Denton and Haughton Examiner, etc. — 1891-04-25 (Denton, Greater Manchester, England)

THE RABELALS PICTURES.  - At the County of London Sessions, before Sir P. H. Edlin, Q.C., and a bench of magistrates, the appeal of Messrs. Sutton and Scarborough from the decision of Mr. Vaughan, at the Bow-street Police, court, respecting the Rabelais pictures, was heard, Mr. Begley represented the police, Mr. Bodkin the National Vigilance Society, Mr. Poland, Q.C., and Mr. Pocock the appellants, and Mr. Stephenson Moore for the owners of the R.abeiais pictures. Mr. Beeley said it would be within the recollection of the Court that the appellants were last year convicted of exhibiting certain indecent pictures, but were found not guilty of exhibiting them with the view of corrupting public morals. Sentence was then postponed until the hearing of this appeal, which was against an order made by Mr. Vaughan, sitting at Bow-street, for the destruction of a certain number of the pictures, on the ground of their being obscene. Mr. Poland, Q.C., on behalf of the appellants, said though the number of pictures originally exhibited was 160, and they had been shown in Paris and other Continental towns, and had been much admired as works of art, Mons. Gamier had simply illustrated some of the characters and scenes depicted by Rabelais, and the pictures had been entrusted to the appellants to exhibit at Waterloo House. At the private view four of the pictures were condemned by the Press, and they were at once packed up and rtowed away. Subsequently, at the instigation of the National Vigilance Society, the appellants were summoned, committed for trial, and 36 of the pictures were ordered to be destroyed. He would remind the Court that the Act dealing with the present case—the 20th and Slat Vic. chap. 83— was only passed after the opinion had been expressed by Lords Broughain, Lyndhurst, and Campbell that it was a very dangerous thing to establish a precedent for the confiscation or destruction of private propefty. He would also call attention to the fact that the appellants were only the exhibitors and not the owners of the pictures, who were French subjects. The whole set of pictures had been insured for £120,000 and the destruction of any of them would entail very serious loss. This was not a case in which there had borne secret display of pictures with the view of depraving the public taste, nor had there been any wrong done. The pictures had been passed through the Custom House, and it would be a serious thing if the decision of the Court was to the effect that the French nation were wrong in ever allowing such pictures to be exhibited. He hoped the Court would deal with the case in a broad and liberal manner. Mr. Stephenson Moore said he was quite willing on the part of the owners to give a guarantee to take the pictures away at °fleet° France. Mr. Bosley supported the conviction. Sir P. H. Edlin said the Bench had very carefully considered the case, and taking all the circumstances into consideration, they were inclined to review the decision of the Court below. The pictures were the property of foreigners, and the Bench took into consideration the fact that the pictures had been exhibited in Paris, and also that they had passed the Custom Hoese in this country. The Bench had no doubt whatever as to the soundness of the verdict of the jury in convicting the two appellants, but having regard to the fact that the pictures were not painted in England, to the different views held by foreigners with regard to such works, the Bench were inclined to vary the order of the learned magistrate. This they were prepared to do on condition that the condemned pictures remained in the custody of the police until they were delivered to some person at Calais, or such other part at the other side of the Channel as might be named by the appellants. The costs would have to be paid by the appellants. With regard to the two appellants as defendants in the charge in which they were convicted of having ealtibitee certain pictures, the Court had taken into consideration the character of the defendants and also the finding of the jury, and it held that the justice of the rase would be met by imposing a fine of £25 on each of them. They would be allowed out on their own recognisances until next session, when the Court would expect to be informed that its ruling as to the removal of the pictures had been complied with.  A GUIST sensation has been created in Berlin by a pamphlet in verse, with the title, "To the Emperor." It is in the form of a request to the Emperor to make pmce with Prince Bismarck, on the ground that as the Emperor is the younger, while Prince Bismarck is a great historical figure, he could well afford to pocket his pride, and make the first advance to the enChancellor. A imins• has been shot at the altar at Waisen—the victim of a jealous man's desire for revenge. Father Fonda was seeding Mass at the cathedral, when a shoemaker named Czerrnak took careful aim with a revolver and deliberately shot him dead. An acolyte strove to Prevent the murderer's escape, and his life almost paid the penalty of his rashness. Flowerer, esermak did not leave the edifice. He blew his brains out, and fell dead by the side of his victim. Ronairr McGinn; Nicnotson, a young fellow of 24, residing in Glasgow, committed suicide by hanging himself with • woollen cravat in a bedroom. Or treatments of tuberculosis there seem to be no end. The very latest "core" comes from Paris, and is the invention of Professor Gerumin See, It is the professor's practice to place his patients in metallic clymbere, hermetically closed, into which he then farces compressed air saturated with creosote and eacolypta