There is always a certain- satisfaction in a verdict given
by the courts against the Crown, not by reason of any prejudice or antagonism against the Crown, but as a demonstration of the complete independence of the judiciary from the executive; we take that for granted in this country, but it is not, always so everywhere. These remarks are occasioned by a case decided in the Court of Appeal last Monday, when the Lord Chief Justice and two other Justices decided that in the absence of specific evidence on the subject it could not be assume that nylon was artificial silk. The Chester magistrates had dismissed a charge—brought by the Customs and Excise against a gentleman with a foreign name—of removing 93 pairs of foreign-manufactured artificial-silk stockings from one place to another with intent to defraud Her Majesty of the duty thereon. But were the stockings artificial silk ? They were marked " Knit of Dupont nylon," and some of them Made, in U.S.A." Is nylon artificial silk ? The Lord Chief said he was not competent to pronounce on that, and no evidence had been called to prove that it is. So the finding went against Her Majesty's Customs and Excise. (The fact that, though the Customs and Excise could pot get duty on the stockings they could and did get purchase-tax, is a different issue.)
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