Daily globe. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1878-1884, 1882-12-21
AN ENGLISH VISITOR.
Mr.. Sergeant BaIfenfyne Finds No Differ
eace in the Administration of Justice IN
AnlerirU and E00lQNd.

eRce IN the Standardization OF Justice IN
Anserica and England.
On Friday last Mr.. Sergeant Ballentyne,
the distinguished English barrister, made
a visit to some of the courts of New York
city. lie was received everywhere with the
courtesy due to a gentleman of bis rank
at the English bar, and he appears to have
been very much interested by what he saw.
To reporter of the World he said: ''The
contrast between the English and Ameri-
can courts is not as great as I had sup
posed it might be. I did not,
it is true, see any great case IN
course of trial; possibly if I had I
nigh have beeL more struck with the diff
ference than was. 1t seemed to me that
the judges as body delivered their de-
cisions in the fewest words and in way
that was directly to the point, while the
bar treated them with very real respect.
The speakers that heard were thoroughly
businesslike, and the points of the law
we're argued tersely and ably. 1t must be
remembered, however, thai the solemn
ceremony which used to surround an Eng
fish judge has been very much abated of
late years, and we members of an English
bar can face even lord chancellor without
having the idea that we must bow our
souls before him as before superior be-
ing. When 1 was first called to the bar
things were very different. The dis
lance between the bench and those
practicing before it was very great. There
was an awful dignity surrounding the per-
son of judge that was sufficient to pro-
duce decided sensation in the mind of
any one. This is changed now and chang
ed for the better. Of course, in all out
ward observations of respect and the feel
ing itself, the judges of England are rev.
erenced as much as ever, but the ceremoni-
al has been lessened. In this regard there
is not much difference between the courts
in England and America. We call our
judges My Lord while the lawyers here
call yours Your Honor Quite as much
respect is shown by one form of address
as by the other. was very much pleased
with what saw in your courts, anu only
regret that l did not have the opportunity
of seeing some really great trial. 1 should
think, however, that your system of elect
ing judges for term instead of for life
would be mistake. 1t is not in human
nature that men who depend for their po-
sition upon the votes of the electors should
not endeavor to satisfy those electors in
some way-that Is, if they are anxious to
retain the positions they hold; and if they
have not sufficient interest in the Offices
held by them to care to retain them, it
seems difficult to understand how they can
be particularly efficient. It certainly seems
as though judge should be man who
should be lifted as far as possible out of
any influences which might be supposed
would interfere in any way with his clear
and impartial judgment. do not say, of
course, that the American judges permit
themselves to be Influenced, and, in fact, I
have the fullest belief that such thing is
of the rarest possible occurrence. But it
seems to me unwise to submit them, or in
fact any body of men, to an unnecessary
strain.
II visited one of your jails, and there
found the most marked contrast to the
English system. With us, when a man is
condemned to be hanged, our system is to
prepare him for presumably unpleasant
abode in the next world by giving him a
foretaste of it in this. You seem to fete
your condemned prisoners, to permit all
kinds of popular testimonials to be offered
to them, and to make their last hours as
pleasant as possible. Ladies, for example,
with the sweet but somewhat misplaced
charity of their sex, keep the condemned
we'll supplied with flowers. Then again,
it seems that almost any one with the
shadow of excuse can see the condemned.
With us no one sees a man on his road to
the scaffold save certain designated Off
Gals, the theory being that man con-
demned to death is one dead to the world.
The long intervals given between
the passing of the sentence and the execu-
ton in this country are, find, not re-
garded favorably by some of the gentle
men with whom spoke, and certainly it
would seem that, a decent time being
given, the sooner man to be hanged is
hanged the better.
here which is, I think, habit to be de-
plored. It is the custom of carrying
deadly weapons. 1t seems as though
every man among the criminal classes goes
armed at all times, and the consequence is
shown in such cases as that of McGloin,
whom saw in the Toombs. This same
custom has been spreading of late among
the English criminal classes, and it is rare
that you hear of a burglar being taken in
the act that you do not find he has used a
T0VOIVor, OT CnaI Ou0 WAS 1Ouuu UpOu Hill.
The question is rapidly becoming a very
serious one in England, and I have no
doubt that you will find it one most diff
cult to handle here"
"My lecturing tour in this country will
begin next Friday at Steinway hall. If
the first lecture is a success Mr.. D'Oyly
Carte will, believe, make arrangements
for me to go to Philadelk hia and thence to
Washington, from which place I shall go
to Boston. The arrangements are wholly
in the hands of Mr.. Carte and his agent,
Colonel Morse, and have no doubt that
they will be carried out in the best posi-
BILE way. When get to Boston I expect
to have very great pleasure in seeing the
various public men of whom I have heard
SO much. I am anxious to visit the su-
preme court at Washington and watch its
proceedings, because such a tribunal as
that naturally interests lawyer
AN UNNATURAL BROTHER.
ScGndalOMs Revelations Regarding a
Wealthy Family Residing in a st. Louis
Suburb.
ISt. Louis Globe-Democrat.