National Republican., 1881-06-10
The Star Chamber---A Parallel.

The Court of Star Chamber in England,
which during the reign of the Tudors and
the Stuarts exercised arbitrary power
over the Kings subjects, was branch or
committee of the Kings Council. 1t CON
sisted of such persons as it pleased the
King to designate, and had his will as
the measure of its power. In these re-
spects it resembleG the investigating end
of the Presidents Cabinet in our own
time. This court took its name from the
Chamber where it held its sittings, which
was called the Star Chamber because of
the gilded stars which ornamented its
ceiling. Our Presidents court, while
having the same jurisdiction as the Star
Chamber, would perhaps be more prop
erly called the "Court of Number Fifty
nine," from the name of the room or cell
in the Post-Ofice Department in which
it is held. Says Hume, the historian:
It was the criminal Jurisdiction which rendered
the Star Chamber most powerful and most odioUs.
The offenses of which it took cognizance were per-
jury, forgery, maintenance, fraud, libel, ana con-
spiracy; and generally all msdemeanors, espe-
cially of public kind lClich could not be brought I'M
dstc idC. The regular course of proceeding was by
information at the suit Of the Attorney General, or
sometimes of private person. Dispositions of wit
nesses were taken in writing and read in court.
But occasionally the process was summary. The
accused was privately examined, sometimes
tortured, and if thought to have confessed
enough was sentenced aVittOh any formal
trial. The court had power to pronounce any SEN
tence short Of death. Fines and imprisonment
were the usual punishments, and the fines were
frequently so enormous as TO be ruiRous. Toward
a later period the Star Chamber sentenced TO the
pillory, whipping, cutting off the ears, &c. 1t
ercsed an illegal control over the ordinary courts
ofiusce. in the rcigns of James I. and Charles 1.
its jurisdiction became very tyrannical and often
sive means of asserting the royal prerogative,
and the court was at length abolished by the
Long Parliament.
Disrespect to acts of state and to the
persons of statesmen were, according to
Clarendon, punished as crimes by the
Court of Star Chamber under Charles |.
Hallam, in his Constitutional History"
says:
The object of drawing SO large a number of
criminal cases into the Star Chamber seems to
have been twofold: First, to inurc mems minds to
an authority more Immediately connected aCith The
than the ordinary of law and less tied
down 10 any rules Of pleading or evidence; sec
ondly, to exc out a scanty revenue by penalties
and forfeitures.
So much for the Court of Star Chamber
Now for its parallel-the Court of Num-
Der Fifty-nine. The Kings Council fur
nished to the Star Chamber larger num-
la, Nf off Of totA hoy m
designates for our modern executive tri-
bunal. We see in the latter only the At
torney-General and the Postmaster-Gen-
eral. But these are supplemented by de-
tectiyes, informers, and defamers, who
will not fail to bring the Court of Number
Fifty-nine fully up to the standard of its
infamous model, which, Macaulay says,
g displayed a rapacity, violence, ma
lignant energy which had been unknown
to any former age" The jurisdiction of
the two courts is marvelously identical. AS
the Star Chamber Court tried acts (which
could not be brought under the law" (be-
cause they were not contrary to any law,
so the Court of Number Fifty-nine deals
with conduct of persons which cannot be
shown to be either unlawful or i'm
proper Our Court of Number Fifty-nine,
like its prototype, is calculated to
inspire mems minds with the idea of ex-
ecutive rather than of judicial authority
and power, and, like that, is also in its in
vestigations and conclusions 'less tied
down to any rules of pleading or evi-
dence than the ordinary courts of law"
Whether it is intended as a source of
revenue is yet to be developed.