New-York daily tribune. [volume] (New-York [N.Y.]) 1842-1866, 1855-11-05

recover, but had been fcIt Dy MIN Is outucu wv
Great to be borne. Private suggestions were gwen
that any reasonable pretext would be sioptcd for
the release Of Mr.. Williamson; and accordingly
Jane Johnsons petition was presented but
true as all its statements psPibly were
and inst az were all its demands, it was
rather too strong to be allowed. AT the same
time. however the court took occasion to open
the door for different arrangement. Other pro-
ceediugs were had, till finally Judge Kane pro-
posed that Mr.. Williamson himself should appear
and take immediate steps for his liberation. Here
upon willing to adopt every means that should no'
compromise the truth or surrender princiPie'
Mr. Williamson petiticned for leave to appear Dc.
fore the court and purge himself o. haf '0ah"pt
because Of rhich he nGS imprisoned
When this petition was presented the district
attorney contepded that the word legally
should be inserted, so as to make Dir. Williamson
admit that he was legally incarcerated, WHICH OF
course be would never have done. But 50 de-
sirous was Judge Kane of extriciting himself from
the detesable position in which he stood, that he
overruled the proposal and allowed the petition to
pass 81 il was Then Mr. Williamson was to an
swer why he had not produced the bodies of Jane
johnson and her children as required by the orlgl
nal writ To this interrogstory bis reply now was
simply Be. cause ii was impossible Here again
the district attorney sought 10 go further and COM
pei him 10 answer whether be would have pro-
duced them had it been possible, but this the judge
also excluded, and upon this answer released the
prisoner.
The case then stands thus Mr. Williamson was
adiudged guilty of contempt of court and was even
d, clared By the Judge to be guilty Of perjury, be-
cause he bad made oath that Jane Johnson and
her sons were not in his custody, wherefore ne
could not produce them.
After beipg held in prison for such contempt for
the period of three months and one week, ne is
AZ last allowed to amend his former answer by
making oath simply that he did not produce those
persons Because it was impossible to do So"
With regard to the essential identity between
these two answers comment is needless.
Had this eclatant act of repentance and sub
mission been sooner made, Judge Kane might have
founded upon it some hope of regaining some por-
ton of those relics of public esteem which may
possibly have remained to him after his conduct IN
the Christisns affair but low it comes too late,
and is too evidently enforced by that supreme power
of public opinion to which even the most obstinate
and audacious offender must sooner or later bow
But the i'll effect of this matter is not confined TO
Judge Kane alone 1t has deeply shocked the
public confidence in the administration of justice
in general and in the efficacy of our laws to secure
the most sacred rights To be a judge was once
title of respect, but at this rate it must soon be-
come the contrary. People talk sometimes of
radicals and desiructiSes who sap the foundations
of society and unt ermine the basis of public
morals but a Judge like Kane does more at a
single blow to shake the social fabric aud retard
the progress of people than the vices of private
criminals in half a century.
In any other northern city than Philadelphia
such an outrage as that which, for more than the
quarter of year, Mr. W illiamson has been the
victim, would have provoked public disturbance.
Certainly there was never an occasion 10 which
revolutionary remedy would have seemed more
truly iustidable But the result as it now stands,
pnts those in the right who hold that violence
should never be employed even for right end
Passmore Williamson comes from his prison at the
peaceful fat of public opinion-released BIZ the
Justice of his cause and by the voluntary omission
of the tyrant who immured him.