The Warrington Examiner. — 1873-12-06 (Warrington, Cheshire, England)

TRW.  class; and we think, too, that it is certain that he, when his passion was over, was as horrified and shocked with the effects of his violence as everyone else must be. We believe that he has tried to make up, as far as money and money's worth could do, for his wrong doing by kindness to his victim. But we must point out that the offence was complete when the illegal shot was fired, and that no kindness can alter the facts of the case. Had death ensued, would any support of the widow, any payment to the relations, have prevented a verdict from murder or manslaughter? The first lesson we want to teach is the danger of the life that many of them lead, to the temper of our English gentlemen. Like the barons of the old French era, they seem to think that they have a right to kill not more than two vassals, and to cut the bodies open, to keep their feet warm after returning from hunting. They ride over and destroy other men's property; they think it right that for their gratification wild animals should devour poor men's substance; they spend their lives in a pursuit of pleasure; and the chief interest they find is in the destruction of life. "It is a fine day; let us go out and kill something," is the witty Frenchman's description of the English squire's enjoyment of existence; and we take it that a life so spent can have but one end, to make a man over-bearing and passionate, to cause him to make few allowances for other men's weakness, and to expect all men to yield to him. Thank God all our squires are not of this type, but we fear there are an increasing number of such, since in how few cases does one see the son now likely to be as good as his father? With all the faults the old generation of squires had, there was at least this one virtue, a thorough acquaintance with and sympathy for his poorer neighbours; but now it is too much the fashion to assert class-privileges and show class-distinctions, by avoiding all intercourse with men's so-called inferiors, except what is necessary with grooms and gamekeepers. And the second lesson we must teach is this, that the time for amateur justice is gone, that our judges must be trained men, and our courts composed of regular and responsible individuals, instead of being composed of a fluctuating and shifting mass. The great object of justice, grand as it is in the abstract, is that people shall be sure they shall find it done, and no one can feel confidence in a court, the members of which may come if they like, stay as long as they like, and vote with no record of their names kept, or reasons for their decisions given. To issue warrants and summonses, to remand prisoners, to inflict a small limited fine for a small offence, may perhaps be allowed still to the great unpaid, but the power of imprisonment, the business of laying down the law and interpreting evidence, must be given to those who have given their lives to the study of the matter, and are above all suspicion of favouritism or affection. If this trial at Knutsford, and the singularly unfortunate miscarriage of justice there, should hasten this consummation, we shall be most thankful, and rejoice in the discredit brought on the old county in the consideration that a substantial benefit has been conferred on the English commonwealth. And as in all probability, the Lord Chancellor will remove Mr. Corbett from the rolls in the two counties where he acts as a magistrate, there will too be the happy result that one who has shown that he cannot control his own temper will no longer be allowed to be what he is now, styled by courtesy, a Justice of the Peace.