The Evening critic., 1881-09-23

WE NOTICE from the tenor of interviews
with leading members of the Washington
Bar that that great legal fog-factory is
immense and varied assortment of fine
spun and delicately woven technicaltics
States VS.. C. j. Guitcau. One learns from
eminent ornaments of the legal profession
trict of Columbia happened to die In the
State of New Jersey, therefore the courts of
tho District can take cognizance of no
oficnse on the part Of the assassin, beyond
that of assault with intent to kill This
may be the law of the lawyers, but we
venture to declare that il is not the law Of
justice. The theory that Guiteau cannot
be tried for murder where he committed
his crime, because his victim, in the des-
pcratc struggle to save what little life the
assassins shot left in him, was removed to
seaside resort and died there, may be
eminently professional but it is likewise
eminently onscnsical-which is true of
the great bulk of legal lcgerdcmain.
1t is fortunate all round that the case is
so simple rs it is. There is no doubt as to
who fired the shot no doubt that the bull
let took effect no doubt that the effect pro-
duccd by the bullet was the cause of the
victims death and, finally, no doubt that
the man who died in New Jersey from the
effects Of the bullet fired by Guiteau in the
District of Columbia was the same man
whom Guiteau fired at.
These are facts beyond dispute. Now, to
mako q clear case of murder, three things
are necessary to be proved
a. The identity of the murderer.
(2) The fatal nature of the injury.
(3.) Malice aforethought.
Coroner's inquests, Grand Jury indct-
ments and rules of jurisdiction are mere
mechanical processes, so to speak, designed
to facilitate the consummation of justice
but they are in no sense essential clements
of justice itself.
A coroner's inquest is simply formal
mode of giving public expression to an Of
fetal opinion as to the nature of tho in
jury.
An indictment by grand jury is simply
formal mode of giving public expression
to an official opinion that the person in.
dicted is the person who inflicted the in
jury also that he inflicted it with malice
aforethought.
But neither the Coroner's inquest nor the
Grand Jury's indictment is a trial of the
case, or q contamination of justice. They
are FORMS indeed, made essential as such
by law, custom, and tradition; but, as we
said, they do not enter into the composition
of justice itself. Coming to the third
point-which in this case is the only one
seriously mootcd by the lawyers-to wit
the question Of jurisdiction, what do we
find? Nothing moro nor less than the
theory that because certain distance and
certain imaginary political lines or bound
aries happen to intervene between the place
where the shot was fired and the place
where the victim died from the effects of it,
therefore the assassin cannot DO tried for
murder within the jurisdiction wherein the
shot was fired which constituted the MUIR
der
All this may be legal learning but if so,
1t is altogether too refined and delicate 4
school of learning to fit the practical sense
of the American people, and it is the
absurdest sort Of folly for any lawyer to
advance the bubble that the railroad train
which carried the wounded President to
Long Branch carried with it the gava-
mon of Guitcau's crime and lost the
latter somewhere on the route, leaving for
the operations of justice, we suppose, moth
ing that the courts of the District can take
csgnizance of except matter Of assault on
the I'd of July in the District, with intent
to produce death at some future time and
in another place!
Is that it? And if that isn't it, what do
the able lawyers mean?
Our opinion is that they don't know what
they mean themselves.
Valuable Ground.
| An English contractor lately stated that
some frontage ground In the city of Lon.
don had been sold ut the rate OF n million
sterling the acre; Some ground has been