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RECORDER OF LINCOLN..

On the occasion of the recent appointment of the Hon. Mr. Vernon to be Recorder of Lincoln, the opinion of those especially interested therein has been clearly expressed; for we read that, at a meeting of the Lincoln Town-Council, specially convened, the mayor in the chair, the following resolutions were unanimously agreed to :-" That, in the opinion of this Council, the appointment of Recorder for Lincoln by Her Majesty's government, without giving this council, as the representatives of the public, an opportunity of expressing any opinion upon the merits of gentlemen qualified to fill the office in question, is a slight shown to the principal of local self-government, and a further proof of the mischievous and ever-encroaching principles of centralisation, so much in favour with the governing class in this country. That the selection of the Hon. G. C. Vernon to fill the office of Recorder, lately held by Nathan Clarke, Esq., deceased, is injudicious, and likely to shake the confidence of the people in the proper administration of justice, Mr. Vernon being an unknown. and untried man, and elevated over others of the Midland bar who have acquired considerable practice, and who, having enjoyed the advantages resulting from much longer experience in their profession, would commence their judicial career with the entire confidence of the public."

Now, upon the latter resolution we pass no judgment. Mr. Vernon is a gentleman even less known than Mr. Justice Blackburne, but that may not be his fault, and the result may prove that he is one of the best criminal lawyers of the day, and that his merits had accidentally come under the notice of the superior powers. But appointments like these do not afford satisfaction to the public, which is not assured that mere interest, family and political connexion, may not, as in other cases, be the operative cause of such promotions.

With whom, then, should such patronage be left? The recent proceedings at, and the result of the election of the judge of the Sheriff's court, does not make one feel well disposed to leave the

VOL. VIII. NO. XV.

appointment in such a body as exercised the franchise on that occasion. Nor is jobbing, we fear, unknown to town-councils or other bodies of the like kind. Perhaps the best protection for the public would be, in the case of recorderships and stipendiary magistrates, to have three or four names submitted to the Chancellor or Home Office, by the local authorities. To exclude them from having a voice in such appointments, is to our minds improper; but to exercise a check on their determination appears highly desirable. At all events, the present mode of making these appointments demands consideration and alteration.

BOROUGH GRAND JURIES.

IN the last number of this Magazine, we discussed the operation of juries upon the administration of our law. An example has very recently been brought to our notice, of the mode in which grand juries in small boroughs perform their duties, which is not without its value as an illustration of the defects of the present system. In the small borough of Folkestone, which numbers, we believe, burgesses to the amount of six hundred or seven hundred (of whom, perhaps, one-fourth are available as jurors grand and petty), there are regular quarter-sessions, a recorder, and officers to perform appropriate functions. The civil and criminal business is there carried on after the accustomed formal mode. Now, it happened that, at the July quarter-sessions, three private soldiers were tried for housebreaking, convicted, and sentenced to twelve months' imprisonment, with hard labour. Subsequently, however, it was found out that there had been some great mistake in identity. Two other soldiers of the same regiment confessed that they had committed the outrage, and that the men previously convicted were innocent of the crime laid to their charge. It appears in fact, that when the housebreaking soldiers were retiring from their outrage, they found the police were in hot pursuit after them, and, therefore, had recourse to a ruse, to throw these officers off the scent, which thus occasioned the error. As soon as they had reached their hut

at Shorncliffe, they induced two of their comrades to get out of bed, into whose place the pursued soldiers forthwith slipped. Unfortunately, the device was too successful, for the police effectually confounded the men who had just slipped out of bed, with those who had just slipped in. The police were resolved to identify some of the soldiers, and thus fixed the wrong men with the housebreaking.

The real culprits, however, after their comrades had been sentenced to undergo the imprisonment, felt remorse, and confessed the truth. The latter could not be relieved by the Secretary of State for the Home Department until the former had been convicted; and so, on the 30th September last, the two men who had confessed were put on their trial. Mr. J. J. Lonsdale, the recorder, explained to the grand jury their duties with respect to the case. Whether he explained them so fully and elaborately, as we are inclined to think, as to puzzle the "grand" jury, or whether they failed from sheer stupidity, or from corrupt motives, we cannot say; but with the confession of the prisoners before them, and the evidence of the third convict, who deposed that his comrades in crime had been the two men now charged, and not the two formerly convicted, the intelligent grand jury found no true bill! The recorder was astounded; others, perhaps, who knew the material whence the grand jury" was drawn, were not equally surprised. Nor is this by any means an isolated case either in the borough of Folkestone, or other small boroughs, of failure of justice, by reason of the improper constitution of the tribunal. Not only are these jurors (who are drawn from sources not suitable even for the performance of the functions of petty jurymen) without the education and characters which are supposed proper to grand jurymen; but in small boroughs there are party feeling, prejudices, and other disturbing influences, which render the administration of justice within such small areas any thing but satisfactory. The advantages of local self-government are not illustrated by the proceedings in small boroughs; and though we may admit the salubrity and beauty of Folkestone-its value as a halting-place on the road to Paris in

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ten and a half hours-not to speak of the skill and stability said to be recently exhibited in the erection of their public buildings, yet it is obvious that, as local jurymen, they do not excel. In small communities generally, where every one knows his neighbour's affairs, and where its educated members do not interfere with, but leave to those of both contracted minds and means, such duties as have to be performed in small boroughs, all kinds of absurdity and jobbing are continually to be observed. The political morality of boroughs is being exposed by the election commissions. Their social condition may also require some consideration. Perhaps the Social Science Association will be able to enter upon this subject on a future occasion.

COMMITMENTS IN COUNTY COURTS.

THE daily newspapers have recently been reporting and criticising certain proceedings in a metropolitan County Court, of a very painful description, and which we trust did not take place as alleged. We shall not further refer to them, but we cannot forbear drawing attention to the invincible stupidity of a certain portion of the public, who cannot distinguish between the justice and necessity of punishing a fraudulent person, and the injustice and impolicy of imprisoning an unfortunate debtor, who would pay what he owes if he could do so.

The onus of explaining why a debtor does not discharge his debt lies surely upon himself. If he can shew that by no fault of his own he is deprived of the means of satisfying his creditor, it is unreasonable that the law should inflict its penalties upon him. If on the other hand it appear, that the debtor contracted his engagement without the probable means and intention of honestly keeping his engagement, or that having the means he dishonestly evades or repudiates payment, it must be agreed, we should have thought, by every man of common sense, common morality, and common knowledge of mankind, that it is incumbent upon the law to enforce, by the most stringent exercise of its compulsory power, such payment, and in all legitimate methods to

punish individual fraud, and repress systematized commercial robbery.

One great advantage accruing from the establishment of local Small Debt Courts, was the new remedy given to the creditor, who was wont formerly to be robbed with impunity by reason of the hazard he incurred in the expensive processes of the Superior Courts; and another advantage, and one not smaller either in degree or extent, has been derived from the general operation on men's minds of the fact, that they now could be made to pay what they owed, whether they liked it or no. The morality of small debtors has thus improved. They either do not recklessly incur debts, or they duly discharge them. We are, however, daily meeting with the theories of certain spurious philanthropists, who urge either that imprisonment is a great hardship on fraudulent people (with whom they seem deeply to sympathize), or that it is cheaper not to protect the honest dealer. There are many rogues whom the law will never effectually touch; but that is no reason why we should permit its being rendered a dead letter when it can operate, by a morbid theory or an absurd jealousy of the power put into the hands of County Court judges.

IT is stated that Sir J. D. Paul, Bart., and Strahan, have been released from their imprisonment. The crime of which they were found guilty was one one worse than most kinds of swindling or theft-except that they did not add personal violence to their robbery. Few midnight robbers we ever heard of merited punishment so severe as these bankers and burglars. It might naturally be expected, therefore, that some would be found who begin to think and say that these miscreants who have ruined families, stolen the savings of the widow, devoured the inheritance of the orphan, and dealt the heaviest of blows to commercial credit, have been too harshly dealt with. If punishment should be measured by the criminality of the act itself, and the protection essential for society-then, so far from these respectable felons having already expiated their crime, they in fact have paid a very small instalment of the appropriate penalty.

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