Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine, Volume 56, Number 349, November, 1844Various
History
Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine, Volume 56, Number 349, November, 1844
Various
England -- Periodicals; Scotland -- Periodicals
We have thus laid before our readers, with the utmost candour and care,
this truly remarkable case; and at a length which, though considerable,
is by no means incommensurate with its permanent interest and
importance. We believe that we have, in the foregoing pages, furnished
all persons, of average intellect and information, with the means of
forming for themselves a sound opinion as to the propriety or
impropriety of reversing the judgment of the court below. We have given
the arguments on both sides with rigid impartiality, and supplied such
information, in going along, as will enable the lay reader thoroughly to
understand them. This is a question which all thinking persons must
needs regard with profound interest and anxiety. If, in the deliberate
opinion of the country, the judgments of the High Court of Parliament
are habitually, though unconsciously, warped by party and political
feelings and prejudices; if, with such views and intentions, they have
strained and perverted the law of the land, wickedly sheltering
themselves under the unfortunate difference of opinion existing among
the judges, those who have been guilty of it will justly stand exposed
to universal execration. It is no light matter even to propose such a
possibility as that of profligacy or corruption in the administration of
justice; above all, in the highest tribunal in the land--the place of
last resort for the subject. It is always with pain and regret that we
hear, even in the height of political excitement and hostility, the
faintest imputation from any quarter on judicial integrity. We have
watched this case from first to last; and especially examined over and
over again, in a spirit of fearless freedom, the grounds assigned for
reversing the judgment, and the position and character of those by whose
_fiat_ that result was effected. We cannot bring ourselves to believe
any thing so dreadful as that three judicial noblemen have deliberately
violated their oaths, and perpetrated so enormous an offence as that of
knowingly deciding contrary to law. Those who publicly express that
opinion, incur a very grave responsibility. We are ourselves zealous,
but independent supporters of the present government; we applaud their
institution of these proceedings; no one can lament more bitterly than
we do, that O'Connell should, like many a criminal before him, have
escaped from justice through a flaw in the indictment; yet with all
this, we feel perfectly satisfied that the three peers who reversed the
judgment against him, believed that they were right in point of law.
When we find so high an authority as Mr Baron Parke--as far as politics
are concerned, a strong Conservative--declaring that he cannot possibly
bring himself to concur in opinion with his brethren; that another
judge--Mr Justice Coltman--after anxious deliberation, also dissents
from his brethren; and when we give each of these judges credit for
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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