The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1842-11-08 00:00:00

isitation comes from—

, PRIEST-RIDDEN

and PAUPEI

Legislation, we admit, can do little to arrest this

disastrous visitation directly. But indirectly legisla-

tion can do much. Let its efforts be directed to elevate

the condition of the Irish labourer in his own country.
Let its efforts be directed to the PROTESTANTISING
of that blinded and wretched people ! And it is not
by a temporizing policy—it is not by playing into the

hands of an alien priesthood—that this consummation

can be arrived at. Give Ireland A SOUND SYST

PROTESTANT EDUCATION ! Remodel her electoral
system—that very system which sends annually the tens
of thousands of migratory labourers who reap the
harvests of the British farmer. Bind those labourers,
by the ties of interest and gratitude, to their native
soil ; and England, relieved of the drain upon her
resources, which is yearly made, to feed improvidence
and Popery in Ireland, may once more be able to
shew to the world

" A loyal yeomanry, their country's pride,"

and to raise her labouring masses from the poverty

which now threatens to ingulf thern

Our Police-court is certainly one of the most im-
portant, and, on the whole, best managed establishments
in the town; but we have, nevertheless, witnessed
much within its precincts, and particularly of late,
which, in our opinion, requires considerable amend-
ment—especially in practical details. On the present
occasion we can direct the attention of the public to
one branch or department only, connected with that
tribunal, to the conduct of which we hold strong

exception.
Our present remarks refer to a secondary officer of
the court; and lest it might erroneously be supposed

that we have in reserve some serious reprehensions to
address to his superior, it were but candid to prevent
such impression by admitting, in the outset, that, in
our thinking, our present Stipendiary Magistrate—
considering his short experience as compared with that
of his accomplished and popular predecessor, and the
difficulties arising from the multiplication of cases
amidst the rapidly increasing, and for the most part
uneducated portion of the community in which the
majority of delinquents naturally arise,—it were but
fair, we say, to admit that, under such circumstances,
Mr. Rushton's conduct of his court has, with slight

exceptions, been highly creditable to him as a man and
a lawyer ; that he has greatly improved himself, not
only in his acquaintance with the locality in which he
holds jurisdiction, as regards criminalities and mal-
practices, and with the laws affecting offenders; but

in aptitude to deal with the numerous cases that come
before him, so as to effect, within reasonable hours,
"a daily Bridewell delivery," if we may so term it.
We believe, indeed, that his decisions—though, per-
chance, sometimes rather hastily arrived at—are
founded on his belief of the preponderance of evidence,
and that his errors are those of judgment, his purpose
being to administer the law with impartiality—a praise
which, from us, who have a vivid remembrance of his

previously strong and antagonist opinions, may be
considered great, as it is sincere. There are some
points, however, on which, from want of a personal or

correct knowledge of facts, circumstances, or charac-

ter ; and the too easy credence given to certain classes
of witnesses in preference to others, this gentleman is,
we think, occasionally led into mistakes. On these we
shall hereafter remark, with a view, if possible, to the
future avoidance of such aberrations.
We have now, we repeat, to deal with another func-
tionary of the police-court, inferior in rank and infi-
nitely so in general talent to our stipendiary. We
allude to Mr. Matthew Morris George Dowling. We
know nothing ourselves, and have heard hale or nothing,
of Mr. Dowling as a private individual. Our business
with him is as a public officer only. Mr. Dowling
originally belonged to the Bow-street Police Establish-
ment, from which he came to this town, and filled the
post of Superintendent of the Dock Police. He was,
promoted to the office of Commissioner of Police of the
Borough, which he has held for a number of year, at
a salary of £5OO per annum. His duties are—and we
believe we are correctly informed—to take down all

charges of felony to submit to the magistrates reports
of transactions in the town involving police enquiry ;
to investigate and prepare evidence affecting parties
implicated in, or suspected of, crime, in the locality

especially; and to conduct the necessary correspond-
ence with other police establishments, or other persons,
throughout the country, for the purpose of bringing
to justice offenders known, suspected, or escaped. Mr.
Dowling, we are bound to believe, has executed these
duties to the satisfaction of the magistrates, and of the
town council, by whom he is appointed, otherwise he
would doubtless have been superseded by a more effi-
cient individual : and we may add that we remember
some serious cases (and among them that of " the
Laurel-street gang") in which he evinced praiseworthy
activity, in conjunction with assistant officers, in clear-
ing up the facts, recovering much of the property, and
bringing the several charges home to the delinquents.
Stars will, however, sometimes shoot from their
spheres ; and whether Mr. Dowling's ambition soared
above his rank in our constabulary force, or he was
actuated by other motives, we know not ; but he as-
pired to a higher station some few years ago. He be-
took himself for a short season to the metropolis—
began to study the law, and on payment of the accus-
tomed fees and feeds in due time arrived at the rank
and title of barrister. It is somewhat to be lamented
that gentlemen should so far mistake their forte as to
aim at situations in life, for which their abilities, natu-
ral and acquired, do not qualify them to arrive at emi-
nence. But this is a matter with which we have little
or nothing to do. If an evil at all, it affects only the
individual himself; for, in the moral as in the physical
world, brain as well as water abhors all elevation beyond
its natural and proper level ; and this truth would
soon, we opine, have been discovered by Mr. Dowling
had he taken his place at the bar, like other aspirants,
immediately after his preparatory digestion of Coke
upon Littelton, and sumptuous dinners in the Temple.
Ile probably, however, entertained a prudent presen-
timent that without considerable previous practice, his
career, a priori, would probably be brief—or rather
briefless; and retaining, therefore, his commissioner-
ship, with its . comfortable emoluments, he has since
continued to insinuate himself into a sort of practice in
advocacy at the Police-court,—the better, we presume,
to qualify himself for the higher station which he holds
in expectancy—but to the frequent hindrance and un-
necessary prolongation of the business of that estab-
lishment. He began by endeavouring to enlighten the
court occasionally, by opening speeches on selected
cases, on which evidence was to be submitted, and in
the management of which (always contriving to con-
nect himself with the case) he desired to chew off his
vigilance and legal acumen; but these essays were ge-
nerally. (as they are yet on similar occasions) blunder-
ing and clumsy, and the disjointed matter of his
addresses was much better and more legitimately
conveyed by the witnesses themselves. Nest con-
tented with this sort of display in a small way, Mr.
Dowling has of late frequently come into court
" big with speech," and forthwith—relieving the ma-
gistrate of his arduous duties for the time—has pro-
ceeded to interrogate the witnesses seriatim with all the
formality pertaining to a final court of adjudicature,
but with such singular irregularity and want of tact, as
fully demonstrate a very slender study of "Roscoe on
Evidence." If the first testimony adduced is in-
sufficient, and leaves the matter in doubt, a tail-piece
or after-clap is introduced to clench it—a questionable
sort of justice. We have long marvelled that Mr.
Rushton should suffer this gentleman to assume
the magisterial functions which belong solely to
the bench—that he should tolerate any thing ap-
proaching to this special pleading against an unfor-
tunate prisoner in, after all, a merely preliminary court
of enquiry, as regards felonies and serious charges in
particular. But we take our stand on hither grounds.
We question in toto the strict legality of such inter-
ference. If we are not greatly mistaken, Mr. Dowling
has no right to interrogate the witnesses. It is his
duty to collect all the evidence he can against a pri-
soner, and to sift it before it is adduced—retaining
what may appear valid and culpatory, and rejecting all
that is redundant and irrelevant. But it is not his
province to erect himself into an advocate in that court.

The prisoner ‘Ol be pretty well hedged in by the rigours
of the law without him. We know, indeed

parallel assumption in any court of

'3 OI DO

o elici

the whole truth, may suggest questions to, or advise
with, the bench, on particular points that arise or may
have been overlooked, but nothing beyond this

practic

noticed—a novelty which we strongly repre-
hend—is moreover inconsistent with his own higher,
and as they ought to be unsuspected and impartial,
functions as " the public prosecutor," which, in fact,
he is. His name, in this latter capacity, appears upon
the face of every indictment against a prisoner in the
borough, preferred in courts of quarter sessions and

assizes. If he is an advocate in the Police-court, he
has an equal right to be so in the other courts in
which the case is finally disposed of; but if he should
there present himself in his wig and gown in such
capacity, and take upon himself the conduct of the
prosecution, we imagine that his "learned brother"
for the defence, and even the judge himself, would
soon give him intimation that he was stepping beyond
his authority. On the other hand, if he be an advo-
cate for the crown (which we do not admit), he has no
right to be public prosecutor with his name on the
indictment. The thing, indeed, appears to us to be a
monstrous perversion of the constitutional principles
acknowledged and acted upon in reference to accused
persons in our higher courts of adjudicature. It might
pass smoothly in France, where the system goes even
to entrap a prisoner into admissions; but it is not, we
think, either English feeling or English law.
In the anxiety to procure commitments, Mr. Dowling
frequently permits his zeal to overstep his discretion :
and he is thus sometimes placed in the unenviable
position of having discovered what are vulgarly known
as " mare's nests"—of which we have. some recent
instances. The town was ransacked by him to procure
evidence on two late occasions of suspected arson; and
we venture to say, that no one who reads the evidence
yet adduced, in either case can, for a moment doubt
that—if nothing further be forthcoming—the prisoners
will be acquitted; if, indeed, the Grand Jury do not
cut the bills. This sort of work may be carried further
than justice demands. The charge is one of great
seriousness, affecting even the lives of the prisoners;
and should they be acquitted, on the very doubtful
evidence that has appeared—(and which is not only
possible but highly, probable)—and their innocency
established in candid and intelligent minds, a gross
injustice will have been inflicted : for the world at large
is harsh-thinking and suspicious, and a stigma will
attach to the characters of the • accused from the very

accusation, which even a long course of rectitude of con-
duct on their part may not be sufficient to remove.
We admit that there are strong grounds for suspicion,
and that the offence is one which, for the public safety,
requires the strictest investigation. We do not blame
the committing magistrate, who, under the circum-
stances, had no other resource—pushed as Matters
were to the extreme. But the pursuit for justice, like
the exercise of mercy, should not be overstrained ; for
then—besides the cost of the subsequent proceedings
to the public—the law, in case even of acquittal, be-
comes a two-edged sword, from the cut of which the
innocent themselves cannot escape..

We have received another communication from Mr.
David Welellan, the chairman of Mr. Fawcett's com-
mittee, upon the subject of the placard referred to in
our last publication. The communication in question
will be found in our advertising columns. We have a
few remarks, however, to make upon it, to which we
beg the attention of the electors of Pitt-street Ward,
and of Mr. David M'Clellan in particular.
Mr. Fawcett's chairman says, alluding to the article
upon this subject in our last—

" In that article you have misrepresented (of course, un-
intentionally) the statement, to the truth of which- my honour
was pledged. What was that statement? Not that no such
donation"—viz., of five pounds to the Strangers'. Friends
Committee—" had been given, but that the committee had
ascertained that neither the secretary nor the treasurer had
ally knowledge of such donation having been received, either
last year, (and, `mark', that was Mr. Taylor's assertion,) or
even in this. How had the committee ascertained this fact?
"In the case of the secretary, by positive assurance on his
part, that he knew nothing about it ; and in the case of the
treasurer, by the strongest inferential evidence, both oral and
documentary.

" It was not asserted, that either the treasurer or the se-
cretary had been seen, or that either of them had directly or
indirectly authorized the publication of the placard com-
plained of."

Now, we ask, how did we misrepresent the state-

went, to the truth of which Mr. M'Clellan's " Ho-

NOUR" was pledged ? We gave THE STATEMENT
ITSELF, verbatim et literatim, in which that gentleman
" Mr. FAWCETT'S COMMITTEE are enabled to