New-York daily tribune., 1855-08-25

munirr which is the forfeiture OF oil your estate, you
have any and imprisonment during tfc.'
Our American Foster, il will be seen, has de-
cidedly improved upon this precedent, for IN.
stead Of giving Passmore Williamson q second
chspce and the permission asked for by his
counsel to amend his return, our sharp Judge
Kane held him strictly to his first constructive,
"cepial." He proceeded forthwith to pass the
sentence Of imprisonment during his (Jltge
KsDe's) good wilt sud pleasure; aud undoubtedly
when Wheeler brings suit for the value of the
negroes, or Williamson is indicted under the
Fugitive Slave act, he stands ready aud eager to
forfeit his property also.
Crook, in bis sccount of the proceedings,
states that having in reply quoted the Apostle
James, the efJustice called on the execa-
toner to stop bis mouth, which be did with
dirty cloth and gag. Here again Judge Kane
improves upon his model. He not only stops
WIllismsob's mouth, but gags his counsel also.
Thank Gcd there is in these days what was
unknown in the time Of Chief J Justce Foster,
press which even judges cannot gag
The third case which came before Chief-Jus-
tice Foster, and the essence of which Judge
Kane hiss contrived to introduce into the case
of Pas. more Williamson, was the trial of
Thomas YoDge and others charged with plot
TO sssnate the King, " the invention being"
according to General Ludlow in his memoirs,
Z" that divers thousands of ill-affected persons
were ready utder his (Thomas Yonge's) CON-
"maId TO seize the Tower and the City of
" London; then to march directly to Whitehall
"in order t. kill the King aud Monk, with
resolution TO give no quarter. and after that
"to declare for q Common wealth" This is
evidently the original of the pretended plot (the
basis of all Judge Kane's proceediDgs) on the
part OF Passmore Williamson at the head OF the
Philadelphia pegrOes to cut Minister Wheeler's
throat, and then to de clare sgeneral msnumssion.
But here again our American Judge, with true
Yankee sbrewdness bas improved uPon his mod
ell. In that case the Government was obliged TO
procure testimony BY btibing certain persons
to swear to their knowledge OF the plot and par
ticipation in 1.-THE object being by means OF
the trial and the pretended plot to draw off
public attention from the sale of Dunslrk to
the Frepch-a sort of Kansas affair With which
the public of that day were not very we'll salts.
fed. Judge Kane has not thought it necessary
to put the United States, already good deal
out of pocket for the enforcement cf the Fugi.
tive Save Act, to any such unnecessary ex-
pepse. His own imsg ination and the testimony
of Wheeler, to be had for nothing, he finds amply
sufficient ard quite a, good as that of half
dozen purchased and peIjured deputy-msrsbals.
There is also point of comparison between the
respective positions of Foster and Kane which can
hardly have escaped the keen, not to say greedy
eye of our American Judge. Foster at the time he
sat on the trial Of Sir Henry Yane was not yet
Chief Justice, but only Puisne Judge No Chief
Justice had been appointed, either for the Kings
Bench or the Common Pleas-the difficulty being
as all the leading men Of the bar were Common
wealihsmen, to find any body who could be trusted
by the Government to be put into those places.
After the display of superseryiceable chcane mado
BY Sir Robert Foster in Vane's trial, he was at
once appointed Chief Justice. Should the slave
driving Democrats remain in power, Judge Kane
will have claim to promotion quite as strong, to
cay the least of it, as that of his English prede-
cessor and e1empar.