The morning call., 1890-09-28
BRITISH JUSTICE.
Julian Ralph Visits an English
Police Magistrates Court.

Even the few Americans who have seen
an English police court VIII not all confess
it. Indeed, human conditions are 50 pecu.
liar that l hasten to explain bow l came TO
see one, fol- police courts are not in the
guide-looks, and even stunning" stops at
their doors. 1t was in Birmingham, and |
was in search of one of England's most
noted specialists, who, it turned cut, was n
police magistrate, like so very many other
rich, cultivated and famous Englishmen.
Police magistrates are chosen from among the
leading men, and no: only serve for life and
without pay, but esteem it an honor 10 do so.
They need lot 10 know anything about law,
aud usually do no., but that is about the
only point at which they resemble the
typical American police justice. There must
be an enormous number of these magiS-
tIateS in England. for Birmingham has about
fifty. Large numbers are needed, as they
sit in pairs, each pair serves only on one
day III vcc6, and q large proportion are
too old to 10 anything Of an official nature
except to continue 10 sign their titles after
their names. | went to the Police Court.
which was as gTlIly and as shabby as police
courts and the crowds within them usually
are, and sent my cald to the magistrate by
policeman. 1t interested me TO see the re-
spect shown to tie Judge by the officer,
for the man was afraid to speak or to do the
l+dSl lLlliE lsidl hiEhI dlllSCL the Judge 5
attention. His plan was to stand beside the
bench, my card in hand, un il the magistrate
might happen 10 look that way. Ii seemed
as II his Honor would never turn lis head,
but at last, after delay of rull ten minutes,
reluctant fortune favored NE, ana | was bid
den TO 90 up and take q seat upon the bench.
The trip-hammer effect of the blows that
caste has dealt English humanity always
impressed NE. and almost constantly con-
1Tonted NE. 1t was rot many days after this
that | met an able journalist, an editor, who
said that for many years he had made it a
rule to drop all o,uer work in order TO report
Mr.. Gladstone whenever he made a speech.
l congratulated him upon being so intimate
as he must be with SO great man. :" H.
innate, said he, why, do not know lin
at all. l met him accidentally in railway
car last year, and was lrest nted to him. He
shook my hand, but lie does not remember
me-" At the time of that conversation the
Hon. Chauncey NJ. Depew and a reporter
were riding upown in New York together in
horse-car as ii fell out that Mr.. Depew
(who had just arrived from Euglaudl had no
change, the reporter paid his fare
But | really did 90 10 the Police Court, and
found it more interesting than the above di-
gressions give reason to suspect. 1t was so
interesting that after / had whispered my
business | asked if | might not star up there
until the last prisoner got his share Of Brit
iSh justice.
HG lhU uINeISLIulSS SAT sue DV size at n
desk high above every thing else in the
courtroom. The desk was Enclosed oil
either side BY glazed partitions containing
doors, and behind it and the judges was the
end wall of the room. The high platform
on which their ihroDe-like box was built had
its own doors, for egreSs and ingress in the
side walls Of the room Iulmed ately in
front of the judges bench sat the clark
as We would say, the clerk Of the cOurt-on
a nigh stool behind high desk like pulpit.
The clerk is as important in the law there
as he IS in politics here. He knows the
criminal law, and is The only one except the
criminals and their cOunselOrs who does.
He gives the magistrates advice when they
seek it. and often, when they fail to seek
it, corrects them. In this court bis curly
black poll came a tiifie above tile edge of
the magistrates desk, just where a pen
wiper would be useful, and for all the world
like one, because the rest of him could not
be seen. On either side of tie clerks desk
tier of short benches arCse-one tier for
reporters ana one for lawyers.
The dock took mp nearly all the middle of
the room. 1t looked Ike huge bird-cage
with TIE door broken off. It's wires were of
half-iEch iron. They rose straight from the
floor TO the ceiling, and were boarded up in
the back 81 that the people on the benches
for the public i'll the rear could not see the
prisoner or be seen by him. Something like
an Old-fashi0ned cellar door. Slanting from
the cage toward the floor, projected from
one end of the cage. 1t was the covered
way by which the prisoner was brought.up
into the dock from the tunnel of masonry
under the court, which led from the cells in
another building. When the prisoner came
up out Of this covered way he found himself
facing the magistrates. whom he saw
through a square break in the cage wires
an aperture that just left him exposed from
his head to his waist. A court official in
police blue stood in the cage all the while,
holding a sheet Of paper ON which were the
names of all the prisoners, notes of the Of
lenses Of which each was accused, and
record, or pedigree" of the number of
times each had been arrested before
Julian Ralph in Harper's Weekly.