The Rutland daily globe. [volume] (Rutland, Vt.) 1873-1877, 1873-07-15
A SENSIBLE SUGGESTION.

1t is refreshing in these latter days, when
so many men are seeking official position,
no matter how insignificant it may be, to
find body of men, called to discharge GER
tain duties, take common sense view of
the law and custom which have Occasioned
their assembling together. A coroner's
jury, in Brooklyn, Saturday, after having
rendered their verdict upon the subject
matter, which they were called upon to
consider, made, what, perhaps, may be
called, "presentment of Coroners' In
quests" recommending their abolition, for
the reason that they had outlived their use
fulness and necessity. Vermont took this
view of the matter several years ago, but
for another reason, to which we shall pre-
sently refer. 1t has long been obvious,
even to careless observer, that this class
of investigations were conducted in so
bungling manner that they retarded,
criminals, and that so far as the detection
of criminals was concerned, their position
was secondary and unimportant. The
modes of conducting these investigations
are such, and necessarily must be such,
that a suspected person-if he is the guilty
party-is placed on his guard, often in
ample time for him to remove all evidence of
his guilt, or, still more often to enable him to
escape beyond the reach of the law. The
evidence upon which they act is not sought
after or found by them, and if they alone
were concerned in the investigation, Il
guilty man never would be arrested or pun
ished. The detection, arrest, and evidence
to convict, the Brooklyn murderess was
not obtained through any effort of coro-
ner or his jury, but was the work of other
officers, working in different way, and
date source. The evidence developed upon
the hearing, weeks ago, would have enabled
this woman to have destroyed all evidence
of her crime, and insured her final acquittal,
if she had not been possessed of singular
faulty or guided by special providence.
The coroner or his jury had nothing to do
with it,
The saving of the expense incurred by
this cumbersome ''relic of antiquity" was
the moving cause of its abolition in Yer
mont, and becomes an important element
in states where SO many crimes are COM
mitted as in New York Here the matter
is left with the selectmen, who in cases of
sudden death, involving suspicion of vio-
lcnce, may order an investigation by JUS
tice, acting as coroner, without a jury.
Although we talk about coroners and cor
Oners inquests, such an officer was never
known in Vermont, all inquests being held
formerly by a justice of the peace and jury,
and now by justice alone by direction of
the selectmen, upon information THAT the
dead body of any person, supposed to have
died by casualty or violence has been
found, etc. The reform, however, should
be more sweeping than this. The mere
saving of expense that is secured by dis
pensing with Il jury is trifling, and, besides
this, such inquiries are open to the same
objections as the other. There is another
| al5O, CouutCttu WIFI tnt
money question of inquests The investi-
cations in the interests of reform, that
have been made, within the past two or
three years, into the municipal affairs of
several of the large cities of the Union,
have developed fearful amount of fraud
and corruption in this class of cases. The
number of deaths by casualty and violence,
in some localities, bore no sort of proper
ton to the number of inquests There is
and, perhaps, can be no check upon these
officers, 80 hut that they can rob the treas
ury with impunity, either by an addition
to thenumbero of inquests, or a like arithmet-
ical sum as to the witnesses, repeated adj
tournaments, and by other means, which
will only too readily suggest themselves to
these grasping, uncomfortable officials.
But why not sweep the whole, entire
system, and its outgrowths, from existence ?
The suggestion of the jury, in the present
instance, seems sound, namely that sits
place could be effectually supplied by some
legally designated criminal or health au-
thorities, or both combined" The combi-
nation of the two might, perhaps, serve as
a check against corruption and fraud, but,
in any event, the burden would mainly fall
upon the criminal authorities The inves-
LEGATIONS, to be conducted successfully,
must be conducted secretly-that is in
cases where the crime is not committed
openly and the criminal known. The use
lessness of the institution, except as afford
ing good pay to some hungry ward politi-