Lyon County times. [volume] (Silver City, Nev.) 1874-1907, 1875-03-07
A Hint to Our Judges.

An occurrence perhaps without par
allel was witnessed recently at the close
of the AssiZes at Chester, England, OF
which the Manchester Guardian gives the
following account: Mary Lancaster, thir-
y-three, was indicted for the manslaugh-
ter of her husband, John Lancaster, at
Birkenhead. He had long led the pris-
oner wretched life, and on the 18th Sep
TENDER he came home drunk, and kicked
over the meat she was preparing for his
dinner. He then thrashed her, and in a
passion the prisoner threw at him a
sharpening steel, and caused his death.
The prisoner was hard working woman,
and in spite of her husbands cruel treat
ment of her had done her best to make
his home comfortable. The jury found
the prisoner guilty. Mr.. Justice Brett,
addressing the prisoner, then said: 81 be-
lieve that if l thought it right to act ac-
cording to your own feelings l should say
nothing about this unhappy husband of
yours. AS far as l can see, you were
respectable, Woodworking, well-behaved
wife, and l feel bound to say greater
brute than your husband was l have sell
dom heard of There are circumstances
in the dispositions even worse than those
which have been brought forward. They
show that, even on the very last day you
were together you were doing all you
could to make his home comfortable and
to make him happy. With a brutality
which made mo shudder when l read it,
he cast away that which you had prepared
for him. He was beating and ill-treating
you for months, probably for years, and
it is nothing but the tenderness and
forgiveness of the woman and wife which
prevented you from having him punished
for crimes he had committed against you
time after time. 1t is only when he has
driven you to desperation by ill-treating
you the whole day, and dare say was on
the point of ill-treating you again, that
that you, in moment of passion, took up
some sort of formidable weapon and
threw it at him, l believe, without the
intention of striking him. 1t did strike
him and you Immediately ran for assist
ance, and did all you could to save him.
All the real right in this case was on your
side-all the real wrong on your hus-
bands; and God forbid that should pun
ish you. l will be no party to it. Twill
not even make this judgment complete.
l will not allow it to be said by anybody
that you are a convicted felon--(hear,
hear)-for convicted felon is not COM
plete until sentence is passed, and l
mean to pass no sentence at all. loud
cheering, which for some time the Off
Gals of the court vainly endeavored to
suppress). l shall merely ask you to en-
ter into your own recognizances to come
up for judgment if called upon, and no.
body in the world will call upon you
God forbid they ever should" Renewed
cheering, during which the prisoner left
the dock).
In America this woman would have
been defended on the ground of insanity
and acquitted by the jury, who would
have been compelled to stretch their con
sciences and give free and easy con-
struction to their oath, on the principle of
Bassanio, ''to do great right, do little
wrong" They manage these matters bet
ter in England, and save both the accused
from the unjust operation of the law and
the oaths and consciences of the jury
We commend the precedent to the consid-
Grafton of American courts.-Illustrated
Christian Weekly.