And, supposing that this act did spring from the government here, how is it to be reconciled with the supposed moderation, if not conversion, of the Duke of Wellington? Truly, it dovetails but ill. But we are sick of speculating about the Duke of Wellington's opinions; he seems determined that the country which he, at present, governs, shall not have the most remote idea of what his intentions are on the subject of the highest moment that is at issue in its policy. And, truly, if the only intimations of them are to be in the shape of proceedings like these, we had much rather that he would keep them to himself. QUARTER SESSIONS. To the EDITOR of the LONDON Magazine. SIR, I HAVE read with very great pleasure the article in your last Number on the Magistracy; and with the opinions there expressed I strongly coincide. The existence and the magnitude of the evils complained of, no one who has had any opportunity of seeing the manner in which justice is administered at the Quarter Sessions, will for an instant deny. It is to this branch of the subject that I intend to confine the few remarks I am about to make: the other part of your paper, which respects the duties of magistrates in their individual capacities, the mode in which those duties are at present discharged, and the remedies which might be applied to the abuses which confessedly exist, presents a wide field; and I may possibly take some future opportunity of addressing to you some observations on this, perhaps the more important division of the subject. I take it for granted that every body, who has considered the subject at all, is sufficiently convinced of the execrable manner in which the business is at present conducted at the Quarter Sessions throughout the country: the only question is what better mode can be substituted. Your proposition of appointing a barrister, as assessor to the magistrates, to perform in reality the duties now attempted by the Chairman, I think a good one, as far as it goes; my objection is that it does not go far enough. In fact, the alteration I would propose would be to have no Quarter Sessions at all. That is to say, I would leave it to the magistrates to perform all the county business relating to roads, bridges, &c. &c., at any meeting which it might be their pleasure to convene; but the trials of prisoners, appeals against rates, against orders of removal, and, especially against magistrates' convictions, should be left wholly to the decision of the professional person who might be appointed. I grant that the mere presidency of such a person would tend to prevent a great deal of noisy contention about what is, or is not, evidence; and there would be some hope of having a point of law correctly decided otherwise than by the mere chance, which happily is equal, between right and wrong. I am also willing to admit, that in the majority of instances the magistrates would have sense enough (though this is a bold supposition) to defer to the opinions of a person whose pursuits must have rendered him so much more competent than themselves to decide upon the questions which come before them. But, setting aside the argument that, if it were so in all cases, there could be no possible use in the magistrates being there at all, I cannot but think the instances in which, directly or indirectly, they would be able to controul the assistant barrister and influence the administration of justice, would be found to be sufficiently numerous, to lessen, very considerably, the utility of such an appointment. They would still have their vote; and many cases may be imagined, even by those who have not been in the habit of attending Sessions, in which they would not be inclined to suffer such a privilege to remain, like the King's veto of late years, dormant. The chairman at present is usually selected, with some care, from the other magistrates, as being the most competent among them to fulfil his duties creditably; and probably, in general, he is so; but we frequently find in practice that he is outvoted. This I admit would not happen so often with a professional assessor, but that it would happen, and that not seldom, I am quite sure from the practices I have witnessed at certain Sessions in provincial towns, where justice (so called) is administered by the Justices of the town, assisted by a Recorder. The jurisdiction to which I allude has the power of trying parish appeals; and, in an instance within my own knowledge, it has been remarked as a curious fact, that in no one case for many years past, has the decision of the Court been against either of the parishes which compose the city. It is true, it is just possible that the orders of the Magistrates may have been invariably right, but I think the probabilities are against it, considering the quantum of legal knowledge usually possessed by Magistrates, and especially by Magistrates of a provincial city-to say nothing of the extreme want of likelihood of the appellants being wrong in every case, for a long series of years. Now that some of these adjudications would have been different, if the Recorder, who is a person of considerable professional attainments, had not been fettered by his coadjutors, I think I may fairly assume. I happen, however, to have in my recollection one instance in which these worthy persons, in their wisdom, chose to run counter to the opinion of their legal assistant, to the entire subversion of justice, and the great prejudice of the individual who suffered from the decision. The case before the court was an appeal against an order of affiliation. The woman was very ably cross-examined by the counsel for the appellant; she became confused, and at last refused to answer a question, which, if she had been the witness of truth, there could be no earthly reason for her not answering immediately. It was evident to all present that the woman was unable at the moment to get up an answer which would be consistent with the rest of her statement, and the Recorder very properly suggested that the recognizances of the party should be discharged. He was, however, over-ruled by the other magistrates, and the woman was actually ordered to be confined till she should answer the question to the satisfaction of the court, or, in other words, till she could frame such a story as no cross-examination could shake, whereby the cost of maintaining the child might be thrown upon the appellant instead of the city. I have mentioned this one instance out of many, because I think there is a pretty close analogy between the position of a Recorder, and that which would be occupied by a person holding the appointment of assistant barrister; with this disadvantage, however, on the side of the latter that he would have to combat much more serious obstacles, arising from the influence and the prejudices of that body from which county magistrates are selected, than any which are likely to be presented by persons who, from being members of the corporation, are called upon to exercise judicial functions in a country town. It is needless to particularise the instances in which the assessor would find himself hampered by the modes of thinking, feeling, and acting, peculiar to the landed aristocracy. I would only ask how, in conjunction with a bench of county magistrates, he would contrive not to be out-voted in the disposal of appeals against convictions under the game laws? If he were to succeed in bringing country gentlemen to a right decision on such questions as these, I should say he had effected a miracle greater than that promised by the philosopher's stone-the transmutation of the base metals into gold. I think I have said enough to explain what my objections are to the plan which your article proposes, of appointing a barrister as assistant to the magistrates. These persons would either use the vote which would remain to them, or they would not. If they should do so against the opinion of the assessor, there is little question that they would go wrong; if, as would be more becoming, but, we fear, not quite so likely, they should be contented to sit quietly, and suffer him to decide questions which he alone would be able to understand, they might, I think, be as well occupied in any other way which would meet their convenience. I am quite aware of the outcry which would be raised, from motives sufficiently obvious, against the adoption of any such plan as that which I have ventured to suggest; but the evils of the present system are crying, and must be remedied. The fact alone (which no one conversant with the subject will venture to deny) that a man, convicted of poaching at the quarter sessions, is invariably subjected to a much more rigorous measure of punishment than that which would be inflicted by a judge at the assizes, under precisely similar circumstances (the difference being very frequently that between six months' imprisonment, and transportation for seven years,) is sufficient to shew what degree of impartiality we are entitled to expect from county magistrates in a great proportion of the cases which now come before them. The plan I have suggested seems to me the most calculated to obviate this, as well as the other evils of the present system to which I have alluded, and to insure a correct and impartial administration of justice. If you think there is any weight in the observations I have made, you will, perhaps, insert this letter in your next Number, as a sort of commentary on the article which I have taken for my text-in the general doctrines and reasonings of which, I again beg to express my hearty concurrence. I am, Sir, A WOMAN'S HISTORY. Poor little chick, for all thy chirping, Thou art in the fox's paw.-OLD SONG. THAT Love is the history of a woman's life, is a saying so true as to have become trite. It is the great lottery in which she ventures her whole happiness; and, as she draws prize or blank, is her lot cast for life. Thus, being given, as I am, to speculate upon the philosophy of the passions, often, when I see before me a young person, the first chapter of whose history is yet to be written, often do I figure to myself the probable course of the narrative, its incidents, its crisis, and its issue, and feel a mixture of interest and pity for the heroine, as I anticipate the too probable colour of the story. There are few objects of contemplation, indeed, more attractive than a young girl at that period of life, when the gentle whisperings of her heart begin to give a certain degree of consciousness to her manner-and when that capability of loving, and that craving to love, which permeate her whole being, have not yet become concentrated upon any one object. The slight passing fancy of a day, or a week, will probably several times have flitted across the surface of her mind, without leaving more impression than the clouds which cast their shadows upon a lake, and then drift away before the wind. But, when her hour does come; when all the feelings of a young and ardent soul are indeed tossed in the whirlwind of the Great Passion,-when, in a word, she loves, then deep is the responsibility of that man who has called those feelings forth, for the happiness or misery of a fellow-creature is in his hands -perhaps the weal or woe of an immortal soul. I will leave the latter question aside-it is too awful for contemplation here,—and who, on this side the grave, shall dare to judge it ?—But on the result of that affection depends, most assuredly, not the external fate merely, but the personal character and disposition also for life. On him it restsas he moulds the clay, so will the vessel be shapen,-for seven times heated is the furnace of Passion in which its form is fixed. When a woman, in her youth, surrenders her heart into her lover's keeping, she yields up the control of her whole being-it is thereafter what he chuses it to be-she is powerless, helpless-she cannot get free—“ for all her chirping, she is in the fox's paw." I have always regarded this old burthen, jocose though it be in phraseology, as containing the germ of much sad thought. The metaphor is, as I need scarcely say, typical of a higher grade in the creation of those young human birds of whom I have been speaking, who, dazzled by the beauty of their plumage, and trusting too soon to the strength of their wing, venture from the maternal roost, and fall into the grasp of those who are, too often, wily and merciless as the hill-fox himself. That clutch once closed, is never loosed again; or, at least, not until all the sweetness, and worth, and beauty of the victim have been rifled. And yet, it would almost seem strange that these things should happen so often; for all the sophistry that the most accomplished lover ever spoke is too plainly such not to be crumbled into dust by one breath of common sense, if that breath were uttered. Nay, it not unfrequently has occurred, that one true and just word, spoken or suggested by sheer chance, has destroyed in an instant an elaborate fabric of sentiment and false reasoning which it had taken vast skill, time, and labour to erect. But the truth is, that Passion pleads with us-and that the will panders to the reason. Excuses are presented to the mind, which, in its heated state, it eagerly grasps at, contented with their outward shew, and carefully abstaining from applying to them the Ithuriel's spear of cool sense and judgment. But the mind is in an heated and unhealthful state, and this is the great cause of all the ill that follows: : A knotty point to which we now proceed — I was living, some years ago, in a retired part of the country, where, among my neighbours, resided also a widow lady and her daughter. The old lady was the widow of an officer in the army, and in easy though moderate circumstances; the daughter-aye, that daughter, many a time and oft has she been to me the subject of that species of contemplation of which I have spoken above; and, perhaps, I had her before my memory's eye when I did speak of it. When I first knew her, she was about sixteen, and certainly a more fascinating creature could not well be conceived. Bred up entirely in retirement she had (as generally results from it, when its direct opposite does not,) a wild freedom of manner, very different indeed from what that expression would signify in the world, and consequently often mistaken by a mere man of the world-but extremely delightful to those who look into the heart, and know what it means in reality. Her" animal spirits" were excessive-but such was her fascinating beauty (I must use the epithet a second time, for, after suspending my pen for five minutes thinking for another, I can find none to express my meaning,) that they never in the least called up the idea of a hoyden,-and there was something in the deep expression of her auburn eyes, which shewed plainly to those who understand such diagnostics, that an ardent and sensitive soul was within, which, if now dormant, needed but object and occasion to call it into full and vehement life. I have used in the last sentence, which I would not break to explain it, the expression "auburn eyes,"—and, indeed, I scarcely can explain it to those who do not understand it without any explanation. But they will readily call to mind the brilliant description of beauty which that colour of the eyes indicates and accompanies; a skin, namely, of the most dazzling whiteness, though here and there a freckle, lightly marked, just breaks its uniformity*; hair profuse, and bright as the plumage of a pheasant's back-while the mouth mantles with a dimpled smile, and teeth of ivory beam through lips of roses. There are many people who will say, that I have described a red-haired, freckled tomboy; but it is not for such persons that I write, and those for whom I do, will under Freckle is probably too harsh a word to express the delicate variation of skin of which I would speak; but it is not my fault if the English language be wanting in a competent graduation of terms to express the numberless shades and condiments of female beauty. |