ARCHAIC FORM OF PROCEDURE

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume LXVI, 10 January 1936, Page 3

ARCHAIC FORM OF PROCEDURE

PROBABLY FOR THE LAST TIME (By Air Mail—From Our Own Correspondent) LONDON, 19th December. The Lord de Clifford trial has probably sealed the fate of this archaic form of procedure for the future. That all this preparation, parade of scarlet and ermine, public* and private expense and loss of time, should have been incurred in order to find that there was “no case” is such a fiasco as to make it inconceivable that such trials will lie allowed to occur in the future. Certainly a Bill will he required to rectify the situation; but it need be one of very simple terms, and it is unlikely that there would bo any opposition to its passage through Parliament. As tilings are a peer js entitled to the privilege of being tried by liis peers only when he is charged with a felony. Actually, however, there is no definable line of demarcation between offences that are misdemeanours and those that are felonies. A Bill could'easily he drafted removing this distinction' in such a way as to leave peers henceforth, like other mortals, triable for their alleged offences before the ordinary courts. Their lordships themselves are hardly likely to clamour for the retention of the privilege. which is a costly and troublesome one, and in the present state of our law offers them no special advantage or safeguard. It is likely, therefore that the Lord de Clifford trial will go down in history as the last survivor of a curious mediaeval usage.