On Tuesday evening the Attorney-General, in reply to a question,
defended his attitude towards the Whitaker Wright prosecution in a very able and straightforward speech. The decision' not to prosecute was not, he said, the decision of the Government, but of himself, upon whom the whole responsi- bility rested. "It is not a case in which the Government are advised by the Law Officers. The law casts upon the Attorney- General the duty of deciding upon. such a guestion in what I may almost call a -judicial capacity." On the evidence sub- mitted to him in the summer of 1902, he did not consider that the case fell within Section 84 of the Larceny Act, and he adduced very weighty reasons for his view, quoting a charge of Lord Chief Justice Cockburn to a jury in 1880 in an exactly similar case. At the same time, he readily admitted that such cases should be brought clearly within the law, and he proposed legislation to deal with the matter on the lines of the Companies Act of 1900, making any conscious misstate- ment by a public company punishable. Sir Robert Fin]ay's action throughout has been in every sense manly and con- scientious. We may rejoice that a Judge and jury were able to convict without doubting for a moment that the Attorney- General had ample justification for the line he took. We are glad to note that the Treasury is to repay the costs of the prosecution.
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