Volcano weekly ledger., 1855-12-22
From the AAa Caicfornia.
Justice in England No Respect for Per-

We published yesterday few extracts in
relation to the trial of Sir John Dean Paul
and his partners, bankers of London under
the firm of Strahan 4 Bates We have since
received further particulars in relation to their
conviction, and as it furnishes a singular con
trast to trials in California, we cannot forbear,
to some extent, going over the same ground
again.
Strahan & Bates was one of the Oldest
banking firms in England. 1t had received
on deposit from various persons large amounts
of public securities, on which interest was
paid annually These securities were convert
ed to the use of the firm, and ultimately ex-
pended in extravagant living and various
speculations The partners were then prose-
cuted on a charge of felony, and a conviction
obtained upon which they were sentenced to
transportation for fourteen years. This SEN
tence carries with it hard labor for the term
named Orr London correspondent has Civ
en- an interesting chapter in relation to the
conviction Of these men, which we copy be-
low, that our readers may compare English
with California law The extract reads as
follows:
The claims of justice have been amply sat
isfed by the punishment inflicted on Sir John
Paul and his partners in business and in crime,
Messrs Strahan and Bates. They were con
victed on Saturday last of the charge of felo-
nv preferred against them-that of having
fraudulently distracted and sold certain secu-
rites entrusted to their care The particular
instance charged against them related to Sc
curities lodged with them by the Rev. DR..
Griffith, to the amount of gl2,000 Dr.
Griffith has lost by them in this way E20 600
altogether, but the remaining GS, 600 or G9,-
600 belonged to a different transaction from
the first named Gl2 1000 and as the ends of
justice were met by prosecution in a single
case, it would have been useless to institute
another The total amount of their embez-
Elements in the same way is ascertained to
amount to Gll3,O00 their total liabilities
of all kinds, for which there are no assets.
amount to five or six times that sum- Well,
these men, reared in the lap of luxury, highly
educated, and moving in the most refined and
polished circles of this metropolis were on
Saturday sentenced to transportation for four
teen years-were in one instant thrust forey-
er beyond the social pale, their names brand
ed as Infamous, and themselves destined to
drag out the remainder Of their miserable ex-
istence in the fetters of the convict (for no
one imagines the possibility Of their surviving
the expiration of their terrible DOOM, in toll
some manual labor, hewing wood, or breaking
stones or digging bitches, or heaying at u
in the company of felons not more
though Of meaner origin, and guilty
Of more vulgar crimes than themselves. Ey-
cry one feels the penalty to to be severe, and
even DIR. Griffith wept on hearingit pronounc-
ed but then every one is compelled to admit
the justice of the dictum of the Judge, Baron
Anderson, once the intimate associate of Sir
}. ID. Paul, that, as he could not conceive of
the possibility of n worse case occurring uu-
der the statute, he felt himself bound to in
fiict the heaviest penalty which the statute
empowered him to administer.
The case furnishes no bad illustration of
The impartality with which our laws are adj
ninstered. Whatever abuses prevail in our
lrmy system, whatever corruptions may exist
n the purely political departments of the
state, the administration of Justice in our
riminal courts has always been above suspi
ion, uninhuenced by wealth, or arstocratic
influence, or political prejudices. Napoleon
8onaparte obtained the verdict Of a Jury in
lis favor in Westminster Hall. in an action
or libel instituted by him against London
in one of the brief breathing spa
res between our long and desolating wars
With the French Consulate and Empire DR..
)odd, one of the Kings chaplains. was hang
d at Tybuin for forgery, despite the unpar-
-lleled efforts put forth by ali parties of the
to obtain commutation of his
entence, on the clear and undeniabe ground
hat ne had never intended ultimately to de-
raud. The Earl of Ferrers underwent n
lmllar degrading death at the same place. for
Iaylns shot his steward, under circumstances
which would certainly at the present day not
'e held to justify higher charge than that
II mansaughter, if they did not actually pro-
ure the acquittal of the homicide on the
round OF insanity Yet he was tried. not by
jury OF tradesmen at the Old Bailey who
hght be suspected of harboring n grudge
galnst the arstocracy, but by the House of
-ordS at Westminster, he having demanded .
be tried % by jury of his peers" priv- /
'ge to which every man is entitled to in this +
oantry' Fauntleroy, the banker, was hanged
I Newgate, in despite of the most strenuous
sertlons OF numerous and powerful friends in .
Is behalf. His case presents the nearest .
aalogy to that of the unhappy men sentenc-
on Saturday last inasmuch as, though his I
lime was forgery and theirs embezzlement, /
leir business Of bankers was the same; they I
i occupied similarly high position in civic |
fairs and in Metropolitan social life, and
ere circumstanced very much alike in many
ther respects. But the case of Capt Moir,
bove almost any other of modern times ex-
ibits the rigid and unbending impartiality
-hich characlnriZas the admini II rntinn Of n1,r