Mr. Justice Denman has, we perceive, repented of his some-
what hasty action in sentencing W. Craddock, the prisoner acquitted at Hertford for uttering base coin, to a year's im- prisonment for contempt of Court. The Home Secretary on Friday week, too late for our impression, stated that the Judge had discovered that Craddock whispered his threat to Kent after the latter's conviction, and had not therefore been guilty of the contempt he originally imagined. In fact, he had not impeded the course of justice at all. The truth seems to be that the judge lost his temperat having to sentence a tempted lad, while his tempter got off, and redressed the injustice with too strong a hand. The Crown will be advised to pardon Craddock, and we hope the case will lead to a stricter definition of a crime which journalists have occasionally as great difficulty in avoiding as in knowing when they have committed it.
Previous page
