New-York daily tribune., 1856-01-18
NesuIork DAILY Gtibm,te
NEW PUBLICATIONS.

ATROCIOUs JUDGES: LIVES 81 JuDeEs ISrAMovs As
Tools oF TYRASTs AND INSTRUMENTS OF OPPRESSION
Mlsan.
The design of this volume is clearly pointed out
in the title. Mr.. Hildreth has selected from Lord
Campbell's Lives Of the ChiefJustices' and
Lives of the Chanceors" such portions as Illus
trate the malice, corruption and nfamy of certain
members of the English Bench. He thus holds up
mirror to the magistrates of the present day,
who exemplify in their own judicial character the
iniquities of past age. No space is allotted in
the text to the recent case of Passmore William
son, but the principal documents relating to the
subject are collected in an appendix. Anintroduc-
ton by the editor presents succinct view of the
history of British judicial institutions, containing
much valuable legal information. 1t closes with
the following pregnant passage
History il philosophy teaching by example. From
what Judges have attempted and have done in times
past and in England, may draw some pretty shrewd
conclusions as to what, if unchecked, they may at
tempt and may do, in times present, and In America.
Nor let any man cay that the following pages present
collection of judicial portraits distorted and carca-
tured to occasion. They have been borrowed
word fer word, from the Lires of the ChiefJustces
and of the Chancellors of England, by Lord Camp
bell, himself lawyer and Judge, and though a hb-
eral-mnded end free-spOken man. by no means without
quite sufficient share of the esprit du corps of the
nrofessop Derived from such source, not only may
the facts stated in the following biographies be relied
upon but the expressions Of opinion upon points OF
law are entitled to all the weight of high professional
authority. ,,.,
ancient times and can have paralelism, or but little,
TO the present state of affairs among us here IN Amer-
ca The times which they include are the times OF the
struggle in Great Britain between the ideas OF free
Government and attempts the establishment of des-
potsm and that struggle is precisely the one now
going on among us here in America, with TINS sole
difference that over the water among our British FORE
fathers, it was the despotism OF monarch lnal wa
soupbt to be establishes here in America the despot-
ism OF some two hundred thousand petty tyrants,
more or less, in the shape OF 30 many slavehodes
,sho not content with ording it over their several
plantations, are now attempting-by combination
among Themselves and by the aid OF body OF North
ern tools and mercenaries such as despots always
fnd-to lord over the Union, and to establish the
policy of slavehoding as that OF the nation. Ia Great
BRITAIN the struggle between despotsm and free instl-
tu,ons closed with the Revolution OF l6ss, with Which
these biographies terminate. Since that time the
politics of that country have consisted OF hardly more
than of iostngs between the lns and the Outs, VIII
no material variance between them in their social
;deas Among US the great struggle between slave
holding despotism and republican equality has out
lately come TO head, and yet remains undetermined;
/, exhibits especially in the conduct OF 'he courts
merly carried on in Great Britain That struggle ter
minated at last with the deposition and OF
the Stuart family and the reestabshnent I'D uli 'lgof
of the ancient liberties Of England as embodied IN the
B;l Of Rights And go may terminate, in the re-
dsctop OF those who not content with being bretnieh
seek to be masters to the republican level OF equal ana
common citizenship, and in the reestaolisement oi
emancipation freedom, and the Rights OF Man pro-
claimed in our Declaration Of Independence, as the ma
tional and eternal policy of these United states
Among the British justices who gain new
passport TO Immortality by this volume are Nicholas
Hyde, William Scroggs, Francis North Edmund
Saunders, George Jefreys Robert Wright, aud
others. few brief notes by the editor are added
TO the text no less remarkable for their pungency
than their brevity. Some specimens OF these Will
show our readers that the volume is not exclusively
historical
In America We have no mercenary soldiers, but
nepy of mercenary politicians, almost as much to be
dreaded.
Ju., ike our Northern candidates for the Presi-
aencv and the dousbface politicians who contrIve TO
,e, c6osen 10 Congress BY Northern constituencies,
whose rights they then barter away ana oetray'
uxas. We nav suppose. from this charge that MT;
Justice Curtis, of the supreme Court oI 'ae M
S,sts. cot the law retaed in his charge to the Grand
Jmry Of the Massachusetts District IN Consequence o.
wb;cb indictments were found against endeh fhhhl
and Theodore Parker for obstructing the execuon Vi
the Fugitive Slave acton the gfOunu Ia, ,tts
sneeches of theirs llNr hutul =
prefrsd 70 a purpose" and incited to an act OF
resistance to it, thereby making their expression o'
opinion criminal ,:l.,;-a
The recent claim set up in America for iegislattwe w
snnremacy over conscience-a claim cohtenueu io' =.
80 many Of our leading lawyers and divine: not OF
sss blaspbemous and Outrageous than this Gnu" %
Henry Will and belongs TO the same category
II il hard TO distinguish law such as the tushNe
Slave act which sets the moral sentiment al densnce
l.. ~ Cd ~ III nf he
One striking instance, among THOUSAND oo'a oli ~.
courts virtually amount 10. Decisions that ar 70
stand can only stand upon their own inherent recn
tnde and eness and not upon the authority
Of those who make them.
This is the very doctrine lsieiy revived IN h.''s
S;f.rsp, .tspe, ny eome Of our American divlns--