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7g2 THE LEA PER. [Saturday,
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HOW JUSTICE MAY BE .MAULED. Th;e reply t...
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THE MANNERS OF THE PEOPLE. The daily ugl...
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"A STRANGER" IN PARLIAMENT. Tiim only Pn...
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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.
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The Indignant Virtue Of The Bar. Wnen Mr...
between that discovery and " Sir Richard ' s " transportation , and so it seems , the "bar is vindicating itself in the eyes of the public , and Mr . Bovill is winning consideration for the profession . But how , impartial ' laymen ask , is this ? An honourable profession lets logic out for hire , and judging very iDroperly that the majority of litigants are blockheads , provides thein with , a number of gentlemen ( whose ears are concealed , and whose heads are kept cool , by means of horsehair ) , to be the exponents of their grievances , and to state to thirteen
individuals , one of whom knows something about the law , what is the grievance they complain of . The gentlemen of the honourable profession are the patrons , the persons of the litigious turn of mind the clients , but the gentlemen of the honourable profession gracefully lessen the obligation of the litigants by accepting an honorarium for their disinterested services . At this point the barrister , having received his fee , and not having been offered any other case to attend to , goes into court as the cool exponent of his client ' s wrongs . His duty is to state the case entrusted to him , and to require that either it be fully met , or that its claim , whatever that may be , be at
once conceded . Such a duty any man can hor nourably , and to the uttermost , perform . "Why should he throw up his brief , when lie stands there soliciting the opposite side , if they can , to trip up his case ? Had he chivalrously taken it up from mere love of the right , and from a lofty conviction that he ought to battle for the wronged , one could understand his disgust as new lights broke in upon his mind , and the suspicion crossed him that his sheep was a wolf ill disguised . It would be some insult to the judge , to the jury , and to the opposing counsel , to suppose that they could not see the truth as well as he , but the sentiment would be pretty and the action only absurd .
But Mr . Bovill does not profess to be chivalrous in these matters . No barrister couches his lance till he has ascertained his fee ; and we must question the right of any mercenary to take the hire , and then cultivate the scruple . A Quaker we can very much admire ; but a battlefield convert to that persuasion is scarcely an estimable object . For look at the results . Granted . " Sir Richard "
is an unmitigated scoundrel . W ere his counsel in any way , except by their own act , identified with his scoundrelism ? AH that they had undertaken , if they were honorable men , was to cooperate with the opposing counsel in placing before the judge and jury the true state of the case . Theirs was the exposition ; the decision was the jury's . But they mistook their duty , and looking on themselves as hireling advocates , not as disinterested exponents , grew ashamed of their employer , turned witnesses against the very man whoso money , or rather , whoso backer ' s money , they had in their pockets , and pronounced the verdict which they wore there to influence and avert .
In this case they have done no harm beyond casting a slur upon Sir Frederick Thcsigor ' s ablities by their gratuitous assistance , and being guilty of an impertinence to the jury by an usurpation of their functions ; and they have , on the other hand , the credit of showing that the bar lias no sympathy with a criminal after ho has paid , and when he is detected . But it may happen that , fired by this example-, some youthful barrister will on a future occasion throw up a brief when tho world is not so sure that his client is a scoundrel .
It may happen that tho jury , believing that the counsel must know more of tho case than they , may accept his evidence against his em-E loyor , and arrive at a result , in consequence of is conduct , opposite to that to which , had ho gone on , tho caso would have brought them . "What , thon , will bo said of tho morality of a profession , tho members of which take money for tho advocacy of cases without inquiring " oil which side they arc engaged , pursue tho eauso ,
careless whether they are right or wrong , till it looks hopeless , and then ' , to win a smile from a tired judge , announce , amid tho jingle of their elient ' H guineas , that ho—about whom they " opened" ho nmgniloquenily—is a villain F Considering that in every trial , ovory barrister of any ability must know before the close of his case which way the verdict ought to bo , wo see no end to tho tin-owing up of briefs , if onco counsel are to bo allowed lo constitute thexn « elves jurymen . Lot them bo careful what
they advocate , if they will ; but do let them remember that they are paid to be the exponents , not the betrayers , of the cause which they have undertaken .
7g2 The Lea Per. [Saturday,
7 g 2 THE LEA PER . [ Saturday ,
How Justice May Be .Mauled. Th;E Reply T...
HOW JUSTICE MAY BE . MAULED . Th ; e reply to the Judge ' s verdict at Warwick in the Von Beck case , as it is still called , was the meeting of George Dawson ' s friends in Birmingham on Monday . It was felt , that by whatever form of law justified , the Court had slandered a man -whose ¦ . ¦ c haracter is best appreciated by those that know him best . Conspicuous for his liberal opinions in matters of politics , faith , and the true relations of life , it is natural that scandal should be incessantly on the watch to find him tripping , and the first opportunity is taken .
George Dawson , the theological student , is convicted of a mistake in forms of law ; and the precautions taken by a private gentleman in Birmingham to prevent the escape of an impostor , without risking wrong to a woman who was perhaps innocent , are charged upon George Dawson as a violation of hospitality . For he is made the scapegoat of the whole . If the lawyers made mistakes , he is the man by name primarily and publicly called to account ; he is censured for the violation of hospitality in another man ' s house !
The whole case has been before the public and the jury for sometime . If before any considerable number of men , Constant Derra de Moroda , the Hungarian nobleman , and George Dawson , the religious teacher of Birmingham , were placed side by side , and the question Were asked , which of these men is the worthy man , —which of them is it whose character is thoroughly known in household and abroad , —which of them has laboured to do good , and has done it ? We make no doubt of the verdict . How then could the jury get so far astray ?
Some account for it by the peculiarities of the fudge . We do not mean -his biographical peculiarities—his reputation 6 f jocularity and good fellowship ; but we mean those occurrences which were observed in the Court . It appeared , for example , that he read his notes with difficulty . In his summing up , Birmingham became " Manchester ; " Hyland , who went to London , became " Dawson , " and there were other blunders of the kind . But Mr . Justice Maule used to be
regarded as a man of keen reasoning , and the jury would naturally follow his lead . Now , on the side of the defendants , while it had been denied that Von Beck was known at the Court of Vienna , it was not denied that she had lived at Vienna , and the Court is held at Vienna : so , to the judgment of the judge , that appeared to be tho same thing . There are ladies well known to gay men about town , who liv r o in " St . James ' s-place , " and the
Court is held at St . James's ; wherefore it follows that these ladies would have the right to pass as frequenters of the British Court . Mr . Justice Maule observed of George Dawson that his faculties had been cultivated until ho could make distinctions too subtle for tho judge's intellect . It is not for us to deny Mr . . Justice Maulo ' s disclaimer ; but tho occasion for his saying so renders tho remark more singular , since the distinction which he ascribes to Dawson had been drawn
by tho plaintifi s counsel . Those who were on the side of tho defendants were unfortunate in the opithets that tho judge applied to them . George Dawson , for example , was said to havo paid "his Birmi ? u / ka ? n shillings , " a slight , not only upon Dawson , but upon Birmingham , and even upon shillings that happen to go to Birmingham . " Doinoerals and tyrants " wore epithets conjoined in an allusion to Jfajnik . Over night liaeidula Avaa dancing : a ciroumstance which might at all events show reason
why tho defendants did not anticipate her sudden death ; yet to the judge it became tho occasion for a pathetic remark that it might be called " ( . ho dunce of death . " if those on the side of George Dawson were unfortunate perhaps in . an excess of attention to these minute and damaging allusions , the balance was made good by passing over circumstances that might have told in their favour . Their disconnection with tho Pulszkys , for example ; and the admission of Derm " Moroda thai ; ' Vottor had oautionod him against Kacidula as an adventuress .
J ho strongest habits are apt to bo developed by time . Mr . J ustieo Maule is celebrated for bin jocose resources . Are wo U > regard the trial aa •« Mttulo ' tf lasLP" . If ao , however , it is a very
bad joke , indeed ; but perhaps that is the light in which it had best be regarded .
The Manners Of The People. The Daily Ugl...
THE MANNERS OF THE PEOPLE . The daily ugliness in the lives of our " labouring class" is the indirect result of .. acourseo f legislation which , lias left undone those things which it ought to have done , and done those things which it ought not to have done . The settled habits of English society have aided the more immediate operation of the laws . Our city craftsman has no means of relief or . pleasure in his idle hours . In Italy the peasant may hear air opera for two - pence , and in audience of Bellini or Mozart finds an evening occupation and a healthy excitement . " The Englishman cannot appreciatehighmusic ;" for a good reason—he has never heard , it . The cheapest London concert ever organized , requires a shilling , a good coat , and , for the artisan , intrusion among people of an upper rank . The public gardens are very dear pleasures to a man earning at best three shillings a day , and all their arrangements , vulgar as they are , are made for people with plenty of money . The London labourer finds na pleasant walks near his home . If he take a trip by a Parliamentary train he finds it made ingeniously uncomfortable—stopped for
hours on sidings , shoved out of the way like a poor relation at a rich feast . His excursion train is taxed , and his Sunday pleasures shortened by Sabbatarian shutters on public buildings . He is like a boy shut up in a room without toys , sweetmeats , or books ; the boy breaks the Windows or hurts himself ; the working man behaves no better . We have put down prize-fights ; but there remains no other arena as a safety valve for the physical excitement natural to unlettered men . The men who , twenty years ago , would have fought their match , now beat their wives .
The increase of towns has increased the evil . Factories have drawn from out-of-door habits to close town life thousands of men who find in domestic cruelty the only excitement in lieu of rural games . We close up the bettinghouses , and drive the apprentices to the ginshops for another " amusement . " And if the worker seeks in his craft the stimulus of advanced wages , he finds his rise checked by a combination among masters , backed by the police . Look round London , and where can you find the means for a cheerful evening for the working man P Can he spend it at home amid the inevitable dirt of a small room in a close court ,
where a wife , soiled and defaced with the lines of hard housekeeping , keeps up a shrill din * in hushing one baby and scolding another P Why , if as his only resource he gets drunk and maims that woman , the prison will be a palace to that den , and the hard labour will be a trifle to one wfth tough hands , coarse nerves , and no sense of shame . We have allowed our labourers to live so wretchedly , that our prisons have no terrors for them . Again and again do husbands return from gaol to renew their regular outrago upon their wives . Five such cases have occurred within the fortnight .
Iwo points present themselves . There are ruffians whom no mild treatment can reform , and no ordinary punishment deter . The whip alono can compel such mon to refrain from violence and wrong . But the general state of the population demands a remedy of deeper purpose and wider application . Wo must not allow our pooplo to progress to brutality : for without comfort , cleanliness , or pleasures , our working mon must come to that . A healthy society
would compass them in all their ways with provocations to worthy pleasures , and prevent them in all their doings by a continual education in tho nobler ends of life . With all our wealth and beneficence , tho only ontcrpme with such design is tho People ' s Palace at Sydenham , yet the promotors of tho publican ' s Sabbath threaten to class that beautiful Book of Art and Nature with the tavern and tho penny show , denying it tho open privileges allowed without check to the worst dens of London vice .
"A Stranger" In Parliament. Tiim Only Pn...
"A STRANGER" IN PARLIAMENT . Tiim only Pnrliamontary proceedings of tho weok hnvo hooii at Spitheml . All tho institutions of tho country havo boon , literally , at « ea . Lords and CommoiiH , li'f ° Coalition ( JoverninontH , huvo oxpoHod thomaolvoH # ' » - lantly to the raking liro of two Opponitionn ; »»< ^ JiunoM ( Jrahain , who provided Hteaniera and nodii wiit <"> in gonornlly declared to have done tho thing vory well-Huid Mr . Ilumo whou lie ciitno buck from Spi M" - " * ' on Thursday , « Yob , it whs u fino eight ; but renlly «»
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Citation
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Leader (1850-1860), Aug. 13, 1853, page 14, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_13081853/page/14/
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