The Sun.
London, England, 1866-10-05 00:00:00

Act has met with repeated discussion and postpone-
ment, notwithstanding the modification adopted of
confining it, at least in the first instance, to cases of
misdemcunour. It was the main ground of Mr.
Bentham's charge against our law of evidence that
we excluded the persons who know most of the facts.
That grievous defect no longer exists in civil suits,
but in criminal cases we still shut out one party
while we hear the other party, and the evil must
continue while our criminal procedure remains with-
out a public prosecutor one of the greatest defects
in our system. The consequences of excluding the
accused party have been often shown, and petitions
to Parliament have strongly expressed them. A
person is charged with an offence when he could at
once explain all the circumstances and show his
entire innocence, and that the whole prosecution is
a malicious proceeding, but his mouth is shut while
his accuser is heard. Then he has the choice either
of an action or an indictment ; of course he prefers
the latter, when he will be heard and his accuser's
mouth shut. Nothing can be more absurd than
such a state of the law. The French course of pro-
ceeding in this respect is carefully to be avoided,
being one of the worst parts of their very bad
criminal procedure, the examination of parties ac-
cused by the judge at their trial, and their exposure
to the moral torture of this judicial examination.
But it was always proposed that with us the ex-
amination of the person accused should only be
taken upon his voluntarily tendering himself, and
being willing and desirous to undergo the sifting of
a cross-examination. It must be added that each
renewal of this proposition has shown a considerably
increased inclination towards its adoption, more
especially on the modification suggested of confining
it for the present to cases of misdemeanour. The
great amendment to the law of evidence by this Act
for examining parties would thus be rendered com-
plete, if also extended to cases in the Divorce Court.
Of the many deficiencies of the late Ses-
sion one was the not passing an act to amend the
optional clause in the County Courts Act. The
importance of the jurisdiction of these courts has
long been admitted even by those who were at first
averse to them. The number of suits which they
determined is prodigious, and so far they are a relief
to the superior courts, and a most valuable benefit
to the suitors. The numbers have increased since
their foundation. In 1863 they had increased since
1855 in the proportion of three to two, the number
of plaints being above 800,000 for above £2,000,000.
The last return makes the number of plaints for
1865 no less than 782,849,and f 3r sums of £1,847,000.
Now the optional clause is so framed as to require
the previous consent of both parties ; and as the one
would refuse what the other proposed merely be-
cause he proposed it, the clause has had very little,
if any, effect in extending the jurisdiction to other
cases in kind and in amount ; whereas, if the suitor
could begin for a larger amount and for other objects,
it is certain that the great facilities afforded by the
local courts would induce the defendant to acquiesce,
and a very material increase is thus withheld from
that most valuable jurisdiction by the delay to make
this obvious improvement. Butlamentably unfruitful
of measures as the last session has been, the Com-
mons have issued important commissions for inquiry
into the scanda!ous scenes of corruption which too
many of the late elections have displayed, and, with-
out entering into the details, we are bound on the
mass of evidence collected to conclude that in seve-
ral considerable boroughs the grossest bribery has
prevailed, and the inquiry, it is to be feared, has not
been without evidence showing the fact of fla-
grant perjury. It is quite clear that in some places
the right of voting is considered almost only of value
as the means of obtaining money for votes. No ques-
tion can be raised, although we see this attempted, as
to the gross criminality of the parties, both the can-
didates and their agents and the voters ; nor is there
the least common sense in the allegation that the
voters cannot be made to regard selling a trust—
which a vote is—for money as criminal. They must
be made to regard it as such by the infliction of severe i
punishment ; and the candidates and their agents
must also be punished. It is certain that bribery can
only be stoppel by sending those who give and those
who receive bribes to the treadmill, like other of-
fenders. The desire of having a scat in Parliament
is strong enough to make men despise all pecuniary
penalties, but it is not so strong as to make them
run the imminent risk of the treadmill ; and this fear,
though much less effectually, will also tend to deter
the voter. So it was when in 1811 my act making
theslave trade punishable as felony extinguished that
execrable crime, which all pecuniary penalties and
the loss of ship and cargo had not effected, for as
the gains of one adventure covered the other losses,
the traders willingly ran the risk ; but men would
not risk their condemnation as felons. I well remem-
ber the year after at the Liverpool election I was
strenuously opposed by slave traders, of whom I had
said that when this abominable traffic was ended
they could turn their hand to highway robbery. If '
the Commons are really in earnest and wish to de-
stroy bribery, as we must suppose they do, their
course is clear, and we cannot therefore doubt that
they will pursue it. Nothing can be more satisfac-
tory than the working of the act passed under the
sanction of Lord Carnarvon's committee, and the
continued triumph of the Irish, or Sir Walter Crof-
ton's system in this country. To the late improve-
ments in our county and borough gaols it is reason-
able to attribute the greater part, if not the whole, of
the diminution of crime during the last half-year. ,
The employment of Sir W. Crofton by the Home-
office in carrying the act into operation has been
most beneficial. The result of this act should encou-
rage the Legislature to pass other useful laws. But,
grievous as have been the failures of measures or
their postponement, there is one partial excuse for
Parliament, at;least for the Commons, in the amount
of private bill business, and the exhausting and har-
rassing effect of this upon the members, and that
there is a most substantial measure to relieve
them need hardly be again stated. With re-
gard
to that plan, of which I do not claim nearly
the whole merit, but, dividing it with my illustrious '
friend the great Duke, it ought ever to be recorded
in his praise as a signal proof that with all his known
aversion to rash changes in our institutions, yet
when there was an admitted evil and a reasonably
safe remedy no one was more ready to adopt it and
even to urge it upon Parliament. When the ques-
tion was of the new Standing Orders for the House
of Lords, and they were referred to a committee,
" Why not try our great plan," said he, and on my
answering that we never could carry it, " We can
but be defeated," he replied, " and then we can re-
treat upon your less effectual orders." The great
plan was that which we had devised together, and
in which the joint committee of both houses to ex-
amine the whole bill was to report, but only to be
conclusive on the facts, having not only examined
the whole, but acted with the assistance of a judicial
chairman. In considering the composition of the
committee the Duke had at first been for an equality
in the numbers of the two houses, but he ended by
considering that there should be a majority of the
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this plan should not be adopted; and it would be
the greatest possible improvement, not only in saving
time and labour to the members of the two houses,
of parties
but in reducing incalculably the expenses
and lessening the risks of perjury in the evidence
adduced. But the friends of social science have
They
reason to congratulate the public on the great achieve-
ment of the conductors of the Atlantic cable. in
have—beyond the hopes of all,
and against the
prejudices of many—finally succeeded, after the
failure of last year, in this extraordinary and most
important undertaking. The Atlantic no longer
offers an obstacle to direct and instantaneous com-
munication with the Western world, and in a few
hours accounts can come from New York to London
and Paris. A most fit occasion was taken by our
Sovereign to congratulate the American President
on this noble achievement of British art facilitatinc,
the intercourse of the two Continents, and to express
in dignified terms, the sense justly entertained of
his conduct to those wretched agitators who have at-
, tempted to disturb the peace in Canada and in Ire-
laud. It must be observed that the great use of
steam in facilitating not only communication of per-
sons and papers, but intelligence, has largely and
usefully altered the human condition. Every onera-
tion of peace and of war is affected by it ; and it

may truly be said that life is lengthened, and one
object of the philosopher's stone accomplished, when
man can both travel so much more rapidly and
communicate with each other so much more quickly.
In both respects time is saved, and life really made
longer to all intents and purposes. We are now in
Manchester, the head-quarters of the great Alliance
movement, and, next to Rochdale, of the co-opera-
tive system, which, indeed, owes its continued ex-
istence to this place. As to the evils of intemperance,
and the important services rendered by the Alliance
to the good cause, there can be no doubt. But,
whatever difficulties we may have, or affect to have,
on the licensing plan and its excuse (of which ex-
cuse I can speak from having in the village close
by me half a dozen public-houses, and not more
than 20 or 25 others) on one matter no dispute can
arise, and no doubt be entertained. One sees with
astonishment and indignation, in cases before ma-
gistrates in the country, intoxication urged in
extenuation of offences, whereas it is a gross aggra-
vation. No magistrate is entitled to suffer one such
word to be uttered before him on the part of the
accused. Any magistrate is bound to stop the
party or his advocate the instant he begins on this,
and to tell him that if intoxicated he must suffer a
punishment more severe, and the magistrate is
further bound to take it into his consideration when
the prosecutor has stated it in explaining the cir-
cumstances of the case. It is undeniable that a
most wholesome effect would be produced by the
general impression being made that drunkenness,
though by law it may be not liable to punishment,
except by small pecuniary penalty, yet makes
offences to which it has given rise more severely
punishable. The progress of co-operation has been
most satisfactory. In 1862 332 societies did a busi-
ness of £2,331,650. In 1865 403 societies did a
business of £3,373,847. -Whereas, in 1857, there
was only a business of £165,770. The lecturing esta-
blished by Mr. Pitman has had a great effect in giv-
ing this great increase. It must further be stated
that the great body of traders have joined in giving
those under them the incalculable benefits of reduced
hours of work. In all the great towns, as well as
London, the half-time rule seems established on
Saturdays, to the great benefit of the men, both
physically and morally. Co-operation, with its mighty
benefit, is due to the people, and not to the Govern-
ment or the Legislature. So are the institutions
founded and conducted by private individuals,
though licensed by Government, for the refuge of
female convicts, affording astage between the prison
restraints and the return to free intercourse with the
world. It may be hoped that the one established at
Hammersmith will succeed. The Carlisle Refuge
in Ireland, after which it was founded, has un-
doubtedly 'flourished. That great philanthropist,
our much respected colleague, Commissioner Hill, is
highly satisfied with the proceedings under Lady G.
Fullarton for the Roman Catholics, and for the
Protestants under Miss Twining. The formation
of a society for the improvement of the infirmaries
of London workhouses has had important conse-
quences. The papers read at more than one of our
Congresses by Misses Twining, Cobbe, Elliot, and
others, led to this society, and its recommendations
have been received with great kindness, both by Mr.
G. Hardy and his predecessor in office ; so that the
matter will be brought before Parliament, and must
lead to the removal of the abuses so justly complained
of. If so great have been the disappointments at
home, have we anything to console us when we
turn our eyes abroad ? The accounts are so con-
flicting that we connot pronounce anything with
certainty on the state of the continent, as to what
may be the distribution of dominion or the continu-
ance of peace. Let us, however, hope that the error
will not be committed of giving a preference to one,
even the best, especially to Hungary. The great
body of the Germans must be considered, and the
weight of Austria, both by land and sea, must
never be forgotten, and the united powers of
Germany in all its departments be fully recog-
nised. On the whole, there can be no doubt-that the
cause of progress is in a hopeful condition. There
is a general tendency towards free institutions ; and
the States of Germany are in confident expectation
of legislation more or less within the direct influence
of the people. It should seem that the Protestant
interest has gained considerably, and certainly against
the great evils of Austria's defeats must be set their
unquestionable tendency to lessen the Papal power,
and to hasten the departure of the French from
Rome, as well as their securing the liberation of
Venice, at which all our friends must rejoice on ac-
count of the Venetians, and by no means because
the kingdom of Italy had the least right to obtain
this extension of its territories. In France there is
so strong an opposition to the Imperial Government,
and so general a desire of material prosperity, that
there seems good ground for a belief in greater
freedom of discussion being given to public bodies,
and even in some relaxation of the laws respecting
the press also. This, too, is unquestionable, that
great sacrifices have been made, somewhat unex-
pectedly, for the termination of hostilities, that the
Emperor's conduct to prevent their continuance has
been highly meritorious, and that at length a general
peace is concluded. Yes ! peace is restored on the
Continent, and all friends of social science must re-
joice. Its conditions and the arrangements left
by the war are of great importance notwithstand-
ing ; and I cannot help reflecting on the state-
ment which I made more than once in Parliament,
that if bystanders see more of the game than those
who play it, as the common saying purports, there
is a bystander now who, besides seeing the game,
will most probably have some claims to profit by the
result, whichever party gained ; and so it has turned
out that the claims have been made, but most
properly they have not been insisted upon. Whether
the peace concluded is to be durable, or only a
truce, remains to be seen. But whatsoever doubt
may hang over the future, on the grievous aspect
of the past there can be none. In the middle
1 of the nineteenth century a wide-spreading war
has raged, and tens of thousands have perished or
been consigned to a life of wretchedness by their
wounds ; and all this has been made to secure an
extension of dominion or increase of affluence. The
wars of the first Napoleon were hardly more costly of
blood, and yet he was excused for his lust of con-
quest by the services he had rendered in closing the
anarchy of the revolution—an excuse which belongs
not to the authors of the late hostilities. Yet, is it
any real excuse for Napoleon ? and how much is his
nephew to be preferred for his love of peace, and for
feeling by his actual presence and expressing his
deep sense of all the horrors of war ? Although the
glory of war lends its horrible atrocities a false
glare which deceives us as to its blood-guiltiness, in
what does the crime of Napoleon, when he sacri-
I ficed thousands of lives to his lust of foreign con-
quest, differ from that of Robespierre, when he
sought domestic power by slaying hundreds of his
fellow citizens? In one particular there is more
atrocity in the crimes of the latter ; they were per-
petrated under the name and form of justice, whose
sanctity they cruelly profaned ; but, on the other
hand, far more blood was spilled, far more wide-
spreading and lengthened misery occasioned to un-
offending provinces by the invasions of Spain, and
Switzerland, and Germany, and Russia, than by all
the acts of the Comtntttee, the Convention, and the
Revolutionary Tribunal. Nor will mankind ever be
free from the scourge of war until they learn to call
things by their proper names, to give crimes the
same epithets, whatever outward form they may
assume, and to regard with equal abhorrence the
conqueror who slakes his thirst of dominion with
the blood of his fellow creatures, and the more vul-
gar ciimitial, who is executed for taking the life of
a wayfaring man that he may seize upon his purse.
We hesitate not to shed the blood of the common
felon, and even those most averse to capital punish-
ment make an exception against the murderer.
Thus there is no difficulty in prosecuting mur-
derers, and the juries convict, who in cases of theft
or embezzlement, or even forgery, would hesitate.
Such is the univcral horror of murder, or of attempts
agratiradloe
committal.l slaughter
o '.then,
ltteenn;
wohycommit
of thousands, some with tolerance, and some even
to
the
same it, a
with approval ? sties tef s
" Ono to destroy is murder by the
And gibbets keep the lifted hand in awe ;
To murder thousands takes a specious name,
War's glorious art, and gives immortal fame."
Young, Universal Passion, Sect. vii.
Such is the result of war, and, while men will fight