The Sun.
London, England, 1845-03-07 00:00:00

TfIE MURDER AT

A special report from the keeper of the New Prison, con-
taining a mass of correspondence which had passed between
the keeper, Sir James Graham, the coroner, and several ma-
gistrates, relative to Mr. Wakley's reiterated request to have
the prisoner Hocker brought before the inquest at Hamp-
stead, was read. It appeared that the authority which ena-
bled the keeper ultimately to permit the prisoner's appear-
ance before the coroner's inquest emanated from Mr.Pownall,
who acted as a visiting justice. This act, which was in op-
position to a recorded resolution of the visiting justices on the
subject, gave rise to a warm and animated discussion.
Mr. Itorcn said it was impossible that the court could
pass over this report in silence. The question as to the
power of magistrates to enlarge a prisoner committed in due
course of law could not remain in the state in which it was.
The highest authority in the State had been applied to
for directions upon the subject, and his reply was
a letter which no one could act upon, and which left
them just as wise as they were before—(A laugh.) He
would ask, was that creditable to the Home-office ?—(Hear,
hear.) They certainly had a:, very active and very clever
coroner; but that gentleman's object clearly was to make
his court of more importance than the common law intended
it should be, and this had led to what he (Mr. Rotch) con-
sidered a great invasion of the liberty of the subject ; for, by
the coroner's repeated adjournments of the inquest, an inno-
cent man had been incarcerated for several days, from Thurs-
day to Monday, in the lock-up house, a miserable hole, the
cage at Hampstead, with a broken window, in this most in-
clement weather, and then set at liberty, without any notice
being made of the accusation against him in the verdict of
"grg ineathteerNcoemwfPorrtisoannd, akcicnornessingttobanhisheowhnadacetneorwelxedpge--
the jury, while all that time the really guilty man was en.
e
jmo y
nnt
rienced in his life. The Learned Magistrate proceeded at
some length to denounce the conduct of the coroner as an
invasion of the liberty of the subject, a violation of consti-
tutional law, and wholly uncalled for by the duty which the
coroner had to perform. He was simply to inquire into the
cause of death, which was totally distinct from the duties of
a judicial tribunal. He concluded by moving, in the event of
a difference in the court, " That a committee be appointed to
obtain the opinion of some competent authority on the sub-
ject."—(Hear, hear.)
Mr. SWABEY followed Mr. Rotch, and hoped that the indi-
vidual who had been placed in custody by Mr. Wakley would
bring an action against that gentleman, and so settle the
question better than could be done by the authority of the
Secretary of State, who certainly had not done what his high
office demanded.—(Hear, hear.)
Colonel WOOD, M.P., thought it not their duty to com-
ment upon the conduct of Mr. Wakley, and was doubtful of
the propriety of expressing an opinion.
Mr. Sergeant ADAMS said he knew no power exclit habeas
corpus, or the pardon of the Crown, to move any prisoner.
No magistrate had that power after the order of committal
by the police justice. The Secretary of State, according to
the ancient and constitutional law, had no such power. He
took it that the functions of coroners' juries were something
like those of grand juries, before whom the accused parties
were never produced.
Mr. nu( said that the committing magistrate alone had
the power to remove the prisoner, and he had refused to ex-
ercise his power.
The Hon. Mr. BYNG was certain that the keeper would not
in future enlarge a prisoner out of custody without an order
from the committing magistrate.
. .

The CHAIRMAN siiid tiiat he was not disposed to enter into
the legal question. The keeper deserved great thanks, for
he had been the only person who had been firm, and if no
other benefit resulted from what had taken place, they would
now complete the resolution of the visiting justices, which
certainly was nugatory on the face of it. That resolution►
gave the keeper no power, even in case of habeas, to remove
the prisoner. If to the existing resolution, forbidding the
removal of a prisoner, they added the words "unless he have
a competent authority for so doing," it would then have a
definite meaning. With respect to the removal of locker,
he could only say, that finding the responsibility shifted from
one to another, and the Coroner insisting that he could not
administer justice without him, he was induced to take the
responsibility, as a visiting justice, upon the letter from the
Home-office being brought to him.
The resolution of the visiting justices, with the addition of
the words suggested, was then confirmed, and the report
approved.

ABOLITION OF THE WINDOW TAxEs.--Yesterday
a meeting of the inhabitants of St. Martin's-in-the-Fields
was held in the vestry-room, to adopt measares for the repeal
of the window-tax. Mr. Pugh. churchwarden, in the chair.
Resolutions were passed deprecating the tax, and a committee
of nine appointed to co-operate with the other metropolitan
parishes on the subject.