SLOW-FOOTED JUSTICE.

Auckland Star, Volume LXII, Issue 2, 3 January 1931, Page 3 (Supplement)

SLOW-FOOTED JUSTICE.

FAMOUS CASES RECALLED.

BUCKLEY CASE IN MELBOURNE REVIVES MEMORIES — MURDER $STILL OUT—RELENTLESS PURSUIT OF JUSTICE—DAYS OF PUBLIC EXECUTION.

tHie case of Richard Buckley, who lies lander sentence of death in Pentrid-ge, 2S&3bourne, for a murder committed seven years ago, Sa an example of slow-footed jssfcice, but by no means an outstanding one in the history of British law. The longest period that (has elapsed between 6-anurder in England and tihe execution of the murderer is 35 years, the executed total being John Horne, who murdered has own child. In 1879, a starving, homeless man named Jonathan Gaydon save himself up to a policeman at Horsham (Sussex) for the murder of Miss Mary White at Ohingford, 22 years before. A more famous case is that of LieutenantOolonel Joseph Wall,. formerly Governor and Commander-in-Chief on the island of Goree, a British possession off the west coast of Africa, which now belongs to Prance. On a snowy morning in January, 1802, ex-Governor Wall, a man of magnificent physique, 6ft Gin tall and 65 yeaTs of age, whs hanged outside Newgate Psrison in London for a crime committed twenty years earlier. Wall was a military martinet of tne toiost ibrutal kind, and was totally unfitted to ibe in charge of men. On the Voyage out to Goree after his appointment as Governor, he had a man named Patterson flogged until he died, and the Ibody was linen thrown overboard. iters on, who was one of a small detachment of troops going out to reinforce the .gaia-ison at Goree, was accused by. Wall ox foyVng the ringleader in a conspiracy to seize -the ship. Whether there was any conspiracy of the kind is more "ban doubtful, but it is quite certain that Jrattereon, who had formerly been a snop assistant, was not cut out to be the leader of a mutiny on the high seas. For two years Wall remained at Groree «ig Governor and ComTnaxider in Chief, Eaied and feared by ibis men and detested by the officers serving under him. He tttxanged to retun* *to England iby a vessel ntfhich called at the island. The garrison iroas delighted at the news but not so delighted when it was learned that the paymaster, Ensign Dearing was accompanying him. 'There were arrears of. pay cardng to the garrison and they appointed u deputation to wait on Ensign Rearing and ask about their pay. The spokesman of this deputation was Sergeant Benjamin Armstrong, but he had -no opportunity of stating the men's grievance, because the deputation had the misfortune to encounter the.Governor, who, on learning a£3 business, flew into a violent ja-2p> and ordered the men back to their charters. Armstrong and his comrades made a second attempt to reach Ensign ©earing, but they again. encountered the Governor, who was so infuriated at their defiance of his commands, that he sumanoned his officers by . beat of . drum, declared that the garrison had risen in xevolt, and that Armstrong was the nngHeader. He gave orders that Armstrong eSmld be tied to a gun carriage, and said ST him, "You have been sentenced by court-martial to receive 800 lashes for the torime of mutiny. The official cat-o mine-tails could, not be found knotted Wall's instructions a length of knotted He stood by and counted strokes as «he- rope was laid on by fevo stalwart negroes on At conclusion. of toe Wnt Arm tttaong was carried in a i state.ot oouapse the military hospital, where he jfyn da-i'S later. The Law Relentless. -when Wall reached England he said mothinz about 'the "rising' of the garri--2?£5l the death of, Armsteong. He imported officially that "except .for a short. blankete," the condition of the earrisoin at Goree was satisfactory. But when officers who had si Goree reached England shortly after •wards they reported the death of ArmKg. The Privy Council summoned Wall ■fai T/nndon to explain matters. He was staying at Bath, and as he did not comply With the summons, two Bow Street run•ners—the forerunners of the modern , police—were sent to Bath to brmg him to London. On the journey by road Wall -nJied the runners with liquor, ana escaped Worn their custody. He made his way to Edinburgh, where he lived for a fame, but iSSIy thought he would be much safer on the Continent. After the lapse of years he concluded thathiscase hid been forgotten, ,he returned to "Rn eland For two years he lived m tne Xiondon "suburb of Bloomsbury under Jie jme of Thompson. He was recognißed m +>~> street by a soldier who had served j!mder him, and in order to forestall any action the soldier might take he wrote to the Home Secretary, stating where he W as to be found if. wanted. He was •fident that no action would be take atfainst him, in view of the fact that Plenty years had elapsed since he had Jjeft Goree. But in England there w n method by which a warrant for arrest Sn be -withdrawn. Wall was arrested and mlaced on trial for the murder of Sergeant Armstrong, and was duly eX f ecl { t^- fnrif .j A still more famous case of slow-footed Justice is that of Eugene Aram, who is £ subject of a well-knownnovelby Lord Lytton, and of a poem. The Dream Eugene - Aram," by Thomas Hood. Aram who was a self-educated man, Ibecame a schoolmaster at KnMesbomug , in Yorkshire, and mastered Latin, GreeK, Hebrew, Arabic and French. In 175| he Waa arrested at Lyme Regis, , was a teacher m a school, on a charge of having murdered at Knaresborough, a phoemaker named Daniel Clark, vpars mysteriously disappeared thirteen years before. The chief witness agamst him was a man named Houseman, who had he arrested by the police, and charg , . the crime, and had made a co , which implicated Aram as the actual murderer. Houseman took the Pohcetoa leave near Knaresborough, and showed 'them where s to dig to find the bo iClark. Aram defended himself skilfully .at his trial, but he was found guilty. JBefore his execution he confessed to par Afcicipation in the murder, but put the main for the crime on Housema . Public Executions. In these days executions take place •inside prison walls, and only officials and. a few others whose duties compel them to be present witness the dreadful procedure. Most of those present would gladly avoid the unpleasant duty of witnessing 'the violent death of a fellow creature; but in the old days, when executions took place in public, they attracted vast crowds of people. At Tyburn, the scene of thousands of execution in London, there were wooden grandstands for people who willing to pay for good seats to watch the dying struggles of the unfortunate victims of the law. And all along the three-mile route from Newgate Gaol to Tyburn there were thousands of people assembled to watch the condemned men as the cart in which they were conveyed to the gallows lumbered along. In those days, when the death penalty was inflicted for many minor offences, hangings were frequent; and it was seldom that the cart contained fewer than half a dozen vie tuns. Tyburn tree, as the gallows was called, was a triangular structure, with accommodation for more than a dozen victims. The drop had not been introduced, lhe victims stood up in the cart while the hangman adjusted the rope, and when the latter had completed his task the cart was driven away, and the bodies were left hanging. Horace Walpole's friend, George Selwyn, a noted wit, had a passion for attending executions; yet he was. known to his friends as a man of kindly, benevolent nature. He seldom missed an execution when he was'in London, and he went to Paris in 1757 for the purpose of witnessing the execution of Francois Damiens for attempting to assassinate Louis XV. He attended most assiduously the trial of the

rebel lords for participation in the Scottish rebellion of 1745, and witnessed the execution of those who were beheaded. Some ladies rallied him on going to see the execution of Lord Lovat, who was beheaded in the Tower for his part in the rebellion. They asked him how he could be so callous as to watch a man's head being cut off. "If that is such a crime I am sure I have made amends," said Selwyn, "for I went to the undertakers to see the head sewn on." Selwyn loved corpses, and attended funerals and exhumations, as well as executions. When the first Lord Holland was on his deathbed he was told that Mr. Selwyn had called to inquire about him, and he said to his servant, "The next time Mr. Selwyn calls show him up. If I am alive I shall be delighted to see him, and if I am dead he will be glad to see me." Disorderly Scenes. The scenes at Tyburn when executions were carried out were disgraceful exhibitions of drunkenness and rowdyism by the crowd. Some of the victims exchanged badinage with the spectators as the hangman adjusted the rope round their necks. Samuel Richardson, the novelist, has left a vivid account of an execution at Tyburn. He rode behind "the melancholy cavalcade" from Newgate to Tyburn. There were five condemned men. in the cart. "I was much disappointed," he continues; "at the unconcern and carelessness that appeared on the faces of three of the unhappy wretches. The countenances of the other two were spread with horror and despair, which is not to be wondered at in men whose period of life is so near." Richardson comments on "the silly curiosity of people climbing into the cart to take leave of the criminals" as the procession passed along. The crowd was so dense that it obstructed the passage of the cart all the way to Holborn. Many people handed wine to the criminals as the cart passed along. As a result of the wine "the three thoughtless young men who at first seemed not enough concerned grew most shamefully daring and wanton," says Richardson. "They swore, laughed, and talked obscenely, and wished their companions good luck." At the place of execution, where the crowd was densest, the clergyman who had accompanied the condemned 'men in the cart led the singing of a psalm, "amidst the curses and quarrelling of hundreds of the most abandoned and profligate of mankind." Richardson adds that "all the preparation of the unhappy wretches seems to serve only for subject of a barbarous kind of mirth." But when it was proposed to put an end to these disgraceful scenes by abolishing the procession of condemned men from Newgate to Tyburn and executing the victims outside the gates of the gaol, that staunch Tory Dr. Johnson strenuously objected. "People are running mad after innovation," he said to Sir William Scott, a famous, lawyer, who afterwards became a judge of the Admiralty Court, and is now regarded as the founder of British prize law. "All the business of the world is to be done in a new way; men are to be hanged in a new way; Tyburn itself is not safe from the fury of innovation." When it was suggested to him that it would be an improvement to abolish the precessions and hang criminals outside Newgate, Johnson replied emphatically, "No, sir; it is not an improvement. They object that the old method drew together a number of spectators. Sir, executions are intended to draw spectators. If they do not draw spectators they don't answer their purpose. The old method was satisfactory to all parties; the public was gratified by a procession; the criminal was supported by it. Why is all this to be swept away?" But Dr. Johnson, who died in the following year, was destined to witness the termination of the old method which was so "satisfactory to all parties." The last execution at Tyburn, where more than 50,000 people were executed during the 600 years it had been the scene of the death penalty, took place od. November 7, 1783, I the victim being John Austin, convicted of : robbing John Spicer, "and cutting and : wounding him in a cruel manner." The 1 innovation which Johnson condemned was begun on a handsome scale a month later, ten criminals, including several women, being executed in a batch outside Newgate prison on December 9, 1783. Eighty-five years later there was aoother innovation which- would have displeased Dr. Johnson. Public executions outside prison walls ceased, and thereafter victims of the law were executed inside the prisons, the public being excluded. The last public executions in England were those of the three "Manchester Martyrs," hanged on November 23, 1867, for their part in the rescue of two Fenian prisoners, Captain Deasy and Thomas J. Kelly, when Police Sergeant Brett was shot dead.