On this page
-
Text (3)
-
Untitled Article
-
Untitled Article
-
Untitled Article
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
-
-
Transcript
-
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
Additionally, when viewing full transcripts, extracted text may not be in the same order as the original document.
Untitled Article
taining four specific charges against the judicial system : — " First , that courts of justice are handed over to those who have shown themselves the least qualified to collect the revenue ; secondl y , that it was consequently necessary to allow a number of appeals and reviews ; thirdly , that a final decision is often not obtained for ten years , and rarely before three ; and lastly , " that litigation is most expensive , owing to the heavy stamps tc -which all law proceedings are subject . "
The judges undertook to meet these charges bj counter-statements and by returns , and the present pamphlet is the rejoinder of the Bombay Association . Nothing can be more complete . It differs from that repl y of - the judges in every respect . The judges pick out an isolated passage , and , separating it from its context , give to Jt much more the air of a studied and substantive attack
upon the * judicial system than it really deserved ; and at the same time they deprive it of such explanation in spirit as it would derive from the context . The Bombay Association do just the reverse : they print the entire reply of the judges , which is therefore supplied for comparison with their own rejoinder , and the reader , collating the two , can judge at least how far the Bombay Association accurately represent the attacks which they are refuting" . The conduqt of the judges , remarkably enough , is still more contrasted witb this fair kind of
controversy ; for out of the passages -which they c t they drop qualifying . expressions , which seriously affect the meaning and define the statement . The first charge , for example , -was not " that courts of justice are handed over to those who have shown themselves less qualified to collect the revenue of the State ; " but that "it happens , in consequence of the present exclusive system , that the courts of justice will , as a general rule , be handed over , as at present , to those who have shown themselves least qualified to collect tie revenue of
the State ; " a very different assertion . TMe judges endeavour to meet this assertion by showing the periods of service performed by 23 gentlemen in different departments , who hold appointments as judges and assistant judges on the 1 st January , 1852 ; remarking that , with three exceptions , not one of them had ever held the appointment of acting collector , while of the three exceptions , two gentlemen served in the judicial line almost from their first arrival in India . It would be difficult
since the average duration of appeals before the Sudder judges , which is three years , six months , and 24 days , covers an actual duration , in many separate instances , of longer periods . The refutation of the reply on the point of expenses involves too many figures for us to enter upon : suflice it to say , that by citing official documents in . detail , the Association fully establish their
real position ; showing in various ways tbat the average cost of stamps ranges from ten to fourteen per cent . ; but that on by far the larger number of suits , nearly 98 per cent , of the whole , involving property of a very small amount , the percentage may rise to really exorbitant proportions . As a rejoinder -this is complete : The whole case on the judges' side is met by bringing forward additional information in detail . Thus the
truth is brought out , and speaks for itself . But the reply is more important , perhaps , for its collateral evidence , than for its downright knockdown refutation of the judges . It fully bears out the character of the whole proceedings on the part of the Bombay Association . It is strictly matter of fact . The judges are not answered by insinuations , or by general and allusive constructions , but by plain statements of things as they are , with the detail cited in full , or exemplified by specific instances . It is true that the pamphlet leaves an impression , on the mind that the judges are disingenuous , unfair , transparent in their
dishonesty , routed in position , and almost blasted in character ; but this is derived from the force of the facts stated , and not at all from any aspersions made by the writers of the pamphlet . This is excellent , as showing the self-possession of those who lead the Association . ; hut it does more : it proves not only that the Association are strong in the knowledge of a sound cause , but also that they are perfect masters of controversy on public affairs , and that they perfectl y understand the character of the tribunal to which they appeal in
the last resort—English public opinion . We may say that they will not be disappointed . Expositions of this kind , so far as they are read , will be received as belonging to the aery highest character of political statement , and as proving that those amongst whom they originated are thoroughly qualified- to understand , if not to administer , the affairs of any country . It is on these grounds , as well as the value of the contribution to an important controversy , that we hail these successive of the Bombay Association . ,
to pack more fallacious and disingenuous suggest ions into a short compass , than those which are compressed into this statement of the judges . It is no answer to the charge . The association did not complain that servants of the collectorate , whose ability was tested by promotion , were transferred to the judicial line ; but the remark obviously included assistant collectors ; and in the rejoinder it is shown that a number of gentlemen , —including Mr . Metcalfe Larken , one of the persons engaged in the judges' reply , —had served
in the revenue line for fire , eight , ten , or twelve years . At the same time it is admitted that the evil has been considerably mitigated in Bombay , by the efforts or a portion of the Government . To prove that the result of placing the judicial powers in incompetent hands has not occasioned a number of appeals and reviews , the judges gave the total number of original suits and appeals in the last five years , showing a comparatively small number of appeals . But this return includes cases tried by judges whose qualifications had not been called in question , namely , the native judges ,
whose suits constituted , according to Colonel Sykes , nearly 93 J p er cent , of the whole . The statement also includes cases in which there was no dispute at all , but a mere seeking of coercive powers , also cases amicably settled by compromise , causes decided upon agreement , cases stricken off the files in consequence of the plaintiffs absence , and cases decided exparte . To this statement the association replies by giving specific figures of the appeals from the courts of the Zillnh judges , and from the assistant judges , during the years 1850-1 ; showing a proportion of reversals ranging nearly about one-half . b J
I lie judges attempt to disprove the long duration of suits by the same kind of indiscriminate citation of the returns , for they gave an average of all suits , including those ex parte , thoso decided by settlement , &c ; which would evidently reduce the average . But the most practical point of the charge was not the duration of euits in the Zillah courts , but the delay of " a final decision , " and the calculation of course included the appeals . Yet even here averages are fallacious ,
Untitled Article
THE BELGIAN GIRL / 'PAJfcLIAMENT HOUSE , " AND " THE CLUBS . " Undebnkath the world which" we inhabit , the social surface warmed by the sun of prosperity , or troubled by the storms of adversity which have their own life , there is a subterranean world , whose prosperity is foul , whose adversity is lifeless , and whose whole character is revolting . The existence of this subterranean world is sometimes
turn" and " conversation . " - ^ puts crime oi * t of sight and acts as if crime were not . Polite society , therefore , keeps its own streets pure and well watched , and crime is driven to low neighbourhoods . Customs vary in different countries ; they vary also in different streets ; but there is a certain conformity even in crime , and '' society" is not troubled so long as a given number of culprits of different ages persevere in the offences which , are their annual due . So man ' little boys and girls under a given age may pidc pockets ; so many youths of older stature may
steal on a larger scale ; so many adults may com * mit highway robbery , beat their waves , murder j tleir fellow-creatures , and commit other recognised breaches of the law , without disturbing society , bo long as there is no novelty in the denomination of the offence , or no striking increase above the average . It is only the " original sin , " says the orthodox divine , and Society , acting upon a principle the reverse of that which guides tie pianoforte maker , does not spread the sum of the discord— " the wolf "—over the -whole surface , so as to dilute it , but packs it all tip" in particular districts or classes—and tries to forget . Upon tie whole , by keeping them ignorant , we secure that the poor shall constitute tine scapegoat , and bear the mass of tie " original sin , " about -which we hear sermons before dinner on . Sunday .
Occasionally , however , the accumulated vice bursts out at some unrecognised point , or discloses cavernous communications between thejjrdinary craters of society and those spots which are 8 tij- posed to be its most placid and smiling fields . ;; jL case has just occurred . A young girl , who is dSscribed as beautiful , escapes from s house , where she has been detained , in a low neighbourhood , and takes refuge amongst some foreigners : she is a Belgian , who lias been decoyed over to England , placed in a depot for supplying
with virgins that monster of English society -who is typified by the novelist as " Lord Skeyne , " and is better known by some nolle names of real life . The girl ' s story is , teat she has been forcibly subjected tc prostitution , and afterwards forcibly made the toy of criminal triflers , who would be shocked to be arraigned ior a capital offence , and would far more dreaapublic exposure of their own habits thatn the silken halter which they might claim as the privilege of their order . The case is to be further
investigated . The girl ' s manner has the appearance of ingenuousness , and her very imperfections of speech , —her imperfect knowledge of English customs and . institutions , —gives additional probability to what she does say . It is with less surprise than horror and disgust that Englishmen can understand her allusions to certain place * of distinguished resort . The woman , whose agent had decoyed the girl over , instructed that agent to apprise certain gentlemen and lords , —to carry the intelligence of her new prize to " tae clubs ; ' * but he advised lier to wait until the opening of the session and the assembling at " Parliament House . "
We have before dismissed with indignation libellous attacks upon individuals , evidently inventedjby wretches bent upon extorting money . In $ his case the accuser has all tlie aspect of innocence . Her immediate wrongers are evidently criminal ; and if allusions to " Parliament Hoiise ' and " the Clubs" are " no evidence , " is it possible , we ask , to say that the inferences shrouded in such allusions are impassible ? No ! . in spite of its systematic incredulity and ignominy , society does know the foul volcanic elemeats which sometimes stir under its feet , and although it will not talk , doefliot quite disbelieve .
denied . Society so generally consents to be silent on the subject , that it takes its own silence for a final truth , and learns to think that what it never talks about , never is . So strong is this feeling in many , that if the truth be openly told it is indignantly denied . Break up the surface at any one point , showing what is beneath , and the denizen of " society , * ' disliking to have hisconfidence disturbed , tells you that it 5 s only " an exceptional case . " The stench and smoke which burst from
the crevice that opens at your feet belong only to that one particular hole , and are not the effusion of a broad volcanic region . So says the man of " society , " because to think of that seething mass beneath the feet of himself and fellows , troubles the quietism of his soul . He would rather disbelieve than try to remedy ; partly because the task of remedy -would be too gigantic for his conception , because he would rather not take the trouble , as it would disturb his own quiet enjoyment of that which he gets , and because he has , nevertheless , a lurking fear and loathing—as at night men shudder to think of things they laughingly deny by day .
Nevertheless , the evil is too general , too positive , and convulsive in its nature , to be constantly suppressed . Sometimes it will burst out , and at so many points , that the tl exceptional case" appears to have a broad , if not an universal basis . London ordinarily is quiet , except i n " low'' neighbourhoods ; for the community acta with regard to crime us it does with regard to other things declared to be " improper , " " unfit for publica-
Untitled Article
SMITH O'BRIEN PARDONED : HOW THEN ABOUT FROST AND WILLIAMS ? No one will withhold from Government a hearty approval of the pardon accorded to Mr . Smith O'Brien . We have never been amongst tliose who claimed for Mr . O'Brien an immunity to be granted by the very Government which he sought to subvert . But really there is no longer any motive for detaining him , and there were some
for releasing him . Of all the many Irish con * spirators lio was the honestest , the least malignant , the most misled by a hoated imagination , and In fuct the most harmless . The others have escaped from Van Diemen ' s Land by breaking their parole , and it seems hard to detain the man whose continual imprisonment resulted solely from his refusing to share the dishonourable conduct which stains those xn&n . If the Irish
Untitled Article
February 25 , 1854 . ] THE LEADER Wr
-
-
Citation
-
Leader (1850-1860), Feb. 25, 1854, page 181, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse2.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2027/page/13/
-