The Sun.
London, England, 1828-04-07 00:00:00

.PIRIT OF Tilt VUtLIC JOURNALS

A Scotch Jury has, according to a Report
which we have copied from the Edinburgh
Observer, cast two Justices of the Peace in
2001. damages to a shoemaker, notwithstanding
a laboured 'charge from Lord. Chief Co.mmi-
eioner Adam, who has evidently been indebted
to his long practice in England, for a doctrine
which gives complete impunity to all Magi-
strates, if a corrupt motive cannot be proved.
he shoemaker having been . sued for an offence
Laws, before the Justices of
against.the Game
Peace of the County of Kincardine; assembled
himself the mercy dale
at Stonehaven, threw
Court, and Said, as he had to support an aged
father and mother, 114 'hoped as much leniency
as possible would be shown to Pan. On this
- one Magistrate, Mr. Barclay, said he was not a
fit object for their leniency, as he was not only
as poacher, but also a thief; and referred to
Mr. Boswell, a brother Magistrate; as having
accused him of stealing three Lee-dives, and also
some leather. Mr. Boswell, on being thus ap-
pealed to, said he could not speak as.to the bee-
hives, but he was quite sure as to the leather; for he
was informed of it by a respectable farmer now
dead. The shoemaker was convicted in the full
penalty of 201. It would appear that there was
not the slightest foundation for these imputa-
tions. The Lned Chief Commissioner, in his
charge to the Jury, combats a doctrine laid down
by the Court of essiou, and observes that "an
action cannot lie against a Justice of Peace for
anything done by him in his judicial capacity,
unless it appear that his office has been nerd by
him,. or rather misused by him, as a cloak for
malice and slander ;" and he infers that there
could be no malice in this case, " as it does not
appear that the Magistrates knew any thing about
the prosecutor when the words were ',sea. The
Jury, however, seem to have thought very diffe-
rently from his Lordship ; and wa conceive the
Jury wire in the right. In cases of libel the in-
tention is always inferred from t} e tendency, and
tire defendant is not even allowed to prove an-
other intention than that which is so inferred.
If a man use words of which the obvious tend-
ency is to injure the reputation of another, he is
presumed to have had the intention to injure. In
this case, two Magistrates sitting in judgment on
a man accused, not of any crime, but of an offence
against the Game Laws, involving nothing even
disreputable, charge him hi an open Court with
felony. His character was from that moment
gone ; so that under the pretext of giving
11rea-
e03 for not mitigating a penalty' petty statu-
tory offence, the Magistrates inflicted on him
the most dreadful of ail punishments. A man
branded as a thief is, as a matter of course,
driven holm society ; he can no longer hold up
his head, and existence becomes a burden to him.
Hoot of Court no man dart charge another with
felony without eubjectieg.himsellto serious con-
sequences, on what ground should adifferent
rule prevail in Court , Is the eeptitatiai n of
every man in the country to be at the inere,a of
every one of the foie thousand' squires and par-
eons who have interest enough to be made Jus•
tires clic • Peace ? May a Justice of Peace say
with impunity to any wan charged with a cOn-
travention of some petty police regelation—the
(]tieing on the wrong Side of the road, the sitting
am the shafts of a cart, hi places where it is pro-
hibited under a penalty, the shooting without a
license, and so forth— Sir, you arc a murderer,
you arc a thief, you arc a forget>, you are guilty
of arson ?—Certainty note. They might as well
punish a man for niurd.o.'.i.heft on a charge of
shooting without a lie accuse Inin of
murder or theft when tryi4tehn on such a charge
It would be monstrous tq•a-llew them to be pri-
eileeed thus far. When is made on their
leniency, in a case where -the offence involves
nothing disreputab:c, and the penalty is pecu-
niary, they may reject that claim in silence, or
they may state reasons fur rejecting it, but these
ieasons mug not amount to a crimination of a
higher offence than that before them, for that
'would he punishing without trial. In travelling
beyond the • case before theme the Magistrates
lose their protection, and the Caliianny must be
tidged of by the rules applicable to any case out
of Court. It cannot be necessary to prove the ex-
ietence of a malicious intention, where the inten-
tion must be inferred from the act ; and as the
Magistrates in deciding on a penalty for a game
offence were no more justified in charging the
prosecutor with felony than in shooting him, the
law which would infer malice in the case of' in-
dividuals not on the bench must infer malice in
their case. These seemed to be the views taken
hy the Court of Session, as they were no doubt
the views taken by the Jury. Indeed, no man,
whose heart and understanding have not been
damaged by the sophistry of English judicature,
could possibly fake any other view. But the
Lord Chief Commissioner has unfortunately
taken up the idea, prevalent in English Courts,
that a man may do what be pleases in the exer-
cise of his duty as a Magistrate, with impunity,
if a corrupt motive cannot be brought home to
him:-- horning Chronicle.
Were we asked in what particular the present
Ministry differed most flow that which they
succeeded, we should answer, in their union of
sentiment. It was not that the public took ex-
ception to the parts separately considered, that
they hesitated to put confidence in the Cabinet
of Lord Goderich—it was because they saw, or
fancied they saw, a want of union, and .conse-
fluently of strength in the whole. The Cabinet
was regarded as an assemblage rather than a
combination. We believe the- best friends of
the Constitution, bath in Ch*-ch and State,
would have fled at last for refuge to a pure Whig
Administration, in preference to one which they
looked on as neither " fish, flesh, nor good red
herring." • 'We arc not now inquiring how far
this opinion was just ; we are merely stating the
fact. When the Duke of Wellington, took.
• upon him, by the command of his Majesty, the
task of forming a new Cabinet, it was less the
soundness of his Grace's principles than the
firmness of his temper, that was tile theme
of general panegyric. All men rejoiced that
they should be relieved from the most dis-
agreeable of all states, a. vale of continual
doubt and hesitation.
.eit iS true, that a
few weeks before the breabiag.up of the last Ca-
binet, the demon of discord had crept into
but that was the consequence, not.the cause- of
its weakness. It.fell asunder, not because when
verging on dissolution its particleseisaa. placed
by accident in a state of repul sion,ebut because
even in its healthiest and most vigorous con.
dition, they had never been una state cif *rec.:.
tion. There was all along a lack otpoeitiiii,
qualities about it. Its -amity was but a rive.
non of hostility, its union of .dissent, confi-'; ,
deuce of distrust.. How happened thts? Not;
because the men who wade up that Cabinet.
were dishonest or inaintere assuredly. Far be'
it from us to impute any thing but what is
,
honoutabla Marig and conduct to such
men as the Marquis of Lansdowne, or Lord