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    Jutr 1, 1S54.] TfiE LEADER. f] 615

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    A "STRANGER" IN PARLIAMENT. Mb. Ca.ri>we...

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    The Spirit Of Law". Let Us Hope That A D...

    Christians ; and upon which the conduct of the Romans that invented them , and of the Christians that adopted them , forms the most ludicrous of commentaries ; so little does the actual behaviour of a people depend on its statutes , —so little can the real morals of society be gathered from the formal laws . It was not long since that we had "to hail the appearance of a spirit of justice on the bench of justice , in the remarks which Mr . Yardley uttered on the lEuimett case . The letter of the law in that case would have

    rendered indifferent justice ; but it is evident that the feeling of the public , of the press , and of the judge himself , marked the commencement of a better spirit , which may ultimately communicate itself to our statutes . Chief Justice Jervis gare expression to a similar improvement , when lie scouted the letter quoted in the case of Lefroy versus Cridland . In this case , a husband whose

    conduct had driven away his wife , pursued her with letters , accusing her of purloining his goods ; flaunting in her face assertions that lie had enjoyed undue familiarity with her sister ; making that a reproach against the two women ; and inculpating his -wife ' s attorney in similar insinuations ! The letter might have been called , a " privileged communication , " since it was addressed from the husband to his wife . The woman had

    been , divorced from , him ; she remained without any protector , except the law ; and it would "be monstrous to assume that , in the ease of a woman so circumstanced , the indiscriminate veneration for the matrimonial compact could compel the law to refuse interposition , and reserve to a husband the " privilege " of being the only villain free to pursue the woman with insult and accusation . Happily the Lord Chief Justice Jervis placed the letter iu its true character before the jury ; and the damages which they gave may perhaps check the libellous offences of " privileged " husbands .

    In this country we are free to condemn the Americans for their rough paraphrase of law , under the name of Judge Lynch ; we point to the organizatiou for extending the institutions and influence of the republic as proving that the republicans have a slighter veneration for" law than we have . If we set aside prejudices , however , we must confess that the reverse is the fact . The difference is , perhaps , that they have far less of the ' letter and more of the spirit . In almost any

    particular the comparison with ourselves is advantageous to them . If wo look to certain licences , wo find that the importation of women for nefarious purposes , common in this country , and intended for general consumption , is almost limited to New York on the other side of the Atlantic , and is intended for the consumption of foreign residents . We are apt to consider our Yanlceo cousins sanguinary ; but it must be confessed that in the pursuit of murder the people of the United . Kingdom excel those of the Republic . Lucre is usually the motive with us , or

    domestic revenge ; and treachery of n very calculating kind is generally the method , except that in Ireland thej vary it with ambush . Murders of that kind in the United States aro almost universally committed by foreign emigrants . In the last instance , —the murdor of Mr . Whitliam , on Long Island , —the murderor was a man from the United Kingdom . Characteristic American murders are of a totally different ordor , —thoy nro usually committed openly , or on the impulse- of tho moment . Dr . Wobator slow lua accuser in a "t of passion ; and the last native American murder of a striking kind ilhistrntes our position . x vi ° \ V 0 V y long * ' mco tll ° American papers told the story of n Bohoolmnstor , -who had boon dokboratol y shot in opon day by tho

    brother of one of his pupils . The story , with its sequel , is curious , as illustrating a particular phase of society . The assassin in this case belonged to " one of the best families" in a " Western State—for there are good families also in America , and in no country are the members of such families more tenacious of their genealogy . The family is wealthy , and enjoys an hereditary position , though the Republic , of course , does not recognise hereditary titles . It has for

    some time been distinguished by acting upon its self-asserted claim of independence . At the school in question a pupil belonging to this " best" family bad committed some offence , and had been punished . The merits of the punishment enter little into the case , and we need not go into them . The schoolmaster was much respected , and it is not denied that he thought himself just . He had , we believe , been a . private tutor in the family , and had assisted in the education of the elder

    brother . On hearing , however , of the punishment , this elder brother , taking a second in company with him , procuring pistols by the way , and loading them , went to the school , demanded an explanation , and not receiving an apology shot tW schoolmaster through the heart . The murderer was brought to trial ; and here comes another curious fact of the . influence already exercised by " the best families " in some states .

    The influence , may , in many respects be salutary . ITor our own part we are inclined to think that it is so . Democracy is a vehement reaction upon the decay of an aristocracy which has abused its privileges- —privileges acquired during the earlier years of the order by actual service ; and democracy is in

    itself liable to a corresponding counteraction , when social equality has reached its extreuiest level , and when a field of freedom , is reopened for those peculiar and distinguished services which give birth to an aristocracy . But the exploits must be of a different kind from those of the family whose history we are touching .

    The young man was bro ught to trial , and he was acquitted . For some reason the jury would not convict a member of " one of the best families . " The public , however , so strongly resented this apparent breach of justice , that they made the place too hot to hold a son of " one of the best families " ivho set himself above the law . He was oWiged to seek a residence in another state . His

    story , however , had gone with him , and a deputation of tho inhabitants waited upon him for tho purpose of considerately informing him that be could not be permitted to reside amongst them . And so , it appears , he must wander from state to state , unable to find a resting-place for his foot . Whither can he go ? It is thought by some that he will seek refuge in . England , tho land of liberty ; where , jmssessing wealth , he will no doubt bo able to obtain a position in society . For in this country wo have the same slavish reverence for wealth , which they have in America for rank and birth .

    Through all those irregularities , however , thoro is evinced an abiding and general reverence for the law , a popular determination that it shall bo observed . Tho same spirit was shown in the rosolvo to onforco the fugitiveslavc-lnw at Boston , although tho people bo greatly disliked that law . It appears to us , therefore , that in spito of tho irrogularitios and the laxities necessaril y belonging to a young country , with groat intervals oyon of wild land amidst tho civilisod populations , there is more living concern for the observance and enforcement of law than thero is

    amongai ; ourselves ; who seldom resist it , but constantly and generally ovado it , while at , tho same time wo sanctimoniously profess that infraction , is impossible .

    Jutr 1, 1s54.] Tfie Leader. F] 615

    Jutr 1 , 1 S 54 . ] TfiE LEADER . f ] 615

    A "Stranger" In Parliament. Mb. Ca.Ri>We...

    A " STRANGER" IN PARLIAMENT . Mb . Ca . ri > weix is one of those great British statesmen forced upon the State by a governing class , who have not intellect enough for a" decision , but have ctihning enough to trim , and , no doubt , be trimmed with remarkable acutenesa , which everybody found out on Tuesday evening last in the debate on the Partnership Laws . But it is rather strange that he should have been authorised by the Cabinet to hesitate on a question of " Limited Liability /* seeing that the Coalition is based unequivocally upon that principle . Observe the incidents of the week , and it

    will be 6 een that the Government couldn't stand at all if aU unreserved political partnership were understood to be in force , for , all their bills being beaten , or in process of being beaten , and no one hav ing anything to do in his " department , " the sole occupation of Ministers is to do damage to one another—succeeding , it must be confessed considerably . There is only one political action now . to be detected , and that is a Whig conspiracy against Lord Aberdeen . There is nothing in Parliamentary history so disgraceful to the State , and so degrading to individual statesmen as , the spectacle

    one now sees night after night in both Houses- ^ - Whig partisans being put up to assail and sneer at the Peelite colleagues of the Whigs . No doubt Lord Dudley Stuart was silly on Thursday , and no doubt Lord Clanricarde was not a success on Monday ; and some decency was preserved in the former case by the Whig Minister abstaining from any answer to the Bashi-Bazouk from Marylebone . But what did such speeches mean ? What is meant by the abortive brutalities directed by the Russell and Palmerston press against Lord Aberdeen ? They meant

    an attempt to excite in the old Whig way a popular clamour , which may replace the Whigs in stateomnipotence— that misfortune for England being fortunately quite impossible . Does any person suppose that Lord John could not put a stop to thesesystematic efforts to depreciate the honest old nobleman who carried Lord John out of impotence intou respectable position ? Could not Lord Palmerstont have suppressed Lord Deadly on Thursday ? It is much asked lately why Mr . Disraeli is so silent ? But could Mr . Disraeli do better Opposition work than Lord Palmerston or Lord John ?

    Such exhibitions as those of Lords Clanricardeand Deadly , the Admiral of Connaught , and the-F . M . of Poland , and such blinded abuse as that of the Radical papers , who do not observe that Lord Aberdeen , as Minister of the Court , is much more likely to be national than a Minister of the Whig aristocracy—do not do much harm , and arar only to be noticed as evidences of the unscrupulousselfishness of Whig ambition . Lord Aberdeen , on Monday , exploded tho conspiracy , and set himself absolutely right with the country , which is satisfied with phrases , and believes that Russell and

    Palmerston are anti-Russian because they talk of a durable peace , the country forgetting that these aro thostatosraeu during whose time Russia has growa strong , and continental liberty has disappeared . Lord Aberdeen ' s phrases were excellent ; and I think that , in his case , thoy were more than , phrases ; because , while insisting precisely on that for insisting on which Lord John was cheered in Guildhall , and Lord Palmorston is idolised among the party of liberal party-goers— . viz ., that we cannot have the status quo ante bollum—ho abstained from rhodomontading "liberalisms , " which in an

    English statesman ' s mouth can only have delusive signification . Tho whole misconception which hail existed , in reference to Lord Aberdeen arose from thesteady integrity of his character , -which forbids him to play with a great people for tho purposes of popularity j and as the merit of such " explanations" a » ho gave on Monday night doponds in u great moasuro on thu impression produced at tho moment , it is of ; importance to know that tho manner of Lord Abordecn . on tho occasion was a manner which touched everybody , being that of ft sublimely conscientious ihan .

    Wo nro oxpeoted to sympathise with Lord Jolu * whou ho woopa over a botched Reform BUI , why nut Avith Lord Aberdeen when , with eolomnity and anxiety , ho expounds a groat policy ? Speaking in tho sight nnd hearing of tho groat assembly on

• Citation
  • Leader (1850-1860), July 1, 1854, page 15, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_01071854/page/15/