The Sun.
London, England, 1870-03-10 00:00:00

LYCEUM THEATRE.

MIS EVENING, at 7.30, TWENTY MINUTES WITH A
TIGER And CHILPERIC: M. Marius, G Vincent, Odell,
A. Cook, Lapierre, and M. Herve; Mesdames Dolaro, Fitz-
Inman, Romanelli, Nellie Nesbit, and Miss Emily Muir.

ROYAL STRAND THEATRE.
Sole Lessee and Manageress, Mrs. Swanborough.
THIS EVENING, at 7, THE HEIR AT LA W: Mr Clarke, Mr
James, Miss Bufton, &c. With THE TOODLES. Concluding
with ISO.

ROYAL ALHAMBRA PALACE. THREE BALLETS
Promenade Concert. Band of 60. Begin at 8. la. Box-office
open fromll to 4.

WOODIN'S CARPET - BAG AND SKETCH BOOK,
Egyptian Hall. Piccadilly, every Evening (except Saturday) at
8; Saturday Monaings at 3. Admission, Is, 2s, 33.

CHRISTY MINSTRELS. St. James's Hall, Every Night, at 8
Wednesdays and Saturdays, at 3 and 8 all the year round.

ZOOLOGICAL GARDENS, Rogent's-lack, OPEN daily (ex-
cept Sundays). Aduilssion, ls.; on Mondays' 6d. Children
under twelve, 6d.

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„Et4iNu

LOADO.S, THUESDAY; MARCH 10, 1870,

THE eagerness of the Legislature to get everything
set right in the shortest possible space of time is
highly creditable ; but it is deplorable that the long
period of neglect and indifference which has but just
closed leaves such heavy arrears of work, that the
most obvious and necesr.zary reforms devolve on pri-
vate enterprise or are abandoned altogether. If ever
there was a question which deserved the patronage
of the Ministry it is the public prosecutor question.
Everybody agrees that serious offences, affecting the
welfare of the whole community, should no longer be
allowed to take care of themselves. Even Conserva-
tive ingenuity has been unable to declare a vacuum
to be an institution, the lack of a public prosecutor
to be a sacred right without which the constitution
would be as nought. Perhaps no topic of the day is
treated with greater unanimity. The last few years
have been fruitful in miscarriages of justice through
this deficiency; for though a murderer or other cri-
minal of the ordinary gross stamp may be readily
brought to book, we have of late been favoured with
many fine samples of the commercial evildoer—a class
of men for whom no gcol provision existed, and con-
earning whom it was difficult to tell whether they
were regular criminals or only unassailable rogues. At
the conclusion of the memorable Overend, Gurney, and
Co. trial, Chief Justice Cocliburn directly expressed a
hope that no time would be lost in supplying the
much-needed want. And yet the bill to provide for
the appointment of public prosecutors makes its
appearance as an independent measure. It is backed
by the respectable but unofficial names of Mr.
Eykyn, Mr. Vernon Harcourt, and two other private
members. Thus there is some ground for anxiety
lest this bill may not get through the House
of Lords in time. The question is simply
one of opportunity. If the Government had
taken the matter in hand, the result would have been
more secure, whereas under present circumstances
the customary ill success of private bills leaves room
for doubt.

The measure itself affords little ground for re-
mark. The second part provides for the appoint-
ment of public prosecutors, who are to be nominated
by the Secretary of State, for districts having a separate
Court of Quarter Sessions, or for any one or more of
the petty sessional divisions of a county, the district
of the Central Criminal Court being specially dealt
with. The prosecutors are to be solicitors or attor-
neys of at least ten years' standing, and are to be no-
minated for five years, the appointment being renew-
aT)le. No public prosecutor can be a clerk of the
peace, or a justices' clerk, nor can he engage in
any criminal case within his own district. A. bar-
rister of not less than ten years' standing may be ap-
pointed as a circuit counsel. In the first part of
the bill the powers of the public prosecutor are set
forth. He may take proceedings at his discretion in
the case of a felony or misdemeanour, the costs of
which are allowed by law. He may also carry on
prosecutions, the costs of which are not allowed by
law, provided the person accused has been com-

mitted by justices, or a true bill has been found by a
grand jury; but the public prosecutor cannot origin-
ally commence proceedings, unless by the direction
of a law court, or a member of the Government.
He may withdraw from any prosecution, if there is
no sufficient ground for proceeding with it. The
circuit counsal is to act as a referee, and to decide
difficult points to which the public prosecutor may
feel himself unequal. Lastly, in order that great
cases may not be left wholly in the hands of small
men, the Attorney-General can assume the direction
of any proceedings that may appear to require it.
These stipulations seem amply sufficient to
secure the end in view. Hitherto, in nume-
rous cases where there has been reasonable
suspicion of crime, the offence has escaped inquiry,
simply through the want of a functionary to take
the initiative. It has been open to private indi-
viduals to do so, and of all the absurdities
characteristic of our noble institutions this proviso

was the most glaring. If a private individual

were aggrieved, it did not remedy his

grievance to revenge himself upon the offender to
whom the loss was duo. A prosecution was expen-

- -
sive and troublesome, and it always placed the pro-

- - -
secutor in a somewhat invidious position. It is not,

indeed, seemly that 'criminal proceedings should be
conducted by injured parties. The object of punish-
ment is mainly to deter others, and as the whole
community gains in this way, so the whole com-
munity ought to assume the duty of prosecuting.

Nor is there any just ground for the apprehension
that the objectionable features of the French system
of public prosecution—the remorseless running to

earth of the prisoner as if tho State functionary

were a special pleader—will be reproduced in

England.

For the apparent over-eagerness to

commit, the unfairness to the accusea, do not

arise from the existence of a public prosecutor, but

from the French mode of criminal procedure, espe-

cially the taking of evidence. So long as we do not
permit the unsparing interrogation of the prisoner

which is practised in France, there can bo little fear
that the public prosecutor will go wrong.

DEATH OF THE HON. F. BERKELEY, M.P.

The Hon. Francis Fitzhardinge Berkeley, the
senior member for Bristol, died this morning at his
residence in Loudon. Ile entered Parliament in
1837 as M.P. for Bristol. His name was closely
identified with the ballot, in favour of which, since
the retirement of Mr. Grote from political life, he
brought forward in the House of Comu►ons an
annual motion.