The farmer and mechanic. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 18??-19??, 1903-03-31

! but the almost complete revolution that
has taken place il the Law IS 70 compare
the status OF the law on a few we'll
known subjects i'll England TO-DAY Hith
what II VAS one hundred years ago il
that country. for i'll our FORT ive States
and our Territories Ne have in the main
made similar changes, sometimes anti
cIpatfng and sometimes following the
legal reforms. as made from time to time
in the mother country. First as 10
THE CRIMINAL LAW.
In the wear 1900 there were more than
two hundred crimes in England that
were punishable with death. o. which
more than t1o-thirds had been made
capital offenses during the eighteenth
century. Nearly all felonies We're capital.
As a late English writer says.
If a man falsely pretended to be
a Greenwich pensioner he was hang
"a. 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. II 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
al, "IIdttN - 80 " q
ing ground-he Voc hanged. If a con
Wet returned p~rematurely from trans
portation: or if a soldier or q sailor
wandered about the country begging
without a pass, he was hanged. and
these barbarous laws were relentless
~ carried into execution. 4 boy only
ten years old was sentenced to death
n 1916"
It 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
We're taken out and burnt before his
face: then his head was severed and his
body divided into four quarters and
placed over the gates Of cities to poison
the atmosphere. Not until 1870 We're
these horrid requirements abrogated by
statute, and they were pronounced
Though not carried ou) on Frost the
Chartist 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 it's grave and the
head exposed on Temple Bar. These We're
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 1911
Lord Eldon was greatly alarmed by "a
dangerous bin as he termed it, which
= , - -. - 49,
five shillings in q shop. and prided him
self greatly upon defeating his reVolu-
tionary measure in the House Of Lords.
In 1912, when Bellingham was put on
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 II: 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 in
the above particulars was somewhat
modified in 1896, II out of the Is judges
protested. and one of them wrote a let
ter to Sir John Campbell. then Attor-
n~ey-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 on
trials for felCnies or treason, and were
locked up without meat. drink, or fire
This produced the poets taunt-"and
! Wretches hang, that jurymen may dine
This law was not changed till 1870.
The rules Of evidence in both civil and
criminal cases disqualified as witnesses
not only parties to the action out all
vino had been convicted of crime or who
had a p~ecuniary interest in the result of
the trial. Lord Denman's Act in 1913
| struck the first blow at his absurd rule,
| which had caused SO many miscarriages
of justice. That Act has since been ex-
tended in England by Lord Brougham's
| Act Of 1869, and both, I believe. have
been since adopted in all the States Of
this Union.
We recall the magnificent service ron
dered by Lord Erskine, when at the bar
in maintaining before Lord Mansfield
that the question whether a publication
was a libel was one of fact for the jury
and not of lava proposition that was
enacted by Parliament in 1892; but it
was not until 1S43 that Lord Campbell'S
Act allowed the truth of a publication to
be pleaded as Justification. Till then the
courts held the very lucid proposition.
The greater truth the greater the libel,'
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
without weapons, unless possibly when
they are members of the Legislature It
seems to me l have also heard that such
diversion was recognized in the Senate
of the United States as late as 1902.
Space will not permit ME to go into
many other ameliorations in the criminal
law, including the vast improvements in
the jails, which were formerly nurseries
sc ~ 49,