The news and herald. (Winnsboro, S.C.) 1877-1900, 1883-03-17
DevIceB or Perjury.

Devices or Perjury. II
OF all cases tried in London in recent
years, the conspiracy case" OF last
week, otherwise the indictment of Ed
ward Lawrence Levy for subornation of
perjury, is. we think, tho most deprcss-
ing, That quondam solicitor OF indif-
ferent repute, long since stuck of the
rolls, should 1.-Two by ''getting up" unreal
cases, educating witnesses, or improving
affidavits, is, no doubt, nothing new,
Old habitucs Of the courts toll stories OF
numbers OF such men--a VIII ole class Of
them once hung about the old Palace
Court-and satirists like Dickens were
neyor tired of holGind them up to public
contempt, or cndoavoring, as he did in
his portrait of Jaggors, to account tor
their impunity. Old lawyers are very
slow to believe i'll ailidavits, and there
once was, If there is not now, regular
trade i'll evidence of aIibi. Nor was the
accused, Levy, exceptionally clever.
Ills agents had risen to the conception
OF teaching witnesses from au imaginary
plan, so that they should not contradict
each other as to localities; but Hindoo
lawyers have for ages adopted much
subtler devices thni: that. An English
Judge i'll Bengal, who suspected fraud
III murder case, onco fancicl that he
had chance Of playing tho part of Solo
mon. -Four eye-witnesscs were examined
apart, and one OF them swore to n deep
shadow thrown by ncighboring tree
across tho victims face, so rendering
recognition ut Il certain distance difficult.
Tho Judge, who was convinced that the
case had been got up, thought he saw
his way, and asked each witness scpa.
rately the direction of the shadow and
the namo Of the tree. They all, how
ever, told him precisely the samo story,
with faint differences, due to tho posi-
tions at which thoy had been standing,
till he was hopelcssly puzzled. That
they should all agree WAS natural, but
that they should all differ slightly. and
differ rs they ought to have differed,
was, Oh the theory Of fraud, incxpIic-
able. 1t turncd out subsequently,. in
time to save the life Of tho accused, that
tho prosecuting attorney had had the
whole scene acted in the place selected,
and tho witnesses had nothing to do but
to keep their eyes open and dcscllbo tho
pscudotruth, and contradiction became
impossible.
The Levy device was gross compared
with that, md the horrible feature Of
tho case docs not, to our minds, lie
there, but in tho case with which the
conspirntors suborned witnesses. Ap-
parently IIcvy's agents picked up casual
acquaintances, promised them a sover-
elgn II the case wore won and ten shl-
hugs If they lost, aud without tho
smallest trouble induced them to swear
that they had seen cart accident for
which damages were claimed They
themselves all confessed tho facts, and
declared i'll so many words that their
evidence was "a pack OF lics," while ono
of them, who Lid signed his ''proors"
but shrnnk from the witness box, nd
mittcd by silence, when questioned by
Mr.. Justice Hawkins, that his reluctance
arose entirely from fear of M Indictment
lorpcrJnry. Another, who also failed to
appear at the trial, SAID in cross. cxami-
nation, i'll the coolest way, che did not
know at tho time what the men to whom
he had referred were wanted for, but if
hc had known ut the time that they
were wanted to commit perjury he
should nave done it. lIo did not think
about what they were wanted for, or
whether what they said was true or
false. If he had not found out before
very likely hc should have gone down to
t1uildforl and committed parjnry. as
the others did" These latter were. of
course, pcrjureIs only in intention; but
there were others who did pnrjure them
selves, and but for accidental circum
stances they might never have been de-
tcctcd.