fate of the two actions is, as already stated,
fully set forth in the subjoined report of the trial—
the one having failed on account of a technical ex-:
ception of which the defendant ingeniously availed
himself; and the other referred to the Supreme
Court by the judge himself, We expressly refrain
for the present from making any remarks on these
proceedings, fully concurring in those made by thg
local paper, and which, as will be seen, emphatically
allude to the hardship imposed upon the plaintiff to
send his witnesses to Cape Town—a distance of 600
miles and upwards. But one remark we beg to add
in conclusion, and this is embraced in the question,
what could have prevented the judge to hear the wit-
nesses in the civil suit, leaving the arguments and
the decision thereon to the Supreme Court ? If I
mistake not, this course has been followed in more
than one instance.