Star.
London, England, 1830-03-25 00:00:00

THE EVENING STAR.

• "LON DON.d

THURSDAY, MARCH 25.
Lady.day.—Holiday at the Bank. ,
FOREIGN FUNDS. TWO O'CLOCK.
Brazil Bch. 5 pr Ct. 711 701 bo.B. 1825, 5 p Ct. 7011
Ditto Acct 72. • Du Account 300
14.,11.1.. Ayr. 14.1%. 6 p Ct. 54 Perna. Bils. 6 Rr 04.110
Odom. Bds. 6 per Ct. Port. Bds.- Dpi Ct.
DO. Ms. 1824, 21 Ditto Acet. 594
Greek Bonds, 5 p Ct. RUN. 13ds. 1822, Spr Ct. 1101
Do.B. 1825, 401 11 1 . Ditto Ace. 1101
Do. Aec. 401 11 401 Sp.Bds. S per Ct. 141
Mex.Bds. S per Ct. 273 281 129 Do. Ace. 21 14f
BRITISH AND FOREIGN Sll A HES, TWO ireviirh,
411 AMIL IPAIN PIM swans.
Brazilian Company 90 5 10 94
Brasilia , Imp. (iss.Xs pm.) 35 20 81 11
Do. National 25 10
United 51es, (iss. at .81 pm.) 40 7.94 10 --
Alliance British and Foreign 100 10 101

Despatches were this day received at the Foreign Of-
fice from Lord STUART DE RoTnsA v, our Ambassador,
at Paris ; and from the night Honourable Sir CHARLES
BAUOT, our Ambassador at the Hague.

Highly ns we appreciate every effort that has hitherto
teen made to effect a salutary and sweeping Reform of
the abuses and errors that have so long disfigured our
Statute Book ; and much as—without any reference
tritever to party feeling—we are disposed to commend
the labours of those who have endeavoured to revise, to

condense, and to simplify the enactments of our Criminal
Code; we cannot be insensible to the oversight which

has been committed, in suffering even a revision of that
Code to have taken place, without being followed by the

immediate adoption of some measure that might expunge
the palpable quirks and quibbles which are still permitted
to exist, even in cases which not only involve the liber-
ties and the lives of our fellow-creatures, but are utterly
subversive of the fundamental principles of Justice, and
calculated to bring the very administration of the laws
into disregard, if not into contempt. We ;Mude to the
technical objections which, notwithstanding all that has
been lately said of the repeal of obsolete statutes, and the
condensation of some hundreds of our criminal edicts,
we find incessantly raised, to the form of indictments,
and to the mere phraseology in which the offences
wherewith the prisoners stand charged, are set forth.
Within the last week, our attention has been called to not
less than three instances of such a perversion of the
simplest dictates of reason and common sense, as would
disgrace a country whose institutions were yet in their
infancy ; and we now recapitulate them, for the pur-
pose of showing that the work of Legal Reform has, as
yet, been very inadequately handled ; and that, though we
admit that much has been accomplished, yet, like Cies A it,
we should count nothing done, while so much more re-
mains to do :—At the Cambridge Assizes, two young
men— William Reade, aged 20, and William Turner,
aged 22—were tried on an indictment charging them
with having feloniously set fire to a barn, stable, and two
stacks of hay, belonging to a Mr. CHALK, of Linton.
Before the prisoners pleaded, Mr. SMITH, who was of
Counsel for them, put in a plea of autrefois convict ; in
support of which he stated that they had been tried for
the same offence, and convicted at the last Assizes ; but
an objection was then taken to the indictment, which
the twelve Judges held to be bad, and consequently
quashed the conviction. The plea now set up, however,
Mr. Baron VAUGHAN pronounced to be unavailable;
inasmuch as the former verdict had not been; fol-
lowed up by a judgment; because they were tried on
an indictment on which no judgment could be entered ;
and therefore no conviction could be made valid. The
trial proceeded ; and a fellow, named Cashbold, who had
married Reader's sister, and who, under a solemn promise
of secresy, extorted an admission of his criminality from
that prisoner, was the principal evidence against them.
To render the testimony of this man still more question-
able, it should be stated, that Cashbold admitted in the
course of cross-examination, that his object throughout
had been, and still was, to retain the reward of four or
live hundred pounds, which was offered for the apprehen-
sion and conviction of the offenders ; and that he knew
he should only be entitled to that reward, on the establish-
ment of their guilt. They were found guilty; and although
it was avowedly the second time on which they had been
tried fox the same offence, and the first indictment was

held by the Judges of the land to be bad, sentence of
death was pronounced upon them ; and Mr. Baron
Vs uctiAw admonished them to prepare for the execution
of that sentence.

We shall now see how far the same principle has obtained
in other cases ; and whether other prisoners tried upon
bad indictments, or arraigned upon indictments which ad-
mitted of exceptions, of the existence of which even learned
Judges are not always aware, have had the same extreme
measure of justice meted unto them. At the Berks
Assizes one William Burkitt was tried on an indict-
ment charging him with stealing a sheep. The fact of
the stealing was distinctly proved ; but as the prosecutor
admitted on cross-examination, that the animal stolen was

not quite a year old, and might be more properly de-
scribed as a lamb, Mr. Baron BOLLAND directed an ac-
quittal of the prisoner. In doing so, his Lordship
stated, that in a case before the twelve Judges, where a
person had been indicted for stealing a sheep, and it ap-
peared that the animal stolen was a ewe, the prisoner was
held to be entitled to be acquitted, because the Acts 7
and 8 of Gao. IV. cap. 22, make it a capital felony to
steal " any ram, ewe, sheep, or lamb ;" and as the Act
vf Parliament madastealisp-a.ewe, and stealing a sheep
distinct ofences, they mold not be charged one for the
attar r
At the Exeter Assizes, a man named Mows Willey,
was indicted for the wilful murder of Thomas Cropp.
The indictment contained ten counts. The first count
notated the murder to have been committed in the County
4 Devon ; and the other counts stated it to have been