LYNCH LAW IN THE STRAND.
Isi enumerating, last week, a few of the anomalous proceedings that occurred in the Courts of law, to illustrate the confusion that pervades our penal system, we objected to the illegal means resorted to for the purpose of suppressing a nuisance in Holywell Street, and the praise accorded to the illegality by Magistrates and jour- nalists. The Morning Post does us the honour to wage controver- sial war with us on that one point in the list ; pronouncing that our objection "brushes very close upon the land of crotchets." That same land of crotchets is of doubtful geography, and'it would be a public service to lay down a chart thereof; a task which our censor could of course undertake. Meanwhile, we supposed our-
selves safe in steering by the law : but the Post has quite American lights on that subject, and outruns our Conservative notions. There is an exhibition of placards in a shop-window which come under the head of " blasphemy" : some very clumsy and unsuc- cessful endeavours are made to bring the utterer of them to ac- count : a Mr. BRUCE, the son of a Vice-Chancellor, proceeds to the summary method of breaking open the shop-windows and com- mitting robbery on the placards : called in his turn to account, Mr. BRUCE is taken before a Magistrate ; who, instead of punishing, praises him ; and a variety of editors exclaim to whomsoever it may concern, Go ye and do likewise! Now our position was this— "The law is defective; the administration of the law is corrupted to that degree„that the expounder of the law defends the breach of the law " ; and "if men are to be justified in breaking the laws from good motives, the whole social system is dissolved." Where- upon the Post observes- " This objection is equally applicable to many points of individual con- duct, which, though technically illegal, are indispensable to the preservation of good order in the intercourse of promiscuous society. For instance, if one person applies to another the coarsest epithets that may occur to the reader, the party so insulted will gain little credit, (unless he be one of those conve- niently conscientiotts folks who have constructed a code of morality for them- selves)—he will gain little credit if be refrain from inflicting on his foul- mouthed assailant such summary chastisement as may be in his power. This resentment of a gross insult may be what is called illegal ; but is it reprehen- sible?"
Let it be observed, in passing, that the ease imagined by the Post is inapplicable. The injury supposed is personal; it is a di- rect visitation on the individual ; and we do not know that, on the sufficient provocation assumed, the chastisement would be "illegal." But Mr. BRUCE acted on public grounds : the wrong was a public not an individual wrong ; and the avenger arrogated to himself a right to supply what was wanting in law—to be an impromptu le- gislature, judge, and executive, all in one. Possibly rising from the perusal of this or similar eulogiums on Mr. BRUCE'S enterprise, Mr. GREEN, a merchant, proceeds to Holy- well Street, enters the shop, and robs it of another of the placards. Summoned before a Magistrate, he is released, because the Magis- trate thought that Mr. GREEN had "no intention of committing a theft," but only "to bring the subject into a state of prosecution." The invaded bookseller asked if he was refused the protection of the Police ? and the Magistrate evaded giving him an answer. The Post is delighted at the progress of Lynch law in the Strand- " Mr Knight Bruce's example is not without its effect. We insert the re- port of axothencharge of assault and robbery I brought by the blasphemy-vender of Holywell Street, against a highly resp ctable merchant, named Gr.en. It is said that example is every thing in England, and we only wish the bump of imitativeness (or whatever phrenologists may choose to designate it) was never developed to a lcss worthy purpose. We dare say this is not the last time we shall have to record similar illegal ' acts ; for the authorities, local and central, do seem wondrous chary of trespassing in any way on Mr. Patterson 's quiet and comfort."
It was not the last time. Next day, Mr. PEARCE, a corn-mer- chant, appeared to answer the charge of robbing the tradesman's shop !
Our contemporary may live in hopes of continued rows at Mr.
ParrEasoN's shop, in which the law is broken by respectable per- sons, because the law itself is slow. There is no disgust at the indecorum of the utter defiance of law by Police Magistrates; or of the spectacle in Bow Street—a Magistrate evading the question put whether or not the querist is to be protected by the law. The Magistrate says, "not under the circumstances." The "circum- stances" are, that certain persons against whom Mr. PATTERSON claims protection object to his proceedings in his house, and for- cibly enter it to compel a change of proceeding; and the Magis- trate concurs in the grounds of their objection. Granted that Pal-remotes is an extreme and odious case ; but admit the prin- ciple, and where is the line to be drawn in practice. He sticks up in his window blasphemous placards in large characters: here are three conditions to the offence—the tenour of the placards, the size of the letters, and their place : what limits are there to be to forcible dictation from without on those three points? May a man have on his premises PAINE'S Age of Reason, but not the Oracle of Reason; and may Blitzes, GREEN, and PEARCE, enter his house, without warrant, to see that his Infidel literature stops at Paisis—a domiciliary inquisitorial censorship ? May he place the Infidel tract or placard in his book-case, over his mantelpiece, in his window, ten feet opposite his window, or ten inches; and may Blume, GREEN, and PEARCE, be a "hanging com- mittee" to tell his servants where they may or may not hang the documents ? May he expose them in little type but not in big ? If the law be very slow, is it expedient that Bauce, GREEN, and PEARCE, should go daily—or every "lawful day "—to Holy- well Street and "create ample work for the glazier" ? Should Mr. PATTERSON'S friends repel the trespass ei et arms's, are BRUCE, GREEN, and PEARCE, to submit, or are they to enforce their entry ? and if so, may other parties take sides ; or must only the side of BRUCE, GREEN, and PEARCE, be taken ? Will the Magistrate refuse to punish Mr. GREEN for assaulting Mr. PATTERSON in his own house, but punish Mr. PATTERSON for assaulting Mr. GREEN? If blood were shed, would the plea of a holy indignat'on absolve Mr. GREEN from the charge of manslaughter ? If .aese things may be done, and commended, in Mr. PATTERSON', house, must they not be done in the houses of other Intidets S Are Infidels to be out- lawed, in the popular acceptation of toe term ?
These are questions, not of our raising, but flowing from the premiss laid down on the bench and in newspapers, that on suit- able occasions, and especially on grounds of theological, social, or political resentment, THE LAW may be dispensed with ?—which is precisely the theory of Lynch law in America. We recur to our old position, that the penal law is a mass of faults and confusion ; but bad as it is, we would rather abide by it than have no law at all, or only the Lynch law of the Vice-Chancellor's son and the Conser- vative journal.
What a number of persons must all this grand discussion and "persecution" have sent to Mr. PATTERSON'S shop-window, if only to see what it is about
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