The Sun.
London, England, 1861-02-25 00:00:00

MR ANDERSON EXTRADI7ION CASE.

THE CONFLICT OF JURISDICTIONS.
(Front the Toronto Leader of Feb. 8.)
On the very day that the writ of habeas eorptis
issued by the English Court of Queen's Bench
arrived in this city, a similar writ was issued by
the Court of Common Pleas here. The question
was which writ should be served first. There was
a strong disposition among all concerned here to
forestall the English writ, and thus supersede the
English court. This has been done. Two advan-
tages, it was foreseen, would arise from this course;
a direct conflict of jurisdictions would be pre-
vented, and the English judges would see that
their interference was impracticable; that the juris-
diction they attempted to usurp in this country was
already being exercised by our own tribunals. The
precedent will serve to enlighten them as to the
degree of judicial independence enjoyed by this
country ; and the failure to execute their writ sent
across the Atlantic will be a good reason why they
should never again attempt to exercise a jurisdic-
tion which they have now the best evidence our
own courts have superseded. In any case the Eng-
lish writ could not have been executed; for no
officer of this Government would have dared to
obey an authority of which he knows nothing—
from which he has not derived his appointment and
does not receive his pay—without reference to the
proper quarter for instructions; and no Govern-
ment would have ventured to advise the consumma-
tion of a threatened invasion of the independence
of our judiciary. All the consequences of a refusal
of obedience to this writ have been prevented by
the timely intervention of one of our own courts.
We have no idea that they would have been serious.
England would have yielded a point which ought
never to have beeen raised, and renounced for ever
all pretensions to exercise a jurisdiction which has
never been attempted to be exercised since Canada
has been in possession of the forms of representa-
tive government. For a long time—from 1791 to
1841—these forms were lifeless—the mere skeleton
of a constitutional system without vitality—and
yet ,luring the whole time that that abnormal and
exceptional state of things lasted, no similar attempt
was made to encroach on the independence of the
judicial branch of our Government. The attempted
encroachment did not take place till we had for 20
years been in the undisturbed possession of local
free government, and 70 years in the possession of
constitutional machinery.
We have no sort of doubt that the action taken
by the Anti• Slavery Society, in England, was
prompted from this quarter. Who the prompters
were nobody is willing to confess. Probably they
were not prepared for the storm of indignation
which has been raised as the result of their action:;
and fancied that the end would be held to justify
the means. However this may be, they are en-
trenching themselves behind a secrecy they do not
think it prudent to reveal. It is desirable that
these skulking invaders of Canadian franchises
should come out of their hiding-places, and con-
fess themselves; for till this is done we shall
never know properly how to apportion the
blame. ,Our indignation cannot rest on Mr.
Edwin James, whose connection with the affair
was merely professional; and the English judges
felt that they had no escape from the musty
precedents to which their attention was directed.
They were placed in a most embarrassing position.
Chief Justice Cockburn foresaw that their writ
might be treated with contempt; and it is evident
from his remarks that he was strongly impressed
with the extreme impolicy of the movement. But
the reluctant bench was tied down, it thought, by
precedents ; and there was nothing for it but to
order the writ to issue. The real blame of the
transaction rests on those who placed the English
judges in this position ; and whom the extreme
impolicy of the movement was insufficient to re-
strain. Who are they ? This is one of the ques-
tions of the: day ; and there is a general anxiety,
not unmingled with curiosity, to get the answer.
Under the writ issued by the Court of Common
'Pleas„ the case will come up for argument on Friday.
What the decision of that court may be is an
eventuality on which we shall not speculate.

V ACKER' S P,4 E,L 211E2V TA RI

COMPANION.

Under date " February, 1861," we have here itr •
the shape of the prettiest little pocket volnmette,-
price sixpence, the thirtieth annual issue of Mr..
Vacher's " Parliamentary Companion." ' -Consler-:
ing the price, the exquisiteness of the it-.e-,-.the'-
cellence of the paper,': 'dance 'Of
the information
_herein 'compacted .together—it
seems ludicrously exacting to say that anything
whatever appears to us to be yet " awanting" is
Vacher's Companion." One deficiency alone there
i., hoWever, that we have anywhere been able to
discover in this welcome little pocket cicerone to
the Lords and Commons. It is happily an omis-
sion that may be very easily rectified in the
very next issue of -the publication. It is the
absence of any guide -whatever (even in the way of a
mere initial letter L for Liberal or C for Conserva-
tive) the absence of any guide whatever to the poli-
tical opinions of the popular • representatives.
Otherwise the companion is all that could je
wished=-certainly,.far mcitelhan could reasonably
have been looked for, even in these days, for six-
pence.

THREE ALLEGED CHILD MURDERS AT PADDING-
TON.--Information was received on Saturday of three ad-
ditional eases of suspected child murders, to be added to the
long list of these heinous crimes so lately perpetrated in
the parish of Paddington—indeed, to such an extent, that
at the present time the parochial authorities have the
matter under their serious consideration. The first case
is that of a female child, found within the enclosure of
Sutherland-gardens by a man named Miles; the second
that of a female child, found wrapped in a bundle after
the usual manner within the enclosure of Upper ITyde
Park-gardens ; and the third is a more serious case, inas-
much as a very fine male child, whose death Dr. Beale, of
Paddington• green, has decided to be caused by drowning,
has been discovered; Wrapped up in clothes, and concealed
in a bedroom at Crayen7hill-gardens. The cook in -the
establishment has confessed herself to be the mother, and
has:been subsequently taken into custody bylnspector Steer,
of the D diyisiell of :police,. on charges of suspected murder
and concealment of WWI. , An inquest will be held upon the
body as soon as the .raother, has sufficiently recovered from
her confinement to be present during theTroceeding. ' The
two other bodies also await an inquest.

_,....,.,.,,0,'