The Portland daily press., 1871-12-28

THE annual report of Attorney General
Reed has been transmitted to the Secretary
of State, before publication. Fuller
extracts will be given hereafter The
following are the matters of most general inter
est: t.
. The case of the State against the Peck bonds
men, as the newspapers have before reported,
will come again before the law court in July
next, for hearing which the Attorney General
ventures to hope will be final Judgment has
already been rendered for the State for the
amount of the bond, and execution ordered to
issue for $3.50, 23l.19, with interest from January
18th, 1861, amounting in all to over 1854, 900. A
final hearing has been allowed by Judge Tapley
on exceptions The matter of the State against
Walter Brown and John Wyman, who obtain
ed from Treasurer Peck some $4,000 belonging to
the State, has been compromised, with the APP
proval OF the Governor and Council under the
authority of a resolve adopted by the legislature
of 1871. One of the defendants is dead and the
other well stricken in years, and the claims
have been settled for $4,000.
In the case of Reed Acknowledgement
against the Portland and Kennebec Railroad
Company, an information in the nature of a
writ OF quo aodrranto, to test the validity of the
so-called consolidation of the Portland and Ken
nebec Railroad Company with the Maine Cen
trail Company, the facts Were agreed upon and
arrangements by the Acknowledgement and bv
the counsel for the defendant corporation.
Messrs. j. III. Drummond and ARENAS Libby
were submitted TO the Iuu court In July. No
decision has yet been rendered =
The case of the Penobscot Indians against the
Veazie heirs, an action brought by direction
OF the legislature, to establish the title to the
Grassy Islands in the Penobscot river near Old
town. has been decided in favor of the heirs
Three capital cases are included in this report
the the trial of Edward L. Hoswell, convicted
OF the crime of manslaughter committed at
Hallowell; of John Daily, arrested at Lewiston
for murder, and acquitted on the ground that
the act committed in 1f-da r
Elbridge Reed, convicted of the murder of John
Ray in Penobscot county.
The Hoswell trial illustrates a defect in orr
laws to which the Attorney General adverted
last year, and to which he returns in the pres
ent report. The only witness of the murder
was Hoswelrs wife, yet her testimony was ex-
cluded by her husbands objection, while the
criminal himself was heard. Mr.. Reed argues
that the statute admits the testimony of hus-
bands and wives when most likely to be untrue
ana excludes it when most likely to be true
mus defeating justice for the sake of protect
ing probiematical domestic harmony. In
case IN Mas s husband found his wife
IN the act OF adultery, and pursuing the aduI
terer in, court, was denied hearinS as witness
on the ground that his evidence Would ;r,r,i;
cate his own wife, ''If such should nroua 70
be the law in this State,' says the 4ttorneU
General, "the imitators of Sickles, Cole and
Mcfarland would have nearer approach to a
decent excuse for taking the law into their own
hands than was ever supposed.
Inc method OF taking recognizanceS in Grim
inal cases, the report says is the subject of com
pl-int on the part of the County Attorneys
Any two justices of the peace, chosen by the |
accused, may admit him to BAIL and in certain
cases even reduce the amount; they may take
such sureties as they choose, and exercise en-
tire control of the whole matter. In Bangor.
not long since, prisoner accused of serious
offence, was held by the Judge of the police
court in $1,000 and two sureties offered for that
sum were refused because by their own show
ing they were not worth so much. The bail
was afterwards increased to $4,000, and the
prisoner went to Jail; but that night two JUS
tees OF the peace accepted sureties for $10,-
900 the very men whom the police judge had in
open court, in the same case, on the same day,
refused for $1,000. The Attorney General OBJ, |
serves that since justices of the peace have been
deprived of most of their Judicial functions by |
the laws creating trial justices, the character Of
these functionories has materially changed, and
our system of bail ought to be changed accord
ingly. ''0oAo
~ Inc i County Treasurers are again delinquent.
.oss snan onethird of them having reported the
expenses ea OF criminal proceedings in their seve-
Judge Murray Morrison Of +bo 17+t, Co1;eor