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Leader (1850-1860), 29th January 1853, Edition Country of 2, Page 110

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      Mr. Justice Ckajiptojf's .Consistency. O...

      judges that they were oblivious of their law ; but it was , in his power , as legally as it was in theirs , to find guilty or to sentence , —to say that he disagreed with both , judge and jury , and that though he would not interfere with the constitutional privileges of either , he would use that equallyconstitutional privilege which remained to him , and affirm that this man ought not to be hanged . We admit what we have asserted , that those who think Kirwan ' s penalty , even now , is imjust , may declare thaff it is also illogical . But we confess that the objection might have been met with the reply , that if the ultimate punishment Were to be logical , Lord Eglinton had the right to say , Then let Kirwan be hanged . This , it will be seen , is no apology for the jury . It simply goes to show that Lord Eglinton , after all , was not in fault , and that the true moral of the whole story is , that we ought to have a Criminal Appeal . Of that moral we shall not lose sight .

      110 The Leader. • [Saturd Ay,

      110 THE LEADER . [ Saturd ay ,

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      Pc01406

      [In This Department, As All Opinions, Ow...

      [ in this department , as all opinions , owevee e are allowed an expression , the editor necessarily holds himself responsible for ifone . ]

      There Is No ]Earned Man But Will Confess...

      There is no ] earned man but will confess he hath much profited by reading" controversies , his senses awakened , and nis judgment sharpened . If , then , it be profitable for Mm to read , why should it not , at least , be tolerable for Ins adversary to write . —Milton .

      What Is The English Law Of Oaths? (To Th...

      WHAT IS THE ENGLISH LAW OF OATHS ? ( To the Editor of the Leader . ) Sie , —It is good to be a Mahommedan . Mr . Commissioner Phillips ( as reported in your Friday ' s impression ) , has sworn Mr . Molena the surety of Taleb Bohlal without one harsh word . It is better to be a Moor and believe in a false God , than to be an Englishman and not capable of answering oil-hand the theological questions of the learned Commissioner of the Insolvent Debtor ' s Court .

      But the chief point I crave leave to notice is this . Mr . Commissioner Phillips , on this occlusion , undertook to explain the English law of oaths , and the authorities upon which lie relied were Lord Kenyon and Lord Tcnterden , so far back as the ; Queen ' s Trial . Of later judgments and later law , the learned Commissioner appeared to make no recognition , and insisted that " our law required a belief in God , and the dispensation of future rewards and punishments in a future state , " without which belief an oath cannot be administered . Yet the following act- —the 1 st and 2 nd of Victoria , lias been upon our statute book for fifteen years . It is so short that ; it may be quoted entire . It in entitled An Ad . to remove doubts as to the validity of certain oaths ; passed August ; 14 th , 1838 :--

      "lie it declared and enacted by the Queens inont Excellent Majesty , by and with the advice and consent of the Lords Spiritual and Temporal , and Commons , in this Parliament , assembled , and by the authority of the name , That in all cases in which an oath may lawfully be , and shall have been , administered to any pernon , either iih a juryman or a witness , or a deponent in any proceeding , civil or criminal , in any court , of law or tment

      equity hi the United Kingdom , or on appoin , to an oliice or employment , or on . any occasion whatever , mich person in bound by the oath administered , ' { provided the same shall hone been administered in such form , and with such ceremonies as such persons may declare to he hi tiding : and every such person , in cn . se of wilful faint ) swearing , may be convicted of the crime of perjury , in the same manner us if the oath had been administered in tho form , and with the . ceremonies most , commonly

      adopted . " What can be more explicit than thin act ? It , is certainly much more explicit than acts of piuTnnnent usually are , and though never heard of in Portugal Street , it is not unknown to Provincial Insolvent Courts . In ISM , one George Connard , an Insolvent , wan remanded to Lancaster Gaol , solely because be would not tnkn tlio cuHtoinury oath . This act , wan then quoted in thopublic papers ; Lord ltroughnm and Mr . Humo both prcHnnLwl petitions on behalf of the Insolvent , and Lord Nonnanby ordered bin IHxjration without

      conditions . In this case Mr . Commissioner H . R . Reynolds quoted as his authority Cooke ' s Practice of the Insolvent Debtor ' s Court . The first person really sworn under the act above quoted , was one very likely to test its application , namely , Mr . Robert Owen . In 1840 , this gentleman appeared as a defendant in a Crown prosecution in Leeds , under what wa 3 then called the " New Stamp

      Act . " Mr . Hill , the counsel for the Crown , having the Kenyon-Tenterden dicta in mind , objected to Mr . Owen ' s oath . This deponent however demanded to be allowed " to affirm . " To this also the counsel objected " as Mr . Owen was neither Quaker Moravian , nor Separatist , " but when Mr . Palfreyman pointed tbe Court ' s attention to the 1 st and 2 nd Vic . Chap . 105 , the Court after reading the act , instructed that Mr . Owen be sworn in the following manner : —

      " I affirm that what I shall say in this case shall he the truth , the whole truth , and nothing but the truth . " Now , Sir , if this was not a legal proceeding , how came the Crown to allow it ? If it was legal , should not a metropolitan judge know it ? is it optional with a judge whether he shall recognise an Act of Parliament or not ? If your influence should induce some legal correspondent to instruct the public on this snbject , it may prevent an application to Parliament , either to explain the 1 st and 2 nd of Victoria , or to enforce it . Yours faithfully , G . J . Holyoake . Woburn Buildings , Tavistock Square , 28 th Jan . 1853 .

      Anti-Slavery Petitioning. (To The Editor...

      ANTI-SLAVERY PETITIONING . ( To the Editor of the Leader . ) Sib , —Yesterday , as I sat at dinner , there came a gentle knock at the door , which being opened disclosed a lady , who held in her hand a small roll of paper . It appeared on inquiry that she was obtaining signatures to a petition on behalf of slaves in the United States . I will give you a slight outline of our conversation : — " And what is this petition you want me to sign ?" " O no , sir , it is not you who must sign it . I am only to obtain women ' s signatures . The petition is to be from the women of England . " " But I suppose the men of England may see it . Allow me . "

      Here the lady unrolled the paper she held , and displayed two half sheets of letter-paper , ruled for signatures . One of them had already some seven or eight names written upon it , principally , however , by one band , some of the subscribers having " made their marks . " But there was no petition or remonstrance of any kind—not a single word to indicate the nature of the document in support of which these names were to be sent to America . " The petition you named , " said I ; " I don't see it . " The reply was , that those were the only papers the lady canvasser had . " Is it possible , " I asked , " that these persons have given you their names without having seen the petition ? " Yes , such was the fact .

      " Well , " said 1 , " it is of no use to proceed with , the matter . I am sure Mrs . will never sign these sheets without knowing what her signature authorizes . But perhaps you can tell us the nature of the * petition . ' What does it state about slavery , or what remedy does it suggest ?" Tbe only thing the lady knew was , that it ; was a " petition against slavery . " Of course she left without the coveted name . So it uppears that Englishwomen are not yet satisfied with the reception which their former letter to their American sisters experienced . Arc they fond of being rapped on tbe knuckles , that , having had that salutation once , they place themselves in its way again P

      Wben will they remember that advice , even when Bought , is seldom followed ; and that when volunteered and intrusive , it in worse than useless . The women of England forget , that if they send this second letter , they may receive not only the " retort courteous / ' but tbe " countercheck quarrelsome . " OltlON . JJradford , 25 th Jan ., 1 H 53 .

      "Scotch Worthies" And The Crystal Palace...

      " SCOTCH WORTHIES" AND THE CRYSTAL PALACE . ( To the Editor of the . Leader ) Silt , —Your correspondent " Aliquis" informed uh last week that a crusade vvns being got , iqiinthe metropolis of tbe north , by an " association of Presbyterian preachers , " against the opening of the Crystal Palace on Sunday . Permit nut , after the fashion of " Mrn . America" to " Mrs . England , " just to udvit > u tho « o zealous Sal ) hatarian worthies to look at home . In it not now admitted at all hands thnt they have got among themselves " palaces" enough to " close "—ah ) and whiskey ones—even on a Sunday ; more than in quite consistent with high religious profeHsioiiH , or even with tho maintenance of a very common morality P

      " Pass Where We May, Through City Or Thr...

      " Pass where we may , through city or through town , Village or hamlet , of that merry (?) land , Though lean and . haggard , every twentieth pace Conducts the unguarded nose to such a whiff Of stale debauch , forth issuing from the styes ^ That law has licensed , as makes temperance reel . Look to your own " palaces , " then , or rather " styes , " " preachers'' and people of Scotland ; and pray , in the fervour of your devotional feeling , that you may realize the true sentiment of your own dear Burns" Oh wad some power the giftie gie us To see ouisels as others see us ;

      It wad frae mony a blunder free us , And foolish notion . " It is not very many years , sir , since a similar agitation to the present was got up in that same city , and , for aught I know , by the same " preachers , " against the directors of the Edinburgh and . Glasgow Railway , for running Sunday trains . And as evidence of how much the religious mind of Scotland is governed by " pious influences , " so often talked about , I need only tell you that the crusades of those " Presbyterian "

      gentlemen were cheered on by an Edinburgh newspaper —then , as , I believe , now , regularly " composed" and printed on a Sabbath evening ; and , moreover , read and supported by the " cream of the country . " At the present moment methinks I still hear the click , click , of those Sabbatarian types , which perpetrated , all unconsciously , a beautiful piece of saintly inconsistency . The publishing office , if my memory is not dimmed by a " Scotch mist , " had also some relationship to the " old fish-market ; " and hence , doubtless , the aptitude of the veritable editor not to cry " stinking fish . "

      It is in no idle or irreligious strain that I offer these remarks . One of the greatest satirists of saintly and priestly arrogance and pretence has said in rhythm what never can be so well expressed in prose" All hail , Eeligion ! maid divine ! Pardon a muse sae mean as mine , Who in her rough , imperfect line Thus daurs to name thee ; To stigmatise false friends of thine Can ne ' er defame thee . " It is rather a pilfering pen mine , you see , Mr . Editor , hut with the help of one and another we may he able to teach those Presbyterian gentlemen that " those who live in glass houses , " & c . Yours , A .

      To Our Country Subscribers. Our Country ...

      TO OUR COUNTRY SUBSCRIBERS . Our Country Subscribers will in future receive a Saturday edition of this Journal . When it was first started , we published our Friday edition in the desire to convenience those residing at a distance , but we have reason to believe that the inconveniences of the arrangement more than balance the conveniences ; especially in making it appear to many of our country readers that we do not bring up the news to a sufficiently late point . Mb In future the two editions for " Town" l ( flid " Country " will be amalgamated , and there will be but one edition published in the middle of the day on Saturday .

      Notices To Correspondents. O. I'Kniiobk....

      NOTICES TO CORRESPONDENTS . O . I ' kniiobk . —Wo handed tho noto to tho gentleman for whom it was intended . Gkokgic ( Jim ,. —Ton ' s noto on " Niebuhr ' s Course of Revolutions" wan intended simply for thouopooples in tho possession of a certain degree of constitutional liberty , mid who attempt its completion . Tim moral of tho noto was that with such peoples its completion by development rut her tlitvn by coupa d ' etat of any complexion is perhapstho better . Neither Koi-mnth nor Mazzini mnke revolutions on an abttract fashion , nor are they mon of nioro " theory and impulse . " Ifoih aro eminent for practical qualities , engaged in tho most positive and practical of ciiuhi'h . But Ion ' s noto related to pobticiariH at homo . Franco , Italy , Hungary , and Poland , lire wholly different from England , and are not to ho judged liy British policy . Wo thank "A . 1 $ . ti . " for hm letter , in which wo found a groat ileid of truth oxprcaacd . We have always endeavoured to comply with the spirit of his suggestions . " J . M . TV hitter in after date ; might have been admissible , last wook .

      Rki'oumation Awm Sooiaubm.—Tlie Poor Lol...

      Rki'oumation awm Sooiaubm . —Tlie poor Lollards went to tbe stake uh uhuuI ; and Cromwell , wbon be ventured upon leniency towards them , went to tho scaffold . The movement on tbe continent wiih ruined in tbe eyes of tho Hober English by the Anabaptist exiles , who had , many of them , belonged to . John of Leyden ' s congregation , at Minister ; and the language in which they and the foreign Reformation wort ) spoken of , might Koein , with the change of a few words , to express the feelings with which sober-minded people now regard tho liberals of Germany and France . The exceedingly profligate ) doctrines attributed to tho Anabaptists existed ( us in tho modern parallel ) rather in the terrors of Mie orthodox than in the poor misbelievers themselves . — Westminster llevietv for January .

  • Citation
    • Leader (1850-1860), Jan. 29, 1853, page 110, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_29011853/page/14/