The Shropshire magistrates dismissed the charge against Mr. Eyre yesterday
week, Sir Baldwin Leighton delivering the judg- ment of the bench, as usual. The worthy magistrates chose to interpret legal " malice " in the popular and familiar sen.se, and declared that there was not even presumption enough of political malice to send the case for trial. But Sir Baldwin Leighton had shown so violent a bias in his interruption of Mr. Stephen and his general conduct of the case, that the decision of the Bench, of which he was the spokesman, will not have much weight with the -country. The crowd in the Court and outside cheered loudly. A visible hero of great known gallantry, charged only with the cirrel and bloody suppression of a rebellion, and especially with the illegal arrest, condemnation (against evidence), and execution of an invisible neg,ro gentleman, now no more, is not likely to be thought the worse of by an English crowd for his panic-stricken and reckless severity.
Previous page
