The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1903-03-29

lPnOIluE III the ia tfSt' Itltu Oh ilhtlOSO~
phv and reason-still at the end OF every
weary excursion arriving al some bar
rem source of pedantry aud quibble?'
Probably the most succinct method in
which to Indicate not only the progress
but the almost complete revolution that
has taken place in the law is to compare
the status of the law on few we'll
known subjects in England today with
what il was one hundred years ago in
that country; for in our forty-five States
and our Territories We have in the main
made similar changes, sometimes anti
and sometimes following the
legal reforms, as made from time to time
IN the mother country First as to
THE CRIMINAL LAW
In the year 1900 there were more than
two hundred crimes in England that
were punishable with death. Of which
more than two-thirds had been made
capital offenses during the eighteenth
century. Nearly all felonies were capital.
AS a late English writer says:
IF a man falsely pretended to be
Greenwich pensoner he was hang
ed. If he injured a county bridge or
cut down a young tree he was hang
ed. If he forged a bank note he was
hanged If he stole property valued
at five shillings; if he stole anything
above the value of one shilling from
the person; if he stole anything at
all. whatever its value, from bleach
ing ground-he ~-~o hanged If a con-
Wet returned prematurely from trans
portation; or if a soldier or a sailor
wandered about the country begging
without pass, he was hanged. And
these barbarous laws we're relentless
~ carried into execution. boy only
ten years old was sentenced TO death
in 1916"
1t is owing to Sir Samuel ROmilly and
later to Sir James Macintosh that the
death penalty is now imposed in England
for only four offenses, and very rarely
in two Of those. Similar, and in some
States even greater changes have been
made in this country.
A traitor was drawn on a hurdle to the
place of execution, was hung by the
neck but cut down alive. and his bowels
were taken out and burnt before his
face; then his head was severed and his
hoGy divided into four quarters and
placed over the gates of cities to poison
the atmosphere. Not until 1870 were
these horrid requirements abrogated by
statute, and they were pronounced
Though not carried ouD on Frost the
Chartst as late as 1899. We all remem-
Der how, on the Restoration, the body of
the greatest sovereign England has ever
had was dug from its grave and the
head exposed on Temple Bar. These were
not the doings of Chinese Boxers, but OF
enlightened Christian England. just
about the beginning of the nineteenth
century the punishment of woman for
high treason, which till then was by burn
ing. was changed to hanging. In 1871
Lord Eldon was greatly alarmed by "a
dangerous bill" as he termed it, which
abolished capital punishment for stealing
five shillings in a shop, and prided him
self greatly upon defeating this revolu-
tionary measure in the House of Lords
In 1912, when Bellingham was put or
trial for the murder of Spencer Perceval
he was informed that one charged with
a capital offense was not allowed to have
counsel to speak for him. and he had to
defend himself The humane law in
England not only prohibited argument by
counsel to one on trial for his life, but
he could neither have process to sum-
mon witnesses in his own behalf nor be
allowed to cross examine the witnesses
against him. Bellingham shot Mr.. Per
ceval, the Prime Minister. late on Mon
day May Il; he was put on trial Friday
the 18th, and was hanged the following
Monday, the 18th; and his body was or
dered TO be dissected. When the law il
the above particulars was somewhat
modified in 1886, II out of the Is judges
protested and one of them wrote let
ter to Sir John Campbell, then Attor-
ney-G General, that if he allowed the bill
to pass he would resign. The bill pass
ed, but the learned judge did not resign
Juries were not allowed to separate OF
trials for felonies or treason, and were
locked up without meat, drink, or fire,
This produced the poets taunt-"anc
wretches hang, that jurymen may dine.
This law was not changed till 1870
The rules of evidence in both civil ant
criminal cases disqualified as witnesses
not only parties to the action but al
who had been convicted of crime or whC
had a pecuniary interest in the result o.
the trial Lord Denman's Act in 1874
struck the first blow at this absurd rule
which had caused so many miscarriage
of justice That Act has since been eX
tended in England by Lord Brougham
Act of 1869, and both l believe have
been since adopted in all the states o
this Union.
We recall the magnificent service rem
dered by Lord Erskine, when at the bal
in maintaining before Lord Mansfield
that the question whether a publication
was a libel was one of fact for the jur,
and not of lava proposition that was
enacted by Parliament in 1892; but il
was not until 1843 that Lord CampbelPS
Act allowed the truth of publication t.
be pleaded as justification. Till then the
courts held the very lucid proposition
THE greater truth the greater the liber,
and punished the offender accordingly.
1t was not till 1919 that trials by battle
ceased to be legal, though they had fall
en- into disuse. Thornton's case, in which
this barbarous right was invoked, oc-
Cured in 1918. There is some progress
from that time to this, when no Governor
will now allow two gentlemen of national
distinction to box in the arena, even
,1-.,~ fI,I y1,.1r,