On this page
- Departments (1)
-
Text (3)
-
Untitled Article
-
Untitled Article
-
THE OFFICE OF CORONER.
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.
-
-
Transcript
-
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.
Additionally, when viewing full transcripts, extracted text may not be in the same order as the original document.
Untitled Article
¦ diced could continue to believe them . All the disadvantageous circnmstances concerning the Plummkes came out , strengthened and confirmed by their own testimony .. The children were shown to have been brought np hi a ' most disreputable and disgraceful manner the mother to have been ignorant , vulgar , violent , and addicted to drinking ; the father to be so entirely under the control of his wife as to be afraid of contradicting her ; and the whole household to have been of the most disorderly character . On the eide of Mr . Hatch , many things which had previously told against him , were so explained as to have a contrary effect , and others much mitigated m their appearance ; and , above all , it was shown by the sisterchild of eight of
evidence of Stephanie , the younger , a years age that she and Eugenie did understand the nature or , such mysteries of iniquity as were discussed on the trial long before they went to Mr . Hatch's , though the poor infant could not say how and from whom she had acquired her precocious knowledge , father , mother and children continually contradicted each other in their testimony , and the fabric of false-witness , which had been so carefully constructed , was shattered in a few hours . The result was such as might have been expected . Baron Cjiasxeix summed up with his usual perspicuity and fairness , and the jury , after a deliberation of two hours and a quarter , found a verdict of guilty . It is difficult to see how they could have arrived at any other decision ; and the result for Mr . Hatch is , that he will now receive a free pardon , and be civilly restored to his place iu society . these remarkable trialdocs not end
But the moral importance of s liere ; a consideration of them must involve many serious reflections upon the law of evidence , on the constitution of juries , and on the necessity for courts of appeal . We shall , therefore , only close our discussion of the subject so far as it relates to the wretched girl , now removed from the control of her most unfit and incompetent parents . Every one who is not blinded by prejudice , must rejoice in the leniency which has been manifested in the sentence pronounced by Baron Ciiannei / T , on this miserable little culprit . She will have an imprisonment for three weeks , after which , for two years she will be placed in a reformatory , where , it is to be hoped , some regard to truth will be impressed on her depraved mind . Her friends talk of carrying out , of course with the consent of the Court , an arrangement of their own for her benefit ; but we trusF that-any such arrang-ement will be subjected to the severest ¦ ¦ ¦
scrutiny . . ¦ ¦¦< - ' . _ . — And now that Ed-genie PrraniEK is in the hands of justice , and that the friends of Mr . Hatch are in expectation of his obtaining Her Majesty ' s pardon for crimes which he did not commit , we shall take an early opportunity , perhaps in our next -number , of investigating some , at least , of those considerations which arise out of the recent trials .
Untitled Article
The magistrates have fought this battle by attacking the coroner's fees , and by obstructing the information upon which his proceedings could be founded . This has gone on for many . years * and the spirit of . the remarks made some time ago bv Sir James Gkaiiam in the House of Commons is quite applicable at the present day . The right honourable baronet" observed at the time of the Norfolk and Essex poisonings : " There was reason to believe that in the county of Norfolk no fewer than twenty persons had died from poison administered by one individual , and in none of these -cases had an inquest been held . ' * He added ; " The magistrates of Devon had even gone to the length of coming to the resolution not to pay the costs of any coroner ' s inquests , when the verdict was ' died by the visitation of God . * The resolution had a most injurious effect in preventing inquests in many cases , when they ought to have been held . " Actuated by
the ignorant and mischievous spirit of the magistrates , the " Commissioners on the costs of prosecution" proposed to deprive the coroner of all discretion as to holding inquests , and to pay him for being a useless officer by a salary instead of by fee . « . The " select committee " to which we have referred approve of the fixed salary , but wisely reject the proposition to take away the coroner ' s discretion . They do not . however , seem to have a very clear notion of what is required , and their report does not suggest the idea that the present sort of Members of Parliament are properly grounded in the elementary knowledge of constitutional principles or of jurisprudence . They wish an Act of Parliament to declare the cases in which coroners' inquests ought to be held , whereas any fixed declaration of the kind would operate as a mischievous limitation . There are cases in which the non-holding of an inquest is very properly deemed an offence for which the coroner may be punished , but no set of rules could be framed to fetter his discretion
without taking * the most valuable part of it away . For five-. hundred years the law has been , that inquests should be held in the cases of " all violent deaths , all casualties by which death ensues , all sudden deaths , persons found dead , persons dying in prison , lunatics who die by suicide , and felons . of themselves . " The law would have worked well enough if honestly carried out ; but those who did not like the coroner ' s court set up all sorts of quibbles , with the object of preventing inquests ,. except when the case was so plain that it might be left with tolerable safety to the police tribunals for preliminary investigation . The" Select Committee " think that "it-is of the utmost importance to the preservation of Hie . and the detection of crime that inquests should be held in all cases of violent or unnatural , and also in all cases of sudden death , when the cause of
death is unknown , and also when , though the death is apparently natural , reasonable , suspicion of criminality exists . " What is a " reasonable suspicion of criminality ?" ' This would be a most difficult-thing to determine , and it would be a dangerous thing to affirm that in the absence of such suspicion no inquest ought to be held . "Whenever there is reasonable doubt as to the cause of a death , it shouW be left entirely to the discretion of the coroner to hold an inquest if he thinks fit . When murders are ingeniously committed , t ) : cvo will very often be no apparent ^ circumstances to create a suspicion of guilt , and it is only by carefully searching for the unknown cause of death that detection can take place . Mr . Todp , the coroner-for Hampshire , mentioned a remarkable instance of this * prt to the Commi ttee . A man ealle ^ lITinsTiieiglTr ^^ was in a fit , and that if they did not make haste she would be dead . The woman was found dead , and " some very slight circumstance "
ONE of the greatest blots upon the English administration of justice is the practically irresponsible power given to the unpaid magistrates in rural district ? . In a large number of cases the " glorious unpaid" have a strong personal interest in the matter before them , as when a man is charged with poaching before a bench of ~ gaTWe = pTeser \ nng ^ qui resr «> i ^ a-man-l «^^ poacher is charged with an offence of another kind , which offers a pretext for getting him out of the way . Constitutional lawyers tell us of . the crime of lese-majestg , but in rural districts Use squirearchy is a much more serious offence , and woe betide the unfortunate peasant who does not appreciate the blessings of the feudal system under which our villages are managed . The squire does not mean wrong , and is scarcely conscious that he does wrong . He manages the county rates without the consent of the rate-payers ,
whom he has been , brought up to > look upon as an inferior sort of people , born to be subject to his control . His tenants are not inde ^ pendent makers of a bargain , in which the obligation is equally divided , but humble suitors , who obtain permission to employ capital on the cultivation of his . fields upon condition of doing all sorts of feudal service beyond the payment of rent . They must keep foxes to eat-up their jpuultry , in order that the great man and his friends may ride after them when they pleaso ; and they must not complain of damage done by a NiatKOD invasion of their fields . They must employ no labourers whom the squire ' s gamekeeper does not approve . They must feed as ninny rabbits upon their turnips as the great man wishes to keep nt somebody else ' s expense . They must vote which wuy they are told at Parliamentary elections , and sign petitions iu . favour of church rates whenever the parson has imbibed the squire's port , nnd obtained an order for such an expression of his tenants '
. We cannot wonder that tho chief actors in this feudal play should dislike the free and popular character of that ancient and valuable institution , the Coroner ' s Court ; nor need wo bo surprised that for many years pnst county magistrates have excrtod themselves to reduce its powers and limit its utility . Nor have they stood alone , for a few years ago a Criminal Law Commission recommended entirely subordinating 1 the coroner to the magistrate , and taking from his the character of formal
¦ away inquisitions initiating a charge for another Court to try . In ft similar spirit of aggression upon a popular nnd constitutional authority , ' Mr . H . Pownaix , tho -Chairman of the Middlesex Quarter Sessions , recently advised tho " Select Committee on tho Office of Coroner" to recommend tho ¦ abolition of the jury , and to obtain a statute , according 1 to which tho coroner would liold ' the inquests nil by himself , and , when ho thought necessary , cnuso further proceedings to bo taken before tho ordinary magistrates .
induced Mr . Tone to have -a 2 iost mortem examination , which proved that she had been murdered , in a manner that u-otild never have been suspected . In the case of the numerous child murders ' that took place some time ago for the sake of the burial fees , the deaths appeared the naturaTresult of infantile cholera , until the circumstances were closely examined , and the truth appeared . The present rules of the Hampshire magistrates would prevent an inquest being held in the case mentioned by Mr . Toih > , and more Essex poisonings might take place with probability of safety , if the coroner could only make an inquiry after positive grounds for suspicion had appeared . Whenever a death takes place the cause of . which ' is obscure , it should be left to the coroner to determine wla-thor or not an inquest is desirable . It would not follow that one would bo held without preliminary investigation , for , as Mr . Paynk very properly remarked , the duty of a coroner is to obtain information before ordering- an inquest , and not to proceed without a sufficient cause .
The discretion of the coroner should not be fctturei ] by a hidebound statute . Like other functionaries , ho is ameuablo to public opinion , which supplies checks more safe and ettioacious than those of positive law . Still less should tho coroner ' s jury be tampered ' with . It is a most valuable constitutional right that twelve impartial men should exercise the functions of jurors in such cases . Their opinions aro of groat value in deterring evil-doers , and their recommendations have constantly led to tho removal of onuses of accidents or crime . Moreover , we must nover forget that ^ iu seasons of political excitement a coroner ' s court may be a primo safeguard , of . liberty . When tho Manchester massiicro look place ,
Ihd' magistrates' misconduct was , cvon according to tho private ) opinion of Lord Eldox , of very questionable Jognliiy , —but they received tho thanks of the bud Govornmont of tho day . It i . s possible that similar times may come again , and it is well to know that if official persons should net so as to cause loss of life , it . will not bo in tho power of other official persons to screen them , so long ua tho coroner ' s court exi « tH in its , ancicnt rights and dignity , and twelve free citizens can , by their verdict , consign presumed oilondera to a jury trial , and can append such comments to every ea . se im tlio dictates of moral justice mnv require .
Untitled Article
May 19 , I 860 . ] The Leader and Saturday Analyst , 469
The Office Of Coroner.
TT-rR owtcte of coroner .
-
-
Citation
-
Leader (1850-1860), May 19, 1860, page 469, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2348/page/9/
-