New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1881-12-20
NEW YORK DAILY TRIBUNE TUESDAY, DECEMBER 20, 1881

Tight to try the case; but IL Is 10 10
that. under the common sense rule tlhs oiv
falls to the officer who first gets hold Oh Vho
criminal. At port a thousand miles or 90
from the capital, the Consul has generaiiy 'no
first deal. He next @arraigns" his man, inc
trivial formality of an Indictment being
omitted for convenience sake. IL he thinks IL
useful. be may invite four American citizens 10
sit with him on the trial. From this point the
proceeding assumes many OF the lntereStihs
features of a drum-head court-martial. Au-
instability of evidence, mode OF trial, all the
details, are left practically to the ConsuPs COM
mon sense. The Consul and his associates
agreeing on conviction, it is provided In one
section of the statute that the conviction shall
not be conviction until the Minister approves
II. Another section hints at appellate jurisdic-
ton by the Minister; while yet another makes
il the Minister'S duty to issue warrant OF exc
cution appointing time, place and manner OF
execution, and gives him no power to refer the
case to the home Government except IN view
of such mitigating circumstances as in his Judg-
ment may warrant a recommendation Tor the
Presidents pardon. And still another section
allows appeal, from Japan OF China, to the Cir
cult Court of California, but such appeal shall
not stay the execution unless the Minister GER
titles that there is probable cause to grant
stay of proceedings.
In this embarrassing amplitude of alterna-
tives-not to say contradictons-iti is no ground
for wonderment If Minister, like Mr.. Burlin-
game in the case of Buckley, in 1864, cited by
Mr.. Blaine, should not see his way clear " to
any other solution than the summary extinction
of the culprit by the rope. 1t is doubtful
whether the hanging of any murderer under
our home code could bring to the tribunal con-
cerned sense of relief at having a bad job
soon over like that which Mr. Seward, the
Consul and Alr. Buringamc, the Minister, seem
to have felt OH that occasion, when the poor
wretch was finally swung of with ten-feet
drop, from the balcony of the Consulate, as the
printed correspondence shows, after trial with
out indictment, jury or appeal 1t Is pleasing
to know that, in view of Buckley's brief but
brilliant career rs n dime-novel sort of despe-
RADIO, the foreign colony at Shanghai regarded
his removal rs a social necessity which, if not
entirely judicial was at least eminently judi
cious. Fortunately for our criminal annals, this
appears to be the only case where hanging fol-
lowed onviction,-although there may be
lingering bhllnlot tilsii liit bOuiN idboIth h'i
TO bring about better results, and would have
been more successful but for being unfortu-
natcly baked within three short months by
the suicide of the first convict, and the UNI
timely escape of the second one from Jail.
Mr. Blaine has wise " rcfraincd from minute
analysis of the vagaries of the statutes in this
matter of extra-territorial jurisdiction. An
examination, however cursOry shows that ex-
amples light be indefinitely multiplied. For
instance one section, not cited in the paper now
before Congress, provides that in the absence
of "A Minister all the Judicial duties incumbent
on him shall dcyolve upon the Secretary oil
State. who is required ~ discharge the same
which suggests the spectacle. at the present
time when the mission TO Picking il vacant, of
Mr.. Frclinghuyscn as his first official act, as
Stunning original or appellate jurisdiction at
the Chinese capital, and exercising there the
astounding iuridical powers conferred with such
ample variety by The law, There is no just
ground for argument that, because treaty pro-
visions silence tie native law toward our
fellow citizens accused of crime, they also
silence our own constitutional law, OF empower
its conversion into n mutiatcd and unintelli-
gent procedure abroad. which could not live for
an hour ut home. Ii will be a matter OF sturdy
congratulation If Mr. Blainc's honest present.
mcnt of the question snail awaken Congress to
the need of surrounding the administration of
American justice in the East 10y the inalieua6le
safeguards which pertain to o coart OF justice,
with judges, jury, and proper Federal resort of
appeal. Pin-head justice may be a good thing
in its way. if the pins head be- firm but we are
poverty-stricken indeed if We cannot devise a
better, which, while powerloss to lay the Ban
quo-liac ghost of the judIcally s'rangled
Buckley, will clothc any future hangings out
side Of our own territory, with the sacredness
of unquestionable constitutionality.
THE DRAM-SHOPS or NEW- YORK.
Il any respectable man satisfied with the