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Leader (1850-1860), 9th May 1857, Edition 1 of 2, Page 446, Untitled Article

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      Bridge , to supply the Surrey and Kent people with a share of Mr . Kitchen ' s magnificence . Begent-street was constructed , from " Pali-mall to Portland-place , between the years 1813 and 1823 , at the trifling cost , including the purchase of property , vested interests , sewers , and law-charges , of 1 533 , 5827 . It is a mile and a half in

      length ; but Mitchell ' s ideal street , four miles long , is calculated to cost 6 , 50 O , 0 G 0 ? ., the railway 1 , 900 , 000 ? ., the new palace and improvements at Kensington 1 , 500 , 000 / ., amounting in the gross to nearly ten millions sterling . But he thinks the ground-rent and traffic would yield nearly three per cent . not a large promise for a prospectus .

      Another civil engineer , Mr . F . W . Rammeli ,, proposes to intersect London with railways . He objects , very reasonably , to underground schemes . " We should have to undermine or displace a vast complication of sewers , water-pipes , and gas-pipes , and keep clear of a city of cellars and foundations . As a nation , we hate tunnels , dark , moist , impure , filled with noise and steam . Mr . Ramaieix , would carry- the rails , on iron

      frames , level with our first-floor windows , and work the trains by means of an atmospheric machinery . His railway would consist simply of a narrow line of rails , with an atmospheric tube between them , resting upon single rows of columns , planted along the kerb . Houses already in existence might be converted into stations ; the trains should run upon an endless course , always in one direction , so as to avoid danger ; a high average of speed should be maintained , with low fares , but

      large profits to the projectors . Circular boulevards , with new streets radiating from a centre , tramways for heavy traffic along each side of the great thoroughfares , a new attempt to govern locomotives upon common roads , have been among the suggestions for an improvement of metropolitan communications . We may not accept any of these schemes , which treat blocks of houses as cream cheese , and capitalists as nuggets to be melted down ; but we must adopt one plan

      or another , for , as time progresses , the opposite ends of London will be separated by an impassable wilderness , and the people of the parts about Primrose Hill will know no more of the dwellers in Globe Town than Aboukir knows of Table Bay .

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      LEGALISED THEFT . The belief in witchcraft , which the British public has lately affected much surprise at finding full-blown among us , is only a coarser form of that superstition concerning the Oath which still lingers on the magisterial bench , and , in spite of law reformers , still upon the statute books . Nonconformity ha 3 established itself all over the country , and , after some trouble , has got itself recognised in our institutions . No form of disbelief , however

      extreme , do law officers now attempt to punish . Sixteen , years have elapsed since the powerr of adjudging punishment to heresy was taken entirely out of the hands of magistrates , and no court high or low has the power to revive any such proceeding without the special consent of the Grown . But while the Tight of nonconformity is established in , the streets , there lingers the old superstition that the world cannot go on

      without conformity in the witness-box . Whatever a man may believe as a private individual , he must hayo , or profess , one common belief in the witness-box , or he is outlawed . Every possible latitude is now allowed him as to tho manner of swearing . He may hold up his right arm , or his loft ; he may kiss the Bible , or ho may break a Baucer ; he may swear by n false god ; but lie

      must swear . During the first century of our rule over India we insisted upon swearing the pagans " on the true faith of a Christian ; ' * but our oath not being binding on their consciences , it was found that they disregarded it . Our Indian statesmen , more liberal than our English statesmen / changed the form of oath , and permitted that form to be used which was binding on the pagan conscience . Now the Hindoo swears by what we regard as a false god ;^ % ut the plan answers , and the pagan witness tells the truth as satisfactorily as the Christian . The

      force of the oath lies not in conformity of belief , but in an appeal to the swearer ' s highest sense of veracity . "We take it that a free English subject is entitled to as much respect as a conquered pagan , and when an English deponent appears in our courts declaring his intention solemnly and conscientiously to speak " the truth , the whole truth , and nothing but the truth , " and binds himself by all the consequences of the laws of perjury , we cannot see why English law should refuse that man credibility , refuse ham the protection of justice , and abandon him , defenceless , to outrage and to plunder .

      Eor some time past the newspapers have teemed with cases of this kind . A short time ago an Edinburgh thief , having a spite against a respectable tradesman whom he knew to have a conscientious objection to an oath , took the opportunity of robbing him ; being detected and brought beftxre the sheriff , he reported the prosecutor ' s inability to take the oath , when the said sheriff , or whatever was his legal designation as a magistrate , liberated the thief , and sentenced the

      prosecutor to ten days' imprisonment for the offence of refusing to swear . We are not quite sure whether the robbery came about by pre-calculation exactly as we state , but this was the way it might have come about ; this , however , was the way the prosecutor was treated , and license given to every thief who listed to go and do likewise . The other day , in Newcastle-upon-Tyne , a witness indebted to a tradesman pleaded , on being sued for payment of his claim , that his creditor was destitute of the conventional belief

      necessary to enable him to take the oath . The court connived at the proceeding , the law leaving the judge no other course ; and the crafty defaulter evaded the payment of the debt . Another case which has never yet been reported , in some respects more flagrant than either of these , occurred the other day in the Staffordshire Potteries . At the police-court , Hanley , before T . B . Hose and John Ridgway , Esqs ., on Monday , March 9 th , a man

      named Joseph Taylor , was charged by his employer , Mr . J . B . Bebbington , with stealing a wheelbarrow , a quantity of moulds , gum , porcelain ornaments , scales , weights , &c . The whole of the stolen property was p roduced in court , having been taken out of the house of the prisoner by tho police , acting under a search-warrant . On tho prisoner being called forward and the Now Testament handed to the prosecutor , tho following dialogue ensued : —

      Pros . Before taking the oath I wish to make a statement . MagisU Well , what is it ? Pros . I wish to state that I regard tho oath as a civil , and not as a religious ceremony . Clerk . Ho does not believe tho Scriptures . Magist . Thon I cannot take your ovidenco . Now , sir , I must have the matter more plainly out : You havo in your hands a copy of tho Holy Scriptures—do you or do you not believe in thoir divine origin ? It would bo a perfect farce to swear a man on a book ho does not believe .

      [ Tho magistrate after some consultation with Mr . Rldgwuy , resumed : " ] I am quite clear in thin catte . Tho law allows us to tnko tho evidence of Quakers , Moravians , nnd some other Boots under an affirmation dispensing with tho

      oath , to none of which sects the prosecutor says he belongs ; but it gives ua no power to take the evidence of a person who says he disbelieves t"he Holy Scri pture * Pros . I did not say that . Magist . It is a matter of inference . However , tha magistrates have determined to take a note of your declaration , and then to take upon themselves the responsibility of refusing your evidence . Now , sir , y ou will please to attend : — " This witness before being sworn , made a declaration that he regarded the oath as civilly but not religiously binding , whereon , Sue . " Is that correct ? Pros . Assented .

      Magist . Then there is no case against the prisoner . I never , in the whole course of my experience , met with but one case of this kind before . That was the case of a man named Yates—since , I believe , dead—the late Jeremiah Yates , who , on presenting himself befor e me to be sworn in as special constable , at a time when tig refusal would have brought upon him a fine of five pounds , said that he did not believe the oath , but that he would take it to save the five pounds . I ordered him out of court , saying that I would have neither his services nor his five potrads , and that I did not consider him a fit person to serve her Majesty . There is no case against the prisoner , let him be discharged , and let the property be taken back to the place from whence it was brought by the officers who executed the

      searchwarrant . In all the dialogues between witnesses and the bench touching the oath , the exact point at issue has never been put more clearly , nor in language more unobjectionable , than by Mr . Bebblbtgtoit in this instance . There was no syllable jarring on the faith of the court—no obtrusion of any opinion held by the prosecutor—nothing but a simple , respectful , and decided declaration that the oath was binding on his conscience to all intents and purposes as a civil

      ceremonyand as a civil ceremony only . Mr . Rose followed up this by an impertinent and illogical commentary . He had no evidence whatever before him on which to ground his inference ( that the prosecutor disbelieved the Holy Scriptures ) , and he proceeded to employ the officers of the court in removing the stolen property , which occupied a . considerable space before the bench , to the house of the thief , who was dismissed , with something like triumph , to enjoy the fruits of his plunder . With the knowledge that this is the kind of treatment which may be expected by a conscientious prosecutor , no wonder that Mr . Rose has not had many cases before

      him . This clear-headed Solon relieves Jeremiah Yates of the duty of serving Heb Majesty , and excuses him the fine of five pounds after his coarse XDrofession of indifference respecting the oath—a profession betraying no consciousness of moral obligation in the matter . After this tenderness to Jeremiah Yates , Mr . Rose refuses , with a sort of uuction , protection to Mr . Bebbington , who professes a manly respect for civil veracity , and hands over his p roperty to tho undisputed custody of tho thief . The sooner the law , which not merely permits , but instructs magistrates to commit these outrages , is amended , the bettor for public justice .

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      THE ITALIAN PORTSMOUTH . Tirn Sardinian Government has for some time been proposing to transfer the naval arsenal from Genoa to Sposszia , and it meets with a double resistance , combining elements really incompatible . " We shall understand the nature of this resistance- better when we perceive the real character of tho project , lhe port of Genoa lies ofc tho bottom of a spacious L . . i % i i i . i-. > - * . it r » rr /> TV of the however

      gulf . The construction port , , would not readily admit of expansions wilttout a very great expense . Even a quarter oi n century ago tho space was barely , suflicitnt for tho commerco ; nnd with tho increase ol trade , tho growth of steam navigation nna passenger transit , and tho rising im portance of tho Sardinian States as a political powoi in tho Mediterranean , tho port it ) becoming accidodly too small to bo , as it has already bcon

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      ^ £ TIB LEABE It ,. [ No . 37 t ^ XTtrB 3 > A 3 ra

  • Citation
    • Leader (1850-1860), May 9, 1857, page 446, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2192/page/14/